Chapter Five Hundred and Thirty Seven: The Problem of Successors [two in one]
Overwhelmed by Zhou Yang's strong personal strength and prestige, the Zhou family development plan formulated by Zhou Guangxiang was successfully implemented.
In a short period of time, these plans may not have much effect, but as time goes on, Zhou Yang and Zhou Guangxiang both believe and affirm that the Zhou family will benefit greatly from this, and the strength and quality of the family monks will reach a new level.
.
What's more, beating a stick and giving a sweet date has always been Zhou Yang's usual method of running a family.
Here, he had just scolded and shocked all the tribesmen, and then he gave Zhou Guangxiang instructions to select those tribesmen who made rapid progress and focus on training them in future assessments.
For those family monks who have reached the middle stage of Qi training and can pass the assessment three times in a row within the prescribed assessment time, Foundation Building Pills can even be given in the form of loans.
In the past few years, when he was in seclusion, Xiao Ying was not idle at all.
The spiritual herbs and elixirs he brought from the Kunxu Realm, in addition to some particularly precious items, along with many fourth-level demon elixirs, were given to Taoist companion Xiao Ying for elixir refinement.
In just three years, Xiao Ying used the spiritual herbs and elixirs he gave her, plus the spiritual herbs and elixirs in the Zhou family's inventory, to refine five furnaces of foundation-building pills and several furnaces of fourth-level elixirs.
He holds a large number of foundation-building pills in his hands, and the Zhou family has now become the overlord of the boundless sea of sand cultivators, and they also need to maintain a certain number of foundation-building monks to support the situation. Zhou Yang will not be stingy with a few spiritual pills.
Zhou Yang was no longer responsible for specific affairs. After the family meeting, he returned to Lingxi Peak and went into seclusion with his Taoist companion Xiao Ying.
During this retreat, Zhou Yang wanted to use the power of "Qianyang Immortal Light" to help Taoist companion Xiao Ying advance to the ninth level of the Purple Mansion. At the same time, he also wanted to see if he could seize the time to make a breakthrough in cultivation.
While Zhou Yang was in seclusion, Zhou Guangxiang implemented the reform plan in a drastic manner.
The first is the production of clan uniforms. The Zhou family has domesticated "flame-eating spiders" for more than two hundred years, and has accumulated a large amount of finished spider silk in the family treasure house. After the family meeting, his Taoist companion Liu Xuanxuan personally led several members of the Zhou family
The first-level weapon refiner refined it into a robe.
Then there was the expansion of manpower for the newly merged Griffith Hall.
This Eagle and Lion Hall was formed by the merger of the Zhou family's original war hall and security hall. The total number of monks in the two halls is nearly two hundred, but this number is far from enough to achieve Zhou Guangxiang's plan.
So in the next few years, the Zhou family recruited nearly a hundred people to join them, either by recruiting guest ministers from outside, or by selecting monks from their own family and several vassal families.
The eldest son of Zhou Guangxiang, Zhou Tongxuan, serves as the head of the Eagle and Lion Hall of 300 people. The two deputy heads are also recruited by Wang Biao, a foundation-building casual cultivator, and Zhou Zerui, a foundation-building monk from the Zhou family.
However, these people are not the true strongest of the Eagle and Lion Hall. The real secret of the Eagle and Lion Hall is the fourth-level low-grade monster, the Gripen.
The griffon has been in the Zhou family for hundreds of years and has become accustomed to being worshiped by human monks. Now, even without Zhou Yang around, the beast trainers of the Zhou family can communicate with it and drive it to do things.
Zhou Yang put it in the Eagle and Lion Hall as the enshrined spirit animal in the Eagle and Lion Hall, just to give it a stage to perform and not to let it eat and drink in vain in the family.
You must know that supporting a fourth-level monster requires a lot of monster meat every year.
After being promoted to the fourth level monster, the potential of the griffin beast has been exhausted. Unlike Zhou Yang's golden-winged thunder eagle, there is still hope of being promoted to the fifth level.
Speaking of which, Zhou Yang had never treated these spiritual beasts badly at all.
If the gryphon had not followed him, there would be no hope of reaching level four.
The Golden-winged Thunder Eagle followed him, eating and drinking well. After returning to the family this time, Zhou Yang even fed it two fourth-order mid-grade demon pills in one go. It is now sleeping and refining in the spirit beast ring.
