Immortality begins with inheriting the myriad arts of cultivation.

Chapter 136 Clever Ideas

He pondered the news he had heard from his elder brother's cave.

Cheng Yao walked home at a leisurely pace.

She still lived in the same small courtyard, and nothing changed because Wang Xingwei became a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

After all, Wang Xingwei was an honest man who had focused on cultivation since childhood. Without any cultivation skills, he couldn't earn spirit stones quickly like Li Ping did.

Furthermore, since he is a member of the Wang family, even if he reaches the Foundation Establishment stage, the Immortal City will not invite him to join.

Therefore, he could not possibly obtain his first pot of gold from the Immortal City like Zhang Tie did.

As for returning to the Wang family?

After successfully completing his foundation building, Wang Xingwei has overcome his psychological trauma.

He knew perfectly well that during his coma, the Wang family did not care whether he lived or died, and no one came to take care of him, so he was unwilling to return to the Wang family after he reached the Foundation Establishment stage.

Ultimately, he chose to leave the city to hunt demons and earn spirit stones.

With his Foundation Establishment cultivation, killing those first-tier demonic beasts was a piece of cake.

They can earn spirit stones much faster than cultivators who specialize in Qi Refining.

The problem is that Wang Xingwei has not returned since he went out to hunt demons, so Cheng Yao has not yet been able to benefit from his status as a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

……

When Cheng Yao reached her front door, she noticed that the gate was open and faint conversations could be heard coming from inside the house.

From the tone of their voices, Cheng Yao quickly determined that one of the two people talking was Wang Xingwei, while the other was an unfamiliar voice.

"StarCraft Demon Hunter is back." Cheng Yao couldn't help but show a hint of joy on her face.

She couldn't wait to walk into the courtyard and immediately saw two people sitting opposite each other. Sitting opposite Wang Xingwei was a little old man with a slightly reserved appearance and hunched shoulders.

The old man's cultivation level was the ninth level of Qi Refining. Facing Wang Xingwei, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he unconsciously spoke in a flattering manner.

"Sister Cheng Yao." Wang Xingwei greeted Cheng Yao with a smile as she entered.

The old man quickly smiled and said, "My name is Wang Quyan, and I greet Fairy Cheng."

"Fairy Cheng." Upon hearing this title, Cheng Yao couldn't help but feel overjoyed.

But she showed no emotion on her face and greeted the two of them with a smile.

Wang Xingwei looked at the old man in front of him and said calmly, "Clan leader, I don't want to go home for the time being. I hope you can understand."

Upon hearing this, Wang Quyan quickly advised, "Xingwei, I know it was the family's fault before, and I, as the clan leader, have wronged you. As long as you're willing to come back, everything can be discussed. I'm even willing to give up my position as clan leader. Besides, it's inconvenient for you to cultivate outside..."

Wang Xingwei interrupted him with a smile, "Clan leader, may I consider this for a while?"

"Sigh." Wang Quyan sighed helplessly, but could only force a smile and say goodbye.

After Wang Quyan left, only Cheng Yao and Wang Xingwei remained in the courtyard.

Seeing Cheng Yao's puzzled look, Wang Xingwei smiled and explained the reason to her.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Yao's eyes lit up. She exclaimed, "Are you stupid? It's not like I'm asking you to go back and be a slave. As long as you go back, you can become the family's Grand Elder. Why not go back? Besides, you don't even have a cultivation ground or cultivation techniques right now. It's such a waste of time."

Wang Xingwei shook his head: "Sister Cheng Yao, you don't understand how hurtful the way those clansmen looked at me was after I failed to establish my foundation. Besides, after I fell into a coma, not a single member of the Wang family came to care for me. I was very disappointed in them."

"Tch." Cheng Yao scoffed. "So you're cutting ties with the Wang family?"

Wang Xingwei remained silent, but his attitude implicitly confirmed Cheng Yao's guess.

"I thought you'd become smarter after reaching Foundation Establishment, but I didn't expect you to still be so stupid." Cheng Yao didn't take the person in front of her seriously as a Foundation Establishment cultivator and said rudely, "Before Ye Chen's matter was exposed, in your clan's eyes, you were wasting the two Foundation Establishment Pills that your clan had exhausted all its resources to find."

"They didn't kill you on the spot, which is already a favor because you share the same blood. Why are you acting so aggrieved?"

Wang Xingwei was speechless for a moment: "Uh..."

While he was speechless, Cheng Yao continued in rapid succession: "Besides, even if you hate those people, what's the point of cutting ties and running away? Wouldn't it be more satisfying to go back to the family openly and punish them as the Grand Elder? Seeing those people you hate fawning over you will make you feel even better!"

Upon hearing Cheng Yao's analysis, Wang Xingwei's face showed helplessness. In the end, he said nothing, but simply sighed softly.

In fact, he didn't even know what he was really thinking.

Is it because he's too lazy to shoulder family responsibilities? Is it because he doesn't want to see his family? Is he deliberately giving them the cold shoulder, hoping they'll regret their actions? Or... is it a combination of all these thoughts?

Cheng Yao continued rambling on, "The Wang family was once a Foundation Establishment Immortal Clan. Even a fallen camel is bigger than a horse. This was originally yours, so what's there to be so upset about..."

Wang Xingwei nodded helplessly: "Sister Cheng Yao, don't say anymore, I'm going home."

……

Several days later, at the Wang family's ancestral home.

Wang Xingwei nodded helplessly: "Sister Cheng Yao, don't say anymore, I'm going home."

……

Several days later, at the Wang family's ancestral home.

All members of the royal family were summoned to the square to pay their respects to the new Grand Elder of the royal family.

