Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 37 Lee Sang-jeong

The Li family has a series of functional departments, the larger one being the Weitang and the smaller ones being the Weifang.

Being a deputy in charge of a household, regardless of how much power one wields, at least elevates one's status.

This is especially true for someone from the Xiang generation.

Li Xiangming took over the reins of the Accounting Office and excitedly went to the outer courtyard, but after searching for a long time, he still couldn't find where the Accounting Office was.

"Is the patriarch trying to fool me?"

Sensing something was wrong, Li Xiangming hurriedly went to find Li Qianji to find out what was going on.

Li Qianji, a member of the second branch of the family, is around fifty years old and has reached the seventh level of Qi Refining. At this moment, he is in a valley outside Tailai Peak, guiding others to cultivate spiritual fields.

Upon hearing Li Xiangming's purpose, Li Qianji was taken aback for a moment before finally saying, "Oh, you mean Changtai Township? There seems to be such an organization, but as you can see, I'm too busy to handle it all."

After some explanation, Li Xiangming finally understood that Li Qianji was the deputy head of Lingzhi Hall, and his position as the head of the Accounting Office was only a concurrent one.

Lingzhitang is extremely busy due to the autumn harvest.

Li Qianxiong, however, ordered the development of new spiritual fields, causing Li Qianji a great deal of trouble.

The accounting office was naturally forgotten by him.

Or rather, Li Qianji had been waiting for Li Xiangming, the deputy in charge.

Upon seeing Li Xiangming, he finally revealed a long-lost smile: "The patriarch has long spoken of you, praising your intelligence and competence. Now that you have emerged from seclusion, the Shangji Office will be handed over to you. The second branch is empty, so go and check on the fourth branch."

"No one?"

Li Xiangming found it hard to accept.

"What are you saying? Aren't you a great general yourself?"

After saying that, Li Qianji waved his hand, telling Li Xiangming not to disturb his work.

Li Xiangming was so angry he gritted his teeth, cursing Li Qianxiong and Li Qianji to the bone in his heart.

Left with no other choice, he returned to the fourth branch of the family to find Li Chenglu.

Li Chenglu was the same kind of person. At first, he was chatting and laughing with him, but as soon as he heard that he needed someone, his expression changed, and he changed the subject.

It also implies that Lee Sang-myung's office is just an insignificant, idle institution, and that the people of the fourth branch should be used more effectively.

Li Xiangming looked helpless, which made him realize how short-handed the Li family was, and also explained why Li Qianxiong dared to urge Li Huinan to leave the seclusion.

Back in the courtyard, Li Xiangming pondered for a moment and decided to start the accounting office.

He has just left the police station, and in some people's eyes he is probably already half a "useless person".

The Shangji Room was the place where he urgently needed to prove his worth.

"At worst, we can just use ordinary people; after all, it's Changtai Township that's in charge."

Thinking of this, Li Xiangming breathed a sigh of relief.

He touched the green robe he was wearing, planning his future path.

This green suit comes from Smiling Tiger, but it's clear that Smiling Tiger isn't its true owner. Otherwise, with its water and fire impervious properties, it wouldn't have turned into charcoal while wearing it.

He even speculated that the green-skinned creature hadn't actually revealed its true form in the hands of the smiling tiger.

The reason is simple: even he, who possessed the Heavenly Tranquil Dew, almost died, let alone Smiling Tiger, a disciple of the Mang Cult who was more like a rogue cultivator than a rogue cultivator.
He didn't believe that the Smiling Tiger could resist the relentless onslaught of evil thoughts from the Green Robe.

In short, these green-skinned creatures are extremely vicious. Even now, those in the Li family who know about them still consider them an unstable threat.

To put it simply, wearing it prevents one from freely using magical power, which is unacceptable to any cultivator.

But no one knew that the evil Green Robe was passively giving Li Xiangming some benefits.

For example, the evil green-robed man was constantly stealing his magic power.

At first, Li Xiangming felt it was an immense burden, especially in the middle of the month, when he had to concentrate on fighting the evil Green Robe in order to slow down the loss of his magic power.

But he soon discovered that the evil green-robed man could not distinguish between magic and spiritual energy.

Whenever Li Xiangming exhales spiritual energy, it will try to snatch it away, sometimes even taking half of it.

The half of the spiritual energy that entered the green-robed body was quickly rejected and not absorbed; the spiritual energy naturally dissipated over time.

