Cultivation Begins From The Desert

Zhouyang originally had no intention of fleeing from the battle, and combined with Cao Wenjin's secret promise, he decisively dripped his own blood into the jade bottle and handed it over.

However, those who initially harbored such thoughts found their faces growing increasingly gloomy upon hearing Cao Wenjin's words.

Cao Wenjin's maneuver truly caught everyone off guard.

Especially those Purple Mansion Cultivators, who felt extremely shocked and angry in their hearts.

For Zhouyang and the other Foundation Establishment Cultivators, they might be concerned about their clan's fate, which prevents them from running away. However, these Purple Mansion Cultivators have fewer concerns in this regard.

Because as long as they manage to escape alive, even if Cao Wenjin decides to pursue them later, he definitely wouldn't have the guts to eradicate their clan entirely.

Otherwise, without any emotional ties, their revenge would be so relentless that the Yellow Sand Sect, lacking Cao Wenjin, a Golden Core Stage Cultivator, wouldn't be able to withstand their indiscriminate retaliation.

But now, Cao Wenjin's demand for them to offer their blood as a "Oath of Allegiance" has completely eradicated any possibility of doing so.

With Cao Wenjin's cultivation, once he employs the "Ten Thousand Miles Soul-Chasing Technique," the tracking range can reach tens of thousands of miles!

By that time, even if they hide in the Desert Sea, far from the Yellow Sand Sect's dominion, it's uncertain they can avoid the tracking of this technique.

"Oh? Is my request making everyone feel so troubled?"

Seeing these people hesitating and unwilling to drip blood, Cao Wenjin's expression darkened, and his gaze at the crowd grew increasingly hostile.

At this, the individuals could hesitate no longer, one after another dripping blood into the bottles and handing them to him.

Once everyone had dripped blood and handed it over, Cao Wenjin's expression eased slightly. With a wave of his hand, he collected the numerous jade bottles and nodded slightly, saying: "Now we shall rest here for a day; at dawn tomorrow, we will officially launch the attack."

The day passed quickly.

The next morning, as the sun barely rose, Zhouyang and the others, having rested for a day, re-entered the Void Traveling Tower Ship and surged towards the Rhino Horn Continent a thousand miles away.

The Void Traveling Tower Ship sped swiftly at an altitude of a thousand feet, while Zhouyang, looking through the ship's window, soon saw a vast, endless green prairie.

The green prairie, blue-white lakes, and wildflowers in red, purple, yellow, and other colors, along with various rhinoceroses leisurely strolling or sunbathing by the lake, painted a naturally beautiful picture.

This kind of scenery is rare in the Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm; at least Zhouyang was seeing it for the first time.

While admiring this scene, a flash of doubt surfaced in his mind.

Why is the water resource on this oasis so abundant?

Why are there so many rhinoceros herds on this oasis?

Why did the Yellow Sand Sect, aware of the existence of Rhino Horn Continent, never think of seizing this land before?

These doubts perplexed Zhouyang, and he found no answers even as the Void Traveling Tower Ship fully entered the oasis skies.

As the two Void Traveling Tower Ships reached the oasis, the high-tier demon beasts residing on Rhino Horn Continent quickly sensed the danger and issued deep, resonant beast roars to summon their kind for battle preparations.

Hearing these roars, the previously scattered rhinoceros demon beasts across the oasis instantly abandoned their lazy demeanor, eyes wide as they rushed frantically towards the "Holy Mountain" of their tribe.

The "Holy Mountain" was naturally where the two Tier Five Demon Beasts, the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses," resided—a thousand-foot majestic peak, the likes of which Zhouyang was seeing for the first time in the Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm.

Though the peak was a thousand feet high, it had few trees, with only exposed rocks and green grass, giving it a desolate appearance.

The Tier Four Demon Beasts of Rhino Horn Continent mostly resided beneath this "Holy Mountain," while the two "Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses" permanently occupied the mid-mountain.

When the Void Traveling Tower Ships were tens of miles away from this "Holy Mountain," the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses" on the mountain and the Tier Four Demon Beasts below it had all exited their dens and were ready for battle.

Zhouyang looked intently; the two "Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses," each over thirty feet in length and standing four to five stories high, had horn spirals densely patterned, and the golden spiral horns themselves were over a foot long!

Simply standing there, they exuded an overwhelming aura like a mountain, making Zhouyang and the other Foundation Establishment Cultivators struggle to breathe.

"Everyone follow the plan!"

Just when Zhouyang felt uncomfortable and couldn't resist using his magical power to counteract the intangible pressure, the Void Traveling Tower Ship suddenly halted, and Cao Wenjin's voice echoed through the two ships.

With those words, the numerous cultivators within the ships, under the control of Chen Family Ancestor and Li Zhennan, were thrown out of the tower ships, and then these two, alongside Cao Wenjin, charged towards the two "Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses."

Whether intentionally or not, Zhouyang found himself being thrown to a location less than twenty miles away from a Tier Four Demon Beast, the "Thunder Rhinoceros Beast!"

This made his face darken, and in his heart, he greeted the ancestors of the Chen Family Ancestor for eighteen generations.

Murder, it's naked murder!

Instantly, he hurriedly released his flying sword to wrap around himself and flew in the direction away from the mountain peak without looking back.

Fortunately, the attention of the "Thunder Rhinoceros Beast" was focused on those Purple Mansion Cultivators, and it only glanced at Zhouyang, this insignificant "little bug," without bothering to pursue him with effort.

