Chapter 63: The First Family Meeting
When he got home, his aunt, who worked the day shift, hadn’t returned yet. Yang Mo and Yang Man were also still at school, waiting to be picked up.
This was the new normal after his aunt landed a full-time job.
Yang Shen checked the dinner menu on his phone and started prepping the ingredients to save his aunt some time.
Around seven-thirty, Tao Ying finally returned with Yang Mo and Yang Man. She rushed into the kitchen and started cooking, and half an hour later, five freshly made dishes were ready, each plate piled high.
They hadn’t been skimping on food at home lately; every meal was a feast.
And today, there was another piece of good news: the adoption procedures for Lei Lv and Lei Yi were complete!
"We’ve long been a family, but today is still worth celebrating," Tao Ying said, placing food on the children’s plates. "Since you’re all kids, we won’t have any alcohol. I bought you juice instead!"
Yang Mo and Yang Man sipped their orange juice, giving Lei Lv a slightly disdainful look.
It wasn’t the kind of disdain you’d have for a stranger, but the sort reserved for family, for siblings.
It had the feel of, ’You got your way again!’
As for the two girls’ feelings toward Xiaolei Yi... honestly, they had always treated him like a pet... a silly little glutton.
The family raised their juice glasses and celebrated this modest yet significant achievement.
The clinking of glasses filled with juice echoed crisply through the living room.
The legal confirmation of their relationship had come much later than the emotional one, but it was the final step in becoming a true part of the family.
When they had nearly finished eating, Yang Shen took the initiative. "Aunt, my monthly exam results are out. Aren’t you curious?"
Tao Ying smiled and wiped Xiaolei Yi’s greasy mouth. "Sounds like you’re pretty confident. I’ve been curious, actually. I always feel like you’ve been working hard lately, but I was afraid of putting pressure on you by asking."
"Let me guess... you’re bringing it up because your rank improved?"
Yang Shen: "Yes."
"You improved... did you go up 30 places!?"
"751 places."
Tao Ying nodded. "Last time you were ranked around 774th in the school. This time, 751st. You’ve improved by about 23 places. That’s amazing!"
"No, I improved *by* 751 places. My current school rank is 23rd."
Tao Ying seemed to freeze for a moment... She could recognize every word, but strung together, they made no sense.
’What the hell is improving by 751 places? It must be 751 points, right?!’
’No, that’s not right either. The total score is only 750...’
For a moment, she felt a disorienting fear of even thinking, as if her left brain might delete her right.
Actions speak louder than words. Yang Shen simply took out his report card and placed it in front of his aunt.
Tao Ying looked at it while sitting for a moment, then abruptly stood up to get a better look.
Yang Shen quickly went to support her, afraid she might have a stroke and end up looking at it while lying on the floor.
"Mid-stage Bone Training? Weren’t you at mid-stage Skin Refining..."
Tao Ying said with a grave and uneasy expression, "Shen! Is the interest rate high?"
Yang Shen: "..."
’Wait, didn’t we skip a few important steps there?’
Uncertainty and apprehension filled the small room. It wasn’t that Tao Ying was unwilling to believe Yang Shen, but that she didn’t dare to have such high hopes for life.
It was like a poor man winning the lottery; the first reaction isn’t to cheer.
It’s to check the numbers again and again to make sure you didn’t misread them.
This was also why Yang Shen hadn’t rushed to reveal everything. The focus today was solely on the *Qi Cultivation Guiding Technique*, and the report card was his way in.
Yang Shen wasn’t flustered. In a calm and steady voice, he began his explanation.
"Aunt, do you remember I told you before about the old beggar on the street, and how I bought an ’Ancient Skill’ from him?"
"The reason I improved so quickly is that Ancient Skill..."
Yang Shen retold the story of the *Qi Cultivation Guiding Technique*.
It was a stupid lie he had told back then, but a lie repeated consistently is more believable than a new one.
Rather than invent a new story, it was better to stick with the original one to the very end.
’Some people can find antiques worth tens of millions in a rural grandma’s kitchen, so why can’t I find a rare "Ancient Skill" from an old man begging on the street?’
’It’s just a matter of probability. Martial Arts flourishes on Cyan Blue, and relics from the old era are as numerous as the stars. Why couldn’t one of them fall into my hands?’
His grades would help convince his aunt.
He had even hand-copied a version of it, omitting the "Cultivation World General Knowledge" section and only including the cultivation method, claiming the "original" was too tattered to be preserved.
Tao Ying held the hand-copied technique and murmured, "You’re saying... this Cultivation Technique allows you to absorb... source energy... from the air to increase your Qi and Blood Value..."
His aunt had been a Martial Arts College student back in the day; she wasn’t ignorant about Martial Arts and quickly grasped the key point.
Yang Shen nodded. "To be precise, absorbing source energy from the air is just its early-stage effect. I suspect that at higher levels of cultivation, it will have other unique features..."
