Eternal Life by Dual Cultivation

Chapter 375 - 226: Liu Qianlan: Since You’re So Capable, Husband, How About...

’Since it’s only a matter of time before the Longevity Hall is absorbed into the Ling Family,’ Liu Qianlan mused, ’then maybe this is a good way to please Ling Changqing and secure the interests of my original sect’s faction?’

’After all, the guy is young and full of passion. As long as I satisfy him in *that* department, everything else should be easy to negotiate.’

"That’s no problem. We can discuss it later."

Ling Changqing nodded.

Ling Qiyue had mentioned to him before that he could seek out some Female Cultivators with outstanding looks and aptitude, take them as his partners, and use Dual Cultivation to accelerate their cultivation, thereby enhancing the family’s overall strength.

Compared to traditional methods of raising the younger generation, Ling Changqing’s ability was unique, and its speed and efficiency were far superior.

So, after learning that the cultivators of the Longevity Hall were predominantly women, Ling Qiyue had come up with this idea.

And Ling Changqing didn’t object. After all, it was for the greater good of the family, not because he himself coveted their beauty or lusted after their bodies.

’This is definitely the reason, and I won’t hear otherwise,’ he told himself with conviction.

Moreover, this approach had another benefit: in the future, the Ling Family would undoubtedly be under Ling Changqing’s control, and he would have near-absolute authority over it.

After all, the most powerful experts would be his Dao Companions. If, in the distant future, they bore him children, those children would inevitably become core members of the family when they grew up.

Thus, the Ling Family would become a power completely and utterly his own, one that no outsider could ever hope to meddle with.

Of course, it was still too early to be thinking about heirs. Although Ling Qiyue and the other women were all thinking about it, Ling Changqing himself was uncertain.

A Child of Destiny is born bearing the great fortune of the heavens and earth, but they also shoulder the karma of all living beings. Whether he could even have his own descendants in the future was hard to say for now.

"By the way, Husband, when do you plan for the Ling Family to continue its outward expansion?"

Liu Qianlan asked again.

Ling Changqing mused, "There’s no rush. As long as we don’t face an extreme situation like a foreign invasion, the Ling Family will focus on peaceful development for the next few decades."

There was no need to rush into outward expansion; Ling Changqing had plenty of patience right now.

No matter how the outside powers probed and infiltrated, Ling Changqing simply ignored them for now, silently adding them to his ledger. The day would come when he would make them pay it all back, with interest.

Liu Qianlan nodded silently. She now understood that the Ling Family’s foundation was far greater than the outside world imagined. Ling Changqing alone was a special existence that even Divinity Transformation Peak powers would covet.

If the powers of the Chixue Sea Region truly joined forces against the Ling Family, the consequences would be absolutely catastrophic. They might just end up becoming the next Cangyu Islands.

Liu Qianlan was now certain that in twenty years at most, the Ling Family would become a behemoth controlling two entire sea regions.

However, the powers on the Li Long Continent should also be aware of this. They would surely be unwilling to just sit and wait for their doom and would try every possible way to save themselves.

For example, colluding with a Nascent Soul power from outside the region to offset the pressure from the Feiyu Sea Region?

No one was a fool. When the time came, it would all come down to who was stronger and whose schemes were more brilliant.

"The Patriarch... She isn’t far from the Nascent Soul True Monarch Realm, is she?"

Liu Qianlan asked nervously after a moment of hesitation.

Normally, it would not have been her place to ask such a question, but now that their relationship was different, there was no need for such reservations.

Ling Changqing nodded frankly. "That’s right. The Ling Family’s first Nascent Soul True Monarch will most likely be her."

’It’s not ’most likely,’ it’s ’definitely,’’ he thought, though of course, he wouldn’t say it so definitively out loud.

"Then, Husband, you..."

Liu Qianlan’s lustrous, beautiful eyes suddenly lit up, but she trailed off, hesitant to continue.

How could Ling Changqing not know what was on her mind? He smiled faintly.

"You’re already at Late Stage Golden Core Cultivation. If you cultivate with me for three to five years, you should be able to touch the threshold of the Nascent Soul True Monarch Realm, right?"

"That would be wonderful!"

