Journey to the head

Chapter 564: Warm Zhou Family
The roar of the Jade Dragon finally alarmed the entire Wen Ning Mountain. Instantly, seven bells rang from the top of the mountain, and the tortoise-shell-like Liuhe formation flashed and then disappeared, and was completely removed.

Seeing the Liuhe Formation, many memories came to his mind. Lu Qian put away his cloud chariot and waited quietly, somewhat absent-minded.

Several beams of light rose up hurriedly, and the one leading them was a middle-aged man with dark complexion, Zhou Chao.

"I didn't know that Tianyuanzi had come. I'm sorry for the loss..." When he saw Lu Qian, he bowed down hurriedly, but as soon as he bent down, he was lifted up by a strong force.

Lu Qian held his arm and said with a smile, "Master Zhou, old friend, we have been close friends for decades and have shared life and death together. Why should we be so polite?"

Zhou Chao felt a warm current in his heart. He looked up and saw Lu Qian's brilliant smile, and suddenly he felt dazed.

Two more foundation-building cultivators followed behind him. They were his cousin Zhou Ang and nephew Zhou Yuan. More and more Zhou family cultivators were hurriedly lining up to welcome him.

"No need to make such a big scene." Lu Qian said with a smile, "Tell everyone to go away, and I'll ask you to take me for a walk, so we can chat, okay?"

Zhou Chao nodded repeatedly and told all the family disciples to go about their business, leaving only Zhou Ang and Zhou Yuan to follow behind. He led the way in front, taking Lu Qian, Wu Yan and Yu Jiao to fly into Wen Ning Mountain.

Zhou Yuan was a dual-spiritual Qilin child of the Zhou family, who was highly valued and cultivated. He had just grown up and had not seen Lu Qian many times. However, he had heard so many stories about Tian Yuanzi, especially his great kindness to the Zhou family, that his ears were callused. He looked at Lu Qian from behind with curiosity.

After the third elder of the Zhou family committed suicide to atone for his sins, Zhou Ang returned to the family. After that, the Zhou family learned the lesson of fighting among themselves and no longer distinguished between the main branch and the branch. All members of the family had the same status and were promoted based on their talents. Zhou Ang also practiced sincerely and assisted sincerely, and now he has become the second most important person in the family.

Originally, Zhou Chao wanted to lead Lu Qian directly into the main hall, but Lu Qian smiled and shook his head, insisting on entering from the Zhou family's mountain gate and going straight up the stairs, and asked Zhou Chao to introduce the scenery of the mountain and the current situation of the Zhou family.

This was a sign of respect and honor for the host family. The three members of the Zhou family immediately felt very warm and led Lu Qian to the mountain gate archway.

On the three-meter-high archway, four large gold-plated characters gleamed: "Zhou Family Blessed Land". On the jade pillars on both sides, the family motto left by the Zhou family's ancestors was engraved: "Disobedience leads to violence, harmony brings prosperity".

Lu Qian stopped for a long time and nodded, and they walked up the stairs along the path. Zhou Chao, with a smile on his face, introduced the scenery of Wen Ning Mountain and the latest situation of the Zhou family to Lu Qian.

It was late summer and early autumn, and the vegetation on Wenning Mountain was lush, with various fruits hanging on the branches, and the hot spring water was gurgling and flowing freely in the mountains. Although this place is not as majestic as Mianlong Mountain, it is also fresh and elegant.

Seeing these scenes, Yu Jiao was delighted, jumping around and looking at Lu Qian cautiously. Lu Qian patted his head and said, "Go, but don't disturb the monks in the mountains, or I'll beat your ass."

The jade dragon cheered and flew into the air, running off to some hot spring to have fun.

Zhou Chao introduced: "The weather is still hot now. When winter comes, more than ten hot springs in the mountains will gurgle and warm mist will float, making the scenery even more beautiful."

Lu Qian suddenly remembered the autumn day forty-three years ago when he went to visit Yuqing Mountain while planning to restore the mountain gate. Zhou Chao, the young master of the family, also led the way and introduced him to the mountain.

After forty-three years of hard work, today, I have achieved the Golden Elixir, and the Zhou family has revived again. Thinking about it now, I feel a lot of emotion.

Lu Qian sighed, "Master Zhou, this scene seems like yesterday. We met when we were little, so it's not an exaggeration to say that we are friends for life and death. Yunshan Sect received favors from the Zhou family in its early years, and I will never forget this friendship."

Zhou Chao was deeply moved when he heard this, and his eyes were filled with warmth. "Master Lu, if it weren't for the great help from Yunshan Sect, my family would have been overthrown by Chaosheng Sect long ago, and there would be no such prosperity today. I often tell my clansmen that I will never forget the kindness of Yunshan Sect in reshaping us, but we have been told to do our best no matter what."