Demon Transformation Pill.
If nothing unexpected happens, when it wakes up again, it will be promoted to a fourth-level mid-level monster.
Under Zhou Guangxiang's arrangement, hundreds of monks from the Eagle and Lion Hall were divided into groups of twenty and divided into five groups to take turns patrolling the traffic roads between the Zhou family's oases, specifically to crack down on those sand pirates who robbed the roads, or
Help some vassal families to eliminate invading monsters.
After the five groups completed their inspection, another hundred people were replaced, and the three shifts continued.
On the other side, as the Zhou family officially became the overlord of the boundless sea of sand cultivating world, waves of cultivating families and casual cultivators came to join them one after another.
The Zhou family also accepted all the monks who came to seek refuge, and sent them all to the surrounding sand sea to find new oases, or to build medium-sized oases based on small oases.
Although the sand sea is barren, there are still many unowned oases in the vast sand sea waiting for people to discover and occupy them.
No one had discovered and occupied these oases before, because if they were far away from the base camp of the immortal cultivators, even if they occupied the oases, there would be no guarantee of safety, and it would be inconvenient to communicate with the outside world.
Now that the Zhou family provides safe shelter, and an oasis as large as Xijiaozhou provides them with a place for exchange and business, naturally there are many immortal cultivators who are willing to take risks in pioneering wasteland.
At the same time, Zhou Guangxiang also did a major thing, which was to officially excavate the spirit stone mine discovered by Lu Xuewei.
As soon as the news of this Lingshi Mine came out, as expected, it caused a sensation in the entire Boundless Sand Sea Cultivation World. I don't know how many Cultivation families secretly envied the Zhou family's good luck in being able to discover such a top-notch mineral vein as the Lingshi Mine.
After hearing the news, many casual cultivators even wanted to join the spirit stone mines and become miners.
In short, everything is developing for the better for the Zhou family.
…
The biggest reason why Zhou Tongxuan was able to take the position of the head of the Eagle and Lion Hall with his cultivation level of the third level of foundation building was naturally because his father was the head of the Zhou family.
Zhou Guangxiang and Liu Xuanxuan have a total of five sons and three daughters. Among them, only three sons and two daughters have spiritual roots and can practice. However, Zhou Tongxuan, the eldest son, has the most outstanding spiritual qualifications.
He has a middle-grade wind attribute spiritual root qualification. His father is the head of the Zhou family, and his mother is the second disciple of the family ancestor. In terms of background, Zhou Tongxuan can be said to be the top second generation immortal in the world of boundless sand sea.
As a second-generation top immortal, he has never worried about cultivation resources since he was a child. Therefore, even though he is not a monk with high-grade spiritual root qualifications, he still reached the ninth level of Qi training at the age of thirty-one, and he is very lucky.
Just take one foundation building pill and the foundation building will be successful.
Compared with him, although one of his brothers and a sister also accumulated a lot of resources and reached the ninth level of Qi training before the age of sixty, they were unable to successfully build the foundation because they only had low-grade spiritual root qualifications.
Although Zhou Guangxiang is the head of the Zhou family, a monk in the middle stage of the Zifu, and has many privileges in the family, it is impossible for him to use the entire family's resources to feed his children.
Being able to prepare a foundation-building pill for each of his daughters is the greatest care he can give to these children.
While other children seemed unlikely to succeed, Zhou Tongxuan, the eldest son, was able to successfully build a foundation in his thirties, so Zhou Guangxiang naturally valued him even more.
He hoped that his son Zhou Tongxuan could take over the position of head of the Zhou family from him.
If Zhou Yang had left any descendants, he would never have had this idea, but since Zhou Yang had left no descendants, as the current patriarch of the Zhou family, he certainly hoped that his son could retain this position as the main lineage.
So after the Zhou family implemented new reforms this time, he took the opportunity to let his son sit in the position of the leader of the Griffith Hall and take charge of the most elite armed force of the Zhou family, allowing him to take advantage of the opportunity of the Griffith Hall to inspect all parties.
Accumulate fame and make achievements to convince others.
Zhou Guangxiang naturally discussed these plans with his son Zhou Tongxuan, so after Zhou Tongxuan took office as the head of the Eagle and Lion Hall, he often personally participated in the inspection team and never missed any opportunity to enhance his reputation.
