Family Cultivation: Evergreen of the Song Family

Although Lingmou didn't directly curse him, Yu Dongyang could foresee that after the battle in the cultivation world of Lu Kingdom, Lingmou's attitude towards him had already begun to change.

Last time, he asked for a [Four-Turn Chaotic Heaven Pill] to break through to the Golden Core stage, but the result was unsatisfactory.

From then on, Lingmou's attitude towards him became increasingly cold, and she often spoke harshly to him, the cold light flashing in her eyes chilling to the bone.

Having followed his master for so many years, he knew all too well what kind of person he was.

She never keeps idle people around her. No matter how many merits you have made, once you have completely lost your usefulness, you will be ruthlessly abandoned.

He was the one who carried out all of this back then.

All the meritorious elders of the Haoran Alliance have become cannon fodder.

He used to naively believe that as the only true disciple of Lingmou, he would hold a special place in her heart. Now, it seems that this idea was truly laughable.

Stepping out of the main hall, a biting cold wind swept over him. He subconsciously rubbed his hardened cheeks, then issued an order in the name of the Spirit Eye.

"The sect leader has decreed that all children within the jurisdiction of the Qingtian Sect must undergo unified education before participating in the Ascension Conference to learn about the common knowledge and cruelty of the cultivation world, improve their cognition, and enhance their cultivation efficiency."

Those who refuse will be registered and will not be accepted during the Ascension Ceremony.

Sixty thousand boys and girls is not a small number. Bingzhou is sparsely populated, and the Qingtian Sect has not focused on development in recent years, so the population has not increased significantly.

Previously, the medicinal ingredients used by Lingmou in alchemy all came from the Haoran Alliance and the Blood Demon Cult.

Both factions have dedicated breeding grounds, and the number of newborns is more than enough to supply the Spirit Eyes' needs.

With the Alliance and the Blood Demon Cult destroyed one after another, they have lost external support and only have Bingzhou as their last stronghold.

However, Lingmou attempts to refine the Six-Turn Heaven-Shattering Pill every year, demanding several thousand to ten thousand yuan from him each time.

He searched diligently, but left no trace or evidence.

However, repeated failures had exhausted Lingmou's patience. She stubbornly believed that the failures were due to insufficient medicinal ingredients, so at the beginning of the year, she demanded 60,000 boys and girls from him in one go.

Let alone 60,000 boys and girls, even the disappearance of 60,000 mortals within a year would cause a huge sensation and might even attract the attention of the Golden Crow Sect.

No matter how resourceful he is, he can't magically bring people back to life. Even after racking his brains, he only managed to gather more than 40,000 people.

Now that Lingmou has given a death order, he can't care about the consequences. If he doesn't complete the mission, he won't even survive the year.

In this era, spiritual cultivation is an obsession for every ordinary family. Using this as leverage, we are not afraid that they will not comply.

But this is a self-defeating move that will be discovered sooner or later.

Even if he manages to get away with it this time, Lingmou's appetite is only growing bigger and bigger. How can he possibly satisfy it?
That's all the value he has left. If his needs aren't met, he'll surely die.

Killing him might not solve the problem, but it would certainly vent my anger.

Even if she succeeds and Lingmou breaks through to the Nascent Soul stage, what benefits can a Purple Mansion cultivator like him bring her?

"I need to find a way to get out of here," Yu Dongyang thought to himself.

Regardless of whether he succeeds or fails this year, he will lose his value and if he doesn't plan for the future, his fate will definitely be more miserable than those meritorious elders of the league.

He was pondering a way to escape, unaware that an invisible net targeting them was already quietly taking shape in the darkness...

As night fell, the dark clouds that had shrouded the sky were partly dispersed by the strong winds, revealing the bright moon and countless stars.

At the summit of Cangmang Peak, Song Changsheng held a specially made compass, tilted his head back, and stared intently at the faintly visible Milky Way in the sky, his fingers constantly calculating something.

In the previous life, stars were specifically classified as satellites, planets, and fixed stars, and there was also a series of related studies on their rotation and revolution.

These concepts don't exist in this world, not because of ignorance, but because the underlying logic of the two worlds is different.

According to the common understanding of the previous life, due to the existence of gravity, both planets and stars would be spheres.

Moreover, the greater the mass, the stronger the gravitational pull.

These two points can be considered common sense from a previous life.

But these two points simply don't hold true in this world.

