Chapter 529: Chapter 256: Inborn Candidates
An entire Inborn quota, Lu Yuan reserved it for his eldest son, Lu He.
As for the remaining half, he was somewhat hesitant.
Actually, it can be considered a complete quota, though the term half quota is used.
Nowadays, the Great Chu dominates three prefectures, spanning thousands of miles.
With such expansive territory, collecting Divine Blood Spirit Medicine to help someone break through Innate within it was naturally achievable.
However, gathering enough spiritual medicine to cultivate an Inborn Grandmaster was a bit difficult.
It would be impossible without exterminating some Jianghu factions and martial arts families.
At this time, Lu Yuan’s priorities were to stabilize the country, develop national strength, and gather Qi Luck, so he naturally didn’t want to engage in activities that would disturb local stability and greatly reduce national power.
So, even though he knew that by being ruthless, he could bear the cost of a few million deaths and the risk of domestic turmoil for several years, he could cultivate an Inborn expert, he never did it.
However, without exterminating the Jianghu factions and martial arts families, and taking all their centuries of accumulated resources together, isn’t possible.
But with the prestige of King Chu and the threat of the army’s might, these Jianghu factions and martial arts families would hand over a portion of the Divine Blood Spirit Medicine.
He believed that in the face of the survival of their sects and families, many people would make the wise choice.
If they still turned a blind eye in the end, then for these insubordinate people, there would be no difference from rebellion.
Direct extermination would be absolutely right.
Thus by following this strategy, gathering some Divine Blood Spirit Medicine within the country, supplementing the insufficient amount with Immortal Spirit Qi, and then considering the remaining half quota as a full one, it was still possible to cultivate an Inborn Grandmaster.
Thus, the future of Great Chu could see the emergence of two more Inborn Grandmasters, which is certain.
It’s just that the candidates for these two Inborn Grandmasters made Lu Yuan somewhat troubled.
The former had already chosen Lu He, his eldest son, who was of his own flesh and blood and a direct relative; naturally, he would have no problems believing in him.
However, the remaining one would be somewhat difficult.
For this last quota, Lu Yuan had two people in mind.
One was his good friend Sun Siwen, with a simple reason – he could trust this person absolutely. Letting this good friend breakthrough Innate meant that there would be no need to worry about the possibility of betrayal.
But choosing Sun Siwen had some drawbacks.
This person was older, already over forty years old, and had never practiced martial arts before.
Now, allowing him to switch to martial arts, with Lu Yuan’s wholehearted cultivation and huge investment of resources, was not impossible to make up for it and break through Innate.
However, whether this friend was willing to switch to martial arts was still a problem.
Naturally, Lu Yuan’s intention was for his friend to practice martial arts.
In this way, after breaking through Innate, the other party could live up to 150 years old, and they could spend more time together.
Otherwise, with his current physical condition as an ordinary person, he might live up to seventy or eighty years at most, and then die of old age on his deathbed.
Every time he thought of Sun Siwen’s departure in twenty or thirty years, or thirty or forty years later, Lu Yuan felt a surge of unwillingness and sadness in his heart.
So if he could keep his friend by his side for a few more decades, even if it meant using an Innate quota, he was willing to do it.
However, this still required the other party’s consent.
Apart from Sun Siwen, Lu Yuan’s second preferred candidate was his second son, Lu Hao.
The reason was the same as for his eldest son Lu He – as his own legitimate second son, flesh and blood, if you can’t trust your own family, who can you trust?
As parents, who wouldn’t want their children to be like dragons, each becoming successful?
If both sons could become Inborn experts, not only would it greatly enrich the Chu State’s foundation, but it could also become a beautiful tale in the world.
As for this idea, Lu Yuan was naturally moved.
“Let’s wait and see. If Brother Sun doesn’t want to practice martial arts, and I can’t persuade him, then this quota will go to Hao’er,”
Lu Yuan made a decision after deliberating in his heart.
…
It was September when he returned to Baling from Xiangyang.
Although he had been away for a month, King Chu’s departure from the capital did not attract any attention, and no one even knew about it.
When the king had not shown up for a month, everyone assumed he was staying in the royal palace, accompanying his newborn child, and therefore not engaging in state affairs.
For this, the ministers had no major objections.
After all, there were left and right Prime Ministers in charge of domestic affairs, everything was running smoothly, the local government was well-functioning, and the people were happy. Whether the king was involved or not made no difference.
Even if the layman didn’t meddle, the ministers would be happier!
Having virtuous ministers in the court is the ideal for these scholars.
Interestingly, today’s Chu State had a taste of this idea.
The king didn’t handle affairs of state, only focusing on military affairs, and all domestic matters were handled by the civil officials.
Isn’t this a virtuous court?
However, on the other hand, the king spent time in the harem, giving birth to more heirs, which would provide more successors for the increasingly expanding Chu State, thus stabilizing the foundation of the country.
The ministers had no reason to admonish, and on the contrary, should give more support.
As a result, no one knew about Lu Yuan’s departure, and even the news of Zhou Qing breaking through Inborn was tightly sealed.
Except for him and Zhou Qing, no one else knew about it.
The reason was simple.
He was afraid that others would know and target Zhou Qing.
With two Inborn experts in the Chu State, the neighboring countries were already quite wary and apprehensive.
If one more Inborn expert emerged, could the Chu State still be governed?
If not, how would the Zhou Country regain its Xiangyang Prefecture, and how would the Ning Country regain its Dongting and Xichuan Prefectures?