Starting with a daily divination to build an immortal clan

Chapter 137 Clan Soldiers
Li Heshan walked over slowly, looked at Pei Zhao with a slightly evasive gaze, and cupped his hands in greeting: "Uncle-Master Pei, Nephew..."

Pei Zhao shook his head slightly; he knew what Li Heshan wanted to say.

But it doesn't matter now.

Perhaps, for Shen Wen'an, being expelled from his sect was a good thing.

After all, his cultivation hadn't declined during the years he was away from Qiyun Valley; on the contrary, he was more outstanding than the vast majority of disciples in Qiyun Valley.

For him, the identity of a disciple of Qiyun Valley was more like a shackle.

After being expelled from his sect, if given the opportunity, he might be able to join the Qingluo Sword Sect in the future by virtue of his relationship with the Sword Immortal Lingshan.

“Heshan, Qiyun Valley is sick, and it’s terminally ill.”

"The future depends on you."

Pei Zhao smiled sadly, turned around, put his hands behind his back, and slowly walked towards the houses in the distance.

His back was somewhat hunched, and he seemed to have aged considerably in an instant.

"Junior Brother Wen'an..."

Watching Pei Zhao's figure disappear into the distance, Li Heshan looked at Shen Wen'an with a complicated expression and asked, "Do you blame your senior brother?"

Shen Wen'an remained silent.

With his clear mind, he could sense that Li Heshan harbored no ill intentions.

It's easy to distinguish between good and evil in human nature, but weighing the pros and cons is too difficult for him.

Therefore, he never liked to overthink things; if he could nip a danger in the bud, he would never give it a chance to sprout.

"Ugh!"

"Let's go."

Seeing that he didn't speak, Li Heshan sighed heavily.

Over the years, he had been trying to keep Shen Wen'an, planning to cultivate him into a guardian of the sect and a sharp weapon to restore the glory of Qiyun Valley after he succeeded to the position of sect leader.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

……

The Shen family of Heishuitan.

Shen Yuan and his son Shen Wenxing looked at Li Heshan in front of them and remained silent.

a long time--

Shen Wenxing cupped his hands and said, "Immortal Li, my younger brother has caused you trouble over the years."

"Now that Wen'an is no longer a disciple of Qiyun Valley, I feel embarrassed to continue holding the position of steward of the Shengxian Pavilion in Anyang County."

"Young Master Shen, this..."

Upon hearing this, Li Heshan wanted to say something, but ultimately remained silent.

He knew very well that Luoxia Mountain had now handed over the entire Yunshui Town to the Shen family for management.

Shen Wen'an has been expelled from his sect, and the Shen family no longer needs to work for Qiyun Valley.

With the position of steward of the Ascension Pavilion, even if Shen Wenxing does nothing, he will eventually devote some of his energy to the affairs of the Ascension Pavilion.

Now that I've resigned from my position as a steward at the Ascension Pavilion, I can finally devote myself entirely to managing my own little corner of the world.

All of this began when Qiyun Valley chose Fengxian County instead of Yunzhong County.

"That's fine!"

Thinking about all this, Li Heshan suddenly felt relieved.

He smiled and looked at Shen Wenxing and Shen Yuan, saying, "Young Master Shen, Patriarch Shen."

“Even though Junior Brother Wen’an has been expelled from the sect, I believe that my private relationship with the Shen family still exists.”

"If you ever need my help in the future, please let me know."

Shen Yuan repeatedly cupped his hands in greeting: "What Immortal Li says is true."

He had always felt that Li Heshan, like Pei Zhao and his daughter, was someone worth befriending.

Unfortunately, Qiyun Valley was not something that Li Heshan and Pei Zhao could control.

"It is the Shen family's good fortune to have made friends with Master Li."

"If you ever need anything from the Shen family in the future, please don't hesitate to ask."

Shen Wenxing then spoke up.

"Certainly, certainly." Li Heshan cupped his hands and stood up, saying, "In that case, I will take my leave now."

“There has been some unrest at Hundred Beasts Mountain recently. I must return to Fengxian County to take charge of the overall situation and cannot stay any longer.”

"Patriarch Shen, you should also be more careful."

"The Hundred Beasts Mountain controls the entire Western Wilderness Barbarian Tribe, and is separated from Yunzhong by the Hidden Dragon Mountain Range, which is only 800 miles wide."

