Chapter 58: Qu Zhenzhen’s Second Child, Breakthrough Elixir!_1

Translator: 549690339

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed.

Qu Zhenzhen, who had been receiving special attention from Lu Changsheng, ran to him and said, “Husband, I think I am pregnant!”

“Pregnant? Let me see?”

Lu Changsheng, hearing this, was overjoyed and placed his head against Qu Zhenzhen’s belly.

Of course, at this time, there were no fetal movements yet.

But as a cultivator, Lu Changsheng could faintly sense the new life being nurtured within her stomach.

“Good, good, good, indeed you are pregnant. Come here, Zhenzhen, let your husband give you a kiss.”

Seeing that Qu Zhenzhen was pregnant, Lu Changsheng’s mood soared. He caressed his delicate wife’s cheek and kissed her tender lips fiercely.

In the courtyard, there were other sisters present. They couldn’t help but cover their mouths and giggle at the scene, leaving Qu Zhenzhen blushing.

Feeling slightly embarrassed and annoyed, she gave her husband a playful punch. Her fair and charming face was flushed red with shyness, utterly irresistible.

Yet this hint of girlish shyness, coupled with Qu Zhenzhen’s charm as a wife and mother-to-be, was both pure and enticing.

It set Lu Changsheng’s heart ablaze, making him wish he could take his lovely wife right then and there.

However, seeing how happy her husband was, Qu Zhenzhen’s blushing face also revealed a smile of pure happiness and contentment.

Now that both Lu Miaoyun and Qu Zhenzhen were pregnant, Lu Changsheng felt extremely contented, feeling that life was becoming ever more promising.

He looked forward eagerly to the birth of his children by the two delicate wives.

He also thought of the two beloved concubines who hadn’t been pregnant yet, and a maidservant with a Spiritual Root.

But since Lu Miaoyun was only a little over a month pregnant, he wasn’t in a hurry for the maidservant Xiaqing to become pregnant.

After all, if a maidservant became pregnant around the same time as his wife, it wouldn’t be quite appropriate—it might seem like a competition for favor.

Although Lu Changsheng himself didn’t really care.

But after all, they were in the Lu Family, and it was better to be cautious.

Therefore, he planned to focus his attention on the two favored concubines next.

Regarding these two concubines, Lu Changsheng was also somewhat curious.

If they were to get pregnant and have children, he wondered if the children’s hair and eye colors would resemble his own or their mothers’.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of the month, the day the Fourth Elder taught talisman making.

When the Fourth Elder inspected the progress of Lu Miaoge and Lu Changsheng on their talismans,

Lu Changsheng directly took out a Windwalking Talisman he had drawn and said to the Fourth Elder, “Grandmother, I successfully made the Windwalking Talisman yesterday.”

“What!?”

“You made the Windwalking Talisman!”

The Fourth Elder, upon hearing this, was initially stunned.

Then, looking at the talisman in Lu Changsheng’s hand, her face lit up with delight.

She hadn’t expected that in just a month, Lu Changsheng would have succeeded in making the Windwalking Talisman.

You must know that the most difficult part of talisman making is the first step, moving from nothing to something.

Once the first step is successful, the subsequent process from one to ten becomes much simpler.

Lu Miaoge, standing beside them, also looked at Lu Changsheng with immense surprise upon hearing this.

These past two months, she had hardly made any significant progress on her Golden Light Barrier Talisman.

Though the talisman she was practicing was a Superior Grade Talisman,

back when she was at Lu Changsheng’s current level, it took her roughly three months to succeed with the Golden Light Insignia, which was equivalent to the Windwalking Talisman in difficulty.

Yet now, Lu Changsheng had managed to successfully make the Windwalking Talisman in just one month.

Lu Miaoge bit her lip gently, feeling somewhat disheartened by the blow.

In talisman making, her talent was already considered quite good.

Otherwise, among the many Lu Family disciples, she wouldn’t have been the only Talisman Master,

and she was even on the verge of breaking through to become a First Grade Superior Talisman Master.

The Fourth Elder had told her that she had a real gift for talisman making, with the potential to become a Second Grade Talisman Master one day.

But at this moment, her formerly pride-worthy talent in talisman making was completely crushed by Lu Changsheng.

She could already foresee the day when she would be surpassed by him.

The Fourth Elder took the Windwalking Talisman from Lu Changsheng’s hands.

Her fingers traced it inch by inch, feeling both the strokes and the flow of Spiritual Power within it.

“You don’t have any issues with drawing the lines for the talisman; your grip and drawing are exceptionally steady, which shows a rare talent,” she said.

“However, regarding spiritual power, there’s a lot left to be desired in terms of proficiency and stability. For instance, this particular point here has a clear issue. Any carelessness could lead to failure, and then there’s…”

The Fourth Elder provided a detailed critique of Lu Changsheng’s talisman, pointing out the specific issues.

She then said, “Changsheng, draw another Windwalking Talisman for me to see.”

“Yes, Grandmother.”

Lu Changsheng responded and took out a sheet of talisman paper to begin drawing.

However, not even halfway through, the talisman started to give off blue smoke—another failure.

“At this point, the Spiritual Power must be ‘wrapped’ tightly around the brush strokes, but after making a turn, it must be released immediately, with a ‘spring’ in the motion…” the Fourth Elder said out loud, indicating for Lu Changsheng to continue.

