With only one day left until the Immortal-Mortal Passage opens, Zhou Fan leaned back in a lounge chair in Luoyun Temple's small courtyard, reviewing his actions over the past decade.
He also pondered how to deal with the approaching Jiang Family Cultivators from the Cultivation World.
"System, display my current panel."
"Host: Zhou Fan
Luck Value: 34400 points
Body Refining Realm: Heavenly Human Realm
Qi Refining Realm: Qi Training Late Stage
Physique: Nine Yang Body, Extreme Overlord Body (Beginner Stage)
Spiritual Root: Inferior Yin Spiritual Root
Cultivation Technique: Yin Yang Creation Skill (Major Achievement)
Lifespan (Remaining): 170 years
Dao Companion: Yaya (1/1)
Offspring: 989 (No Spiritual Root) / 9 (Inferior, Ordinary Spiritual Root) / 3 (Unborn)
Evaluation: A golden carp is no mere pond dweller; once it encounters wind and clouds, it transforms into a Dragon."
"That's a good evaluation today. As a reward, you can have the System unblocked for half an hour tonight."
"Hehe, Host's ability is extraordinary, greatly benefiting the Fan Realm. This System is just speaking the truth."
After conversing with the System for a few moments, Zhou Fan spent 18,000 Luck points to upgrade his Inferior Yin Spiritual Root to an Ordinary Yin Spiritual Root.
As a cool, comfortable sensation spread through his Sea of Consciousness, Zhou Fan's hard-earned Luck points instantly dropped to 16,400.
Previously, when he first had a friendly exchange with Fu Fu Jie, Zhou Fan had raised his cultivation to Qi Training Late Stage, leaving him with 3,400 Luck points.
Later, after killing Jiang Wudao of the Heavenly Human Realm, he gained 12,000 Luck points. The three Imperial princesses, Empress Su Caiwei, Pei Yu Han, and Yang Ruoyao, then successively befriended Zhou Fan, collectively contributing 9,000 Luck points.
Not long after the Spring Festival nine years ago, another Son of Destiny, Ye Fan, incited his Innate Master to challenge him.
Unfortunately, his Master was a male, and was easily killed by Zhou Fan, contributing only 1,000 Luck points.
Three years ago, the Son of Destiny Ye Fan finally broke through to the Heavenly Human Realm and immediately rushed to seek revenge.
Then he was killed by Zhou Fan with two punches.
To be honest, among Sons of Destiny, Ye Fan was clearly far more useless than Jiang Wudao.
He was a pure roadside nobody; even after breaking through to the Heavenly Human Realm and reaching his complete form, Zhou Fan only gained 9,000 Luck points from killing him.
No wonder he spent so long with Yaya in the original storyline but never even touched her until his death. Ye Fan's Son of Destiny status was truly low-tier.
Furthermore, due to Ye Fan's weak strength, he didn't even have the common power-up ability of a Son of Destiny, so he didn't leave anything good for Zhou Fan after his death.
However, the iron piece left behind by the Son of Destiny Jiang Wudao after his death was quite extraordinary. After nine years of studying the Legacy on the iron piece, Zhou Fan discovered that it could forcibly break through the first of the Nine Martial Dao Restrictions.
After forcibly breaking through the first Restriction using the iron piece, one's entire Meridians would be forcibly opened for a short period, and the True Qi flow within the Meridians would greatly increase, strengthening the body's functions, thereby allowing one to unleash power far beyond normal in a short time.
But after forcibly breaking through the first Restriction, if one cannot end the battle and pull out the iron piece within a short time, then, like Jiang Wudao back then, the entire Meridians will uncontrollably swell and eventually burst, leading to death.
After System identification, Zhou Fan learned that this iron piece was inherently incomplete. To fully control the power of breaking the first Restriction, it was best to use it only after his Body Refining Realm broke through to the Meridian Unlocking Realm.
The three Body Refining Realms—Meridian Unlocking, Qi Condensation, and Elemental Transformation—correspond respectively to the Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul Realms in the Qi Refining Realm.
