FVN Chapter 58 Contract Modification
Chapter 58 Contract Modification
After Zhao Yuanlang got up to take his leave, Huang Yuanji personally saw him off to the gate. After Zhao Yuanlang's figure disappeared, the smile on his face slowly faded.
Afterwards, Huang Yuanji summoned his second son, Huang Wenyuan, and asked him to prepare for the wedding banquet.
The weather in Qinghe County has changed.
Several days later, Huang Dehou emerged from seclusion after consolidating his cultivation.
The Huang family mansion was decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, and red silk was hung from the ancestral hall all the way to the main gate, making it even more extravagant than the previous welcoming banquet.
Following the previous welcoming banquet, the Huang family added another layer of excitement, and the whole city knew that the Huang family now had two members who had reached the Foundation Establishment stage, making them the number one cultivation family in Qinghe County.
Shen Qing also received an invitation, and the wording on the gold-embossed red invitation was more polite than the last one:
"On the ninth day of the tenth month, to celebrate the completion of my elder brother Dehou's foundation building, I respectfully invite Sect Master Shen of Qingyun Sect to grace my humble abode with his presence for a chat."
The invitation was signed Huang Yuanji. Shen Qing looked at it over and over several times, then put it on the table and continued his cross-legged meditation.
He neither refused nor said anything more.
With two members reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, the Huang family certainly had the capital to be arrogant, but that had nothing to do with him.
He has more important things to do.
The proportion of spiritual liquid in Shen Qing's dantian has reached 55%, which is quite a progress for him.
Since successfully introducing earth energy into his body for the first time, Shen Qing has spent his days burying himself in the soil on the back mountain and his nights returning to his quiet room to compress spiritual mist using the spiritual energy extracted by the system.
Over the course of a few days, he became increasingly adept at controlling the earth's energy.
Earth vein energy cannot directly increase cultivation level because its nature is too heavy compared to spiritual energy, unlike spiritual energy which can be directly absorbed and transformed by the dantian.
However, it has an effect that spiritual energy cannot match: tempering the body.
When the earth's energy enters the body, it's like the quenching of iron during forging. Every time the earth's energy circulates through the meridians for one cycle, the quality of the spiritual liquid becomes more solidified.
The spiritual liquid, which originally required repeated compression to stabilize its form, can now maintain its liquid state in the dantian after being tempered by the earth's energy, unlike before when some of it would dissipate and turn back into spiritual mist if the pressure was relaxed even slightly.
This is equivalent to reinforcing the inner wall of the dantian container. With the same volume, it can withstand greater pressure and naturally hold more spiritual liquid.
What surprised Shen Qing even more was another discovery.
That day, he was using earth energy to nourish his dantian when he remembered that the "Qi Condensation Technique" was essentially about suppressing one's cultivation level at any level by drawing in spiritual energy.
Its operating path has a unique feature: the flow of spiritual energy in the meridians is exactly the opposite of that of normal Qi cultivation methods.
Shen Qing suddenly had a strange idea: What would happen if he activated the Qi-gathering Technique at the same time as the earth's energy entered his body?
Shen Qing then tried it out. The earth energy rose from the soles of his feet, and the Qi Condensation Technique spread outward from his dantian. The two forces met head-on in his meridians.
Strangely, no rejection occurred. After a brief pause at the intersection of the meridians, the spiritual power carried by the Qi Concealing Technique actively enveloped the earth energy and guided it to the dantian.
In this attempt, Shen Qing successfully fused the earth energy and spiritual energy. The earth energy was enveloped by the spiritual energy and steadily integrated into his dantian without causing any rejection reaction.
This unexpected discovery greatly excited Shen Qing. After several days of continuous attempts, he finally succeeded in setting up a miniature version of the Spirit Field Gathering Array in the meridians around his dantian.
Shen Qing directly used his dantian as a spiritual field, using the binding power of the Qi Condensation Technique to confine the earth energy within the meridians surrounding his dantian, allowing it to slowly permeate from those tiny meridian branches, nourishing his dantian from the outside through a gentle, moisturizing process.
At the same time, the earth energy confined in the meridians will spontaneously attract the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth to converge in the dantian. Although the speed is not fast, the total amount of spiritual energy absorbed in a day is only about 40% of the spiritual energy extracted by the system.
But its advantage lies in its continuous supply, which is not limited by time.