Liu Qianlan exclaimed in delight, her beautiful, fair face blushing like a sunset cloud, making her look exceptionally charming and alluring.

Although her potential wasn’t yet exhausted, reaching the Golden Core Peak in her lifetime was the best she could hope for. The chance of stepping into the Nascent Soul True Monarch Realm wasn’t as great as one might think.

They say every Golden Core Master is a Nascent Soul Seed, but in reality, it wasn’t that simple. It also depended on the abundance of resources, as well as one’s personal opportunities and fate.

If one encountered a calamity mid-journey that caused their cultivation to regress, or even resulted in severe injury and death, then all hope would be lost.

In the Cultivation Realm, if one or two out of every ten Golden Core Cultivators could ultimately advance to become a Nascent Soul True Monarch, that was already considered a good ratio. True Pill Cultivators also had a certain chance, but those with a Pseudo Core could basically forget about it.

But now, with a Dao Companion like Ling Changqing, Liu Qianlan felt she had nothing to worry about.

"Right, tell me about the surrounding sea regions. Which ones have a Nascent Soul True Monarch presiding over them?"

Ling Changqing added.

"Well... you could count them on one hand!"

Liu Qianlan said. Of the thirty to forty surrounding sea regions, the major powers were mostly led by Core Formation Cultivators, while the minor ones only had Foundation Establishment Cultivators. Nascent Soul True Monarchs were exceedingly rare.

Even when a genius occasionally appeared and overcame countless tribulations to achieve a Nascent Soul True Monarch Dao Fruit, they never seemed to live for very long. They would always perish midway due to some accident or another, or they would leave their power and vanish without a trace.

Needless to say, this was most likely the secret work of the surrounding powers.

After a moment’s thought, Liu Qianlan took out a palm-sized, white jade gourd. She injected a small amount of Magical Power into it, and a burst of golden light erupted, forming a massive Magical Projection Light Mirror.

The mirror displayed a scene of the offshore regions of the Yuzhou Continent. The Feiyu Sea Region was prominently featured, located on the side closer to the vast ocean.

Between the Feiyu Sea Region and the Yuzhou Continent were several other sea regions of varying sizes, and there were many more in the other two directions as well.

Relatively speaking, the Yuzhou Continent’s coastline wasn’t particularly long, so the number of sea regions considered within its traditional sphere of influence was less than fifty.

In contrast, the neighboring continents of Yaozhou and Shunzhou had much longer coastlines, each with over a hundred affiliated sea regions in their offshore areas.

"...Husband, among all the sea regions in Yuzhou’s offshore area, less than thirty percent have a Nascent Soul True Monarch presiding over them, and most of those are only at the Early Stage Nascent Soul."

Liu Qianlan said softly, "It’s very likely they all have a greater power backing them, such as certain Nascent Soul powers from the coastal areas of Yuzhou."

Ling Changqing nodded slightly. For thousands of years, these sea regions had remained fragmented and disorganized, never once having been unified.

"Husband, in my opinion, the Ling Family should only consider the possibility of annexing the Chixue Sea Region after we have at least three Nascent Soul True Monarchs."

Liu Qianlan said with a solemn expression, her beautiful eyes fixed on Ling Changqing.

"I understand. I definitely won’t be rash."

Ling Changqing said gently.

This peerlessly beautiful woman was not being an alarmist; countless bloody events in history had proven her point.

In these offshore regions, a single power could control the territory of one sea region at most. That was the limit.

If a power dared to expand further, it would inevitably face malicious suppression, or even obliteration, from the Nascent Soul powers along the coast.

According to Xue Qingtan, after the Ling Family took control of the Feiyu Sea Region, they were already placed on the watchlist of the Nascent Soul powers in Yuzhou’s coastal areas.

In the future, if the Ling Family actually dared to annex the Chixue Sea Region, even just a part of it, it could provoke their forceful intervention.

Not allowing any excessively powerful faction to emerge in Yuzhou’s offshore region—and as for unification, one couldn’t even dream of it. This was the tacit, unwritten rule among the Nascent Soul powers along the Yuzhou coast.

If the Ling Family wanted to avoid this fate, their only option was to increase their own tangible strength as much as possible so they would have nothing to fear from any plots or schemes.