Clever Plan to Eliminate Demons

Qingping Mountain Oasis.

After Elder Clan Leader Zhou Minghan adopted Zhou Yang's strategy and began implementing it, to prevent the Third-Rank Poison Fire Scorpion King from retaliating, over a dozen Late Qi Cultivation cultivators from the Zhou family had retreated to this oasis.

The Spirit Vein in the Qingping Mountain Oasis was only Second-Tier Low-Grade, and the spiritual energy it produced daily could only support one Late Qi Cultivation cultivator and seven or eight Early and Mid Qi Cultivation cultivators. Now, with over a dozen Late Qi Cultivation cultivators gathered here, the Spirit Vein's spiritual energy was immediately insufficient.

The importance of Spirit Veins and spiritual energy to cultivators was undeniable.

For a cultivator to normally improve their cultivation level, they must cultivate on a Spirit Vein that matches their cultivation level.

Taking Qi Refining Stage cultivators as an example, if they did not cultivate on a Second-Tier Spirit Vein like Qingping Mountain, but instead in the oasis or desolate wilderness outside, their cultivation speed would decrease tenfold. Conversely, if they cultivated on a Third-Tier Mid-Grade Spirit Vein like Jade Spring Peak, their cultivation speed would slightly increase from the normal level.

For cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage and above, if they left a Spirit Vein, it was simply a dream to make further progress in their cultivation with the thin ambient spiritual energy in the outside world.

Therefore, in the Cultivation World, any cultivator who still wished to improve their cultivation realm would find ways to occupy a Spirit Vein for cultivation.

A Spirit Vein, depending on its rank, also had a daily limit on the amount of spiritual energy it produced. Once the number of cultivators on a Spirit Vein was too high, and the daily consumed spiritual energy exceeded this limit, the Spirit Vein could drop in rank or even wither and dissipate.

The Qingping Mountain Spirit Vein was cultivated by the family with a massive amount of Spirit Stones. The cultivators of the Zhou family would naturally not do something as foolish as drinking poison to quench their thirst.

Therefore, after discussions, it was unanimously decided to give the Spirit Vein to Zhou Yang, the future hope of the Zhou family, for his cultivation. The rest of them, including his parents, retreated to the oasis outside the mountain to refine the spiritual energy from Spirit Stones for their own cultivation.

Spirit Stones were spiritual items formed by the highly condensed and concentrated spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The total amount of spiritual energy contained in one low-grade spirit stone was comparable to the spiritual energy a Foundation Establishment Cultivator needed for one day of breathing and circulation, and it was enough for a Qi Refining Layer Seven cultivator to use for ten days of cultivation.

Therefore, many low-level Rogue Cultivators who could not occupy Spirit Veins for cultivation could only absorb the spiritual energy from Spirit Stones daily to improve their cultivation.

This method naturally consumed a lot of Spirit Stones, and not many Rogue Cultivators had the wealth to use this method to improve their cultivation year-round.

The main reason why low-level Rogue Cultivators had lower cultivation and poorer pockets compared to sect and family cultivators of the same age was precisely this.

The Late Qi Cultivation cultivators of the Zhou family were not poorly off. Refining Spirit Stones for cultivation for a short period was a trivial matter for them, and no one had any objections.

Zhou Yang also knew the weight of the responsibility he now carried. He silently accepted the good intentions of his elders without any pretentious refusal.

On the other side, after Zhou Yang and the others left, Elder Clan Leader Zhou Minghan immediately flew above the sandy slope and started a fire.

There was no need to use a butcher's knife to kill a chicken. For simply burning some ordinary desert plants, Zhou Minghan did not need to waste any Mana to release his Foundation Establishment True Fire. He only needed to release a simple Second-Tier High-Grade spell, "Sea of Fire Spell," along with a small Second-Tier Low-Grade spell, "Gale Spell." The sandy slope was instantly engulfed in towering flames.

Crackling!

The flames spread everywhere, and the fur of some desert animals hiding in the sandy slope was instantly ignited, emitting popping sounds like exploding beans and the aroma of cooked meat.

For a time, various beast roars, snake hisses, and bird chirps sounded in unison, their cries miserable and filled with despair.

Zhou Minghan stood hundreds of meters in the sky, looking down. Everywhere, he could see desert animals fleeing wildly with flames on their bodies. At this moment, the thick fur that these animals used to resist the cold of the desert night and the heat of the daytime had instead become a death warrant.

Except for a few animals that could dig extremely quickly, such as sand rats and sand foxes, which managed to dig holes and burrow into the thick yellow sand to extinguish the flames on their bodies, seventy to eighty percent of the desert animals turned into charcoal in the raging inferno.

Even many Poison Fire Scorpions hiding in the sand were burned to death by the towering flames.

The sudden change on the sandy slope quickly alerted the Third-Rank Demonic Beast, the Poison Fire Scorpion King, which was cultivating in a cave deep beneath the sandy slope.

Upon hearing the "hissing" cries of its subordinates, this Third-Rank Demonic Beast quickly rushed out of its hiding cave. The raging flames on the sandy slope posed no threat to its powerful demonic beast body.

