Chapter 445: Chapter 430: Rocky Wilderness
"Phew, finally out!"
"This time, we’re truly indebted to Elder Xu. Without you here, even if I, Zhou, could keep myself safe, I wouldn’t have been able to protect these younger family members!"
Outside a desolate valley, Zhouyang controlled the Void Traveling Tower Ship, flying out from within the valley. He landed on the ground outside the valley to release the people inside the ship, his face full of relief as he sincerely expressed his gratitude to Xu Song beside him.
It had been two years since they left the Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm. During these two years, they had been trapped inside a world within the valley, never encountering a single living person.
The world inside that valley was clearly a forbidden death zone where the living should not enter. It was inhabited by many ghosts and demon corpses and had remnants of many powerful array forces.
If not for Xu Song, who subdued many ghosts and demon corpses as servants and cannon fodder to scout the way, and if not for Xu Song himself, being a Tier Five Middle Grade Array Master proficient in arrays, Zhouyang would not have been able to get out within even twenty years, let alone two, especially not with a group of Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators.
In contrast to Zhouyang and the others’ initial difficulties, Xu Song’s experience could be described as immensely rewarding.
In just two short years, not only did his cultivation break through to the Second-Layer Golden Core, but with Zhouyang’s help, he also subdued a Golden Core Ghost General also possessing Golden Core Stage cultivation, along with numerous fierce ghosts and vengeful spirits.
He even used some Yin Attribute Spiritual Objects found in the world inside the valley to refine his demon umbrella and demon banner anew, raising both treasures to the level of Tier Five Middle Grade Demon Artifacts.
To refine a Tier Five Middle Grade Demon Artifact so easily with a Second-Layer Golden Core cultivation, it’s something only Xu Song, who was proficient in artifact refining during his lifetime, could achieve.
So when he heard Zhouyang’s words of gratitude, he sighed with a face full of regret, "Ah! If it weren’t for Fellow Daoist Zhou being in a hurry to leave, we could have joined forces to explore that corpse den. If we could have subdued the Silver Armored Demon Corpse inside, even if we faced a Late-Stage Golden Core Cultivator in the future, with my means, I could have fought them!"
In fact, what he really wanted to say was that if Zhouyang agreed to let him cultivate inside there, he was confident he could reach the Middle Stage of the Golden Core within a century.
Of course, he also knew that was impossible. Zhouyang would not allow such an important combat strength to enter seclusion and cultivate there.
Understanding his intentions, Zhouyang clasped his hands and said, "I understand Elder Xu’s meaning. But Elder, you are aware of the purpose of my journey to the Land of the Far West this time. Once I establish a foothold here, even if you don’t mention it, I would want you to come over and help guard that teleportation array for me!"
"I’m waiting for that day to come."
Xu Song nodded and did not bring up the matter again.
Next, Zhouyang set up an array in a secluded place, allowing all Zhou Family cultivators to rest inside. He then used the "Golden Cicada Concealment Technique" to suppress his cultivation to the Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment and proceeded to explore the surroundings at the speed appropriate for a cultivator at that realm.
Being in a new and unfamiliar place, being cautious is never too much.
Zhouyang needed to find out where he was precisely, understand the distribution of forces in the surrounding area, and uncover the truth and results of the internal conflict within the Great Brightness Immortal Palace thousands of years ago before deciding whether to expose Zhou Family cultivators to others.
He flew his sword outward continuously. The land below did not resemble the Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm with its widespread yellow sand, nor did it resemble the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm with its green mountains and flowing rivers.
The geography resembled a desert plateau he had seen in his previous life, with sparse shrubs, short trees, weeds, and streams, along with some ordinary wild beasts, but no signs of human habitation or traces of cultivators. Occasionally, he did spot some low-tier demon beasts.
After flying for two or three thousand miles, Zhouyang finally saw towering peaks, lush green forests, and the curling smoke that indicated human presence.
When he flew closer, he was able to see the situation clearly.
Below a towering mountain almost a thousand feet high was a crescent-shaped plateau lake, stretching fifty or sixty miles long and over twenty miles wide.
A winding river flowed downstream from the lake to an unknown destination, and pastures along the river and lake banks were inhabited by hundreds of thousands of herdsmen grazing cattle and sheep. The smoke he had seen earlier was produced by the herdsmen barbecuing and cooking meals.
Of course, what Zhouyang focused on was not those mortal herdsmen but the mountain peak covered by clouds and mist halfway up.
The golden-red divine light flickered in his eyes, easily seeing that the mountain peak was a Tier Three Top-Grade Spirit Mountain, with the clouds and mist on it being the power formed by the Mountain Protection Array.
With a spirit mountain and an array, there would naturally be cultivators on the mountain.
Finding those cultivators would naturally allow Zhouyang to inquire about his whereabouts.
Despite this, Zhouyang did not act rashly.
When he first visited the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, he was identified as not being from that realm by the cultivator Dong Jianping due to unfamiliarity with the situation.
