Cultivation Begins From The Desert

The benefits of using demon beasts to control other demon beasts were recently tested by Zhouyang with the Wind Shadow Leopard.

Therefore, he also tirelessly flew back and forth to Yuquan Lake Oasis several times using sword flight, transporting four Flame-devouring Spiders to Red Fox Ridge with his Spirit Beast Bag.

Once these four Flame-devouring Spiders were transported, they quickly started capturing the Flying Fire Bats within the Fire Bat Cave under the command of Zhou Xuanzhao and Zhou Yuanliang.

It turned out that Zhou Yuanliang's suggestion was absolutely correct.

Also living in underground caves, with their spider silk being durable and fire-resistant, the Flame-devouring Spiders were indeed the nemesis of small-sized, fire-element flying demon beasts like the Flying Fire Bats.

With the spider silk capture of the four adult Flame-devouring Spiders, the entire Fire Bat Cave's Flying Fire Bats were soon captured one by one and confined to individual small caves.

Subsequently, four pregnant female Flying Fire Bats were also captured and housed in the "delivery room" specially crafted for them by the two Beast Tamers, allowing them to give birth to their offspring in peace.

Once the Flying Fire Bats in the Fire Bat Cave were completely caught, Zhouyang finally had time to search for the Light Jade vein.

As the Three-tailed Demon Fox could also dig out Jade Essence and a large amount of Light Jade to decorate its habitat, it indicated that the Light Jade vein must be buried not very deep, possibly existing on the oasis itself.

If that's the case, it's best to discover and exploit it early.

Meanwhile, after some preparation, the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, who presided over Yuquan Lake Oasis, had begun arranging batches of already registered mortals to migrate to the new oasis.

These mortals, registered as per Zhouyang's requirements years ago, were young men and women aged between sixteen and forty. As soon as they arrived at the oasis, they could immediately engage in labor production.

Moreover, once these young people were relocated, there wouldn't be enough suitable-age adults left on Yuquan Lake Oasis for the mortals to reproduce, serving as another method for Zhouyang to control the population.

As for whether they were willing to leave their hometown and build a new home in a barren new oasis, it was completely beyond their control, since the Zhou Family's population crisis had reached the point where migration was a necessity.

If mortals refused to migrate, they would eventually starve or be eliminated by demon beasts brought in by cultivators.

All being of the same clan bloodline, unless absolutely necessary, the Zhou Family cultivators certainly wouldn't use such extreme measures to eliminate excess population. So even if mortals were reluctant to migrate, they must comply with the overall situation and move!

Therefore, Zhouyang needed only to locate the Light Jade vein. Once the mortals migrated and arrived, mining and processing could commence immediately.

If the vein is above the oasis, even the Mortal Town could be established there.

However, Spiritual Objects conceal themselves, and minerals containing Spiritual Qi buried underground wouldn't reveal their spiritual essence due to being enveloped by soil and rock.

Even for a Foundation Establishment Cultivator like Zhouyang, who has a powerful Divine Sense, locating a buried vein can only be accomplished by painstakingly measuring the oasis's mountains and rivers and searching inch by inch.

After searching for more than a month, Zhouyang finally discovered the Light Jade vein in a mountain ravine near the Lu Family Spirit Mountain.

After conducting exploration, Zhouyang confirmed that this Light Jade vein was a small-sized jade mine, which could be mined for two to three hundred years without excessive exploitation.

The cultivation realm market in the Boundless Desert Sea is only so large, and Light Jade Spiritual Artifacts are known for their durability. If the Zhou Family doesn't want these items, considered luxurious for Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators, to become cheap commodities, they will certainly have to control production.

Fortunately, the first batch of Zhou Family migrated mortals had been transported to the new oasis, and Zhouyang instructed them to settle near the mountain ravine where the Light Jade vein was found, personally collecting a large piece of Light Jade to craft a plaque and named it "Nightlight Town," gifting it to the mortals.

The name "Nightlight Town" was, of course, inspired by a poem from his past world.

This also sparked a thought about other uses for Light Jade, which emits gentle light; using it solely for making illumination magical artifacts seemed wasteful.

Perhaps he could try crafting them into luxury items like "Luminous Cups" and market them. If it becomes customary for every clan hosting Foundation Establishment or other celebratory events to use "Luminous Cups" as the designated drinking vessels, the profits from this Light Jade vein would be substantial!

But to achieve this, a suitable opportunity must be awaited, and Zhouyang wasn't in a hurry, instead keeping the thought in mind.

Once he finished dealing with the discovery of the Light Jade vein, Zhouyang didn't have much else to worry about. Whether it was developing Spirit Fields and Medicinal Gardens or migrating and settling the population, these tasks wouldn't fall on him as the Clan Leader to personally handle.

And since the Yuquan Lake Oasis was under the oversight of the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, there was even less need for Zhouyang to be bothered. Thus, he could finally take some time to enter closed-door cultivation practice.

At this moment, after one to two months of meticulous work by Xiao Ying, the cave that the Three-tailed Demon Fox once inhabited has transformed significantly.

