Having exhausted his potential by achieving Foundation Establishment in his early forties, Wang Mingyuan decided to retire from his sect.
With a few low-grade spirit stones, medicinal pills, and mortal-grade cultivation scriptures scavenged from his toils over the years, he returned to his hometown village.
His retirement plan was simple: find a wife through matchmaking and settle down with a family.
Honestly, this wasn't the life he expected given his identity—a transmigrator.
In any case, there in his bedroom a beautiful woman was waiting for him. Virtuous, kind, and most importantly… he was getting excited.
After he saw the guests off with polite and dismissive remarks, the wedding party ended on a happy note.
The lonely sun cast an apricot hue over the western horizon, and Mingyuan walked with light steps across the courtyard and into his bedding chamber.
A night of spring followed.
…
Time marches on, relentless. Mortals coil in the red dust, and Mingyuan had almost forsaken his identity as a cultivator through his day-to-day interactions with the simple townsfolk.
That was until he felt the presence of spiritual energy around his son!
"You seem to have awakened a spiritual root!" Mingyuan exclaimed while examining his son's body.
"What's a spiritual root?" six-years-old Wang Chen asked, curious.
"Well," Mingyuan smiled gently and rubbed his son's head. "That's a long story, we can talk after you wake up in the morning. Now, your mom is waiting for us to join her on the dinner table."
"Okay!" Wang Chen bobbed his little head and ran into the house, leaving Mingyuan alone in the courtyard, thinking.
"Which art should I teach my son?" Mingyuan clasped his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky.
It was gradually turning dim and dark.
"I can teach him one of the arts I acquired or…" Mingyuan thought back to his past life in modern society.
As an avid fan of xianxia novels, he did his fair part in researching what cultivation entailed.
With his experience in a real cultivation world, he attempted to create his own cultivation technique—an all-encompassing technique.
Sadly, he only managed to put together the Qi Refinement chapter of the technique for lack of a deeper understanding of laws and principles.
He couldn't just cripple himself and start over from Qi Refinement, but his son was still young with a few years to spare.
He could teach him the technique and see how it goes during the first year. If nothing significant happened, it wouldn't be too late to switch for a better art by then.
Having made up his mind, he went inside with a smile. He was both happy and excited, and the night with the beautiful wife was restless.
The next morning arrived quickly. No, it was dawn, and Mingyuan didn't really sleep.
After kissing his tired and sleeping wife on the forehead, he got up and summoned his son to the courtyard outside.
In the cold yet refreshing breeze, he helped his son into a meditative lotus seating, sat directly behind him, and placed a palm on his back.
"Follow the feeling of the cozy sensation while keeping the sutra I recite in mind, and you'll slowly start your first meditation as a cultivator, okay?" Mingyuan asked softly.
Confused but excited, Wang Chen nodded his little head. "Alright, dad!"
"Alright, here goes nothing…" Mingyuan started reciting what he referred to as a fragment of the Mingyuan Immortal Scripture.
Meanwhile, his spiritual energy entered Wang Chen's body, slowly circulating following a premeditated pattern.
The first cycle and the recitation ended concurrently, and as Mingyuan opened his eyes to exhale, his body jolted and froze.
Disbelief itched on his face as he mumbled too quietly to hear, "This… is this really happening?…"
Ding! Activating the Absolute Ancestor system!
Ding! Activation successful!
Notice: The system will provide Host with the necessary tools to facilitate your growth as both a cultivator and a worthy ancestor to a cultivator lineage! You will earn back in a multiplied factor whatever you provide to your descendants as long as it is of quantifiable value! The multiplication factor is totally randomized from x500 to x10,000!
Restriction 1: The System will impose a 7 day cooldown for each individual the Host decides to gift.
Restriction 2: The Host must have the intent of activating the multiplication function when giving out a certain benefit, this will help avoid inconvenience and accidental rewards.
Restriction 3: If and when the reward cannot be quantified for any reason whatsoever, the system will compensate for it by increasing the Host's cultivation at the System's discretion.
…
You've taught the "Incomplete Mingyuan Immortal Scripture" to your son and scored a return value of x10,000!
You've been awarded with the complete "Mingyuan Immortal Scripture."
…
Although the information was distilled into Mingyuan's mind directly within a fraction of a second, together with the highlighted text on the floating screens, he couldn't bring himself to believe it.
He actually had a cheat! The standard transmigrator perk did exist, it was simply lying dormant in his mind all this time!
All because he didn't have any descendants this whole time!
A spark of something, ambition or hunger for power, glinted in Mingyuan's eyes for the briefest of moments.
"Dad, it feels all warm and fuzzy!" Wang Chen exclaimed, bringing Mingyuan back from his wandering thoughts.
Looking at the child who was so small and adorable with that excited expression, Mingyuan's feverish thoughts dwindled.
He mentally cursed at himself before looking in the direction of the courtyard. Yes, the thought of going out to gather a harem of women and have them bear children for him did cross his mind.
Yes, he understood that the more children and descendants, the quicker his rise to power and immortality.
But then he asked himself: Why the rush? Why so capricious and fickle?
True, there was no love or hate between himself and his mortal wife, but so what?
At the end of the day, Mingyuan prided himself as a man of principles. If for nothing else, this woman from the mortal world married him in good faith after he decided to retire from the world of cultivation.
This marriage was clean, pure, and untainted by the greed of power and longevity.
If for nothing else but to honor whatever trace of sincerity this marriage signified, Mingyuan pushed down the impatience in his heart.
Reaching out to ruffle Wang Chen's hair, Mingyuan chuckled and said, "That's good, it means that my son can become a powerful cultivator in the future."
Wang Chen's eyes lit up. "Can I go up in the sky like whooosh! and explode stuff like boooom!!!?"
Mingyuan raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want to fly? You want to run away from me and your mom?"
"Ah?! No, I didn't mean…"
"What? Wait, did you want to blow us both up with an explosion and then fly away? Is that it?"
"No! Dad, I didn't mean to…"
Mingyuan turned his head away with a heartbroken expression, acting hurt.
Wang Chen fumbled on his words, grabbing and pulling the lapel of Mingyuan's black robes, getting anxious while explaining himself.
Tears threatened to drip from his innocent eyes when a shadow loomed over the father and son.
With a whack! Mingyuan felt the back of his head ache a little. He chuckled.
His wife caught him teasing the child, again.