Third Aunt Zhou Xuanyu

Zhou Yang's journey home went smoothly.

After a few days since departing from Qingping Mountain, Zhou Yang had successfully returned to Yuquan Peak.

When he left the mountain five years ago, he was a high-spirited and elegant young man who had just broken through to Qi Refinement Level 6.

Though his cultivation level had not changed in that five years, the high-spirited and elegant young man had grown into a handsome and charismatic six-foot-tall young man.

According to the clan rules, the clan cultivators who came back from guard duty outside had to first report to the clan's elder of general affairs.

The current Zhou clan's elder of general affairs was the seventh elder, Zhou Xuanyu. She was the only female cultivator among the eight elders of the Zhou clan and was also the female cultivator with the highest cultivation level in the Zhou clan.

Zhou Xuanyu was ranked third in the Xuan generation and a direct descendant of the clan leader, Zhou Minghan. She possessed an intermediate spiritual root, thus she was able to reach Qi Refinement Level 9 before turning sixty. If she had taken the Foundation Establishment Pill back then, her chances of reaching Foundation Establishment would have been quite high.

Unfortunately, even though she was the direct descendant of the clan leader, not all the clan elders agreed to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill for her to break through to Foundation Establishment.

Cultivators with advanced spiritual roots would not need a Foundation Establishment Pill to break through to the realm of Foundation Establishment as they had a one-third success rate. Cultivators with intermediate spiritual roots, on the other hand, only had a less-than-10% success rate in breaking through without the pill.

Breaking through to the realm of Foundation Establishment was both difficult and dangerous. To attempt it, cultivators had to circulate a surge in mana throughout their meridians. If they failed to break through, 90% of cultivators would explode their meridians due to the surge of mana. Some would lose their mana and become a cripple, while unluckier ones might die from the meridian explosion.

Which Level 9 Qi Refinement cultivator was willing to take such risks? Those who weren't would either choose to die a martyr or take the Foundation Establishment Pill to increase their breakthrough chances.

Still, even among Level 9 Qi Refinement cultivators, it was hard to find few who dared to take such risks, with or without the pill or spiritual roots.

A cultivator who could cultivate to Qi Refinement Level 9 had already suffered countless hardships and sacrifices in their entire life. No one was willing to lose their hard-earned cultivation base just like that.

Even in a Foundation Establishment clan such as the Zhou clan, one would be able to rise to the upper echelons of the clan and hold great power as long as one was able to cultivate to Qi Refinement Level 9. There was really no need to take such a risk.

As such, clan cultivators would rather spend the rest of their lives in the realm of Qi Refinement to earn spiritual stones and nurture their own descendants than risk their lives to break through to the realm of Foundation Establishment. The strategy was to obtain enough spiritual stones through the continuation of the next two to three generations to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Though the cultivators who strategized this would have died by then, at least their descendants might be able to use the Foundation Establishment Pill to successfully break through to the realm Foundation Establishment and make all their sacrifices, efforts, and deaths worth it.

Only rogue cultivators at Qi Refinement Level 9 would dare take a risk and forcefully break through to the realm of Foundation Establishment because they didn't see the need to nurture their descendants. Instead, they envied the long lifespans and power of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Anyone who managed to break through to the realm of Foundation Establishment would have their lifespans double to two hundred and forty years. If one could live that long, they would have the time to form their own immortal cultivation clan or join a pre-established clan and become a guest elder. Even failure to break through would be worth it. Anything would be countless times better than being stuck as a Qi Refinement rogue cultivator.

It was obvious that rogue cultivators were more determined to reach the realm of Foundation Establishment than clan cultivators such as Zhou Xuanyu. Her determination to break through had been dampened by the comfortable lifestyle she was brought up in. Though she would be lying if she said that she wasn't disappointed that the clan was not agreeable to her having the Foundation Establishment Pill to break through, she didn't resent the clan because of it. Instead, she recruited a young rogue cultivator at Qi Refinement Intermediate Stage to join the Zhou clan to prove that she was still loyal to the clan, regardless of what they had decided for her.

However, the elders, including Zhou Minghan, did feel guilty about it, as if they had let her down. Therefore, they let her take on the position of the elder of general affairs as a way to make it up to her, allowing her to stay in the clan to take care of her children and descendants for a long time.

Zhou Yang's mother, Lin Yuting, had a very good personal relationship with Zhou Xuanyu. The latter had also doted on him since he was young, so he was not worried at all about this so-called debriefing.

Zhou Yang had just entered the clan's general affairs hall when he saw a beautiful middle-aged woman in a white lotus dress sorting through files. When she saw him enter, the beautiful middle-aged woman's eyes instantly lit up, and she hurriedly put down the files in her hands. She smiled and started to tease him.

"Well, well, well. We haven't seen each other for a mere few years but our unicorn child has become more handsome. I wonder which family's daughter will be lucky enough to marry our dashing child genius."

