Wizard: Building a Cultivation Family from Scratch

"What...?"

Upon hearing Oriana's words, Britney was struck dumb, and all color drained from her face.

She turned her head in shock, staring at Parker in the cell, her lips trembling, but she couldn't utter a single word.

"impossible……"

After a long pause, Britney managed to squeeze out those words, her voice filled with disbelief:

"Parker, tell your mother, this isn't true, is it... How could you do such a thing?"

When Britney questioned him, Parker's eyes darted away.

At that moment, a thought suddenly arose in his mind:

If only I hadn't accepted the Hoover family's conditions, and hadn't fabricated and reported the demon incident at the bottom of the river...

Would everything have ended differently?

However, Britney interpreted Parker's silence as a tacit agreement.

"Parker..."

Britney felt a sudden darkness engulf her, and her body swayed. If Oriana hadn't caught her in time, she would have almost collapsed to the ground.

Britney didn't actually know much about what happened to the Hoover family.

When the old knight Granger told her that Parker had been imprisoned in the dungeon for colluding with outsiders and betraying his family.

She thought Parker had simply been having private dealings with other families, which violated family rules.

However, she never expected that her son would do something as terrible as murdering the head of the family!

At this moment, Britney felt utterly hopeless.

But she still clung to her last glimmer of hope and asked:

"Child... speak up! Tell Lady Oriana that this is all a misunderstanding, isn't it?"

Hearing Britney's words, Parker looked up and stared into Oriana and Granger's eyes through the cold iron gate.

But the next moment, under Britney's almost desperate gaze, he suddenly let out a cold laugh:

"No! I killed Cade Rowland! But I don't regret it!"

At this moment, Parker seemed to be releasing everything that had been bottled up inside him for years.

His voice suddenly rose:

"You Rolanders, you've already fallen to this state, yet you still act all high and mighty!"

Just because my mother and I have elven blood, are we destined to suffer discrimination?

I am a prospective knight who has awakened the seed of power!

  

I deserved a better future and a higher status!

Just because of my background... I'm going to be trampled under your feet for the rest of my life!

Why should I?!

Parker's eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at Orianna:

"Baron Hoover promised me..."

If he can unify Blackwater Valley and become a viscount.

I will then be granted the title of baron and become a true nobleman!

Even if I had the chance to do it all over again, I would still make the same choice!

Oriana calmly gazed at Puck in the cell, without saying a word.

To outsiders, she might just be a young, weak girl who was forced into the position of family head.

But in reality, she was incredibly resilient.

Parker's betrayal, Baron Cade's death...

Everything is forcing Orianna to shed her naivety and grow up quickly.

She waited quietly until Parker's almost frantic shouts subsided before speaking in a low voice:

"Parker Green".

Son of Raden Rowland and Britney Rosenthal.

For betraying his lord, colluding with foreign tribes, and framing the previous patriarch, Baron Cade, he is sentenced to death!

Oriana's voice echoed quietly in the dungeon.

Parker's voice trailed off. He stared blankly at the familiar yet unfamiliar girl before him, a sense of fear finally rising in his heart.

"No!!!"

Britney was devastated upon hearing the verdict.

She suddenly knelt down with a thud, crawled on all fours to Oriana's feet, and pleaded:

"Master, please spare him! He's still your brother, after all!"

Orianna stared directly at the dazed Parker in the cell, ignoring Britney's pleas, and turned to the old knight Granger beside her, saying:

"Uncle Granger, could you please settle Aunt Britney in?"

As for Parker Green's execution, let's set it for three days from now.

"it is good."

Granger glanced at Oriana, who now exuded some of the authority of a family head, and calmly nodded.

Immediately afterward, Orianna ignored Britney's heart-wrenching cries and turned to walk straight towards the exit...

……

Three days later, Gordon, sitting in a secret room on the top floor of the castle, received a report that Parker had been executed.

However, he only glanced at it before casually tossing it aside. Hello, Nongkou.

To him, Parker was nothing more than an insignificant nobody, not even a stumbling block...

After this period of development, the Roland family has gradually improved.

After selling several enchanted items on the black market, Gordon instructed Orianna to steadily expand the army's recruitment.

There are no particular restrictions on who can be recruited as soldiers.

