Eight Years

Time in cultivation passes without notice, seasons blurring into years.

In the blink of an eye, Zhou Yang had been stationed at the Haoyang Cave spirit vein for eight years.

Through eight years of arduous cultivation, his cultivation level had successfully advanced another layer, reaching Qi Refining Layer Eight, just one step away from Qi Refining Layer Nine.

Eight years was neither a long nor a short time for a cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage.

For Zhou Yang, eight years had only seen his cultivation advance from Qi Refining Layer Seven to Qi Refining Layer Eight, but for the entire Zhou Family, the changes over these eight years had been immense.

Firstly, the elders Zhou Quan and Zhou Dan, who had been stationed at the Haoyang Cave spirit vein alongside Zhou Yang, had both passed away. These two elders were already nearing the lifespan limit for Qi Refining Stage cultivators, and after sustaining internal injuries in a battle with the Poison Fire Scorpion King, they had passed away not long after.

Because they cultivated in the same spiritual land, Zhou Yang had personally witnessed the slow decline of the two elders' lives.

He watched as the two elders' mana dissipated overnight, their once ruddy and healthy faces instantly becoming wrinkled, their white hair and all their teeth falling out. This sight had deeply shaken him.

He had thought that being reborn twice would have made him more composed when facing life and death, but witnessing two powerful cultivators, who had been chatting and laughing with him the day before, die of old age overnight, he felt fear!

The power of a cultivator lies within themselves. A cultivator at Qi Refining Layer Nine, even with empty hands, could easily slaughter tens of thousands of mortals.

However, once their lifespan ran out, they were no different from ordinary mortals, ultimately unable to resist the power called "time."

Without reaching Foundation Establishment, the lifespan limit for cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage was one hundred and twenty years. Without achieving immortality, even Golden Core Ancestors with lifespans of a thousand years would eventually pass away!

Immortality!

Immortality!

Immortality!

It was after witnessing the passing of the two elder family members that Zhou Yang's desire for "immortality" became unprecedentedly strong.

He wanted to live forever, to not one day find himself like the two elder family members, his hundred years of cultivation dissipating in an instant, dying helplessly amidst endless unwillingness and regret.

He knew what the two elders regretted in the end.

Elder Zhou Quan and Elder Zhou Dan had both had opportunities to attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, but they feared the extremely high mortality rate. Neither had the courage to take that step, thus cutting off their own path to immortality.

Perhaps before they passed away, the two elders didn't feel their choices were wrong. After all, compared to countless cultivators who died at the Foundation Establishment bottleneck at fifty or sixty years old, they had lived nearly twice as long.

But at the moment of their death from old age, the two elders must have regretted it. Their final looks of unwillingness and regret told Zhou Yang that they had regretted it!

Zhou Yang did not want to regret!

He did not want to depart this world one day like the two elders, in endless unwillingness and regret.

Therefore, he made up his mind at that moment: as long as he had the chance to advance his cultivation further in this life, no matter how difficult or dangerous the path ahead, he would never give up that opportunity.

It was precisely this unwavering, determined belief that allowed him to progress smoothly on the path of cultivation from Qi Refining Layer Seven to Qi Refining Layer Eight, breaking through in less than five years. Then, after another three years, he reached the peak of Qi Refining Layer Eight, just one step away from Qi Refining Layer Nine.

Of course, apart from his own efforts and the fact that the Haoyang Cave spirit vein was particularly compatible with him, Zhou Yang's rapid cultivation advancement was also due to the pills his father, Zhou Xuanhao, had given him before he left.

Before departing, Zhou Xuanhao had specifically called Zhou Yang aside and given him three different Tier 2 High-grade Spirit Pills. The effect of consuming one of each pill was equivalent to half a year of his own cultivation through meditation, and he had consumed twelve of them within eight years.

Speaking of which, this was the first time Zhou Yang had frequently used pills to advance his cultivation.

Before this, he had always followed the instructions of his father and the Old Clan Leader, never using the power of pills to boost his cultivation unless it was the critical moment of breaking through a realm.

This was because although pills could greatly enhance a cultivator's mana and cultivation, they would also leave behind "pill toxin" within the cultivator's body. If this "pill toxin" accumulated too much and could not be dispelled in time, it would not only make the cultivator's mana impure, affecting future realm breakthroughs, but also damage the cultivator's body and reduce their lifespan.

For cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage, the harm of "pill toxin" was particularly severe. If too many spirit pills were consumed to advance cultivation before Foundation Establishment, and the "pill toxin" could not be dispelled in time, even if one later used a "Foundation Establishment Pill" to break through, the success rate would be significantly reduced.

Therefore, in the cultivation world, seniors from sects or cultivation families with legacies would clearly explain the dangers of "pill toxin" to their juniors from a young age and strictly control the distribution of pills to prevent anyone from succumbing to the temptation of rapid cultivation advancement and taking risks.

Only rogue cultivators who lacked guidance from elders and happened to get lucky would happily buy large quantities of spirit pills to improve their cultivation, thinking this would allow them to catch up to cultivation geniuses with better aptitude.

They were completely unaware that by taking that step, they had already completely lost hope of catching up to others.

Zhou Yang had consumed very few spirit pills before, and the small amount of "pill toxin" in his body had long been refined away through years of arduous cultivation. That was why Zhou Xuanhao dared to give him spirit pills with peace of mind.

Unfortunately, even so, due to the frequent consumption of pills over the past eight years, he had accumulated a considerable amount of "pill toxin," leading to a cultivation bottleneck. He would not be able to break through to Qi Refining Layer Nine in a short period.

