Bloodline Tree – [Clan Building]

Shu Yang left his son to contemplate the news of his daughters’ talent.

He knew it would need to be processed for some time. Shu Yang himself had barely believed it when the twins were born. 

When Xinmo had been born without a Founding Bloodline, Shu Yang basically confirmed that Xiangshi didn’t have one either; she was just very close. And she had a very high talent for martial arts.

It had been hard to tell the difference on her way to the Grandmaster stage, as a Founding Bloodline wouldn’t have given her much of a boost before that. But now, she had been stuck at the peak of the Master stage for 8 years. The bottleneck to the Foundation stage was very hard to break through, especially without the help of any resources at that level. 

Either way, Shu Yang hadn’t held much hope for anything special when the twins were born. For his other grandchildren, the firstborn had basically been the one with the most talent. It at least seemed like there was a higher chance for the bloodline to be passed along more completely with the first child. 

But the unexpected can always happen, and it had happened to Tianhu’s daughters. They were both born with something called a Sword Bone. It manifested in the right forearm for both of them. Shu Yang had looked up that the bone affected in Xinjiang was called the radius, and the one in Xinxi was called the ulna. 

Shu Yang was incredibly glad that they had both gotten the trait, as he only receives half the feedback from his grandchildren. Thanks to both of them inheriting the trait, Shu Yang also received the feedback of the full Founding Trait. 

Shu Yang glanced down at his forearm. Just like Xinjiang, his radius bone was the one that had been nurtured into a Sword Bone through his bloodline. 

It was quite magical when it appeared. It barely required any time at all. Only a few seconds after the twins were born, Shu Yang could feel that the bone had developed to its full potential. 

His comprehension of the sword skyrocketed, and he grasped sword intent on the spot. Not quite to the level Tianhu had comprehended it at, but even that took him only two years.

That was also why he was a bit afraid of the twins coming into contact with swords too early. Shu Yang had wielded a sword for decades and listened to his son’s instructions for many years, so he had some accumulation that made taking the step into sword intent fairly easy. But even without that, he knew he would have been able to comprehend it on his own with the help of the Sword Bone eventually. 

From his own understanding, the twins should be able to comprehend it any day now, and that would make them a bit too dangerous for a pair of four-year-olds. 

‘Then again, maybe it’s fine. If they come into contact with it early, Tianhu can properly educate them to treat the power they wield with respect.’

‘I guess it will be up to Tianhu to decide.’

Shu Yang looked out over scattered buildings around him and once again felt awe at how far his family had come.

‘When we enter the public eye again, it will probably be impossible to hide that there is something special about our family.’

‘Especially once I advance. You’d have to be a fool not to realize there is something strange about my bloodline.’

‘But what can anyone do about it by that point? As long as the news is contained to the south of the Desolate Mountains, it should be fine.’

Shu Yang returned to his home and saw Qianyue taking a nap in the bedroom. He didn’t disturb her and went out on the porch. 

He had planned on advancing when he returned this time, but he had used his Bloodline Ability to take a look at Tianyi, so he needed to wait a few days for it to recover. He didn’t actually know if he needed it, but he felt it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, Tianzheng’s son had just been born, and he needed to be there for the celebration.

‘I hope I can advance without issue. If it fails, I’m really out of options.’

Shu Yang was fairly confident. He had a Founding Bloodline, after all, so the bottleneck shouldn’t be that much of an issue. He had also deducted the process from the Bloodline Tree, and he felt that he should be able to do it. 

Still, this was the Foundation stage, the Saint stage. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t nervous.

‘Since I need to wait a few days, I guess I’ll cultivate for now.’

He had already been a Grandmaster for over two years, and he couldn’t take a single step further with his body cultivation. 

Luckily, he had found a place with spiritual qi, so he wasn’t completely without progress.

Shu Yang sat down on the wooden planks that made up his porch and closed his eyes. He focused on the Bloodline Tree deep within his sea of consciousness and examined his bloodline out of habit.

