Chapter 11 - Chapter 11: Lushan County

Yellow Sprout Grass can only be preserved for three days, so Zhang Mengquan and the others had to race against time to refine the pills. The clan has only one qualified alchemist; the other two pill-refining apprentices have low cultivation and no qualification to refine Golden Sprout Pills alone—unable to help much.With over a hundred Yellow Sprout Grass plants (each enough for one batch of pills), even if Zhang Mengquan were made of iron, he would struggle to keep up. Moreover, Zhang Mengquan is over sixty years old—his physical strength and energy are not what they used to be. After three consecutive days of non-stop pill-refining, Zhang Mengquan's vitality was somewhat depleted, but he finally completed the task, successfully refining over five hundred Golden Sprout Pills.A single Golden Sprout Pill usually costs more than three or four Low-Grade Spirit Stones. In the market shop, a bottle of Golden Sprout Pills is priced at thirty-six Low-Grade Spirit Stones—over five hundred Golden Sprout Pills are worth more than sixteen hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.According to the clan's benefits, mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators receive only one Golden Sprout Pill per year from the clan. If they advance to the late-stage Qi Refining, this amount triples immediately. This benefit does not depend on spiritual root quality—only on cultivation level. If a cultivator wants more Golden Sprout Pills, they must exchange them using clan merits.Zhang Zhixuan has been in the mid-stage Qi Refining for five years and has taken five Golden Sprout Pills. At the mid-stage Qi Refining level, each Golden Sprout Pill he takes provides the same amount of spiritual energy as a Three-Spiritual-Root cultivator meditating for two months.Refining spiritual energy through pills is so quick and convenient—far more efficient than meditating hard. This makes countless cultivators eager to collect spiritual objects to refine into various types of pills. Unfortunately, while pills are good, they contain pill toxicity. If a cultivator takes pills without restraint for a long time, the pill toxicity will accumulate in their body and hide—suddenly flaring up when the cultivator advances, often costing them their life.Based on the Zhang Clan's years of experience with Golden Sprout Pills, taking one Golden Sprout Pill every three months is most effective. Three months is just enough time to completely eliminate the pill toxicity from the body, leaving no hidden dangers.During Zhang Mengquan's recovery these past few days, the clan has sent cultivators from the mountain to escort Zhang Mengquan, Zhang Mengyuan, and the others back to the mountain. Even though Zhang Mengquan is a Ninth Layer Qi Refining cultivator, the clan does not trust him to carry hundreds of Golden Sprout Pills alone. For this reason, three late-stage Qi Refining cultivators—Manager Elder Zhang Mengling, Instruction Elder Zhang Menglong, and Law Enforcement Elder Zhang Mengchong—all went down the mountain together to meet Alchemist Zhang Mengquan, preventing attacks from hostile cultivators and avoiding accidents.Over several decades ago, many unfamiliar loose cultivators—including several Foundation Establishment loose cultivators—arrived in the three southeastern counties. These cultivators were penniless loose cultivators: no spiritual veins, no spiritual fields, and barely any Spirit Stones. To maintain their cultivation and continue advancing, they would do almost anything—often planning to rob and run. Thirty years ago, the Clan Leader was injured because he was besieged by these loose cultivators. The clan even had to use a Rank 4 spiritual talisman and lost their other Third-Rank Spiritual Vein at Jiuhua Mountain.Perhaps seeing that the Zhang Clan has a strong lineup—Zhang Mengyuan and Zhang Mengquan are both late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, and the arriving Zhang Mengling, Zhang Menglong, and Zhang Mengchong are even more formidable—this team of cultivators, if holding formation flags, can even fight an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Moreover, the Clan Leader is recovering in the mountain; if he risks leaving seclusion with the Rank 4 spiritual talisman, even a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator might die on the spot. Thus, the journey was smooth, and Zhang Mengquan and the others returned to the mountain safely.After Zhang Mengquan and the others left, only Zhang Zhixuan remained in the spiritual fields. Because he has just learned the Spiritual Convergence and Rain Spell, casting it consumes too much mana. Additionally, the spiritual energy in the spiritual fields is far less abundant than on the mountain—each time he casts the spell, it takes three or four days to replenish his mana. Given this level of consumption, he has almost no time for cultivation. Only when he becomes proficient in the spell and the mana consumption decreases will he have more free time.Faced with this situation, Zhang Zhixuan knows anxiety is useless. Every morning, he practices the Qi Nurturing Technique once, then studies the Spiritual Convergence and Rain Spell. The rest of his time is spent meditating to recover mana. If he has free time, he takes a trip to Lushan County.After hundreds of years of development, Lushan County now has a population of over forty thousand. Including the population of seventeen nearby villages, over one hundred thousand people are under the Zhang Clan's jurisdiction. Of these one hundred thousand people, the Zhang surname is the most numerous—over forty thousand. The rest are people of other surnames who have submitted to the Zhang Clan, relying on the protection of the Zhang Clan's cultivators to survive in this world.This world is far vaster than Earth, with a much sparser population. Mortals face even greater hardships to survive—not only natural disasters and man-made calamities but also attacks from demonic beasts and disturbances from ghosts. Even battles between immortal cultivators are catastrophic for mortals. Some demonic path cultivators even use mortal souls and flesh to refine evil artifacts. Without the protection of immortal cultivators, towns would have no peace for a moment. Thus, in this world, mortal towns are not far from immortal cultivators' spiritual veins—only under the protection and care of immortal cultivators can mortals continue to reproduce.The Zhang Clan is a vassal of the Qingxuan Sect, which is the protector of the three southeastern counties of the Yu Kingdom. The Qingxuan Sect's Golden Core ancestor has no descendants. The Wu Family—the Marquis of Southern Defense who has guarded the three southeastern counties for generations—is the descendant of a Purple Mansion cultivator from the Qingxuan Sect, with a heritage of over three hundred years.After the Zhang Clan's ancestor Zhang Tairen settled in Lushan, he took many wives and concubines to expand the clan. In just a hundred years, the number of mortal members of the Zhang Clan exceeded several thousand. These mortals built towns and opened farmland at the foot of Lushan, gradually establishing Lushan County—which has lasted to this day, over three hundred years later.This county is the Zhang Clan's foothold in the mortal world—everything in the county is controlled by the Zhang Clan's cultivators, and the Marquis of Southern Defense's mansion never interferes. From the County Magistrate to the County Captain, Chief Constable, and City Patrol, all officials are low-rank cultivators who have submitted to the Zhang Clan. In case of danger, these low-rank cultivators will send an alarm and wait for reinforcements from the mountain gate.To the east of Lushan is the Boundless Ocean—a spiritual energy-dead land with no sea demonic beasts. Years ago, the mountain was just a desolate range with insufficient spiritual energy, so few demonic beasts inhabit it. Moreover, the Southern Wilderness is guarded by the major sect Qingxuan Sect—few high-rank demonic beasts can break through the Qingxuan Sect's defense line. Only some naturally formed First-Rank demonic beasts often come down from the mountain—these weak First-Rank demonic beasts are the greatest threat to the mortals of Lushan County.First-Rank demonic beasts have instinctively awakened one spell and have tough physical bodies as a reliance; their fur is as hard as gold and iron. The Innate Realm cultivators in the county have low cultivation, have not refined spiritual energy, and know no spells—they can do nothing to these demonic beasts, often turning to the Qi Refining cultivators guarding the spiritual fields for help. Over time, the cultivators in the county gradually came under the command of the cultivator guarding the spiritual fields.