Du Zhimin's Warning; Moving the Dark Iron Vein
Among the various Lineages and forces besieging the Lang Household's ancestral grounds, there were no Foundation Establishment cultivators. Otherwise, they would not have been stopped and even gravely wounded by the Second Tier Bronze-Iron Wolf Demon formed by the Lang Household's protective grand array.
They had even been forced to seek help from the Kong Household's illusion array.
Thus, faced with the Spiritual Consciousness pressure of Du Zhimin, a Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Du Household, the cultivators who had taken part in the siege had no way to resist. In the end, they could only swallow their anger and hurry away without a word.
Otherwise, if Du Zhimin released his Second Tier beast to slaughter them, the cultivators who had besieged the Lang Household's ancestral grounds could probably forget about getting away unscathed.
Soon, only the people of the Du, Lao, and Kong Households remained on the collapsed Wolf Fang Mountain.
The Peacock Kong Household was, after all, different from those wild Lineages and forces beyond the pass. Like the Shrike Lao Household, they were a servant cultivator Lineage of the Cuckoo Du Household, and both had Foundation Establishment cultivators among their ranks.
Even the Cuckoo Du Household could not casually drive the Kong Household's people away as they had those wild Lineages and forces beyond the pass.
So, in the end, Du Zhimin stood on the Feather Boat and looked at the Kong Household's people. "Kong Yushuo, is it?" he asked in a deep voice. "I remember your patriarch brought you to pay your respects to me."
Hearing this, eldest uncle Kong Yushuo immediately stepped forward and bowed respectfully to Du Zhimin on the Feather Boat. "Kong Yushuo of the Kong Household pays his respects to Guardian Du."
"Haha..." Du Zhimin laughed. "You're different from those wild folk beyond the pass. We're all our own people, so I need to ask the Kong Household what you think. Will you offer this collapsed and damaged Dark Iron vein to our Du Household, as the Shrike Lao Household has?"
Kong Yushuo immediately replied respectfully, "It would be our Kong Household's good fortune."
"As Fellow Daoist Lao said, this Dark Iron vein has already been damaged. Rather than watch it decline into ordinary iron, it would be better to move it into the Du Household's Cuckoo Secret Realm. Only then can the Dark Iron vein be preserved."
"Haha... good!" Du Zhimin laughed heartily, then turned to the Shrike Lao Household's people. "Lao Zerui, your Lao Household has rendered meritorious service by offering up the Dark Iron spirit mine. As Guardian, I'll make the decision: this Dark Iron spirit mine can offset three years of your Lao Household's taxes."
He then turned to the Kong Household's people. "Kong Yushuo, your Kong Household has also rendered meritorious service. It can offset a year and a half of taxes."
Though he had said both had rendered meritorious service, the period of taxes offset by the Kong Household's contribution was only half that of the Shrike Lao Household. Du Zhimin's meaning was already quite clear: he was rewarding the Lao Household while also giving the Kong Household a warning.
It was only because the Kong Household, unlike the Lao Household, had not taken the initiative to contact the Du Household and offer up the Dark Iron vein, leaving the Du Household to come in person and ask them for it.
So, though he called it meritorious service and a reward, by comparison it seemed more like a warning.
Even so, eldest uncle Kong Yushuo still had to lead Kong Wenxuan and the other Kong Household descendants in thanking him for his grace, their faces wreathed in smiles and joy just like those of the Lao Household cultivators beside them.
It was just that, compared with the joy on the faces of the Lao Household's people beside them, the smiles on the Kong Household's faces were noticeably more forced.
Du Zhimin paid it no mind-or rather, he was more pleased to see it. The forced smiles on the Kong Household's faces showed that they had understood his meaning, and that his warning had achieved its intended effect.
Afterward, Du Zhimin led the Du Household descendants he had brought in setting up arrays and restrictions on the collapsed Wolf Fang Mountain, preparing to move the shattered and damaged Dark Iron vein within it.
This was evidently no simple or easy task. It required a great deal of knowledge and expertise in various fields, including the methods of array masters, restriction masters, and, most importantly, geomancers.
Even so, when moving important resources such as mineral veins and Spirit Veins, they still needed to draw on the power of a True Spirit Star to suppress, bind, and move them, as well as a suitable place to receive them.
Only a Ninth-Grade True Spirit Lineage like the Cuckoo Du Household, with a legacy spanning several hundred years, had enough resources, accumulated knowledge, and influence to nurture descendants and talents capable of moving mineral veins and Spirit Veins.
The preparations continued for several days. The breaks and damage in the Dark Iron vein seemed to increase the progress of the Du Household descendants' preparations for moving it, forcing them to stop frequently and carefully deal with the broken and damaged sections.
Throughout the entire process, the Du Household allowed the Kong and Lao Households to watch from the side, unafraid that they would secretly learn their methods. Instead, they meant to use this opportunity to display the Du Household's methods and power to the two Households, further increasing the Du Household's authority and control.
Several days passed in this manner. When night fell once again, countless stars appeared in the night sky.
Du Zhimin looked up at the starry sky and quickly located the Cuckoo True Spirit Star corresponding to his bloodline. He then began drawing down its power, activating the arrangements for moving the mineral vein on Wolf Fang Mountain.
Kong Wenxuan and the others saw one star among the countless stars suddenly blaze with light, outshining those around it. They could even faintly make out the luminous silhouette of a cuckoo spreading its wings, raising its head, and crying out within the radiance.
At the same time, the Kong and Lao Household cultivators present could all clearly sense the projections of the Cuckoo True Spirit Star in their Dantian Qi seas stirring in unison. They seemed to be responding to the Cuckoo True Spirit Star blazing in the heavens, and had even begun to affect their bloodlines and the Law Power in their Dantian Qi seas.
The cultivators of the Kong and Lao Households all looked rather grim. Even the Lao Household cultivators, who had worn ingratiating smiles all along, could barely keep those smiles on their faces now.
The sight before them made them keenly aware of how fragile and powerless to resist they were under the suppression of the Du Household's Cuckoo True Spirit Star.
They were no different from the wild Lineages and forces beyond the pass whom Du Zhimin had driven away. They were all existences the Du Household could easily suppress, manipulate, or even wipe out.
Soon, the light of the Cuckoo True Spirit Star overhead reached its brightest. A brilliant pillar of starlight shot down from the blazing star, plunging straight into the shattered and damaged Dark Iron vein within the collapsed Wolf Fang Mountain below.
Boom! Boom! Rumble...
The next moment, as the starlight entered the Dark Iron vein, upon which all manner of arrays and restrictions for moving it had been set, the vein seemed to come alive. It transformed into a giant python of starlight, its body covered in cracks, and burst out of the collapsed Wolf Fang Mountain.
Then, driven and guided by the Du Household's geomancer, it swam and flew all the way toward Cuckoo County.
It crossed several thousand miles and arrived above the county seat of Cuckoo County. A secret realm filled with starlight emerged from beneath the county seat and received the giant starlight python, which flew straight inside and vanished.