The first lanterns began to glow.

The vast courtyard of the Qin residence was bright as day, and the clamor of voices nearly lifted the roof. The scents of fine delicacies, mellow wine, the rouge and powder of the household’s women, and the swagger of male guests holding forth all mingled together, weaving a web named “wealth and rank.”

Today was Qin Lu’s fifty-fifth birthday.

Seated in the place of honor, Qin Lu wore brand-new clothes, a gentle smile on his face as he calmly received the endless stream of guests coming forward to offer congratulations. Amid the toasts and conversation, his gaze swept across the courtyard.

Under the corridor to the left was his eldest son, eighteen-year-old Qin Wanlin, a spirited young man chatting and laughing with several sons of the city’s notables—already faintly the core of the next generation.

Inside the flower hall to the right sat his second son, sixteen-year-old Qin Wanchuan, his expression cold, arms crossed, sitting in silence.

Thirteen-year-old Qin Yuxuan, his third child and eldest daughter, was attended by a maidservant as she delicately ate pastries; her lively, intelligent eyes looked thoroughly bright.

Further away were his two youngest children, a boy and a girl.

Before he knew it, twenty years had gone by...

Qin Lu raised his jade goblet and drank, the bouquet of the wine filling his throat and stirring deeper memories.

He was a transmigrator.

He remembered the year when his soul had accidentally fallen from the twenty-first century into this world of cultivation, seizing the body of a lowly rogue cultivator in Greenstone Ward. That man had been just over twenty, at the second layer of Qi Refining, with nothing to his name.

At the time, Qin Lu had thought he would be the protagonist of a traditional xianxia tale.

Rare adventures, divine techniques, beauties, ascending to immortality... all would be easily within his grasp! He would be an immortal roaming free across the world!

Reality, though, was as cold as a blade.

He quickly learned the truth: he possessed a “Ninth-Grade Absolute Spiritual Root.” It was the waste aptitude universally scorned in the cultivation world; his spirit energy affinity was so appallingly low that no matter how he absorbed power, the energy would rapidly dissipate.

For fifteen years he struggled to survive at the bottom rung of Greenstone Ward, enduring countless sneers and bitter hardships, straining with all his might only to raise his cultivation from the second layer of Qi Refining to the third.

That barrier blocking the middle stage of Qi Refining was, to him, nothing short of a heavenly chasm!

Longevity? Divine powers? Freedom?

All were nothing but flowers in a mirror, the moon’s reflection on water!

Fifteen years of wasted time had worn away his sharp edges and exhausted his spirit. In the end, he accepted reality. Taking the meager savings he had left, he resolutely left the market and plunged headlong into the mortal world.

Using a few minor tricks of a cultivator, he quickly established himself among ordinary folk. He married the daughter of a wealthy merchant as his principal wife and took a number of beautiful concubines.

Wealth, status, beauty, offspring...

These things that ordinary people yearned for, he could obtain with ease.

In the blink of an eye, twenty years had passed. The down-and-out rogue cultivator who had once squabbled over a few spirit stones in the ward had now become a person of great consequence in this city, having fathered five children, his family harmonious and wanting for nothing in food or drink.

‘Cultivation? Hah, even a dog wouldn’t…’

Qin Lu narrowed his eyes slightly, savoring the flattery and noise filling the hall, ready to bid final farewell to that unbearably wretched past.

Ding!

A cold electronic sound rang out without the slightest warning from the depths of his soul.

The smile on Qin Lu’s face instantly froze. His hand jerked violently, wine splashing out and soaking a patch of his robe.

The mechanical voice continued:

[Host age detected: 55 years... Binding Cultivation Family System...]

[Binding successful! Host: Qin Lu.]

[Main Quest 1: Branch Out and Multiply]

[Objective: Produce three offspring.]

[Status: Completed '5/3']

[Dispensing reward...]

[Quest Reward: Bloodline Sense Technique. Permission to view basic information of family offspring members enabled.]

[Ding!]

[Main Quest 2: Bloodline Spirit Awakening]

[Objective: Have first offspring possessing a spiritual root.]

