A whole 6 years passed by.
"Tianan, you brat," Shu Yang scolded and grabbed the 3-year-old boy and lifted him up by the collar of his shirt, "Your mother is pregnant. Run as much as you want in the yard, but if I catch you running wild in here again, I'll lock you inside your room for a week."
"I won't run! I won't run," Shu Tianan hurriedly said.
"Apologize to your mother," Shu Yang instructed.
"I'm sorry, Mom," Shu Tianan said with his head lowered.
"It's alright, sweetie. Just be careful. Listen to your father," Qianyue said dotingly as she caressed her big belly.
Shu Yang took a long glance and couldn't stop his imagination from running.
'Hopefully, this child will be born talented. I can't really bear to let Qianyue get pregnant again anytime soon.'
The child in Qianyue's belly would be their fifth child. Even if Qianyue never complained, Shu Yang was worried about her health.
Ren Ming's angry scolding didn't help either.
'Well. It will be good to take a break after this one. I should make sure to properly raise the kids I already have.'
'Even if I have this Bloodline Tree, I absolutely can't sacrifice the happiness of my wife and children just to grow stronger. Even if I could eventually live forever, doing so with a guilty conscience would just be torture.'
'Besides. My grandchildren will also give my bloodline feedback in the future, even if not as much as direct children will. But if I raise my children right, they can find a more talented partner in the future, giving birth to more talented descendants.'
"I'll help you, Mom," Tianren, who was now 6 years old, said, walking up to carry the pots and pans over to the dining table.
'Tianren is growing more and more sensible. I almost feel a little bad. Even if it's good to be helpful, it's not bad to play around once in a while, either.'
'Well, I can only control what I can control.'
The food was soon set up, and the family gathered together to eat.
"Where is your brother?" Shu Yang asked Tianren, not seeing his second son around.
"He should be out practicing," Tianren answered.
"Haah," Shu Yang sighed, "I'll go get him. You guys start."
"I will wait for you, Daddy," Tianyue, Shu Yang's fourth child and only daughter, said while looking at him with a smile.
"You're a good girl," Shu Yang patted his daughter on the head with a doting smile.
Walking outside to the courtyard, he spotted Shu Tianhu trying to master the Shu family martial arts, the low-grade martial art he had deduced from the Hurricane art.
'This kid.'
Shu Yang looked at his second son, slightly worried. He was only 5 years old, and it was a little too early for him to start practicing martial arts.
But Tianren grew up sensible, and he had a talent for martial arts, so Shu Yang started teaching him a few months ago. At that point, Shu Tianhu also wanted to learn. After thinking about it, Shu Yang thought it should be okay if he just taught them the movements, not involving qi and blood for now. Shu Tianhu had always been well-behaved, and he should be able to start practicing slowly.
The only worry was that Shu Tianhu was born without the talent of his elder brother.
In fact, none of his other children had inherited any talent for martial arts so far. At first, Shu Yang was really hung up on it, but as the children grew up, he gradually let it go. They are more than just the talent they are born with, and who knows what the future holds?
Wasn't Shu Yang himself born without any talent? But now he had the Bloodline Tree, and he would reach the peak of this world in the future.
Why wouldn't his children be able to stumble upon their own lucky opportunity?
Besides, his increased bloodline did have some effect on his children. They were all much healthier than other kids, and they seemed to mature a little earlier as well.
Especially his daughter, 2-year-old Tianyue. When she was born, Shu Yang felt that she was born more clever than his other children.
The bloodline feedback made Shu Yang a little more clearheaded, and he seemed to be able to remember things more easily now.
'Even without any children born with a special talent, my bloodline still grows stronger.'
Shu Yang let his son Shu Tianhu finish his movements and closed his eyes. In his mind, he could see the Bloodline Tree that had grown quite a bit in the past few years. It was still far from the majestic tree he hoped it would grow into. But the sapling had grown to a little over 2 feet tall.
Shu Yang noticed that it was growing a lot faster now that he had a few children.
Focusing his mind, some information appeared before him.
[ Bloodline power: 2.23 (Mortal - Low) ]
[ Traits: Slight martial arts talent, Clear mind ]
This was the result of the past 6 years of improving his connection to the Bloodline Tree. He now had a clear feeling of exactly how powerful his bloodline was and its traits.