"Now that the spiritual energy of Yangnao Land has recovered, the Hidden Dragon Mountain Range seems to be one of the places where the earth veins of Yangnao Land converge. Various forces will inevitably be tempted to take action."

Upon hearing this, Shen Yuan and Shen Wenxing exchanged a glance, their expressions both turning serious.

"Thank you for the reminder, Immortal Li."

Li Heshan waved his hand and slowly left the Shen family.

Watching his figure disappear into the distance, Shen Yuan pondered.

"Boss, come with me to the martial arts gym."

Shen Wenxing nodded, and the father and son hurried down the mountain.

At the martial arts training ground, Huang Lin of the Huang family was currently instructing many disciples in training along with several other martial arts masters.

Upon seeing Shen Yuan and Shen Wenxing, Huang Lin greeted them with a cupped hand: "Uncle Yuan, Shi Tou."

Shen Yuan nodded with his hands behind his back and asked, "Where is your uncle?"

"In the backyard."

"Recently, several disciples have broken through to the Acquired Realm, so my uncle and elder brother decided to separate them from these disciples."

Shen Yuan nodded and walked towards the backyard with Shen Wenxing.

There is also a training ground in the backyard of the martial arts school, but it is slightly smaller than the one in the front yard.

At this moment, more than twenty young men and women were sitting cross-legged in the training ground. Huang Qi and Huang Qingzhou sat in front of them, cultivating together.

These are all disciples of the martial arts school who have broken through to the Acquired Realm in the past two years.

Hearing the noise, Huang Qingzhou and his companion opened their eyes and got up to greet them.

"Uncle Yuan."

Huang Qi bowed with his hands clasped in greeting.

Shen Yuan nodded and looked at Huang Qingzhou: "Brother, let's talk over there."

The four of them sat down in a pavilion far from the training ground, and Huang Qi asked the martial arts school's servants to bring them tea.

Shen Yuan took a sip of tea and said directly, "The situation has become increasingly chaotic lately, and I plan to form a clan army for self-defense."

"Brother, have these children made any progress in their cultivation recently?"

Huang Qingzhou shook his head slightly and said, "Although twenty-seven disciples have broken through to the Acquired Realm, none of them have spiritual roots. They are both tempering their bodies and practicing breathing techniques, so their progress is very slow."

"I estimate that it will take another year or two before a cultivator at the Qi Refining Realm is born."

One or two years...

After pondering for a moment, Shen Yuan shook his head slightly: "Too slow..."

The longer the current situation drags on, the less useful the acquired realm martial artists will become.

In a year or two, while Acquired Realm martial artists won't be absolute cannon fodder, their deterrent power will be greatly reduced.

If we exclude Shen Wen'an, the Shen family now only has seven truly capable individuals.

This includes both Shen Wenyan and Lu Zhiyuan.

The two of them were still finding it very difficult to cultivate in the realm of literature. Shen Yuan estimated that Shen Wenyan's current cultivation level was roughly equivalent to the second or third level of Qi Refining.

Lu Zhiyuan wasn't very clear about it, but he guessed that Lu Zhiyuan's strength was similar to that of the eldest brother, Shen Wenxing, around the fourth or fifth level of Qi Refining.

As for Huang Qingzhou and Huang Qi, they have been in the Qi Refining Realm for a year, but they still haven't reached the second level of Qi Refining.

Have any people from other villages recently come to the martial arts school to register?

Shen Yuan suddenly spoke up and asked.

Huang Qi bowed slightly to the side: "There are some, but..."

He gave a wry smile and said, "Uncle Yuan should have seen it when he came. Our martial arts school is only this big, and the training ground in the front yard is already too small."

"So those who signed up were just made to wait."

Huang Qingzhou then spoke up, "A-Yuan, I think we should take the initiative."

"Yunshui Town has nearly 10,000 people. If we screen them one by one, we should be able to find one or two people with spiritual roots, right?"

After hearing this, Shen Yuan looked at Shen Wenxing with some confusion.

He remembered that he had arranged this himself.

Shen Wenxing was stunned for a moment, then awkwardly said, "I've been running between home and Shengxian Pavilion these past few days and completely forgot about this."

Shen Yuan nodded, but didn't blame him.

Human energy is limited. Now that I have resigned from my job at the Ascension Pavilion, I can devote myself to my own affairs from now on.

