TBIP: Chapter 24 Part 1

The Zhou family, Ye Hantian…

The moment he heard these words again, Lou Xingyao felt a sense of strangeness as if he was from a different world.

Wen Hanshan had always been diligent when it came to cultivating. In a simple sentence, as long as he wasn’t dead, he would cultivate to death. Lou Xingyao would have to follow him in the same grueling training.

In the past three years, in addition to growing spiritual rice, the thing Lou Xingyao had done the most was meditate and cultivate. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to break through to the fifth level of qi condensation in just three years.

Later, he became even more tense when he entered the Endless Forest and couldn’t relax for a moment.

In such a situation, how could he have the time and energy to think about the Zhou family and Ye Hantian, who were very far away from his life?

Before hearing the name Ye Hantian at this moment, Lou Xingyao almost forgot the fact that he hadn’t simply transmigrated, but transmigrated into a novel.

But it was the gossip of others that evoked some memories of the original novel in Lou Xingyao’s mind.

At this point in time, it had indeed reached the start of the original novel. Ye Hantian obtained the spirit cleansing plant in the Endless Forest, cleansed away the fire spirit root in his body, and achieved a single metal spiritual root.

Regarding the spirit cleansing plant, Lou Xingyao had thought of its existence as early as three years ago when Wen Hanshan set the destination as Xilin County.

However, Lou Xingyao didn’t have the idea of obtaining it.

For one thing, it was the established fate of the male protagonist in the original novel. He might’ve extremely disliked Ye Hantian when he read the novel, but he didn’t want to compete with the male protagonist.

The second was that the spirit cleansing plant was useless to him.

His dual spiritual roots of wood and fire might be inferior to a single spiritual root, but it was a perfect fit for him.

This was especially the case when he wanted to become an alchemist.

Alchemists couldn’t succeed without the dual spiritual roots of wood and fire. The fire spiritual root could better control the changes in flames during alchemy, and the wood spiritual root could better feel the state of the spiritual plant and sort out the wood energy in it.

The two complemented each other and were indispensable.

No matter which spiritual root in his body was cleansed, this spirit cleansing plant would do more harm than good.

The most important thing was that the cultivation speed of his dual spiritual roots was no worse than a single spiritual root.

Lou Xingyao had read the original novel and knew that this was inseparable from the purity of the spiritual root.

The Tianming Continent was just a small world. Due to the great disaster of heaven and earth 100,000 years ago, it wasn’t very complete when it came to the inheritance of the laws of Dao.

Therefore, the judgment of talent could only be determined simply by testing the number of spiritual roots.

However, in the middle and large worlds, the purity of the spiritual roots was more important than the number of spiritual roots.

The middle world and big world usually divided the purity of the spiritual root into percentages of ten. One was the lowest, and ten was the highest. The higher the purity of the spiritual root, the faster the cultivation speed.

This meant that cultivators who reached more than 80% purity were also called a heavenly spiritual root.

If all the spiritual roots in the body of a multi-spiritual root cultivator reached over 80%, they could be called a heavenly spiritual root cultivator.

In terms of cultivation speed, this type of cultivator wasn’t slower than a single spiritual root cultivator with a low spiritual root purity.

If the purity of a single spiritual root reached 70%, the cultivator could be regarded as a one-in-a-thousand genius. How could it be so easy for all multiple spiritual roots to be heavenly spiritual roots?

Therefore, when cultivators with multi spiritual roots were compared to those with single spiritual roots, their talents were often inferior.

The Tianming Continent’s method of judging the strength of a cultivator’s talent based on the number of spiritual roots might be simpler, but the accuracy could still reach 90%.

Lou Xingyao didn’t know what the purity of his spiritual roots was, but he had a rough guess in his heart judging from his cultivation speed.

Even if it didn’t reach the 80% purity required for a heavenly spiritual root, it shouldn’t be less than 70%.

Under the overlapping of various factors, the spirit cleansing plant was useless for him.

As for Wen Hanshan, he was originally a single spiritual root cultivator. It could be seen from the plot later in the novel that his spiritual root purity had reached 90%. The spirit cleansing plant was even more useless to him

So when he thought about the plot of the spirit cleansing plant, Lou Xingyao only sighed in his heart that the protagonist was worthy of being the author’s own son.

The third and most important reason was that this plot was very vague in the description of the original novel.

Yes, vague.

It stood to reason that such a great opportunity and turning point as obtaining the spirit cleansing plant to achieve a single spiritual root should be a cool point in the plot no matter what novel it was placed in, and it was worth writing about.

However, The Dao and Heaven are Equal did the opposite. It didn’t write about the process of Ye Hantian obtaining the spirit cleansing plant, and even the time and place were very vague.

It was only when the dust was fully settled that there was a brief mention that the spirit cleansing plant was found in the Endless Forest.

Most readers were confused about this way of writing, but throughout the whole novel, there had been more than a few places where such detailed arrangements weren’t written.

Over time, readers had become accustomed to this and blamed it on the inherent style of The Dao and Heaven are Equal. They no longer delved into it.

Due to this, Lou Xingyao didn’t know anything about the specific information of the spirit cleansing plant.

He couldn’t obtain it even if he wanted to.

What surprised him more than the spirit cleansing plant was that Ye Hantian was related to the Zhou family. This also wasn’t mentioned in the original novel.

After thinking for a while, Lou Xingyao could only blame the reason for the author’s inappropriately detailed and unique writing style.

