Chapter 38: The second spiritual root child!

Time flew by like a white steed, and in the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.

During this half-year, Lu Changsheng’s fifteenth and sixteenth children were born.

None of them had a Spiritual Root, which made Lu Changsheng even more expectant of the child in Qu Zhenzhen’s belly.

At the same time, with Lu Changsheng’s efforts over the past half-year, five more of his wives and concubines became pregnant.

Except for Qu Zhenzhen who was still on her first pregnancy, his previous three wives and six concubines had all entered their second pregnancy.

Sisters Lu Zier and Lu Qing’er, for instance, were already on their third pregnancy.

On this day.

Lu Changsheng completed his daily meditation and Cultivate in the Cultivation room, then came to the study to begin drawing Talismans.

These two activities had become his daily routine.

With his current Lianqi Third Layer Cultivation, Medium Grade Talismans posed no difficulty for Lu Changsheng.

He could successfully draw them with ease.

As for High-Grade Talismans, due to limited magical power and mental energy, a slightly inferior Talisman brush, and ordinary quality Talisman paper and spiritual ink, they still presented a considerable challenge.

He could only risk failure to forcefully draw some relatively simple High-Grade Talismans.

Therefore, only a small portion of the Advanced Talisman paper and Advanced spiritual ink he purchased earlier at Niu Tou Mountain had been drawn into Talismans by him, to be used in case of emergencies.

He planned to wait until his Cultivation advanced further and he bought a good Talisman brush before drawing the other Materials into Talismans.

Anyway, even if they were drawn into Talismans now, he couldn’t sell them; having enough for his own emergencies was sufficient.

After drawing two Medium-Grade Talismans, Lu Changsheng put down his Talisman brush, preparing to go relax with his wives and concubines.

As he stepped out of the study, a servant handed him a letter.

It was a letter from Hong Yi.

The letter spoke of old times, saying that he had performed well during this period, and his father, Ruyi Marquis, had entrusted him with some more Lu family affairs.

Then, he inquired about Lu Changsheng’s recent situation.

This was not the first time Lu Changsheng had received a letter from Hong Yi.

It was his third letter since returning to Qingzhu Mountain, and Lu Changsheng naturally knew why Hong Yi was doing this.

“Now that I have extra Talismans to sell, even if the Lu family finds out, they won’t blame me,” Lu Changsheng thought to himself.

He had not sold Talismans to Hong Yi before for a simple reason.

He was worried that the Lu family would find out about his private Talisman transactions with Hong Yi.

If the Lu family found out and saw that he had a large number of Talismans for sale, it would not be good.

But after so long, he had been a Talisman Master for over a year, and with the proficiency he usually displayed, it was quite normal to have some extra Talismans to sell.

Immediately, he replied in the letter that he indeed had some Talismans for sale and could sell them if Hong Yi needed them.

He inquired about the method of transaction.

He naturally couldn’t leave Qingzhu Mountain just to sell a Talisman, so he asked Hong Yi to figure out a way.

After writing the letter, Lu Changsheng handed it to a servant to mail at the post station.

The Lu family had a post station for sending letters to the secular world, it was just rather slow.

It would probably take a month, or even longer, for such a letter to reach Hong Yi.

If there was a real emergency, only communication Talismans could be used.

Afterward, Lu Changsheng went to the backyard to accompany his wives, concubines, and children.

This was also half of his daily routine.

Seeing Qu Zhenzhen’s big belly, Lu Changsheng also remembered her brother’s matter.

He went to Qingzhu Mountain Village again, asking Li Feiyu if there was any news of Qu Zhenzhen’s brother, Qu Changge, from the Crimson Whale Gang.

However, Li Feiyu stated that the Crimson Whale Gang still had no relevant news of Qu Changge.

It had been over half a year, and there was still no news of Qu Zhenzhen’s brother, Qu Changge, making Lu Changsheng even wonder if his cheap brother-in-law had encountered some accident.

After all, according to Qu Zhenzhen, her brother was just an ordinary scholar.

The journey to the capital for the imperial examination was thousands of miles long, and it was not impossible for him to have met with danger on the way and perished.

Lu Changsheng planned that if there was still no news after some time, he would ask Hong Yi to help investigate as well.

After all, the Crimson Whale Gang was just a Jianghu Gang, and its influence was limited once it left Tianshui Prefecture.

Meanwhile.

At the border between Qingzhou and Jizhou in Jiang Country, there was a perilous cliff with rugged rocks.

Thick mist permeated the surroundings of the cliff, making it difficult to see the opposite side. The valley between the cliffs, shrouded in mist, was bottomless, and a glance at it would make one’s heart tremble.

