Chapter 18: Chapter 18: If Your Uncle Were Here
It was the same cramped living room, with the same weary people.
Only, it was later in the night.
When Tao Ying heard the reason for their visit, her expression grew complicated. She helped the two boys up and went to pour them two cups of hot water.
Yang Mo and Yang Man peeked their heads out from their room again, but Tao Ying shooed them back inside and closed the door.
A dim, yellow incandescent lightbulb dangled from a wire, swaying gently above the dining table.
This home was so small that the slightest vibration could make it tremble for a long time.
Tao Ying sat down in a chair. She first glanced at the plates, which were so clean they barely needed washing, then her gaze fell on Xiaolei Yi, who was picking up steamed bun crumbs from the table.
Tao Ying cleared her throat and said in a gentle tone, "I remember now. A few years ago, your Uncle Wen and I went to Yiming’s hometown and met you two. Lei Lv was only seven or eight back then, and Lei Yi... I think he was only two?"
Lei Lv sat obediently. For some reason, now that he was face-to-face with the person in charge, he felt twice as anxious. "Ma’am... Mrs. Tao, I remember. We ate together at Third Great-Uncle’s house."
"Right. I even tried to help with the fire, but I couldn’t get it to light for the life of me... How is your Third Great-Uncle’s family? Is he feeling any better?"
Lei Lv repeated what he had said earlier to Tao Ying.
After listening, Tao Ying clutched her water cup, her fingertips tightening and loosening repeatedly as if deep in thought.
A moment later, she looked up with a bright smile.
"Since you’re here, treat this place as your own home. For now, just settle in and get some rest..."
Yang Shen couldn’t help but say, "Aunt..."
Under the table, Tao Ying’s hand pressed down on Yang Shen’s, signaling him to keep quiet for now.
’The two children, especially Lei Lv, are already at their breaking point, emotionally. There are some things that shouldn’t be said right now.’
Tao Ying stood up to clear the plates, saying, "This little bit of food isn’t nearly enough. Shen, I bet you haven’t eaten either."
Yang Shen didn’t answer, but Lei Lv lowered his head.
"There are still some vegetables in the fridge. I’ll make a bit more, and we can all eat together. We’ll make a pallet on the living room floor later. The house is only so big, so I hope you don’t mind."
Carrying the plates, Tao Ying walked into the kitchen. Yang Shen followed behind to help out.
"Auntie, are you really planning to..."
Tao Ying had already started washing vegetables and heating up a wok with practiced ease. The sounds of cooking would prevent their conversation from being overheard.
"I haven’t decided yet... Shen."
Tao Ying’s hands moved quickly and efficiently. She was always like this—the harder things got, the harder she worked.
"I’m afraid I won’t be able to take good care of them."
Yang Shen, squatting in the corner peeling potatoes, was surprised that this was his aunt’s concern.
Tao Ying said, "Our family is in a tough spot right now. You’re old enough to know this isn’t a secret. Honestly, this isn’t a great option for the two boys. Maybe it would be better to send them back to the village, or maybe sending them to an orphanage to wait for a kind-hearted person would give them a chance at a more comfortable life."
"Then why..."
"Because life isn’t full of ’maybes’... Good luck in this world rarely finds its way to the unlucky. Now that we know about their situation, to use those excuses... it’s just lying to ourselves..."
Tao Ying lit the stove, heated some oil, and tossed a handful of minced garlic into the wok. A fragrant aroma and a cloud of steam billowed up. In the living room, the two anxious boys’ noses twitched, and their mouths began to water uncontrollably.
Only then did Tao Ying remember she wasn’t wearing an apron. She took one from the wall and tied it around her no-longer-slender waist.
"We still have some savings. It’s just a matter of adding two more pairs of chopsticks. I’ll look into the legal side of things later. A family like ours might not even be allowed to adopt..."
"But at the very least, until they have a better option, they can stay as long as they want. We’ll treat them as our own."
Tao Ying rolled up her sleeves, then suddenly turned to Yang Shen with a smile.
"A person can’t only keep their promises when it’s convenient. It’s when things are difficult that a promise carries the most weight... Your Uncle always kept his word. He’s gone now, but the Yang Family should still be the same."
"If your Uncle were still here, he would have made the same choice, right?"
Yang Shen froze and fell silent.
A moment later, he said abruptly, "Auntie, I’m sorry."
"What are you sorry for... I’m the one who should be saying that."
"No, I’m the one who’s sorry."
Yang Shen stood up with determination and began resolutely slicing the potatoes into thin strips.
Amidst the CHOP CHOP CHOP of the knife, Yang Shen unknowingly underwent a mental transformation.
’Once upon a time... no, ever since he got the system, he had thought of himself as the head of the Jianghuai Yang Family.’
’Patriarch, Clan Leader, whatever you want to call it.’
’But in reality, he hadn’t lived up to it, nor had he thought it through.’
’Today, he had still been thinking like a "child," lacking both the wisdom and the courage of a Clan Leader.’
’And in the end, all the pressure had been shouldered by Tao Ying.’
’Keeping one’s promise...’
’A person can’t only keep their promises when it’s convenient...’
’The Jianghuai Yang Family should be just like that.’
Yang Shen soaked the shredded potatoes in water, his mind already racing with new ideas.
「Later that night.」
The two well-fed boys made their beds on the living room floor. Lei Lv helped Lei Yi take a bath.