Inside the camp, the gossip of the passersby continued.

“Ye Hantian? Isn’t he from the Zhou family? How come he has the surname Ye?”

“It is said that he thinks Zhou Hantian doesn’t sound good, and he doesn’t want to change his surname.”

“The Zhou family actually agreed?”

“What if they don’t agree? Don’t you know how rare a single spiritual root is? They can’t give him up just for the sake of face, right?”

“That’s right. Then what about the previous person?”

“You mean Zhou Hanshan? I heard he was kicked out after his wedding!”

“What happened?”

“Who knows? In any case, after the wedding, the Zhou family announced that they had severed their relationship with Zhou Hanshan. It is said that the cause and effect between the two sides has been broken.”

“Hiss. Even the cause and effect is broken?”

……

No one could know about the rest of the matter better than Lou Xingyao, so there was naturally no need to listen to it.

But even if he didn’t listen, the chattering kept coming from all directions.

A single spiritual root was rare to see in a thousand years, but the Zhou family had produced two in 20 years. How could it not be explosive news?

Moreover, the attitude of the Zhou family showed that they seemed to attach great importance to this new single spiritual root.

Not only did they attach great importance to the matter of recognizing his ancestors, but they even held a banquet to announce it to the world.

What’s more, the head of the Zhou family announced on the spot at the banquet that Ye Hantian would be designated as the next heir of the family. He would let go of his power as long as Ye Hantian built his foundation,

This was a treatment that even Zhou Hanshan never had at the beginning!

……

Hot news came one after another. It was no wonder that the people in the camp didn’t bother to be wary of each other and started to gather together to discuss it.

Lou Xingyao’s hearing could listen to these words completely, let alone someone with a higher cultivation like Wen Hanshan.

Thinking of this, Lou Xingyao couldn’t help casting a worried look at the person beside him.

“Let’s go. There is an open space to the northwest.” However, Wen Hanshan didn’t seem to hear the gossip related to him at all. He went through the check-in formalities with the person in charge of the camp as usual.

The person involved looked unmoved, which made Lou Xingyao’s reaction seem dramatic.

In addition, there were a lot of people gathered outside the camp at this moment, and there were many eyes and ears. Lou Xingyao could only swallow the words in his mouth for the time being and followed behind Wen Hanshan.

The camp was set up temporarily for cultivators, and the accommodation was also limited.

The person in charge set up only a few tents in the open space and used them as houses for the cultivators in need.

Fortunately, the tents might be simple, but they had all the necessary facilities. They were also equipped with an isolation formation, which could be opened to ensure privacy inside.

Wen Hanshan would arrange defensive and warning formations whenever he stayed overnight, even if he was at home.

Now it was someone else’s territory, and this was still no exception.

After arranging the formations and ensuring safety, he raised his eyes and looked at Lou Xingyao, who had been hesitant to speak since entering the camp. “What do you want to say?”

“Did you hear all the things they just said?” Lou Xingyao asked as he glanced out of the tent.

“Hmm?” Wen Hanshan gave him an affirmative look.

“What do you think?” Lou Xingyao asked cautiously.

“Of course, I looked with my eyes,” Wen Hanshan replied with a light chuckle.

The joking answer and the understatement clearly showed that he didn’t take the rumors in the camp to heart.

Sure enough, the moment Lou Xingyao finished his thoughts, the other person’s indifferent voice sounded in his ears. “Since I have left the Zhou family, everything in the Zhou family has nothing to do with me.”

There were no fluctuations in the flat tone. It was obvious that he had completely let go of the Zhou family.

But it was precisely due to this relieved attitude that Lou Xingyao was even more uncomfortable.

In the beginning, it was just a contract. Wen Hanshan was willing to take Lou Xingyao under his wings. From then on, no matter how small or big the matter, Lou Xingyao’s share would always be considered.

Since Lou Xingyao stepped onto this path, he had been like a teacher and a friend, serving as a guiding light on his spiritual path.

What happened to such a person in the Zhou family that made him so determined to cut off all ties?

It was precisely due to this that Lou Xingyao’s dissatisfaction with the Zhou family had also reached its peak.

It was due to this that Lou Xingyao found it hard to express all the questions in his heart.

Lou Xingyao refused to ask again, but Wen Hanshan didn’t care much. “If there is anything else you want to ask, just ask.”

“No.” Lou Xingyao shook his head and denied it.

“Your expression shows that it isn’t nothing. Just ask if you want to.” Just as Lou Xingyao understood Wen Hanshan, Wen Hanshan also knew Lou Xingyao very well. “If your doubts persist, I’m afraid you won’t be able to calm down during your cultivation.”

Lou Xingyao didn’t want to hold back anymore and asked in a low voice, “What about Ye Hantian? Do you know him?”

“I don’t know him.” Wen Hanshan gave the answer without the slightest hesitation.

A hint of surprise flashed in Lou Xingyao’s eyes. After all, from the original description of the first meeting between the protagonist and the villain, it was obvious that both of them previously knew about each other’s existence.

Who knew that he would now receive a completely opposite answer from Wen Hanshan?

Before Lou Xingyao could think about it, he heard Wen Hanshan added, “But I have heard of him.”

“What do you mean?” Did this mean they hadn’t met officially?

“Ye Hantian is the illegitimate son of the head of the Zhou family and my half-brother.” The head of the Zhou family was Wen Hanshan’s father, Zhou Yiming.