After lunch ended, Wu Shitao quietly excused herself from the dojo after cleaning up, letting Li Qing and Tianlei remain behind to continue training.
She stepped outside into the warm air of early afternoon, the soft hum of insects and the distant rustling of leaves keeping her company as she walked toward the barns behind the dojo.
These barns were sturdily built and well-maintained, nestled at the edge of the open plain. They housed the Li family's spiritual beasts—tamed animals carefully raised for meat and materials. Inside the attached warehouse, crates of processed meat, cured hides, horns, and other valuables were stored before being packed into storage rings and delivered to clients.
Wu Shitao moved with calm confidence. Her light-green robe barely fluttered as she walked, her steps quiet but sure. As she reached the warehouse door and pushed it open, the scent of dried grass, storage wood, and faint animal musk greeted her. Inside, everything was neatly arranged. She moved to one of the sealed crates, removed its lid, and took out a storage ring filled with goods.
As she examined its contents, her thoughts drifted back, thirty years ago, to when she first met Li Qing.
Back then, she was still a young woman, the eldest daughter of the Wu family, one of the three Foundation Establishment clans that had ruled Wanshu County for over a century. Her father, the current patriarch, had high hopes for her. With superior-grade Wind roots, a steady cultivation path, and access to abundant resources, she had already reached the upper stage of Qi Refining by the time she turned twenty-eight.
It was around that time that Li Qing arrived in Wanshu.
By then, he was already something of a local legend, known throughout Yunzhou State and even across the entire Jinghai Province by the nickname "Flowing Sword Immortal." Though not a true immortal, the title stuck due to his fluid swordsmanship, calm demeanor, and exceptional cultivation talent. During his travels, Li Qing had discovered a Level 2 spiritual pond in the unclaimed outskirts of Wanshu County and announced his intention to settle down and establish a cultivation family.
Out of courtesy, he visited the three major Foundation Establishment families in Wanshu county to pay his respects. When he came to the Wu household, she remembered watching him enter, modest in manner but with a presence that was impossible to ignore. He was polite without being overly formal, confident without a trace of arrogance.
Under normal circumstances, someone like her, despite her remarkable talent, would never have stood a chance of being considered a peer to someone like Li Qing, whose cultivation, reputation, and background were extraordinary. However, in a rare moment of parental cunning, her father began to push the two of them together. He sought out excuses to appear before Li Qing with his daughter by his side and even offered assistance and resources to help build what would later become the Li family compound. It was all an effort to forge a connection between them, and it worked.
Though both were aware that their relationship had been orchestrated, neither was repulsed by it. Wu Shitao, guided by her father, came to understand Li Qing's standing, not just in Wanshu county and Yunzhou state, but across the entire Jinghai Province. Meanwhile, Li Qing, whose goal was to found a lasting cultivation family, saw her as one of the few women in the region with superior spiritual roots. At the time, only two women in all of Wanshu possessed such talent: Wu Shitao and the leader of the Mu family, one of the other Foundation Establishment clans. If Li Qing wished to ensure the quality of his descendants, he had little choice but to consider his options carefully, and so he too made efforts to grow closer to her.
Two years later, they were married.
Since then, Wu Shitao had taken her place as matriarch of the Li family. She bore two children, Li Qianhu and Li Qianmei, both blessed with superior Water roots, both raised with love and firm expectations.
She smiled faintly as she closed the crate and turned around.
In the distance, Li Qianhu stood by the entrance of the warehouse, tall, composed, and striking in his dark-blue robe, which fluttered gently in the breeze. He looked like a younger version of his father, perhaps with sharper eyes and a more straightforward demeanor.
"I thought I'd find you here," he said with a small smile.
She nodded, gesturing toward the crates she had just finished sealing.
"I packed the supplies for Hongye City. You'll need to deliver them to our clients by the end of the week."
At her words, Qianhu stepped forward, opened the crates, and inspected the contents. He checked the items quickly but thoroughly, comparing them to what he already had in mind, then calmly closed the lids again.
After a brief pause, he looked at his mother and asked, "How was the trip to the Spirit Sword Sect?"
Wu Shitao waved a hand casually. "Same as always. With your father and you as the face of this family, there aren't many in Yunzhou bold, or foolish, enough to cause us trouble." Her tone was light, almost teasing, but there was a quiet pride behind her words.
