After chatting casually with his friend for a while, Zhangye suddenly seemed to think about something and spoke.
"By the way, now that Tianren's talent is so obvious, it shouldn't be hard to get him admitted to the Tiger Claw Hall. With that connection, it might be possible to get your hands on the Tiger Claw martial art that you've always asked about."
Shu Yang hesitated for a moment before answering, "I'll think about it."
"You should at least have him sign up to one of the halls in town," Zhangye advised, "With his talent, he can probably reach the 1st-grade stage in the future. But that relies on him having a martial art to guide him. It would be a shame to waste his talent."
Shu Yang obviously wouldn't let his son be without a martial art to study. But he'd have to give it some more thought if the best option was to sign him up for a martial hall.
It was certainly tempting if it meant that he could get his hands on another martial art. He still only had the Hurricane art from his father-in-law, and that was only a middle-grade one. The 'high-grade' one he had been following in order to advance to the 1st grade was completely deduced by Shu Yang himself, without any other martial art as a reference.
And now, his current top-grade martial art was also completely deduced by himself without any reference. It took him almost a whole year to figure it out.
Besides, the resulting martial art was…somewhat lacking.
With a weaker martial art to follow, Shu Yang didn't feel quite comfortable. He couldn't afford to waste any opportunity that could help him increase his strength.
'I really need to make that trip to the Kuo City soon. Perhaps it's safer now that Tianren has advanced.'
The reason he didn't leave immediately after advancing to the 1st-grade as planned was that things had been slightly chaotic in the area lately, and Shu Yang didn't want to leave his family without protection.
There were two aspects to the unrest. One was that over a dozen families had been slaughtered in their homes in the villages surrounding Chunsi Town over the past few years. From what Shu Yang could understand, it was a crime committed by the same type of people who had almost broken into Shu Yang's house three years ago.
Even if the chances his family would be next weren't high, Shu Yang didn't dare risk it.
The other thing that troubled him was that the Liang family was increasingly getting out of hand. Shu Yang had heard of several instances where a member of the Liang family would extort someone in the village, beat someone up, or even grab a young woman as a concubine despite protests from the family.
Complaining didn't help, as the deputy of the police was Liang Cong, and he would sweep all these matters under the rug.
Not only that, he would retaliate against anyone who came to the Office in Chunsi to report on the Liang family.
Without consequences, the actions of the Liang family grew bolder and bolder.
'I need to figure out a way to keep my family safe during my absence, or there is no telling when I'll get the opportunity to make the trip.'
The feast lasted long into the night, with neighbours showing up to congratulate one after another. But Shu Yang clearly noticed Qianyue's smile fade as time went by, and Ren Ming gave him a colder and colder glare.
Shu Yang sighed. There was nothing he could do. During the visits from the villagers, a few hinted not-so-subtly that they had a pretty daughter at home, old enough for marriage.
It would be fine if it were Tianren they were interested in; even if he was still too young, it was reasonable to try your best to lock up such a man as early as possible.
But that wasn't most people's objective.
Seeing how Shu Yang was still only in his 20s, with good looks, a lot of money, and even martial arts strength, they all thought he might be interested in taking in a concubine.
That was very common in wealthier families. But Shu Yang turned them all down.
Ren Ming's expression eased slightly, seeing Shu Yang uninterested. But Qianyue didn't look much happier.
Late into the night, when all the guests had left and the children had gone to bed, Shu Yang embraced his wife and asked softly, "What's got you feeling so down?"
"Nothing," Qianyue said, shaking her head and leaning against Shu Yang's chest.
Shu Yang sighed and brought her to sit down in his lap. "Is it about the offers of taking in a concubine? Are you jealous? You know I turned them all away, right?"
"I'm not jealous," Qianyue scoffed, "I'm just thinking…Well…What about the future?"
"Not in the future either," Shu Yang answered, "I already have you. I'm already as content as a man can be."
He had, of course, thought about having a bunch of women; no one with the Bloodline Tree could ignore that thought. His power would grow a lot faster if he just focused on fathering as many children as possible.
But he had thrown that thought away long ago. Not to mention that he genuinely loved Qingyue, he also didn't think that was the best way of increasing his power.
A bunch of children he couldn't afford to support or take the time to raise wouldn't give him much Bloodline Power, their family lines would fizzle out and come to nothing in the end.
It was better to do it properly, to make sure he built a successful family clan that would last generation after generation.
So his interest in taking in a few ordinary women that would only cause instability in the house was very low.
"Hmph," Qianyue snorted lightly at his answer, "Do you think I don't know you?"
"What do you mean?" Shu Yang asked, genuinely confused. He didn't have much of a wandering gaze, did he?
Qianyue looked into his eyes and said, "You're content? I've never met anyone less content in my life."
Shu Yang's mouth opened in surprise at Qianyue's words.
Qianyue smiled soflty, "It's not a bad thing. It's one of the things about you that I fell in love with. You didn't have any talent for martial arts, and your parents passed away early, leaving you all alone. Anyone else would have despaired. But you always seemed so sure. You had this glint in your eyes, filled to the brim with confidence. It was like you were certain that one day you would…do something incredible.
"And look what happened. From poor farmers with barely any land, with no strength, we have become one of the wealthiest and strongest families in the village.
"Everyone around us is shocked; they can't understand how our family silently made this leap. But I'm not surprised. I've been watching you since I was a little girl, every small action, added up over the years, and this is just the expected outcome.
"And I know this isn't the end. I can feel that you take all this success as lightly as the wind. I just don't know how high you're going to reach in the end, and while it's exciting, it's a little scary. After all, I'm just an ordinary village girl, I'm not as hungry as you are."
Shu Yang fell silent. He hadn't really looked at it from Qianyue's perspective. It was true that the current success wasn't anything Shu Yang took to heart, but it was different for Qianyue. Everything had changed so quickly, and Shu Yang showed no signs of slowing down.
"So is that what's got you down? You want things to stay the same, but they keep changing?" Shu Yang asked.
"No," Qianyue said, "I like this kind of change. Things are getting better, after all. And I'm excited to see where you'll take our family, and see what will become of our children in the future."
"I thought you said-" Shu Yang began.
"Can't you feel a lot of different things at the same time?" Qianyue asked with a silly laugh. "Tonight I just thought how nice it would be if things could stay like this, just being happy, spending time together in this house. Growing old together while watching our grandchildren play outside. Listening to your stories…"
"That'd be pretty nice," Shu Yang said, imagining the scene with a smile. Unfortunately, he just couldn't bring himself to settle for that kind of life. He wanted more. Much more.
"Look at you, already drifting away in other thoughts," Qinayue said with a tilted smile.
"How did you know?" Shu Yang asked, surprised.
"I've known you so long, how could I not know what you're thinking?" Qianyue said, "Were you thinking about all the pretty girls you'd marry in the future?"
Shu Yang looked at her, surprised, "So you really were jealous!"
"No! You're the jealous one!" Qianyue yelled playfully and crawled onto his back to bite his neck.
"Look at how much energy you have," Shu Yang said with a sigh, "Looks like I have to give you another child, after all."
Qianyue screamed for help. But she had a smile on her face and didn't resist as Shu Yang carried her to the bedroom.