Qi Refining Layer Nine

The spirit vein on Golden Glow Mountain was Tier 3 High-grade, a full grade higher than the spirit vein on the Zhou Clan's Jade Spring Peak. Even though Jade Spring Tower was not located at the spirit eye of this mountain's vein, its spiritual energy was more than sufficient to support a Qi Refining cultivator like Zhou Yang in breaking through a minor realm.

After cultivating in seclusion for only nine days in the secluded chamber behind Jade Spring Tower, he smoothly broke through the cultivation barrier that had trapped him for over a year. He successfully advanced to Qi Refining Layer Nine, becoming the first Ninth Layer Qi Refining Cultivator in the Zhou Lineage in over two hundred years to be under forty years old.

Only after reaching Qi Refining Layer Nine did Zhou Yang understand why only Ninth Layer Qi Refining Cultivators in the Zhou Lineage could serve as lineage elders.

He did not know what it was like for others, but after advancing from Qi Refining Layer Eight to Qi Refining Layer Nine, his mana had doubled, while his divine sense had increased by a full fold. The range of his outward divine sense had reached three hundred meters!

With such mana and divine sense, he could control four or five Tier 2 High-grade Artifacts at once in battle for half an hour. His combat strength was no longer comparable to what it had been before.

According to the Zhou Lineage's rules, once a Zhou cultivator reached Qi Refining Layer Nine and reported it to the Lineage, Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan would represent the Lineage in bestowing upon them the position of lineage elder.

Had Zhou Yang broken through to Qi Refining Layer Nine at Jade Spring Lake Oasis, he would likely have become the Zhou Lineage's ninth elder that very day.

The reason it was the ninth elder was that after his father, Zhou Xuanhao, achieved Foundation Establishment, Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan had represented the Lineage in granting him the higher position of Supreme Elder after the Foundation Establishment Celebration. This had left one of the nine elder positions vacant.

In principle, the Supreme Elder and the lineage head stood on equal footing. Even the lineage head had no authority to directly issue any order to him. Should the lineage head commit a grave error and cause major losses to the Lineage, the Supreme Elder even had the authority to convene the council of elders and hold a vote to remove him from his post.

Yet in reality, under the Lineage's system, the Supreme Elder still stood a notch below the lineage head. To put it bluntly, the Supreme Elder was an honored but largely powerless position. So long as the lineage head did not make mistakes or stir the clansmen into a chorus of grievances, the Supreme Elder could only serve as a ceremonial figurehead, collecting a generous Attendant stipend and cultivating in peace.

Naturally, those with an overwhelming thirst for power and control did not like being Supreme Elders who seemed honored but possessed little real authority. However, there were not many such people among cultivators.

Thus, the reality of the Cultivation World was that high-level cultivators in the major powers often preferred to be Supreme Elders who drew stipends and did little work, unwilling to waste their precious cultivation time on handling sect affairs.

After all, Great Power Resides Within Oneself for cultivators. So long as one's cultivation remained intact, even if one became an idle Supreme Elder, no one would dare overlook one's existence because of it.

Therefore, Zhou Yang was in fact extremely envious of his father Zhou Xuanhao becoming a Supreme Elder.

Unfortunately, envy was all he could manage. As the nearly predetermined next lineage head of the Zhou Lineage, even if he achieved Foundation Establishment, he could forget about becoming an idle Supreme Elder. In the future, the Zhou Lineage's ship could only be steered by him.

"Ninth Brother, Ninth Brother, the Lineage's merchant caravan has returned! Sixth Uncle and Uncle Eleven came back to the market with the caravan!"

That day, Zhou Yang was reading a purchased copy of the Record of Strange Items on the third floor of Jade Spring Tower when Zhou Xiong, who had been receiving customers downstairs, suddenly burst in shouting at the top of his lungs, his face brimming with excitement.

"Merchant caravan? Sixth Uncle and Uncle Eleven? Wait... you mean the caravan that went with the Chen Lineage's caravan to Yellow Sand Sect for tribute and trade several years ago has returned?"

