Chapter 784 The Spirit Root Test
Kael had no response.
Rook burst out laughing. “Kael, you really are a country bumpkin now!”
Aria and Harper exchanged a glance, covering their mouths as they tried and failed to suppress their laughter.
Thoroughly rebuffed, Kael could only give Marius and Tanya a gentle push.
“Go on. Get in line and have your spirit roots tested.”
“Patriarch, you’re here too?” Elliot hurried over. “Did Marius and Tanya come for the spirit-root test? I’ll take them straight to the front.”
“P-Patriarch?”
The wealthy landowner, who had been about to leave in his carriage, froze. Shock and disbelief chased each other across his face.
“That won’t be necessary,” Kael said evenly. “They need to learn to wait their turn. They shouldn’t receive special treatment simply because of who I am. Understood?”
“Patriarch, I finally understand why the founding members respected you so much. Not one of them ever had a bad word to say about you, whether you were present or not. You truly are one of a kind.”
Elliot gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
“Enough flattery.”
Kael smacked him on the back of the head.
The anxious parents waiting nearby stared in disbelief.
Elliot was the Sect Master of the Star River Sect. How could this supposed country bumpkin dare strike him?
Wasn’t that going too far?
After sending Elliot away, Kael remained at the edge of the crowd with the other parents. For once, he looked no different from any ordinary father as he watched his children, his anxiety mounting with every passing minute.
Four hours later, Marius finally placed his hand against the testing monolith.
The elder examining the result hesitated.
“Uh... Young Lord—no, Marius Lin. No spirit root.”
After making the announcement, he cast a wary glance toward Kael in the distance.
Kael went rigid.
Harper swayed and nearly collapsed. Kael quickly reached out to steady her.
Tanya stepped forward next, her nervousness plain to see, and placed her hand against the testing monolith.
A moment later, the elder brightened.
“Tanya Lin possesses five spirit roots, one for each of the five elements!”
Genuine delight rang in his voice.
She was Kael’s daughter. Kael had long since become humanity’s spiritual pillar, so the elder was sincerely pleased to discover that Tanya possessed such promising cultivation aptitude.
“Don’t take it too hard, my friend,” the wealthy landowner from earlier hurriedly said. “Perhaps your son has a talent for business instead.”
Kael had no response.
“Come on, Kael. Don’t look so miserable,” Rook said, trying to console him. “With the resources at your disposal, even if Marius were a pig, you could probably heap enough treasures on him to push him into the Great Ascension Realm.”
“What did you just say?”
Aria and Harper each seized one of Rook’s ears.
“Ow! Mercy! Have mercy!”
Rook squealed like a pig at slaughter.
A short while later, Marius and Tanya returned to Kael. Tanya seemed perfectly fine, but Marius looked deeply unhappy.
“It’s all right, Marius. Truly,” Kael hurriedly reassured him. “You’re already talented in formations and talisman crafting. In a few days, I’ll give you some Origin Pills. Even with the body of an ordinary mortal, you can still set foot on the path of cultivation.”
Tanya needed no reassurance.
Marius was the real concern.
Without a spirit root, he could absorb barely ten percent of the spiritual energy contained within an ordinary Spirit Stone. The remaining ninety percent would simply go to waste.
Even with Kael’s vast wealth, he couldn’t guarantee that he could force Marius’s cultivation all the way to the Great Ascension Realm through resources alone.
Just then, Kael glanced toward Calla, who stood beneath a nearby tree.
His chest tightened.
“Calla, come here.”
Calla nodded and approached with visible hesitation.
Kael paused before sending out a private voice transmission.
“Seraphyne, come here.”
Seraphyne had been meditating elsewhere within the Star River Sect. The moment she heard Kael’s summons, she guessed what he wanted to discuss. Before long, she flew over and landed beside him.
Aria, Harper, Seraphyne, Rook, and Calla gathered around Kael.
He sent Marius and Tanya away to play a short distance from them.
“Aria, Harper, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Kael hesitated.
“Back when I was still in the Great Ascension Realm, I took Calla with me to the Spirit Origin Continent...”
He told his two wives the truth about everything that had happened between him and Calla.
“You have nothing to feel guilty about,” Aria said with a smile. “It’s hardly unusual for a powerful cultivator to have more than one wife. I have no objection to Calla marrying you.”
In truth, Aria had realized long ago that something existed between Kael and Calla. She had simply never mentioned it.
“I don’t mind either,” Harper said with a smile.
“Aria!”
Calla’s cheeks burned crimson, and she buried her face against Aria.
“Why are you so embarrassed? You’re old enough to marry.” Aria gently stroked her back. “Tell your mother when you see her. Within the month, I’ll personally oversee your dual-cultivation wedding.”
“My mother has already returned to the village where we used to live,” Calla said. “She wanted to revisit the past.”
“That’s fine. We still have plenty of time.”
Aria gently patted her back.
“You have something else to tell us, don’t you?” Harper asked.
Her gaze flicked toward Seraphyne.
“Yes.”
Kael turned to Seraphyne.
He opened his mouth, but for once, no words came.
Seraphyne immediately lowered her head, a blush spreading across her face.
“Seraphyne has remained devoted to you through everything,” Harper said, speaking for him. “Why not marry her as well?”
Kael looked at Seraphyne again.
“Seraphyne, are you willing?”
“Kael... I’ll abide by whatever Harper decides.”
Seraphyne spoke softly, too embarrassed to meet his eyes.
“Good.”
Kael turned toward Rook.
“Rook, notify the high-ranking cultivators across all five continents. Tell them that one month from now, I will hold a dual-cultivation wedding with Seraphyne and Calla. I hope they will arrive early to join the celebration.”
“Leave it to me!”
Rook immediately hurried toward the External Affairs Hall.
Several more days passed.
Kael stood before the village where he had once lived.
Strictly speaking, it could no longer be called a village.
It had become a small city.
Two enormous words had been carved above the city gates:
KAEL CITY
After so many years of development, the old Village had first grown into a town, then expanded into the city before him.
Even its name honored Kael.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Kael walked slowly through the gates.
The mortals living there were separated from the village’s original inhabitants by many generations. Kael didn’t recognize a single one of them.
Even so, he occasionally caught familiar traces in their features—the curve of an eyebrow, the shape of a face, or a fleeting expression that reminded him of someone he had once known.
Before long, Kael reached the Ancestral Hall at the heart of the city.
Incense smoke drifted across the grounds as countless descendants of the village’s old families came and went, paying their respects to their ancestors.
Kael stepped inside.
Rows upon rows of memorial tablets filled the vast hall, rising several stories high.
He first examined the tablets on the lowest level.
Every name carved upon them was unfamiliar.
“Kael.”
A familiar voice sounded behind him.
A figure emerged from the rear hall—a graceful woman whose mature beauty remained undiminished by time.
Selene Su.
“Selene.”
Kael turned and stared at her.
Her husband had died many years ago, and she had remained a widow ever since.
With the vast cultivation resources provided by the Star River Sect, Selene had advanced all the way to the early True Origin Realm.