At this moment, within the boundless, bottomless valley.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—”

“Woooo, woooo, woooo—”

Gray mist permeated the air, and a chilling wind howled, like ghosts wailing.

One could see a blood-colored lake, about ten square meters in size, in the center of the valley.

Around the lake, piles of white bones accumulated, sending shivers down one’s spine, and the blood-colored lake was even more so.

The blood was deep and dark, filled with an indescribable evil and demonic quality, bubbling with ‘gurgle, gurgle, gurgle’ sounds.

Each burst blood bubble was accompanied by a faint, eerie whistling sound.

In this blood lake, there was also a large cocoon, as thin as a cicada’s wing, glowing with a crystalline blood-red light.

The large cocoon undulated in the blood lake, as if still breathing, its blood-red light flickering on and off, captivating and truly eerie.

If one looked closely, they could faintly discern that the blood cocoon enveloped a man.

At this moment, the man seemed about to open his eyes, but the next instant, a blood-red lotus, like a half-moon, appeared between his brows, causing his eyes, which were about to open, to tightly close again, falling into a deep sleep.

Three months later.

“Lianqi Third Layer Peak!”

“But breaking through to Lianqi Fourth Layer, who knows how long it will take to grind.”

In the Cultivation room, Lu Changsheng, sitting cross-legged, opened his eyes, lightly exhaled a turbid breath, and muttered.

He had spent about a year on each of the previous Lianqi Third Layer stages.

But now that he had Cultivated to the Third Layer Peak, he could clearly feel that the transition from Lianqi Third Layer to Lianqi Fourth Layer was different from before.

There was a Bottleneck.

He couldn’t Break through without hindrance; it would require a long period of painstaking effort.

Lu Changsheng didn’t pay too much attention to it.

After all, with his poor Aptitude, to have this speed and Cultivate to the Lianqi Third Layer Peak so quickly was already quite good.

He had a clear understanding of his own positioning.

A late bloomer!

It would get better once he had more children and they grew up.

“Zhenzhen should be giving birth soon too.”

Lu Changsheng stood up, patted his robes as if to remove non-existent dust, and walked out of the Cultivation room.

Eleven days later.

Qu Zhenzhen gave birth.

At the moment the child was born, Lu Changsheng, outside the delivery room, immediately felt a mysterious sensation.

It was the throbbing of a Spiritual Root.

He knew that this child of his possessed a Spiritual Root.

This made Lu Changsheng very excited and thrilled.

He felt that his expectations over the past half-year had not been in vain.

“Indeed, it’s better to have children with women who possess Spiritual Roots.”

“Otherwise, if only I unilaterally possess a Spiritual Root, the probability of the children having a Spiritual Root is too low.”

“Little Seven having a Spiritual Root before was purely a stroke of luck.”

Lu Changsheng took a deep breath, feeling very happy and excited.

Seeing Lu Changsheng in this state, several wives and concubines nearby felt a hint of jealousy.

Even though they were virtuous and gentle by nature, they felt that Lu Changsheng showed some favoritism towards Qu Zhenzhen.

Not only did he show more concern for Qu Zhenzhen in daily life, but now that the child was born, he was much happier than when his previous children were born.

However, they also knew the reason.

Qu Zhenzhen possessed a Spiritual Root and could Cultivate, and the children she had with Lu Changsheng would likely also possess a Spiritual Root.

Naturally, this made Lu Changsheng show her a bit more favoritism.

“When Little Seven was born before, the System gave a gift.”

“If I have ten children with Spiritual Roots, the System should also give a gift, right?”

Lu Changsheng didn’t notice the expressions of his wives and concubines, immersed in the joy of the child’s birth.

When Little Seven, Lu Xianzhi, was born, a reward was given because it was the first time he had a child with a Spiritual Root, which made him guess that it should also be like the number of offspring, where a reward would be given upon reaching a certain number.

Before long, the midwife carried the child out of the delivery room.

It was a baby boy.

Lu Changsheng carried the child into the delivery room to visit Qu Zhenzhen.

Although Qu Zhenzhen was Cultivating, she became pregnant shortly after starting Cultivation.

So, she had not yet completed the introduction of Qi into her body, and her body was still very weak.

Moreover, the first few layers of Qi Refining did not significantly improve physical fitness.

Seeing the weak Qu Zhenzhen, Lu Changsheng coaxed her to sleep, then handed the child to the wet nurse, and went to the Cultivation room to begin Cultivating.

There was nothing he could do; he couldn’t see the child’s Spiritual Root, nor could he see the detailed changes in his own Spiritual Root.

He could only determine how much his Spiritual Root had improved, and then estimate the child’s Spiritual Root grade, through this simple and straightforward method of Cultivation.