After murmuring a few words in response to his younger clansman, Zhou Yang's expression suddenly tightened, and his gaze instantly turned grave.

Both the Chen Lineage and the Zhou Lineage were families subordinate to Yellow Sand Sect. Every ten years, the families under Yellow Sand Sect's rule in the surrounding region would jointly organize a merchant caravan carrying vast quantities of spiritual goods to the sect's mountain gate for tribute and trade.

This caravan was generally led and guarded by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Chen Lineage. Foundation Establishment Families like the Zhou Lineage would each send several Qi Refining Cultivators to join it, after which they would form a camel caravan and set out from White Sand River Oasis. They had to travel over twenty thousand li before reaching the giant oasis where Yellow Sand Sect's mountain gate stood.

As Zhou Yang knew, more than two years ago, Sixth Uncle Zhou Xuanjing, a lineage elder, and Uncle Eleven Zhou Xuankun, who possessed Qi Refining Layer Eight cultivation, had taken two Zhou Lineage cultivators related by marriage and three younger members of the Yuan generation to Yellow Sand Sect with the caravan.

Ordinary Family Cultivators like Zhou Xiong only knew that this caravan had gone to Yellow Sand Sect, as always, for tribute and trade.

But Zhou Yang knew that the caravan had another mission this time: to retrieve the final few auxiliary spiritual materials for refining the Foundation Establishment Pill, which Old Ancestor Chen of the Chen Lineage, Chen Yaohui, had long ago ordered.

Now that the caravan had returned, it meant that the Foundation Establishment Assembly Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan had mentioned to him was about to be held.

Sure enough, after meeting with Sixth Uncle Zhou Xuanjing and Uncle Eleven Zhou Xuankun, he immediately saw in his sixth uncle's hands an invitation personally written by Old Ancestor Chen, inviting Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan of the Zhou Lineage to gather at the ancestral grounds of the White Camel Ridge Chen Family half a year later.

"Little Nine, Old Clan Leader must have told you about the Foundation Establishment Assembly, right? Since you have already broken through to Qi Refining Layer Nine, our Zhou Lineage must obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill no matter what this time. For the coming period, you must stay properly in the market and absolutely must not leave!"

Within Jade Spring Tower, Zhou Xuankun looked at this junior whose cultivation had already surpassed his own. His face held both gratification and envy.

He was nearly twenty years younger than Zhou Yang's father, Zhou Xuanhao. If Zhou Yang had not broken through to Qi Refining Layer Nine, then after the Zhou Lineage purchased a Foundation Establishment Pill, he would also have had some chance to take it.

Unfortunately, though he too possessed a Mid-grade Spiritual Root, an injury suffered during a battle in his early years had delayed his cultivation for several years. As a result, his cultivation still remained at Qi Refining Layer Eight without a breakthrough. This time, he was completely fated to miss out on the Foundation Establishment Pill.

"Old Eleventh is right. Little Nine, you need to be more alert at a time like this. Outside is not like within the Lineage; in all matters, you must keep an extra eye open."

Zhou Xuanjing glanced at his clansman, whose expression was complicated, then looked meaningfully at Zhou Yang and offered this warning.

"Rest assured, Uncles. Unless Old Clan Leader personally gives the order, your nephew will not take even half a step out of the market!"

Zhou Yang understood what his two clan uncles meant. They feared that if he left the market, someone might harm him and cause him to lose his chance at Foundation Establishment. There had been precedents for such things before.

After all, even if Old Ancestor Chen refined Foundation Establishment Pills, there definitely would not be many of them. If the Zhou Lineage obtained one, it meant that someone from another family would return empty-handed.

Under such circumstances, it was only natural for certain families to secretly strike against the other side's Foundation Establishment Seeds—those with hopes of Foundation Establishment—in order to eliminate a competitor.

Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan had specifically warned Zhou Yang about these matters when he left the Lineage. Thus, ever since arriving at the market, he had not taken a single step outside it.

So long as he remained in the market, the Chen Lineage guaranteed his safety. Whoever dared injure someone within the market would be making an enemy of the entire Chen Lineage.

Chapter Two, asking for recommendation votes and investments in the new book.