273: Chapter 273: Happy to build foundation.

Half a month later, the Chen Family officially reached a cooperation with the Xie Family.

For the Chen Family, this provided another sales channel for Yao Beast Materials.

As for the Xie Family, they boarded the Chen Family's boat.

There were more or less benefits for both families.

Of course, if the Xie Family wanted to board the Chen Family's boat, they naturally had to pay a certain price, such as spending five years teaching the Chen Family members how to refine Puppets. As for whether they would succeed or not, it entirely depended on the Comprehension Ability of the Chen Family members.

After these matters were settled, another three months passed.

On this day, someone in the Chen Family was preparing for Foundation Establishment again.

They were Chen Lingfeng, Chen Lingyan, and Chen Qitian.

All three of them exclusively possessed Three Spiritual Roots, and their probability of making a Breakthrough in Foundation Establishment was not low, plus they had the foundation establishment pill.

It was said that Xie Lingyun had already successfully broken through to Foundation Establishment, so Chen Lingyan was stimulated and also seized the time to prepare for Foundation Establishment.

During these three months, Chen Lingmu failed his Foundation Establishment Breakthrough and perished.

This was his second attempt at a Foundation Establishment Breakthrough. The first time he had a foundation establishment pill, even if he failed, he could still save his life. However, the second time, his contributions were not enough to exchange for a foundation establishment pill, and he couldn't afford Foundation Establishment spiritual items, so he started forcing a Foundation Establishment Breakthrough without any assistance.

But he was already sixty-seven years old, and the Qi and blood in his body were no longer what they used to be, so the result could be imagined.

However, because of his failure, some Chen Family members who still held lucky psychological thoughts stopped right there.

After all, the main and branch Family members of the Chen Family had already exceeded five hundred, and there were quite a few whose Cultivation reached the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining Perfection, but how many foundation establishment pills could the Chen Family have?

It was simply not enough to distribute, so some clan members wanted to imitate certain Geniuses and force a Foundation Establishment Breakthrough without taking a foundation establishment pill.

Fortunately, these thoughts also came to an end due to the death of Chen Lingmu.

As the eldest of the Ling generation, Chen Lingmu's Cultivation and reputation were far inferior to Chen Lingyang, who ranked second.

Originally, his Aptitude was not enough to exchange for a foundation establishment pill, but he shared many matters for the Chen Family during the most difficult days of the Chen Family, so back then, an Old Ancestor personally bestowed a foundation establishment pill upon him.

A month later, Chen Lingyan and the other two successfully broke through to Foundation Establishment one after another, and the Chen Family happily added three more Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

...

Li Family.

On the bed inside the room, Li Taixuan at this moment had a full head of white hair and a face full of wrinkles. He no longer possessed the high-spirited vigor of yesteryear, but was instead an aging old man who could die at any moment.

All around him stood the Family members of the Li Family.

Li Qingying looked at her own grandfather with heartache, grief filling her heart.

"Even though our Li Family is not as glorious as before, since we can board the boat of the Chen Family, we must not give up casually. Do you all understand?" Li Taixuan said weakly.

"Understood." Everyone replied in unison.

"Qingying, you are not young anymore either. When will you recruit a matrilocal grand-son-in-law to add new incense and fire to our Li Family?"

"And Qingshuang, you have also successfully broken through to Foundation Establishment, and you even possess the Ice Spiritual Root. In the future, you will also be an Old Ancestor in the Family. If there are any matters within the Family, you will need to help Qingying solve them together." Li Taixuan continued.

After speaking, his eyes gradually closed.

Li Qingshuang shed tears and nodded secretly.

Li Qingying had a calm expression with stubbornness in her eyes. As the current number one person of the Family, she could not shed tears casually.

Some children and women cried heartbreakingly. For a time, a heavy atmosphere permeated the entire room.

An hour later, the Li Family began to arrange Li Taixuan's funeral. Hearing the news, the Chen Family immediately sent people to visit.

As Chen Changqing's maternal grandfather, Li Taixuan's relationship with the two families was extraordinary. Since Chen Changqing was not around right now, they could only send others over.

A month later, someone in the Li Family tried Foundation Establishment again.