He had once reached the edge of the small world, which was blocked by a spatial barrier. Although he had not seen the whole thing, it was definitely not a sphere, but more like a floating continent.

Similar to the concept of "a round heaven and a square earth".

And this is common sense in this world.

This can be seen from the size of the Purple Imperial Realm; this world is so vast, it's beyond imagination.

According to the law that the greater the mass, the greater the gravitational force, even Superman couldn't withstand the gravity of the Purple Realm.

But that's not actually the case. The Purple Realm does have gravity, but it's within a normal range and is seriously inconsistent with its own mass.

Perhaps, like the small world, it is also a floating continent suspended in the universe.

This directly reshaped his understanding.

From then on, every time he looked up at the sky, he couldn't help but wonder what those stars were.

Is it an embellishment left by the "Creator God" in the sky, or a "star" like the sun? If it is a star, does that mean that there are many other floating continents in the universe?
These questions were partially answered in the "Primordial Star Record" given to him by Lingji Zhenjun.

In the eyes of astrologers, the Sun and the Moon are unique in the universe, evolved from the eyes of the Creator God. Other stars are not continents or stars; they are merely embodiments of the laws of Heaven, and are fundamentally different from the Sun, Moon, and even the Purple Imperial Realm itself.

Through these stars, they could know everything happening in the world without leaving their homes.

This is not a figment of imagination, but a truth derived from practice.

These are common sense for the people of this world, but for Song Changsheng, they represent a very serious sense of disconnect.

He had two completely different theories in his mind, and each one was a truth derived from practice by countless great beings.

Under these circumstances, Song Changsheng's journey in cultivating astrology was extremely arduous.

Later, he chose to completely abandon the ways of his previous life and "do as the Romans do." When he looked at the star chart in the "Honghuang Xinglu" again, everything became clear.

From then on, he would observe the stars for a period of time every night.

Astrology places great emphasis on the accumulation of experience; only by observing and learning more can one glimpse clues about the future from the myriad stars in the sky.

He's just starting out; he's in the process of accumulating experience, so you can't really see anything from him yet.

Moreover, astrology focuses more on the trends and changes in the world, and the information obtained is often very vague and subject to many variables.

To obtain more specific information, it is necessary to use deductive reasoning techniques.

The art of divination requires cultivation as its foundation. Truly accomplished diviners are at least at the Nascent Soul stage; anyone below that level is either a fraud or a half-baked expert who can only guess.

Song Changsheng isn't even half-baked yet, otherwise he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble and could directly deduce the life or death of Lingmou.

Even so, he still enjoyed it every day, making deductions based on the records in "The Record of the Primordial Stars" while looking at the seemingly unchanging starry sky.

The process of exploring the unknown is always fascinating.

Just when he thought he would get nothing again tonight as usual, he suddenly caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of his eye.

It was an unnamed star radiating crimson starlight. It suddenly appeared where it shouldn't have been, and then vanished in the blink of an eye, never to be found again.

"What is that?" Song Changsheng asked, looking puzzled.

Although there are many stars in the sky, it is impossible for such distinctive stars not to be recorded and named, but he had never heard of this particular star.

"What does this foreshadow?"

Astrologers don't believe in coincidences, but unfortunately, he can't understand it yet.

At that moment, Song Qingxi's footsteps interrupted his thoughts.

“Uncle, as you instructed, all the elders who were away have received orders to secretly return to the clan.”

"Well, judging by the time, Master Gu Hong should be arriving soon. You can greet him for me and bring him directly to the Ru Yun Palace."

His identity doesn't need to be kept secret; on the contrary, it should be publicized widely, attracting as much attention as possible.

Song Qingxi hesitated for a moment and said, "Should we increase the surveillance on the Qingtian Sect?"

Song Changsheng pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Maintain the status quo. Don't alert them. Once we arouse their suspicion, it will be much harder for us to catch them."

Qingtian Sect was indeed his prime suspect, but he was well aware of Lingmou's strength. Ordinary spies couldn't escape her detection. Sending more people now might cause her to change her plans, which would be counterproductive.

"I understand."

"Yes, and also invite Wu Jie over. Before we start observing the aura, we need to have him demonstrate it to Master Gu Hong in advance, otherwise I'm worried that the master won't know where to start."

Song Qingxi frowned and said, "Wouldn't this expose the alchemy heritage of the Treasure Bottle Sect?"

