Chapter 441: Chapter 426: Recruitment
Clearly, the concerns of Chen Ping’an and Yan Nantian became a reality.
Even though their juniors succeeded in defeating their opponents and entering the top five in the ten-to-five competition, they had suffered minor injuries in doing so.
Later, in the battle for first place, both Chen Yunsheng from the Chen Family and Yan Shuanghua from the Yan Family consecutively lost to Li Hong.
Finally, after determining the top three rankings, Li Hong took first place, Yan Shuanghua second, and Chen Yunsheng third.
With this, the first "Treasure Hunting Conference" hosted by the Zhou Family officially came to an end.
"First of all, congratulations to Fellow Daoist Li for winning first place in this Treasure Hunting Conference. Additionally, I have more good news to share: previously, our Zhou Family Supreme Elder Zhouyang and several other Purple Mansion Stage fellow Daoists placed a bet, believing in your victory. Now that you have indeed fulfilled the Supreme Elder’s expectations by securing first place, besides the rewards originally due to you, you shall receive four additional Tier Three Treasures as an extra reward!"
In the arena, Zhou Guangxiang, the patriarch of the Zhou Family, personally awarded the top twenty cultivators in the "Treasure Hunting Conference."
When he started awarding the rewards from the twentieth place down to the first, he revealed the news about the previous bet to the first-place winner Li Hong with a beaming smile.
Upon hearing that he would receive four additional Tier Three Treasures along with the Foundation Establishment Pill and Tier Three Spiritual Artifact that were his original rewards, Li Hong’s eyes could not conceal his astonishment and ecstatic joy, despite trying to suppress them initially.
Being a smart person, he immediately turned towards the stands where Zhouyang and others were seated, bowed, and expressed his gratitude: "Your humble junior Li Hong sincerely thanks the seniors for their generosity and bestowed treasures!"
Zhou Guangxiang saw this and nodded contentedly, then secretly transmitted a message: "The Supreme Elder has another message for you. Should you agree to join our Zhou Family and swear never to betray us, even if you fail to succeed in using this Foundation Establishment Pill, our Zhou Family can grant you another pill to aid in your Foundation Establishment."
What!
Li Hong’s body shook as he looked at Zhou Guangxiang in shock, almost doubting his ears.
"You can consider it carefully, and this promise will remain valid until you leave the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis!"
Zhou Guangxiang smiled slightly, nodded without saying much more, and directly handed a Storage Bag to Li Hong.
Next, Zhou Guangxiang did not pay attention to the troubled-looking Li Hong leaving the arena, and immediately announced the start of the second internal "Treasure Hunting Conference" within the Zhou Family.
Among the over nine hundred Zhou Family cultivators, four to five hundred met the requirements for the "Treasure Hunting Conference," but only two hundred seventy Qi Cultivation Mid-Stage and Late-Stage cultivators could actually participate in the battle.
Thus, this second "Treasure Hunting Conference" did not require as long as the first one to achieve results—one day was sufficient.
Though fewer in number, the momentum of the magical combat among the Zhou Family’s cultivators was far more spectacular than the first conference.
Thanks to the Zhou Family’s background as an Artifact Refining Clan, Zhou Family’s cultivators, as long as they were at Mid-Stage Qi Cultivation or higher, could wield two or more Tier Two High-Grade spiritual artifacts.
Some cultivators willing to invest greatly had painfully exchanged the clan contribution points they had painstakingly accumulated for formidable weapons like Tier Two High-Grade Puppet Beasts, and other Tier Two High-Grade Spirit Talismans, from the clan treasure vault over the years.
Therefore, when these cultivators engaged in magical combat, they demonstrated battle prowess far surpassing those in the previous conference.
However, in this internal "Treasure Hunting Conference" of the clan, the standouts were still those several Zhou Family Martial Hall cultivators.
The Zhou Family Martial Hall gathers the most capable fighters from the whole Zhou Family, and though they number only around a hundred, each holds power to easily defeat ordinary peers.
Among the top twenty in the previous "Treasure Hunting Conference," two were external relative cultivators from the Zhou Family Martial Hall, and among the top sixty, five belonged to the Martial Hall.
This is notwithstanding the "Treasure Hunting Conference" imposing age restrictions on participants, as most external relative cultivators in the Martial Hall are over sixty, otherwise, they would surely claim more places.
These Martial Hall cultivators customarily receive priority for various cultivation resources and focus solely on combat and magical techniques, proficient in spellcasting and also excel in artifact mastery beyond normal cultivators.
Even when facing fellow Zhou Family cultivators, opponents had little resistance against them on stage and were easily defeated.
Naturally, their impressive performance drew significant interest and attention from the external cultivators observing.
"I’ve long heard of the renown of Zhou Family’s Martial Hall cultivators, and seeing them today, they indeed live up to their name!"
On the high platform where the Purple Mansion Stage cultivators were seated, Chen Ping’an intently watched the two cultivators battling on stage—or more precisely, focused on the one clad in complete golden battle armor, helmet, and boots—with an expression full of amazement and issued his praise.