The bloodline power of an ordinary person was 1. Su Yang wasn't sure how rare it was to have a bloodline power of 2.23, but it should be the best in the village, at least.
What kind of bloodline power did an Innate master pass on? Shu Yang had no idea, but it shouldn't be very hard to reach that level soon enough.
Of course, Shu Yang's goal was a lot higher than that. But it felt nice to have a small goal in the meantime.
What really made Shu Yang excited was that his bloodline had increased from 2.17 to 2.23 in the past two years. And he didn't have any new children in that time!
He knew some of it came from his own practice of martial arts, but about 0.02 points came from feedback from his children.
That meant that as long as his children grew stronger in the future, Shu Yang would continue to reap the benefits.
That was also one of the reasons he didn't discourage Shu Tianhu from practicing martial arts despite his lack of talent.
'Maybe there is even a way for him to awaken that talent that lies dormant in his bloodline in the future.'
Shu Yang watched his son finishing his practice and nodded in satisfaction.
"Father," Shu Tianhu noticed his father and greeted him with a stiff face.
Shu Yang couldn't help but smile awkwardly. He didn't understand why Tianhu always acted like a little adult. He didn't have the talent of Clear mind like his sister.
"It's good that you're taking it slow," Shu Yang said, patting his son on the shoulder, "The movements of our Shu martial art must become second nature to you, or it will be easy to get hurt. If you overdo it, you won't have a chance to embark on the journey of a martial artist in the future. You might even become a cripple and spend all day inside, having to have your brothers take care of you."
"I know, Father. I'll be careful," Shu Tianhu nodded seriously.
Shu Yang didn't want to scare the child. But he was so young, and he was too obsessed with martial arts. If he got impatient and got injured, Shu Yang would be devastated.
"It's good that you know," Shu yang said, "Food is ready. Don't keep the family waiting in the future. Practice when there is nothing to do. Your mother puts a lot of effort into feeding you; you should appreciate it."
"I…Sorry, I got carried away," Shu Tianhu said.
"It's okay. Help her clean up later," Shu Yang said.
"Yes."
Later at night, Shu Yang put his arm around the pregnant Ren Qianyue.
"I think we should hire some help for a while. You are too pregnant to work as much as you do," Shu Yang said.
"That's a waste of money," Qianyue said, "I can still do this much."
"It won't cost us much," Shu Yang said, "You know we aren't as poor as we look."
Shu Yang had followed his plan, living a frugal life, saving as much as he could. Last year, he finally saved enough money to buy back the land his father sold to the Liang family.
It was lucky that his father was conscious enough to only sell the land so that the next generation could buy it back for a slight increase in price.
This was a pretty common habit among farmers who owned a little land when they came upon hard times. Selling the land could bring in a lot of money, but not many were willing to sell the land that their ancestors had fought for.
Without land of their own, they were just working for someone else, and the future didn't look bright.
Having a guarantee to be able to buy back the land in better times was assuring for most people. But reality was harsh, and it was rare for anyone ever to be able to buy back the land they had sold.
This is how the Liang family had been able to accumulate so much land. When his father was young, there was a drought that brought a lot of families to their knees.
The Liang family took advantage of the situation and bought all the land they could get their hands on. And they now own a third of the land in the entire Baishu Village.
Fortunately, Shu Yang was different, and the Shu family now had 10 acres of land again.
"If we break our rules this time, it will be easy to break again and again," Qianyue said, looking at Shu Yang with a smile, "We'll never get further than this. But if we stick to frugality for a few more years, we should be able to buy a few more acres soon, right?"
"Well…Yes," Shu Yang admitted, "With the harvest this fall, we should be able to buy about 2 more acres at least, if people are willing to sell. But hiring a maid to help around the house for a few months won't change much."
"Forget it," Qianyue said with a smile, "Besides, I like being with you and the children and taking care of the house. Having a stranger around would just make me uncomfortable."
'I guess I can't argue against that.'
Shu Yang also enjoyed just being with his wife and children everyday, living in their own little universe.
"Okay, I'll listen to you. Just let me know if you get tired."