From the family treasure tree to build an eternal family

Chapter 118 Getting into trouble
"Second sister, buy me a golden bell."

Lu Xuanting pointed to a bustling gold jewelry shop next door.

Jiang Lin followed behind Lü Xuanting, like her personal maid.

"Fourth Sister, your expenses for this trip have already exceeded the limit. We don't have any extra money for you to buy."

"Huh? I didn't buy anything. I don't care, you buy it for me, or I won't go home."

Lu Xuanting was arrogant and unreasonable.

She is the daughter of County Magistrate Jiang Hao and Lü Jinlan, and her great-grandfather was County Magistrate Lü Yisong.

Jiang Hao and Lü Jinlan's second daughter, Jiang Lin, did not have the spiritual root for cultivating immortality, so her status in the Lü family plummeted.

The Lü Family Manor has a rule that if a member of the Lü family does not have a spiritual root, he or she cannot live in the Lü Family Manor after reaching adulthood, so as not to waste the limited spiritual vein space within the Lü Family Manor.

Ordinary members of the Lü family, after reaching adulthood, can only farm at the foot of Cangwu Mountain or manage other family businesses.

The Lü family is a family of Qi Refining cultivators, but the family resources are not abundant, and there are no extra resources to waste on ordinary family members.

Ordinary clansmen generally held a low status, while those with spiritual roots held a very high status.

For example, Lü Xuanting.

After Jiang Lin, Jiang Hao and Lü Jinlan had a son named Lü Xuanzheng, who was also an ordinary person without spiritual roots.

The Lü family had high hopes for the two, but they couldn't produce a single offspring with spiritual roots.

A few years later, Jiang Hao decided to try again with Lü Jinlan, because according to his agreement with the Lü family, after his third son Lü Xuanzheng, any children born would take his surname, Jiang.

The couple was very lucky this time, and finally had children with spiritual roots, and they were twins, a boy and a girl.

One took the surname Lü, and the other took the surname Jiang Hao.

The boy's name is Jiang Chen, and the girl's name is Lü Xuanting. Both of them have mixed spiritual roots of four elements.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Nine-year-old Lü Xuanting started cultivating immortality two years ago. She was too young to understand the meaning of cultivating immortality, and was only practicing cultivation techniques under the strong discipline of her elders.

Her daily life was too boring, so she had to beg her great-grandfather for a long time before he allowed her to come out and visit the fair.

Her second sister, Jiang Lin, followed and took care of her.

The two are sisters, but one has the surname Lü and the other has the surname Jiang.

One has spiritual roots, the other does not.

In the Lü family, Jiang Lin had a very low status and was often ordered around.

Following suit, Lü Xuanting also adopted a similar attitude towards Jiang Lin: "Second sister, hurry up!"

She was shouting.

"Ugh."

Jiang Lin sighed and had no choice but to take out the little money she had painstakingly saved to buy Lü Xuanting a golden bell. As for whether she could get the money back from the Lü family, who were in charge of expenses, she wasn't sure.

She didn't receive much from the Lü family.

She bought the golden bell and wore it on Lü Xuanting's wrist.

Lu Xuanting shook the jingling bells, beaming with joy: "Fun, hee hee."

"Fourth Sister, it's time to go back. We've been out long enough this time."

"No, no, I'm not going back. I've finally managed to get out of town, I'll stay and have some more fun."

"..."

The two strolled around until the afternoon, only leaving after the gathering ended.

On their way back to Cangwu Mountain from the county town, the two had an accident.

The audacious Li Mang was unaware of Lü Xuanting's identity; he only knew that the demonic cultivators were looking for a girl with spiritual roots, and that there would be a great reward if one could be found.

So Li Mang set his sights on Lü Xuanting, who was swaggering around outside, displaying her spiritual aura.

He hijacked the carriage carrying the two back to Cangwu Mountain, killed the coachman and Jiang Lin, knocked Lü Xuanting unconscious, stuffed her into a sack, and tied her up.

