Clan Cultivation: Starting with Plundering Demonic Beast Talents

The battle for the Cold Iron Ore has finally come to an end.

After resting for half a month, the group was led by Elder Lin Zongbai, with four late-stage Qi Refining cultivators and twelve mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators including Lin Qingyang, to bring back the spoils of this battle to Qingchi Mountain.

Because everyone was holding the second-tier Rock Prison Locking Abyss Formation, no cultivator dared to provoke the Lin family.

Lin Qingyang, having been down the mountain for nearly three years, returned to Qingchi Mountain for the first time.

At dawn, a faint light appeared.

Lin Zongbai and his entourage arrived at the foot of Qingchi Mountain, travel-worn and exhausted.

At this moment, the entire Qingchi Mountain was brightly lit.

Elder Lin Yaoyan, who was in charge of the Dharma Transmission Pavilion, personally led a group to welcome them at the foot of the mountain. Seeing that they had returned safely, he was relieved. "Everyone, you've worked hard."

Lin Zongbai nodded slightly, then noticed the weakened auras of many family members and quickly asked, "Uncles, have some cultivators taken advantage of this to cause trouble?"

The news that the Lin family had mobilized most of their forces to hunt down the second-tier demonic beast had spread after the Zhao family patriarch left, inevitably leading some rogue cultivators to take the risk.

"The clan leader emerged from seclusion for half a day and personally killed two late-stage Qi Refining cultivators. Unfortunately, the clan's spiritual fields are too far away, and two or three clan members still went missing."

Lin Yaoyan shook his head; their losses here were minor. He then asked, "How many men did you lose in the encirclement and suppression of the second-tier demonic beast?"

Lin Zongbai remained silent for a moment, then took out two urns from his storage bag. "The Jade Spirit Deer awakened its ice magic, and my fifth and eighth brothers didn't have time to react and perished on the spot."

"Five more members of the clan with the character '宗' in their names perished in the attack by first-tier demonic beasts."

As soon as he said this, weeping could be heard from behind Qingchi Mountain.

They were the family members of the two fallen deacons.

As for the other five members of the Zong generation, none of them have descendants who are cultivators, and they are unaware of this news.

Lin Yaoyan's eyes dimmed for a moment, then he announced in a loud and inspiring voice: "Our Lin family has won a great victory in this battle. All the fallen cultivators will be given compensation by the family."

"If there are no descendants of cultivators, the relics will be sealed for twenty years, and can be inherited when a cultivator appears among their descendants."

These words calmed the commotion in the crowd somewhat.

The first thing upon returning was the funeral.

The next day, at the back mountain of Qingchi.

Elder Lin Yaoyan presided over the distribution of the condolences in public.

After the Lin family cultivators died, they were all buried in the back mountain.

In just half a month, the Lin family has lost more than ten cultivators, which is nearly one-tenth of the Lin family's cultivators, not to mention those who were mid- to high-level cultivators. It can be said that the family has suffered a great loss of vitality.

Lin Qingyang, dressed in plain clothes, gazed at the graves on the back hill.

The top row consists of the patriarch Lin Taiyan and his three cultivator wives and concubines.

Looking down the next row are the tombs of the "Yao" generation, numbering about ten.

Most of this generation has passed away, leaving only a handful of people.

These are basically all direct descendants of the ancestor.

Looking further down, you see the generation with the character "宗" (Zong), and there are dozens of tombs in this row.

Finally, there are the Qing generation, some of whom are in their forties or fifties. They have more than ten graves because they went out to serve the family.

What's special about the tombs of Zongyao and his generation is that nearly half of them are cenotaphs.

These are all clansmen who perished in the Battle of Zizhu Mountain thirty years ago.

Therefore, the Lin and Zhao families can be described as having a deep-seated hatred.

The bodies of the five mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators who perished this time were naturally difficult to find because they were killed by a siege of demonic beasts, so only a cenotaph could be erected for them.

With the loss of two stewards, the family now has only eight cultivators remaining at the late Qi Refining stage.

Lin Qingyang also felt quite emotional, for the path to immortality is difficult and fraught with peril.

Human tribulations are ever-present, such as demonic cultivators, beast tides, and tribulation cultivators; any of these could potentially take his life. So what if he can kill someone in the late stage of Qi Refining?

Under the spiritual pressure of the two patriarchs of the Zhao family, they were still powerless to resist.

He knew very well that as his cultivation level improved, he would face even stronger enemies.

Furthermore, breakthroughs in cultivation levels become increasingly dangerous, even for those with superior-grade spiritual roots or even higher-grade earth-grade spiritual roots, there is no guarantee of absolute safety.

