After a few days, a rumbling sound resounded from within the pill-refinement room that Bai Xiaochun was in. Bai Xiaochun walked out with a woeful expression on his face.

“Refining Grade One medicine pills has nearly been perfected, but how can the Grade Two medicine pill be this difficult…” Bai Xiaochun groaned. These days, other than cultivating, he was also refining medicines. The herbs he had stashed were almost all consumed. He originally planned to try and refine a Grade Two spirit medicine, but realised that the difficulty had multiplied, and even if he was extremely cautious, he still kept failing.

Every attempt, he would discover a large amount of issues, and after solving them, even more would arise.

He sighed gloomily, walking out of the Medicine Refinement Pavilion. When he raised his head, he immediately noticed that there were actually quite a lot of people sitting cross-legged outside. These people were seated in groups of three or four people. A total of more than a dozen of people were seated, the majority of whom were youthful girls, none of which he had met before.

They were all beautiful young women. Each of them was attractive in their own way and were similar in terms of their good looks. When the bevy of young women noticed Bai Xiaochun, their eyes sparkled.

All these females were accompanied by elders. These elders too were pleasantly surprised when they noticed Bai Xiaochun and quickly stood up. A group of people quickly flocked to Bai Xiaochun.

“Stop, What’re you… trying to do?” Bai Xiaochun stared with his mouth wide open, unable to understand the circ.u.mstances as he subconsciously stepped back.

“Fellow Bai, this old man is Zhao Tianhai. Zhao Yiduo is my nephew. Haha, Fellow Bai is a young hero and is a fine-looking man as expected!”

“Fellow Bai is a like a dragon and phoenix among men, with extraordinary valiance. One look and I can tell that you are a roc in the clouds, a man with limitless future in this lifetime. Hoho, this old man is Sun Yunshan. These are young clanswomen from my Sun Clan. Is Fellow Bai lacking in maidservants that he can call upon by his side?”

“Fellow Bai, this old man is Zhou Tian. When I saw Fellow Bai, I could already sense your heroic spirit blow against my face as if I had seen a future pillar of ourEastern Range cultivation world. It feels like we are old friends meeting for the first time. Have a look at the women by my side and see how they are. Every single one of them is one of my Zhou Clan’s treasured pearls...”

Countless voices were vying to be heard. Bai Xiaochun’s eyes widened and backed away again. After listening for a long while, he only understood that these people were here to present their young clanswomen to him...

But he had no idea why. All these women before his eyes were quite beautiful, quite a few matched his taste. With all these women delivered to him on a silver platter, if he were to reject them all, it would appear that he was not giving them any face. This made Bai Xiaochun quite wary.

However, he was crafty when it came to dealing with people and did not reveal the thoughts in his heart. With a smile on his face, he made small talk with the representatives of the cultivator clans that had approached him and quickly excused himself.

Before he could even return to his residence, he came across various people demanding his attention along the way. All of them had similar purposes - presenting their young clanswomen, resources and countless goods.

“What is the big deal! Could it be that they have investigated my origins and discovered an extraordinary immortal? Could it be that I, Bai Xiaochun, am not an ordinary civilian and I… I, Bai Xiaochun, am actually someone with a background as large as the heavens? Heavens, even I didn’t know these things!” Shock gripped Bai Xiaochun’s heart as he lost himself in various fantasies and conjectures as he hurried to his courtyard. When he returned to his residence, he was once again surrounded by a group of people from the cultivator clans who were waiting there. Every single one of them had an eager look in their eyes, as if so long as Bai Xiaochun nodded his head, anything was possible!

Especially all those girls, all of them huddled around Bai Xiaochun’s side, glaring at one another; pus.h.i.+ng and shoving each other around.

This scene caused Bai Xiaochun’s scalp to go numb. He was stuck in the middle of all of them, surrounded by softness and some even pulling his clothes. While gripped with anxiety, a cold humph suddenly arrived from the side. Hou Xiaomei glared with puffed cheeks as she angrily moved forward, tearing the girls away from Bai Xiaochun.

“Get off, get off!”

“What in the world are you people doing? This is the Spirit River Sect’s Scented Cloud Mountain. Do none of you aunties know any modesty? All of you, get off. And you, you are so skinny that you look like a lentil, what’re you getting all excited for? And what about you, you fat sow. Get off!” Hou Xiaomei’s angry voice sounded as she approached, pus.h.i.+ng away all the girls surrounding Bai Xiaochun.

She was fuming with anger. She was without a doubt pet.i.te, but it seemed as if her strength knew no boundaries. Under this barrage of words, those girls immediately stopped. Hou Xiaomei put her hands on her waist with a scowl. Her words were most vicious, aimed at their Achilles’ heels.

Bai Xiaochun took the opportunity to quickly escape to his courtyard. When he looked down, he was shocked to discover his clothes disheveled.

“That was scary!” Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath. Still shocked, he raised his head to look outside. Hou Xiaomei was standing at the gate and arguing heatedly, one against dozens of people.

In the end, those representatives from the cultivator clans could not watch any further, and one by one, they all left under her persuasions. Before leaving, they cupped their fist to Bai Xiaochun, saying that they will come visit again another day.

Not until dusk arrived did silence arrive at the gateway. But one look into the distance revealed many representatives sent by cultivator clans sitting cross-legged nearby.

The cultivator clans’ representatives all had their own means to be allowed to stay there, no one could chase them away.

Bai Xiaochun felt that something big must have happened, so after seeing the outsides quieten down, he pulled Hou Xiaomei inside.

Hou Xiaomei was incomparably daring and resolute toward outsiders, but after being pulled by the arm by Bai Xiaochun, her face immediately flushed red. She felt her small head become dizzy and obediently went along with Bai Xiaochun, allowing herself to be pulled to his side.

