Longevity Clan Starts with the Patriarch's Marriage

“`

Before long, another five years had passed.

Under the fertility encouragement policy of Han Li, the number of Han Family’s descendants grew at a rate visible to the naked eye.

In these five years, Han Li had been as stable as an old dog, never wandering out; even when descendants with eighth-grade aptitude reached the age of eight, he simply had someone deliver a letter of recommendation and escort them to Tianxuan Mountain.

During his last return to Tianxuan Mountain, Han Li had already formed good relationships with his fellow disciples, and his descendants, with a letter of recommendation, only needed to go through the process to successfully enter Tianxuan Mountain.

They all had eighth-grade aptitude, so why not recruit them? Giving Han Li some face wasn’t a bad move either.

Of course, if any descendants who entered Tianxuan Mountain didn’t strive to progress and hadn’t reached the Innate Realm by the age of fifty, they would be expelled from Tianxuan Mountain.

This was to free up disciple slots, reduce the consumption of cultivation resources, and facilitate the recruitment of disciples with more potential, thereby maintaining the vitality of the sect.

This rule was not unique to Tianxuan Mountain; almost all sects had this requirement, with only the standards differing.

As an inner sect cultivator, Han Li was entitled to an allocation of resources every year. He had been accumulating this for eight years now but had never gone to claim them.

Not needing them at the moment and with his family descendants not in urgent need, Han Li stayed within his gates to avoid unnecessary troubles, cocooned in Han Mansion, busying himself with procreation.

Even though he didn’t wander, concubines still needed to be taken; otherwise, how could he bless his offspring?

In five years, he took in concubines only twice, two on one occasion and three on another, totaling five, averaging one a year.

Under his diligent efforts, he achieved considerable success, and the number of his descendants saw a surge.

In five years, it increased by eighty-nine, and now Han Li had a total of two hundred and forty-two descendants, including sixteen new ones with cultivation talent. That was only four more than the previous count, mostly born to Han Li’s concubines.

Han Li wasn’t surprised by this. The descendants in Lingjun City were mostly without cultivation talent, and the wives and concubines they married were largely the same. The occasional birth of one with cultivation talent was already fortunate.

Each time Han Li took in a concubine, he chose female cultivators who had both beauty and talent. Although his descendants found it difficult to marry female cultivators with talent, marrying beautiful women was easy, resulting in the descendants of the Han Family being quite attractive.

A rumor even spread in Lingjun City recently, claiming that in twenty years, if the Han Family continued to marry and take concubines at this rate and with such standards, the beauties of Lingjun City would all be taken by the Han Family.

Common folks took it as a joke, creating topics for casual conversation after meals, but the smaller families and powers within Lingjun City were quite troubled.

It might not be possible to marry off all the beauties in Lingjun City in twenty years, but what about fifty years, or even a hundred?

Then, these smaller families and powers might really struggle to find beautiful women for their descendants to marry, which was a troubling thought for them, yet they had no solution.

As Lingjun City’s number one family with the old ancestor of the Han Family at its helm, when the beautiful women were to marry, most of them chose Han Family’s descendants.

The descendants of the Han Family were attractive, and as the wealthiest family in Lingjun City, marrying into it meant a life of comfort and a certain status, even helping their natal families rise in society. Why wouldn’t they choose it?

Moreover, the Han Family had a good family tradition; domestic abuse was almost non-existent, and the status of wives and concubines was not low. This was Han Li’s requirement, to treat every woman who married into the Han Family kindly, since after all, his descendants would come from them.

The descendants of the Han Family treated their wives and concubines very well, doing their utmost to pamper them. They wanted to gain the family’s procreation rewards, which depended on their spouses. If their spouses were unwilling, they would not dare to force them.

In the back garden.

Han Li ate a grape fed to him by Qiu Yueyao, kissed her, and smiled, “This is really sweet~”

Qiu Yueyao immediately offered another and said sweetly, “If it’s sweet, then Husband should eat another.”

“In my mouth, the sweet one is Yueyao, not the grape,” Han Li said with a shake of his head and a smile.

Qiu Yueyao’s face instantly flushed with a blush, appearing pitiable and moving, making one unable to resist kissing her, and that’s exactly what Han Li did.

Over the years, Qiu Yueyao had been well protected by him, long forgetting the sorrow of her parents’ death and maintaining her previous innocence and flawlessness.

Not just her, but the other concubines as well; with ample resources and under Han Li’s guidance, their cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.

“`

Especially noteworthy was Qiu Yueyao, who with a Seventh Grade aptitude had only been married to Han Li for a mere seven years, yet her cultivation had already broken through from the ninth layer of the Rebirth Realm to the sixth layer of the Innate Realm, spanning nearly two Big Realms.

One reason was her excellent aptitude, the second was the massive supply of resources from Han Li: cultivation techniques, martial skills, medicinal pills, Spirit Stones, and so on. The third was the guidance from Han Li himself.

