Zhou Yang truly did not know what more he could say.
The more his cultivation increased and the wider the gap between him and his peers in the lineage became, the more deeply he felt the importance of aptitude to low-level cultivators.
Among ordinary mortals, perhaps only one or two Spirit Root Cultivators could be born out of every ten thousand people. The descendants of cultivators had a greater chance of possessing spiritual roots, but it was still only a chance of several dozen to one.
Of those who possessed spiritual roots, the overwhelming majority had Low-grade Spiritual Roots. On average, only one Mid-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator might be found among ten people. As for High-grade Spiritual Roots, they were even rarer; it was difficult to find even one among a hundred cultivators.
The Zhou lineage at Jade Spring Lake Oasis had more than a hundred thousand members, yet the Zhou lineage currently had fewer than a hundred Qi Refining Stage Cultivators in total, including seven or eight cultivators of other surnames who had married into the Zhou lineage.
Among the several dozen cultivators currently remaining in the Zhou lineage, there was not a single person with a High-grade Spiritual Root. Even Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, who was at Foundation Establishment Late Stage, only possessed a Mid-grade Spiritual Root.
Just how great was the influence of Spiritual Root quality on a cultivator?
At the same Qi Refining Stage Level One, cultivating the same technique and meditating in the same place, ten days of meditation by a Low-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator barely matched one day of meditation by a Mid-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator.
And the results of ten-odd days of meditation by a Mid-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator might not even compare to one day of cultivation by a High-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator.
Not only did High-grade Spiritual Root Cultivators cultivate quickly, but when facing the first great hurdle of cultivation—Foundation Establishment—their chance of breaking through was far greater than that of cultivators with Mid-grade or Low-grade Spiritual Roots. Even without taking a Foundation Establishment Pill, that rare spiritual medicine capable of greatly raising the success rate of Foundation Establishment, they still had a thirty percent chance of breaking through.
It was said that above High-grade Spiritual Roots, there were also Spirit Body Cultivators and Dao Body Cultivators.
So long as any Spirit Body Cultivator did not die prematurely along the way, he would certainly become a Golden Core Stage ancestor, without encountering any bottlenecks in between.
As for Dao Body Cultivators, they were even more legendary. Since cultivators had first appeared in this world, fewer than a handful of Dao Body Cultivators had ever emerged, and every one of them had been a peerless powerhouse who ruled an era.
Besides Spirit Bodies and Dao Bodies, the cultivation world also had a special constitution known as a "Treasure Body."
A Treasure Body was an exceptionally special constitution. Any Spirit Root Cultivator might possess one. If a cultivator with a Treasure Body cultivated a technique suited to it, his cultivation speed would be much faster than that of cultivators with Spiritual Roots of the same grade. Furthermore, as his cultivation increased in the future, he would gain unique Treasure Body divine abilities.
For example, Zhou Yang might possess some kind of Treasure Body with a pure yang attribute. Thus, although he clearly had only a Mid-grade Spiritual Root, after cultivating the Blazing Sun Fiery Art, a domineering technique of pure yang, his cultivation speed had become comparable to that of a High-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator.
If nothing unexpected happened, Zhou Yang would certainly be able to raise his cultivation to Qi Refining Layer Nine before the age of forty.
An ordinary Mid-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator like Zhou Xuanjin would probably have to wait until he was sixty or seventy before he could possibly reach Qi Refining Layer Nine.
As for ordinary Low-grade Spiritual Root Cultivators, even if they lived to the lifespan limit of a Qi Refining Stage Cultivator, they might still be unable to cultivate to Qi Refining Layer Nine!
And there was a cruel reality: the older a Qi Refining Stage Cultivator became, the more difficult Foundation Establishment became. A Qi Refining Layer Nine Cultivator over sixty had less than half the chance of successfully achieving Foundation Establishment compared to one under sixty. For Qi Refining Stage Cultivators over eighty, the odds fell even further. As for Qi Refining Stage Cultivators over a hundred, Zhou Yang had never heard of such an extraordinary person appearing.