Lu Qian patted his shoulder and said, "You are thoughtful. The Zhou family and Yunshan Sect have grown up together through hardships, and I trust the Zhou family the most. From now on, no matter how I, Lu Qian, cultivate, or how far the Yunshan Sect can grow, the Zhou family will always be our partner sect."

Zhou Chao looked excited and nodded vigorously. Zhou Ang and Zhou Yuan were also very moved and excited.

As they walked upward, they recalled the past and talked about the present. The Yunshan School was naturally clear about the general situation of the Zhou family, but now listening to Zhou Chao's talk, it was more detailed.

The Zhou family is a family of immortal cultivators, and is different from ordinary sects.

The probability of a child conceived by the union of monks having spiritual roots is only slightly higher than that of a mortal couple, but it is also limited.

The former head of the Kong family in the northwest of Chongming County, Kong Xingrong, a cultivator in the late foundation-building stage, took in many concubines and had children every day. He had a total of five sons and eight daughters, but only Kong Pengfei had spiritual roots.

Moreover, the higher the monk's cultivation level, the lower the chance of successful conception.

This is because conception depends on the interaction of yin and yang, the fusion of Xuan Yang and Pin Yin, or the fusion of Yang essence and Yin essence, to give birth to a fetus.

However, the higher the level of a cultivator's cultivation, the harder it is for their essence to leak out. This mysterious thing requires natural birth, and if it is forced out with spiritual power, it will cause damage and become increasingly difficult to conceive.

Therefore, the source of spiritual seedlings for ordinary sects is mainly the mortals under the jurisdiction of various counties within the territory, while the source of spiritual seedlings for immortal cultivation families is mainly from mortal relatives with the same surname.

After expanding the territory, the more people there are under the rule, the more spiritual seedlings there will be, and the sect will expand rapidly.

But families are different. Even if the territory under their rule expands, it still takes time for the mortal population to grow, so the growth rate of immortal cultivation families is inherently slower.

In order to make up for this deficiency, the methods commonly used by the immortals include:

The first is to encourage childbirth. This is the most basic, and all immortal clans will issue strong incentives to encourage mortal clans to have more children.

The second is to connect the two families with the same surname. For example, your "Zhou" and his "Zhou" just have the same surname, and in fact have no relationship at all, but they can also be connected as the same clan because of the same surname, and the two families can become one family, so that the "Zhou" clan can continue to expand.

The third is to change surnames and bestow names. If the first two are means of increasing clan members on a large scale, changing surnames and bestowing names is for smaller groups or individuals. For example, if the immortal sect wants to accept a group or individual of a different surname, or a spiritual seedling of a different surname obtained through various means, it can incorporate them into the same clan by changing surnames and bestowing names.

The fourth is marriage. This is basically for individual monks. Marry the female monk you like back to your family, or let the suitable male monk marry into your family, in order to directly expand the number of monks in the family.

The fifth is the non-family cultivators. The immortals set up the non-family cultivator group to directly let the non-family cultivators join the family and contribute to the family. Generally, those who perform well will establish a stronger connection through means three or four.

But even through various means, it took five generations of struggle and accumulation for the Yuqingshan Zhou family to grow to that scale. It can be seen that the speed of the growth of the immortal clan is indeed much slower than that of the immortal sect. But there are gains and losses. The immortal clan naturally has a strong cohesion, the loyalty of the family disciples is relatively high, and various political orders are easy to implement and convey.

As for the Zhou family, although they had experienced a low point with heavy losses and a long period of changes, they did not stabilize until they officially settled in Wen Ning Mountain. Fortunately, the main victims were the monks, and although the mortal relatives of the Zhou family were not peaceful and stable due to constant migration, they did not suffer any losses overall.

Especially after taking root in Wen Ning Mountain, through various means, the number of mortal relatives began to grow rapidly, and the number of Zhou family cultivators also continued to recover.

By now, in the 406th year of Jiashen, the Zhou family already had 300 elite cultivators, and the total number of cultivators exceeded 600. In addition to Zhou Chao, Zhou Ang, and Zhou Yuan, there were also several clansmen who were about to prepare for foundation building.

Lu Qian first solved the matter of Huang Genmen that day, and then returned to Zhou's house. He walked and listened, and when he reached the top of the mountain, the sun was setting in the west and the crescent moon was faintly visible.

Zhou Chao hurriedly ordered a banquet to be arranged, but Lu Qian smiled and refused: "No need to be so troublesome, why mobilize so many people, how about we just sit at a table, eat and chat?"

Zhou Chao was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "That's great, Master Lu hasn't tasted my wife's cooking yet, right? Please do me the honor of sitting in my humble room for a while."

Lu Qian nodded. With the sense of the reverse scale blood seal, he was naturally not afraid of losing the jade dragon. He let it play by itself and immediately took Wu Yan to Zhou Chao's house for a family dinner.

Zhou Chao had been married for more than 20 years, and Lu Qian had attended his wedding banquet. His wife was also a cultivator of the same clan, a gentle female cultivator with good Qi training and beautiful appearance.