In just a hundred years, the Zhou Family transformed from a Foundation Establishment Clan into the foremost family of the Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm. Naturally, other families could not resist studying the rapid development of the Zhou Family to see if they could find any beneficial aspects to emulate for their own clans.
The role of the nine halls of the Zhou Family was, of course, already known to the clan leaders of various families, and many families even imitated, albeit imperfectly, implementing similar reforms.
The Chen Family, once affiliated with the Zhou Family as the dominant clan, naturally paid closer attention to the Zhou Family, being the first clan to emulate them.
However, due to differing circumstances, Chen Ping’an did not completely copy the Zhou Family’s structure. He merely borrowed the Zhou Family’s system of governance by the seven Deacon Elders and finely divided the internal power structure of the clan, along with increasing subsidies for clan members to learn the Hundred Skills of Cultivation.
To Chen Ping’an, establishing a martial force like the Battle Hall, dedicated solely to warfare, seemed unnecessary for their resources.
In the Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm, large-scale wars between cultivators are rare, and not even the Yellow Sand Sect would expend resources to assemble such a force.
It is only the Zhou Family, rapidly expanding and lacking a sense of security, that would spend vast resources to establish such a non-productive cultivator army.
Limited by their perspective, not even a Purple Mansion Cultivator like Chen Ping’an believed that a group of Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators could defeat Foundation Establishment cultivators through joint training.
In the thoughts of most clan leaders of cultivation families, it’s better to focus resources on cultivating more Foundation Establishment cultivators than to expend large resources on training a cultivator army.
After all, Foundation Establishment cultivators far outweigh a group of Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators in terms of lifespan, power, and influence.
However, despite this thinking, witnessing the performance of Zhou Family Battle Hall cultivators in the martial arena left Chen Ping’an filled with envy.
He still didn’t believe that a group of Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators could contend with Foundation Establishment cultivators.
But he had to admit, under the situation where Foundation Establishment and Purple Mansion cultivators do not act, the Zhou Family’s Battle Hall cultivators, nurtured through vast resources, indeed possess the strength to sweep through most of the Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators of the Chen Family.
In this regard, the Chen Family had truly fallen behind the Zhou Family in various aspects, which made Chen Ping’an feel rather uncomfortable.
"These Battle Hall cultivators are indeed formidable, though, unfortunately, it requires too many resources. Only a large-scale, prosperous family like the Zhou Family, with a Master Artifact Refiner like Fellow Daoist Zhou overseeing, can afford to invest so many resources in training a group of people!"
The Yan Family Patriarch Yan Nantian also eyed the battlefield with sparkling eyes, expressing his views with envious wonder.
He really wanted to form a Battle Hall like the Zhou Family, even with fewer numbers, just nurturing twenty people would be sufficient.
But upon examining the equipment of the Zhou Family’s Battle Hall cultivators more closely, he had to abandon this thought.
Despite them wearing Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts, the Zhou Family’s Battle Hall cultivators donned special gold battle armor made with Tier Three materials and manifested mystical Divine Techniques, clearly crafted by Tier Three and Above Artifact Refiners.
Even if he were willing to invest the same materials, their Yan Family’s Artifact Refiners couldn’t produce this, let alone the unique Primordial Yang Shield, an original artifact by Zhouyang, that the Zhou Family’s Battle Hall cultivators possess.
Listening to Chen Ping’an and Yan Nantian’s words, Zhouyang maintained silence outwardly, feeling quite satisfied inside.
The Battle Hall of the Zhou Family was something he insisted on establishing, and the resource investments were approved by him.
His perspective differs from Chen Ping’an and others; establishing the Battle Hall, to him, is a matter of being prepared for contingencies.
There might not be significant use for the Battle Hall cultivators now, but who knows what the future holds?
Establishing the Battle Hall now, creating a legitimate cultivator army, and ensuring its generational lineage to form a tradition.
When large-scale cultivator wars truly occur in the future, having such a cultivator army at hand will be significantly more advantageous for attacking or defending, than those assembled hastily.
Moreover, the actual resource investment in the Battle Hall is not as large as outsiders imagine. Primarily, provisioning the initial batch of cultivators with complete artifact equipment incurs substantial cost, but these artifacts and equipment are recycled and allocated to new cultivators upon the demise of present Battle Hall cultivators.
And with their own Artifact Refiners and Ore Veins, acquiring a set of spiritual artifact equipment costs less than two thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones in total, completely within acceptable limits.
"My Zhou Family will not remain confined to this Boundless Desert Sea; we will venture out and grow. We’ll inevitably have disputes with other forces over Spirit Veins and Ore Veins, much like the flow of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm’s families and sects!"
"When that time comes, without a capable cultivator army, how would we contend for those resources against forces that arm Daoist Soldiers?"
Zhouyang’s eyes shone brightly, contemplating the region of the Great Brightness Immortal Palace he was about to set out for, his determination to foster and establish a large-scale cultivator military force grew more resolute.