Although he currently held no hope of a breakthrough, Zhou Ping was thoroughly overjoyed. He had finally figured out how Ding Fire was generated.

[Ding Fire]: 10

[Talent]: Low Grade

[Cultivation]: Spirit Awakening Realm

[Descendants]: 2

In merely five years, his Ding Fire had condensed back to ten points!

Zhou Ping discovered that while Ding Fire did indeed generate at a rate of one point per year, the source came from both him and his bloodline descendants. Between him and Zhou Minghu, the two of them had condensed exactly ten points of Ding Fire over five years.

That meant the more descendants he had, the more Ding Fire points he would accumulate each year.

Even if the amount of Ding Fire required to improve his talent next time was massive, as long as he had enough descendants, he could eventually save up enough.

Of course, there was another possibility. Perhaps only descendants whose talent had been altered by Ding Fire could generate it.

By the time he understood the origin of Ding Fire, it was already a year after Zhou Minghu's birth. Coupled with the fact that Chen Nianqiu needed to recuperate her body, they naturally had to set things aside for a while. It was only this year that her belly showed signs of movement again.

Looking at these ten points of Ding Fire, Zhou Ping had to carefully consider whether to use them to improve the talent of his second child, or save them for his own future use.

After all, he still did not know if all descendants could condense Ding Fire, or if only those with cultivation talent could do so.

If it was the former, then everyone would naturally be happy. But if it was the latter, it meant he had to improve his children's talent first. Only with enough talented descendants would Ding Fire condense quickly enough.

In the end, Zhou Ping resolutely used these ten points of Ding Fire to improve the talent of his unborn child.

Regardless of whether it was the former or the latter, this was still his child.

Such was the heart of a parent in this world. The palm and the back of the hand were both made of flesh; how could he not love them equally?

As long as one stepped onto the path of cultivation, even if they failed to open their spiritual apertures, they would still live more than a decade longer than ordinary mortals.

His parents, his elder brother and sister-in-law, and Nianqiu were all mortals. They were destined to pass away before Zhou Ping. That was an unchangeable fact. But his child had not yet been born and still had a chance to defy their fate. How could he bear to watch a white-haired parent bury a black-haired child?

Even knowing the immense risks involved, Zhou Ping was still willing to do it.

In the cultivation world, the children born to powerful cultivators did not always possess cultivation talent. However, the stronger the cultivator, the greater the likelihood that their descendants would have talent. Conversely, the weaker the cultivation, the smaller the chance.

Ten or twenty percent of the children of Foundation Establishment cultivators had talent. For Profound Core cultivators and above, their descendants were guaranteed to have talent.

But here in the mortal dust, perhaps only one out of several hundred children would be born with cultivation talent, and ninety-nine percent of those would be of Low Grade talent.

Yet, high-level cultivators were ultimately few in number. Their great personal strength actually made the likelihood of producing offspring extremely low.

It was precisely because cultivators were so scarce, and because evil spirits and Demon Beasts roamed the world, that cultivators continued to perish.

That was why those high-level cultivators established sprawling Sects, selecting cultivation seedlings from the sea of mortals. They even accepted those with Low Grade talent like Zhou Ping. The intent was for them to gain some cultivation before returning to the mortal world to marry, have children, establish clans, and safeguard the peace of a region.

After all, no matter how poor one's talent was, they were still a cultivator. The probability of their descendants possessing cultivation talent was significantly higher than that of ordinary mortals. Furthermore, having some cultivation allowed them to protect their local area.

This was a strategy all human powerhouses secretly promoted. The human race had not been a dominant force for long. Over half of this world remained a barbaric wasteland ravaged by Demon Beasts. But human cultivators were simply too few to expand their territory. They could only try every possible method to birth more cultivators.

Places like Qingshui County sat directly on the border between human lands and the barbaric Demon Beasts. The earth veins here had been shattered in a great war long ago and had only begun to recover over the past three hundred years. That was why the Spiritual Qi in this region was so incredibly thin.

