Young Zhou Yang

In the Land of Extreme West, within the Boundless Sea of Sand.

The Boundless Sea of Sand was just as its name suggested, a boundless expanse of sand that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The environment of the Sea of Sand was harsh, with very few places suitable for human habitation. Only a handful of desert oases could sustain human life.

Jade Spring Lake was one of the few desert oases within the Boundless Sea of Sand where people could live.

The oasis was over a hundred li long from east to west and seventy li wide from north to south. It sloped from east to west. To the east stood a mountain named Jade Spring Peak, several hundred meters high. Its slopes were covered in lush trees and shrouded in mist. At the foot of the mountain lay the lifeblood of the entire oasis—Jade Spring Lake.

Jade Spring Lake covered an area of over ten square kilometers. Its water came from an underground river, possessing a vast volume and a clear, sweet quality that could be drunk directly.

The hundred thousand or so humans and countless birds and beasts living on the thousand square kilometers of land within the Jade Spring Lake oasis all depended on this single lake of pure water for their sustenance.

And the Jade Spring Zhou Clan were the masters of the Jade Spring Lake oasis.

The first person to discover the Jade Spring Lake oasis was the old ancestor of the Jade Spring Zhou Clan, Zhou Yuquan. Today, the hundred thousand or so humans living on the oasis were all members of the Zhou Clan, related by blood or marriage to the Jade Spring Zhou Clan.

The Jade Spring Zhou Clan was a cultivation family. Their old ancestor, Zhou Yuquan, had studied under the cultivation sect known as the Yellow Sand Sect. Over two hundred years ago, he resigned from the sect and established the Jade Spring Zhou Clan at the Jade Spring Lake oasis. It had now passed through seven generations.

By present day, the Zhou Clan's old ancestor, Zhou Yuquan, had long since passed away. However, after more than two hundred years of development, the Jade Spring Zhou Clan had become a powerful cultivation family, boasting one Foundation Establishment Cultivator, dozens of Qi Refining Cultivators, and over a hundred thousand affiliated mortals.

Ordinary Zhou Clan members primarily resided in the three small towns on the Jade Spring Lake oasis, engaging in farming or herding livestock, living carefree, self-sufficient lives.

The cultivators of the Zhou Clan, however, lived uniformly on Jade Spring Peak, where the spiritual energy was abundant.

Jade Spring Peak itself was a Tier 2 High-grade natural Spirit Vein. After over two hundred years of cultivation by the Zhou Clan, it had now been upgraded to Tier 3 Mid-grade, capable of supporting the cultivation of several Foundation Establishment Cultivators and over a hundred Qi Refining Cultivators.

Zhou Yang was a cultivator of the sixth generation of the Jade Spring Zhou Clan, belonging to the "Yuan" generation.

Yuhua Mingguang, Xuanyuan Guangtong, Fuzhe Rongsheng, Wanshi Changqing—these sixteen-character generational names were personally chosen by the founder of the Jade Spring Zhou Clan, Zhou Yuquan.

Only after detecting a Spiritual Root and possessing the aptitude for cultivation could a Zhou Clan member be officially registered in the clan's genealogy. Upon death, their spirit tablet would be placed in the ancestral hall to receive offerings from future generations.

There were a total of fifteen members of the "Yuan" generation in the Jade Spring Zhou Clan. Zhou Yang ranked ninth, but in terms of cultivation, he was the foremost among these fifteen.

At this moment, this "little genius" of the Zhou Clan was sitting cross-legged with his eyes tightly shut inside a natural cave halfway up Jade Spring Peak. He was forming Hand Seals, fully focused on circulating his cultivation technique to absorb and refine the milky white Earth Vein Spiritual Qi emanating from the cave.

Earth Vein Spiritual Qi was a refined essence born from the convergence of Spirit Veins and Earth Veins, possessing miraculous effects for low-level cultivators attempting to break through their cultivation realms.

However, Earth Vein Spiritual Qi was difficult to nurture and could only be generated in specific locations where Earth Veins and Spirit Veins intersected. On the entire Jade Spring Peak, only the "Jade Sun Cave" where Zhou Yang was currently located could generate it.

Furthermore, the amount of Earth Vein Spiritual Qi generated within the Jade Sun Cave every ten years was only enough to help one Qi Refining Stage cultivator break through, and it was only effective for cultivators below Qi Refining Layer Seven.