This method allows him to have several more hours of effective cultivation time each day, instead of having to rely on the system to extract spiritual energy and forcibly compress the spiritual mist in the early morning as before.
Of course, this method also has side effects.
As the earth's energy flows through the meridians over a long period of time, it inevitably leaves some traces on the meridian walls.
Shen Qing could feel that his meridians were being eroded by the earth's energy, becoming more resilient than before, but they also carried the aura of the earth, causing his usual speed of circulating spiritual energy to slow down by a fraction.
He didn't know if this was good or bad, but he couldn't worry about that right now.
With this extra bit of wild spiritual energy, Shen Qing is now confident that he can reach the threshold of the twelfth level within a month.
But for Shen Qing, a month was still too long.
The Huang family's wedding banquet was very lively, even more extravagant than the welcoming banquet held for Huang Yuanji half a month ago.
The vermilion gate was wide open, and red silk stretched from the ancestral hall all the way to the alley entrance. A banquet was held in the courtyard from noon until late at night.
This time, Zhao Yuanlang didn't just send someone to deliver congratulatory gifts; he came in person.
When the sedan chair with its green curtains stopped in front of the Huang residence, all the guests in the courtyard fell silent for a moment.
Zhao Yuanlang got out of the sedan chair, and Huang Dehou personally greeted him at the door. The two exchanged a few pleasantries at the entrance.
"I have come to congratulate Patriarch Huang on his successful Foundation Establishment. In the past hundred years in Qinghe County, only the Qingyun Sect has achieved this feat. With two members from one family achieving Foundation Establishment, the Huang family is the first in the county to do so, aside from the Qingyun Sect a century ago."
Huang Dehou bowed in thanks and led Zhao Yuanlang toward the main hall.
Zhao Yuanlang took a few steps, then took out a brocade box from his sleeve and opened it.
Inside the box was a neatly folded contract. The paper had turned yellow and become brittle, and there were several cracks along the edges, but every word written on it was still clearly legible.
The list of Qingyun Mountain's boundaries, the amount of farmland under its jurisdiction, and the list of buildings at the mountain gate are stamped with the vermilion seal of the Qinghe County Government at the time, as well as the personal signature and handprint of the Qingyun Taoist.
"This is the red land deed for Qingyun Mountain."
Zhao Yuanlang took the contract out of the box and unfolded it in front of everyone. "Two hundred and sixteen years ago, Daoist Qingyun and the then magistrate of Qinghe County made this contract. Now that Qingyun Sect no longer has a Foundation Establishment cultivator in charge, according to the rules of the Heavenly God Sect, Qingyun Mountain should be taken over by the government."
"A few days ago, your father told this county that he wanted to take over Qingyun Mountain as the Huang family's lineage temple. This county agreed to this. Today, this county will transfer this contract to the Huang family, which can be considered as bringing this two-hundred-year-old matter to a close."
The courtyard erupted in commotion, followed by a chorus of congratulations.
Huang Dehou accepted the red contract with both hands, raised it high under everyone's gaze, so that everyone could see the clear vermilion seal on the yellowed contract, and then turned around and placed the red contract in the most conspicuous position in the main hall.
Upon seeing this, all the guests in the courtyard stood up and raised their glasses, their cries of congratulations almost lifting the roof off.
Amidst the commotion, Zhao Yuanlang raised his wine cup, toasting Huang Dehou and Huang Yuanji respectively. He then set down the cup, surveyed the guests in the courtyard, and announced loudly:
"Gentlemen, I have served in Qinghe for many years and have been fortunate to receive your care. Today, I am here to congratulate the Huang family and also to bid you farewell. I will soon be returning to the Heavenly God Sect to report on my duties. This journey will take at least three months and at most half a year. I will leave all matters in Qinghe to you."
The noise in the courtyard subsided for a moment. Huang Yuanji stood up, raised his glass, and said, "Your Excellency's journey will surely be successful, and your future bright. The people of Qinghe await Your Excellency's return."
Everyone at the table echoed this sentiment.
Zhao Yuanlang smiled and returned the greeting with a cup of wine, then shared a drink with Huang Yuanji before taking his leave with Xuanji.
As the sedan chair disappeared into the alleyway, the lively atmosphere in the courtyard returned.
Zhao Yuanlang sat in the sedan chair with his eyes closed, his fingers tapping lightly on his knees.