First Time Descending the Mountain

The Second-tier Artifact [Silver Gang Shield] is refined using the shed scales of the Second-tier spiritual object [Dragon Scale Tree] as the main material, mixed with the Second-tier spiritual object [Silver Gang Stone].

Cultivation has nine great realms, and the artifacts, pills, formations, and talismans used by cultivators are accordingly divided into nine grades from first to ninth. A Second-tier Artifact corresponds precisely to a Qi Refining Stage Cultivator.

Even among Second-tier Artifacts, there are distinctions of upper, middle, and lower grades. The [Silver Gang Shield] was meticulously crafted by Zhou Minghan, a Third-Rank Artifact Forger, so its grade is naturally the highest—upper grade.

Before this artifact is refined, it appears only the size of a palm. In reality, once Zhou Yang refines it and releases it during battle, it can transform into a shield as large as a door panel, protecting his entire body and adjusting its position at will.

Moreover, because [Silver Gang Stone] was incorporated during its forging, this artifact can not only easily block attacks from flying swords and flying blades of the same tier but also has a remarkable effect against spell attacks from cultivators or demonic beasts, greatly reducing damage from spells below the third tier.

"Our Zhou family has one second-tier [Dragon Scale Tree], and every ten years we can harvest a few mature scales—it's essentially self-produced. But a spell-breaking spiritual object like [Silver Gang Stone] is not common. Even a fist-sized piece costs at least five hundred low-grade spirit stones. The Old Clan Leader's gift is truly not light!"

Inside the room, Zhou Yang looked at the palm-sized silver shield in his hand and suddenly felt that this artifact had become much heavier.

As a cultivation family, every Zhou family member who reaches the Qi Refining Stage can receive a yearly spirit stone stipend from the family until they exceed the age of sixty.

According to the current clan rules, a Zhou family member at Qi Refining Layer One can receive 10 low-grade spirit stones a year, Layer Two gets 20 low-grade spirit stones, and so on, with changes only occurring at Qi Refining Layer Nine.

Because, barring accidents, Qi Refining Layer Nine is the limit for ordinary Qi Refining cultivators. The Zhou family's current rule is that any family cultivator who advances to Qi Refining Layer Nine is promoted to family elder. Each elder receives an annual stipend of 150 low-grade spirit stones, with no age limit, as long as the elder does not pass away.

Zhou Yang had been stuck at Qi Refining Layer Five for two years, with an annual stipend of only 50 low-grade spirit stones. By that calculation, even if he saved all his spirit stones without spending any, it would take ten years of stipends to afford a fist-sized [Silver Gang Stone].

In reality, because he only entered the Qi Refining Stage at age seven, over the past ten years, excluding treasures given as gifts by his parents, his total assets amounted to just over three hundred low-grade spirit stones.

From this, it was clear how heavy a gift the Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan had given him by awarding the [Silver Gang Shield] as a reward for his early descent from the mountain!

"The Old Clan Leader thinks so highly of me. I must not disappoint him. Whether it's learning the Artifact Forging Art or stationing at Qingping Mountain, I must handle everything flawlessly!"

Zhou Yang's heart warmed. He tightened his grip on the artifact in his hand and silently resolved to do his best to repay the elder's trust.

Over the next few days, Zhou Yang kept his doors tightly shut, holed up in his room to refine the newly acquired [Silver Gang Shield] artifact. Only after he could wield it with ease did he step out to prepare for his descent from the mountain.

He first went to another important Zhou family site, the Scripture Depository Cave, where he learned the Qi Refining Layer Six technique of the "Blazing Sun Fiery Art." Then, from the many spells collected in the cave, he selected five combat-oriented spells to practice.

These five spells were: the second-tier attack spells "Golden Saber Technique" and "Fire Serpent Technique," the second-tier defense spell "Golden Light Body Protection Art," and the second-tier auxiliary spells "Heavenly Eye Technique" and "Earth Evasion Technique."

