Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 1460 - 918: Old Friend Li Shangyuan (2)

"There have been numerous battles in the depths of the Wanhua Mountain Range, but the White Cloud Immortal City has always held the advantage, with not too much loss of strength."

Yang Zhenshan showed a look of realization and asked again, "Are there many members of the Demon Clan in the depths of the Wanhua Mountain Range?"

"Quite a few. It’s said that there are thirty-six Demon Kings within the Wanhua Mountain Range, but only four in the northern mountains, with the Earth-shaking Tiger clan having one of them!" Kou Ta replied.

Yang Zhenshan was secretly astonished. Thirty-six Demon Kings, wouldn’t that be equivalent to thirty-six Golden Core Cultivators?

Fortunately, these members of the Demon Clan cannot unify; otherwise, there would be no living space for Human Race Cultivators in the Wanhua Mountain Range.

The three of them chatted as they traveled, and during these two days, Yang Zhenshan learned a lot about the Wanhua Mountain Range from the two of them. Two days later, they arrived at Yang Family Town.

Yang Zhenshan arranged for the two of them to stay at Yang Family Town, and then he brought Bai Xiaoyun over, letting her and Xuanzhen oversee Ancient County City together.

Of course, the Lu family spent two hundred thousand low-grade Spirit Stones for this, which is just the cost for one year.

Yet, even so, Lu Fusheng pulled Yang Zhenshan aside and expressed his gratitude for a long time.

...

Just as Yang Zhenshan was arranging for personnel to station, in an unknown valley south of Yang Family Town, a large group of Loose Cultivators was gathered.

Fang Shou, Li Shangyuan, and others were conspicuously among them, and there were also two Foundation Establishment Cultivators there.

Li Shangyuan stood in the crowd, looking at the two Foundation Establishment Cultivators surrounded like stars cupping the moon, a certain indescribable meaning flashing in his eyes.

The two Foundation Establishment Cultivators were Fang Ze and Zhang Baishan. Fang Ze was an elder of the Fang family from Cui Lake, and Zhang Baishan was an elder of the Zhang family from the Southern Wilderness.

It was only then that Li Shangyuan realized that their coming to plunder the Sea of Spirit was secretly orchestrated by the Fang family from Cui Lake and the Zhang family from the Southern Wilderness.

Li Shangyuan looked around; there were about thirty Late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, mostly led by core disciples of the two families, with the rest being Loose Cultivators from around the Southern Wilderness’s workshop surroundings.

They had all come to make a fortune following the disciples of the two families; from the looks of it, they seemed to have made quite a hefty windfall during this time.

"Haha, dear friends, gathering everyone here today is to take a big shot together. I wonder if you are interested?"

Fang Ze stroked his white whiskers and chuckled.

"Of course, we are interested!"

"It is our blessing that True Man is willing to take care of us!"

"Indeed, we are willing to follow the two True Men!"

The crowd eagerly agreed.

Clearly, by now, they had already become the pawns of the two families.

Fang Ze and Zhang Baishan exchanged a glance, their smiles growing even wider, "Since all of you are willing, let me talk about the next target!"

"The Lingxiu Yang family!"

"The Lingxiu Yang family is the only Immortal Cultivation Family in the Sea of Spirit, and it’s a very young one at that, having been established for merely forty years!"

"However, the Lingxiu Yang family has amassed countless wealth in the Sea of Spirit over the past forty years. Rumor has it that the Lingxiu Yang family has trade relations with the Illusion Moon Sect and the Lu family from Ancient County, with an annual income of hundreds of thousands of Spirit Stones!"

"Haha, the Lingxiu Yang family must have a lot of Spirit Stones waiting for us to take!"

Fang Ze chuckled, his eyes filled with greed.

The others around him were green-eyed with greed, each eager to fly to Yang Family Town and loot right now.

Zhang Baishan also spoke, "As for the strength of the Lingxiu Yang family, there’s no need for everyone to worry. As far as we know, the Lingxiu Yang family has only one Foundation Establishment Cultivator, which is the Yang family elder, Yang Zhenshan. We will take care of this person!"

"As for Qi Refinement Cultivators, haha, for an Immortal Cultivation Family that has been established for just forty years, there shouldn’t be many cultivators."

He spoke these words not without basis.

The exact strength of the Yang family in the Sea of Spirit is actually a mystery.

Even outsiders like them, as well as the Twelve Families of the Three Sects, do not have a clear concept.

Of all the factions in the Sea of Spirit, Yun Xiao is the most knowledgeable about the Yang family’s strength, having seen Xuanzhen, Bai Xiaoyun, and Yang Jizhen among others.