In fact, even if he knew Lü Xuanting's identity, there was a high probability that he would still take the risk.

He has committed too many evil deeds over the years; once caught, he will surely die. It doesn't matter to him who he kidnaps, as long as they bring him benefits.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Nighttime, a dilapidated temple.

Li Mang, carrying a sack, arrived quietly using his lightness technique.

Fifteen years ago, he was at the third level of Qi Refining, but after all these years, he is only at the fourth level.

His aptitude for the five elemental spiritual roots was too poor. Even when he worked under a demonic cultivator, he couldn't earn much spirit stone resources. He finally managed to reach the fourth level of Qi Refining.

It can't be considered bad, after all, the fourth level of Qi Refining is the middle stage of Qi Refining, and its strength is much stronger than the third level of Qi Refining.

Moreover, he is currently in his prime, so breaking through to the fifth level of Qi Refining is a natural progression, and there is hope for reaching the sixth level of Qi Refining, or even the seventh level.

"grown ups."

At the entrance of the dilapidated temple, Li Mang put down the sack.

The temple gate opened silently, and Zhao Shuai came out, tossing Li Mang a spirit crystal before reaching for the sack containing Lü Xuanting.

"Sir, this shipment is different."

Li Mang said with a fawning smile.

Different?
Zhao Shuai opened the sack and placed his hand on Lü Xuanting's wrist. He was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, and his consciousness could attach to spiritual energy to check on others.

"Four elemental roots?"

He couldn't help but be surprised; it was very rare to find a cultivator of such a young age with four elemental roots who had already opened up his dantian and qi sea.

"Where... never mind, here you go."

He wanted to ask Li Mang where he had captured the girl, but then he thought that the girl's background was none of his business. After avenging his master, he would leave Tonggu County forever and never return.

As he spoke, he took out five spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them to Li Mang.

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!"

Li Mang accepted the five spirit stones, overjoyed. Five spirit stones were a lot for him; when he was a rogue cultivator, he had to be careful with every spirit crystal, and every spirit stone was precious.

He respectfully took his leave and stepped back.

By chance, they ran into Wang Nian again, who was also carrying a sack.

Li Mang waited in the distance for Wang Nian to hand over the "goods" to Zhao Shuai, and chatted with him: "Why are you using this trick now? You used to rely on your smooth talk."

His methods differed from Wang Nian's, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

"Heh, this shipment is something else."

Wang Nian smiled mysteriously.

He knew that in addition to three-year-old children, demonic cultivators also needed girls around ten years old.

He wanted to take revenge on the Xu family and found out that Xu Xiaogou's family had a nine-year-old daughter, who was the only girl among the Xu family's offspring: Xu Zhongxi.

He has been secretly keeping an eye on Xu Xiaogou's family for the past few days.

Today, he had been watching Xu Zhongxi and Xu Xiaohou from afar for a long time, thinking that there was no chance. But then things took an unexpected turn: Xu Xiaohou, the enemy who killed his brother, was lured away by Li Mang, giving him a chance.

The girl he just gave to Zhao Shuai was Xu Zhongxi!
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Xu Xiaohou was unaware of the enormous disaster he had caused through a moment of carelessness.

His cultivation was inferior to Li Mang's, and he was worried about being discovered by Li Mang. He almost lost track of Li Mang when Li Mang used his lightness technique. Finally, he managed to find the dilapidated temple where Zhao Shuai was hiding.

Under the cover of night, shadowy figures could be seen moving about in the dilapidated temple.

"Is that where the demonic cultivators are hiding?"

"I don't know why they kidnapped the girls."

Xu Xiaohou secretly observed from a distance for a while, but did not notice anything unusual. He then turned around and went to the Demon Subduing Division to report the information.

"Finding the demonic cultivator's hiding place, that's quite an achievement, isn't it?"

He never considered personally capturing the demonic cultivator; he was well aware of his own limitations.

(End of this chapter)