Secluded Cultivation, a Hundred-Zhang Battle Platform!
As his words fell, Qingyang Jue had already strode far beyond the stone house, leaving Qingyang Huan with the corners of his mouth twitching!
He finally understood how Jin Wei had felt when he restrained him earlier. His father made it sound so easy. With the great tribes joining forces and coming together, could Qingyang refuse to fight? Could he, its young master, refuse to fight?
His earlier argument that he was still young had only been a casual remark. Across the Great Wilderness, in wars of conquest between different races, would they refrain from killing him because he was young? It was nothing more than an excuse.
Qingyang Huan soon came to his senses and ran toward the stone garden outside the valley where the grand elder resided. He had to give Jin Wei the Blood Treasure Method first so that he could advance to the treasure opening realm. Of course, whether he actually cultivated this Blood Treasure Method was a decision Jin Wei had to make himself.
But Qingyang Huan had no doubts about Jin Wei's decision. The martial path was a struggle against Heaven for one's life. Now that an opportunity to open his treasures lay before him, Jin Wei would certainly not give it up.
As for himself, he also needed to enter seclusion and cultivate, tempering his bones with blood Qi. There were still several days before the great tribes arrived. The divine treasure realm was out of the question, but it was still possible to push his full strength beyond twenty thousand jin. When the time came, he might well be able to put up a fight against someone who had just advanced to the divine treasure realm!
Whatever happened, since his father had already built the battle platform outside Qingyang Mountain, he clearly intended to keep the great tribes out of the Qingyang Mountain Range. No matter what, Qingyang Huan had to give it his all. He could not diminish Qingyang's might!
Meanwhile, Qingyang Jue returned to the tribal hall, where the grand elder was also present.
"The Qingyang Guard reported that, apart from the Golden Spear Clan, the Surging Cloud, Inkstone Mountain, and Fire Dragon tribes have already established themselves at Ancient Iron Zheng Mountain. They clearly intend to join the Golden Spear Clan and come against the Qingyang Clan together. It seems all these tribes have set their sights on us!" the grand elder said.
"Why has the Golden Spear Clan not arrived?"
"The Qingyang Guard has yet to report on that," the grand elder replied. "But I believe news will arrive soon."
Hearing this, Qingyang Jue nodded. The Qingyang Clan ruled ten thousand li. Though they could not keep watch over every detail, when the elders of the great tribes came to Qingyang with their parties, he had actually received word from the Qingyang Guard as soon as they entered Qingyang territory.
He had also already deduced the broad outlines of their purpose!
"Hmph! Do they really think that, just because they have seized upon the gap in cultivation among our Qingyang Tribe's youths, they can come here to strut about like tigers and flaunt their might?"
His voice thundered. Clearly, Qingyang Jue was not nearly as unconcerned as he had appeared when speaking with Qingyang Huan.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the tribal hall, and a figure rushed inside.
"Reporting to the chief and grand elder! The Golden Spear Clan's party of thirteen has stopped at Shouyang Mountain, a thousand li southeast of Qingyang Mountain. It is suspected that a youth among them is advancing to the next realm, delaying their rendezvous with the other tribes!"
"Well, well, Golden Spear! Grand elder, it seems this generation of our neighbors is riding high!" Qingyang Jue's voice thundered as he looked toward the grand elder.
"Since the three tribes, Surging Cloud and the others, are waiting to join Golden Spear and crush Qingyang in one stroke, there is no harm in making them wait a few more days!"
"Chief, you..." Surprise appeared in the grand elder's eyes.
"Grand elder, if Huan'er had been born two years earlier, how could these people have had the chance to strut about like tigers and flaunt their might?"
A divine gleam flashed in Qingyang Jue's eyes, carrying a surging force like a roar through the mountain forests that sent every beast cowering.
Finally, his gaze settled on the Qingyang Guard standing in the hall, and he shouted, "Send word to my second brother. Tell him to use whatever means necessary to keep the Golden Spear Clan's party trapped at Shouyang Mountain for ten days!"
"Yes!"
Without the slightest hesitation, the Qingyang Guard soldier accepted the order and departed!
"Chief, the great tribes will eventually notice. When that happens..."
"So what if they notice? They came here intending to bully our Qingyang Tribe's boy. It is not as though I intend to wipe them out. I am merely delaying them a few days. If they object, they can come find me, Qingyang Jue. I doubt those old things would dare!"
A wild, violent presence rose from Qingyang Jue. Then his expression eased, and he said, "Ten days will be enough for Huan'er to improve his strength somewhat. With slaughter dao dharma combined with the strength of the extreme realm, he may well be able to fight someone in the divine treasure realm!"
Deep in the vast ancient forest, miasma drifted like smoke. Amid these surroundings, a burly man with a tiger's back and a bear's waist gripped a great axe, chopping down trees and clearing his way through the woods.
Scree!
Just then, a cry rang out in the sky. An azure speck of light approached from afar. It was a Purple-Crested Azure-Feathered Eagle with a wingspan of over three zhang. A single dive sent the ancient forest swaying.
"Awooo!"
The burly man in the forest let out a long howl that shook the mountain woods. He abruptly leaped up and caught hold of the sharp talons, which looked as though they had been cast from metal.
Scree!
With another cry, the Azure-Feathered Eagle spread its wings and soared, carrying the burly man through the sky before descending toward a low mountain ten li away.
"Greetings, Commander!"
Immediately afterward, the ancient forest seemed to billow with beacon smoke. Sha Qi howled, converging from every direction at the foot of the low mountain.
"The chief has ordered us to keep the Golden Spear Clan's party trapped at Shouyang Mountain for ten days. They are not to advance a single inch north!"
"Yes!"
The dozen or so figures gathered below the low mountain shouted as one, then immediately dispersed. The Qingyang Guard followed orders and never asked why!
Qingyang Mountain.
Qingyang Huan sat cross-legged in his stone house. Around him stood jars whose blood-colored exteriors had dried and turned black, each filled with pure blood Qi.
A gleam like that of a gray wolf on the hunt flashed in his eyes, carrying ferocity as well as determination. Whatever happened, as the Qingyang Clan's young master, it was his responsibility to keep the challengers from the four tribes outside his tribe's gates!
Besides, his father had already drawn the line outside the mountain. If he truly failed to stop the other tribes' martial artists of his own generation, he would lose face all the way home!
Soon, he closed his eyes. Blood Qi surged throughout his body, drawing in the pure blood Qi around him. Bone Tempering was the fourth step of the body forging realm, refining every bone in the body.
At that moment, in another stone house in the valley, although Jin Wei did not enjoy the same treatment as Qingyang Huan, Qingyang Tribe members still brought him large amounts of pure blood Qi. He held a blood-colored beast hide scroll in his hands, striving with all his might to comprehend it.
Jin Wei had decided to cultivate this Blood Treasure Method without the slightest hesitation. Having grown up following Jin Yuan, he understood the preciousness of cultivation formulas even more deeply than Qingyang Huan!
Sometimes, the question was not whether to cultivate, but whether one even had a cultivation formula!
While Qingyang Huan and Jin Wei immersed themselves in cultivation, a battle platform built entirely from bluestone began to take shape on the wasteland three li outside Qingyang Mountain. Burly men worked at a feverish pace as thick smoke billowed, pouring cauldron after cauldron of molten bronze into the gaps between the bluestone blocks.
In ten days, a battle platform gleaming all over with a cold metallic sheen was completed. Beneath the sunlight, azure light surged like a tide, its brilliance impossible to conceal even from more than ten li away!