Even though Zhou Yang had always been mentally mature, his face still felt hot from her comments. He couldn't help but smile bitterly and repeatedly cup his hands to beg for forgiveness. "Third Aunt, please don't tease me too much. I am still young. Isn't it still too early to discuss marriage?!"

Only cultivators with lower spiritual roots and chances of reaching the realm of Foundation Establishment would get married and start a family. Cultivators with higher spiritual roots and strong determination to reach the realm of Foundation Establishment would not follow that life path and risk losing their Yuan Qi and Yin Qi.

Based on the experiences of the pioneers, cultivators who kept their Yuan Qi and Yin Qi not only had a higher cultivation speed, but their success rate to break through to the realm of Foundation Establishment was also higher compared to those who have lost their Yuan Qi and Yin Qi.

Since immortal cultivation clans like the Zhou clan also valued the continuation of their bloodlines, they would simply encourage their high-potential cultivators to marry and have children later in life, usually from the age of sixty onwards.

Even cultivators such as Zhou Yang's father and Zhou Xuanyu married later in life since they eventually realized that despite their cultivation efforts, they would not reach the realm of Foundation Establishment.

Fortunately, immortal cultivators had strong physiques and could use spells to heal their injuries. Even if they gave birth after the age of sixty, their lives would not be in danger like the typical mortal woman. However, each child produced would damage the parents' cultivation, causing the latters' cultivation speed to slow down.

Zhou Yang's mother, Lin Yuting, gave birth to him when she was at Qi Refinement Level 7, and she was still stuck there despite the passing of twenty years. That was how damaging the birth of a child could be for a low-level cultivator.

Zhou Xuanyu's conditions were better than Lin Yuting's as the former was already at Qi Refinement Level 9 by the time she got married and gave birth to her first child. Unless she had reached the realm of Foundation Establishment, her cultivation would not advance even an inch further for the rest of her life. For Zhou Xuanyu, giving birth to a child was more damaging to her longevity than her cultivation.

And Zhou Xuanyu's luck had always not been good. Even though she and her husband both had intermediate spiritual roots, only her daughter, out of her three children, was born with a spiritual root but at a lower tier.

The damage of childbirth to Zhou Xuanyu's lifespan was evident on her face. Zhou Minghan started to worry that he would lose her too soon. Without heeding her objections and complaints, the clan leader made Zhou Xuanyu infertile to prevent her from having any more children.

Ever since Zhou Yang heard of all the sacrifices his third aunt had to go through, he had developed a great deal of respect for her.

"You're right. With your talent, you'll have a great chance of reaching the realm of Foundation Establishment in the future. The situation of the family is much better now than it was in the past. With your parents' savings, they should be able to afford a Foundation Establishment Pill for you. Once you succeed and become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, you'll have plenty of time to find a Dao partner!"

Zhou Xuanyu looked at the handsome nephew standing before her in a daze, reminiscing her youth. At that time, she had wholeheartedly wanted to follow in her grandfather's footsteps to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator that everyone envied. She didn't even think about marrying.

Unfortunately, her luck in cultivation wasn't good. When she was Zhou Yang's age, the Zhou clan had spent a lot of money to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill for Zhou Qian, the current great elder, instead of her to consume. They had almost emptied the entire treasury just for that one purchase back then. But now that decades had passed, the treasury had not only recovered but also flourished.

Surprisingly, when Zhou Qian consumed the Foundation Establishment Pill, he only advanced to Qi Refinement Level 10 instead of breaking through to the realm of Foundation Establishment. Zhou Qian's cultivation progress was termed as having reached the Great Circle of Qi Refinement.

Although a cultivator at the Great Circle of Qi Refinement was much stronger than a Level 9 Qi Refinement cultivator, there was still a huge difference between the former and a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Moreover, a cultivator at the Great Circle of Qi Refinement was still in the realm of Qi Refinement, thus there wouldn't be any increase in his lifespan.

Because of this, Zhou Qian had essentially wasted a Foundation Establishment Pill, and from then on, he was burdened with a huge amount of clan debt. Not only did he work hard for his clan to pay off his debts, but he also didn't even leave behind any descendants.

And because Zhou Xuanyu's family savings were all used up, she had also lost the opportunity to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill, leaving behind a lifelong regret.

Such a small pill was able to change the fates of two Zhou clan elders.

Zhou Yang had been warned by his parents since he was young to not mention the Foundation Establishment Pill in the presence of his third aunt to avoid hurting her feelings.

Thus, when Zhou Xuanyu mentioned it herself, his heart skipped a beat and the casual conversation abruptly ended. Zhou Yang hurriedly handed over the report he had written and used the excuse of visiting the clan leader, Zhou Minghan, to escape from the clan's hall of general affairs.