Bloodline Tree – [Clan Building]

“Dad, dad! Why is everyone running around? Are we under attack?” Tianyi came up running and threw her arms around Shu Yang’s legs. Her little head popped out between his legs and looked around carefully.

“How can there be an attack?” Shu Yang asked, patting her on the head.

‘Why did Tianyue have to tell her that story?’

“It’s just that your brother Ren and sister Xia are about to have another child,” Shu Yang explained.

“I’m going to get another niece? Again? I have so many now,” Tianyi said.

“I guess so,” Shu Yang said, “So you need to behave, don’t make your mother worry when she needs to look after Xia.”

“I always behave, Dad,” Tianyi said, stepping away from him and raising her chin high in the air. “Don’t worry, I’ll look after Xinru and make sure she behaves too.”

“That-” Shu Yang began speaking, but his daughter had already run off.

‘How come she is so full of energy all the time?’

Xinru was Tianren’s second child, born just a few months after Tianyi. Since the two girls were the same age, they often played together despite Tianyi technically being a generation older. But from what Shu Yang had seen, they didn’t really resemble two sisters, but more like a boss and her subordinate.

It wasn’t that Xinru was meek; it was just that his daughter seemed to have a natural authority about her. Even Xinyang, who was a year older, listened to his daughter in most things. That would have been fine if Tianyi were steady and mature like some of her older siblings, but she was really quite the troublemaker.

Shu Yang didn’t know if it was because of her talent, her traits, or if it was just her personality, but Tianyi loved getting into fights, dreaming of conquering lands just like Shuangyu, the warrior queen in the storybook Shu Yang had bought Tianyue long ago.

‘What a headache.’ Shu Yang shook his head slightly. It was fine now since they were all still kids, but if Tianyi still had this idea when she grew up, Shu Yang would have a lot of problems to deal with.

“Dad,” Tianan’s voice sounded from behind. Shu Yang turned around and saw his son walking from his house, something Shu Yang had had built when he got married two years ago.

“I heard sister Xia is in labor?” Tianan asked.

“Yeah, I’m about to head over. I need to help Tianren stay calm. Even if it’s his fourth child, he’s still bound to get anxious,” Shu Yang said.

Tianan gave Shu Yang a strange look. “Well…I guess I’ll head over too, then.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Shu Yang said, “How are Jing and Hua doing? They’re both about to give birth soon too, right?”

“Shouldn’t be more than a few weeks,” Tianan nodded with a proud smile, “By then, I’ll have four children just like brother Ren. And from there, he can only dream of catching up.”

“Alright, it’s not a competition,” Shu Yang said. But inside, he was quite happy that at least two of his children had decided to settle down and start a family. Both Tianan and Tianren had grown to become very family-focused, both in taking on more responsibility in the business, and in having children of their own. If every child turned out like Tianhu and Tianyue, Shu Yang didn’t know what he would do.

But the current situation pleased him greatly. He didn’t really need every single one of his children to pass on the family bloodline. Since Tianren and Tianan seemed happy to do so, Shu Yang could let the others live their lives without as much pressure to start a family.

Of course, he would still advise them to do so if they grew too old without making any progress. It wasn’t because he needed the Bloodline Power, but simply because he thought they would be happier if they eventually found someone to settle down with. Shu Yang himself knew that nothing could really compare to seeing your own children grow up to become people of their own.

“Even if it’s not a competition, I’ll still win,” Tianan said with a smirk.

Shu Yang just rolled his eyes and ignored him. He knew Tianan just liked the idea of having many children, and he liked taking every opportunity to beat his older brother.

Tianan already had two children, both one year old now, Shu Xinming and Shu Xinqian, a boy and a girl. They weren’t twins, though; they were born to two different mothers.

Shu Yang had never guessed that his son would actually end up marrying two wives. He was initially against it, as he believed that stability was the most important in a family, and he didn’t need to be a genius to know that having more than a single wife would cause several problems.

But, in the end, Shu Yang had agreed. It wasn’t that uncommon for a powerful family to take several wives and concubines. And Tianan had actually behaved uncharacteristically mature about it. He hadn’t gone and first gotten the two girls pregnant, leaving Shu Yang no choice but to accept it. He had instead taken the two girls, Chu Jing and Ye Hua, to Shu Yang and Qianyue and told them he wanted to marry both of them.

