Chapter 148: Chapter 146: 2 Women Competing for a Husband (Subscription Requested)

The upgrading of the spirit vein is not something that can be accomplished overnight. The actual elevation of Haoyang Cave’s spirit vein from Tier Three Lower Grade to Tier Three Middle Grade happened a year after the Spirit Gathering Array was set up.

Once the spirit vein’s grade was elevated to Tier Three Middle Grade, the spiritual energy of Haoyang Cave was finally successfully channeled to a sand dune above ground, though it can hardly be called a sand dune anymore.

Because after the Water Demon flooded Haoyang Cave, the sand and dunes around it accumulated a large amount of moisture underground, allowing numerous desert plants to grow over a few years. The Zhou Family had arranged for mortals to plant trees and grass on the selected sand dune that would become a Spirit Mountain long before.

Therefore, this sand dune, no more than three hundred meters high, has now transformed into a lush mountain.

The transformation from sand dune to Spirit Mountain is not just a change in appearance. Once the spiritual energy is channeled from underground to aboveground, it means that in the future, the Zhou Family can develop extensive spirit fields on this new Spirit Mountain just like on Jade Spring Peak.

In fact, it was the potential acquisition of at least hundreds of acres of spirit fields due to the spirit vein’s upgrade that convinced Zhouyang and Zhou Minghan to finally decide on the spirit vein’s elevation.

The importance of spirit fields to a cultivation clan is unquestionable. The spirit rice produced in spirit fields is not only the food that clan cultivators must consume but can also be sold to exchange for spirit stones.

By comparing it with Jade Spring Peak, which also has a Tier Three Middle-Grade Spirit Vein, the annual output value of spirit rice from one acre of spirit field on Jade Spring Peak is roughly worth 15 to 20 spirit stones. Even after deducing various costs, the net income can reach more than 10 spirit stones.

If Haoyang Cave can develop a hundred acres of spirit fields, even if the output cannot match that of Jade Spring Peak’s spirit fields due to their new establishment, the investment would pay off in less than sixty years.

Thus, in the long term, this investment will definitely yield returns greater than the input.

The only regret Zhouyang feels is that the “Earth and Metal Spear Array,” which initially protected the Haoyang Cave spirit vein, was not fully retracted in time due to his rush to retreat. As a result, several array banners were destroyed by the Water Demon and can no longer be used.

Without the protection of a Tier Three Array, the security of such a Tier Three Spirit Mountain becomes a major concern.

Without a Tier Three Array for protection, the safety of the Spirit Mountain can only be ensured by assigning Foundation Establishment Cultivators to reside there permanently.

Zhouyang initially intended to reside there himself to protect the Spirit Mountain. However, Zhou Minghan strongly opposed the idea, arguing that as the clan leader, Zhouyang should stay at Jade Spring Peak, the ancestral land of the clan. Therefore, the task of protecting Haoyang Mountain fell to Zhou Xuan Yu.

Shortly after the completion of Haoyang Mountain, Zhou Xuan Hao successfully refined two batches of “Clear Spirit Powder” spirit pills with materials collected by the clan.

Although his body is injured and incapable of refining time-consuming Tier Three Spirit Pills, he has no trouble refining Tier Two Top-Grade Spirit Pills.

With the help of these two batches of “Clear Spirit Powder” spirit pills, in the following two years, Zhou Family saw Zhou Xuanchen, Zhou Xuanying, Zhou Xuanhe, Zhou Xuanjin, and Chen Ting, these five Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators, advance to the Ninth Layer of Qi Cultivation, becoming new elders of the Zhou Family.

Among them, after Zhou Xuanchen and three other Zhou Family cultivators broke through to the Ninth Layer of Qi Cultivation, they naturally became elders of the Zhou Family.

As for Chen Ting, the husband of the Fourth Elder Zhou Xuanyan, Zhouyang specially approved his status as an elder of the Zhou Family through a vote at the clan’s Elder Council. He is also the only elder among the ten Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation elders with an external surname.

Chen Ting is actually a bit younger than Zhou Xuanyan. He joined the Zhou Family through marriage in his forties and has been loyal for decades, so most of the Zhou Family cultivators have no objections to him becoming an elder despite having an external surname.

Moreover, Zhouyang intends to use Chen Ting as an example to attract outstanding cultivators from outside to join the Zhou Family, thus enhancing the clan’s strength.

He entertained such thoughts because recently, his foster mother Zhou Xuan Yu conveyed to him that it was time to find husbands for Zhou Yuanchun and Zhou Yuanzhen, two female cultivators of the “Yuan” generation in the Zhou Family.

Calculated carefully, Zhouyang is now already fifty-two years old. Zhou Yuanchun ranks sixth in the family, seven years older than him, while Zhou Yuanzhen, although younger, is also in her forties.

Both women are lower-grade spiritual root cultivators with no hope of Foundation Establishment in this life. The younger Zhou Yuanzhen currently has a cultivation of only the Fifth Layer of Qi Cultivation and has recently broken through.

According to an unwritten rule within the Zhou Family, even if the bloodline is very distant, the clan does not approve of cultivators of the same generation forming dao companionship.

Although this rule is not documented in the family rules, the elders have warned the younger generation of cultivators about it from a young age.

