Descending the Mountain for the First Time

The Grade 2 Silver Shield was made by combining the fallen scales of the Grade 2 Dragon Scale Tree and Silver Shield Stone.

Just as there were nine immortal cultivation realms, there were also nine grades of magical and spiritual items including weapons, medicinal pills, array formations, and talismans used by immortal cultivators. Each item grade corresponded to the respective immortal cultivation realm. For example, Grade 2 magical items corresponded to Qi Refining cultivators.

Each grade of magical and spiritual items was also further divided into advanced, intermediate, and lower tiers. The Silver Shield, for example, was an Advanced Grade 2 magical armor as it was meticulously refined by Zhou Minghan, a Grade 3 artifact refiner.

Currently, the Silver Shield was merely the size of a palm. However, if Zhou Yang was to use it in battle, it would transform into a larger shield to protect its user's entire body. Zhou Yang would also be able to adjust the shield's size at will.

The Silver Shield Stone fused into the weapon during artifact refinement meant that the Silver Shield could block attacks from flying swords and sabers of the same grade and tier or lower. The shield could also protect its user from magical attacks of other immortal cultivators or demon beasts, greatly offsetting the damage of Grade 3 spells and below.

"The Zhou clan has a Grade2 Dragon Scale Tree which produces a few mature tree scales that can be harvested every ten years. So we're pretty much self-sufficient for that spiritual item. The Silver Shield Stone, on the other hand, is not very common. Even a fist-sized piece of it is worth at least five hundred pieces of lower-tier spiritual stones. It seems that the clan leader's gifts are quite valuable!"

As an immortal cultivation clan, members could obtain spiritual stones from the Zhou clan every year until they were over sixty years old as long as they were Qi Refinement cultivators.

According to the current clan rules, a member of the Zhou clan at Qi Refinement Level 1 would receive ten lower-tier spiritual stones a year, while a member at Qi Refinement Level 2 would receive twenty lower-tier spiritual stones a year, and so on until they reached Qi Refinement Level 9.

This was because unless something extraordinary happened, Qi Refinement Level 9 was the limit for typical Qi Refinement cultivators. The current rules of the Zhou clan were that as long as a clan cultivator had reached Qi Refinement Level 9, they would be promoted to clan elder, and each elder would then receive 150 lower-tier spiritual stones a year until his last breath as the allowance was not limited by age.

Zhou Yang had been at Qi Refinement Level 5 for two years. As such, he had been receiving fifty lower-tier spiritual stones a year. At that rate, even by spending wisely, he would still need another ten years to exchange for a fist-sized Silver Shield Stone.

At present, Zhou Yang had already accumulated a wealth of about three hundred lower-tier spiritual stones (excluding the gifts from his parents) as a result of beginning his Qi Refinement cultivation early.

Thus, the clan leader's gift of the Silver Shield to Zhou Yang was a huge reward for being an early cultivator!

"Since the clan leader thinks so highly of me, I must not disappoint him. Whether it is learning the Artifact Refinement Technique or guarding Qingping Mountain, I must perform well!"

Zhou Yang's heart warmed, and he could not help but clench the magical armor in his hand. He was determined to do a good job to repay the trust of his elders.

In the next few days, Zhou Yang locked himself in his room to continue refining the Silver Shield. Once he had refined it to his heart's content, he finally walk out of his room to prepare for his trip down the mountain.

He first went to one of the Zhou clan's underground Scripture Cave and learned the Golden Sun Blazing Flame Form of Qi Refinement Level 6. He then selected another five Grade 2 offensive spells from the Scripture Cave's depository that were useful for combat: the Golden Saber Technique; Fire Snake Technique; the Grade 2 defensive spell, Golden Light Technique; and the Grade 2 auxiliary spells, Heavenly Eye Technique and Earth Evasion Technique.

The Qi Refinement cultivation methods and spells in the Zhou clan's Scripture Cave could only be read and learned by clansmen as long as they were in the cave. The cultivation methods and spells could not be taken out of the cave and clansmen were strictly forbidden to teach them to outsiders.

Zhou Yang had previously followed the teachings of his parents and elders, including learning some simple Grade 1 auxiliary spells. He had not spent much time or energy learning combat spells as his main priority was in improving his cultivation.

But now that he was going to descend the mountain and stand guard at Qingping Mountain, it was impossible to survive without knowing any combat spells. The artifacts he had with him were simply not enough to fend off others and keep him alive.

Spells were easy to learn but difficult to master. With Zhou Yang's cultivation at Qi Refinement Level 6, it only took him about half a month to learn all five spells.

By then, it wasn't long until the one-month period the clan leader had given him to prepare was over. Zhou Yang wrote a letter to his parents who were stationed at an immortal cultivator market thousands of miles away and requested the help of the elders to deliver it. Then, he bade farewell to the elders and cultivators of his generation with whom he was familiar and descended the mountain alone.

Once he had arrived at the base, Zhou Yang took a camel, a must-have mode of transportation to travel through the desert, from the clansmen and rode straight into the Boundless Sand Sea.

This was the first time he had left Yuquan Lake Oasis in seventeen years. It was also the first time he had set foot in a desert within his two lifetimes.

It was easy for people to get lost in the Boundless Sand Sea.

Once lost, even immortal cultivators who carried a large amount of fresh water and food in their storage bags would eventually starve to death or die of thirst if they could not reach an oasis in time.

Immortal cultivators were much stronger than ordinary people. However, the former's tolerance to hunger and thirst would be no different from the latter unless they had reached the realm of Core Foundation. Even those who had reached the realm of Zifu needed to regularly eat food from the spiritual valley or the spiritual meat of demon beasts to maintain their physical needs.