Zhou Fan's current accumulation was already sufficient. Once he entered the Cultivation World, he could immediately spend 1,000 Luck points to raise his Body Refining Realm to the Meridian Unlocking Realm, and simultaneously spend 500 Luck points to raise his Qi Refining Realm to the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Previously, if he wanted to break through both Body Refining and Qi Refining Realms simultaneously, it would have originally required a total of 5,000 Luck points.
But over these years, besides making friends everywhere and strolling through the Imperial Palace, Zhou Fan spent most of his remaining time Cultivating.
Therefore, the total cost for Breakthroughs now only required 1,500 Luck points.
As for how those 998 offspring came to be, it was naturally due to Zhou Fan's diligent efforts and excessive labor day and night.
The phrase "three thousand beauties in the harem" was originally just a metaphorical exaggeration, but under Zhou Fan's triennial selection of consorts, the number of concubines in the Great Qian Dynasty's Imperial Harem genuinely exceeded a thousand, with more than half of them having children.
However, despite the large number of offspring, only 9 had Spiritual Roots, all of which were Inferior Spiritual Roots and Ordinary Spiritual Roots, with not a single Yellow Spiritual Root.
This was normal and quite consistent with the reproductive patterns of the Cultivation World.
Zhou Fan only had an Inferior Spiritual Root, and had just advanced to an Ordinary Spiritual Root. Most people in the Imperial Palace were Mortals, so having nine children with Spiritual Roots was already good.
To have descendants with high Aptitude, he still needed to go to the Cultivation World and find Fairies with high Aptitude.
Zhou Fan had cultivated in the Fan Realm for ten years. Although the quality of his descendants wasn't very high, the quantity was up to standard.
When the number of offspring without Spiritual Roots exceeded five, Zhou Fan received a System reward: the Pill Formula for the Second-tier Spirit Gathering Pill. This Medicinal Pill was the choice for most Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators to improve their cultivation.
It had minimal pill toxins and potent medicinal effects, making it a hard currency among Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators for trade.
When the number of offspring without Spiritual Roots exceeded 10, Zhou Fan received the complete experience Legacy of a First-tier Talisman Maker and a comprehensive First-tier Talisman Compendium.
When the number of offspring without Spiritual Roots exceeded 50, Zhou Fan received the complete experience Legacy of a First-tier Formation Master and a comprehensive First-tier Formation Compendium.
When the number of offspring without Spiritual Roots reached 100, Zhou Fan received the complete experience Legacy of a Second-tier Alchemist; at 500, he received the complete experience Legacy of a Second-tier Artifact Refiner.
When the number of offspring with Spiritual Roots exceeded 5, the System directly rewarded Zhou Fan with the complete experience Legacy of a Third-tier Alchemist.
Therefore, Zhou Fan was now a Third-tier Alchemist, a Second-tier Artifact Refiner, a First-tier Talisman Maker, and a First-tier Formation Master.
He also possessed the Pill Formulas for Building Foundation Pill and Spirit Gathering Pill, two very practical and popular Medicinal Pills.
These skills were hard-earned, relying on Zhou Fan's efforts and everyone's sweat.
After organizing his gains over these years, Zhou Fan thought of the information Fu Fu Jie had told him.
Each time the Immortal-Mortal Passage opened, there were three locations in this Fan Realm that allowed the two Realms to connect.
One location was the teleportation Formation within Luoyun Temple, another was the teleportation Formation within the Great Qian Dynasty, and the last was the overseas market on the eastern side of the continent.
Among them, the teleportation Formations within Luoyun Temple and the Great Qian Dynasty were fixed-point teleports, only able to transport to the teleportation points within the Sect/Family of the two Cultivation powers.
However, the Immortal-Mortal Passage at the overseas market was a random teleport, meaning those who passed through it could appear anywhere in the Flame Domain of the Cultivation World that lacked a protective Formation.
The Flame Domain was one of the nineteen major domains in the Cultivation World. Luoyun Temple, the Cultivation Family Jiang Family, and the Zhou Family were all located within the Flame Domain.
After weighing the pros and cons, Zhou Fan decided to go to Luoyun Temple with Shen Yufu.
But before that, he still needed to deal with the arriving Jiang Family Cultivators from the Cultivation World.