Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 776 - 759: Flying Sword Completed, Decision Made

After killing the [Gold-eating Beast], Zhouyang did not rush back to Fire Birch Mountain Cave Mansion, but instead detoured to the location of the giant Spirit Stone Ore.

At this time, the giant Spirit Stone Ore, after continuous mining by the Zhou Family and Guo Family, had nearly half of its Spirit Stones extracted, and the number of top-grade Spirit Stones obtained had reached seven pieces, all of which ended up in Zhouyang's hands.

Now, the number of top-grade Spirit Stones in Zhouyang's possession had reached ten pieces, making him extraordinarily wealthy.

As for the [Spirit Marrow Stones], which could quickly restore a cultivator's magical power, there were even more, totaling about seven hundred pieces.

This time, Zhouyang came to the mine, not to collect newly mined stones, but to visit the spirit pet Golden-winged Thunder Eagle that had been left to guard the mine.

After several hundred years, this spirit pet, which had absorbed the essence blood of the [Silver-winged Thunder Roc] and evolved, had advanced to Tier Five Top Grade.

Reaching this cultivation level, further advancement for the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle was very difficult.

However, nothing is absolute. The advancement of demon beasts is both difficult and not difficult.

As long as a high-tier demon beast's demon pill with similar bloodline can be obtained for devouring, or a large amount of true spirit essence blood that matches its bloodline is devoured, there's a great chance to help the demon beast break through its bloodline shackles and advance successfully.

Zhouyang actually already had a plan for the opportunity of the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle to advance to Tier Six, but this plan needed to wait for the right timing to be implemented.

"Master, Jinpeng doesn't want to guard the mine here anymore. Can the master find someone else to replace Jinpeng?"

Taking the opportunity of Zhouyang's visit, Jinpeng, this spirit pet which had followed him for nearly a thousand years, finally mustered up the courage to express its thoughts and wishes.

With an inherently proud nature longing for freedom, the task of guarding the mine restrained its activities to this small area, which was the case for hundreds of years.

This was undoubtedly very uncomfortable for Jinpeng.

Taking this rare opportunity to see Zhouyang in person, it felt that if it didn't seize the opportunity to bring this up, it might have to wait several hundred years to have another chance.

Upon hearing its request, Zhouyang remained silent.

"Wait a bit longer. I know you don't like being confined here, but only with you here watching do I feel at ease."

After rejecting Jinpeng's request in a low tone, he seemed to realize that this was somewhat harsh, and he immediately said, "Bear with it for some decades or even a hundred years more, and when the time comes, not only will you not be confined here, but there will be a significant opportunity presented to you."

Wait decades or even a hundred more years?

Upon hearing Zhouyang's words, a look of grievance immediately appeared in Jinpeng's big eyes, filled with displeasure.

Although it had high intelligence and lived for a thousand years, its mentality hadn't progressed much, still like a lively and youthful lad with thoughts written all over its face.

"One must endure solitude to retain prosperity. Think about it; if you can become a Tier Six Demon King in the future, reigning over a Spirit Mountain, dominating the mountains, and commanding other demons, how glorious and enjoyable would that be? The years of hardship and patience would then have meaning, wouldn't they?"

"As the saying goes, 'Silent for a time, but thunderous when the time comes.' Don't you, Jinpeng, aspire to be that thunderous roc?"

Zhouyang gently patted the pet's head, persuasively speaking.

After being told this, the grievance in Jinpeng's eyes indeed dissipated significantly, and a subtle gleam appeared in its eyes, seemingly imagining the glory of becoming a Tier Six Demon King.

Once someone has an expectation, their tolerance can increase significantly, and demon beasts are no exception.

Jinpeng's desire to leave the mine was due to its inherent love of freedom and dislike of confinement, but more so because it had gained little, feeling that the efforts and returns were disproportionate.

The beautiful future that Zhouyang described painted a picture of the rewards for its perseverance, letting it understand the significance of persistence, naturally reducing its resistance.

It turned its head to Zhouyang, its eyes blinking, and it said softly, "Alright, Jinpeng will heed you, Master, and persist for another few decades or a hundred years. You must not forget what you said today!"

"Don't worry, I definitely won't forget."

Zhouyang smiled, comforted the spirit pet a bit more, and then took it to freely fly and indulge in the Wilderness Jungle for a few days before returning to the Fire Birch Mountain Cave Mansion.

