Schools of Thought

The two men walked towards the rear of the manor. The mood was still cheerful but filled with more seriousness. This Qiu Chuyi was a man of many tricks but he was still a serious person. And since He Xingping was an executive elder with a large amount of influence, the immortal could at least offer this amount of respect regarding the matter of He Zhuoyan.

It didn't take long for them to reach the nursery. It just so happened that the mother and child were in the garden. Both of them enjoyed the fresh air and aura of nature instead of the stale and lifeless environment indoors.

"My lord immortal!" The servants immediately fell to their knees.

Qiu Jingyi was caught sitting in a rocking chair with He Zhuoyan laying across her chest. As she scrambled to get up, Qiu Chuyi's lighthearted laugh made her pause.

"Grandniece, no need. No need. It is I who intruded on your sanctum. Please excuse my rudeness." He said.

Qiu Chuyi's face flushed slightly. She had never been called grandniece by this powerful figure and didn't know what to think about that. She nodded her head low as best as she could and responded, "My thanks, Lord Qiu. Welcome."

After exchanging some more pleasantries, the reason for the visit was made clear and Qiu Chuyi offered her daughter to the immortal.

Qiu Chuyi's spirit rose as he cradled the baby in his arms. He laughed and gently swayed his body as He Zhuoyan babbled nonsense at the stranger before her. She raised her stubby arms and tried to grab at him this only made him laugh louder. All in all, her performance was no dissimilar to any other baby. There wasn't anything special about her… except for her left eye. Instead of brown like normal, it was a bright green like freshly sprouted leaves in spring. As she glared up at the offending person who wasn't her mother or father or nursemaid, her left seemed even brighter.

Qiu Chuyi handed the baby back after studying her and stroked his beard in a thoughtful manner, "Strange, truly strange. Very curious."

"Is… something wrong with her?" Qiu Jingyi asked anxiously.

He waved his hand and answered, "Not at all, she is perfectly fine. Her eyes, I don't know what to make of them. I tried to test her with a tiny bit of my immortal aura but there was no response. But she certainly seems very spirited and headstrong. Remarkable."

"My lord," Chen Wentian, as He Xingping, chimed in, "Does this mean that her left eye is nothing special?"

The immortal shook his head, "I didn't say that. Her eye is special, I'm certain of that. But I have to admit that my knowledge is limited. I will review the records in our archives but off the top of my head, I can't say I have a proper explanation. I will have to visit the Eastern Sanmu Metropolis and ask around."

Chen Wentian produced a small cloth bag and offered it with a bow, "My lord, I don't have much but this is ten kilograms of red spiritual crystal. I hope this can assist you in finding an answer for my daughter."

This wasn't a large amount for an immortal but it wasn't small. For an executive elder like him, it was a considerable hit to his finances, if not all of it.

Qiu Chuyi swiped the money away instantly but nodded once in affirmation. Both men understood the situation and it made their interaction much easier.

He turned towards Qiu Jingyi and asked, "Moving on, about the other matter of little He Zhuoyan having a big appetite but only for breastmilk, can you tell me more about that?"

Qiu Jingyi smiled gently and replied, "Lord Qiu, it is like this…"

She described having to nurse her daughter constantly. She even ate a lot of nutritious meals and took many herbal supplements but it wasn't enough. He Zhouyan drank her dry and she had to hire two high-quality nursemaids who could produce even more milk than her. The three of them could just about keep up but if He Zhouyan continued her habits as she grew bigger, they would soon need to add another nursemaid.

"Hahaha, what a little glutton. How amusing." The immortal stroked his beard with a wide grin, "Have you tried cow milk or goat milk? Or the milk of other beasts?"

Chen Wentian interjected before Qiu Jingyi could, "We have, my lord, but she rejected them all…"

It wasn't just ordinary milk either. She rejected bear milk which was known to give an infant greater strength. She refused lioness milk which could provide a strong fighting spirit and bravery. She even threw up after just a mouthful of horse milk that could give one speed and endurance. It was the same for wolf milk, various types of monkeys and primates, and even dolphin milk sourced from the southern ocean.

"Interesting…" Qiu Chuyi stroked his beard with a blank expression. "Truly a puzzling little girl."

He couldn't come up with anything more intelligible for a long while and eventually let out a cough of embarrassment, "He Xingping, grandniece, forgive this old man for not being able to find a satisfactory answer. I will definitely make this a priority the next time I visit the metropolis."

Both of the bowed and Chen Wentian answered, "My lord, that is all I can for. I am already beyond gracious that my daughter has caught your attention."

"Mmm, I will take my leave for now. I will let you know."

"Yes, my lord. Thank you."

"Thank you, Lord Qiu!"

Chen Wentian led the immortal out of the residence and after a short while, returned to the garden. With the stranger gone, He Zhuoyan felt comfortable enough to start digging into the clothes covering her mother's chest.

Qiu Jingyi laughed helplessly and let the little bandit in who immediately latched on and began to suck greedily with a silly, contented smile.

"Husband, should we have told Lord Qiu about the lingzhi?" She asked.

Chen Wentian studied He Zhuoyan for a while before shaking his head, "He probably knows something but didn't say anything. It isn't difficult for someone like him to find out that I procured a Ruby Lingzhi Pill for you before you conceived. I've also been buying a large amount of precious lingzhi from suppliers throughout the city. That's not a secret either."

He stroked He Zhuoyan's head who merely squirmed around in complaint, "We have also given nourishing medicine made from lingzhi to the nursemaids but it is still not certain that this is the exact cause of her fixation. I had simply heard some rumors from the southern regions about this method and decided to try this out. There shouldn't be any downsides besides it costing some money."

His usage of lingzhi, a precious medicinal fungus, wasn't based on a casual whim. He had heard from various traders that it was highly prized in the Aiqin Mystic Archipelago which was south of the subcontinent. The region prized all kinds of herbs, fungi, and natural medicine. It was rumored that these were used to cultivate one's body into a cauldron, one that could produce spiritual medicines with even more efficiency and in higher concentrations.

What was happening to Qiu Jingyi and He Zhouyan and lingzhi was just a little harmless experiment, the most common one in fact. He had bought a few books from cultivators from the archipelago that instructed how to improve a mother's breastmilk and turn her into a pseudo-cauldron to help the baby improve their foundation. So far, it seemed to be working but the results would take time to emerge.

He felt no need to report this to Qiu Chuyi or anyone else within the sect. The Beast God Sanctum was a place for beast transformation arts. They worshipped all things beasts and the southern cultivators could be considered a wholly different school of cultivation, one which focused on the human body and sought inspiration from within the human body instead of from beasts.

The He Xingping of old would have abhorred such a thing but Chen Wentian didn't care. As the master of the soul realm and many different souls, he was able to experience many different schools of thought and types of cultivation. He wasn't beholden to a single method, only the most effective one.

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A/N I wrote three special stories to celebrate IOAFD reaching one million words. They are a retelling of the side stories after the very first arc, with three brand-new smut scenes. They are free to read for a limited time!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/1-million-lin-95241918

https://www.patreon.com/posts/1-million-zhou-95242080

https://www.patreon.com/posts/1-million-wu-95242102

And as always, a tremendous thank you to all patrons that support this novel!