Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 51: Conversation in a Quiet Room

Jingming Peak is a small mountain peak a few hundred meters high on White Camel Ridge, less than fifty miles away from the main peak of White Camel Ridge. Originally, there was a Tier Two Middle Grade Natural Spiritual Vein on the mountain, which has now been cultivated by the Chen Family to Tier Three Lower Grade. It can accommodate two or three Foundation Establishment Cultivators and over a hundred Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators for cultivation.

However, the number of cultivators like Zhouyang, who were thrown off the tower ship by the Chen Family Ancestor, far exceeds the limit that this Spirit Peak can bear. Over ten Foundation Establishment Cultivators and dozens of Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators are crammed on this small mountain peak, and the Spirit Qi from the Spirit Vein on the mountain is simply not enough to share.

Yet, Jingming Peak is, after all, a Spirit Peak of the Chen Family, and none of these small clan cultivators like Zhouyang dared to shoulder the blame of damaging the Spirit Peak and anger the Chen Family.

Therefore, Zhou Minghan and the ten or so Foundation Establishment Cultivators discussed and agreed to temporarily stop cultivating. Instead, use the Spirit Qi from the Spirit Vein on the mountain to supply their respective family’s Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators for cultivation. If they really need to cultivate, they would refine Spirit Stones to do so.

Zhouyang, whose cultivation is at the Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation, is already unable to advance, so he doesn’t have much need for Spirit Qi, and moreover, he doesn’t have much inclination to cultivate right now.

After the Zhou Family settled on Jingming Peak, the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan called him into the quiet room for a conversation.

"Let’s not talk about the matters that happened at Golden Dawn Mountain, let’s talk about my trip to hunt down demon beasts with Elder Chen."

In the quiet room, once Zhouyang sat down, the old Clan Leader moved his Divine Sense and set a Sound Insulation Barrier in the room to prevent outsiders from eavesdropping.

Setting up a Sound Insulation Barrier with Divine Sense is only possible for Foundation Establishment Cultivators with strong Divine Sense. Once the Sound Insulation Barrier is set, outsiders, even with Divine Sense ten times stronger than the one who set it, would find it difficult to eavesdrop without alerting the one who set it.

"As you have seen, the demon hunting mission was quite successful. Not only did we successfully slay a Tier Four Demon Beast, but also killed eight Tier Three Demon Beasts and over a hundred Tier Two Demon Beasts. All the participating cultivators reaped significant rewards."

"However, as you also noticed, your Grandpa Qi, Grandpa Jiu, and Sixth Uncle did not return; they perished in battle with the demon beasts, and even Xuantai lost an arm!"

"Fortunately, their sacrifices were not in vain. With their contributions and my significant effort in dealing with the Tier Four Demon Beast, Elder Chen has already promised on the way back that once a Foundation Establishment Pill is refined, as long as we can come up with twenty thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones, he will ensure we get one Foundation Establishment Pill!"

Zhouyang listened silently, and even upon hearing the guarantee of obtaining a Foundation Establishment Pill, he didn’t show any joy.

What was there to be happy about?

For this Foundation Establishment Pill, not only Zhou Yun, Zhou Dan, and Zhou Xuanjing, three elders of the Zhou Family, lost their lives, but even his foster mother Zhou Xuan Yu and others are now missing and their fate is unknown.

Originally, the Zhou Family was already weak in high-level combat power above Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Stage. Now they have suddenly lost four elders, which means nearly half of the Zhou Family’s high-end combat power is gone. How can Zhouyang possibly muster a smile?

The old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan continued as if he hadn’t seen Zhouyang’s unsightly expression, "You don’t have to worry about the Spirit Stones; the family finances have gradually improved over the years. You also recently made the family a substantial amount of Spirit Stones, and together with the five or six thousand Spirit Stones your parents saved, along with my savings, we can manage the twenty thousand Spirit Stones!"

"Moreover, from this demon hunt, although the Chen Family took the largest share of the rewards, our families also shared some spoils. Each family acquired a considerable amount of demon beast materials and Spiritual Objects, enough to offset some of the clan’s foundation costs in purchasing the Foundation Establishment Pill."

After saying this, Zhou Minghan deeply and intently gazed at Zhouyang and suddenly asked, "Do you know the reason I am telling you all this? Do you know why I am telling you these things?"

"Grandson understands!"

Zhouyang nodded with a heavy expression and murmured, "Grandson has always known that the old Clan Leader, as well as everyone else, hopes that grandson can establish the Foundation. They hope that after establishing the Foundation, I can lead the family to prosperity, so the blood of the ancestors will not be spilt in vain and the younger cultivators of the family can have better cultivation environments and more cultivation resources!"

"Exactly! Why should our clan cultivators live better than loose cultivators? It’s because we have a family to rely on; we have family elders who are willing to sacrifice themselves selflessly for the younger generations. We bear the same bloodline, and we all wish that the future generations do not end up like us, trapped in the Qi Cultivation Stage and Foundation Establishment Stage for a lifetime. We are a group with goals, ideals, and aspirations!"

"It was me before, and now it’s you. We have been chosen by the elders of the family to realize their goals, ideals, and aspirations. They are willing to pave the road with their own paths and lives for us without regret, to help us walk further and reach higher on the cultivation path with their corpses paving the road!"

