Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 65: Breeding Spirit Beasts

After handling the matters of Zhou Bao’s family, Zhouyang returned to Haoyang Cave and immediately used the Flying Sword Communication method to notify the old Clan Leader, Zhou Minghan.

Flying Sword Communication is a more advanced method of communication than the Sound Transmission Talisman. The Communication Flying Sword not only flies fast but also covers long distances, with a much lower chance of being intercepted compared to using a Sound Transmission Talisman.

However, to use Flying Sword Communication, Foundation Establishment Cultivation is the minimum requirement. Not only must the user have Foundation Establishment Cultivation, but the recipient must also have Foundation Establishment Cultivation.

Moreover, each use of the Communication Flying Sword causes wear on the sword’s body, requiring an Artifact Refiner skilled in the maintenance and repair of Communication Flying Swords to regularly upkeep it.

The Communication Flying Sword used by Zhouyang was of Tier Three Lower Grade, with an effective communication range of up to two thousand miles. Less than an hour after he sent the sword from Haoyang Cave, he received a returning Flying Sword Communication from the old Clan Leader, Zhou Minghan.

Zhou Minghan’s response was straightforward, directly granting Zhou Bao’s family permission to move back to live in Jade Spring Peak immediately, and stating that Zhou Bao would not need to perform any family tasks in the future.

"Once this news spreads, those in the family who have married or taken concubines would probably become even more fervent about having children!"

Zhouyang could almost imagine the expressions on the elders and clan brothers’ faces upon hearing the news.

If even Zhou Bao, a non-entity in the family, can have excellent offspring, how could those family cultivators who consider themselves superior concede?

They might not surpass Zhouyang, the family’s acknowledged genius, in cultivation, but how could they accept being outdone by Zhou Bao, considered a failure in cultivation, in terms of procreation?

Impossible!

If they are outshone in cultivation, they can console themselves with the idea that their Spirit Root Talent is inferior, but in terms of having children, who isn’t a man?

Zhouyang absolutely didn’t anticipate that due to the stimulation of Zhou Bao giving birth to twins, the married and concubinized cultivators of the Zhou Family would wildly expand their number of concubines, resulting in the number of newborns over the next ten years exceeding the total of the previous hundred years!

Of course, this is for later.

Attending to the matter of Zhou Bao’s family moving back to the Yuquan Lake Oasis didn’t require Zhouyang’s worry, as Zhou Minghan had arranged for someone to handle it. After returning to Haoyang Cave, he continued organizing the Medicinal Garden with his Twelfth Uncle, Zhou Xuanchen.

After about half a year of effort, a Spirit Medicine Garden built deep underground was finally completed.

This Spirit Medicine Garden was divided into eight sections, with a total area of about thirty acres, planting thirty-seven kinds of Spirit Elixirs suitable for growing on the Spirit Vein of Haoyang Cave. Once matured, each Spirit Elixir would reach Tier Three and above.

To ensure sufficient light points for these Spirit Medicine Gardens, Zhouyang specifically refined several sets of glass lenses for refracting and diffusing sunlight, using Flying Swords to dig out the stone and sand above the gardens and fixing them in place, using natural light instead of the cultivators’ commonly used illumination items, "Sunlight Stones".

Once the Medicinal Garden was developed, Zhouyang entrusted his Eleventh Brother, Zhou Chang, with the task of managing it.

Since the family had successively lost Tier Two Spirit Plant Cultivator Elder Zhou Yun and Tier One Spirit Plant Cultivator Zhou Yuanxia, the family’s dedicated Spirit Plant Cultivator was left with only the Twelfth Uncle Zhou Xuanchen. In view of this, Zhouyang decided that his Eleventh Brother, Zhou Chang, would henceforth specialize in the cultivation technique of the Spirit Plant Cultivator.

The Spirit Plant Cultivator technique can be learned by any cultivator, but cultivators who practice Earth and Wood attribute techniques find it easier to make achievements in this trade. Every renowned High-tier Spirit Plant Cultivator basically has a Spirit Root Attribute and cultivation technique that are Water and Wood attributes.