Given Zhou Yang's age and cultivation speed, his chance of achieving Foundation Establishment was indeed much greater than that of ordinary people. This was also why Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan thought so highly of him.
Unfortunately, a Treasure Body did not increase a cultivator's chance of successfully achieving Foundation Establishment. Otherwise, once Zhou Yang reached Qi Refining Layer Nine, he could attempt Foundation Establishment.
Both of them understood these matters. Therefore, when Zhou Yang fell silent, Zhou Xuanjin quickly adjusted his mindset and began handing over his duties to him.
"Stationing Qingping Mountain comes with three primary responsibilities. First, after receiving an alarm from the stewards dispatched by the lineage to the mine, enter the mine and help the miners eliminate any occasional First-tier or Tier 2 Demonic Beasts that have wandered in. Second, guard the miners' camp outside, promptly collect the refined materials from the camp and store them in the mountain warehouse, then wait for the lineage to send people to collect them. Lastly, take good care of the dozen or so mu of Spirit Fields on the mountain. That concerns whether your own stomach gets filled."
"Also, if you encounter powerful Demonic Beasts or human cultivators you cannot deal with, never leave the range of the formation lightly. The best method is to hold the formation and then use your blood essence to activate this third-rank communication talisman while waiting for the lineage's rescue."
"Finally, these are the control formation flags for Qingping Mountain's formation and the method for operating it. I can only leave after you refine the formation flags and become familiar with using the formation."
As Zhou Xuanjin spoke, he handed Zhou Yang everything a stationed cultivator would need and personally taught him how to use it all.
Another four or five days passed like this. Only after Zhou Yang had completely mastered the second-rank Cloud Sea Light Splitting Array did Zhou Xuanjin return to the lineage with nearly a year's worth of output from the Qingping Mountain mine.
After Zhou Xuanjin departed, Zhou Yang became the highest-ranking member of the Zhou lineage on Qingping Mountain.
He first summoned the several Zhou lineage stewards responsible for managing the mining and refining operations, gained a preliminary understanding of how things operated, and gave them several Sound Transmission Talismans bearing his aura so they could notify him promptly if anything happened.
These people could serve as Zhou lineage stewards because they were all Xiantian Realm Martial Cultivators. However, none of them possessed Spiritual Roots, so they could not cultivate mana and become Qi Refining Stage cultivators. They could only remain in the Xiantian Realm for their entire lives.
Of course, to ordinary mortals, the strength possessed by Xiantian Realm Cultivators was already enough to make them look up in awe.
Once mortals became Xiantian Realm Cultivators and refined Xiantian True Qi within their bodies, they could run like galloping horses, lift cauldrons with their strength, effortlessly fight one against a hundred, and gain considerable resistance to all kinds of illnesses.
But mortals were still mortals. Without Spiritual Roots, even if they cultivated Xiantian True Qi, they could not cast even the most basic first-rank spell.
True immortal cultivators with Spiritual Roots simply did not acknowledge these mortal cultivators as immortal cultivators, nor did they deign to have any dealings with them.
Zhou Yang did not discriminate against these mortal cultivators. Yet after enduring the disdain of true immortal cultivators for so long, the distinction between high and low had long sunk into their bones. Even when he took the initiative to invite them over for a chat, no one dared truly treat him as a clansman of equal standing and speak freely. In the end, he could only dismiss them in boredom.
In the time that followed, Zhou Yang's life became simple.
Every morning, he would first meditate and breathe in the rising sun for three hours, then practice the five spells he had learned from the Scripture Pavilion for another three hours. By evening, he would devote half an hour to weeding and removing pests from the flourishing spirit grain in the mountain's Spirit Fields.
Qingping Mountain's spirit vein was only low-grade second-rank, and it was an artificial spirit vein at that. After meeting the daily cultivation needs of a Late Qi Cultivation cultivator, only twenty to thirty percent of its spiritual energy remained.