Seeing Lu Qian and the others coming, Madam Zhou was extremely terrified, but Zhou Chao was quite heroic at this time: "Madam, although Sect Leader Lu is a real person from the upper sect, he is my close friend. Don't be nervous, and do your best to prepare a table of delicious food. Sect Leader Lu and I will not return until we are drunk!"

Mrs. Zhou responded and left in a hurry. Just as she entered the inner room, a boy with a round head, round eyes and a dark face bumped into her and threw himself into Zhou Chao's arms.

"Daddy!"

Zhou Chao pulled him back and said hurriedly, "We have a distinguished guest coming, hurry up and call someone! This is——"

"Just call me Uncle Lu." Lu Qian couldn't help but laugh. In the past, he thought Zhou Chao's dark complexion was caused by the sun, wind and travel, but later, Zhou Chao's child was born with the same skin color as Zhou Chao, and he realized that this dark-faced man was born that way.

"Your name is Zhou An, right? Uncle Lu held you in his arms when you were just born." Lu Qian squatted down and scratched his nose.

Little Zhou An is five years old this year. Zhou Chao currently has only this child. Unfortunately, he has no spiritual roots, so he named him "An", hoping that he can live his life in peace.

Such a son of the immortal clan who has no spiritual roots will be sent to live in the mortal world when he grows up. He will basically serve as a city lord and manage a county.

Lu Qian thought that living a peaceful and happy life was not a bad thing. It was just hard for Zhou Chao and his wife. Even if they stopped at the foundation-building stage, they still had 400 years of life left to enjoy, and this child was destined to die before them.

Zhou An looked at Lu Qian with curiosity, and suddenly said, "My father said that there is a great hero in this world named Lu Qian. Uncle Lu, you are from the same clan, right? Do you know him?"

He judged others by himself and thought that everyone in this world was an immortal, and since they had the same surname, they must be of the same race.

Lu Qian laughed: "Yes, I know him very well."

Zhou An's eyes lit up and he shouted, "That's great, can you take me to see him?"

"What do you want to see him for?" Lu Qian picked up little Zhou An.

Zhou An said with longing, "I don't have spiritual roots, so I can't practice. Lu Qian is an amazing hero, he must have a way to cure me and let me grow spiritual roots."

Lu Qian was speechless for a moment and sighed silently. Wu Yan behind him felt even more sad, but she thought of Lin Le, who had a fake spiritual root.

Zhou Chao hurriedly carried Zhou An over and scolded him, "How can you be so rude in front of such a distinguished guest? Go back and do your homework."

Zhou An pouted, tears in his eyes, and was unwilling to give in. Zhou Chao had no choice but to order his servants to take Zhou Yuan away. Even from a few corners away, he could still hear Zhou An crying loudly.

"No, I want to find Lu Qian, I want spiritual roots"

They were silent for a moment. Zhou Chao apologized repeatedly and Lu Qian waved his hand to indicate that everything was fine.

He sighed in his heart, but also thought of his senior sister. His senior sister had always wanted a child, but on the one hand, she had already achieved the Golden Core, with an impermeable body, so it was even more difficult to conceive. On the other hand, even if she gave birth to a child, it was very likely that the child would not have spiritual roots.

A hundred years later, you are still in your prime, but your child has already died. How can you not be extremely sad?
When the moon was bright and high in the sky, a table of delicious food and wine was ready, and the aroma was everywhere. Lu Qian thanked Mrs. Zhou for her hard work and tried her best to invite her, but she smiled shyly, pulled Zhou An away, and let her husband and Lu Qian and others talk to their heart's content.

In fact, with Lu Qian's golden elixir body, even though the dishes prepared by Zhou Chao were all spiritual birds and beasts, spiritual grains and spiritual plants, the quality was still not up to standard, and eating such meals would do no good to the body.

But Lu Qian still wrapped his stomach and intestines with his spiritual power and tasted it a little, living up to Zhou Chao's family's enthusiasm.

Frankly speaking, the food didn’t taste particularly good, but Lu Qian felt quite warm. Seeing his old friend getting married and having children, he felt happy for him.

After three rounds, the atmosphere was just right. Zhou Chao raised another glass of wine and said sincerely, "My Zhou family can be in the current situation, all thanks to Master Lu and Yunshan Sect. No matter how we repay your kindness, it will not be too much. Master Lu, don't worry too much. If you have any tasks, just tell me. Even if my family goes through fire and water and risks their lives, we will get it done for you!"

After saying this, he raised his head and drank the wine in the glass.

It turned out that he had already guessed that when the war was just decided, everything was extremely busy, and Lu Qian could not have had nothing to do and came to visit. He must have something to do.

Since he had already stated his position, Lu Qian did not beat around the bush. He also raised his glass and clinked it with Zhou Chao.

"I would like to ask the Zhou family to make another effort and move the entire clan into Junle County to help me manage the subordinate sects in the county!"

(End of this chapter)