Unwilling to accept defeat, Li Xiangming attempted to reclaim this portion of spiritual energy.

At first it was difficult; his divine sense couldn't even penetrate Green Robe's. But after half a year in the Enlightenment Cave, Green Robe had absorbed enough magical power, like a well-fed beast, and no longer cared about Li Xiangming, who was just an ant.

As a result, Li Xiangming successfully guided the spiritual energy back into his body.

The key point is that this portion of spiritual energy that was taken away underwent a tremendous change on its way back, transforming directly from spiritual energy into magical power.

This discovery greatly shocked Li Xiangming. In other words, for every wisp of spiritual energy Li Xiangming exhaled, he only needed to refine half of it, while the other half was automatically completed for him by the evil green-robed figure.

Although refining magical power is only one step in cultivation, the evil green robe's characteristics undoubtedly greatly reduced Li Xiangming's overall cultivation time.

It can be said that while putting him in shackles, it also opened a brighter window for him.

So what if magic can't control things?

I cultivate quickly!

Li Xiangming simply brazenly stayed in the Awakening Cave, and sure enough, in just half a year, he broke through to the seventh level of Qi Refining.

This is probably what they mean by the saying that fortune and misfortune are interdependent.

Furthermore, whether it was Li Xiangming's imagination or not, the evil green-robed figure seemed to be able to handle the bottleneck.

Three months into his struggle for consciousness with the evil Green Robe, he realized that the bottleneck had disappeared.

But at the time he wasn't sure, thinking it might be due to the Heavenly Dew.

Looking back now, it seems like the work of the evil Green Robe.

Li Xiangming dared not reveal these things to anyone, for fear of being killed.

Even Li Huinan didn't know—no one could see these secrets unless they wore the green suit and experienced it firsthand.

To outsiders, this green-skinned creature is an evil entity that plunders magical power and invades the soul, and they wish they could keep their distance from it.

"elder brother."

Suddenly, a clear shout interrupted Li Xiangming's thoughts.

He turned around and saw a six or seven-year-old boy looking at him timidly.

Beside the boy was a young woman in her twenties.

"Ah, it's Aimei, you're back."

The young woman was somewhat at a loss when she saw Li Xiangming, and it took her a while to speak.

"Ah."

Li Xiangming nodded expressionlessly.

Seeing this, the young woman was very embarrassed and didn't know what to do.

"come over."

Li Xiangming beckoned the boy to his side and inquired about matters related to cultivation.

Seeing that she couldn't get a word in edgewise and didn't dare to disturb them, the young woman hurriedly left the courtyard.

"Have you grasped the essence of Qi?"

Li Xiangming asked, and the boy shook his head.

"Take your time, don't rush."

Li Xiangming casually offered a few words of advice and then dismissed Li Xiangzhen.

At the same time, he thought of Li Qianhe. His father, upon hearing that Li Xiangren had gotten into a fight in Puxian, quickly learned of his disappearance and rushed back to Danggui Mountain, demanding that Li Qianxiong find him at all costs.

But they really couldn't find it at the time, and Li Qianhe was heartbroken, crying to Li Chenglu for several days.

Not long after returning to Pushui Market, they brought Li Xiangzhen back with them.

In fact, Li Xiangming was not Li Qianhe's only son.

His mother was also a cultivator. Shortly after giving birth to the child, her relationship with Li Qianhe broke down, and she left early on. Her whereabouts are now unknown.

Li Qianhe was in his prime, so he was naturally not a widow; in private, he had taken many concubines and had many children.

However, because he favored mostly ordinary women, he had many children but no second child with spiritual roots until the birth of Li Xiangzhen.

At that time, due to Li Xiangming's presence and Li Xiangzhen's young age, who was not suitable for cultivation, the mother and son were raised by Li Qianhe in Pushuifang City.

Even their own families don't know.

Because Li Xiangming went missing, Li Qianhe brought him home and settled him in Li Xiangming's courtyard, which also meant that he would take Li Xiangming's place to continue the family line.

Unfortunately, this was the time when Li Xiangming was going home by himself, and the scene was quite awkward.

However, Li Xiangming was busy entering the Higo Cave for seclusion and had no time to deal with these matters.

Now that he has come out of seclusion, he feels a headache coming on. He doesn't know how to face this young aunt and his half-brother, whom he has never met before.

(End of this chapter)