[Status: Incomplete '0/1']

[Side Quest 1: Pulling the Thread of a Fine Match]

[Objective: Arrange a marriage for a family offspring through matchmaking.]

[Reward: 30 points of Clan Fortune]

‘Uh…’

Qin Lu’s entire body went rigid in the seat of honor. His heart pounded like a war drum, ramming madly against his chest. The shackles of a Ninth-Grade Absolute Spiritual Root, twenty years sinking in the mundane, the comfort of surrounded by wives and concubines, the satisfaction of a house full of children... All those emotions were bombarded to pieces before the cold, mechanical system prompt!

A hallucination?

Drunkenness?

Or... a golden finger that had arrived far too late?!

“My lord? Are you alright?”

His principal wife, Madam Li, was the first to notice her husband’s strangeness. She asked in a low, concerned voice, signaling a maidservant to bring a clean handkerchief. A few guests nearby also cast puzzled looks, murmuring among themselves.

“N-no... no matter!”

Qin Lu jolted awake, forcibly suppressing the stormy seas roiling inside him. The muscles on his face twitched as he strained to squeeze out a smile. “The wine was too strong, went to my head for a moment... everyone, forgive me, forgive me!”

He took the handkerchief and haphazardly wiped his robe, covering his lapse. Yet a monstrous wave surged within his heart.

System!

Cultivation Family!

Bloodline!

Spiritual Root!

Quests!

Each word struck like a heavy hammer against the walls of a heart that had long since deemed the immortal path severed.

Was the springtime that belonged to him, Qin Lu, finally about to arrive?

No way?

‘Offspring... spiritual roots…’

Qin Lu glanced at those so-called main quests. He had no idea whether his five children possessed spiritual roots. After all, first, he had no Spirit Measuring Stone to test their constitutions; second, he lacked the realm of a Foundation Establishment cultivator that could directly perceive a mortal’s inner foundation. And third, and most importantly, even if his children had spiritual roots, he had absolutely no cultivation resources to nurture them.

But now, things seemed to be changing!

Qin Lu could hardly wait. Almost at once, he activated the ability called Bloodline Sense Technique in his mind, his gaze shooting like lightning toward his sons and daughters.

First, his intent locked onto his eldest son, Qin Wanlin, beyond the corridor.

A transparent attribute panel appeared before his eyes.

[Name: Qin Wanlin]

[Spiritual Root: None]

[Cultivation: None]

[Technique: None]

[Talent: Cunning Mind [45%]]

A long string of “None” stung the eyes.

‘As expected, the eldest has no spiritual root…’

Seeing this, Qin Lu felt not the slightest disappointment. Instead, a shrewd glint flickered in his eye! With a mind now scrutinizing the future, his intent shifted to his second son, Qin Wanchuan.

[Name: Qin Wanchuan]

[Spiritual Root: None]

[Cultivation: None]

[Technique: None]

[Talent: None]

Another heap of piercing “None.” And not even a talent this time. His intent did not pause, swiftly sweeping over the information of his daughter Qin Yuxuan and his two youngest children. As expected, they too had no spiritual roots.

Looking at the utterly unremarkable information for his five children, Qin Lu felt a sense of “so that’s how it was” rise in his heart. Spiritual roots were rare beyond measure, barely one in a thousand, one in ten thousand; how could they appear so easily?

Out of a city of tens of thousands, those with spiritual roots might number only three or five. Qin Lu himself had a Ninth-Grade Absolute Spiritual Root, his wives and concubines were all ordinary mortals, and it was almost certainly likely that his children would be mediocre. Besides, if they had spiritual roots, that main quest would already show as completed.

Yet... none of that mattered!

What mattered above all was that the golden finger was real! He could truly see the basic information panels for his children!

Approaching sixty, the tool to defy fate and change his destiny had finally arrived!

With the system in hand, what did mere spiritual root aptitude count for? It was nothing but a problem waiting to be solved!

‘Hahaha! Heaven has not abandoned me, Qin Lu!’

A wild elation exploded in Qin Lu’s chest, almost bursting from his throat, and in his heart he roared without a sound:

‘Cultivation? Even a dog wouldn’t... Hmph! What I cultivate is precisely immortality!’