Chapter 121 – Family gathered

“Is that it?” Tianxu asked as the settlement came into view in the distance. 

“That’s right,” Shu Yang answered. “Our home for the past ten years.”

“It’s so big,” Tianxu said.

“There have been quite a few people joining us over the years,” Shu Yang said. 

They didn’t have time for any more conversation, as the flying ship quickly arrived over the settlement, and Shu Yang controlled it to land.

A crowd of people was gathering as the flying ship lowered, mostly his own family and a few in-laws. 

“Dad! You really did come back after two weeks. How did you find him so quickly?” Tianyi called out.

“Am I that unreliable in your eyes?” Shu Yang asked, jumping down. 

Tianxu grabbed his wife and daughter and jumped down after him. 

Qianyue was the first to run up to Tianxu, pinching his arms and lightly slapping his cheeks, making sure he was alright. 

“Mom,” Tianxu said, his voice choking up.

“At least you know to bring a wife and child back home,” Qianyue said with a light smile. “Who is this pretty young girl?”

“My name is Ling Ximing,” Ximing said, bowing slightly, appearing nervous.

“Mom, this is my wife,” Tianxu introduced. He then raised the child in his arms for her to see. “And this is our daughter, Xinzi.”

“Wow, a new niece? Let me see,” Tianyi said, rushing forward to take a look.

The siblings came up one after another, giving Tianxu a hug and asking how he had been. No one was quite as emotional as when Tianyi had returned, as Tianxu had gone away under completely different circumstances. Still, he had been gone for a very long time, and everyone was happy to see him again.

“Seriously? You went to the Far West? Are you crazy?” Tianyue scolded when she heard where he had been.

“He found a wife, didn’t he? Unlike someone else who just stays at home all day,” Qianyue muttered.

“Mom, we’ve been in hiding. You don’t want me to go out on an adventure on my own, right?” Tianyue asked, flabbergasted.

“As long as you come back with a husband, I don’t care where you go,” Qianyue said.

“Tianyi, let’s go. Mom is about to marry us off,” Tianyue said, grabbing her sister’s arm.

“Who says Tianyi needs to marry? She should just stay at home in peace,” Qianyue said with a frown.

“Don’t worry, sister. I’ll find you a good husband in the Sword Sect,” Tianyi said, patting her on the shoulder comfortingly.

“No, wait. What?” Tianyue asked.

Shu Yang watched the charade and just shook his head with a smile. It was nice to have everyone gathered again.

“Dad, introduce us.”

“Yeah, introduce us!” 

Xinxi and Xinjiang pulled Tianhu’s sleeves, urging him forward.

Tianhu smiled helplessly. “These are my daughters, Xinxi and Xinjiang. Their older brother Xinmo is somewhere behind me too.”

“That’s it?” Xinxi questioned.

“We’re sword saints, you know!” Xinjiang protested.

“No, wasn’t it sword saintesses?” Xinxi asked.

“I like sword saint better,” Xinjiang said.

“But we’re girls,” Xinxi argued.

“Girls can be saints. Mom is a Saint, isn’t she?” Xinjiang argued back.

Tianxu watched it all numbly. Shu Yang had already talked about the situation at home, so he knew about the girl’s talent.

“Is Xiaoshi really a Saint, brother?” Tianxu asked.

“Just recently,” Tianhu said with a nod.

“I still find it hard to believe it all. So much has changed in just ten years,” Tianxu said.

“That’s right, you don’t even know that I’ve been gone!” Tianyi suddenly remembered and started explaining everything that had happened. 

Shu Yang had already gone over most of it, but Tianxu still seemed to listen quite intently as he was told about it a second time.

Shu Yang distanced himself a bit and let the rest of the family reconnect with their brother.

He walked up to Shen Ye, who was watching it all from a distance. 

“Has anything happened since I went away?” Shu Yang asked.

“Not really,” Shen Ye answered. “Xinjiang, Xinxi, and Xinmo have been practicing swordsmanship as usual. I think I’ve seen your other grandkids studying a lot lately. At least the older ones.”

‘That’s good. I should set up the competition soon and see what they’ve learned.’

Shu Yang had been thinking a lot about the future of his family lately. At first, he thought that perhaps his less talented children and grandchildren could stay behind, or perhaps settle down in some sort of mortal kingdom closer to the Sword Sect. Just so they would have a place to fit in.

But now, he had changed his mind. What did it matter if an ordinary person lived in the cultivation world? What mattered was that the family stuck together. As long as Shu Yang was strong enough, they wouldn’t have to worry about anything.