On this day, Zhou Tongxuan, who was returning to Lingxi Peak to rest after an inspection, suddenly received a task arranged by the clan leader, asking him to lead a team of people to an oasis where a vassal family was located, and help the vassal family deal with an attack on the oasis.
Third level monster.
The Zhou family has only occupied this area of the Xijiaozhou Immortal Realm for more than a hundred years. In addition to the monsters in Xijiaozhou and the surrounding area of 10,000 miles that have been cleaned up by the Zhou family monks, the number of monsters in the sand sea outside is greater than that of Bai Bai.
There are many oases in the Shahe Oasis that have been developed for thousands of years in the Immortal World.
This kind of monster attack on the oasis has happened frequently over the years. The foundation-building monks of the Zhou family have often received this kind of monster elimination task. Zhou Tongxuan has had this experience since his Qi training period.
So after he received the mission, he didn't think much about it and just regarded it as an ordinary mission arranged by his father Zhou Guangxiang to help him accumulate fame.
But when he led a team of twenty people to the small oasis where the vassal family was located, he found that things were not as simple as he thought.
According to the information he knew, the family name of the cultivator family that occupied this small oasis was Yuan. There was a ninth-level Qi-training monk, a seventh-level Qi-training monk, three middle-stage Qi-training monks and six early-stage Qi-training monks in the family.
Before he arrived, it was said that two of the Yuan family monks on this small oasis had been killed, and the rest were huddled in fear in the low-level third-level formation arranged by the Zhou family, waiting for the Zhou family's reinforcements to arrive.
But when he arrived here, he found that the formation had been broken long ago, and all the Yuan family monks inside had disappeared. However, some of the spiritual herbs and elixirs planted on Lingshan were not damaged at all.
The most suspicious thing is that thousands of ordinary people in the Yuan family on the oasis have also disappeared without a trace, but Zhou Tongxuan did not find even a trace of blood.
"Something's wrong. If a monster really attacks the oasis, even if everyone is eaten by it, it should leave some blood stains on the ground, right?"
"Furthermore, my father personally arranged the Yuan family's mountain-protecting formation. Even if the third-level monster in the news can break the formation, it will not leave any traces behind!"
Zhou Tongxuan was keenly aware that something was wrong, and he couldn't help but recall the news he had received.
If I remember correctly, the news said that a third-level wolf monster attacked the oasis because the monks of the Yuan family found wolf paw prints near the scene where the clan members disappeared.
"Have any of you found wolf paw prints?"
He glanced at the twenty monks of the Eagle and Lion Hall he had brought with him, and asked the question in his heart.
Everyone shook their heads.
This small oasis is not big. Twenty people working separately can easily search the entire oasis. If there are claw marks left by monsters, experienced monks like them cannot fail to detect them.
However, an old monk with an old face seemed to have remembered something, and suddenly said: "Hall Master, my subordinates did not find wolf paw prints, but found a large number of human footprints to the west of the oasis, and the footprints lead to the sand sea!"
"Really? Take me there and have a look."
Zhou Tongxuan's expression changed, and he immediately asked the old monk to lead the way.
Under the leadership of the old monk, the group quickly arrived at the west side of the oasis and saw the footprints of the people he mentioned.
I saw countless human footprints, large and small, on the soft sand to the west of the oasis leading into the sand sea. It seems that a large group of humans once entered the sand sea from here.
"Why did these people enter the sand sea? Could it be that the disappeared mortals of the Yuan family escaped from here into the sand sea to avoid being hunted by monsters and beasts?"
Zhou Tongxuan looked at the densely packed footprints on the ground, and this speculation flashed through his mind.
On the surface, this guess seems to be reliable. After all, it is normal for a group of mortals to abandon the dangerous oasis and flee into the sand sea in a panic when all the immortal cultivators who protect them are killed by the monsters.
wrong!
Since they were in a panic and had no choice but to flee for their lives, they should have gone their separate ways. How could they gather together and conduct a migratory escape?
Zhou Tongxuan frowned, feeling that things were definitely not as simple as his guess.
He pondered for a moment and then said to his subordinates: "Follow these footprints and search the sea of sand to see if you can find anything."