Above the square stood Wang Xingwei and Cheng Yao, both dressed in magnificent attire.

Below them were hundreds of Wang family cultivators with varying expressions, and at the very front of them stood the clan leader, Wang Quyan.

"We pay our respects to the Grand Elder!"

"Greetings, Grand Elder!"

……

Hundreds of cultivators bowed at the same time, creating a spectacular scene. Wang Xingwei felt slightly uncomfortable, but Cheng Yao was full of excitement.

At Cheng Yao's prompting, Wang Xingwei said calmly, "Alright, no need for formalities, please get up."

……

Nighttime, the ancestral home of the Wang family, inside the council hall.

Wang Xingwei, Wang Quyan, and Cheng Yao were talking. As the eldest elder of the family, Wang Xingwei certainly needed to have a general understanding of the family's situation.

However, he had been diligently cultivating since childhood and had hardly ever been involved in these mundane affairs, so it was mainly Cheng Yao who was learning about it from Wang Quyan.

Wang Quyan also noticed that Cheng Yao and Wang Xingwei had an unusual relationship. In the future, when Wang Xingwei was not involved in affairs, Cheng Yao might take control of the family's power.

Therefore, he showed considerable respect to Cheng Yao and answered all her questions.

After the conversation, Cheng Yao quickly grasped the general situation of the Wang family.

After understanding the situation, she frowned and looked at Wang Quyan with suspicion: "The Wang family is supposed to be a Foundation Establishment Immortal Clan, how come they only have this much wealth?"

It wasn't that she was angry, but rather that the number Wang Quyan reported was outrageous; it was as if he was making a fool of her.

According to Wang Quyan's account, apart from this second-tier ancestral land, the Wang family didn't even have a single item of second-tier or higher quality. They even owed several thousand spirit stones to several cultivation families, led by the Meng family.

This is hardly a Foundation Establishment Immortal Clan member; they're not even as good as a rogue cultivator like my elder brother!

She had even planned to borrow spirit stones from the Wang family to bid for the Foundation Establishment Pill for herself, but instead of getting the spirit stones, she ended up facing debts.

Seeing Cheng Yao's suspicious look, Wang Quyan gave a bitter smile and immediately began to recount how his ancestor's attempt to break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage, how Wang Xingwei's two attempts to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage had exhausted the family's wealth, and how he had to compensate the deceived rogue cultivators and sell the family's ancestral property.

After hearing this, Cheng Yao was dumbfounded.

She quickly grasped the key point in Wang Quyan's words, and asked incredulously, "So, in that scheme to swindle rogue cultivators, you cheated a total of 105 rogue cultivators out of 10,500 spirit stones?"

"There weren't that many. Only thirty-four rogue cultivators were fooled in total." Wang Quyan shook his head and denied Cheng Yao's conclusion: "One hundred and five people. This is a number that Ye Chen deliberately fabricated to harm my family. My family had no choice but to compensate according to this number in order to keep the matter quiet."

"I see." Cheng Yao nodded, finally understanding why a Foundation Establishment Immortal Clan member like the Wang family was in such a miserable state.

During their conversation, Wang Xingwei stared at the dome of the council hall, lost in thought. He only snapped out of his reverie when Wang Quyan left to say goodbye.

Only Wang Xingwei and Cheng Yao remained in the council hall.

Cheng Yao looked unwilling: "Do we really have to wait until the auction five years from now?"

She's thirty-nine this year, and will be forty-four in five years.

The best age for a cultivator to establish their foundation is actually before the age of thirty. After thirty, physical functions begin to decline, and the success rate of establishing the foundation will also slowly decrease.

Once you pass sixty, it's basically impossible to build a foundation.

If given the chance, she would certainly like to try Foundation Establishment as soon as possible.

Of course, the main reason was that she learned from Zhang Tie that two Foundation Establishment Pills would be auctioned at this event.

If there was only one Foundation Establishment Pill, she wouldn't fight with Gu Musheng for it.

……

Suddenly, an idea struck Cheng Yao.

"The Wang family used all their spirit stones to compensate those deceived rogue cultivators, but in reality, the vast majority of these rogue cultivators were shills hired by Ye Chen to bleed the Wang family dry!"

She thought excitedly, "Now that Ye Chen has been ordered to reflect on his actions behind closed doors and has completely lost power, wouldn't these shills he hired be without their backers!"

"So now, it's not the Wang family that cheated the rogue cultivators out of their spirit stones, but rather these rogue cultivators who cheated the Wang family out of their spirit stones!"

"To dare swindle so many spirit stones, this is no ordinary rogue cultivator. We must get those spirit stones back and punish them!"

Thinking of this, Cheng Yao couldn't wait to get up and go to Wang Quyan to ask for the list of the Wang family who had compensated the rogue cultivators.

After obtaining the list from Wang Quyan.

The next day, Cheng Yao didn't even go to work at the spirit herb garden. Instead, she led Wang Xingwei and several late-stage Qi Refining cultivators from the Wang family to visit the rogue cultivators on the list one by one.

Then, Cheng Yao gave them two choices: either they return the spirit stones, or the Wang family goes to the Immortal City to report them and make them go to keep Ye Chen company.

Some cultivators looked down on her and were not afraid to confront her in the Immortal City. Cheng Yao did not force those cultivators who had been truly deceived.

……

The old man, Wang Quyan, watched Cheng Yao do all this skillfully, his expression complex.

He felt that Cheng Yao's actions were too hateful.

He could only hope that after this, things would be better.

Cheng Yao will restrain herself and not act recklessly like the ancestor, lest she bring further disaster upon the family.

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