“B-Big brother Xiaochun, there are a lot of people here, what are you doing…” Hou Xiaomei muttered, whispering softly just like a mosquito.

(ED note: Hou Xiaomei uses gēgē here, a rather intimate way to address an older brother)

“Huh?” Bai Xiaochun blanked out when he saw Hou Xiaomei act in such a way. Surprised, he slapped Hou Xiaomei’s face. Seeing Hou Xiaomei still hadn’t returned to normal, he slapped her again.

“What is the matter with you?”

Hou Xiaomei snapped out of her daze and stomped her foot in embarra.s.sment when she realised that she had misunderstood Bai Xiaochun. She threw a jade slip at Bai Xiaochun and quickly ran out with her head lowered.

Seeing Hou Xiaomei run away, Bai Xiaochun was at loss as he took a look at the jade slip Hou Xiaomei had left behind. After using his spiritual energy to scan the jade slip, his eyes suddenly widened and he inspected it once again. After a long time, he went into the courtyard and sighed deeply.

“Honourable Clan…”

This was the jade slip that Hou Yunfei had allowed Hou Xiaomei to send. There were some things that she really couldn’t say out loud, as such, she had relayed the temptations of Bai Xiaochun’s status as an Honourable Disciple toward the cultivator clans, resolving his confusions. Lastly, she also vaguely mentioned that their Hou Clan was also extremely interested in Bai Xiaochun’s blood descendants and hoped that… they would possess half of the Hou Clan’s blood.

Thinking of Hou Xiaomei’s appearance just now, Bai Xiaochun placed a hand under his white chin, a gleam slowly appeared in his eyes. His attention was not placed on Hou Xiaomei, but rather how the whole matter was like a gift granted to him by heavens!

“I never imagined that, ah… I initially thought that the reward that I received for my contributions this time was useless. Only my status as the Sect Head’s Junior Brother made me stand out from the rest in the sect. I never thought that my status as an Honourable Disciple that I took no notice of was actually so highly regarded outside the sect!” Bai Xiaochun licked his lips, his heart beating wildly.

“Simply choosing my partner and so many resources would be given to me for free… There is hope for immortality!” Bai Xiaochun chuckled as the gleam in his became brighter. He was initially worried that refining Grade Two spiritual medicine consumed too much resources and he wouldn’t be able to sustain himself. But now, there were suddenly so many people vying to send him people and presents as per his wishes.

“It is really a pity. If only I could have all of them…” While Bai Xiaochun was mumbling to himself, an idea suddenly flashed across his mind.

“That is right, why wouldn’t I have it all!” Bai Xiaochun let out a dry cough and returned back inside of his cabin. He did not rest throughout that night as he pondered about this matter. On the morning, he went outside in high spirits. When he opened the courtyard’s door, he discovered there were already many clansmen waiting outside from long ago.

“Fellow Bai…”

“I pay my respects to Fellow Bai. This humble one goes by the name Laozu from the Feng Clan, and has come for a visit…”

Everybody began talking and countless voices were raised. Bai Xiaochun raised his chin and flourished his small sleeve.

“Alright, come in clan by clan if you have any matters to discuss.” Bai Xiaochun spoke with a smile on his face, pointing toward a random clan. That cultivator clan’s representative immediately beamed and quickly went in, bringing the young clanswomen by his side together with him.

Not long later, he left along with those young clanswomen, his expression revealed him contemplating about the gains and the losses. The surrounding representatives of their respective cultivators clans watched on worriedly, and one by one, they all quickly sent messages back to their clans.

In this manner, another clan went in. Slowly, the clans went in one by one until a whole day had pa.s.sed and Bai Xiaochun had met dozens of the cultivator clans’ representatives.

He neither picked nor rejected any of the young clanswomen. He told each and every one of them that he needed to think this matter through as it was too important to not consider it twice. He had also repeatedly rejected those so-called gifts presented at the first meeting.

“I, Bai Xiaochun, walk and sit with my back straight. Since I have not decided as to whether I would establish a connection with your esteemed clan through marriage, then it is really inappropriate to accept these gifts.” Bai Xiaochun spoke these words to every single clan that visited him.

The more he said those words, the less any of the cultivator clans’ representatives would blunder as to really take away the gifts presented at this first meeting. Hence, one by one, they became polite to the point of even saying that if they were unable to become relatives by marriage, then they could at least be friends. Only after Bai Xiaochun dropped his resistance did he accept those gifts.

These representatives of the cultivator clans were naturally no fools and could see through Bai Xiaochun’s words, and realised that in reality, he was waiting to see all of the clans before selecting the one which suited him the most.

But this matter was already within their expectations. They were not afraid of sending gifts. The only thing they were afraid of was Bai Xiaochun not picking one at all. Therefore, when the next day arrived, not only did the representatives not decrease, but they conversely increased. A lot of the cultivator clans had even brought some young clanswomen not necessarily as partners. After all, even a maidservant could warm the bed. As long as it resulted in a blood descendant, all they needed was for Bai Xiaochun to recognise it as his child.

These cultivator clans that came to visit Bai Xiaochun were all competing against one another using the first-meeting gifts they presented. On the receiving end, Bai Xiaochun was getting nervous. In the end, even if he wanted to reject, the other party would think that he was looking down on their clan.

“Alright, I will accept… How can I not accept?” Bai Xiaochun received them for about seven-eight days in a row and had already gotten used to seeing a group of people waiting for him once he opened the gate every morning.

4th guaranteed chapter of the week.

Edited by: Crimsonguard, Arch
Translated by XianXiaWorld