If they decided on their own that they would rather live somewhere else, surrounded by more ordinary people, Shu Yang would of course let them. But they should at least give the cultivation world a chance first. They couldn’t be too scared to even give it a try.

‘I really need to talk with Tianren and Tianan about it soon.’

He had broached the topic, and Tianren seemed a bit more inclined to come along than Tianan.

Mostly, Tianan just had so many friends here that he would have to leave behind, and he really didn’t have the talent to compete even with the weakest of cultivators.

Still, he valued family the most in the end, and Shu Yang felt he should be able to convince him to come along.

The question Shu Yang was most concerned about now was where they would settle down once they arrived in the Sword Sect. He couldn’t exactly count on Bian Fenglin to just give them a place full of spiritual qi where they could live. Those places surely required the family living there to pay some sort of tax to the Sword Sect.

The problem was that the Shu family was still very small, and they didn’t really have a way to earn money. Or, well, mundane currency shouldn’t be a problem, but spirit stones were difficult.

Shu Yang could probably make do, but this was something that required everyone to contribute. Especially once his grandchildren started families of their own. That would require a huge area if they wanted to keep the family together. 

The best way to make that all happen was to teach his grandchildren some of the immortal arts and hope they at least gained some proficiency in it. He didn’t need them all to become masters, but he needed his grandchildren to get the ball rolling, so that the next generation could learn from their parents and hopefully bring the arts higher. 

‘I’ll see what Bian Fenglin says, but the best option is probably to settle for some small estate in an Immortal City under the Sword Sect’s control.’

‘Once we find our footing, and find a few avenues of revenue, I can start looking for a spiritual mountain to make our home.’

Shu Yang really looked forward to the day when his Shu Family would become a well-known and powerful family within the Sword Sect.

‘I hope at least some of the kids can find some cultivators as partners. That would speed up my spiritual cultivation a lot. Not to mention that the next generation really can’t just be full of ordinary people and body cultivators; we need a few spiritual cultivators among us.’

Shu Yang broke out of his musings and walked over to Li Xia, who was also standing a bit further back in the crowd.

“Xia, do you know if any of the kids have studied anything other than alchemy lately?” Shu Yang asked.

“Huh? I don’t think so. At least our children have mostly been studying for the competition. That or practicing swordsmanship or, in Xinru and Xinxin’s case, running around with Tianyi.” Li Xia answered.

Shu Yang nodded with a smile, “Alright, thank you.”

He then walked away, deciding to start preparing for the competition. The rest of his family would definitely want to spend some time with Tianxu, so he didn’t call anyone with him.

‘It makes sense that the kids haven’t really gotten into any of the other arts; I have only announced that the alchemy competition would have rewards, after all.’

‘But that’s good; it might motivate the ones who fail later if I announce another competition in smithing or something.’

Shu Yang felt a small headache thinking about how much it would cost to get hold of the legacies of the different arts, if they were even being sold in the Sword Sect.

‘As long as it’s only at the Qi Refining level, I should be able to buy it, right?’

He had considered just focusing on a few of the immortal arts; that was how most families did it. But Shu Yang had big ambitions, and he didn’t want any of his descendants' talents to be wasted.

‘We should still probably specialize in something.’

As for what that would be, Shu Yang could think of nothing else but formation. Not to mention that he had an inheritance that was good up to the Golden Core stage; it was also the one art that the family’s only two cultivators had some experience in.

‘I’ll have to push Tianyi to keep up her studies. Maybe if I put her in charge of a ‘Formation Hall’ of some sort, she’ll find it a bit more exciting.’

Shu Yang had noticed that his daughter liked being in charge. She particularly enjoyed ordering around her nieces and nephews, so making her teach them formations was perfect.

‘Either way, that can wait until we settle in the Sword Sect. Tianyi seems to be having a lot of fun playing around these days. She should just get to enjoy herself for now.’

Shu Yang returned to his house and sat down at his desk, which his son Tianan had made not long after they got here. It wasn’t exactly a work of art, but it got the job done, and Shu Yang quite liked how rustic it looked.

He brought out pen and paper and started sketching up a preliminary plan for how to do the competition. He took out some of the common spiritual herbs from his storage ring, thinking about how to use them. 

But after a few minutes, Shu Yang realized he didn’t have a very good understanding of alchemy himself, making it hard to think of an appropriate way to test the kids.

‘Whatever, it’s not that important. If I screw something up, I’ll just adjust it on the spot. We’re all family in the end.’