Cultivation Begins From The Desert
Chapter 211 - 209: Gold-devouring Beast

Chapter 211: Chapter 209: Gold-devouring Beast

After Huang Yi formally joined the Zhou Family, even without counting Xuan Yu, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator who cannot be exposed, the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Zhou Family reached five.

This means that even in terms of numbers, the Zhou Family has already become the largest Foundation Establishment clan in the Baisha River Oasis, second only to the Chen Family.

Under such circumstances, after receiving the summon for the "Foundation Establishment Conference" from the Chen Family Ancestor, the Zhou Family did not send any Qi Cultivation Stage cultivator to participate, but instead, Zhouyang and the old clan leader Zhou Minghan went directly to the Baisha River Oasis.

"I heard that the son-in-law your Zhou Family took in over a dozen years ago also successfully established his foundation? Truly fortunate!"

At the Baisha River Oasis, after meeting with the two people from the Zhou Family who responded to the summon, the Chen Family Ancestor looked at them with a complex expression and sighed.

The Chen and Zhou families’ relationship spanned over two hundred years, and the Chen Family Ancestor watched the establishment of the Zhou Family with his own eyes, helping them significantly during their development.

Now, seeing the Zhou Family, once barely having a few individuals, develop over two hundred years to subtly threaten the Chen Family’s status, what he feels at heart, only he knows.

Zhouyang and Zhou Minghan did not know if he was referring to the Zhou Family or Huang Yi himself when he mentioned "fortunate".

Finally, Zhouyang respectfully replied, "Replying to Ancestor, it is indeed true, the one who established the foundation is the husband of my twelfth younger sister, Huang Yi."

Hearing this, the Chen Family Ancestor’s expression changed and couldn’t help but ask, "I heard that you, youngster, went out once and brought back a Dao Companion as beautiful as a celestial being. Why didn’t you bring her to meet me this time?"

He actually wanted to know what Zhouyang did in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm and why Cao Wenjin took Zhouyang to the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm.

However, as someone who had the privilege of traveling to the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm with the Yellow Sand Sect cultivators, he knew Zhouyang must have signed a blood contract not to disclose these matters, so he wanted to see if he could discover anything from Xiao Ying.

Zhouyang certainly did not know this. Hearing the question from the Chen Family Ancestor, although surprised, he immediately replied without concealment, "Dare not deceive the Ancestor. Ying’Er is busy with matters in the clan and cannot come. Once she finishes, I will bring her to pay respect to Ancestor."

"If she is occupied, let’s discuss it later. Now let me tell you about the target this time."

The Chen Family Ancestor nodded slightly, then solemnly revealed the target selected for this "Foundation Establishment Conference": "Our target this time is a Tier Four Middle-Grade Demon Beast [Gold-devouring Beast], and its nest is in a [Silver Star Stone] ore vein."

The "Gold-devouring Beast" is a solitary Tier Four demon beast, similar to the "Gold-Eating Rat" Zhouyang encountered at the Qi Cultivation Stage, both living by devouring metal spiritual objects.

The difference is, the "Gold-devouring Beast" not only ranks as high as Tier Four but also possesses extremely strong offensive and defensive capabilities, and has mastered the most difficult to learn and counter of the Five Elements Escape Techniques, the "Gold Escape Technique".

Zhouyang did not know why the Chen Family Ancestor chose this demon beast as the target, although choosing to hunt the "Gold-devouring Beast" avoids the myriad middle- and low-tier demon beasts’ siege like in other Tier Four demon beast hunts, a "Gold-devouring Beast" that has mastered the "Gold Escape Technique" will escape, unless a Golden Core Stage cultivator makes a move, who could stop it?

"Junior boldly asks, Ancestor, since you chose the [Gold-devouring Beast] as the target, do you have a way to restrict its escape?" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Considering the seriousness of the matter, Zhouyang asked his question directly without any concern.

"My Chen Family possesses a Tier Four Lower Grade Array, named [Five Elements Reversed Array]. Once this array is laid, any Five Elements Escape Technique cannot be executed within it, so your task as Foundation Establishment cultivators this time is to stabilize the array until I kill it!"

The Chen Family Ancestor did not conceal anything and directly shared his strategy.

Using arrays to surround and kill demon beasts is a common technique among cultivators; otherwise, high-tier demon beasts might escape, and even a powerful Purple Mansion cultivator like Jia Yunzhen might not necessarily kill the other.

Thus, after listening to the Chen Family Ancestor, Zhouyang just exchanged a glance with the old clan leader Zhou Minghan and respectfully replied, "In that case, junior has no questions, and we await Ancestor’s instructions."

In the following two to three months, the two from the Zhou Family, along with eight other Foundation Establishment cultivators, practiced familiarizing themselves with the use of the "Five Elements Reversed Array".

This "Five Elements Reversed Array" requires ten Foundation Establishment cultivators to control to unleash its proper power. Once trapped inside the array, not only is it impossible to perform Five Elements Escape Techniques as the Chen Family Ancestor mentioned, but even other Five Elements Magic performed will have their elemental power reversed and weakened by the array power.

Among the ten Foundation Establishment cultivators participating in this array practice, besides the two from the Zhou Family, the Chen Family also provided two individuals. Among the remaining six, two are Foundation Establishment Loose Cultivators who recently submitted to the Chen Family and established families in the Baisha River Oasis, one is a genuine loose cultivator, and the remaining three are from Foundation Establishment clans like the Yang Family of Golden Spring Valley.

