When Qin Ruqing returned to the Courtyard, she was still pondering the words of the Fifth Clan Leader.

“The rating for the last two levels of Lingyu is only Profound level.”

If Profound level appears more than once, it implies that the rating for the four levels might follow the pattern of Heaven, Earth, Profouns, and Yellow.

Clearly, by this standard, the rating of the Fifth Lingyu isn’t very high.

No wonder the Fifth Clan Leader said it would be better to ask the Fifth Youlin instead of him.

“This shouldn’t be!” Qin Ruqing sat by the window of the Waterfall Courtyard, propping her chin with a puzzled expression.

Even though she still didn’t know the true strength of the Fifth Lingyu, she had a strong instinct that this person was very powerful.

This intuition was like a sense between geniuses—though it might sound boastful, her talent had always been recognized wherever she went.

From this perspective, it seemed reasonable for her to feel that the person should be strong.

“Could it be a preconceived notion? The first time I saw the Fifth Lingyu in action was when he led the Western Ridge subordinates to activate a small floating island.

I still remember that scene clearly. Since then, I’ve always thought he was very strong.

But now, maybe I was just too weak back then, and the gap between us was too large, which naturally made him appear stronger. With my current perspective, maybe it wouldn’t be so impressive.”

Qin Ruqing rubbed her chin, lost in thought. “Forget it, it’s not important!”

Unable to reach a conclusion, she quickly set the matter aside and began to replay the conversation she had with the Fifth Clan Leader earlier in her mind.

Fresh air flowed in through the window, accumulating on the table and forming a tangible white mist.

Qin Ruqing’s delicate fingers stirred the mist and wrote two characters: “Inheritance.”

The core of her conversation with the Fifth Clan Leader today was centered around inheritance.

“Firstly, it seems I can pretty much forget about receiving the Fifth Family’s inheritance.”

From what the Fifth Clan Leader said, it was clear that they were quite willing for her to receive the inheritance, but there was one condition: she had to abandon her own clan and take the Fifth surname.

If she could become a member of the Fifth Clan, they would treat her as a core disciple and train her directly.

But to Qin Ruqing, these words seemed meaningless. “If you could just find a little genius who matches your family’s heritage perfectly, then all the previous investments would be like spending on your own family. Who wouldn’t want that, right?”

As Qin Ruqing’s cultivation level increased and her understanding of the rules deepened, she became more aware of the intricate relationship between an individual and their family.

Since she bore the surname Qin, she was tied to the Qin family’s fortune.

She thrived on the Qin family’s resources and, in return, boosted the family’s fortune.

The two were inseparably linked.

If she changed her surname, who knows what trouble it might cause for her future.

“If I could pass all the Heavenly Trials, maybe this matter would be worth discussing… But unfortunately, if I really did that, even if I received all the rewards for the Heavenly Trials, using the Celestial Clan’s standards, it would significantly deplete the resources of the Four Hall. Allowing me to participate in the last two trials is already a kindness. If I take the rewards and then ask for the heritage, it would be quite impolite.”

Shaking her head, Qin Ruqing said, “Let’s drop this matter.”

By “drop,” she meant she was completely abandoning the idea of taking the Celestial Family’s heritage.

After thinking it over, she realized that the trouble outweighed the benefits.

Instead of scheming for this heritage, she might as well focus on completing the Four Hall Trials and leave for the Abyss as soon as possible.

“Besides…” Qin Ruqing tapped the table with her finger, leaving a thought unsaid.

— It seemed that the value of the Four Hall Trials was not much less than this Inheritance.

After all, the Celestial Clan’s heritage was incomplete.

“Incomplete.” Qin Ruqing snorted lightly.

The Celestial Clan’s head had been avoiding the key points with her.

He only talked about the heritage but skimmed over its actual contents, simply labeling it as celestial-grade.

This term was too vague.

If he sincerely wanted to tempt her, he should have exaggerated the heritage, saying it would make her an immortal instantly.

“Not exaggerating could mean it’s not bad, or it could be too good, with too many taboos to discuss.”

Qin Ruqing made up her mind.

The Celestial Family wanted to use her to open the Immortal Tomb and find this complete heritage.

Qin Ruqing thought she could use this to keep an eye on the complete heritage’s whereabouts.

She might even find an opportunity to grab it for herself.

Not only could the Celestial Clan monitor her, but she could also use this to counter-spy on the Celestial Clan.

Everything has two sides, and Qin Ruqing believed there was a lot of room for maneuvering in this situation.

“Lastly, it feels like things aren’t very stable up there, so I need to strengthen my abilities as soon as possible,” Qin Ruqing said, summarizing with a casual tone.