Qianyue was just happy to have an extra daughter-in-law, thinking Tianan was quite capable, leaving Shu Yang in an awkward position to refuse. But even if his wife had been against it, Shu Yang still wouldn’t have forbidden his son from marrying them. Tianan was already 18 years old by then, and he could make his own decisions. Shu Yang didn’t want to restrict his children more than necessary once they had grown up. He could only offer his advice.

Shu Yang still had a bottom line, however, and that was that no concubines were allowed. Shu Yang didn’t want to have a grandchild who had to grow up with a mother who had a lower status than their siblings’ mothers.

But that was thankfully never Tianan’s intention, so he married them both as wives of equal status. If trouble were to come out of Tianan’s decision in the future, that was for his son to handle.

“Dad, I don’t know if I remembered to bring the Hallow Harlow into the bedroom,” Tianren rushed up to Shu Yang as he entered his son’s home, “Ma Rue won’t let me enter. What should I do?”

“Your mother is in there; she knows what’s needed better than you. Don’t worry,” Shu Yang said, “Take a seat and calm down.”

There really wasn’t much need to worry about Li Xia. The Shu family had long been wealthy enough to buy precious medicine to help with all sorts of complications that could come up during childbirth, and Shu Yang was obviously never stingy with those expenses.

“Dad, look! I got them all under control,” Tianyi said from the couch, a proud smile on her lips.

Shu Yang looked over to the little children next to her; they were Tianren’s three kids, Xinyang, Xinru, and Xinxiao. They were all sitting neatly and stiffly next to his daughter, not moving a muscle.

Shu Yang’s mouth twitched slightly. ‘Is Tianyi really that intimidating?’

“You need to keep watch over your kids in the future. If you let Tianyi run over them all the time, who knows how they will turn out?” Shu Yang advised his son.

“Right,” Tianren mumbled absentmindedly, taking a sip of whiskey that Tianan handed over.

Just as Shu Yang was about to take a seat, he felt a rush, stronger than ever before, running through his body.

‘What’s happening? Tianren’s child is so talented?’ Shu Yang thought, looking toward the bedroom in shock. Except for Xinyang, Tianren’s first child, no other children of the Xin generation had inherited any traits.

‘No, that’s not right.’

Shu Yang could feel that the child hadn’t been born yet, and there were no movements from the bedroom. He closed his eyes and focused on his connection to the Bloodline Tree.

‘It’s Tianhu!? How?’

Focusing on his connection to his second son, Shu Yang was shocked.

[ Name: Shu Tianhu ]

[ Stage: 2nd-grade martial warrior ]

[ Bloodline Power: 5.04 (Mortal - High) ]

[ Traits: - ]

‘His bloodline has advanced? And by so much? Just what has happened?’

Shu Yang should probably be happy that his son’s Bloodline Power had increased somehow, but he couldn’t help but worry. He didn’t think such a sudden advancement could come about without something extraordinary happening.

“I’m going out for a minute. I’ll be right back,” Shu Yang said, heading outside to clear his mind.

‘What could have caused this? Nothing I’ve heard or read about can explain such a huge increase in Bloodline Power from one moment to the next.’

‘I can feel that he is alive…But I can’t tell if he is doing well or not.’

Even if Shu Yang had gotten a lot better at communicating with Bloodline Tree over the past few years, there was still a limit.

Since he couldn’t tell if Tianhu was injured or in pain, Shu Yang worried something might be very wrong.

‘Did someone find something strange about Tianhu? A trace of the Bloodline Tree, perhaps? And they are now conducting some sort of experiments on him? He’s still only at the 2nd-grade stage; he’s really not strong enough to handle most enemies.’

‘Just where has he disappeared to?’

Shu Yang had been trying to find his son for quite some time now. Every time he went to Fugu City to look over the business there, he made the trip further north to visit the Sword School. But there were no signs of his son there. He had asked around, but everyone just assumed he had gone to the Black Beast Mountains.

Shu Yang had no choice but to let it go and come back at a later date and try again. But now, all his worries resurfaced once again.

‘If he were truly free to move about, he should have come home to visit at least once by now, right? Not to mention that if he returned to the Sword School, he should have gotten the news that I’m looking for him.’

‘So is he stuck somewhere in the Black Beast Mountains? There are all kinds of people there these days, after all.’

Shu Yang paced back and forth in his courtyard for a few minutes before coming to a decision.

‘I have to go there and look for him. I can’t sit still anymore and wait for him to come back on his own.’