Qianhu raised an eyebrow at the comparison. She had placed him on equal footing with his father. It was said that Li Qing reached Foundation Establishment at the age of twenty-three. On paper, Qianhu was less talented, already twenty-seven and still in the Qi Refining stage. But few knew he had chosen to remain in that realm for a reason. He could've broken through long ago. Wu Shitao was one of the few who knew the truth.
"Still… don't let that kind of thinking stick around too long. Power invites envy. Thinking you're untouchable only makes it easier for someone to catch you off guard." His voice was gentle, not lecturing, just a quiet reminder for her to stay grounded.
Wu Shitao laughed, not mockingly, but with warmth and affection. "You sound more like a cautious old man than my son," she said, and without warning, reached out and tousled his neatly combed hair.
Qianhu didn't even try to stop her.
Normally, not even Li Qing would dare do that. If anyone else had tried, Qianhu might have sworn a blood feud on the spot and meant every word. But his mother was different. To him, and every member of the Li family, including Tianlei, Wu Shitao wasn't just the matriarch. She was the heart of the household: calm, protective, unfailingly practical, and somehow still affectionate despite the cruel world they lived in.
He stood still and let her finish, closing his eyes briefly and letting the moment linger. After a few seconds, she pulled her hand back, smiling up at him.
"Don't worry about me, Qianhu. I'm still much stronger than you."
He scoffed lightly, but didn't argue. She was right, at least, for now.
...
A quiet week passed.
For Li Tianlei, it was the most satisfied he had felt since arriving in this world. Before he began cultivating, life inside the family compound had been safe, but unbearably dull. His father and grandparents were always busy, either training, cultivating, or handling family affairs. Though they made time for him occasionally, it was minimal. Most of his days were spent alone in the library, reading about the basic common sense of the cultivation world.
But the past seven days had been different. For once, he had purpose, structure. He had finally found a rhythm to his days.
From 10 PM to 6 AM, he cultivated in silence, letting spiritual Qi flow into him while his body rested. Upon waking, he trained for an hour on his own, cycling through the foundational movements his grandfather had taught him, before sitting down for breakfast.
By 8 AM, he was at the dojo.
There, he trained under the watchful gaze of Li Qing. His grandfather rarely spoke, but when he did, his corrections were sharp and precise, simple words forged through decades of tempered experience. Tianlei, always attentive, absorbed everything like a sponge. His body was still young and developing, but his movements were already gaining a smooth sharpness. The stone tablet helped as well, and though Li Qing didn't say much, it was clear he already saw Tianlei as a rare sword talent.
After morning training, the rest of the day was his.
At first, he spent his afternoons in the family library, combing through scrolls and books, hoping to trigger the stone tablet again as he had with the swordsmanship technique. He offered it every kind of knowledge he could find, but it remained still.
By the fifth day, he gave up on the library and turned his attention elsewhere. Instead, he began following his father, Li Qianhu, as he carried out his daily responsibilities. Now that Tianlei was officially a cultivator, he was eligible to help, especially as someone destined to shoulder greater responsibilities in the future.
The Li Family operated three main industries: a spiritual fish farm, a monster breeding program, and a small spiritual garden for growing rare fruits. Over the last two days, Tianlei assisted his father at the fish farm and the garden. His father even gave him a full tour of both sites, patiently answering every question along the way.
Tianlei found the experience surprisingly fulfilling. It wasn't glamorous cultivation or thrilling combat, but there was something grounding about watching how a clan truly functioned. These industries were the foundation of the family's stability, and that stability allowed cultivators like him to grow without worry.
Still, the most important discovery he made that week had nothing to do with business.
It was about the speed of his cultivation.
Through close observation, Tianlei noticed something crucial: for every 24 hours of cultivation, the glowing orb of Qi in his dantian grew by 1%. At eight hours a day, that meant it increased by 1% every three days. However, because he was cultivating beside a Level 2 spiritual pond, where the Qi density was three times that of the outside world, his absorption rate effectively tripled. That meant a 1% increase every day. Over seven days, that was 7% growth.
He compared this to what his father once said: it had taken him a full year and a half to break through to the Qi Refining realm.
At this pace, Tianlei would finish Body Refining in just three months.
They both possessed superior spiritual roots, so why was there such a drastic difference? He puzzled over it for a while, but only one explanation made any sense: the stone tablet.
He wasn't sure how it worked, or even if that theory was correct, but the results spoke for themselves. And in cultivation, results were everything. No one would complain about advancing faster than others.
So, he decided to stop questioning it. He would simply cultivate.
By the end of the week, the Qi orb in his dantian glowed more brightly than before, its surface smoother, its presence denser. He was making progress, fast progress.