Lin Qingyang could only encourage himself to be as cautious as walking on thin ice, to act with courage and diligence, to seek the path to immortality, and to inquire about longevity.

"If I were to be robbed someday, I hope I would still have the chance to return to Qingchi Mountain."

"To be buried among one's relatives is an outcome that many cultivators find difficult to attain."

……

The second major task was to domesticate the harvested water snake eggs and fawns.

This matter involves the annual income of several hundred spirit stones, and it is being personally overseen by the Grand Elder. As for Elder Lin Zongbai and the remaining three deacons, they have gone back to seclusion to recuperate from their injuries.

Therefore, the distribution of the family's merit awards was scheduled for six months later.

Lin Qingyang naturally did not mind this resolution.

Because he began his seclusion the day after returning to Qingchi Mountain.

It's worth mentioning that he has moved from the foot of the mountain to Qinglingxuan, which is located halfway up the mountain.

"The spiritual energy concentration is not as high as in Nanhefang, but the area is much larger, which is just enough for me to cultivate."

Lin Qingyang glanced at the new cave dwelling, but didn't bother to rearrange it; he just made do with it.

Because of his record of killing a Qi Refining Stage 7 cultivator, it is said that two positions in the steward's office were vacant this time, and he was originally going to be promoted so that he could move into the Lingyun Pavilion where his uncle resides.

The concentration of spiritual energy there is comparable to that of a first-grade high-level spiritual vein.

However, the family is currently focusing on taming fawns and hatching water snakes. These young demon beasts are still very fragile and prone to dying.

Therefore, he couldn't spare the time to do good deeds.

"It doesn't matter. I'll be plundering the talents of demonic beasts during this time anyway."

Lin Qingyang stared intently at the ten jade bottles on the table.

This was his spoils of war, extracted from the seven water pythons and the Azure Spirit Deer, worth around five hundred spirit stones.

It's almost the price of a top-grade magical artifact.

However, he felt it was extremely worthwhile. These kinds of high-grade demonic beasts usually have their own clans and are difficult to hunt. For example, Hong Yifei of Nanhefang can only hunt a water-type demonic beast in the late stage of Qi Refining every few months.

Moreover, each time it's a different type, which is too slow.

Therefore, Lin Qingyang has not improved his spiritual root for more than half a year.

With a slight thought, the jade talisman appeared out of thin air, and golden light enveloped the jade bottle. In just a few breaths, the blood full of spiritual energy in the jade bottle turned into clear water.

Don't hesitate to plunder talents; plunder both [Water Arrow] and [Rejuvenation]!

In the next few breaths, as usual, a few insights surfaced in Lin Qingyang's mind. He first transformed into a water python, spitting out water arrows as thick as tree trunks, making him a kind of tyrant in the water.

Then it transformed into a Jade Spirit Deer. Its specialty was not fighting, but healing. It possessed a talent for rejuvenation, which complemented the water python perfectly, allowing it to nurture a second-tier Jade Spirit Deer King.

The ancient characters on the jade talisman have also undergone new changes.

[Talent: Water Arrow Basics (12/100)]

[Water Arrow Charm: Beginner (87/100)]

[Talent: Rejuvenation Basics (13/100)]

[Rejuvenation Charm: Beginner (91/100)]

[Spiritual Root: Water (24/100) → (27/100)]

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Lin Qingyang felt that his affinity for water elemental energy had significantly increased.

I tried running the Spirit Source Water Control Technique again, and sure enough, the speed of refining spiritual energy increased by about 10%.

From now on, whether he is drawing talismans or fighting, he will have a longer endurance.

Because of the significant increase in his cultivation speed, he cultivated for half a month straight until he ran out of Qi Gathering Pills. He had already completed the accumulation of magical power for the sixth level of Qi Refining.

"It must have been the life-or-death struggle that loosened up his cultivation bottleneck considerably."

Lin Qingyang seemed to be deep in thought, feeling the abundant magical power within his body, and took out an orange-yellow spiritual pill, which seemed to be surrounded by dragon patterns.

This is precisely the breakthrough elixir that all mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators covet: the Yellow Dragon Pill!

"The poison in the Qi Gathering Pill needs time to be refined. Why not try to break through again after a while?"

After thinking for a while, Lin Qingyang decided to postpone his breakthrough. Rushing to break through would only mean that he might be directly promoted to elder, but compared to consolidating his foundation, that power was naturally much more important.

With the elders' council still two months away, he began to try drawing high-grade talismans.

……