Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 162 - 160: After This Battle, I Will (Extra - 3/5 for book friend Polar Bear 2018, as a reward to the Alliance Leader)

Chapter 162: Chapter 160: After This Battle, I Will (Extra Chapter 3/5 for book friend Polar Bear 2018, as a reward to the Alliance Leader)

Demon beasts are not puppet beasts; they also need rest.

The demon beasts attacking Zhenyue Immortal City had traveled long distances without proper rest for several days.

The reason they still attacked the Immortal City under such circumstances, besides the high-tier demon beasts wanting to test the city’s defensive forces, was also to cull some low-tier demon beasts to reduce the burden on the beast horde’s food supply.

By relying on strength and the "Beast King Horn," high-tier demon beasts could intimidate and restrain herbivorous and carnivorous demon beasts from slaughtering each other, but they couldn’t stop hungry demon beasts from doing so.

An occurrence of a "Beast Tide" often takes years to conclude fully, so for the high-tier demon beasts, controlling the scale of the "Beast Tide" to prevent massive losses due to food shortages is a test of wisdom.

Thus, after the temporary retreat of the "Beast Tide," the survivors like Zhouyang on the city wall began sorting through the battlefield to handle their spoils of war.

Zhouyang only then realized that five of his fifteen team members had survived. He couldn’t understand how these five had managed to stay alive.

Given the intense battle lasting one to two hours, their magical power should have been exhausted, and with the ferocity of the attack, Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators shouldn’t have been able to hold the city wall.

Although he had his suspicions, Zhouyang said nothing. It wasn’t his place to question how they survived, as long as they didn’t touch his spoils of war.

In this battle, Zhouyang alone killed four Tier Three demon beasts, including a Tier Three Middle Grade demon beast, the "Sword-beaked Crane," and even more Tier Two High-Grade demon beasts.

Due to the large number of demon beasts he killed and their generally enormous size, Zhouyang only took the parts of those Tier Three demon beasts useful for artifact refining and alchemy, extracted and stored the demon blood, and took some of the finest meat. The rest he sold at low prices to merchants who came to purchase them.

Most of the merchants who came to buy the demon beast corpses had powerful backgrounds.

They had prepared large warehouses in the city beforehand, with personnel inside to process and classify the recovered demon beast corpses. They either refined the meat into "Grain Avoidance Pill," "Essence Pill," and other satiety elixirs via alchemists or preserved rare demon beast corpses to sell in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm once the "Beast Tide" subsided.

This was a time when the value of demon beast materials plunged due to the large number of demon beasts being killed, and Zhouyang’s sale prices couldn’t match even half of regular times, enriching these cunning merchants.

Yet, he still profited by selling off demon beast corpses he couldn’t carry or use, earning three to four thousand low-grade spirit stones, and with the artifact refining materials he had collected, he amassed nearly ten thousand spirit stones in spoils from this battle alone.

With such a fast spirit stone earning pace, it’s no wonder people like Dong Jianping chose to remain in Zhenyue Immortal City to help defend it despite knowing the dangers of a "Beast Tide."

People die for wealth, just as birds die for food, an age-old truth.

But unlike Zhouyang, who profited purely, Dong Jianping, although he killed more demon beasts, paid a heavy price.

In this battle, not only did his Dao companion of decades perish to the demon beasts, but three of his descendants that he had raised in cultivation also fell. Only the two young cultivators Zhouyang saved were still alive.

Zhouyang didn’t disturb the Dong family as they cleared the battlefield. After handling his spoils, he sat down to meditate and recover his magical power, waiting for his immediate superior, Jia Yunzhen’s next orders.

His five surviving subordinates, after gathering the remains and belongings of the fallen cultivators for storage on the city wall, sat down behind him to meditate and cultivate as well.

These individuals also profited nicely; Zhouyang didn’t take any demon beasts killed by the fallen Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators, leaving them all to his subordinates, significantly boosting their wealth.

"What’s your name?"

While Zhouyang was meditating to restore his magical power, a strong, deep voice suddenly entered his ears.

Opening his eyes, he saw Jia Yunzhen standing before him, looking at him with an indifferent expression.

Upon seeing this, he quickly stood up and respectfully saluted with clasped hands and said, "Junior Zhouyang, I greet Elder Jia."

"That earlier sword strike was impressive. Is it a divine technique contained within your cultivation technique?"

Jia Yunzhen asked while looking at Zhouyang, seeming completely unaware of how taboo his question was.

But this was a privilege of high-tier cultivators!

Among peers, inquiring about each other’s magical techniques is taboo and could easily offend. However, when high-tier cultivators ask such questions of low-tier ones, it’s not an issue.

Thus, Zhouyang merely furrowed his brows briefly and quickly subdued his slight discontent, replying, "Elder has a discerning eye; it indeed is a sword Qi divine technique included in the junior’s cultivation technique!"

"That’s truly unfortunate!"

A flash of regret passed through Jia Yunzhen’s eyes as he sighed heavily with regret.

With his insight and understanding of the Sword Dao, he clearly saw the uniqueness of Zhouyang’s "Qianyang Celestial Sword." Learning such a sword Qi divine technique could give him another trump card.

However, since this sword Qi divine technique was included with the cultivation technique, he had no intention to pursue it. A cultivator could change their main cultivation technique, but they couldn’t cultivate two simultaneously, lest they easily go astray and fall into madness.

And Jia Yunzhen’s own main cultivation technique also comes with powerful divine techniques, so naturally, he wouldn’t switch to another cultivation technique for just one divine technique.

After sighing, he nodded at Zhouyang and said, "This time you all performed very well. According to the rules set by the City Lord, you can have a two-month rest period. During the rest period, unless the city walls fall, you don’t have to go to the city walls to fight. Of course, if you volunteer to fight demons, no one will stop you!"