Therefore, among the dozens of Qi Refining Stage members of the Zhou Clan, only a select few particularly outstanding individuals could utilize Earth Vein Spiritual Qi for their breakthroughs during the Qi Refining Stage.

Zhou Yang's ability to use the Jade Sun Cave for his breakthrough was naturally related to his status as the foremost of the "Yuan" generation. Otherwise, even though his father was the Sixth Elder of the Jade Spring Zhou Clan, this Jade Sun Cave, which opened only once every ten years, would never have been available for a seventeen-year-old youth like him to use.

One must understand that among the dozens of Qi Refining Stage members of the clan, many had been waiting for this opportunity for one or two decades!

At this moment, Zhou Yang sat cross-legged, forming Hand Seals, his breathing even and steady. With each inhalation, two misty streams of milky white Earth Vein Spiritual Qi snaked into his nostrils, which he refined into his own spiritual power.

When the quantity of milky white Earth Vein Spiritual Qi in the cave dropped to less than thirty percent, Zhou Yang's tightly shut eyes suddenly snapped open. His shoulder-length hair, without any wind, began to flutter behind him, and his aura intensified by nearly double compared to before.

He then stood up, a look of joy on his face, and murmured to himself, "Finally broke through! Qi Refining Layer Six! The Earth Vein Spiritual Qi truly lives up to its reputation. This has saved me at least three years!"

At seventeen years old and at Qi Refining Layer Six, such an age and cultivation level would only be achieved by a select few elite disciples with High-grade Spiritual Roots in cultivation sects like the Yellow Sand Sect.

Zhou Yang's Spiritual Root aptitude was actually only of medium quality.

"The Clan Leader said I might possess some kind of special Treasure Body, which is why my cultivation speed is far superior to cultivators with similar aptitudes. Unfortunately, detecting Treasure Bodies is difficult, and only major sects like the Yellow Sand Sect can detect them through secret methods."

"Although our Zhou Clan is affiliated with the Yellow Sand Sect, it's impossible to get them to help detect a Treasure Body unless I'm willing to join the Yellow Sand Sect!"

"But once I join the Yellow Sand Sect, I'll be bound by their sect rules, and I'll suddenly have countless senior elders above me who can order me around. How could that be as comfortable as my current life within the clan?"

"Hmph, as the saying goes, it's better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. The Yellow Sand Sect is vast and prosperous, and they never lack geniuses with High-grade Spiritual Roots in every generation. Even if I possess a Treasure Body, I'd only be an elite disciple at the Yellow Sand Sect. The benefits I'd receive might not be as good as what I have now within the Zhou Clan. At least here, those elders are all hoping for my future Foundation Establishment success to bring glory to the clan, and they genuinely have my best interests at heart."

"Besides, as long as I successfully reach Foundation Establishment, my Treasure Body will naturally awaken and manifest its divine abilities. By then, I'll know what kind of Treasure Body I possess."

Zhou Yang was no ordinary person. He was a reborn soul from Earth, possessing twenty to thirty years of past life memories.

Although most of these past life memories from twenty to thirty years ago were unusable in this immortal cultivation world due to the vastly different environments, some of the methods, experiences, and principles of dealing with people were universally applicable across all worlds.

Others only saw the prestige and might of the Yellow Sand Sect, with a Golden Core Ancestor presiding within and dozens of affiliated desert oases like the Jade Spring Lake oasis providing support. They lacked nothing in terms of cultivation techniques and treasures, and they desperately wanted to join it to become a member.

They didn't realize that while the sect's benefits and treatment were excellent, the rules were equally strict. Upon entering the sect, one's freedom was curtailed. Ordinary Qi Refining Stage disciples had to complete mandatory sect-assigned tasks every year. Failure to complete these tasks would result in light punishment such as the suspension of welfare benefits, or severe punishment such as the abolition of their cultivation and expulsion from the sect!

Moreover, factionalism within the sect was rampant. Low-level disciples, either to impress the sect's higher-ups or to compete for the usage rights of certain spiritual lands, would go all out to suppress their rivals, making the competition extremely fierce.

The Zhou Clan's old ancestor was originally a Foundation Establishment Cultivator in the Yellow Sand Sect. Information about the Yellow Sand Sect was recorded in the clan's ancient texts. Therefore, unless they had poor Spiritual Root aptitude and wanted to take a gamble, no one in the Zhou Clan was willing to become a disciple of the Yellow Sand Sect.

In his previous life, Zhou Yang had greatly disliked office politics. Now that he had the opportunity to escape such struggles, he certainly wouldn't plunge himself back into them.

