A Brilliant Plan to Eliminate Demon Beasts

Qingping Mountain Oasis.

The dozen or so Advanced-Stage Qi Refinement cultivators of the Zhou clan had retreated to Qingping Mountain while Zhou Minghan carried out Zhou Yang's plan to prevent the Grade 3 Venomous Fire Scorpion from retaliating.

The spiritual vein at Qingping Mountain Oasis was only ranked at Lower Grade 2 and could supply enough spiritual Qi to support one Advanced-Stage Qi Refinement cultivator and seven or eight Primary-Stage Qi Refinement cultivators. There was simply not enough spiritual Qi to support the more-than-a-dozen Advanced-Stage Qi Refinement cultivators currently occupying Qingping Mountain, 

The importance of a spiritual vein and its spiritual Qi to immortal cultivators was beyond doubt.

If an immortal cultivator wanted to increase his cultivation level normally, he had to cultivate in a spiritual vein with a level that corresponded to his cultivation level.

If a Qi Refinement cultivator, for example, did not cultivate in a Grade 2 spiritual vein such as the one at Qingping Mountain and simply cultivated normally at an oasis or somewhere out in the desert, his cultivation would progress ten times slower. But if the Qi Refinement cultivator cultivated in a Grade 3 spiritual vein like the one at Yuquan Peak, his cultivation would return to the expected rate.

If a Foundation Establishment cultivator left a spiritual vein, the amount of spiritual Qi in the world beyond was so little that improving his cultivation would simply be a dream.

Therefore, in the immortal cultivation world, any immortal cultivator who wanted to improve their cultivation level would think of ways to occupy a spiritual vein.

A spiritual vein also had a limited amount of spiritual Qi it could produce daily. If the number of cultivators at the spiritual vein was too high, the amount of spiritual Qi consumed daily would exceed its limit and the spiritual vein might drop by a level or simply dry up and dissipate.

The Qingping Mountain spiritual vein was one that had been cultivated by the clan with a huge amount of spiritual stones. As such, the Zhou clan cultivators wouldn't be so stupid as to drain the spiritual Qi there.

Therefore, they unanimously decided through a discussion that Zhou Yang, the future hope of the Zhou clan, would be the one to cultivate with the spiritual Qi of Qingping Mountain's spiritual vein. The rest of them would retreat to the oasis and cultivate by refining the spiritual Qi of spiritual stones.

After all, the spiritual stone was a spiritual item formed from the highly-condensed Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth. The total amount of spiritual Qi in a lower-tier spiritual stone was comparable to the amount of spiritual Qi a Foundation Establishment cultivator needed to cultivate in a day or for a Qi Refinement Level 7 cultivator to cultivate for ten days.

Therefore, many lower-level rogue cultivators who were unable to occupy a spiritual vein to cultivate could only absorb the spiritual Qi in spiritual stones to cultivate daily and improve their cultivation.

But such a method meant the consumption of spiritual stones, a commodity few rogue cultivators could afford all year round. This was the reason poor and lower-level rogue cultivators were stuck in their circumstances.

The Zhou clan's Advanced-Stage Qi Refinement cultivators were fortunate enough to be able to refine their own spiritual stones for cultivation in a short period of time.

Zhou Yang knew the weight of the responsibility he was shouldering now. He silently accepted the kindness of his elders and did not say anything pretentious.

Meanwhile, after Zhou Yang and the others had left, Zhou Minghan immediately flew up into the sky and hovered above the sand slope. He was going to start a fire.

There was no need to kill a chicken with a butcher's knife - Zhou Minghan didn't need to waste his mana to release his Foundation Establishment True Fire at all. He simply released the Advanced Grade 2 Sea of Fire Spell and a small amount of the Lower Grade 2 Gale Spell to burn some of the ordinary desert plants. Then, he let nature do the rest of the work. Eventually, the sand slope started to burn up with flames reaching the sky.

The fire spread everywhere. Some of the desert animals hiding on the sand slope were instantly ignited, emitting explosive sounds like popping peas and the smell of meat.

Then came the cries of the beasts - the roars, hisses, and chirps. They sounded extremely miserable and filled with despair.

Zhou Minghan looked down from hundreds of meters in the air. Everywhere he looked, he could see desert animals fleeing frantically, many still on fire. Most of the animals had grown thick fur to counter the cold nights in the deserts. But now, their thick fur had become the catalysts of their deaths.

Only a small number of animals were quick enough to burrow themselves into the ground to avoid or put out the flames on their bodies, while the rest of the unfortunate 70-80% had turned into charcoal in the raging flames.

Even the Venomous Fire Scorpions could not escape the flames as most of them had been burned to death.

The sudden fire alerted the Grade 3 Venomous Fire Scorpion King that had been cultivating deep underground.

When it heard the hisses of its underlings, the Grade 3 Venomous Fire Scorpion quickly rushed out of the cave from where it was hiding. The flames posed no threat to the demon beast's body.