As Zhou Yuanchun and Zhou Yuanzhen grew older and gained more experience, the little admiration they once had for Zhouyang was long shattered by reality.

Therefore, upon reaching the age suitable for marriage, they are destined to seek husbands from external sources like the female elders Zhou Xuan Yu and Zhou Xuanyan.

Of course, the family rules of the Zhou Family do not state that female cultivators must marry to outsiders.

However, as female cultivators with not-so-great spiritual root talent, benefiting from various advantages provided by the clan since childhood, and the various thoughts implanted by elders in their upbringing, it is nearly impossible for them to remain unmarried and single after reaching the appropriate age for marriage among cultivators.

Being single also requires strength!

As a female cultivator born into a clan, enjoying various family privileges from a young age, unless you successfully establish your foundation and become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, you can’t truly remain single forever.

If you are still single past sixty and not a Foundation Establishment cultivator, other clan members will surely gossip!

Zhouyang naturally had no intention of forcing his two clan sisters into marriage, but as the Clan Leader, he had to consider the thoughts of the clan members, especially when Zhou Xuan Yu, their foster mother, personally sent him a message about this matter–he certainly had to take it seriously.

Fortunately, both Yuan Chun and Yuan Zhen did not reject the idea of recruiting a husband through marriage; they simply wanted to personally select the person themselves rather than accept a forced family arrangement.

Of course, Zhouyang wholeheartedly agreed with this. A forcibly twisted melon isn’t sweet; he certainly understood this truth.

To handle this matter well, after Chen Ting became a Zhou Family elder as a foreign relative cultivator, he specially had people spread the news about the Zhou Family recruiting husbands at the marketplace.

Clan-based Foundation Establishment cultivators recruiting husbands has always been a topic that loose cultivators love to discuss, because, for them, joining a cultivation clan through this method is the quickest way to achieve upward mobility.

No matter how other cultivation realms are, in the Boundless Sea of Sand cultivation realm, men outnumber women, with only one female cultivator among every five.

Therefore, in the Boundless Sea of Sand cultivation realm, for most loose cultivators and even clan cultivators, marrying a female cultivator is a status-enhancing event.

Although marrying into a cultivation clan means being the husband brought into the wife’s clan, the fact remains that the wife is a cultivator, which is appealing to many loose cultivators.

Not to mention, once married into a cultivation clan, a loose cultivator transforms into a clan cultivator, gaining guidance from the clan’s senior cultivators and conveniently leveraging the clan’s reputation when traveling outside.

With many eager to marry into cultivation clans, each clan naturally has many requirements for selecting husbands.

According to the conditions set by Zhouyang and the sisters Yuan Chun and Yuan Zhen, first, cultivators over the age of eighty were excluded, followed by those with lower-grade spiritual root talent. Finally, detailed requirements were made across various aspects such as character, appearance, and personality, setting up multiple hurdles.

Thus, the “Divine Inquiry Technique” proves to be a truly excellent magic.

Under the “Divine Inquiry Technique,” even if some loose cultivators pass the preliminary selections, their past entries into various “Fengyue Towers,” any instances of coercing other women, or any significant wicked deeds are easily discovered at the final stage.

Those with ill temper and poor character, no matter how good their spiritual root talent, cultivation level, or looks, cannot become husbands in the Zhou Family.

Therefore, after a year-long thorough selection process, Yuan Chun and Yuan Zhen finally chose husbands that satisfied them.

Yuan Chun’s chosen husband was Tan Qiu, fifty-four years old, Seventh-Layer Qi Cultivation, middle-grade spiritual root talent.

This person might not have the Primordial Yang Body anymore, but in his youth and ignorance, he was led by an old rogue to play at “Fengyue Tower” for a month. He became aware afterward and never entangled himself with another woman since.

Yuan Zhen’s chosen husband was named Huang Yi, forty-seven years old, Seventh-Layer Qi Cultivation, middle-grade spiritual root talent.

Compared with Yuan Chun’s husband Tan Qiu, Huang Yi not only retains the Primordial Yang Body but also surpasses in appearance.

In fact, both women fancied Huang Yi at the time, nearly causing a “two women fighting over a husband” farce.

Fortunately, Zhouyang directly asked Huang Yi’s opinion at the time, and Huang Yi, being practical, immediately chose the younger and more beautiful Yuan Zhen, which greatly angered Yuan Chun.

Interestingly, after learning that Yuan Chun was the great-granddaughter of the former old clan leader Zhou Minghan, Huang Yi’s face showed a hint of regret.

As a bystander, Zhouyang almost laughed out loud upon seeing this.

He quite understood Huang Yi’s feelings; as a man, when choosing a wife from two unfamiliar women, of course, one would choose the younger and prettier.

But as a man aiming to achieve upward mobility through marriage, naturally, it’s wiser to choose the more affluent and powerful woman as a wife!

Unfortunately, there’s no medicine for regret in this world. As a loose cultivator, Huang Yi certainly understands human relations and knows the Zhou Family won’t allow him to choose again.

Moreover, after offending Yuan Chun with his first choice, should he select Yuan Chun again, leaving aside whether Yuan Chun would still acknowledge him, even his currently betrothed wife Yuan Zhen might wish to skin him alive as a “faithless man.” How could he continue to thrive in the Zhou Family afterward?