"Tomorrow, talk to the leaders of each tribe and ask them to send all the children between the ages of six and fourteen from each village, without missing any."

"Tell them that any child in the village who turns six years old should be sent here immediately for spiritual root testing."

Shen Wenxing nodded in agreement.

"besides……"

After pondering for a moment, Shen Yuan said, "I recently heard from your Uncle Zhao that the villagers went hunting in the mountains and discovered signs that there are more monsters in the mountains."

“Go back and check on those kids who don’t have spiritual roots. If they have a strong will and can endure the hardships of body tempering, you can let them take the path of body tempering.”

Compared to body refinement, the requirements for immortal cultivation are still too high.

Although body tempering becomes increasingly difficult as you progress, at least in the early stages there are not too high requirements, and any improvement is barely enough to cope with the current situation.

Anyway, as time goes by, the number of monsters in the mountains will increase, so there will be no problem with resources.

"I also have something to say," Huang Qingzhou suddenly said.

"Ah Yuan, do you still remember those two kids from the Huang family in Huangyan Town who raised blood toads?"

Shen Yuan nodded slightly.

He did indeed remember those two little guys.

One was named Huang Ruoyan, and the other was named Huang Chengchi.

The siblings are indeed quite skilled at raising blood toads.

“Cheng Chi has secretly approached me a few times. Although he didn’t say it explicitly, I think he wanted to learn martial arts from me.”

Shen Yuan smiled after hearing this.

"You can decide this matter, brother."

"The two of them have done a good job raising the blood toads. I haven't heard them mention any intention to cultivate before. Perhaps they are too cautious."

"Brother, you can ask them later. If they are both willing to cultivate, you can reward them with some Body Tempering Pills."

Those who perform meritorious service should be rewarded, and those who commit wrongdoing should be punished.

The Huang siblings have made great contributions to raising the blood toads over the past few years, so their request to cultivate themselves should naturally be granted.

"Alright, I'll ask them later."

The four chatted for a while longer before Shen Yuan and his son left the martial arts school.

On the way, Shen Yuan walked ahead with his hands behind his back, while Shen Wenxing followed quietly behind.

"Boss, what's the status of the Azure Spirit Stone mine now?"

Shen Wenxing said, "You said before that there was no rush, so I didn't have anyone dig it up. I just temporarily filled in the entrance."

Shen Yuan nodded.

When he reported the discovery of the Qingling Stone vein to Luoxia Mountain last time, Wei Qiuling's response made him realize a problem.

From the perspective of Luoxia Mountain, they seemed to not want the Shen family to develop too quickly.

Perhaps they were afraid of losing control, or perhaps they were afraid of giving the Shen family too many rewards, which would create an awkward situation where the previous ones were too outstanding.

After all, given the Shen family's current situation, a few spirit crystals and some pills would be a great favor. If the reward were based on the Qingling Stone mine, it would be even more difficult.

Having eaten delicacies from land and sea, who would be grateful for a few steamed buns and pickled vegetables unless they were on the verge of starvation?

However, Shen Yuan himself would not have such thoughts.

All I can say is that Luoxia Mountain was overthinking things, but it wasn't wrong.

"Let's make some arrangements later and try mining a portion first."

"I remember Fairy Wei saying that we could keep the spirit crystal fragments we dug up?"

Shen Wenxing nodded.

"Then that's settled. We'll keep 10% of the mined Azure Spirit Stones, and give the rest to Luoxia Mountain."

"Tell Fairy Wei that the Shen family doesn't have many demands for the time being, but only hopes to receive assistance from Luoxia Mountain when they need something in the future."

When Shen Wen'an returned from Qiyun Valley, Pei Zhao gave him many things.

It contains some insights into alchemy, the art of formations, and some common knowledge about the cultivation world.

In the short term, the Shen family has no other needs, so they can accumulate the favors they have made with the Azure Spirit Stones.

It's not too late to bring it up if we need it later.

Shen Wenxing nodded.

"After the selection of spiritual roots and immortal seedlings is completed, I will have each clan allocate manpower to mine them."

"Go ahead." Shen Yuan waved his hand.

The father and son parted ways halfway. Shen Wenxing arrived at the ancestral hall and sent someone to notify the leaders of the major and minor clans to come and discuss these matters immediately.

(End of this chapter)