53: Chapter 53 Five Years!

Five years of spring and autumn, flowers blooming and falling.

It is neither long nor short; in a Mortal's lifetime, it is enough to have two children and watch them learn to walk and talk.

In the cultivation world, it is but the time for a single session of secluded meditation.

But for Hongtian City, these five years brought earth-shaking changes.

The inner city walls were raised to three zhang two, and the outer city gradually closed. Between the two, a three-zhang-wide moat separated them, with six stone bridges crossing it, patrolled day and night by Guest Elders.

The inner city gradually became the primary residence for the Sun Clan's Mortal clansmen, while the core of the inner city consisted of the Main Peak and three sub-Peaks.

The Main Peak served as the Sun Clan's ancestral land and ancestral hall; the back mountain contained the Spiritual Vein, Beast Valley, Pill Room, Thunder Fruit Orchard, and numerous spirit fields...

The West Peak was the place for martial arts, the library, and the Legacy.

The East Peak was where the Talisman Courtyard, Equipment Workshop, and another part of the medicine garden were located.

The North Peak was the residence for the Sun Clan's cultivation Disciples, most of whom opened Immortal Caves there to practice, as the Spiritual Qi concentration was second only to the Main Peak.

However, the outer city was the liveliest place in Hongtian City; the South City Market, with its four streets and sixteen alleys, was fully completed and operational.

The South Gate Trade Route led directly to the Nine Counties markets. Every day, the beast carriages entering and exiting formed long lines; looking down from the city walls, they were a dense, black mass!

The Mortal population of Hongtian City...

Had also exploded from five hundred thousand five years ago to over eight hundred thousand.

This number was the undisputed first among the Nine Counties of Baiyun Prefecture, second only to the County City at the foot of White Cloud Temple!

The Sun Clan's Mortal clansmen had reached over eighty thousand.

When this number spread, the leaders of many established families in Baiyun Prefecture could barely hold their teacups steady.

What did eighty thousand clansmen mean?

Among Mortals, the chance of being born with a Spiritual Root is one in ten thousand, but for a cultivation Family like the Sun Clan, the probability is as high as one in a thousand. One can imagine that each generation of Immortal Sprouts will continue to surge!

Moreover, during these five years, the Sun Clan did one thing: large-scale marriage alliances!

It wasn't marriage between Cultivators—that had too many requirements and involved interests—but rather intermarriage at the Mortal level...

Sun Clan Mortals intermarried with the Mortal side branches of other cultivation families to mix Bloodlines, thereby increasing the probability of being born with a Spiritual Root.

The Li Family, Lin Family, Zhao Family, Wang Family, Bai Family... among the Nine Counties, almost every Family that had dealings with the Mingqiu Merchant Alliance had Disciples who married into or out of Hongtian City.

After five years, the results were immediate.

Thirteen third-generation Immortal Sprouts!

This number was more than the Sun Clan had produced in the previous ten years combined.

When Sun Kezheng brought the Genealogy to Sun Boan, his hands were trembling.

"Clan Chief, it is time to establish the Generation Names."

Sun Boan set down his teacup and remained silent for a long time.

Generation Names were unnecessary for small families; with only three or five Cultivators, they could just call each other by name. But once the Cultivators in a clan exceeded thirty or forty, if rules were not established, the seniority would become a mess.

Once seniority became a mess, the Clan Laws would crumble.

Once the Clan Laws crumbled, the Family would become a pile of loose sand.

That night, Sun Boan sat alone in the ancestral hall until dawn.

The next morning, he took up his brush and wrote twenty-seven characters:

[Cheng Qi Yuan, Dao Xing Tian, Wang Shu Ting]

[Ji Chang Sheng, Ming Zheng Tai, Zhong Hou Xin]

[You Ren Yi, Wan Li Ming, Yun Rong Chang]

The Generation Names for the next three generations: Cheng, Qi, Yuan.

Cheng: to inherit the will of those who came before.

Qi: to open the path for future generations.

Yuan: to return to the source.

"These third-generation Immortal Sprouts shall uniformly use the character 'Cheng' in their names. Regardless of whether they are from the main or branch lines, and regardless of the quality of their Spiritual Roots, once they are entered into the Genealogy, they are part of the Sun Clan's cultivation lineage."