The Qi Refining techniques and spells in the Zhou family's Scripture Depository Cave were open to all clan members, but they could not be taken out of the cave, and it was strictly forbidden to teach them to outsiders.

Previously, following his parents' and elders' teachings, Zhou Yang had only learned a few simple first-tier auxiliary spells, not diverting his energy to combat spells, focusing entirely on improving his cultivation.

But now, since he was to descend the mountain and guard a territory, he would inevitably encounter combat. Without knowing combat spells, relying solely on his few artifacts would make his methods too simplistic, easily countered or targeted.

Spells were easy to learn but hard to master. Just learning to use them initially didn't take long. With Zhou Yang's Qi Refining Layer Six cultivation, it took him only about half a month to master all five spells.

By then, the one-month deadline set by the Old Clan Leader was approaching. He wrote a letter explaining the situation, entrusted it to an elder to deliver to his parents, who were stationed at a cultivator market thousands of miles away, then bid farewell to familiar elders and peers on the mountain and descended alone.

After descending the mountain, Zhou Yang took a camel—essential for desert travel—from a clan member below and plunged straight into the Boundless Sea of Sand.

This was the first time in seventeen years he had left the Jade Spring Lake Oasis, and the first time in two lifetimes he had set foot in a desert.

The sea of sand stretched endlessly, and walking through it, one could easily lose direction.

Once lost in the sand sea, even a cultivator carrying plenty of water and food in a Storage Bag would eventually starve or die of thirst if they couldn't reach an oasis before their supplies ran out.

Cultivators were far stronger than mortals, but without reaching the Golden Core Stage, they couldn't completely abstain from food. Even Purple Mansion Stage cultivators needed to regularly consume meals made from spirit grain or demonic beast spirit meat to sustain their bodies.

In fact, even Golden Core Stage cultivators, who could abstain from food, dared not fly recklessly through the Boundless Sea of Sand.

Golden Core cultivators might not fear losing their way, but the sand sea held dangers beyond mere disorientation—terrifying natural disasters and powerful demonic beasts capable of killing even Golden Core cultivators.

For example, the infamous "Black Sand Storm." Once a Golden Core cultivator was caught in it, the strange power within would isolate their divine sense and block their five senses, eventually draining their magic power and grinding them to death with endless storm force.

Another example was the most famous Tier 5 Demonic Beast in the Boundless Sea of Sand, the [Sand Worm]. Its body stretched thousands of zhang, with terrifying teeth in its mouth that could crush a Fifth-tier defense artifact with sheer force. If a Golden Core cultivator was careless and fell into a Sand Worm's mouth, they would die confusedly.

With these risks, unless there was an unavoidable reason, Golden Core cultivators rarely ventured deep into the sand sea.

Fortunately, neither the terrifying "Black Sand Storm" nor the Tier 5 Demonic Beast [Sand Worm], which slept in certain underground spirit veins deep in the desert, appeared near oases. Otherwise, Zhou Yang might not have dared to set foot in the desert alone.

With just himself and a camel, he followed the family-issued map strictly and traveled through the desert for about five days before smoothly reaching his destination—Qingping Mountain.

Qingping Mountain was also an oasis, but an artificial one.

This oasis was very small, only about a dozen square kilometers. It existed only because the Zhou family had invested tens of thousands of low-grade spirit stones without counting the cost, artificially creating a second-tier low-grade spirit vein.

The reason the Zhou family went to such lengths to create an oasis here was that, over fifty years ago, a lost Zhou family member in the desert discovered a medium-grade Fine Iron Ore Vein.

Fine Iron ore was a spiritual ore containing a trace of spiritual energy. After smelting and processing, it could yield the first-tier spiritual object Fine Iron and the second-tier spiritual object Mysterious Iron. These two materials were the main components for building important structures like ancestral halls, Scripture Pavilions, and treasure vaults in cultivation families or sects, and also the primary materials for most first- and second-tier artifacts forged by artifact forgers. Market demand was enormous.