However, based on Zhou Yang's own estimation, this amount of "pill toxin" would not affect his future path. As long as he stopped taking such cultivation-advancing spirit pills for the next ten years or so, the residual trace of pill toxin in his body would naturally be washed away by the infusion of spiritual energy into his body after he reached Foundation Establishment.

"Eight years have passed, and this [Earth Yuan Spirit Milk] should be condensing soon. I wonder what Father has decided!"

In the Haoyang Cave, Zhou Yang looked at the milky yellow stalactite pillar in the stone chamber with a complex expression.

The milky yellow stalactite pillar was like top-quality jade, warm and lustrous, emitting a faint glow. Zhou Yang, who stayed there day and night, could clearly sense a familiar energy gathering and strengthening within the pillar. He was not unfamiliar with this energy; it was the earth vein spiritual energy he had absorbed before.

According to the records of [Earth Yuan Spirit Milk] he had seen in the "Records of Heavenly and Earthly Treasures" given by his father, Zhou Xuanhao, once the earth vein spiritual energy within the stalactite pillar gathered and strengthened to a certain point, [Earth Yuan Spirit Milk] would ooze from the surface of the pillar.

Besides the effects mentioned by the Old Clan Leader, this [Earth Yuan Spirit Milk] was also a rare spiritual item for enhancing cultivation in demonic beasts. The reason the Poison Fire Scorpion King could become a Tier 3 demonic beast was likely due to its consumption of a large amount of [Earth Yuan Spirit Milk].

Zhou Yang had been unsure whether to advise his father, Zhou Xuanhao, to consume the [Earth Yuan Spirit Milk] to attempt a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment. However, after witnessing the passing of the two elders of the Zhou Family, he now hoped his father would take the risk and go for it.

Of course, as a son, even if he had this thought, he would definitely not voice it, and could only secretly hope his father would figure it out.

"I wonder how the oasis construction by my second uncle and the others is going. Since my cultivation can't break through anyway, I'll focus on practicing artifact refining and help them with the oasis construction!"

Putting aside his worries about his father Zhou Xuanhao's breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, Zhou Yang felt a stir of restlessness.

In recent years, although the Zhou Family had lost three elders of the "Guang" generation, Zhou Qian, Zhou Quan, and Zhou Dan, Four cultivators of the "Xuan" generation, Zhou Xuan Tai, Zhou Xuan Bin, Zhou Xuan Lin, and Zhou Xuan Yan, had successively broken through to Qi Refining Layer Nine, replacing the three deceased elders of the "Guang" generation. As a result, the number of Zhou Family elders had increased instead of decreasing, reaching nine.

While Zhou Yang was in seclusion cultivating, the Zhou Family elders had also investigated the reserves of the Crimson Flame Iron ore vein adjacent to the Haoyang Cave spirit vein. This ore vein turned out to be a relatively rare large-scale ore vein!

This discovery had made the informed cultivators of the Zhou Family overjoyed. If the Zhou Family hadn't been lacking a Foundation Establishment cultivator to guard the Haoyang Cave spirit vein, the Old Clan Leader would have likely organized a large number of people to develop the ore vein immediately.

Even so, after deliberation by the Zhou Family elders, the family relocated thousands of mortals from the Jade Spring Lake oasis to the "Haoyang Cave" Spirit Vein. They then constructed a massive earthen city on the surface to house these mortals.

Of course, the official story was that these people had moved to the Green Ping Mountain oasis, and the Zhou Family was increasing the extraction of fine iron ore.

With the arrival of these thousands of mortals, the "Haoyang Cave" Spirit Vein finally began to feel more alive. Then, with the assistance of the newly appointed elders Zhou Xuan Tai and Zhou Xuan Yan, the Zhou Family mortals and cultivators worked together to divert water from the underground river into a low-lying desert area, creating an artificial lake spanning several hundred square meters.

Once the lake was established, Zhou Xuan Tai and others began organizing the Zhou Family mortals to carry water by shoulder and hand, transporting it to irrigate the sandy ground for drought-resistant plants. They then used growth spells to accelerate the development of these ordinary plants.

It is worth noting that ordinary plants cultivated by cultivators using magic spells cannot survive for long, and the fruits and grains produced by these magically grown plants are also not suitable for mortals to consume.

However, after these cultivated plants wither and die, they can be used to fertilize the land.

Through years of experimentation and summary, cultivators in the boundless desert sea have already developed a complete set of oasis construction plans. As long as the geographical environment is suitable and they are willing to invest manpower and resources, turning a desert into an oasis is not an impossible dream.

At this moment, Zhou Yang, feeling restless after a period of stillness, left his secluded stone chamber. Stepping outside, he saw that the empty underground stone cave only contained his fifth uncle, Zhou Xuan Bin, who was meditating with his eyes closed, acting as his guardian.

Of the four Zhou Family cultivators at "Haoyang Cave," apart from Zhou Yang, the other three had already reached Qi Refining Layer Nine, their mana unable to increase any further.

Therefore, to avoid disturbing Zhou Yang's cultivation, they usually practiced in the outer caves. Each day, one of them would take turns to guard Zhou Yang while he was in seclusion.

This kind of treatment was unheard of in the entire Zhou Family, except for Zhou Yang.

Because of this, Zhou Yang felt the immense pressure. He knew that only by successfully reaching Foundation Establishment could he live up to the efforts of these elder family members.

First, I would like to thank the reader "Wangshi Suiyuan" for their 100 Qidian coins reward. Secondly, regarding the writing of this chapter, I originally intended to depict the scene of the two old Zhou Family members passing away before their demise. However, fearing accusations of padding the chapter, I have briefly touched upon it here and will elaborate on it later using a flashback technique. Finally, I request recommendation votes, investment in the new book's investment group, and rewards!