Han Li was, after all, a cultivator in the Gang Yuan Realm, and his cultivation had been painstakingly achieved, so naturally, he knew various cultivation experiences.

Indeed, Han Li was already a cultivator in the Gang Yuan Realm; it was just that no one else knew it yet.

The massive increase in the number of his descendants had boosted his lifespan by nearly two hundred years. Now his lifespan limit had been raised to nearly seven hundred years, nearly rivaling that of a Hollow Realm Master.

Sixteen descendants with cultivation talents, one of whom was a Seventh Grade descendant borne by Qiu Yueyao, and another an Eighth Grade aptitude descendant, had officially elevated Han Li’s aptitude to the Seventh Grade.

However, to progress to a Sixth Grade aptitude, Han Li still needed to efforts slowly. The effectiveness of his aptitude improvement was reduced to 4% for descendants with Eighth Grade aptitude, 2% for Ninth Grade, and still one-tenth for Seventh Grade aptitude descendants.

After the birth of the first Seventh Grade aptitude descendant, Han Li gained twenty years of cultivation and obtained the Profound Rank mid-grade cultivation technique, “Sacred Heart Scripture.”

When the number of descendants with aptitude broke through forty, Han Li gained twenty years of cultivation, one Seventh Grade Lifespan Extension Pill, and thirty years of alchemy experience.

There were other benefits such as eighty-nine years of cultivation, lifespan, a large collection of cultivation techniques and martial skills, a large number of Beauty Preserving Pills, and so on.

Along with the thirty-six years of cultivation he had previously accumulated, Han Li had a total of one hundred sixty-five years of cultivation. After using a hundred years to break through to the first level of the Gang Yuan Realm, he had sixty-five years of cultivation left unclaimed.

Once his aptitude reached the Seventh Grade, to cultivate to the peak of the nine layers of the Gang Yuan Realm would require more cultivation, at least one hundred and fifty years.

This might seem preposterous, but in reality, it was normal. A cultivator with a Seventh Grade aptitude would typically spend around one hundred and fifty years to reach the Gang Yuan Realm, and their lifespan limit would be four hundred years, giving them ample time to advance their cultivation.

The cultivation he had accrued was still insufficient, and Han Li was not keen on going out to fight and kill, as breaking through a few minor realms was of little use.

Currently, Han Li had switched his cultivation technique to the “Sacred Heart Scripture.” This Profound Rank mid-grade technique could be cultivated all the way to the peak of the nine layers of the Gang Yuan Realm.

Although Tianxuan Mountain possessed techniques for the Gang Yuan Realm and even higher realms, there was no reason for Han Li to obtain them.

The major sects imposed strict controls over the circulation of techniques, which were only provided for breakthroughs to the subsequent realms and reserved for those with aptitudes considered promising enough for higher realm advancements.

Previously, Han Li, with an Eighth Grade aptitude, had almost no chance of cultivating to the Gang Yuan Realm, so getting the subsequent techniques in advance was not permissible. They would only be provided if he managed to break through by chance.

The “Sacred Heart Scripture” had also become the best inheritance technique of the Han Family. There were over a hundred Yellow Rank Supreme Grade techniques, martial skills, secrets, and many more miscellaneous texts in the Han Mansion’s scripture library, all collected by Han Li. He would peruse them in his spare time to expand his knowledge.

He had also rewarded the hundreds of Beauty Preserving Pills he owned in a steady stream, a small portion to his newly accepted concubines and the majority to the wives and concubines of his descendants, leaving only about ten or twenty in his possession.

Besides cultivation, techniques, and lifespan, Han Li was most interested in those thirty years of alchemy experience.

This was the first time he had received such a reward.

The alchemy experience awarded by the System could be interpreted as alchemical cultivation proficiency, equivalent to thirty years of experience in learning alchemy, which could indeed save a great deal of Han Li’s time.

After all, the energy of a cultivator is limited; engaging in secondary professions such as alchemy and qi cultivation reduces the time available for primary cultivation.

Generally, only those unable to break through to higher realms would delve into alchemy and artifact refining—advancing one’s cultivation realm is of the utmost importance.

“Not bad, not bad at all.”

After absorbing the thirty years of alchemy experience, Han Li’s face showed pleasure.

He was now quite an experienced Alchemist, knowledgeable in many alchemy methods and having his unique understanding of alchemy. After examining a Pill Formula, he could refine it with just a bit of pondering.

If one had to assign him a level, Han Li could now be considered an Eight Grade Alchemist.

Alchemy and artifact refining were categorized into ten grades, from Tenth Grade to First Grade, where Tenth Grade entailed refining pills and weapons for the Innate Realm and below.

A Ninth Grade Alchemist could refine Innate Realm pills, while an Eighth Grade Alchemist could refine pills for the Pihai Realm. Similarly, a Seventh Grade Alchemist could produce Gang Yuan Realm Pills…