Cultivation begins with separation.

Chapter 17 Seven Great Families
Xia County is the Xia County of the Immortal Kingdom and also the Xia County of the seven major families.

There are fifty-six spiritual veins within the territory of Xia County, which covers an area of over one million square kilometers. Among them, the Immortal Kingdom controls ten of them. Twenty-eight of the remaining forty-six spiritual veins belong to the seven major families, and the remaining spiritual veins belong to family alliances.

Among them, the Mu family controls nine spiritual veins.

It can be said that if it were not for the third-level spiritual vein of Sanyang Mountain, the number of spiritual veins controlled by the Yi family would be less than that of the Mu family.

These days, spiritual veins cannot be increased just by wanting to.

Under the laws of the Immortal Kingdom, even a Nascent Soul family cannot seize even a single spiritual vein by force.

The current spiritual veins cannot be seized by force, but they can be taken by tricks.

For example, if the owner of a spiritual vein is burdened with a large amount of debt and becomes a creditor, it is possible to obtain a spiritual vein legally and reasonably.

At this time, inside the Mu family hall.

Dozens of Mu family leaders were discussing the spiritual vein of Zijin Mountain.

“Patriarch, you said that if we hand over Purple Gold Mountain to outsiders, even if they are from a prominent family, they won’t be able to keep it, and they will be able to take the spiritual vein back in three to five years.

However, nearly seven years have passed now, and not only has the spiritual vein been taken back, but the land around Zijin Mountain has all been taken into the hands of Yi Dong.

The Purple Gold Mountain Spiritual Vein is one of the three second-level spiritual veins of our Mu family, and it is also an ancestral spiritual vein. If we lose it, we will be sorry to our ancestors."

An old man with white hair and beard was heartbroken.

“Third Elder, what do you mean? Since the head of the family took over the Mu family, in just a hundred years, our Yi family has increased from seven spiritual veins to ten, and now we have also obtained a place in the Taoist Academy.

Although there was a slight mistake in the matter of Purple Gold Mountain, the contribution of the Patriarch is obvious to all."

"The Third Elder is right. Other spiritual veins are fine, but the Purple Gold Mountain is our ancestral spiritual vein after all. Without the Purple Gold Mountain, can we still be called the Purple Qi Eastward Mu Family?"

"It's not that serious actually. It is said that some places in the Immortal Country advocate eugenics and good upbringing, and suggest that immortal cultivation families should not give birth to too many offspring. Even if they give birth to too many offspring, they should only cultivate those with good talents."

"Old Fifth, what do you mean? Although your son is the only one in the family with a natural spiritual root, don't forget that you only have a third spiritual root. According to what you said, you are not qualified to practice."

“Ridiculous, I mean in the future, I’m over a hundred years old, and I only have a few years left to live.

I'm not saying this to sound bad, but the Yi family that Yi Dong belongs to, they are a family of prominent family, but there are only six people in the family who have established their foundation. Has their Yi family declined?
Obviously not, they want to concentrate limited resources on better people.

I dare say that our Mu family has more than 20 people who have established the foundation, but after a few hundred years, the number of golden elixirs will definitely not be as many as that of the Yi family.

And there are countless aristocratic families like the Yi family in the county city."

"You are just being unreasonable. If you have the guts, you should contribute your share first. Now, the lost Purple Gold Mountain belongs to our three veins, and you are talking without any worries."

"The head of the family is not..."

The family elders were arguing with each other until their faces turned red.

"Okay, I'll take care of the matter of Zijin Mountain myself, so let's end this month's family meeting here.

Old Twelve, I will give you three sects an explanation about the matter at Zijin Mountain."

A middle-aged man with graying hair spoke.

This person is Mu Renxiong, the head of the Mu family.

Some elders wanted to say something, but under Mu Renxiong's gaze, they shut up and left.

"Old Five, stay for a while."

Only Mu Renxiong and the fifth elder Mu Shizhong were left in the hall.

"What do you think about the Purple Mountain incident?"

"What else can I say? Yi Dong doesn't take our Mu family seriously at all. He didn't even come to see us and just sent Yi Fu, the waiter, to deal with us."

Mu Renxiong's expression remained unchanged, obviously he had expected this.

After a long time, he sighed.
“This is Jin Xiu. Yi Dong, who is just a Qi Refiner, can ignore the noble families in Xia County.

This is why I would rather trade away Zijinshan in exchange for a spot."

Mu Shizhong said:
“In fact, it doesn’t cost that many spirit stones to buy a place.

Spiritual stones are easy to earn, but spiritual veins are priceless."

He was a little confused. Yi Dong just bought a few places from the Taoist temple.

"Stupid, how can the places we bought be comparable to our own?

Take Yi Fan from the Yi family, for example. He had just been admitted to a higher-level Taoist academy. Two years ago, he almost dropped out of the academy.

Why is that?
Because the positions for immortal officials are limited, aristocratic families do not want new immortal officials to appear in other families.

Yi Fan's quota was taken back by the family that held the quota. No matter how much the Yi family paid, they still couldn't get even a single quota, not even for their in-laws' families.

Even the Yi family encountered countless obstacles when they wanted to use their original quota to transfer Yi Fan to the Taoist Academy. On the surface, it was the county-level aristocratic families who stepped forward, but in fact, most of the efforts came from the state-level aristocratic families.

The reason for this is that Yi Fan performed well in the Taoist Academy and had a great chance of being admitted to a higher-level Taoist Academy. Just the possibility alone led to countless forces suppressing him.

Do you think that among those places that Yi Dong has traded, is it possible that there will be students who can be admitted to the higher-level Taoist academy?"

Uh?
Mu Shizhong’s son was a student at the intermediate Taoist academy and has now graduated.

