Late night, October 13, 2017
In the Qian Family Mansion, a group of elders sat solemnly, gathered together, and maintained an oppressive silence.
A full half-hour of silence lowered the temperature in this luxurious conference room, and in this late autumn season, it didn't take long for frost to form inside the room.
The first to break the silence was the Patriarch, Qian Long.
"Since no one wants to start, let speak."
Speaking thus, this middle-aged man with a handso beard couldn't help but sigh.
"The situation is dire. The progress of the Li Family has far exceeded our expectations. Based on the experiences of our disciples in the Sword Dao Club... I'm afraid all our efforts from before have been neutralized."
After Qian Long finished speaking, he scanned the surroundings. The elders' faces were so grim they seed about to drip water.
After a while, an elder with silver hair and beard spoke: "This is the foundation of the Primordial noble families. Whenever others think there's an opportunity, the Seven Great Noble Families imdiately prove their distinction... So, do we still continue to fight in this competition?"
"Of course, we fight!" Qian Long concluded decisively, "Retreating now is equivalent to telling all our children that whenever the Li Family gets serious, we just admit defeat! Even if the Qian Family emphasizes harmony and wealth, if we bend our knees now, we'll never truly be able to compete with the Seven Great Noble Families!"
The elders felt both ashad and guilty upon hearing this and shook their heads, ceasing to speak.
Soone else then asked, "In that case, should we increase the budget?"
"It's no longer a matter of money," Qian Long said, "Our children's cultivation level is where it is. Whether it's the Qiankun Throw or the Flower Rain, they're just last-minute efforts. Even if we give them thousands upon thousands of Spirit Stones, they can't handle it."
"Then, follow the example of the Li Family and increase training intensity?"
Qian Long shook his head again, "The Li Family trains that way because they have a very detailed support plan—how to push disciples' physical and True Essence limits, how to avoid injuries, how to recover quickly... The Qian Family also has these things, but not as complete as the Li Family's. Rashly imitating them will only be counterproductive."
"Patriarch, if you have any ideas, please just speak out, and we will do our best to accomplish what we can."
Qian Long said, "I can only think of two points. First, exploit our equipnt advantage. It's well-known now that the Qian Family's disciples are well-equipped. But during the Cyan Cloud competition, which of the Li Family, the Lu Family, and even the ambitious Independent Cultivators have poor equipnt? Our advantage isn't actually significant. So I plan to custom-make a set of Magical Treasures for each participating disciple."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the elders exclaid one after another.
"Custom-made Magical Treasures?"
"A set for each person?"
Qian Long nodded silently.
"We have at least fifty disciples participating, even considering only the core group, there are over twenty. And custom-making a full set of Magical Treasures costs at least tens of thousands of Spirit Stones! Per set!"
Qian Long nodded, "I've already roughly estimated it. The total budget will be around six hundred thousand Spirit Stones, and the combat power boost should be about ten percent."
An elder chuckled wryly, "Six hundred thousand Spirit Stones for just a ten percent increase in the combat power of a group of Cloud Surge Realm kids—it's the worst business deal I've ever heard."
But soone on the side said, "But if we can overpower the Li and Lu families in this competition, the investnt of six hundred thousand Spirit Stones might just be worth it."
"But if we can invest in equipnt, can't the Li and Lu families do the sa?"
Qian Long smiled and said, "I can't say those two great noble families can't fork out over a few hundred thousand Spirit Stones, but to spend that amount to craft exclusive Magical Treasures for a group of kids at the Cloud Surge Realm—such a foolish thing they wouldn't do. I think that's the difference between old aristocrats and nouveau riches."
At this point, there finally was a little bit of cheerful atmosphere in the conference room.
In fact, the Qian Family, since its establishnt, has at least a millennium's history, a true thousand-year noble family. The ancestor Qian Liexian led the family's rise for five hundred years, yet in the view of the Seven Great Noble Families, the Qian Family is ultimately known worldwide as nouveau riches because of their wealth.
So, the nouveau riche needs to fully leverage their advantages by investing heavily in smaller matters.
Generally speaking, for cultivators with outstanding talent who reach the Cloud Surge Realm in their teens, their teenage and twenties are the fastest progression period of their lifelong cultivation, changing daily. These individuals can mostly cultivate to the Peak of the Cloud Flipping Realm by adulthood — reaching the Rain Cover Realm sowhat requires luck. Therefore, Magical Treasures truly valuable for them are those suitable for the Cloud Flipping Realm. Treasures from youth generally need to be replaced within three to five years as they wear out.
Those large noble families, where talent erges endlessly, usually pass down a single set of Magical Treasures through generations, rarely custom-made for individual disciples — Qian Yu's situation with a full set of growing Magical Treasures is an exception. For Qian Long to propose custom-making a set of Magical Treasures for each of dozens of disciples now, it indeed seems vulgarly extravagant.