Fortunately, back then Dong Jianping, due to his multiple life-saving favors, did not announce this matter nor secretly plot for the treasures on him.
Now, although his cultivation is incomparable to the past, and he is not worried about being found out as someone not from this Cultivation Realm, he fears that the Zhou Family he plans to establish here might be targeted, leading to the discovery that he controls a large remote teleportation array that spans the Cultivation Realm.
Once the existence of the large remote teleportation array is exposed, not only would the Zhou Family lose control over this teleportation array, but it would also endanger the entire Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm and the Zhou Family as a whole, something he absolutely cannot allow to happen.
So, after some thought, he immediately descended his flying sword and walked to the place where the mortal nomads lived, then sneaked into a tent under the cover of night to capture a few nomads and used an enchanting spell to extract information.
These mortal nomads naturally wouldn’t know about the matters of the Cultivation Realm, but through their words, Zhouyang at least knew his location and learned the name of that Spirit Mountain and the origin of the cultivators on the mountain.
According to the nomads, this place is called the Rocky Wilderness, situated at the easternmost part of the Land of the Far West. By traveling west for twenty to thirty thousand miles, one can leave the Rocky Wilderness and enter a region of towering mountain ranges.
As for the name of that mountainous region, the nomads were also unclear; this information was also heard from the mouths of their ancestors.
And the Spirit Mountain that Zhouyang saw was only referred to as the "Holy Mountain" by the nomads, and the cultivators living on the mountain were uniformly called Immortal Masters in their mouths.
According to the nomads, the Immortal Masters on the Holy Mountain send someone to the tribe every three years to measure the spiritual roots of newborns within that period. If a child with spiritual roots is discovered, they are taken to the Holy Mountain by the Immortal Masters for cultivation, and their family becomes the tribe’s nobility, enjoying various privileges.
Also, if the tribe is attacked by fierce demon beasts, the tribe leader can invite the Immortal Masters from the mountain to help dispel the demons by taking the token given by the Immortal Masters to the Holy Mountain.
"Judging from these nomads’ words, the cultivators on that Spirit Mountain are likely not from a cultivation clan but seem to be from a cultivation sect."
"But which cultivation sect would be so impoverished, with its sect’s location consisting of just a Tier Three top-grade Spirit Mountain?"
"Or is it that the Spirit Mountain is merely a branch established by a cultivation sect here?"
Zhouyang looked at the few nomads he had knocked unconscious on the ground and fell into contemplation, recalling the information gathered from them.
A sect is not a clan. To establish a sect, one must at least have the cultivation of the Golden Core Stage.
In the Cultivation Realm, there are many declining sects without Golden Core Stage cultivators holding the fort, but a sect, no matter how declining, would still have Purple Mansion Stage cultivators. With Purple Mansion Stage cultivators, it is naturally not difficult to maintain a Tier Four Spirit Mountain.
Those declining sects without even Purple Mansion Stage cultivators would not be able to preserve the cultivation techniques and legacies passed down by their Ancestor Master without the help of stronger sects, let alone still be called a sect.
Therefore, Zhouyang was somewhat skeptical that the Spirit Mountain was the sect’s main location and was more inclined to believe it was a branch established by a sect.
Excluding the Yellow Sand Sect, which dominates the Cultivation Realm of the Boundless Desert Sea, the sects of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm would occupy Spirit Mountains outside the sect’s main site to establish branches for recruiting disciples and safeguarding vital resource points.
Although cultivation sects find it easier to recruit people compared to cultivation clans, not just anyone is recruited; the stronger the sect, the more stringent the recruitment conditions.
Many cultivation sects would not recruit loose cultivators from the outside world but instead would only recruit and cultivate disciples from a young age from affiliated cultivation clans where they know the background or among the mortals within the sect’s sphere of influence. Only disciples raised from a young age would truly regard the sect as their home and would rarely commit acts of betrayal.
Thus, establishing branches and expanding the disciple recruitment range became a common practice among many sects.
Whether his guess was correct or not, Zhouyang had to test it out.
Testing it was simple. According to the information he gathered from the nomads, in half a month’s time, Immortal Masters from the Holy Mountain would descend to the tribe to check newborns for spiritual roots.
As long as Zhouyang acted then and captured a cultivator, he could obtain the information he desired.
"Half a month, huh? I can afford to wait that long!"
With a flash of light in his eyes, Zhouyang glanced at the unconscious nomads on the ground and quietly returned them to their respective tents.
After returning the nomads, Zhouyang did not immediately return to the outside of the valley to contact his clan members, nor did he wait among the nomads for the cultivators checking spiritual roots to arrive. Instead, he flew west with his sword.
He wanted to verify the information obtained from the nomads to see if, after traveling west for tens of thousands of miles, there truly was a region of towering mountain ranges.
Should he come across any lone low-tier loose cultivators along the way, all the better, as he could then capture them for interrogation.