The moment the dark-red Venomous Fire Scorpion King appeared, it brandished its giant pincers and roared angrily at Zhou Minghan in the sky. The demon beast was as big as a calf and had developed intelligence. Thus, it immediately sensed the powerful aura that Zhou Minghan emitted and felt threatened.

However, Zhou Minghan couldn't be bothered with it. He simply released a shining Grade 3 flying sword and killed the remaining lower-level Venomous Fire Scorpions below him.

This only further provoked the Venomous Fire Scorpion King as it smashed its pincers on the ground, causing the entire sand slope to shake and instantly set off a huge sandstorm.

Sand danced into the sky, obscuring Zhou Minghan's vision and quickly extinguishing more than half of the spreading fire.

The difference in strength between Grade 3 and Grade 2 demon beasts was just like the difference between Foundation Establishment and Qi Refinement cultivators - it was as big as heaven and earth.

Every move of a Grade 3 Venomous Fire Scorpion could collapse mountains and split the earth, triggering small-scale natural disasters. If there were no immortal cultivators of the same level to fight against it, a Grade 3 demon beast could destroy a small oasis such as Qingping Mountain Oasis.

Although Zhou Minghan was not scared of the sight of the Grade 3 Venomous Fire Scorpion King, he didn't rashly start a battle with it. Instead, he quickly withdrew his flying sword and rode it away from the battlefield.

Demon beasts weren't like immortal cultivators who could learn how to ride a flying sword. Aside from flying-type demon beasts and a few other demon beasts with special abilities, the vast majority of land-type and water-type demon beasts were unable to master the ability to fly before Grade 4.

Thus, when Foundation Establishment cultivators faced a Grade 3 land-type demon beast like the Venomous Fire Scorpion King, the former could easily get the upper hand on the battlefield as long as it wasn't in the enemy's lair.

Of course, the reverse was also true. Although the Venomous Fire Scorpion couldn't fly, it could easily escape by burrowing underground unless a Foundation Establishment cultivator set up an array formation to stop it.

When the Venomous Fire Scorpion King saw Zhou Minghan leave, it thought that the other party had been frightened by its display of power. It proudly hissed and brandished its large pincers to show off to its underlings. Then, it reached its pincers toward a nearby Grade 1 Venomous Fire Scorpion that was half-dead from the fire.

The poor Grade 1 Venomous Fire Scorpion had just managed to escape from the fire with great difficulty. But before it could rejoice, it had become dinner for its king.

After eating an injured minion, the Venomous Fire Scorpion King's eyes flashed with a fierce light as it glanced at the other ordinary Venomous Fire Scorpions that had started trembling. It hissed and issued a few commands before returning to the underground cave to sleep.

Once the Venomous Fire Scorpion King had left, the rest of the Venomous Fire Scorpions immediately celebrated a feast. The desert animals that had been burned to death by Zhou MingHan became the main course, including the corpses of the Venomous Fire Scorpion that had died.

None of them realized that the destruction of the desert vegetation around the sand slope would bring great harm to their own tribe.

For these demon beasts, the battle today was no different from when the Venomous Fire Scorpions were attacked by other powerful demon beasts in the past. Although the intruders had killed some of their members, their king had always been able to chase off their enemies and defend their territory. Even those who died would be 'repurposed' into new members eventually.

It was not until half a month later when the Venomous Fire Scorpion King had awoken from its deep sleep and found that the number of its Venomous Fire Scorpions had greatly decreased. The remainders were killing each other due to the lack of food, and it was at that moment the king realized the viciousness of the fire.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Although the Venomous Fire Scorpion King was strong, it was impossible for it to produce a large amount of food out of thin air to save its minions.

In the end, the Venomous Fire Scorpion King could only gather the old, weak, and sick Venomous Fire Scorpions for the stronger ones to eat before driving all remaining survivors out of the underground cave to go to the depths of the desert to hunt for food.

However, the Venomous Fire Scorpion King did not expect that the moment it chased the Venomous Fire Scorpions out of the underground cave, Zhou Minghan - who had been monitoring the situation on the sand slope - would immediately seize the opportunity to kill dozens of chased-out Venomous Fire Scorpions. Before the Venomous Fire Scorpion King had heard the cries of distress and came to check on the situation, Zhou Minghan had already flown away on his flying sword like last time.

After this incident, the Venomous Fire Scorpion King finally confirmed that they were being targeted. It was an intelligent demon beast, after all. It immediately changed tactics, moving right beneath the surface as it followed the group of Venomous Fire Scorpions that were out for a hunt. The Venomous Fire Scorpion King knew that Zhou Minghan would find them and launch an attack.

Due to its new strategy, it was not easy for Zhou Minghan to detect it, and its sneak attack almost caused the clan leader to fall off.

After trying to attack a few more times, Zhou Minghan realized that he could no longer gain any advantage over the Venomous Fire Scorpions and finally turned around to return to Qingping Mountain Oasis.