Therefore, only around fifteen mu of Spirit Fields had been opened here. The spirit grain planted there was specifically for the stationed cultivator's consumption and did not need to be handed over to the lineage.
The spirit grain planted in these fields was called Golden Pearl Rice. It resembled the cotton tree from Zhou Yang's previous world. It ripened once a year, with each plant bearing dozens of fruits. Once the fruits ripened and were peeled open, they yielded grain after grain of glittering golden kernels. Since the kernels resembled pearls, it was named Golden Pearl Rice.
Because this Golden Pearl Rice grew in Spirit Fields and needed to absorb spiritual energy to survive and mature, its grains were not only nutritious and exceptionally tasty, but also contained trace amounts of spiritual energy, making them very beneficial for cultivators to absorb.
Qi Refining Stage Cultivators who ate Golden Pearl Rice over a long period needed only a small bowl to meet their nutritional needs for two or three days, and it could even slightly improve their cultivation.
Even Foundation Establishment Realm and Purple Mansion Stage Cultivators usually ate meals made primarily from this Golden Pearl Rice.
When Zhou Yang had begun cultivating at the age of four, he had completed the nine layers of Xiantian Realm cultivation in only three years. Aside from his own decent aptitude, it also had much to do with his parents often giving him special meals, allowing him to eat Golden Pearl Rice and low-level Demonic Beast meat every day.
Since he was not a Spirit Planter, Zhou Yang did not understand the spells that Spirit Planters had to learn in order to increase the yield of Spirit Fields. He could only water the Golden Pearl Rice planted in the fields, pull weeds, and catch insects like an ordinary farmer. As long as he did not let them die, that was enough.
So long as he did not kill the crops, the yield from these dozen-odd mu of Spirit Fields would be entirely sufficient for his daily needs alone, with plenty left over.
Zhou Yang knew that this surplus was the stationed cultivator's benefit granted by the lineage. After all, going down the mountain to complete lineage missions was the duty of every adult clansman and did not earn any additional reward from the lineage.
After spending half an hour each day tending the mountain's Spirit Fields, Zhou Yang devoted the next half of the night to studying the Artifact Forging Art.
He did not immediately begin forging artifacts. Instead, while carefully studying the artifact-forging texts and the Artifact Forging Notes given by the Old Clan Leader, he used ore excavated from the Fine Iron Ore mine for practice, learning the most basic Material Tempering of artifact forging.
Such simple yet fulfilling days passed for three years.
Three years later, after Zhou Yang had thoroughly mastered the knowledge recorded in those artifact-forging texts and completely grasped the craft of Material Tempering, he took out the materials the Old Clan Leader had given him and formally began forging artifacts.
To save materials, he chose to forge the simplest First-tier Sword Artifact, the Azure Edge Sword.
The main material for the First-Rank Artifact Azure Edge Sword was Fine Iron. Its hilt could be made from spiritual wood such as Hundred-Year Ironwood. When a Xiantian Realm Cultivator held the artifact and infused it with Xiantian True Qi, it could produce sword light ranging from three inches to one foot, depending on the user's cultivation, to wound enemies.
Forging this artifact was fairly simple. First, Fine Iron was tempered with spirit fire and cast into a Sword Embryo. Then, while maintaining the flame's temperature and keeping the Sword Embryo heated at high temperature, one used a cultivator's mana and divine sense as a guide to lay a sharpness restriction within the Sword Embryo.
The moment the restriction was completed was the moment to quench the sword. If the quenched blade shone with the unique spiritual radiance of an artifact, it meant the forging had succeeded. If not, one would only obtain a relatively sharp mundane weapon.
It all sounded simple, but doing it was not simple at all. Although Zhou Yang had already envisioned the forging process countless times in his mind and practiced laying the sharpness restriction countless times beforehand, his first true attempt at artifact forging still ended in failure without the slightest surprise.
With a bang from within the artifact cauldron, his first attempt at artifact forging came to an end. He had not even reached the quenching stage.
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