She summoned her innate fire and shaped it into a large mouth, which swallowed the white mist accumulated on the table.

She even made the large mouth burp, showing her refined control over the fire.

“This fire can consume ice, thunder, and spiritual energy, and it doesn’t seem to change much.”

This change only referred to its appearance.

After reaching the core formation stage, Qin Ruqing compared it to before and found that, after absorbing the nine-turn thunder tribulation, the fire’s destructive power had increased.

In other words, her method of “throwing a fireball when unsure of what to do” was now more powerful and effective.

She put away the fire and accessed her system interface.

Her eyes fell on the “Outstanding Junior” branch, which had significantly advanced since she reached core formation.

There were now five people associated with this branch.

Aside from herself, there were her third sister, Qirong, and newly added Tang Zifeng and Chen Yiming.

Yes, after Tang Zifeng officially announced his role as the head elder of the Qin family’s weaponry department, his name was added to the system as a proper member of the Qin family.

Chen Yiming, her follower, also showed significant progress.

During her recent visit, Qin Ruqing examined Chen Yiming’s cultivation and found that his divination abilities had become even more extraordinary, clearly advancing to a higher level.

He was added to the system as a true talent for advancing the family.

Chen Yiming and the affiliated Chen family were now working under her father, and Qin Ruqing advised her father to make good use of Chen Yiming and provided him with ample cultivation resources.

In addition to Chen Yiming and Tang Zifeng, there was one unlit name on the “Outstanding Junior” branch: her older brother, Qin Ruyu.

After giving her brother some pills to enhance his aptitude during her last visit home, his name was added to the system, but it remained unlit.

It seemed that the system hadn’t included him yet because his innate spiritual body wasn’t fully developed to meet the system’s requirements.

Looking over the progress of her tasks, Qin Ruqing noted that her main task of making the Qin family the top cultivation family was now over halfway complete.

Though this halfway mark seemed significant, the difficulty and requirements would increase as she advanced further.

After the Hundred Clans Conference, the Qin family’s reputation had reached its peak.

She knew that the family would now shift from a rapid development phase to a consolidation phase.

In other words, before moving from this stage to the next, there won’t be any major changes in the Qin family, and the progress of the system tasks will be slow as well.

From this perspective, Qin Ruqing should temporarily put aside the system and focus on improving herself.

But after thinking for a bit, she suddenly had an interesting idea.

She asked, “System, can your reward pool include things that aren’t physical, like rules?”

She took out a token and gestured with it, saying, “For example, the Heavenly Reward from the Fifth Family that gave me the will of life and death. Can your reward pool have something like that?”

The system remained calm, giving off a feeling of being both stiff and a bit rebellious, like a time bomb that could unexpectedly cause trouble for Qin Ruqing.

Like today.

The system’s text appeared lightly, “Yes. If something exists in this world and the current host has come into contact with it, the system can capture and include it in the lottery pool.”

In other words, as Qin Ruqing grew, the system had silently collected and updated quite a few good things.

Even more interestingly, it hadn’t said a word about it before.

Qin Ruqing gritted her teeth, “So your reward pool even has things like rules, and you didn’t tell me!!”

The system seriously corrected, “Strictly speaking, it’s not yet called rules. It’s more like a certain experience or understanding, similar to the will of life and death. The host has not yet mastered the rules, so the rules in the reward pool have not been developed.”

“You still have an excuse!”

“Do you know this could delay your own performance? I haven’t had much motivation to draw from the lottery recently!”

“Precisely because of this, the system needs to remind the host that cultivation is not yet successful, and upgrading still requires effort!”

Qin Ruqing angrily retorted, “Where did you learn this line from? This system is very human-like where it shouldn’t be and extremely rigid where it should be more human!”

After grumbling and complaining, Qin Ruqing’s anger turned into delight.

This situation, if nothing else, was indeed a great opportunity.

After the system’s tasks had been stable for a long time, Qin Ruqing had neglected them and even ignored saving up lottery chances.

But now, seeing the potential for rewards, she realized she needed to save up for more lottery draws, especially aiming for a ten-pull!

A Tier-4 Heaven-level reward could provide insights into certain rules.

If the system could offer such rewards directly, getting a double top-tier reward would be amazing!

For the next few days, Qin Ruqing set two interim goals for herself:

1. Study the “Endless Vitality” will from the Tier-4 Heaven-level token.
2. Visit the fifth floor of the Wan Juan Pavilion to read books.

After obtaining the second Tier-4 token, the Wan Juan Pavilion opened an additional floor to her.

Despite the fact that some might think this was just a gimmick, Qin Ruqing spent three days seriously reading ten thousand volumes of books.

She was not joking!