"Since we've asked them to help, these are necessary costs to pay. So what if we're exposed? At most, they'll think we have a special alchemy tradition, and they won't associate it with the Treasure Bottle Sect."

"As ordered."

……

Master Gu Hong took this matter very seriously and arrived at Cangmang Peak three days ahead of schedule despite his busy schedule.

"Fellow Daoist Song, we've eaten and drunk our fill, and today is New Year's Eve. Shouldn't you tell me your purpose now?"

If it's just a routine matter, there's probably no need to specifically set a time limit.

"The story goes like this: the Song family obtained a manual on alchemy by chance, which required drawing upon the pure energy of heaven and earth at the time of the transition between the old and new on New Year's Eve in order to refine the pills."

"A remnant of the evil path also received this inheritance at the same time as my clan. I suspect he might be hiding in the Four Realms, so I would like to ask the master to use his aura-gazing technique to find him for me."

Upon hearing this, Master Gu Hong was greatly surprised and said, "What kind of miraculous elixir requires the pure energy of heaven and earth as a guide? This is the first time I have ever heard of such a thing in my cultivation. Fellow Daoist, you are truly a hidden master."

"Does the master also know about the pure energy of heaven and earth?"

"That's natural. This item might be unfamiliar to ordinary cultivators, but it's quite common to Qi Observers."

For example, my eyes were once cleansed by the pure energy of heaven and earth, which is a necessary process for becoming a Qi observer.

"I'd only ever heard of people cultivating with the pure energy of heaven and earth, never imagining it could be used for alchemy. Truly, one is never too old to learn!" Master Gu Hong said with a smile.

"Is this really true? I wonder if there are any risks involved in using pure air to cleanse one's eyes?"

"There are risks involved. It must be done in childhood. There is about a 50% chance that you will become blind and never regain your sight. Fellow Daoist, it is best not to try it lightly."

Thank you for letting me know.

"Since the master understands the pure energy of heaven and earth, let's skip the demonstration phase. It's getting late, so we can begin."

"Well, okay.

However, I must state one thing in advance: because there is no specific direction, oversights are inevitable during the process of observing qi. I hope you can understand.

“I completely understand. Master, you can focus your main efforts on the northeast direction and leave the southwest to me.”

Master Gu Hong raised an eyebrow slightly and said, "Fellow Daoist Song also understands the art of observing qi?"

"I, Song, am naturally not skilled in observing qi, but I have a pupil technique that can see the existence of the pure qi of heaven and earth. However, the distance is quite limited. Tonight, the main force is still the master, and I can only fill in the gap."

"Fellow Daoist is truly learned. To have reached this point today is certainly not just a matter of luck."

"Please, Master, refrain from using such polite phrases."

Song Changsheng led Master Guhong to the high platform that had been set up in advance. Master Guhong sat cross-legged on a futon, facing northeast. He then activated the Eye of Illusion and waited for the arrival of midnight in the new year.

Just as the two were waiting, the sky was once again shrouded in dark clouds, and snowflakes drifted down from the sky, quickly giving Cangmang Peak a new look.

"Master, this kind of weather shouldn't affect your ability to observe the qi, right?" Song Changsheng asked worriedly, looking at the blizzard that was almost obscuring his vision.

"Having cultivated for many years, I can overcome this difficulty. The time is almost here, fellow Daoist, you should also prepare yourself."

"Understood." Song Changsheng nodded heavily.

As the New Year arrives at midnight, the pure energy of heaven and earth descends, washing away the turbidity of the old year and welcoming the new.

The arrival of the pure energy of heaven and earth was extremely brief, so the two people on the high platform were on high alert, not daring to relax for even a moment.

Before long, Master Gu Hong made a discovery and said in a deep voice, "A pure and clear energy of heaven and earth is descending upon the north!"

"The North?" Song Changsheng's spirits lifted.

The Bingzhou where the Qingtian Sect is located is in the north, and the cultivation world of the Lu Kingdom is also in the north. Could it really be as he guessed?
He quickly changed direction and sure enough, he saw an invisible force on the horizon pulling the pure air in the sky. Judging from the distance, it was most likely within the Great Qi cultivation world!

"It's really you!"

A cold glint flashed in Song Changsheng's eyes. With a flick of his sleeve, he led Hua Yan, Chi Li, Song Qingxi, and other key members of the clan, transforming into a streak of light and rushing towards Bingzhou at top speed.

The start of the new year is destined to begin with a massacre!
...(End of chapter)