But even if the descendants of a Spirit Awakening Realm cultivator had a slightly higher chance of possessing talent than mortals, it was still extremely slim. Meanwhile, the mortal population base was unimaginably massive, making up ninety-nine percent of the human race.

To prevent Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators from ruling as local tyrants and monopolizing an area's resources for a single clan, a societal rule emerged where Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators and mortals held equal status.

Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators were already inherently stronger than mortals. If they were granted transcendent status as well, the resources they consumed in a single region could feed dozens of mortal families. That would plunge the mortals into poverty, preventing them from living and reproducing in peace, which would naturally result in fewer offspring overall.

Since the gap in the probability of producing a talented child between a Spirit Awakening Realm cultivator and a mortal was not that large, it was naturally better to favor the side with the vastly larger population base.

Of course, even with this equal status, Spirit Awakening Realm cultivators were still leagues above mortals. Just like Zhou Ping-a single man could intimidate an entire clan and uphold a household.

Only upon reaching the Qi Condensation Realm was the boundary between immortal and mortal truly severed. Those who could reach Qi Condensation generally did not have poor talent, and the likelihood of their descendants having cultivation talent would increase dramatically.

If the Zhou family produced a Qi Condensation cultivator right now, they would immediately be like the Pingyun Huang Clan to the west, receiving an official enfeoffment from Zhaoping Commandery to become a true cultivation clan governing a territory. Naturally, they would have to shoulder the corresponding duties.

This was also why, despite Zhou Ping being a cultivator, the four great surnames were not particularly wary of the Zhou family. They simply believed the Zhou family would not produce another cultivator.

The Zhou family's foundation was far too weak. Only Zhou Ping was holding it up. It would take who knew how many years for their numbers to catch up to the other clans. The four surnames only needed to sit back and wait for Zhou Ping to grow old and die.

But if they knew that Zhou Minghu could cultivate, the four clans would have long since taken the desperate risk to assassinate the boy. Even Zhou Ping himself would be drowned in a sea of human lives.

And if all of Zhou Ping's children possessed cultivation talent, it would not just attract the four surnames, but factions from across the entire world!

A lowly cultivator whose children could all cultivate-he must harbor a massive secret for Defying the Heavens to change fate.

When that happened, let alone the Zhou family, the entirety of Qingshui County would be instantly annihilated in the ensuing slaughter, leaving nothing behind.

"Sigh."

Zhou Ping let out a long sigh. Having witnessed the cruelty of the cultivation world, he naturally understood the lethal dangers involved. But he could not let fear paralyze his family's progress. Every additional cultivator broadened their future just a bit more.

Moreover, these were his children. He couldn't let them die before him!

Zhou Ping's mind was weighed down by heavy thoughts when an anxious shout suddenly rang out from outside.

"Second Brother!"

Both father and son abruptly stood up and hurried outside, only to see Zhou Hong rushing toward them.

Over these five years, Zhou Hong had grown somewhat stout. He increasingly looked the part of a wealthy landlord, his authority growing day by day, though a few white hairs now peeked from his temples.

Zhou Ping was already twenty-five, making Zhou Hong only in his early thirties. Although he was in the prime of life, the exhaustion and accumulated injuries from tilling the fields in his youth had already seeped into his bones. Even though Zhou Ping had used Spiritual Qi to nurse Zhou Hong's body, those white hairs were inevitable.

This was the tragedy of all farmboys who clawed their meals from the dirt. Bitter toil and exhaustion aged a man, making them wither prematurely. It was everywhere one looked-men in their thirties and forties who appeared as frail as graybeards in their fifties.

Zhou Hong was relatively lucky to have been nursed back to health. Zhou Dashan, however, was left with a body riddled with ailments. He was already in his twilight years, spending his days moving a rocking chair out into the courtyard just to watch his grandchildren frolic.

"Big Brother, what happened?" Zhou Ping asked in confusion.

Beside him, Zhou Minghu also called out respectfully, "Uncle."

