Chapter 6: Qianbo Lake
However, not long after Ning Fa's parents met with an accident, the deed to this shop fell into the hands of Ning Fa's great aunt, Ning Muchun, and her husband, Meng Jinliang.
This shop was originally leased to others. Ning Fa's great aunt and her husband approached Ning Fa, saying they wanted to rent the shop to conduct Spiritual Material business.
The previous owner, considering them relatives from the same branch of the Family, agreed without much thought, even setting the rent slightly lower than before.
Thinking of this, Ning Fa felt utterly speechless. The previous owner was truly a great fool.
It was one thing to rent it out, but he was actually deceived by his aunt and her husband's sweet talk into handing over the deed, making the current Ning Fa so angry he wanted to spit blood.
At first, his aunt paid the rent normally, but later, the rent became less and less, eventually stopping altogether.
In the last year, when the previous owner was truly short on Spirit Stones and wanted to get the deed back to sell the shop...
His aunt and her husband found all sorts of excuses to obstruct him, and he never succeeded.
Moreover, after Ning Zhiyuan's death, his aunt and her husband, being the highest Cultivation Realm in their branch, naturally became the spokespersons for their branch.
Especially his uncle, Meng Jinliang, though a live-in son-in-law, he was the only Refining Qi (Late stage) Cultivator in their branch.
With him backing her, Ning Muchun, though a woman, also gained the right to speak within the branch.
Under these circumstances, the other two uncles, even if they wanted to help, couldn't do much.
Furthermore, their two families did not have Cultivators with outstanding Aptitude, so their say in the branch was not high.
Thinking of this, Ning Fa let out a sigh of relief.
He still decided to go find that aunt first. Even if he couldn't get the deed back, getting back fifty Spirit Stones would be enough.
As for the deed, there was no hurry. Once he officially became a Family Alchemist, he would settle accounts properly with that aunt.
Time was precious, so Ning Fa didn't rest. He immediately left to go to Ning Muchun's house.
...
After Ning Fa left his home, only the faint sound of waves could be heard, and the air was noticeably humid.
This was because Ning Fa's current location was on the edge of an island called Pingchang Island.
In fact, the entire Ning Family resided on a large lake called Qianbo Lake.
The area of this lake was comparable to the largest lake on Blue Star; it would not be an exaggeration to call it an ocean.
Qianbo Lake, being so vast, naturally did not only have the Ning Family as a Cultivator Family.
There were also dozens of other Cultivator Families, large and small, as well as many Loose Cultivator forces.
The Ning Family was considered a powerful force among them, ranking among the top three.
The Family had four Foundation Establishment cultivators, nearly five hundred Cultivators, among whom there were sixty to seventy Family members at the Refining Qi (Late stage) Realm.
Other Mortal Bloodline members numbered several millions.
With such strength, only the Xue Family and Qian Family could compare.
Although there were other Foundation Establishment Families, they mostly had only one Foundation Establishment Old Ancestor, far from comparable to these few Families.
More commonly, there were Refining Qi Families or small forces that didn't even have Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Moreover, Qianbo Lake was not peaceful.
Not only were there frequent attacks by Yao Beasts from the lake, but rogue Cultivators were also rampant.
Because the environment of Qianbo Lake was naturally suitable for rogue Cultivators to survive.
Qianbo Lake even formed a rogue Cultivator organization called the 【Ironclad Alliance】.
It even had two leaders at the Foundation Establishment level.
With such strength, it could already be considered a second-tier force in Qianbo Lake.
Small forces could only band together for warmth.
Only large forces like the Ning Family dared not be invaded by rogue Cultivators.
And for over six hundred years, the Ning Family, starting as a small Refining Qi Family in Qianbo Lake, has painstakingly grown to its current state, which is incredibly difficult.
Besides timing and geographical advantages...
More importantly, it was the human factor.
And the Ning Family's human factor was unique.
It did not refer to Family unity.
But rather, like a pack of wolves.
Because the Ning Family has always implemented a wolf-like strategy, very similar to the style of Demonic Path Sects.
The Ning Family encouraged competition among Family disciples, advocating the law of the jungle.
Apart from basic Family treatment, all other good things had to be fought for and seized by oneself.
Even by unscrupulous means.
This was like raising Gu.
Family disciples who stood out this way were generally ruthless, possessing both strength and cunning.
Other cultivation Families of similar scale seemed like docile sheep in comparison.
Because of this, the Ning Family always emerged victorious in external wars, constantly growing stronger.
This is how it gradually grew to its current scale.
This kind of Family governance strategy naturally had its drawbacks.
That is, it was easy for Family disciples to become selfish, even lacking loyalty to the Family, making them prone to betrayal.
This required strong Family high-level management and control.
Fortunately, over the years, the Ning Family's high-level members have generally been ambitious and strategic individuals.
They formulated extremely strict Family laws, with severe punishments for acts of Family betrayal.
Even relatives from the same branch would be directly executed, leaving no room for leniency.
At the same time, rewards for external wars were extremely generous, with the Family taking a small portion of the spoils, and the participating Family disciples receiving the larger share.
To Ning Fa, the Ning Family's strategy felt very much like the Qin State before it unified the six states.
This ensured both the wolf-like nature of the Ning Family disciples and a certain degree of Family cohesion.
Therefore, in external wars, Ning Family Cultivators were like wolves and tigers, resorting to any means necessary.
Even if the methods violated morality and heavenly principles, as long as they weren't too severe, the Ning Family would turn a blind eye.
This also gave the Ning Family a notorious reputation in Qianbo Lake.
There was even a saying, “Better to provoke a rogue Cultivator than the Ning Family.”
Currently, the Ning Family had, a few years ago, decisively defeated the old Foundation Establishment Family, the Qian Family.
It had already replaced the Qian Family's position, becoming the second most powerful force in Qianbo Lake, second only to the Xue Family.
At this point, the Ning Family ceased its conquests, retracted its claws, and began to develop steadily.
However, the long-standing atmosphere had not changed.
Even Ning Fa's great aunt's act of forcibly occupying Ning Fa's shop could be seen as a manifestation of this atmosphere.
This also made Ning Fa quite speechless, wondering why he couldn't have Rebirth in a harmonious and friendly Cultivator Family?
And now, the Ning Family was a large enterprise with many internal branches, and the struggles between them were extremely fierce.
Although Ning Fa was currently only considered a low-level member of the Ning Family, he had heard about these matters.
However, these things did not hinder the current prosperity of the Ning Family.
The Ning Family now controlled hundreds of large and small islands in Qianbo Lake, and many Ning Family Cultivators and numerous Mortal Bloodline members were scattered across these islands.
Among them, over forty islands contained Spiritual Veins, with the best even reaching a Second-Grade High Grade Spiritual Vein.
That was Ningchang Island, the Ning Family's ancestral land, where only core members of the Ning Family could reside.
Ning Fa was originally brought to Ningchang Island to Cultivate after his Thunder Spiritual Root was detected by the Family.
But later, he unexpectedly lost his long-term residency qualification and returned to his original Pingchang Island.
Pingchang Island was also where Ning Fa's lineage and some other collateral branches of the Family lived. It was not small and had a Spiritual Vein that barely reached First-Grade Medium Grade.
The island was mainly inhabited by Cultivators from several collateral branches, as well as some of their direct Mortal relatives.
Most Mortal Bloodline members were not qualified to live on such islands with Spiritual Veins.