Although Zhou Chang practices the Earth Element Technique "Thick Earth Technique", his Spirit Root Attribute actually contains Earth, Wood, and Metal attributes. It’s just that he has a higher affinity for Earth Spiritual Power, so he chose to focus on Earth Element Technique.

To be frank, Zhouyang would very much like every Zhou Family cultivator to master a cultivation technique. A skilled cultivator, even at the lowest Tier One, can still be quite useful.

Unfortunately, currently, his idea is completely unattainable.

Each of the hundred skills of cultivation requires certain talent aspects from a cultivator, and entering any skill requires the consumption of resources to accumulate experience.

Even the seemingly simplest Spirit Plant Cultivator skill is hard to truly master without transplanting and unintentionally killing dozens of Tier One Spirit Grass and Spirit Wood.

Therefore, even for a large and prosperous Purple Mansion Clan like the Chen Family, it is unrealistic to expect every family cultivator to master a cultivation technique.

After completing the development of the Medicinal Garden, Zhouyang became busy pushing forward the matter of Spirit Beast rearing; the Spirit Beast Chamber within Haoyang Cave had long been prepared, only lacking the introduction of Spirit Beasts for domestication.

Fortunately, the Zhou Family has been long-term raising a Tier One Middle Grade Demon Beast, the "Phoenix Crowned Fire Chicken", a type of Fire Element Demonic Beast with already mature breeding technology.

He immediately used sword control to fly back to the family, captured a dozen chicks and a pair of adult chickens from the Spirit Beast Garden, and placed them in a Spirit Beast Chamber for trial breeding, planning to observe them for a year or so before deciding whether to fully introduce them.

Beast breeding is a simple yet difficult task. Simple, in that beasts are easy to keep alive; just feeding them regularly is sufficient, and they’re almost impossible to fall ill.

Difficult, in that they tend to be naturally aggressive, which can lead to injuries and even human harm if not careful, and their food consumption is vast. Moreover, most are carnivorous and have long growth periods, resulting in high breeding costs.

Now, Haoyang Cave has nearly twenty thousand mortals, with all food sourced by caravans and Zhou Family cultivators transported from Yuquan Lake Oasis using storage bags. Zhouyang’s idea for large-scale beast domestication isn’t very realistic at present.

Were it not for the "Phoenix Crowned Fire Chicken" being a small-sized Demon Beast and an omnivore, he wouldn’t even consider domestication now.

With all the busyness of the Medicinal Garden and beast domestication, plus frequent requests to use his Flying Sword for mining tunnel excavation at the Red Flame Iron Ore Vein, Zhouyang’s daily cultivation had virtually come to a halt, let alone diverting himself to delve into Artifact Refining Skills.

However, having chosen to take on the role of Clan Leader, he had nothing to complain about, only doing his utmost to bear the responsibilities of leadership and contribute his share of effort to the grand plans for the family’s development.

It wasn’t until the Red Flame Iron Ore Vein’s five tunnels gradually started producing mines that he had the leisure to sit down and consider his own cultivation matters.

Ordinarily, a Middle-grade Spiritual Root Cultivator, after Foundation Establishment, would take about fifteen to twenty years to elevate one level of cultivation without aid from elixirs, with the time extending the further one goes.

Like the Zhou family’s old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, whose cultivation has been stuck at the Seventh-Layer Foundation Establishment for over twenty years, showing no signs of a breakthrough.

However, comparing it to his own cultivation speed during the Qi Cultivation Stage, along with practicing the "Qianyang Immortal Scripture", the most suitable for his physique, Zhouyang estimated that even without the aid of elixirs, he should have no issue advancing to the Second-Layer Foundation Establishment within ten years.

Advancing one level in ten years, although not as fast as Upper-grade Spiritual Root Cultivators who can advance one level in seven or eight years, is already a rarity among Middle-grade Spiritual Root Cultivators, and Zhouyang harbors no dissatisfaction with this.

He is still young, and time is on his side. As long as he follows a structured cultivation path, achieving the Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment is just a matter of time.