There was only one bathroom to begin with, and now six people had to use it. "Crowded" was an understatement; it was more like a traffic jam.
The rush-hour kind.
By the time it was Yang Shen’s turn to wash up, it was already midnight. But since he didn’t plan on sleeping anyway and was going to do his Cultivation, it didn’t matter.
He usually did his Cultivation in the living room, but now there were two people sleeping on the floor there, and his two sisters were in the bedroom. So, Yang Shen simply tiptoed his way up to the Celestial Platform.
He planned to stay up all night and wait for the Rising Sun.
But before that... there were a few important things to take care of.
Yang Shen opened the system in his mind...
"Main Quest: Grow the family to 5 or more members. Current Members: (6/5)."
"Quest Reward: One random Family Heirloom (Completed, reward pending)."
...
"New Main Quest: Increase the family’s prestige to 10 or more. Current Prestige: (3/10)."
"Quest Reward: One random legacy and basic skill from the Hundred Skills of Cultivation."
’A new main quest. I have no idea how hard it’ll be to get 10 prestige points,’ he thought. ’But I’m used to being stuck on main quests, so I’ll just set it aside for now.’
At least he’d completed one.
He had originally hoped to solve it by taking on two disciples. He never expected to just gain two younger brothers instead.
Although he felt no real emotional attachment to them yet—it was more an extension of his uncle and aunt’s sense of responsibility—when Tao Ying nodded, he had accepted it too.
As for whether the system’s progress would regress if they couldn’t keep the two boys for some reason, or if the boys simply ran away because the Yang Family was too poor...
’Well, I’ll claim the quest reward first and worry about that later.’
’Just in case the system changes its mind.’
"Claim reward!"
Unlike when he received the Peiyuan Pill, which had appeared silently in his pocket, this "Family Heirloom" reward seemed to be on a completely different level.
As the thought crossed Yang Shen’s mind, a brilliant white light began to materialize in front of him, like a pulsating sphere of light.
The reward was inside the sphere! The entire Celestial Platform lit up!
’From a distance, you’d think someone was having a rave on the Celestial Platform!’
Afraid of being seen by others, Yang Shen didn’t dare to examine it for long and immediately reached his hand inside.
He pulled something out...
A Jade Book.
The *Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record*!
It was a strangely constructed book. Jade-like tablets were strung together with ancient-looking cords to form a book, and its entire body glowed with a soft light.
It looked like a relic from an ancient civilization tens of thousands of years old, or perhaps even a natural creation of heaven and earth, born from countless coincidences.
Just looking at it gave one the profound sense of gazing into the river of time, witnessing the vicissitudes of history.
But... it only had six or seven pages.
But when Yang Shen touched the Jade Book, he understood. The number of pages was just its external appearance; he didn’t need to worry about running out of space. The real information was stored within the jade in a peculiar way.
The Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record was quite magical. When he touched it, he faintly received a message: it required a drop of blood for its initial use. Yang Shen bit his fingertip and dripped a drop of blood onto it, but the *Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record* reported that his realm was too low... and his Spiritual Qi content was insufficient.
It needed more.
So, Yang Shen endured the pain and widened the wound. He squeezed his finger, dripping more than thirty drops of blood until his fingertip turned white, before it was finally enough.
The next moment, the Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record floated into the air. It had finally activated.
Then Yang Shen felt himself rapidly weakening... The Di Di Boy on his wrist started going DING DING DING like a microwave.
"Qi and Blood Value -0.1"
"Qi and Blood Value -0.1"
"Qi and Blood Value -0.1"
’Holy crap! This is going to kill me!’
’Using this thing actually consumes "source," which is "Spiritual Qi"? And that, in turn, is lowering my entire Qi and Blood Value!’
Even just to look up some information, a mere first-level Qi Cultivation practitioner like him couldn’t afford the cost!
Yang Shen quickly focused his mind, took a brief look inside, and after flipping through for a moment, he exited as if fleeing for his life.
In just those two minutes, his Qi and Blood Value had dropped by 1 point...
That was two bottles of Initial Realm Passage Essence Liquid down the drain!
The poor bastard let out a long sigh, holding the now-grounded and non-glowing Spiritual Record in his hand...
The system’s rewards didn’t come with any convenient storage space. Just like the Peiyuan Pill he’d received before, it was simply placed in his backpack.
This *Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record* was much larger and heavier. He figured he’d have to hide it under his bed for now.
’I wonder if there are any convenient storage items in Cultivation,’ he mused. ’Maybe it’s part of the "Artifact Refining" skill in the Hundred Skills of Cultivation?’
But even if there were, he couldn’t afford to use them.
He had pretty much figured it out now. Using any special ability in Cultivation required consuming "source," which was "Spiritual Qi." For the powerful, it might be a drop in the bucket, recovered in a single breath. But for a little first-level Qi Cultivation Junior Cultivator like him, it was like taking a knife to his own neck and bleeding out.
Fortunately, the main purpose of the Immortal Race System was to establish an Immortal Race. The reward for this main quest wasn’t a Weapon-type item, but an information-type one, so the consumption wasn’t massive.
Otherwise, for Yang Shen, it would be like a eunuch visiting a brothel—all he could do was drool.
But from that fleeting glance just now, Yang Shen felt that...
’This! This is the kind of foundation a "family" should have! Something that can be passed down forever to protect and guide the family, far more important than any Weapon!’
The Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record could be used to check the Spiritual Roots of family members! And it had many other wonderful uses!
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