To mine the Fine Iron from the vein, the Zhou family had to build an oasis here for the miners to live in. At the same time, to protect the miners from attacks by low-tier demonic beasts in the desert, the Zhou family had to station cultivators here.

Whether building the oasis or allowing stationed cultivators to continue their cultivation, the Zhou family had no choice but to create an artificial spirit vein here.

Of course, all this investment was worth it.

This single medium-grade Fine Iron Ore Vein, with the ore mined and processed each year, brought the Zhou family a net profit of over five hundred low-grade spirit stones. Over fifty years, the initial investment had been recouped several times over.

Moreover, based on the vein's reserves, it could be mined for at least another fifty years.

The Qingping Mountain Oasis was extremely small, with most of the area turned into living quarters for the miners. Only a hundred-meter-high hill at the center of the spirit vein was set aside as the residence for stationed cultivators and a warehouse for finished materials.

In a sense, the hill was the true Qingping Mountain.

Because the current Great Elder of the Zhou family was a second-tier Formation Master, a second-tier formation, the "Cloud Sea Light Splitting Array," had been set up over the Qingping Mountain spirit vein. The formation's power kept the hill shrouded in clouds and mist year-round, making it hard to see the layout inside.

Zhou Yang arrived outside the formation, shouted while channeling his magic power, and the mist before him churned, parting a path for him to ascend the mountain and enter.

Following the formation's passage inside, he soon saw the stationed cultivator: a gaunt, middle-aged scholar. This man was the sixteenth among the Zhou family's "Xuan" generation cultivators, named Zhou Xuanjin.

"Eh, why is it Yang'er coming to replace me? Aren't you still under twenty?"

The scholar-dressed Zhou Xuanjin saw Zhou Yang enter and let out a soft exclamation of surprise. Before Zhou Yang could even greet him, he set down the book in his hands and began questioning him.

"In reply to Sixteenth Uncle, this is the arrangement of the Old Clan Leader. His elder said that this nephew's cultivation has reached the standard for descending the mountain, so he made an exception to allow this nephew to go down early for training." Zhou Yang answered honestly.

Zhou Xuanjin's expression stiffened, and he muttered in confusion, "Reached the standard for descending the mountain? Since when did our Zhou family have such a standard?"

Having said that, his heart stirred as if recalling something. He quickly cast a "Heavenly Eye Technique" on himself, his eyes gleaming with golden light as he scrutinized Zhou Yang from head to toe.

It was fine if he didn't look, but once he did, he couldn't help but open his mouth wide and exclaim, "Ah! You've broken through to Qi Refining Layer Six!"

"After secluding myself in the [Jade Sun Cave] last month, I managed to break through by luck."

Zhou Yang smiled faintly and nodded in acknowledgment without any hesitation.

In truth, in the cultivation world, directly using the "Heavenly Eye Technique" to observe another's cultivation was a highly taboo act, often leading to cultivators coming to blows over such matters.

However, since Zhou Xuanjin was an elder of his own family, Zhou Yang paid no mind to such a trivial issue.

"Tsk tsk tsk, remarkable, remarkable. How old are you?"

"As your uncle, I've labored in cultivation for forty or fifty years just to reach Qi Refining Layer Seven. But you, at seventeen, are already at Qi Refining Layer Six. In another eight or ten years, I'm afraid your cultivation will surpass mine!"

"Ah, old, old. Can't compare to the young anymore. Both of us have Mid-grade Spiritual Roots, so why is the gap so vast!"

Zhou Xuanjin withdrew his technique, his gaze complex as he looked at this outstanding junior. He didn't know whether to feel happy for the family producing such a genius or ashamed and dejected that his own cultivation was about to be overtaken by a junior decades younger.

This wasn't the first time Zhou Yang had encountered such a situation. Ever since he broke through to Qi Refining Layer Six, the peers and elders on Jade Spring Peak, while marveling and rejoicing at his cultivation speed, had all shown signs of disappointment and gloom, much like Zhou Xuanjin.

To this, he could only remain silent, finding it hard to say anything more.

New book, seeking recommendation tickets!