Except for the Spirit Vine bearing "Purple Cloud Fruit" that Xiao Ying left untouched, the entire cave has been transformed into a large abode with more than ten stone chambers.

The abode includes not only bedrooms and a cultivation chamber for the two but also a living room, kitchen, alchemy room, artifact refining chamber, storage chamber, spirit beast chamber, library, and various stone chambers with different functions.

Fortunately, Red Fox Ridge is large enough that even with such a large abode, it does not interfere with other Foundation Establishment cultivators opening their own abodes.

"Zhou Lang, I wish to name the abode 'Purple Cloud Cave,' what do you think?"

Within the abode, Xiao Ying, who is leading Zhouyang to tour the fruits of her labor over the past days, finally worked up the courage to make a small request after showing him around the entire abode.

"It's a good name, let's call it that!"

Zhouyang looked at the young lady gazing at him with a face full of expectation, smiled, extended his hand to touch the lady's pretty face, and readily agreed.

Then he personally carved the words "Purple Cloud Cave" on the mountain wall outside the abode using his flying sword.

Having completed this task, he then turned to the young lady beside him, who was radiating happiness, and said: "Ying'Er, now that the abode is complete and the mortal migration is underway, I plan to seclude myself for cultivation for a time. Would you accompany me in secluded cultivation, or continue to open up the medicinal garden and spirit field with Guangxiang and the other spirit plant cultivators?"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Ying bowed her head in thought, then shook her head saying: "I have just advanced in cultivation, so I'm not in a hurry to cultivate. I'll continue to open up the medicinal garden with Guangxiang and the others!"

"That works too, but you all need to be careful. If you leave the Spirit Mountain, be sure to take the Eagle Lion Beast along for protection."

Zhouyang nodded and gave a few cautionary words, then hugged and kissed the young lady for a while before grinning and waving her goodbye as he entered the cultivation chamber to stow himself away.

The cultivation chamber contained nothing else apart from a Cold Jade Bed. Zhouyang walked over, sat cross-legged on the cold jade bed, lightly patted his storage bag, and took out the jade box containing the Jade Essence.

This piece of Jade Essence ultimately landed in his hands; none of the other Zhou Family cultivators were willing to contest him for its use, not even Zhou Guangxiang, who possesses an Upper-Grade Spiritual Root.

In fact, everyone in the Zhou Family aware of Zhouyang possessing the "Qianyang Treasure Body" understood that talent-wise, Zhouyang was indeed the foremost in the family.

His cultivation speed and magical combat ability could not be compared by average Upper-Grade Spiritual Root cultivators.

Although Zhou Guangxiang successfully established a foundation, he had no intent to compete with Zhouyang, knowing he would only have been bested.

Now Zhouyang took out the Jade Essence, placing it on the cold jade bed, and within less than an hour, he clearly sensed the spiritual qi concentration inside the cultivation chamber had increased by nearly two to three percent, eventually stabilizing at around three percent.

The spirit vein level at Red Fox Ridge is only Tier Three Lower Grade. Zhouyang's cultivation results here were initially not as good as those at Jade Spring Peak and Haoyang Mountain, but with the Gathering Spirit effect of the Jade Essence, his cultivation here turned out to be slightly better than at Jade Spring Peak and only surpassed by Haoyang Mountain.

This demonstrated the great efficacy of the Jade Essence.

Meanwhile, while Zhouyang was in secluded cultivation, Red Fox Ridge and even the entire New Oasis had transformed into a bustling construction site.

After Zhou Minghan returned to the clan to oversee, not only did he arrange for mortal migration to New Oasis but also assigned some often-overlooked low-tier cultivators in the clan to help with construction here.

Once these low-tier cultivators arrived at New Oasis, they shouldn't expect to depart for at least thirty to fifty years.

However, the Zhou Family did not neglect them. Each low-tier cultivator migrating here could annually receive 10 extra clan contribution points. Though this amount may appear small, in terms of their own cultivation level, it was quite substantial.

With the arrival of these low-tier cultivators, everyone from Xiao Ying and Zhou Guangxiang responsible for cultivating medicinal gardens and spirit fields, to those like Zhou Xuanzhao and Zhou Yuanliang handling beast taming, breathed a sigh of relief.

From the onset of cultivation, Zhou Family cultivators would be assigned duties such as tending to spirit fields and cleaning beast gardens. By the time they reached adulthood, even if they hadn't learned any of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation, they wouldn't be completely ignorant of these basics.

Now that they were here, the arduous labor of cultivating spirit fields and medicinal fields could be instructed to them. Thus, the spirit plants cultivators could focus on nurturing seedlings and other technical skills.

Simultaneously, the task of cleaning bat guano at Fire Bat Cave was also assigned to these low-tier cultivators.

Mortals cannot bear this task due to their weak constitutions. The pathogens and toxins on the bat guano in Fire Bat Cave have no impact on cultivators shielded by magical power, but mortals entering would undoubtedly catch diseases.