[ Bloodline Power: 10.78 (Founding - Low) ]

[ Bloodline Ability: Piercing Gaze ]

[ Founding Traits: Sword Bone ]

[ Common Traits: Great body cultivation aptitude, Trash-grade spiritual roots, Sharp Mind, Lucky, Charming, Long-lived ]

‘Bloodline Power has increased by 0.01. I guess Xingu will contribute a bit more as he grows up.’

Still, Shu Yang thought it was incredibly slow. Ever since his bloodline increased in grade, it was very hard to increase it. Most of the progress over the past 8 years came from Tianhu’s children. His other grandchildren barely contributed anything at all. Their bloodline was just too low. Even as they grew up, not one of his other grandchildren had a value over 2.0. 

But they contributed a lot in other ways. A few mundane traits had advanced with their births. Shu Yang now had Lucky, Charming, and Long-lived as traits. While not very strong, they were above the ordinary, and they had the potential to advance in the future. 

They had also made it so that his Good talent had advanced to Great talent. Shu Yang had just renamed it in his mind after he found out that the outside world didn’t have the same names he had, so he had begun thinking about martial arts as body cultivation. 

But the thing that excited him the most about his grandchildren, no matter if they had traits or not, was the boost it gave to his spiritual roots. 

Everyone was born with spiritual roots; most were just so useless that they couldn’t even count as anything but a mundane trait. But they still gave feedback to Shu Yang, and while his spiritual roots had yet to advance, they weren’t far away. He could feel that they should be at least twice as effective as when Tianyi was born. 

‘Unfortunately, it seems that this place doesn’t have that much spiritual qi to make use of.’

Shu Yang thought so because he was still only at the first of nine stages of qi refining. And he didn’t start cultivating just two years ago when he reached the Grandmaster stage, he had started as soon as he got to this place eight years ago. 

It took him some time to figure out the Qing family’s cultivation manual and adapt it slightly to his own circumstances with the help of the Bloodline Tree, but it only took him a month or so to deduce it all the way to the 4th stage of qi refining. 

As for why he thought it was a problem with the environment and not his talent. That was because he could always track his children’s progress through the Bloodline Tree. So he knew that his daughter Tianyi had advanced to the 2nd stage of qi refining two years ago, with worse spiritual roots than he had.

‘It’s strange that they let Tianyi cultivate, though. She’s not talented enough to nurture, right? And why is she almost always leaned over papers and documents every time I look over?’

Shu Yang really didn’t know what to make of it. He, of course, preferred it to seeing her locked up in a dungeon, or something worse than that. But not knowing the situation over there still made him uneasy.

‘It’s no use thinking about it now. Just increase my strength so I can deal with any issues that crop up when I go to get her.’

Shu Yang stopped his wandering thoughts and focused on absorbing and refining the surrounding spiritual qi. 

It had been quite challenging to control spiritual qi when he first tried it, but fortunately, there seemed to be some overlap with innate qi, and it only took Shu Yang a few months before he stopped being held back by his poor control, and instead became held back by his spiritual roots’ poor refining abilities. 

With more grandchildren born over the years, his spiritual roots improved somewhat, though, and he was instead held back by the poor environment. 

Shu Yang really didn’t understand how Xiaorong had managed to advance so quickly in this place.

‘I guess she hunted plenty of beasts over the years as well, but still, her progress is amazing. Is it because of her Golden Bloodline? Is it that powerful?’

‘I wonder if she will continue to grow stronger at the same pace.’

‘Perhaps it’s impossible as long as she remains in this place. Her parents don’t seem to have advanced even after so long here.’

Either way, Shu Yang wouldn’t stay here forever either. His plan at the moment was to advance to the Foundation stage, cross the Desolate Mountains, and find his daughter.

But he wouldn’t be gone for long, hopefully. He just wanted to get some more information about the land of cultivators, and make sure his daughter was safe.

Then he would come back home again and make new plans. If it wasn’t too dangerous in the north, he might bring his family to settle over there instead.

Or perhaps settle some of his family here, and just bring Tianhu and his family over.

‘We’ll see. I know too little about the world to make any decisions right now.’

‘I just need to get Tianyi back, and I can think about the next step in peace.’