Rise of the Wang Clan: Starting with a Portable Farm

Chapter 161: Set a Fire

Wang Yanpo stood to one side. “Tenth Brother, Yanpeng was unlucky. A fragment of a shattered artifact struck his head…”

He stopped when he noticed Wang Hao glaring at him.

Only Wang Yanzhi’s artifact had shattered in the blast. They did not need to guess where the fragment came from.

“It was my fault! All my fault!” Wang Yanzhi beat his chest.

Realizing what he had said, Wang Yanpo lowered his head and withdrew.

Wang Hao sighed.

“Tenth Uncle, if you put it that way, I proposed this operation. Does that make me responsible for their deaths?”

Wang Yanzhi paused. “You acted for the family. How could I blame you?”

“Then how can anyone blame you? You raised your shield and blocked most of the blast. You did all you could.”

Wang Hao sighed. “Cultivation defies the heavens, and none of us can avoid the risk of death. These clansmen died for our family. We should honor them by building and protecting it, so it endures and future generations remember what they did.”

Wang Yanzhi closed his eyes in pain and said nothing.

He understood, but those who had died were his relatives. Unlike Wang Hao, who had spent his childhood away from the family, Wang Yanzhi had been much closer to them.

Wang Hao was relieved to see that, despite his grief, his uncle remained composed. He went to discuss Clear Dew Peak with the others.

Seeing his mood, Li Derong said, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. Resources are limited. Cultivators fight over them, and anyone seeking gains must accept the risks.”

The Li family had lost two clansmen. Another had lost both hands and might never recover without a medicine capable of regrowing limbs.

Wang Longyou added, “You haven’t seen much of this kind of fighting yet. A struggle between powers can be cruel. The loser may lose the entire family.”

“Fellow Daoist Wang is right,” Li Yaozu said. “The Leizhou Peninsula has enjoyed peace for two hundred years, but ancestral records say fighting used to be fierce. Families were sometimes wiped out overnight, and even several Golden Core sects were destroyed. We can survive only by growing stronger, not by becoming easy prey.”

He laughed. “Thanks to Young Friend Wang, my family has received several Foundation Establishment Pills. If our two families work together and develop in peace for some years, we might even become a Golden Core power.”

He glanced at Li Derong. “Young Friend Wang, you don’t seem to have a Dao companion yet. Derong is about your age. Perhaps…”

“Senior Li, this is hardly the time,” Wang Hao interrupted.

It was not that he disliked Li Derong. She was beautiful, had dual spiritual roots, and was an excellent cultivator. He might want more than one Dao companion someday, but only after reaching Nascent Soul. For now he could not afford to get distracted, and he already had Ji Xiaotang.

“Fourth Uncle, I am devoted to cultivation and haven’t considered such matters,” Li Derong said, embarrassed and annoyed. “Please don’t decide for me.”

“Ahem. We can talk about it another time,” Li Yaozu said awkwardly. “For now, Clear Dew Peak. We’re some distance away, but the fighting was loud. The Gu family there may have heard it, which means we may have to attack by force. With their Foundation Establishment cultivators gone, however, they can’t have many Qi Refining clansmen left. Derong, Fellow Daoist Wang, and I can handle it. Young Friend Wang and Fellow Daoist Yanzhi should stay and look after the wounded.”

Wang Hao nodded. He could not fight in his current condition anyway.

“I agree,” Wang Longyou said. “Clear Dew Peak and Black Wind Mountain are three hours apart. We can take both. How should we divide what we find—one peak for each family, or an equal share of everything?”

He wanted to be clear that the Lis would not gain a larger share simply because they had sent two cultivators to attack the mountain.

Li Yaozu had no such intention. Wang Hao had shielded his family’s Qi Refining cultivators; Li Yaozu might have done worse if he had been in Wang Hao’s place. “An equal share, of course. If any of my people hides anything, I’ll deal with them myself.”

Satisfied, Wang Longyou discussed the details with him.

Soon they took ten lightly injured clansmen to Clear Dew Peak.

Wang Hao was not especially worried. A formation needed the right cultivators to operate it. Without a Foundation Establishment cultivator, even an upper-tier second-grade formation would struggle against three of them.

Wang Longyou and the others arrived full of confidence. As expected, Clear Dew Peak’s formation was active.

Wang Longyou took out his artifact. “Attack with all your strength!”

Spiritual light struck the barrier. Unlike the Gu family’s earlier battle formation, this array drew power from formation anchors, artifacts, and a spiritual vein. Without capable cultivators controlling it, however, it could not bring that power to bear.

The Gu family had recalled its clansmen at the middle Qi Refining stage and above for the planned attack on Green Bull Market, leaving the old, weak, and sick to defend the peak.

After less than half an hour of attacks by three Foundation Establishment cultivators, the formation broke. The Gu clansmen cried out.

Li Yaozu and the others began killing those in their way. With so few people, they did not hunt down every Gu clansman; they looked for valuable targets.

Li Yaozu’s eyes lit up at a grove of upper-tier second-grade Iron Paulownia Wood. The hard timber was used to make artifacts. He struck a tree with his artifact, but left only a small mark.

Felling it would take time they did not have. Another family might come to the Gu family’s aid.

“Fellow Daoist Li, leave it,” Wang Longyou said. “We can cut the younger Iron Paulownia and look for other valuables.”

“Should we set it on fire?” Li Yaozu asked sharply.

Wang Longyou shook his head. “That would hurt others without helping us. If the Gu family survives, they’ll hate us for it. Even if it doesn’t, whoever takes over this mountain will hold it against us.”

Li Yaozu agreed. Seizing resources was one thing, but destroying them outright would make enemies of everyone concerned.

They cut down Iron Paulownia below the middle second grade and transplanted several first-grade trees. They gathered everything they could carry from the Gu family’s storehouses, spirit fields, and medicinal gardens.

After clearing out Clear Dew Peak, they flew toward Black Wind Mountain.

They repeated the process there and came away with a great haul.

They had taken fifty thousand Spirit Stones and other resources worth more than a hundred thousand. The gains lifted their spirits somewhat despite the loss of their clansmen.

“Wenhao, has Lei Liheng sent word?” Wang Longyou asked when he landed.

Wang Hao nodded. “They took Red Maple Lake yesterday without much trouble. It was easier for them than for us. Gu Lizhan, the Gu family head, is at the Ye family’s Double Dragon Mountain, so only one Gu family Foundation Establishment cultivator was at Red Maple Lake.”