Chapter 199
In the city of Linhai, prosperity continued to grow day by day. Simultaneously, the development of the Li family was thriving. After Li Su reached the Nascent Soul stage, the growth of the Li family’s descendants accelerated, and Li Su’s restrictions on the expansion of the Li family lessened.
With increased power, the dynamics changed. However, regardless of the expansion of the Li family, their family rules remained stringent. If the descendants engaged in activities that harmed society or contradicted the family’s principles, they faced severe penalties from the family enforcement team. Some of those descendants who were personally reprimanded by Li Su and confined to dark cells were eventually forgotten due to his numerous other responsibilities, and they spent their entire lives in isolation.
The mistakes made by these descendants were so significant that nobody dared to bring them to Li Su’s attention. After Li Su became a prominent figure in the Northern Realm as a Nascent Divinity, the influence of his descendants expanded rapidly. For example, the current Wuxian Province had fallen under the practical control of Li Su’s descendants, encompassing the territory of three secular nations.
Li Su of the present day was less concerned with these matters. His descendants had successfully controlled the three secular nations, and everything ran smoothly. As the saying goes, times change, and now the family has grown even larger in population. Talented and exceptional descendants continued to emerge, and Li Su’s power peaked in the Northern Realm.
As long as these descendants didn’t cause trouble and continued to accelerate the Li family’s development, everything should be fine. However, the condition was that these descendants should avoid getting into messes, requiring their old ancestor, Li Su, to intervene. Just because Li Su’s power had grown didn’t mean the family could behave recklessly. Allowing that would be like trying to force the growth of seedlings, which could damage the family’s reputation and integrity.
The extent to which a family could develop should be aligned with the abilities of everyone within the family. Rather than attempting to achieve everything at once, Li Su preferred to see the family develop steadily, step by step.
For example, at present, while Li Su held control over the immortal city of Linhai, he still primarily relied on the power of the Water Moon Sect. If Li Su’s descendants were to take over the management of the immortal city without considering Li Su’s concubines, it was clear that they might not yet possess the ability to handle such a large immortal city.
Moreover, the city was involved in trade with the Northern Sea clans, and Li Su’s most powerful descendants had not even reached the Golden Core stage. They lack the experience and expertise needed to manage the immortal city at this time effectively.
Unless Li Su himself were to oversee it personally, but if it required a significant amount of his attention, it might not be worth it. However, Li Su’s descendants with strong spiritual roots continue to increase, and among them, besides a few outstanding prodigies, others were gradually reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.
Indeed, the development of the entire family would accelerate as the younger generations grow and gain more power. Family development was also a matter of time. After all, Li Su was still less than 270 years old. In the first hundred years, he had only a few spiritual root descendants. With time and the emergence of more talented and capable descendants, the family’s progress could flourish.
In Li Su’s vision, his family would gradually become an immensely powerful cultivation clan and, perhaps one day, even surpass the enigmatic family of Sect Master Shangguan Xue. This, of course, required more time to allow the descendants to grow and flourish. It also required the birth of more spiritual root descendants.
As a result, Li Su soon took more concubines to accomplish this goal. This time, the concubine Li Su chose was still a female cultivator from the Water Moon Sect, which had no shortage of attractive female cultivators.
A year later, Li Su took another special concubine – a beautiful mermaid from the Mermaid clan who had reached the Nascent Soul stage and was originally the leader of one of the six tribes of the sea. She also wanted to have a child and had developed feelings for Li Su. Despite Li Su being the man of the Mermaid Queen, Bai Ling had no objections. So, this mermaid woman became another one of Li Su’s concubines. Of course, she spent most of her time in the newly established Mermaid territory.
As for Li Su’s previous concubines, they were also growing and developing within the family. Li Su’s first “immortal” concubine, Ning Xiaoyun, advanced to the later stages of the Foundation Establishment with Li Su’s assistance. This was truly a miracle for her, given her originally unfavorable spiritual roots, which made reaching the Foundation Establishment a distant dream.
At that time, even with Wuxian Province as a benchmark, the Foundation Establishment was an extremely challenging endeavor for her. But she was Li Su’s first ‘fairy,’ and Li Su was willing to spare no effort to help her. She was nearly 200 years old but still had several decades of life left. Li Su was confident that he could help her reach the Golden Elixir stage, and beyond that, it would depend on luck.
After Li Su’s advancements in alchemy cultivation, he successfully elevated most of his fairy disciples from the foundational stage to the Core Formation stage, considerably extending their lifespans compared to other Core Formation practitioners. Li Su remained confident in assisting them in advancing to the Golden Core stage. The difficulty was relative.
With his current alchemy expertise surpassing anyone in the entire Northern Realm, if he couldn’t achieve this, his alchemy cultivation would seem in vain. After some time, Li Su received an invitation from Grandpa Mo Qi to come to the Holy City of the Sea Clan as their guest.
Mo Qi explained, “Master, Mo Lin lacks some true dragon bloodline, and she’s a bit stubborn. She insists on completing her true dragon bloodline before agreeing to marriage. I can only go along with her.”
Li Su inquired, “What is she searching for?”
Mo Qi replied, “She’s on a quest to find atavistic dragon serpents, hunting them down to obtain their essence and refine a small amount of true dragon bloodline. If she collects enough, she can complete her bloodline.”
Li Su responded, “I see.”
Mo Qi invited Li Su mainly for this purpose.