"In addition, there's another thing—championship," Qian Long said solemnly, "For the Li and Lu families, not winning the Cyan Cloud championship may not shake their prestige. But for the Qian Family, to rise, at the very least we must win a championship once."
An elder asked, "Wasn't it analyzed earlier that Ye'Er has a great chance of winning this ti? How is the cultivation going now?"
Qian Long said, "Considering only the current data, indeed there's no one in QingCyan Cloud yun City now who can rival Ye'Er. But since when has data been a safe guarantee? Last ti, we all thought the champion would surely belong to either the Li or Lu families, yet their main forces were eliminated by an Independent Cultivator. The ti before that, I was confident I could win a championship for the Qian Family but lost to an unknown kid from the Lu Family... So to be honest, I'll only say within this small group, I don't have absolute confidence in Ye'Er. Who knows what surprises might occur during the competition? That's why I've allowed him to practice the Qiankun Throw, to ensure there's no chance of failure in this competition. Initially, I intended to never let him practice the Qiankun Throw. Given his talent, the cost of practicing it is several tis higher than for others."
An elder asked curiously, "Why? Shouldn't better aptitude and comprehension make cultivation more enjoyable and less costly?"
Qian Long was silent for a while, then said, "He can't figure out how much to throw."
"..."
"In any case, from now on, I need the family to invest more resources in Qian Ye, to truly ensure nothing goes wrong. Of course, I will also temporarily put aside my work and cultivation to fully supervise his special training."
——
With the Qian Family fully mobilized, their execution power was astonishing. In the early hours of the morning, Qian Long dragged Qian Ye out of his sleep.
"What's going on, what's going on, has the Li Family attacked?!"
Without another word, Qian Long slapped him, "Are you so groggy you can't even recognize your own father?"
Qian Ye was dumbfounded, rubbed his eyes hard, and then said seriously, "How do I know you're really my father and not soone from the Li Family using an immortal technique to disguise themselves?"
"..." Qian Long silently raised his gleaming golden hand, unleashing the Qian Family's exclusive Gold-Burning Palm to the extre.
Qian Ye thought for a mont, then said, "Maybe the Li Family has broken into the Qian Family Mansion, captured the real dad, forced the thod of cultivation for the Gold-Burning Palm out of him, and then used it to deceive ."
The next mont, golden light burst forth as Qian Long exploded with anger.
"Put so of that imagination to use in your cultivation! Now get up, special training starts now!"
"Oh co on, Dad, it's still early morning! I just pulled an all-nighter watching Spirit Cat Adventure, at least let sleep for a bit..."
"Cultivators in the Cloud Surge Realm don't need that much sleep! If you're really tired, go run around the city a few tis! Go now!"
"Uh, the core of our Qian Family's cultivation technique is nurturing the Qi of Wealth and Honor..."
"Here are five hundred Spirit Stones for your pocket money, use them to buy a top-grade running outfit, and then run twenty more laps for !"
"...Oh co on, are you sure you're not soone from the Li Family in disguise? Although I usually feel like the old man is a bit against , but this is too much..."
"Go, now get going!"
——
At dawn, in the suburbs of QingCyan Cloud City, as the morning light illuminated the earth, it shone on Qian Long's iron-blue face.
In front of Qian Long, a handso young man was panting slightly as he jogged over—above the young man's head, a small golden mountain hovered quietly, imposing a heavy burden, so heavy that it made even most cultivators in the Cloud Surge Realm struggle to move.
Yet Qian Long was still dissatisfied and shouted in anger upon seeing Qian Ye, "Why so slow?!"
Qian Ye said, "When I was running laps just now, I bumped into the Li Family's second steward and chatted with him."
Qian Long was about to lose his temper, but upon hearing that he was talking with a Li Family steward, he held back his anger and asked, "What did you talk about, the cultivation situation of the Li Family disciples?"
"Haha, what's there to talk about, mainly we chatted about Spirit Cat Adventure, I found out he's also a Spirit Cat fan, what a coincidence..."
Qian Long's face turned as black as ink, clutched his heart, and gasped, "You, you're not going to stop until you've driven to death, are you!"
——
Suppressing his intense anger, Qian Long earnestly supervised his son's special training.
The location was in the suburbs of QingCyan Cloud City, where the Qian Family had previously purchased a piece of wasteland, transforming it into a secret training ground for the family's elite cultivators. It was now used to train Qian Ye—starting pre-dawn with weighted runs around the city, followed by a full day of intensive special training in the outskirts.
Qian Long supervised the whole process, using harsh words to motivate his son to strive upward.
"Qian Ye, what are you practicing?! Didn't you eat enough breakfast?"
"How can you make the Gold-Burning Palm of the Eighth Heaven so soft and flabby?! I rember only having one daughter, Qian Yue!"
"Qian Ye! Is this your Qiankun Throw after a month of training? Even a blind, gasping fatty liver would be better than you! Are you planning on entering the Qingyun Paralympics?"
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