Zhouyang, although not familiar with everyone, at least had seen them a few times and could call them by name, and the ten cooperated without any major issues.

After practicing the array for two to three months and fully familiarizing themselves with its use, the ten Foundation Establishment cultivators boarded Chen Family Ancestor’s Void Traveling Tower Ship, flying towards the nest of the "Gold-devouring Beast".

As for the other Purple Mansion cultivator from the Chen Family, Chen Ping’an, after the lesson from the last "Foundation Establishment Conference," how would the Chen Family Ancestor dare to mobilize everyone?

Under the control of the Chen Family Ancestor, an eighth-layer Purple Mansion cultivator, the Void Traveling Tower Ship can fly more than twenty thousand miles a day. Yet, it still took Zhouyang and the others six to seven days to reach the place mentioned by the Chen Family Ancestor.

"Actually, everyone knows that the Boundless Desert Sea is so vast, there must be more oases beyond the area near the Yellow Sand Sect. However, if they’re too far from the Yellow Sand Sect, not to mention migrating mortals being a colossal task, if something happens, it might take decades for anyone to know. Thus, sometimes our clans prefer to expend a significant amount of spirit stones and manpower to create our own oases and spirit veins rather than establish clan branches tens of thousands of miles away."

When they disembarked, Zhou Minghan saw Zhouyang’s confusion about the area they had never been to and secretly transmitted an explanation to him.

Upon hearing this, Zhouyang instantly understood Zhou Minghan’s point.

Indeed, if a clan were established in such a remote place, it would essentially be removed from the protection range of the Yellow Sand Sect. At that time, if attacked by formidable demon beasts or other cultivators, seeking aid would be impossible.

So, even if there’s an oasis here, it can only be left for demon beasts to occupy, with human cultivators coming every few decades or centuries to harvest.

The group disembarked from the ship and quickly found a suitable place to set up the "Five Elements Reversed Array," then the Chen Family Ancestor proceeded alone to "lure" the Gold-devouring Beast from its lair.

Zhouyang and the others held their breath and waited in the shadows for a while, soon seeing a golden light chasing the Chen Family Ancestor from afar, moving closer and closer.

As he fixed his gaze upon it, within the golden light was a ferocious exotic beast, six zhang long, with a tiger head and lion body, its mouth full of sharp fangs.

This beast was hairless and its body seemed to be cast from metal, shining with dazzling golden light in the sun.

This was the "Gold-devouring Beast," a fierce exotic beast that feeds on metal.

While Zhouyang was examining the Gold-devouring Beast, the Chen Family Ancestor had already lured it to the outer periphery of the "Five Elements Reversed Array."

But just as the Chen Family Ancestor passed through the "Five Elements Reversed Array," an unexpected event occurred.

The Gold-devouring Beast, which had been relentlessly pursuing all the way, suddenly sensed danger. It stopped just outside the array, its golden beastly eyes full of vigilance, looking toward Zhouyang and the others hiding below in the desert sea.

Then the demon beast let out a warning-like roar at the Chen Family Ancestor from afar and unexpectedly turned around, transforming into a trail of golden light, and returned the way it came.

Seeing this scene, Zhouyang and the others were dumbfounded for a moment.

"Ancestor, now what do we do? The Gold-devouring Beast has detected the array’s power and won’t enter it; how can we kill it?"

In the desert sea, Zhouyang and the others came out from their hiding place and joined the Chen Family Ancestor, discussing countermeasures for the situation just occurred.

It’s not uncommon for a high-tier demon beast to perceive the power of an array and refuse to enter the array.

After all, even though demon beasts don’t understand arrays, their sensitivity to danger is far greater than that of cultivators. The "Five Elements Reversed Array," as a Tier Four Lower Grade array, already possesses the power to threaten Tier Four demon beasts. Once the Gold-devouring Beast sensed this threat, it naturally wasn’t foolish enough to rush inside. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Don’t worry, everyone. This old man is prepared. Since the beast is unwilling to enter the array easily, we’ll give it a reason it cannot refuse to enter!"

The Chen Family Ancestor’s gaze swept over Zhouyang and the others, finally landing on Zhou Minghan, saying:

"Minghan, you have the highest cultivation. I have here a piece of Taiyi Essence Gold that greatly aids the progression of the Gold-devouring Beast. I will now give it to you for safekeeping. Once I lure the Gold-devouring Beast again, sensing the item on you, it will inevitably be compelled to enter the array to devour it!"

After speaking, he didn’t ask whether Zhou Minghan agreed, but immediately flicked his wide sleeve, tossing a fist-sized platinum stone toward Zhou Minghan.

"Rest assured, Ancestor. I will certainly protect this item."

Zhou Minghan firmly grasped the "Taiyi Essence Gold" given by the Chen Family Ancestor, his voice solemnly accepting the task.

Upon seeing this, the Chen Family Ancestor’s gaze flickered slightly, but he said: "Though this item is valuable, it’s just a dead object. If the situation becomes dangerous, Minghan, it’s alright if you throw it to let the Gold-devouring Beast swallow it. As long as we can ultimately kill the beast, the item won’t be wasted in vain!"

"Yes, I understand."