Back at the cave mansion, Zhouyang casually mentioned his experience to his Dao companion Xiao Ying and then plunged into the Artifact Refining Chamber to begin closed cultivation.

He prepared to further hone his artifact refining skills before starting to craft the set of Tier Six flying swords he desired.

After being in closed cultivation for three years, and succeeding twice while failing seven times, Zhouyang felt it was about time.

He had no choice but to proceed because the various Tier Six materials he had accumulated were almost exhausted, except for some precious materials reserved for refining Tier Six High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts.

Now, the materials he could use for artifact refining were only those specifically set aside for refining flying swords.

Zhouyang had already planned on the flying swords he wanted to refine.

Though he had not often used the "Great Derivation Sword Technique," a sword skill divine technique to fight since forming his Nascent Soul due to the lack of suitable flying swords, he had never ignored its existence.

As long as suitable flying swords could be arranged into a sword array, the power this sword skill divine technique could display would be no less than any divine technique.

This time, Zhouyang planned to refine thirty-six flying swords at once for lasting usage.

For this sword refining, he and Lan Daoist spent nearly a year studying and discussing, with Lan Daoist taking the complete "Great Derivation Sword Technique" to research during his closed cultivation for three years.

All preparations were solely for the ultimate success.

On the surface, refining thirty-six tier-six flying swords was undoubtedly difficult since that would mean thirty-six tier-six spiritual artifacts!

Given Zhouyang's current artifact refining success rate, no one knew how many failures it would take to succeed in refining thirty-six tier-six spiritual artifacts.

But the actual situation was not so.

A very simple truth can be summarized in one sentence.

Success can be replicated.

An artifact refiner's success rate is not high due to reasons including talent and skills because the artifacts they usually refine are often very different.

The more advanced the refiner, the more this is the case.

Each Tier Six artifact's refining materials are rare and hard to find, and it's very difficult for ordinary people to gather even one complete set, let alone more.

During artifact crafting, refiners usually design the artifact and crafting plan based on the materials customers can provide.

However, the thirty-six flying swords Zhouyang aimed to craft could all use the same materials and the same refining technique.

Meaning that as long as he successfully refined one flying sword, the process for the next thirty-five flying swords could be repeated based on the first one's process.

Though this repeated artifact refining cannot guarantee a hundred percent error-free process, given Zhouyang's current level of artifact refining, the chance of error can be controlled within ten percent.

It is precisely because of this that Zhouyang embarked on such a seemingly crazy expansive artifact refining plan.

Rumble!

As the door of the Artifact Refining Chamber fell with a rumble, Zhouyang's sword refining plan officially began.

In the following time, unless there was a monumental issue needing his attention, no one was allowed to disturb his artifact refining.

[Celestial Meteorite Gold], [Blood Patterned Refined Gold], [Geng Metal]...

Pieces of rare Spiritual Golds, which would make ordinary Nascent Soul Stage cultivators envious and fight over, were casually taken out by Zhouyang and placed beside him. Then, using [Qianyang True Flame], he melted and refined them into uniform dozens of portions stored in special containers.

Just refining these materials consumed nearly six months of his efforts.

After all the materials were refined, he took a brief rest for a few days and then started refining the first batch of sword refining materials.

As expected, the first sword refining soon ended in failure.

Faced with the failed flying sword, Zhouyang merely raised an eyebrow and casually tossed it aside.

These failed flying swords, due to the fusion of various rare Spiritual Golds, had mixed spiritual power, thus making them unusable for further artifact refining.

In the past, his most common way to handle these failed artifacts was to accumulate a certain amount and then melt them into a metal wall to test the power of newly refined artifacts.

Because the materials were themselves high-level, such test targets were quite durable.

If this round of sword refining didn't go smoothly, it seemed he would have another top-grade test target!

Once failed!

Twice failed!

Thrice failed!

After failing five successive times, the sixth sword refining finally succeeded.

This newly refined flying sword was not taken out by Zhouyang but was sealed in a corner of the artifact furnace to prevent its sharpness from affecting subsequent Pregnancy Artifacts.

With successful experience, things went much better afterward.

He refined thirty-five flying swords continuously with only four failures.

The thirty-six newly refined flying swords piled up in one artifact furnace, their sharp Sword Qi, even through the furnace wall, made Zhouyang's hair stand on end.

Fortunately, the artifact refining furnace he used was of high tier, brought from [Kunxu Realm], a Tier Six Artifact Furnace, otherwise, it might have long been overwhelmed and shattered by the sharp Sword Qi.