After that, Lu Changsheng failed again.

He had just started yesterday, so his success rate for making talismans should be at most ten percent; naturally, he couldn’t show himself to be too skilled.

Under the guidance of the Fourth Elder, Lu Changsheng failed two more times.

Upon seeing this, the Fourth Elder didn’t say much.

She simply comforted him, “It’s okay, you’re just a bit nervous, and you have just started. Familiarize yourself with it, and you’ll be fine.”

“Come, grandmother will guide you through drawing a talisman once more.”

Afterward, she held Lu Changsheng’s hand again and helped him draw the Windwalking Talisman.

“Thank you, grandmother. Changsheng will definitely work hard and not disappoint you,”

Lu Changsheng said to the Fourth Elder.

“Good child, I am already very satisfied with your performance,”

“Grandmother believes that as long as you work hard, you will surely become a Second Rank Talisman Master in the future,”

the Fourth Elder said kindly.

She was very satisfied with her grandson-in-law Lu Changsheng.

Not only did he have exceptional talent in talisman making, but he was also very steady and treated her granddaughter well.

The only fault she could find was that he had too many wives and children.

He spent too much time thinking about marrying and having offspring.

In her opinion, if Lu Changsheng could concentrate all his efforts on talisman making and focus on the Talisman Path, he could go much further in the future.

“By the way, Changsheng, you’ve been at the Third Level of Qi Refinement for a while now, haven’t you?”

Suddenly, the Fourth Elder turned to Lu Changsheng and asked.

“Yes, grandmother. I reached the peak of the Third Level in Qi Refinement eight months ago,”

“But as you know, my Spiritual Root is only Ninth Grade,”

Lu Changsheng responded, unable to suppress a wry smile.

He had been at the peak of Third Level in Qi Refinement eight months prior.

He had not slacked in his cultivation since then, but he had felt no loosening of his bottleneck.

With Lower Grade Spiritual Roots, each bottleneck was a barrier.

“If you need it, grandmother can apply to the family for a Breakthrough Elixir for you,”

the Fourth Elder said after a slight pause.

The transition from the Third to the Fourth Level of Qi Refinement marks the progression from the early stages to the middle stages—a significant hurdle.

The poorer the quality of the Spiritual Root, the harder it is to break through.

In such cases, apart from relying on time to grind through, one can also seek help from Breakthrough Elixir Medicines to overcome the bottleneck.

“Thank you, grandmother, but I would still like to continue trying to break through on my own,”

Lu Changsheng said, politely refusing.

He was frustrated by the bottleneck but not desperate to break through it.

For now, he did not wish to rely on elixir medicines.

His reasoning was simple.

If he used a Breakthrough Elixir to advance from the Third to the Fourth Level in Qi Refinement, the difficulty of moving from the Sixth to the Seventh Level would increase.

If at the Sixth Level he again used a Breakthrough Elixir, it would make the Foundation Establishment even more challenging later on.

Occasional help from elixir medicines like the Yellow Dragon Elixir was fine as they had no side effects.

However, using Breakthrough Elixirs that stimulated one’s potential to advance could have an impact.

For most people, if they weren’t considering Foundation Establishment, using Breakthrough Elixirs wouldn’t be a big deal.

But Lu Changsheng’s focus was on the future, not the present.

Since he wasn’t in a rush to break through, he preferred to try and make it on his own for as long as possible.

If he truly couldn’t progress and needed help, then he would consider using elixir medicines.

When the Fourth Elder heard Lu Changsheng’s refusal, she was slightly surprised.

But she quickly smiled and praised him, “Good, it is spirited of you. If you encounter any problems with your cultivation, feel free to come to grandmother.”

Lu Miaoge, who was standing nearby, also revealed a touch of surprise in her beautiful eyes upon hearing these words.

It was known that Breakthrough Elixirs were extremely precious.

One for breaking through to the middle stages of Qi Refinement was worth hundreds of Spirit Stones and was scarce; in the Lu Family, it required contributions to exchange for one.

Now that the Fourth Elder had offered to apply for one on behalf of Lu Changsheng and he had declined, expressing a desire to rely on his own effort to break through.

For someone with a Ninth Grade Spiritual Root, overcoming a bottleneck was far from easy.

Nonetheless, she said nothing.

Instead, her impression of Lu Changsheng deepened somewhat.

She felt that he was very different from the person she had formed an image of.

After that, the Fourth Elder shared some knowledge about talisman making with Lu Changsheng and Lu Miaoge and told them it was about time to return home.

“Miss seemed to look at me in a somewhat unusual way just now,”

As they walked away from the Fourth Elder’s residence, Lu Changsheng surveyed Lu Miaoge’s graceful retreating figure, his eyebrows slightly raised.

He naturally didn’t think that this young lady had taken a liking to him.

“Could it be that she was struck by the talent in talisman making I’ve displayed recently?”

Lu Changsheng suddenly conjectured.

He thought to himself, “If that’s the case, then this young lady isn’t as detached and indifferent as she appears on the surface, and not untouched by worldly concerns.”

“Indeed, she is not a True Immortal; how could she be free from worldly desires? They all have emotions and desires.”

“The second young lady also seemed cold and noble on the outside, but her true character didn’t match that at all.”

Lu Changsheng chuckled softly, not taking it too to heart, and headed home.