This was laying the groundwork for passing on "Magic" and "Spirit Plants" in the future, but that wasn’t on the agenda for tonight.
"This kind of Martial Arts Technique is unheard of... If it’s real, it must be incredibly precious!"
’It can’t possibly be worth only 80 yuan!’
Yang Shen nodded. "I checked on the Martial Arts intellectual property website. It’s not any Cultivation Technique that’s already been copyrighted. It must be some kind of ’Ancient Skill’ from the old era."
Tao Ying immediately said, "That old man who sold you this ’Ancient Skill’..."
Yang Shen: "He was cremated."
Tao Ying: ...?
’Wait, didn’t we skip a few important steps here?’
Yang Shen had long been polishing this "Lie 2.0" version. He wasn’t aiming for it to be convincing.
He was aiming for a story with no one left to contradict it!
"The old man was all alone and lived a miserable life. According to the technique, this Ancient Skill requires a certain aptitude; not everyone can practice it. I suspect that for generations, no one in his family had succeeded in cultivating it, so he thought it was fake and traded it for 80 yuan to buy a meal and some wine."
"After I had some success with the cultivation, I went back to look for him. People in the area said he had died. As an old, homeless man, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was killed. No one knew where he came from."
Tao Ying frowned. "The fact that not everyone can cultivate it makes it a bit more plausible. Otherwise... that old man would have become a Martial Arts master himself long ago..."
Yang Shen: "But during this time, I’ve already taught Yang Mo, Yang Man, and Lei Lv."
Tao Ying glanced at the three children in disbelief and received their confirming nods. She murmured:
"But... isn’t it very particular about aptitude?"
Yang Shen: "Luck, I guess. Yang Mo, Yang Man, and I share the same bloodline. As for Lei Lv and his brother... you could say it just came down to looks."
’It’s harsh, but, Aunt... you’re the only one in the family who can’t cultivate...’
"Auntie, with the surprise of these monthly exam results, let’s consider this the first family meeting of our Yang Family."
"From now on, our family might go through some big changes."
"This ’Ancient Skill’ will become the foundation of our family, just like the ’Secret Transmissions’ of those Martial Arts Clans."
Tao Ying murmured, "Our family... a Martial Arts Secret Transmission?"
"That’s right. A Martial Arts Secret Transmission isn’t patented, isn’t revealed publicly, and isn’t passed on to outsiders."
"Almost every Martial Arts Clan has its own Secret Transmission. Even if they don’t have one initially, they’ll acquire one after they make their fortune. It’s the core asset of the family."
He wouldn’t mention a single word about Cultivation, but it was time for the family’s Secret Transmission to be revealed.
As the owner of the "Immortal Race System," Yang Shen’s personal opportunities were already deeply bound to his family. Moreover, main quests concerning the "Cultivation progress of family members" would pop up from time to time.
This step was absolutely necessary!
Only then could he create a positive feedback loop.
Yang Shen pointed at the report card on the table. "I’m confident I can reach the Marrow Refining stage before graduation... I might not be able to guarantee getting into a top school like ’Jianghuai Sports Academy,’ but at least there’s a chance."
"And the fact that Yang Mo, Yang Man, and Lei Lv can all cultivate means... they can pursue the path of Martial Arts at a very low cost in the future, and they will be outstanding. With three years of accumulation, I can’t even imagine what level they’ll be at when they start high school."
Although the children were young and their daily Cultivation time was limited, time was on their side!
According to the customs of Yanhua Country, people usually don’t formally start Body Forging until high school. Of course, the ridiculously wealthy or the reincarnated kings of cramming would have started grinding in extracurricular classes much earlier.
Even if the three 13-year-olds were only one-tenth as efficient as Yang Shen, in three years they could still enter high school already at the Bone Training or even the Marrow Refining Realm.
As for Lei Yi... starting Cultivation at age 6, who knew what that would lead to...
In Yang Shen’s mind, this was already a level only seen in the children of Martial Arts Clans, who would almost always attend the top academies in the city.
A school full of delinquents like Nanliang High School was a little loli compared to those places!
The strongest school in Jianghuai, "Jianghuai Middle School," had a 99.5% acceptance rate into top-tier universities each year. Nearly half of its students could get into "Jianghuai Sports Academy." It was a nexus of wealth and talent.
It was foreseeable that in three years, the children’s starting point would be extremely high. By then, the Yang Family would also need the ability to protect them.
At the very least, they needed people to recognize them as a Martial Arts Clan that possessed a "Secret Technique," not as some random bystander holding a treasure, ripe for the picking by anyone who passed by.
So, from now until three years later, they had to operate under the assumption that several young geniuses would emerge in the family. In terms of mindset, strength, and educational planning, they had to start moving in the direction of a proper "Martial Arts Clan."
This first step was to get everyone in the family on the same page, align their granularity, clear the decision-making pipeline, and empower the track-switching.
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