Still, those who have reached the realm of Core Foundation would not carelessly wander the Boundless Sand Sea as dangers other than hunger and thirst could claim their lives.

There were all kinds of terrifying natural disasters and powerful demon beasts that were deadly even for Core Foundation cultivators.

An example was the famous Black Sandstorm. If a Core Foundation cultivator got caught up in one, they would be isolated from their Divine Sense and other five senses by the strange power contained within the sandstorm. Eventually, they would be worn to death as the sandstorm never ends.

Another example was the most famous Grade 5 demon beast in the Boundless Sand Sea, the Sandworm. Its body was over ten thousand feet long and it had terrifying sharp teeth in its mouth. Its biting power could break through a Grade 5 magical armor. If a Core Foundation cultivator was careless and fell into the mouth of the Sandworm, they would lose their lives.

As such, Core Foundation cultivators would stay out of the Boundless Sand Sea unless it was absolutely necessary.

Fortunately, neither the terrifying Black Sandstorm nor Grade 5 Sandworm that was usually sleeping in some underground spiritual vein deep in the desert would appear near the oasis. Otherwise, Zhou Yang would not have dared to enter the desert alone.

He traveled through the desert strictly according to the map issued by his clan for about five days and finally arrived at his destination, Qingping Mountain, without a hitch.

Qingping Mountain was also an oasis, but it was man-made.

It was very small - only about ten square kilometers in size - and only existed because the Zhou clan had spent tens of thousands of lower-tier spiritual stones to create a Lower Grade 2 spiritual vein thanks to an almost-lost discovery made by a Zhou clan member of a medium-sized refined iron vein there.

Refined iron was a kind of spiritual ore that contained some spiritual Qi. With refinement, it could be transformed into a Grade 1 refined iron spiritual item and Grade 2 dark iron spiritual item. Both were the main materials used by cultivation clans or sects to build important buildings such as ancestral halls, scripture pavilions, treasure vaults, and so on. They were also the main materials used by artifact refiners to refine most Grade 1 and Grade 2 magical artifacts. As such, the market demand for these spiritual items was quite high.

In order to mine the refined iron from its vein, the Zhou clan had to build an oasis there for the miners to live in and assign cultivators to guard the place against the attacks of low-level demon beasts in the desert.

Of course, all the investments had been worth it.

The annual sales of processed refined iron from this medium-sized refined iron vein could bring the Zhou clan a net profit of more than five hundred lower-tier spirit stones. After more than fifty years, the family had managed to double the return of its initial investment.

Moreover, an assessment of the refined iron vein revealed that it could be mined for at least another fifty years.

Still, Qingping Mountain Oasis was extremely small and most of the area had become the living spaces of the miners. Only a small hill a hundred meters high at the center of the spiritual vein had been carved out to serve as the residence of the cultivators and the warehouse of the finished materials.

The small hill was essentially the actual Qingping Mountain.

A Grade 2 Cloud Sea Light Diffraction Array had been set up around the spiritual vein of Qingping Mountain by the current great elder and a Grade 2 array master of the Zhou clan. The intense power of the array had produced a mist of clouds covering the mountain all year round.

Zhou Yang arrived at the outskirts of the array. He circulated his mana to amplify his shout and the mist of clouds before him surged, opening up a path for him to enter the mountain.

He followed the path and immediately saw the cultivator standing guarding inside. The guard was a thin middle-aged scholar ranked 16th among the Xuan generation cultivators of the Zhou clan. His name was Zhou Xuanjin.

"Hmm? Why is Yang here to replace me? You're not even twenty years old yet, right?"

Zhou Xuanjin, who was dressed like a scholar, saw Zhou Yang enter and could not help but exclaim in surprise. Zhou Yang decided to answer first before greeting Zhou Xuanjin.

"To respond to your question, 16th Uncle, I am here under the instructions of our clan leader. He said that my cultivation has already reached a level where I should descend the mountain. He made an exception to let me go early to gain experience," said Zhou Yang as he answered honestly.

Zhou Xuanjin looked puzzled as he muttered softly, "Your cultivation has reached a level where you can already descend the mountain? When did the Zhou clan have such a standard?"

Then, Zhou Xuanjin's heart skipped a beat, seemingly having thought of something. He quickly used the Heavenly Eye Technique and his eyes shone with a golden light as he looked at Zhou Yang from head to toe.

The moment he saw it, he exclaimed. "You've broken through to Qi Refinement Level 6!"

"Yes, I was lucky enough to break through after cultivating for a month in Yuyang Cave." Zhou Yang faintly smiled and nodded his head in acknowledgment, not minding at all.

It was taboo to use the Heavenly Eye Technique to figure out the cultivation of others. However, Zhou Xuanjin was an elder of his family, so Zhou Yang didn't care about such a small matter.

"How amazing! How amazing indeed! How old are you?!

"I have cultivated painstakingly for forty to fifty years just to reach Qi Refinement Level 7. And yet, you have already reached Level 6 at the young age of seventeen. I'm afraid you will surpass me in another eight to ten years!

"I'm getting old, I can't be compared to young people anymore. They all have intermediate spiritual roots. Why is the gap growing so big?"

Zhou Xuanjin put away his spell and looked at his outstanding junior with a complicated gaze. He didn't know whether he should feel happy for his clan to have such a genius, or he should feel ashamed and disappointed that his cultivation was about to be surpassed by a junior who was dozens of years younger.

It wasn't the first time Zhou Yang had encountered such a situation. Ever since he broke through to Qi Refinement Level 6, his peers and elders on Yuquan Peak had been amazed at his cultivation speed and happy for him. However, they had also felt disappointment and dejection like Zhou Xuanjin.

Zhou Yang decided that it was best that he simply remained silent in such situations.