Zhou Hong first gave Zhou Minghu a careful look and nodded slightly in response. He naturally knew the secret of Zhou Minghu's cultivation talent, so even though the boy was only five, he never disregarded his presence.

After all, with Minghu possessing cultivation talent, he was destined to lead the Zhou clan in the future. Zhou Hong's own bloodline would naturally be reduced to a collateral branch.

By cultivating some goodwill in the boy's heart now, his own branch wouldn't fare too poorly in the future.

"Liu Xiu, the soldier from the Liu family, has returned!" Zhou Hong said in a low voice.

Zhou Ping's eyes instantly sharpened. Over these five years, he had used his identity as the Village Head to constantly suppress the four surnames, but they were as slippery as mud loaches, making it impossible for him to get a firm grip on them.

Coupled with the fact that each of the four clans had their own backing, the situation could only remain in this stalemate.

Zhou Ping asked, "With what rank did he return?"

"I heard he's a Commander of Ten with some military merits," Zhou Hong said. "It seems he broke his leg saving someone on the battlefield and was forced to return home to retire."

"And Liu Wu? Did he come back together with him?"

Since Zhou Ping intended to exterminate the four great surnames, he naturally had to investigate their backgrounds thoroughly. Among them, the Wang and Sun families had clansmen working as minor clerks in the county town. Though they lacked official ranks, they still held some influence in the yamen. The Qian family, heavily familiar with the mountains, was tightly connected to the county merchant houses through the mountain goods trade, and had even hooked up with an old cultivator from one of those houses. Only the Liu family was the most lowly of the four. They had neither official patronage nor alternative connections. They only possessed two to three hundred mu of farmland.

Yet, Zhou Ping was most wary of the Liu family, solely because of their sheer audacity and ruthlessness.

Four years ago, Liu Ming went to the prefectural city of Nanyang to take the prefectural examination. He failed for three consecutive years, yet the Liu family still pooled the entire clan's wealth to support him.

One must understand that supporting a scholar entirely removed from production-covering the costs of his brush, ink, paper, inkstone, food, clothing, and travel expenses-required several people to starve and tighten their belts. Let alone for three consecutive years!

When Liu Xiu gained the appreciation of a noble in the military, the Liu family sent both money and men. When Liu Feng ran the jianghu circuits in Qingshui County, the Liu family secretly backed him...

Because of these actions, the Liu family not only failed to accumulate any wealth over the past five years, but they even sold off some of their farmland, showing faint signs of imminent collapse.

But Zhou Ping knew that if even a single one of those paths succeeded, the Liu family would take to the skies, instantly transforming into vicious wolves that would swallow them all whole!

Zhou Hong shook his head. "Only Liu Xiu. None of the other Liu sons returned."

Zhou Ping's heart instantly sank. He would rather Liu Xiu had returned as a Commander of a Hundred with his clansmen in tow, rather than seeing the situation as it was now.

Since Liu Xiu had won the favor of a military noble, even if he returned wounded, he absolutely would not have come back with such a lowly rank.

The fact that he was only a Commander of Ten meant there was a massive possibility he had refused all rewards, solely to allow Liu Wu and the others to secure a firm foothold in the army!

"As the Village Head, with an old soldier returning home, I naturally must go and welcome him," Zhou Ping murmured softly.

"Big Brother, you are now the one in charge of our household. Coming with me to take a look will show our sincerity."

Zhou Ping believed in striking a single, lethal blow. If he did not have absolute certainty of victory, he would absolutely not make a move.

Therefore, over these five years, the Zhou family had constantly focused on farming and managing the household, remaining honest and low-profile, maintaining a harmonious facade with the four surnames. Even when the Liu family was selling land, they only bought a small portion at the normal market price.

Anyway, once Minghu grew up, their own family would naturally rise to power.

In contrast, the other three clans had not hesitated to throw stones down the well when the Liu family was forced to sell their land, constantly suppressing the field prices and causing the Liu family to suffer heavy losses.