As for other factions, they mostly only know that Yang Zhenshan is a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, and the Yang family has several Golden Body Realm Martial Artists and Second-Order Mutant Beasts.

Moreover, their understanding of the Yang family’s strength was derived from when the Qingli Immortal City was established twenty years ago, when Yang Zhenshan initially wanted to showcase the Yang family’s strength, only for it to be overshadowed by the Nether Prison Sect and Cangyu Mountain.

The Zhang family and the Fang family had already investigated the Yang family’s situation in advance and obtained a lot of information that seemed both true and false.

In fact, among this seemingly ambiguous information, much of it is true.

For instance, some say the Yang family has at least three Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

But Zhang Baishan and Fang Ze could hardly believe such information. First of all, where did these three Foundation Establishment Cultivators come from, what are their names, where are they now, and what is their cultivation level, etc.?

There was not a single piece of accurate news; just saying the Yang family has at least three Foundation Establishment Cultivators seemed nonsense, didn’t it?

In fact, Zhang Baishan and Fang Ze made a common sense error; they considered matters of the Sea of Spirit with a mindset from the Southern Wilderness Immortal Cultivation World, yet they overlooked that the Sea of Spirit is a region dominated by Martial Artists, with much of the Immortal Cultivation information being hidden.

This also led to their erroneous judgment, thinking the Yang family was just an ordinary Immortal Cultivation Family.

As for the matter of Yang Zhenshan being a Guest Elder of the Ten Thousand Treasures Store, they were utterly unaware.

The distance from the Southern Wilderness to the Sea of Spirit is four to five thousand miles, and the distance to White Cloud Immortal City is even over ten thousand miles.

If not for some accurate information, they wouldn’t specifically investigate Yang Zhenshan’s connections in White Cloud Immortal City.

"Since everyone has no objections, let’s set off two days later for a night raid on Yang Family Town!"

Fang Ze said.

"Alright!"

"No problem!"

"Haha~"

The crowd rubbed their hands eagerly.

Li Shangyuan stood in the crowd, head bowed and eyes downcast, silent.

At this moment, his heart was full of conflict.

He was torn on whether to convey this info to the Yang family.

Because he had some ties with the Yang family, to be precise, with Yang Zhenshan.

Li Shangyuan, hailing from the Skywind Sea Domain west of the Stormy Sea Area, was the Island Master of Qinglan Island.

Indeed, he was the very Li Shangyuan who crossed the Stormy Sea Area with Yang Zhenshan back in the day.

After arriving at the Sea of Spirit, Xuanzhen and Li Shangyuan parted ways with Yang Zhenshan, Xuanzhen went to the Xuanqing Sect, and Li Shangyuan went to the Southern Wilderness.

The reason he crossed the Stormy Sea Area with Yang Zhenshan was due to a legend regarding the Immortal Clan on Qinglan Island, which said the Li family of Qinglan Island descended from the Immortal Clan Li family east of the Stormy Sea Area, and Qinglan Island also held an Immortal Dao legacy.

Back then, Li Shangyuan had already practiced an Immortal Dao Skill, but due to the extremely sparse Spiritual Energy west of the Stormy Sea Area, he had made no progress after decades; hence, he wished to cross the Stormy Sea Area to seek the legendary Immortal Clan Li family.

He followed Yang Zhenshan all the way to the Sea of Spirit, then followed his ancestral information to the Southern Wilderness.

In the Southern Wilderness, Immortal Cultivators were not easily found, and given the vast expanse, finding traces of Immortal Cultivation was challenging.

He spent over twenty years in the Southern Wilderness before finally entering the Immortal Cultivation circles, entering the workshops of the Southern Wilderness.

However, upon understanding the Southern Wilderness cultivation world, he discovered that the Immortal Clan he sought had perished long ago.

The supposed Immortal Clan Li family was just an Immortal Cultivation Family, the Li family of which was exterminated over three hundred years ago; there was no Li family among the Seven Families of the Southern Wilderness today.

Thus, Li Shangyuan’s hope of entering the Immortal Clan Li family was dashed, yet his pursuit of the Immortal Path remained.

He stayed in the Southern Wilderness workshops, becoming a bitter Loose Cultivator.

Initially, he was full of hope for his future path, but as time passed and hardships mounted, hope gave way to despair.

He realized that no matter how hard he tried, he could only remain at the lowest tier of Immortal Cultivation, unable to secure more training resources.

In truth, Li Shangyuan faced the problem every Loose Cultivator encounters—no matter how hard they strive, they can’t acquire enough resources for cultivation.