Chapter 4

Lu Mingzhang was Lu Yuantu's most outstanding son in terms of talent; with three spirit roots, he had a great hope of entering the Golden Core stage.

His appearance was also the most similar to Lu Yuantu's; both had thick, straight eyebrows, but Lu Mingzhang was taller, eight feet seven inches, with a pair of phoenix eyes, looking quite majestic yet not lacking in elegance.

He looked at his father, whose face already showed some signs of old age, and nodded heavily, saying:

"The child is ready."

Lu Mingzhang was fifty-four years old this year, at the perfection of the ninth layer of the Qi Refining stage; the next step was Foundation Establishment.

The Foundation Establishment stage, although it was the third level among the ten realms of cultivation, was the initial stage of true cultivation.

Fetal Breath and Qi Refining were all preparations for the Foundation Establishment stage.

Foundation Establishment meant casting the foundation for attaining the Dao; it was the root of becoming a true cultivator, so after Foundation Establishment, one was called a "Foundation Establishment True Person."

Lu Yuantu failed to break through to Foundation Establishment at eighty-three and returned to the countryside.

Time passed, and his child had also reached the time for Foundation Establishment.

In the cultivation world, there was a saying: "Thirty for Qi Refining, one hundred for Foundation Establishment," meaning that if one entered the Qi Refining stage before thirty and completed Foundation Establishment before one hundred, then one might be able to attain the Great Dao in the future.

Lu Mingzhang and Lu Yuantu both had three spirit roots, with water spirit root as the most outstanding, but Lu Yuantu's water spirit root quality only reached the medium grade, while Lu Mingzhang's reached the superior grade.

Coupled with eating Spirit Rice since childhood, Lu Mingzhang was able to enter the perfection of the Qi Refining stage three years ago.

After three years of settling, he was finally ready today and decided to take this step.

Lu Yuantu had high expectations for this child.

He spent two hundred Spirit Stones to buy a superior-quality Foundation Establishment Pill to help him break through.

Two hundred Spirit Stones; when he was an Outer Sect Disciple, he would have needed more than eight years to save that much if he didn't eat, drink, or consume anything.

Lu Yuantu didn't give the two 【Spring Breeze Turns to Rain】 divine ability Dao Seeds to Lu Mingzhang, just to not let secular affairs delay his cultivation.

After all, using a divine ability once consumed a huge amount of Divine Soul power.

"Good, follow me to the spirit field; I will guard you."

Lu Yuantu led Lu Mingzhang toward the field, where the Spirit Qi was the most abundant and active; he didn't have such a treasure land when he broke through back then.

Even using the Foundation Establishment Pill was just a low-grade pill.

He had made all preparations for this child, providing the highest quality resources he could give.

It all depended on today.

The two arrived at the spirit field, dismissed everyone, and prevented outside interference.

Lu Yuantu determined a stone for Lu Mingzhang to sit on, took out Spirit Stones, and set up a Spirit-Gathering Array to shroud him.

After doing all this, Lu Mingzhang first adjusted his own breath; after a quarter of an hour, he took out the Foundation Establishment Pill, looked at Lu Yuantu solemnly, and then ate it.

Using the spirit root as a guide, smelt the Dao foundation.

The quality of the spirit root largely determined the quality of the Dao foundation, and the quality of the Dao foundation directly affected the future cultivation speed.

Lu Mingzhang possessed a superior water spirit root, so he could smelt the Dao foundation of water.

The remaining spirit roots were not eliminated.

The five elements generate each other, and every attribute still existed; even for a Heavenly Spirit Root with a single spirit root, smelting the Dao foundation would involve other attributes, and the final Dao foundation formed would also be a foundation of the five elements' perfection.

But the five elements also generate and restrain each other; if a certain spirit root cannot suppress the others to take the lead and be smelted as the root, it will lead to failure.

This was also the reason why the more five-element spirit root attributes there are, the more difficult it is to cultivate.

Lu Mingzhang used water as a guide to condense the Dao foundation; his whole body was permeated with a layer of water vapor, and Spirit Qi surged, like breathing, expanding and contracting, wave after wave.

The effect of the Foundation Establishment Pill was to enhance the activity of a single spirit root; the water spirit root, which was already superior and two grades higher than the other spirit roots, was once again enhanced and became more active.

With Lu Mingzhang's guidance, finally, all the water vapor around his body was collected into his body.

Opening his eyes and exhaling a turbid breath, Lu Mingzhang smiled.