Whether they are civilians within the territory, mercenaries from outside, or rebel armies and bandits... the Roland family welcomes all who are willing to join.

Driven by the generous salaries, the recruitment process went extremely smoothly.

In just a few days, the Roland family's soldiers jumped from fifty to about two hundred, and this number is still steadily increasing.

However, a large portion of these soldiers were villagers who had never even touched a weapon before, so they would need some time to train them.

In addition, the Roland family even welcomed two new-level extraordinary knights, which made up for the family's biggest weakness.

Faced with such rapid expansion, there were naturally many exclamations of amazement within the territory.

To avoid arousing suspicion, Orianna publicly claimed that the reason was that her family had received funding from other nobles and certain organizations...

Of course, what truly pleased Gordon was the substantial progress made in the transfer of the Hoover family title.

The Hoover family was severely weakened after the Battle of Brenville.

The newly enthroned Baron Hoover's second son, Evan, was only fifteen years old and had no way to control those scheming members of the clan.

Add to that the escalating Blood Moon crisis, and that necromantic wizard lurking in Blackwater Valley...

Under immense pressure, the newly appointed Baron Hoover finally accepted Oriana's offer...

"Given the escalating external threats and to safeguard the Blackwater Valley territory, the Hoover family voluntarily transfers ownership of the Blackwater Valley-Knoway North Baronial Estate to the Roland family, retaining only the village of Bladen as the family's core territory..."

The Roland family then made the following commitment:

First, assume all defense duties of the former Hoover family territory and fulfill corresponding noble obligations;

2. To ensure the personal and property safety of Irwin Hoover, the current head of the Hoover family;

Third, assume all outstanding debts of the Hoover family;

Fourth, a one-time payment of two thousand gold shields will be made as compensation;

Fifth, the Hoover family is permitted to redeem the territory after five years, with the terms of redemption to be separately agreed upon by both parties as appropriate…

Gordon leaned back in his high-backed chair, looking at the signed "Agreement on the Transfer of Noble Territory Titles," and nodded in satisfaction.

Admittedly, the Roland family paid a considerable price to get the other party to sign this agreement:

They had to pay off the Hoover family's old debts and also come up with two thousand gold shields at once.

However, considering the overall benefits, this deal is incredibly worthwhile.

Putting everything else aside, the complete mixed crystal mine within the Hoover family's territory alone was enough to tempt Gordon.

To outsiders, this mine may not seem very valuable. But to a cultivator, the mixed crystals it produces, known as "Primordial Stones," are rare treasures.

That's why Gordon was determined to take over the Hoover family's territory.

However, there is still a hidden danger in this agreement.

That is Article 5 of the transfer agreement—the Hoover family can redeem the land after five years.

This agreement was jointly decided by Viscount Wolf and the entire Duchy Parliament.

Therefore, Gordon has virtually no way to manipulate the redemption terms.

Even so, he still instructed Oriana to agree.

There is no other reason.

For Gordon, five years is more than enough time.

He believed that with the support of the [Family Cultivation] system.

Five years from now, the overall strength of the Roland family will surely increase significantly.

By then, the Hoover family's small territory would be insignificant...

With the rise of the Roland family, the other party may not even dare to fulfill this treaty.

Thinking about this, Gordon felt much more relaxed.

Immediately afterwards, he brought up the [Family Cultivation] panel with a thought.

Congratulations! You have successfully annexed the rival Hoover family! You have inherited a portion of their assets, territories, and related personnel!

Current family information is as follows: ...

[Family: Roland Clan, Leon State, Luen Kingdom]

Duration of succession: 1206 years

Current head of the family: Oriana Roland

Territory: Blackwater Valley (Complete)

Title: Baron

Estates: 2 castles; 6 lord's manors; 10 mills; 3 ranches; 3 groves; 100 warhorses; 971 gold shields remaining.

Armory: 13 Enchanted Equipment...

Military strength: 430 sergeants; 6 extraordinary knights

Monk: Oriana

Spirit Ore: Hunyuan Stone Mine x1

...]

[Interim settlement is underway...]

[Rewards have been issued...]