Hiss hiss!

As soon as the dark red giant scorpion, as large as a calf, appeared, it waved its pair of huge scorpion claws and roared furiously at Zhou Minghan in the sky. The powerful aura emanating from Zhou Minghan made this demonic beast, which already possessed considerable intelligence, feel a great threat.

However, Zhou Minghan couldn't be bothered to even look at it. He simply released a Third-Tier flying sword that shimmered with flowing light and proceeded to harvest the low-level Poison Fire Scorpions in front of it.

This provocative act greatly enraged the Poison Fire Scorpion King. It slammed its double claws onto the ground, causing the entire sandy slope to shake violently, instantly triggering a massive sandstorm.

Yellow sand filled the sky, not only obscuring Zhou Minghan's vision in the sky but also rapidly extinguishing more than half of the spreading flames.

Just like the difference between heaven and earth between the Foundation Establishment Stage and the Qi Refining Stage, the strength gap between Third-Rank Demonic Beasts and Second-Rank Demonic Beasts was also worlds apart.

Every move of a Third-Rank Demonic Beast could shatter mountains and crack the earth, causing a small-scale natural disaster. If there were no cultivators of the same rank to confront it, a single Third-Rank Demonic Beast could destroy a small oasis like the Qingping Mountain Oasis.

Seeing the Poison Fire Scorpion King's furious attack, Zhou Minghan, although not afraid of it, did not rashly engage in battle. Instead, he quickly retracted his flying sword and retreated from the battlefield on his sword.

Unlike cultivators, demonic beasts could only learn to fly on their swords after reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage. Except for avian demonic beasts and a few demonic beasts with special divine abilities, most land and aquatic demonic beasts could not master the ability to fly before the Fourth-Rank.

Therefore, when a Foundation Establishment cultivator faced a land-based Third-Rank Demonic Beast like the Poison Fire Scorpion King, as long as they were not fighting in its underground lair, they could easily control the initiative on the battlefield.

Of course, the reverse was also true. Although the Poison Fire Scorpion King could not fly, if it wanted to burrow and leave, a Foundation Establishment cultivator would have difficulty keeping it on the ground unless they had set up a formation to block it beforehand.

On the sandy slope, the Poison Fire Scorpion King, seeing Zhou Minghan leave, merely thought that he was scared away by the power it displayed. After proudly hissing and waving its two large scorpion claws to show off to its subordinates, it then extended its claws towards a nearby Poison Fire Scorpion that was half-dead from the fire.

This poor Poison Fire Scorpion had barely escaped the inferno and before it could celebrate, it was completely devoured by its "King" as dinner.

After eating an injured fellow member, the Poison Fire Scorpion King scanned the other trembling ordinary Poison Fire Scorpions with fierce eyes, hissed out a few commands, and returned to its underground cave to slumber.

After the Poison Fire Scorpion King left, the entire Poison Fire Scorpion swarm erupted in a frenzy. The desert animals that were burned to death by Zhou Minghan's fire became the main course of this celebration, which even included the corpses of the dead Poison Fire Scorpions.

All the Poison Fire Scorpions, including the Poison Fire Scorpion King, did not realize how much harm the destruction of the desert plants around the sandy slope would bring to their clan.

In the eyes of these demonic beasts, today's battle was no different from when the scorpion clan encountered powerful demonic beasts attacking before. Although the invaders had killed some members of the scorpion clan, they were still driven away by their powerful "King." As for the fallen clan members, as long as the scorpion clan still existed, new members would soon be born and join.

It wasn't until half a month later, when the Poison Fire Scorpion King awoke from its slumber, that it discovered the drastic reduction in the scorpion clan's numbers and the infighting due to food scarcity. Only then did it realize the malicious nature of that fire.

However, by this time, the consequences had already manifested. Although the Poison Fire Scorpion King was powerful, it could not conjure large amounts of food out of thin air to save the scorpion clan.

With no other choice, the Poison Fire Scorpion King had to take the initiative to eliminate the weak, old, sick, and small among the scorpion clan for the strong to consume. Then, it drove all the surviving Poison Fire Scorpions out of the underground cave, ordering them to go to the depths of the desert to forage and hunt on their own.

However, the Poison Fire Scorpion King did not expect that as soon as it drove the scorpion clan out of the underground cave, Elder Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, who had been monitoring the situation at the sandy slope, immediately seized the opportunity to kill dozens of these departing Poison Fire Scorpions. Then, before it could hear the distress signal and rush over, he elegantly flew away on his sword.

After this lesson, the Poison Fire Scorpion King understood that it and its clan were being targeted. As an intelligent demonic beast, it immediately changed its orders, instructing the scorpion clan not to move on the surface when foraging outside the nest, and then it secretly followed behind the foraging scorpion clan to ambush them.

It was difficult for Zhou Minghan to detect the Poison Fire Scorpions moving underground by digging holes, and the ambushes of the Poison Fire Scorpion King made him almost suffer a defeat.

After trying this a few more times and finding that he could no longer gain any advantage, Zhou Minghan finally turned back to the Qingping Mountain Oasis.

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