Sun Boan spread the Genealogy on the altar of the ancestral hall and personally wrote down thirteen names.

Sun Chengyuan, Sun Chengan, Sun Chengning...

As the ink settled, the Ever-burning Lamp in the ancestral hall flickered.

Sun Kezheng stood to the side, looking at those names with still-wet ink. His nose prickled, and for a moment, he was overcome with emotion...

Twenty years ago, there were fewer than twenty names in the cultivation lineage on the Genealogy.

Now, there were seven in the first generation, eighteen in the second, and thirteen in the third.

Thirty-eight Cultivators.

The Sun Clan had once suffered from a rebellion that left its population sparse. After enduring for twenty years, it finally had the standing a Foundation Establishment Family should have.

"Ke Zheng."

"Present."

"Have the cultivation levels of the second-generation Disciples been tallied?"

"They have all been tallied."

Sun Kezheng took a register from his sleeve and handed it over: "All eighteen of the second generation have reached at least the fourth layer of Qi Refining."

"Among them, that boy Sun Mao's cultivation has reached the Peak of the eighth layer of Qi Refining. I expect it won't be more than a few years before he can reach the ninth layer."

"Ranked first is Sun Yao at the ninth layer of Qi Refining. News came from White Cloud Temple that True Monarch Yun Du's evaluation of her is 'solid foundation, steady Heart-Nature, with hope of reaching Foundation Establishment within three years'."

Hearing this, Sun Boan's hand stopped for a moment as he set down his brush.

Foundation Establishment within three years.

Sun Yao was only twenty-two years old this year.

If she truly could reach Foundation Establishment before twenty-five, she would be the youngest Foundation Establishment Cultivator since the Sun Clan was founded!

He said nothing more, simply putting away the register and asking about another matter:

"What about the thunder element fruit orchard?"

"Caiya sent word that this year is the second fruiting period, and it produced seven fruits. The quality is twenty percent better than the last round, and the spiritual power is more condensed."

"And Shi Mo?"

At the mention of that bear, a complex expression appeared on Sun Kezheng's face.

"Shi Mo... is a bit hard to describe."

"How so?"

"Last month, it smashed a three-zhang-high granite boulder on the eastern slope of the back mountain with a single paw."

Sun Boan's eyebrows twitched.

"A granite boulder?"

"A granite boulder infused with spiritual power."

Sun Kezheng added: "It was originally a target stone for the Guest Elders to practice their punches, but it was turned to dust by a single palm strike from him."

"He is already no weaker than a high-level Qi Refining Cultivator. It's possible that within the next ten years, he may hope to reach the level of a Rank 2 Foundation Establishment Yao Beast!"

Sun Boan closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

He had been paying attention to Shi Mo's changes.

In five years, with the foundation laid by that Dark Gold Ape bone fragment, the bear's Bloodline had begun to undergo a fundamental transformation.

It wasn't just getting stronger; it was moving toward some higher-order Bloodline!

But exactly what it would become, no one could say for sure.

"As for the Old Ancestor..." Sun Kezheng hesitated.

Sun Boan opened his eyes.

This was what he was truly concerned about.

Shi Jian had been in seclusion for nearly six or seven years.

The stone door of the Immortal Cave remained tightly shut, the Formation's light screen had never dissipated, and the fluctuations of Demonic Qi were sometimes strong and sometimes weak, but there was still no sign of him completing his seclusion.

"Are the annual offerings being delivered outside the Immortal Cave on time?"

"Not a single Spirit Stone has been missing."

"Then we continue to wait."

Sun Boan stood up, walked to the entrance of the ancestral hall, and looked up toward the back mountain.

The morning light shone on the mountain ridge, shrouded in mist, making it impossible to see the location of the Immortal Cave.

But he knew the Old Ancestor was still inside!

Alive, or...

Sun Boan instantly cut off that thought, firmly believing that the Old Ancestor would be fine.

Just then.

Sun Mao strode into the ancestral hall, looking out of breath, and bowed. "Clan Chief, news has come from the back mountain..."

Sun Boan turned around, and an Aura instantly surged in his eyes, filled with unease and dread; he was afraid of hearing some bad news.

"What is it?"

"What happened at the back mountain?!"