After speaking, he didn’t care about Zhouyang’s reaction, directly using sword control to leave.

Hoo!

Zhouyang watched the direction where Jia Yunzhen left and couldn’t help but take a long breath. To be honest, even in front of someone like Cao Wenjin, the Golden Core Ancestor, he hadn’t been this nervous.

The reason is easy to understand. Cao Wenjin, as the Guardian of the Yellow Sand Sect, has a rightful position. If he doesn’t follow rules or reason, Zhouyang has no way to deal with it. Whether tense or not doesn’t change a thing.

But Jia Yunzhen is different. Jia Yunzhen is a loose cultivator, and the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm is a foreign land.

As a wanderer in a foreign place, Zhouyang faced immense pressure from a ruthless and fierce high-tier loose cultivator like Jia Yunzhen, fearing that if he said even a wrong word, it might provoke Jia Yunzhen into killing him.

This is no joke. In the current battle against the "Beast Tide," as the Purple Mansion Stage Cultivator overseeing Zhouyang and others, Jia Yunzhen has countless methods to fix him without even needing to personally intervene.

"In the future, if possible, it’s better to stay away from this killing star. Who knows if that blood evil aura around him has already influenced his heart towards demon dao!"

Zhouyang cursed quietly in his heart, being extremely wary of Jia Yunzhen.

Such immortal dao cultivators, whose mentality and methods are even more brutal and fierce than those of demonic cultivators, are truly not to be provoked, and Zhouyang absolutely doesn’t want to provoke such people, not at all.

However, Jia Yunzhen’s words before leaving did make him feel slightly better. If he can rest for two months, he can accomplish many things during this period.

With this thought, he immediately walked over to Dong Jianping.

"They all voluntarily chose to stay and fight with me, and I never forced them!"

In a private room of a certain tavern in Zhenyue Immortal City, Zhouyang and Dong Jianping sat across from each other at a table. On the table was a spread of fine dishes made from Tier Three Demon Beast Meat, and the wine was a top-grade spirit wine brewed from various Tier Two Spirit Fruits.

At this moment, Dong Jianping, while drinking, looked at Zhouyang with a pained expression and said, "I don’t know whether Fellow Daoist Zhou comes from a sect or a clan, but I know for sure that you are not a loose cultivator."

"I, Dong Jianping, have practiced cultivation all my life. Every single spirit stone was earned by my own hands. From the very first day of my cultivation, no one taught me how to cultivate. To achieve my current cultivation level, besides heaven granting me a middle-grade spiritual root, the rest was earned through my own blood and sweat!"

"My Dao companion is also a loose cultivator, and like me, she understands the hardships of being a loose cultivator. My children with spiritual roots have also been influenced by us since childhood, daring to take risks and work hard, hoping to establish themselves as Foundation Establishment Cultivators through their efforts, just like me!"

"Before this beast tide, I told them that once we survive this beast tide, I would take them back to the rear to establish the clan, and then our descendants wouldn’t have to live like us, having to hunt demon beasts just to save a few spirit stones to buy spirit rice!"

"They all supported my decision and were willing to stay here and resist the beast tide with me, saying they wanted to contribute to the establishment of the Dong Family!"

"I say this to tell Fellow Daoist Zhou that I, Dong Jianping, am not someone who uses my descendants’ lives just to earn spirit stones coldly and ruthlessly!"

Dong Jianping, his eyes red, looked at Zhouyang, slowly picked up the empty wine glass in front of Zhouyang, filled it with wine, and handed it to him with both hands.

"I understand Fellow Daoist Dong’s intention, and please, Brother Dong, accept my condolences!"

Zhouyang nodded solemnly, reached out to take the wine glass in front of him, and drank it all in one gulp.

Seeing this, Dong Jianping couldn’t help but clap the table and exclaim, "Good! Since Brother Zhou drank this glass of wine, it means you truly consider Dong someone as a friend. Although Dong is of loose cultivator origin, I never hesitate to help friends. If there is anything Brother Zhou needs Dong’s help with in the future, just say it!"

"In fact, there is something I want to ask Brother Dong!"

Zhouyang nodded and immediately expressed his thoughts.

It turned out that after today’s battle on the city wall, he realized his regular attack methods were lacking, so he wanted to inquire with Dong Jianping about the market for magical artifacts and spirit talismans in Zhenyue Immortal City to see if he could purchase some good attack artifacts to arm himself and buy some high-tier spirit talismans for defense.

"You’ve asked the right person. Dong has lived in Zhenyue Immortal City for decades and knows every shop’s situation here like the back of his hand. If you want to buy magical artifacts, I recommend visiting the ’Divine Weapon Workshop’ and ’Kunwu Pavilion’; at least within this city, the artifacts in their shops are the most refined."

"As for spirit talismans, I advise you not to buy them. In the current situation, talisman prices are at least fifty percent higher than usual, some even doubled. Besides, you already have a Tier Three High-Grade Defense Spiritual Artifact; anything less than a Tier Four Defense Spirit Talisman is relatively useless to you, and the current price for Tier Four Talismans in the city, tsk-tsk-tsk!"

Dong Jianping shook his head at the last statement, evidently thinking there was no need to say more.

Zhouyang, understanding the advice, nodded readily, recalling his own means, "I’ll heed Brother Dong’s advice, and first check those two places for artifacts."

"No hurry; let’s eat and drink to our fill first, then Dong will personally take you there to avoid being cheated as a new face by the shopkeepers!"

They continued eating and drinking for over an hour before leaving the tavern. Then, under Dong Jianping’s guidance, they went to those two shops to choose magical artifacts.

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