According to his son Mu Tianci, if you perform normally in the Taoist temple, then the Taoist temple will be a relaxed learning environment for you.

If you perform well but do not have a family background that is at least prominent in the state, then you will find that intrigue is everywhere in the Taoist academy. If you are not careful, you may be ruined and lose the qualification to take the entrance exam to the next-level Taoist academy.

Many students who are admitted to the higher-level Taoist academies are from prominent families in the state. At that time, many children of prominent families in the state had been taught by modern cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining since childhood.

The second is connections. The Zhouwang family cannot manipulate the Taoist academy's examinations yet, but it is entirely possible to use their connections to eliminate students who may become opponents early.

The reason why Master Mu knew so much was because of the Yi family. There was a member of the Yi family with spiritual qualifications in Qingzhu College, named Yi Hao. This person had suffered countless things in Qingzhu College, many of which almost caused him to be expelled from the college. If it weren't for the fact that his place came from an old-fashioned teacher named Kong, who also had a certain background, other families would have used Yi Hao's place to make him expel from school long ago.

Now, many people in Pingyuan County call Yi Fan, Yi Hao and Yi Dong the Yi family's dragon, tiger and dog.

Yi Fan, who was admitted to the superior Taoist academy, is naturally a dragon. Yi Hao possesses an extremely rare spiritual body and has performed brilliantly in the Taoist academy, catching up with Yi Fan, so he can be considered a young tiger. As for Yi Dong, he is naturally the dog. Compared with his two outstanding brothers, he not only always ranked at the bottom of the Taoist academy, but also dropped out halfway.

Originally, Yidong's reputation would not spread beyond Xia County.

The main reason was that this man was addicted to lawsuits. Many Taoist temple teachers had been sued by him for trivial matters. Not to mention the county town, even in the state capital, there were many lawsuits involving him.

In some of these lawsuits, he sued others, and in many others, he was sued.

It is said that he specially arranged a group of Yi family disciples to study the laws of the fairyland all day long. Although those people could not become fairy officials of judgment, Yi Dong got a lot of auditor qualifications for the law review office and let those Yi family disciples record the review process time and time again and study it later.

In the eyes of outsiders, Yi Dong is a mad dog who wants to bite people at any time by using the law.

Later, it was reported that this person had taken a sum of money from the family and left the family. He had no shame at all and was notorious in Pingyuan County.

Thinking of these three people, Mu Shizhong couldn't help but feel fortunate.
“Although Yi Dong was born in the Yi family, he had a falling out with the Yi family in the county city a long time ago, and even his relationship with his half-brother Yi Hao was very sordid.

It is said that Yi Hao was a farmer under Yi Dong before. In order to get a place in the Taoist temple, Yi Hao signed countless unequal treaties.

You can imagine the relationship between these two people.”

Mu Renxiong frowned when he saw Mu Shizhong gloating over other people's misfortunes.

“Outsiders don’t know Yi Dong, but people in Xia County don’t know him?
Do you really think he is trash?
Many cultivators turned to ancient cultivation after graduating from the Taoist Academy, but Yi Dong has always been on the path of modern cultivation.

Not to mention anything else, he alone could build Purple Mountain College, a facility that absorbed millions of spirit stones for him.

Tianci, in his six years at the Taoist Academy, invited six classmates who graduated with him, but he couldn't even build a material processing line."

"Didn't Purple Mountain College close down?
It is said that their students have to go farming to make a living. Yi Dong has offended countless people. He won’t be able to stay alive for much longer.”

Mu Shizhong disagreed.

Mu Renxiong found it difficult to understand.
"Even if Purple Mountain College closes down, will it have a big impact on Yi Dong?

He did not pay back the spirit stones he had obtained.

Moreover, his knowledge and skills are still there. As long as he is willing to humble himself, there are countless noble families who would like to invite him to join.

Not to mention bowing his head, even if he agreed to lower the price or even sell the refined production line, he could earn a large sum of spirit stones.

He is tough because he has the confidence.”

Having said that, Mu Renxiong suddenly didn't want to talk anymore. He felt a little tired.

Honestly speaking, he didn't really care how talented Yi Dong was. It was impossible for Zijin Mountain to remain glorious forever. It would just be enough for it to outlast him.

But Yidong kept acquiring land, which aroused his vigilance.

The Immortal Kingdom is vast and rich in resources, and there are countless places in the country that are still deserted. A hundred years ago, an immortal official who had cultivated to the level of the Great Dao Golden Elixir said that even if the population grew rapidly for a million years, it would not be able to fill one percent of the Immortal Kingdom's land.

Therefore, ordinary land in the fairyland is worthless. Once a mortal reaches adulthood, he can be allocated a large piece of wasteland.

The land of the fairyland is infinite, but the spiritual veins are limited.

Yidong is currently acquiring ordinary farmland, but will he acquire spiritual veins in the future?

There are only so many spiritual veins in Xia County. How can Mu Renxiong not be worried?

Unfortunately, Mu Renxiong thought about forming a marriage alliance with Yi Dong, but Yi Dong obviously had no intention of finding a Taoist partner. When he sent people to practice, they couldn't even see Yi Dong. This person has been practicing in seclusion in Zijin Mountain for many years and is simply a practice maniac.

Mu Renxiong is already over 160 years old and has basically no hope of achieving the Golden Elixir because his foundation in building the foundation is too shallow. He needs more spiritual objects to steadily advance towards the Golden Elixir. Not to mention building the foundation with 100% success rate, even the various Golden Elixir materials with a success rate of 30% to 50% are not something that the Mu family can buy.

“Since Yidong cannot be won over, the only option is to suppress him.

I hope we can drive them out of Xia County in the coming time.”

After making up his mind, Mu Renxiong asked Mu Shizhong to contact people from the other six families.

(End of this chapter)