After finishing speaking, he paused again and added: "Be careful not to go too deep into the sand sea. The enemy's strength is unknown. Protect yourself first."
Then, with a flash of sword light under his feet, he flew towards the Yuan family's Lingshan Mountain, preparing to search there again to see if there was any missed discovery.
What Zhou Tongxuan didn't expect was that his perfectly normal decision would directly ruin the entire team!
When he searched the Yuan family's Lingshan Mountain and found nothing, he realized that none of his men who went to search for clues in the sea of sand came back.
What surprised and frightened him was that after he used his sword to fly and search in the direction in which his men left, he could not see even a trace of fighting skills, let alone the figures of those men.
It’s true that you can’t see a living person, and you can’t see a dead body!
"Danger! Extremely dangerous! You must inform your father and family of this news immediately!"
Zhou Tongxuan quickly flew towards the Yuan Family Ling Mountain on the oasis. He remembered that the communication circle there had not been destroyed. Through the communication circle, he could directly pass the news to the family and request the family to send higher-level monks to rescue him.
.
Long before Zhou Yang went to the Far West, the Zhou family had obtained the arrangement method of the communication circle from Huang Shamen, and built a communication circle in each vassal family at any cost to facilitate communication.
The Yuan family was able to report the news of the monster attack on the oasis to the Zhou family in time, thanks to the help of the communication circle.
Otherwise, they don’t know how long it will take for the Zhou family to find out that the Yuan family has been wiped out.
However, the enemy in the dark seemed to have discovered Zhou Tongxuan's plan and quickly launched an offensive against him.
At that moment, Zhou Tongxuan, who was flying in mid-air, suddenly heard a burst of wonderful fairy music in his mind, and then his flying speed with the sword slowed down involuntarily, and gradually even landed towards the ground.
But just when the enemy who was secretly attacking was about to kill him as soon as he landed, a piece of jade magic weapon he wore next to his body suddenly released a cold air and rushed directly to his forehead, helping him escape from that wonderful fairyland.
I woke up to the sound of music.
"No, it's the magic of phantom sound!"
When Zhou Tongxuan woke up, his expression changed drastically, and he immediately understood what the magical sound of the fairy music he just heard was.
He didn't even bother to look for the enemy. He quickly reached out and patted his storage bag, took out a third-level "Soul Calm" and stuck it on himself, and then he had time to look for the enemy.
Soon, he found the enemy who used the phantom sound enchantment technique to attack him.
In the sea of sand below, he saw a strange beast with a fox head and a wolf body that looked like a wolf and a fox. It was looking up at him with a surprised face. Its green eyes were full of human surprise.
"No, it's [Jade Faced Fox Wolf]!"
When Zhou Tongxuan's eyes met those green fox eyes, his whole body trembled, and he exclaimed with horror on his face.
[Jade-Faced Fox Wolf] is a very rare monster. Its rarity is not at all inferior to the [Three-Tailed Demon Fox] that Zhou Yang once killed.
This kind of monster is naturally proficient in the art of phantom sound enchantment. Through this phantom sound enchantment technique, it can control monsters of the same level or cultivators as slaves. Moreover, this kind of monster is also extremely intelligent and is not at all inferior to humans.
Down.
The [Jade Faced Fox Wolf] in front of Zhou Tongxuan is already a third-level high-grade monster. This is why he was so easily distracted by its phantom sound enchantment technique just now that he had no power to resist.
If it weren't for the jade pendant he wore close to his body, which was a heart-clearing magic weapon carefully refined by his mother Liu Xuanxuan specifically for this type of ecstasy spell, and helped him wake up from his ecstasy in time, he would be afraid at this moment.
It has fallen to the ground and become food in the mouth of this [Jade-Faced Fox Wolf], just like his disappeared men.
Thinking of those men, his expression changed, and he had already guessed where those people had gone.
Sure enough, within a moment, after the [Jade-Faced Fox Wolf] recovered from his surprise, he saw his missing men again.
I saw the [Jade Faced Fox Wolf] growl low, and the soft sand in front of him rose up, and an earth-yellow giant python with a length of more than ten feet emerged from it. His men, as well as those who should be members of the Yuan family,
Several stranger monks of the monk were hanging on the back of the giant python at the moment.