It was the twenty-seventh of the Qing generation of the Li Family, Li Qingyuan. He ranked third among the Ten Elites of the first session of the Qinghe Alliance.

If he successfully broke through, the Li Family would have six Foundation Establishment Cultivators again.

If he didn't succeed, it wouldn't be a big problem either.

Now that they were under the command of the Chen Family, they didn't need to worry about the outside world at all.

However, in recent years, another Family produced a Foundation Establishment Cultivator and successfully squeezed into the ranks of Foundation Establishment families—it was the Han Family. The person who achieved Foundation Establishment was Han Xingchong of the Xing generation of the Han Family.

Together with the Han Family, there were currently five Foundation Establishment families in Qinghe County: the Li, Liu, Zhou, Wang, and Han families.

Besides, there were also four Foundation Establishment Cultivators who were neither from the Chen Family nor from these five Foundation Establishment families.

They were Wei Ge, Lin Xu, Zhang Jue, and Hong Tao.

These four belonged to the Qinghe Alliance and held the status of external-surname Cultivators who were not part of the Chen Family.

Among the external-surname Cultivators who joined the Chen Family in earlier years, there were also several who broke through to Foundation Establishment, totaling four people.

These four were Zhang Xun, Qin Tian, Meng Ze, and Yang Xi.

Among them, Qin Tian's father was Qin Qi. Qin Qi had joined the Chen Family for decades, working diligently and conscientiously all these decades, deeply trusted by the Chen Family, and he had also married Chen Changyin of the Chang generation of the Chen Family.

Chen Changyin gave birth to three sons for him, among whom the eldest son Qin Tian took the surname Qin.

The other two were Chen Lingchen and Chen Lingru, but the Spiritual Root Aptitude of these two was not very good.

Fortunately, Chen Lingchen was good at Body Refining, so he still received a lot of cultivation from the Family.

Nowadays, not only had his Qi Refining reached the Qi Condensation 7th Layer, but even his Body Refining cultivation had reached the First-Rank High Grade. His strength alone was enough to go head-to-head with a Ninth Layer of Qi Refining Perfection Cultivator.

As for Meng Ze, he was an infant accidentally picked up by Chen Changhong when the latter went down the mountain in the early years of the Chen Family. Since then, he had been brought by his side and painstakingly cultivated. Fortunately, he had now successfully achieved Foundation Establishment, living up to Chen Changhong's expectations.

As for the name Meng Ze, when he was still an infant, this name was tattooed on his back.

The key was that Meng Ze was also naturally gifted since childhood. Not only did he possess Three Spiritual Roots, but he was also a talented Artifact Refiner.

Moreover, he became one of the Ten Elites of the first session, ranking fourth.

The other two were originally Loose Cultivators, but they were taken under the command of the Qinghe Alliance when they were very young, and they had once entered the school established by the Qinghe Alliance.

These two people also had very high Aptitude, and they had also made quite a few contributions, which was why they were able to obtain a foundation establishment pill and successfully achieve Foundation Establishment.

After all, when the Chen Family established the Qinghe Alliance, what they valued in the Cultivators under their command was not just Aptitude, but even more so, their loyalty.

No matter how good the Aptitude was, without loyalty, even if the Chen Family cultivated them, they would betray the Chen Family and become a Sharp Weapon to destroy the Chen Family.

However, for the current Qinghe County, theoretically they were no longer Loose Cultivators. Most Cultivators, as soon as they were born and reached six years of age, could test their Spiritual Roots and then go to school to study.

Until they reached fifteen years of age, they needed to work for the Qinghe Alliance.

Of course, even if they studied in the school, the resources they obtained were not much. If it were for a Qi Refining Family, before the 3rd Layer of Qi Refining, two Spirit Stones could be collected every month to Cultivate.

But they could only collect six Spirit Stones every year at the school to Cultivate. Their treatment was better than Loose Cultivators, but it wasn't much better.

After all, the Qinghe Alliance was not a philanthropist. These Cultivators could only officially become Cultivators of the Chen Family after being selected and tested by the Qinghe Alliance.

Otherwise, any random Cultivator could live in Qinghe County, and the children they gave birth to would want the Chen Family to be responsible—what were they thinking?