Therefore, he had long ago made up his mind that even if his path to the Great Dao and eternal life was hopeless, he absolutely would not want to live a life of constant scheming and infighting again.

Innate, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Violet Palace, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Tribulation Crossing, Void Returning, Dao Integration—these were the nine major realms of cultivation. To achieve true eternal life, one could only become a Dao Integration Celestial Immortal whose body merged with the Great Dao.

However, as far as Zhou Yang knew, ever since cultivators appeared in this world, there had been no one who had truly achieved eternal life. The division into nine cultivation realms was merely passed down by legendary celestial beings from beyond the heavens and had not been verified.

Therefore, for ninety-nine percent of cultivators, Golden Core Stage cultivators, who possessed a lifespan of a thousand years, were the ultimate pursuit of their cultivation.

Thus, it was no wonder he was unwilling to compromise himself by participating in such scheming and plotting for the sake of a fleeting legend of eternal life.

Cultivation was also the cultivation of the heart. Since his true heart did not wish to participate in such scheming and plotting, Zhou Yang naturally chose to follow his heart.

Having just broken through his realm, his mind was a bit too excited and had wandered. It took Zhou Yang a while to suppress his chaotic thoughts before he looked at the remaining milky white Earth Vein Spiritual Qi in the cave.

"Although the Earth Vein Spiritual Qi in the Jade Sun Cave can be absorbed freely every time it opens, since I have already successfully broken through, absorbing more of this Earth Vein Spiritual Qi will only help me stabilize my realm. Its effect is not significant."

"In that case, it's better to preserve this Earth Vein Spiritual Qi and allow the Jade Sun Cave to open a few years earlier next time, benefiting other clan members."

It's not wise to drain a pond to catch all the fish. Earth Vein Spiritual Qi is not easily generated, and using it solely to improve cultivation is truly a waste. Since Zhou Yang had firmly decided to develop within the clan, he naturally wouldn't do something so selfish and detrimental to the public good.

With his mind made up, he immediately opened the cave door and walked out of the mountain cave, explaining the situation to the family elders waiting outside.

The "Jade Sun Cave" was a vital location for the Zhou Clan, with family elders stationed there year-round for its protection. Currently, the one guarding outside was Zhou Xuanhe, a cultivator of the "Xuan" generation, who was also Zhou Yang's fourteenth uncle.

Upon seeing Zhou Yang emerge after successfully breaking through, and hearing his explanation of the situation inside, Zhou Xuanhe, dressed in a Daoist robe with a blue base embroidered with white cranes and auspicious clouds, nodded repeatedly with a face full of relief and smiled, "Excellent, excellent! Yang'er, you truly are the most promising person of the Yuan generation in our Zhou Clan. At such a young age, you possess such a broad perspective. If the Old Clan Leader and my elder brother knew of this, they would certainly be very pleased!"

The Old Clan Leader he mentioned was Zhou Minghan, the current sole Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Zhou Clan, and the last surviving member of the "Ming" generation. His elder brother referred to Zhou Xuanhao, Zhou Yang's father, who was also the Sixth Elder among the eight elders at the ninth layer of Qi Refining in the Zhou Clan, and the eldest of the "Xuan" generation.

Among the Zhou Clan cultivators, those of the same generation addressed each other as brothers, while those of different generations referred to each other as uncles, nephews, etc.

In response to the praise from his fourteenth uncle, Zhou Xuanhe, Zhou Yang humbly stated that it was simply what he should do as a member of the Zhou Clan, showing no arrogance due to his status or cultivation.

This display caused Zhou Xuanhe to view the younger generation with even greater regard.

Having reached the sixth layer of Qi Refining at such a young age was already remarkable, but what was even more commendable was his ability to remain neither arrogant nor impatient, and to consider the bigger picture. Perhaps the hope of the Zhou Clan's next generation truly rested on this young man.

With this thought, he remembered something and quickly said, "Since you have successfully broken through, hurry to the cave dwelling on the mountaintop to pay your respects to the Old Clan Leader. He had previously given instructions that you should see him if you succeeded in breaking through."

"Is that so? Then I shall not disturb you further, Fourteenth Uncle. Thank you for guarding me, Fourteenth Uncle."

Zhou Yang's expression shifted, and he immediately thanked Zhou Xuanhe before hurrying towards the Old Clan Leader's cave dwelling located at the summit of Jade Spring Peak.