It's just that these people have been controlled by the phantom sound enchantment technique of [Jade-Faced Fox Wolf] and are no longer under his command. They even followed [Jade-Faced Fox Wolf]'s orders and attacked him as soon as they appeared.
The monks who can be selected into the Zhou Family's Eagle and Lion Hall are all ruthless characters among the Qi-training monks. Although those twenty people are only Qi-training monks, if they attack together, ordinary monks in the early stage of foundation building will be in a hurry when they encounter them.
, may not win.
If that's all, then it's fine. Although Zhou Tongxuan's cultivation is only at the third level of Foundation Establishment, he has so many treasures that even the late-stage Foundation Establishment monks may not be his match.
However, [Jade Faced Fox Wolf], a third-level high-grade monster, and the third-order high-grade monster python controlled by it, will not just be spectators.
Especially for the [Jade Faced Fox Wolf], although Zhou Tongxuan relied on the help of the heart-clearing magic weapon and the "soul-suppressing talisman" refined by his mother Liu Xuanxuan to avoid being controlled by its phantom sound enchantment technique, he would inevitably be affected by some
interference.
And in battle, a little distraction can be fatal.
This is an extremely hard battle.
Zhou Tongxuan was under great pressure during the battle.
For him, the enemy's strength was secondary. What was most unbearable for him was to kill his own men and fellow monks with his own hands.
He knew in his heart that although those people were controlled by the [Jade-Faced Fox Wolf], they were actually still alive.
As long as someone can kill the [Jade Faced Fox Wolf], these people can release the control and return to normal.
But the [Jade-Faced Fox Wolf] was so cunning that he never fought him head-on, always hiding behind the giant python and the many human monks to attack him.
And as the battle progressed, a third-level rat demon and a third-level demon wolf that were over ten feet long were summoned by the [Jade Faced Fox Wolf] to join the battle.
Although the two newly added monsters are only third-level low-grade monsters, Zhou Tongxuan can still defeat Zhou Tongxuan even though he has many magical talisman weapons given by his parents and the extremely precious third-order puppet beast.
Extremely difficult and tragic.
After the final battle lasted for more than half an hour, Zhou Tongxuan was forced to use the secret magic technique "Blood Boiling Technique" that Zhou Yang had used when he was facing a desperate situation. He used this secret technique to burn the blood essence in exchange for mana.
, activated two fourth-level attack talismans in succession, and with the power of the fourth-level talismans, he finally succeeded in killing the cunning [Jade-Faced Fox Wolf].
Although he killed the rebellious [Jade Faced Fox Wolf], Zhou Tongxuan was not happy at all.
Because before [Jade Faced Fox Wolf] died, all the human monks controlled by him had died at the hands of his kind.
Moreover, he himself was injured in the battle. After using the "blood boiling technique", his whole body was seriously injured and he lost the ability to move.
But he didn't dare to stay where he was to heal his wounds, because the strong smell of blood on the battlefield could easily attract other monsters, and in his current state, even a second-level high-grade monster could kill him.
So he could only forcefully release a second-level wolf-shaped puppet and carry him towards Yuanjialing Mountain on the small oasis.
By the time Zhou Yang, who was on Lingxi Peak, received the news and rushed to the small oasis of the Yuan family, Zhou Tongxuan had already passed out because of his serious injuries.
"Huh, it's a good thing that he just lost too much blood and essence and passed out. Otherwise, this kid really has some shortcomings. I'm afraid that kid Guangxiang will feel guilty for the rest of his life because of this!"
Zhou Yang checked the condition of the unconscious Zhou Tongxuan and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Then thinking of this junior's achievements this time, he couldn't help but smile again on his face.
Zhou Guangxiang wants to support his son to inherit the position of the head of the Zhou family. He has no objection, but the prerequisite is that Zhou Tongxuan must have real ability.
Now it seems that, let alone other abilities of this boy, at least his fighting skills are quite satisfactory to him.
He has personally used the secret magic technique of "Boiling Blood Technique", and has also written down his experience of using this secret technique in the back of the secret technique.
Zhou Tongxuan still dared to use this desperate secret technique to fight the enemy even though he knew the sequelae of "blood boiling technique". Let alone anything else, this ruthlessness alone has proved that he is not the kind of person who only relies on his father's guidance.