"No need to rush, it's not yet time for you to emerge. When truly needed on the battlefield, Zhou will naturally let you drink the enemy's blood!"

Looking at the trembling artifact furnace under the impact of Sword Qi, Zhouyang whispered, as if he was really communicating with the flying swords inside the furnace.

Then he formed a spell with both hands, invoking the Array Power within the Artifact Refining Chamber to suppress the artifact furnace, and moved the furnace to the Earth Fire Opening, summoning the "Earth Core Purple Flame" to warm the furnace and meanwhile suppress the Sword Qi inside.

After doing all of this, he finally exited the chamber to rest.

By now, it had been twelve years since Zhouyang secluded himself for sword refining. Once well-rested and out of seclusion, he received several pieces of what he considered important news.

One was that [Master Yujing] from the Yuqing Daoist Sect failed to break through the Tribulation Crossing Stage and passed away due to old age.

Then, the First Supreme Elder of the [Liuyun Commerce Alliance] who once owed Zhouyang a favor also announced he would enter deathly seclusion to break through the Tribulation Crossing Stage, having already delegated his powers to Xu Tianlin.

Meanwhile, the Grand Elder of Nine Yang Sect successfully experienced a breakthrough and became a new Ninth-Layer Nascent Soul "Half-Step True Immortal" stage cultivator.

And from the western part of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, Kunwu Sword Sect silently brought forth a Ninth-Layer Nascent Soul "Half-Step True Immortal" stage cultivator, reportedly returning after breaking through in another cultivation realm.

These pieces of news weren't good news to Zhouyang, arguably bad news.

So much so, that after seeing these news, he remained silent for a considerable time with a grim face before looking at the remaining news that could be considered good news.

For instance, the Zhou family added a new Golden Core Stage female cultivator named Zhou Liangjie and a genius clansman with a top-grade Wind Spirit Root.

For instance, his son Zhou Guangcheng already broke through to the Eighth-Layer Golden Core cultivation, while his Dao Companion Xiao Ying's cultivation has advanced to the Second-Layer Nascent Soul.

For instance, the Zhou family's Immortal City "Primordial Yang Immortal City" has been completely built, and now the entire Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm's Zhou family headquarters has moved to this new Immortal City.

Moreover, the Yuqing Daoist Sect gained a new Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, and the Profound Sun Immortal Sect had three Ninth-Layer Golden Core stage cultivators who officially started seclusion to attempt advancing to Nascent Soul.

These good news made Zhouyang's countenance somewhat brighter.

At least, when others are progressing, those cultivators who are related to him or within his faction are not left behind doing nothing.

"So many years have passed, yet Elder Qingyang hasn't found other two attribute substitute Spiritual Objects. It seems it's challenging to find these two attribute substitute Spiritual Objects in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, so I must look for them in other cultivation realms myself!"

Thinking of the two substitute Spiritual Objects still lacking for his late-stage Nascent Soul breakthrough, Zhouyang's recently alleviated expression darkened again.

Despite often saying he wasn't in a rush, he indeed wanted to break through to the late-stage Nascent Soul as soon as possible.

If he could advance to the Nascent Soul late stage, he could truly step into the top echelon of the "Spirit Realm."

At that time, any endeavors he had hesitated to pursue due to certain concerns could be undertaken without any scruples.

"Among the major cultivation realms in this boundary, only the Celestial South Continent Cultivation Realm is a place I haven't been to. Its climate is hot, with towering mountains and primitive forests all over. If any place likely has the remaining Fire Wood attributes substitute Spiritual Objects, it would be there."

"Hmm, that settles it. After informing those friends who should be aware of my departure, I will head to the Celestial South Continent Cultivation Realm."

Once resolved, Zhouyang soon devised a plan.

However, when he informed Master Cyan Yang of his intention to leave the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm for a while, a problem arose.

"Let the junior challenge the Grand Elder of the Nine Yang Sect? Elder Qingyang, you must be joking!"

In the Fire Birch Mountain Cave Mansion, Zhouyang gazed at Master Cyan Yang who had come to visit him in person, and was amusedly angered by what he said.

If it weren't Master Cyan Yang, someone he highly respected, he might have directly scolded him on the spot.

What cheer would drive a Sixth-Layer Nascent Soul cultivator like him to challenge a Ninth-Layer Nascent Soul "Half-Step True Immortal" stage cultivator?