"I am not saying all this to burden you with great moral responsibility and familial ties. I only want to tell you that if you fail to establish the Foundation, not only will your future path be hopeless, but you will also become a paving stone like those family elders who sacrificed for your Foundation, a paving stone for future family members. Whether you choose to become the family pathfinder or a paving stone is entirely up to you!"

To become the family pathfinder or a paving stone!

Zhouyang’s mind trembled, and a series of familiar faces flashed across his mind—Elder Zhou Quan, Elder Zhou Dan, Elder Zhou Yun, foster mother Zhou Xuan Yu, Sixth Uncle Zhou Xuanjing, and finally, a very unfamiliar face.

That unfamiliar face was actually the former Grand Elder of the Zhou Family, Elder Zhou Qian.

Once, Elder Zhou Qian was also like him, becoming the fortunate one of the entire Zhou Family, granted the precious opportunity to consume the Foundation Establishment Pill; yet, he failed in establishing his foundation.

And Zhou Qian’s life after the failure of establishing his foundation, he also saw and understood it.

Such a life, would he like it? Would he be willing to live such a life in the future?

"No, absolutely not, I will never fail!"

He looked at the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan with bright eyes, full of determined and resolute spirit.

Seeing this, a comforting expression finally appeared on the old Clan Leader’s face as he praised, "Good, maintain this mental state well. From now on, don’t concern yourself with anything else, prepare well here for your foundation establishment. Your foster mother and those missing clan members, I will ask the Chen Family for help in searching for them. All you need is to wait for the Foundation Establishment Pill to be in your hands!"

"Rest assured, great grandfather, grandson understands everything. Also, I have something here to hand over to you, and some things previously inconvenient to mention that I need to tell you."

With these words, Zhouyang handed the jade scroll, which he obtained from sand bandits and recorded with the Blood Demon Secret Technique, to the old Clan Leader while sharing his guesses and views on the oasis raid by the sand bandits.

It could be seen that when the old Clan Leader heard that the jade scroll contained demonic secret techniques, his face instantly changed, nearly scolding him aloud.

However, when hearing the details of the demonic secret techniques within the jade scroll, his greatly changed expression gradually eased. Then, with a movement of his Divine Sense, he directly released it into the scroll to study it.

About half an hour later, the old Clan Leader withdrew his Divine Sense from the jade scroll, his expression having completely returned to normal.

"You did well on this matter. These three secret techniques, though demonic methods, can also be employed by our Immortal Dao cultivators and can serve as the family’s heritage. However, as they are demonic secret techniques, we should avoid using them openly to prevent giving others a reason to criticize."

With that said, the old Clan Leader flipped his hand and stored the jade scroll into his storage bag.

Then his expression grew serious, and he looked at Zhouyang with a solemn face, saying, "But remember, Xiao Jiu, demonic cultivators are selfish and cruel, devoid of humanity, and are mortal enemies to us cultivators. If you ever obtain demonic cultivation techniques, magical artifacts, or elixirs, no matter how good the items are, don’t practice or use them. If obtained, it’s best to destroy them immediately, and if you can’t do it yourself, have the family hand them over to high-tier cultivators who can destroy them."

"Grandson understands." Zhouyang nodded earnestly.

Upon studying the Blood Demon Secret Technique, he realized the harmfulness of demonic cultivators, and even without the advice from the old Clan Leader, he wouldn’t cultivate demon techniques or use demon artifacts.

"Alright, now let’s talk about your conjectures. Regarding this matter, in my opinion..."

Zhou Minghan and Zhouyang, the grandfather and grandson, conferred in the quiet chamber for half a day before finishing, and then Zhouyang settled down in the residence arranged by the Chen Family.

He spent his days either reading travelogues and personal memoirs written by senior cultivators or advising and sharing his cultivation experiences with Zhou Yuanchun and several peers in the clan, living quite leisurely.

Meanwhile, Zhou Minghan and Zhou Xuanbin, Zhou Xuantai, the top three members of the Zhou family, were rather busy. Zhou Minghan had to visit various allied clans’ foundation establishment cultivators to exchange lists of missing clan members and assist each other in searches.

Meanwhile, Zhou Xuanbin and Zhou Xuantai were the actual executors of this arrangement, having to run the entire Baisha River Oasis along with other clan Qi cultivation stage cultivators returning from demon hunting to search for the missing cultivators.

At the same time, after understanding the situation from the foundation establishment cultivators left in the family, Elder Chen dispatched messages widely with a reward of a Foundation Establishment Pill, offering a large sum as a bounty for information on the sand bandits’ origins and hiding places, while sending people to the Yellow Sand Sect headquarters to request help from their intelligence network to investigate the origins of foundation establishment and even Purple Mansion cultivators among the sand bandits.

As for himself, after adjusting his state, he entered the Earth Fire Chamber on White Camel Peak to prepare for furnace-opening and refining of Foundation Establishment Pills.

The news of Elder Chen’s furnace-opening to refine Foundation Establishment Pills soon spread throughout Jingming Peak with the Chen family’s deliberate promotion, and upon hearing this, Zhouyang felt a true excitement in his heart.

However, when he learned that all three foundation establishment cultivators stationed at Golden Dawn Mountain by the Chen family had fallen, his excitement instantly cooled.

Losing three Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators at once, even for a Purple Mansion Clan like the Chen family with over a dozen foundation establishment cultivators, was considered a heavy loss.

Would Elder Chen really distribute half the amount of the refined Foundation Establishment Pills to other families like before?