"Father, I succeeded!"

Lu Yuantu, who had clenched his fists unknowingly, suddenly relaxed; he, an outsider, was even more nervous than Lu Mingzhang, who was breaking through.

Having experienced the despair of failure and the destruction of the Dao foundation, he didn't want his child to experience it again.

"Haha! Good, good! My Lu family also has a Foundation Establishment True Person!"

Lu Yuantu was very happy; for him, Lu Mingzhang's breakthrough meant more than just the Lu family having one more Foundation Establishment True Person.

More importantly, he saw the hope of the Lu family's continuous strengthening.

As long as the upward development trend could be maintained, even if he had no hope of breaking through to become a true cultivator in this life, one day, he might wait for his descendants to resurrect him!

With a Foundation Establishment True Person, the Lu family could completely control the territory of a prefecture.

However, after meeting with other families in Tong Yue Fu, Lu Yuantu stated that the Lu family immortal clan would not leave Wenxi County within a hundred years, only wishing to govern this county well, let the people live in peace and health, and had no intention of fighting.

There was nothing wrong with this.

People who cultivate the Dao mostly do not want to be involved in too many karmic causes.

Great immortal clans also have those who live in seclusion in mountains and rivers, isolated from the world.

The Lu family immortal gate only developed in Wenxi County, silently growing stronger, which was also understandable.

Since Lu Mingzhang's breakthrough, the Lu family's fortune had risen, and the disciples in the clan were all rapidly improving their strength.

Moreover, because a Foundation Establishment True Person appeared, the Ziyao Immortal Sect sent people over, recruited two Lu family descendants into the Immortal Sect, and they became Outer Sect Disciples.

This was a kind of care, and also a kind of containment.

Five years later, Lu Mingbin failed to break through to Foundation Establishment, but he didn't damage his foundation; after five years of recuperation, he broke through again and successfully established his foundation; this year, he was sixty-six years old.

In the same year, sixty-three-year-old Lu Mingyun entered the Foundation Establishment stage.

Three years later, sixty-one-year-old Lu Mingyu also completed Foundation Establishment.

These three were the three people in the current Lu family who possessed the 【Spring Breeze Turns to Rain】 Dao Seed.

At Qi Refining perfection, this divine ability could only bless twenty-eight mu of spirit fields; entering the Foundation Establishment stage meant one could nourish forty-five mu of spirit fields.

The Lu family entered a period of true high-speed growth.

Rapidly repairing the entire Chanyun Mountain, adjusting the terrain, changing the vegetation, and clearing land.

In the 75th year of the Divine Ability Era, the number of spirit fields expanded to 160 mu, and they could save three thousand Spirit Stones every year!

With four Foundation Establishment True Persons, they directly connected with the Immortal Sect, and the expenses needed for entertainment were also less.

Regarding the Lu family's development and every year's changes, Yan Zhe recorded them all.

He now possessed four perspectives: Lu Yuantu, Lu Mingbin, Lu Mingyu, and Lu Mingyun, which could be considered a relatively detailed acquisition of the entire Lu family's development context.

Facts proved that when a person is extremely bored, they might write a diary.

Recording everything he saw and perceived in detail, just like watching a great drama, was also quite interesting.

Observing all this as an outsider, he could also experience the lives of some characters.

Not bad either.

Yan Zhe was quite satisfied with his current situation.

He didn't know if he would be directly wiped out of his Divine Sense if he fell into the hands of some powerful cultivator.

Now, in this small family, growing quietly was very safe.

Time was like flowing water, and in the blink of an eye, another forty-five years passed.

In the same location, Lu Yuantu dismissed everyone, including his children, immersed his mind in his Sea of Consciousness, and waited with full concentration for the next divine ability of the Divine Ability Treasure Mirror to be produced.

Finally, a line of text appeared on the mirror surface.

【Fractal Phantom】: Create phantoms to confuse targets or differentiate forms.

No!

It was still not the divine ability Lu Yuantu craved to make up for his Dao foundation.

His spirit seemed to be completely exhausted at this moment.

Stunned for a long time, he came back to his senses, looked at the rice fields outside the window, and the Spirit Rice had already matured, each grain plump.

Shaking his head, he smiled:

"Forget it, forget it! I had already anticipated this day back then; why am I still trapped in it today?"

Saying this, he sent a message to Lu Mingzhang; not long after, Lu Mingzhang entered the bamboo house, and the first sentence he heard was:

"Mingzhang, I am going to die."

(End of chapter)