Upon witnessing this scene, the Chen Family Ancestor frowned slightly, showing a reluctant look in his eyes.

However, Cao Wenjin, who also noticed the small actions of the Chen Family Ancestor, had a flash of strange color in his eyes, increasingly feeling that Zhouyang was truly protected by great fortune.

Zhouyang naturally couldn't see the changes in the eyes of the two high-tier cultivators. Seeing that the "Thunder Rhinoceros Beast" didn't attack him, he breathed a sigh of relief and accelerated his escape.

Not only him, but the other Foundation Establishment Cultivators, except for those named by Cao Wenjin to stay and use the array to entangle the Tier Four demon beasts, all others were desperately flying in the direction away from the "Holy Mountain."

Everyone knew that a battle between Golden Core Stage Cultivators and Tier Five demon beasts, between Purple Mansion Cultivators and Tier Four demon beasts, was about to explode here. At this moment, if they, the Foundation Establishment Cultivators, stayed here, they could be severely wounded or even obliterated by the aftermath of the clash.

Indeed, Zhouyang had just flown out less than a hundred miles when a thunderous rumble akin to a mountain crumbling and earth shattering sounded from behind.

He looked back and saw Cao Wenjin with the Yellow Sand Sect's inherited treasure, the "Divine Sand Gourd," above his head. The gourd's mouth opened, pouring a mass of black sand towards the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" on the mountain.

This "Divine Sand Gourd," as the Yellow Sand Sect's inherited treasure, contained three types of extremely powerful divine sand, namely "Soul-Devouring Divine Sand," "Black Death God Sand," and "Red Flame Divine Sand," each with different effects.

Among them, "Soul-Devouring Divine Sand" specializes in damaging cultivators' divine sense and ghost spirit bodies, "Black Death God Sand" specifically breaks demon beast's physical defenses and magical artifact defenses, and "Red Flame Divine Sand" specializes in breaking various defense divine techniques.

The "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" boasts an immensely strong physical defense, hard for ordinary Tier Five Spiritual Artifacts to inflict damage, so to kill the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros," Cao Wenjin must first weaken its defenses with "Black Death God Sand".

Meanwhile, Li Zhennan carried a bright yellow treasure tower above his head, which cast a layer of light shield protecting him while also releasing a bright yellow glow under his command to attack another "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros".

That bright yellow treasure tower turned out to be a Tier Five Spiritual Artifact!

With the assistance of this Tier Five Spiritual Artifact, coupled with the Chen Family Ancestor helping from the side, Li Zhennan and the Chen Family Ancestor working together managed to barely restrain one "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros," preventing it from fighting alongside its mate.

At the same time, Guo Shuyun, Luo Yunqing, Xu Kaishan, and other Purple Mansion Cultivators were also intercepting one or several Tier Four demon beasts, engaging them just outside the battlefield of Golden Core Stage Cultivators.

The importance of this war to the Yellow Sand Sect is undeniable, so the various means that these Purple Mansion Cultivators usually hide and conserve were fully unleashed at this time, and the various divine techniques forming numerous magic spiritual lights made Zhouyang's eyes dazzle and his heart yearn.

Furthermore, in this war, Zhouyang witnessed for the first time the power of Tier Four Puppet Beasts.

The Yellow Sand Sect's secretively preserved seven Tier Four Puppet Beasts, three were Tier Four Top Grade, the remaining were all Tier Four Middle Grade.

The appearance of these Puppet Beasts was no longer completely dominated by demon beast imagery, but included more humanoid puppets.

Those humanoid puppets could not only cast magic for combat but were also equipped with weapons like swords and knives, all made from Tier Four Spiritual Gold, sharp enough to rival same-tier flying swords, lacking only in flexibility but their pure attack and destructive power surpassed many same-tier flying swords.

Generally, a single humanoid Puppet Beast could battle a Tier Four demon beast competently, even overpowering the demon beast.

This was entirely different from the Tier Three Puppet Beast, which could only be battered by same-tier demon beasts.

Zhouyang understood clearly why this was.

The reason was simple - the energy source.

The power source of Tier Four Puppet Beasts was no longer middle-grade Spirit Stones but top-grade Spirit Stones!

The spiritual power contained within a single top-grade Spirit Stone was dozens of times that of a middle-grade Spirit Stone, and the quality of spiritual power was much stronger than that of middle-grade Spirit Stones.

In terms of quality alone, the spiritual power quality inside a top-grade Spirit Stone surpassed the magical true essence of a Purple Mansion Stage Cultivator, falling only slightly short of the golden core true essence quality of a Golden Core Stage Cultivator.

Given these circumstances, the Tier Four Puppet Beasts could unleash power to suppress same-tier demon beasts without surprise.

Regrettably, top-grade Spirit Stones are extremely rare, even completely excavating a small Spirit Stone mine might not yield a few top-grade Spirit Stones, only medium to large Spirit Stone mines produce a significant number of top-grade Spirit Stones.

And in the Cultivation Realm, top-grade Spirit Stones are strictly controlled resources by various major forces, essentially not available for trading.

This item is a true hard currency, effective even for Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, highly sought even at exchange meetings held among those Golden Core Stage Cultivators.

The reason the Yellow Sand Sect previously sealed the Tier Four Puppet Beasts as trump cards was not due to fear of their damage during battle, but because the number of top-grade Spirit Stones they stored was insufficient to employ the Tier Four Puppet Beasts as ordinary lackeys.

If not driven to desperation this time, Cao Wenjin wouldn't have brought out these Puppet Beasts for activation.