Rewards received:

I. The effect of air sharing is improved by 30%;

2. Spirit Ore Enchanting Attempts x1 (Slightly improves the quality of the target spirit ore output after use).

III. Family Building Upgrade Attempts x1 (After use, the selected building can be given special cultivation effects based on its characteristics)

Upon seeing the information before him, Gordon was overjoyed.

He had long anticipated a substantial reward after successfully annexing the Hoover family. But he hadn't expected the system to offer such a generous reward this time.

The first reward is "30% increase in the Qi Sea sharing effect".

Currently, Gordon has no physical body, so he cannot cultivate on his own for the time being. He can only rely on "Qi Sea Sharing" to gradually accumulate cultivation, which in turn depends on the cultivation speed of his clansmen...

In other words, prior to this, Gordon's cultivation speed was theoretically at most on par with that of his clansmen.

The only way to break the deadlock is to increase the number of cultivators in the family as much as possible, so that spiritual energy can be gathered exponentially and a higher realm can be reached.

Although this mechanism seems extremely abnormal on the surface, upon closer inspection, it has a fatal bottleneck.

Currently, the Roland family is sparsely populated. Even after searching through all the family members, Gordon only found three people with spiritual roots: Oriana, Vera, and Aubert.

Therefore, at least in the short term, Gordon can only rely on these three people.

This reward of "30% increase in the Qi Sea sharing effect" undoubtedly greatly accelerated his current cultivation growth.

Of course, what surprised Gordon the most were the latter two items—spirit ore enhancement and family building upgrades.

In his previous life, Gordon had received a similar reward.

It was through this that the Jiang family, which he founded, truly began its rise to prominence.

The concept of "spirit mineral infusion" is actually very simple to understand.

It means being able to upgrade a spirit mine, thereby improving the quality of the ore it produces.

After annexing the Hoover family's territory, Gordon naturally inherited the mixed crystal mine.

According to the Hunyuan Stone that Orianna had given him earlier, the five elements of spiritual energy contained within an ordinary Hunyuan Stone are roughly equivalent to ten single-attribute spiritual stones of the same volume.

Based on past experience, once the "Spiritual Ore Enchanting" is applied to the mine, the output and quality of individual ore in this Hunyuan Stone mine can be increased by at least 10% to 20%.

This is undoubtedly a huge help to Gordon.

Of course, the most crucial one is the last one.

Upgrade family buildings.

As the name suggests, after obtaining this reward, Gordon can upgrade any building of the Roland family, transforming it into a cultivation cave, thereby giving it a special effect.

For example, if he upgrades a fishpond or ranch, he might be able to harvest spirit fish, spirit beasts, and other such products.

Of course, to prevent the secret from being leaked, Gordon would not take action in such a public place.

Even if he really wants to upgrade a building, he must choose a place that only he himself or someone he absolutely trusts can enter and exit.

But the question is... which one should we choose?

At this moment, Gordon couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Soon, Gordon went through in his mind the several important buildings that the Roland family now controlled.

First is Roland Castle.

This is undoubtedly the core of the entire family, and also the safest place at present.

The problem is that there are too many people and too many eyes in the castle.

Servants, soldiers, butlers, merchants, and even occasionally envoys sent by Viscount Wolf would come to visit.

Upgrading family buildings here might be fine in the short term, but if anything unusual is exposed, it will likely immediately arouse suspicion from the outside world.

As for other family assets, such as manors and forests...

Gordon considered them for only a moment before dismissing them.

This is not just for security reasons.

At the same time, upgrading these buildings may not necessarily maximize their benefits.

Gordon tapped his fingers lightly on the table, deep in thought.

And soon, he thought of a perfect place!

Mixed crystal mine!

The mine is located on former Hoover family territory in an extremely remote location.

As the two families are currently in the process of transferring power, all the Hoover family personnel who were originally stationed at the mixed crystal mine have been withdrawn.

So until he orders more personnel to be sent, the place will be deserted.

Furthermore, in this world, a mixed crystal mine is not very valuable to begin with, so it does not receive much attention.

This undoubtedly made the mixed crystal mine an excellent place for him to experiment with "family building upgrades".

The only problem is...

A mine is ultimately just a mine, not a family estate in the true sense.

"It seems we need to find a suitable medium first."

Gordon thought to himself...

However, at that moment, a series of light and familiar footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.