The Longevity Family: Starting From The Branches And Leaves

Chapter 102: Awakening the Spirit of the Fire Spirit Beast (Seeking Subscriptions)

"Based on my recent observations, there should be one or two second-stage demonic beasts in the mountain hollow," Meng Ping continued.

"But have you thoroughly explored the terrain of the mountain hollow and its surroundings?" Chen Ling asked Meng Ping, her gaze fixed on him.

Meng Ping immediately took out several jade slips and said in a deep voice, "Master, these are the maps I've drawn of the mountain hollow and the surrounding five-li area. They also show the general direction of the spiritual veins."

"But the miasma in the mountain hollow is relatively dense, and the map I drew is only a rough representation, so there may be some deviations."

On one hand, the miasma was too dense at times, and on the other hand, there might be second-stage demonic beasts in the mountain hollow, so he didn't dare to venture too deep.

Chen Ling nodded and took the jade slips.

Using his divine sense, he quickly learned the contents.

This mountain hollow was located to the south of the Heihe Hollow, about a dozen li away.

The entire mountain hollow was shaped like the character "人" (ren/person) due to the division of the two mountain ranges on both sides.

The area indicated in Meng Ping's jade slip was less than twenty percent of the entire mountain hollow.

The other areas were shrouded in a large amount of miasma.

And there might be second-stage demonic beasts among them.

The overall risk was not small.

"Husband, there's no need to worry too much."

"With Meng Ping's cultivation, he can explore this mountain hollow, which proves that even if there are second-stage demonic beasts, they are at most in the mid-stage of the second stage."

"If there were second-stage late-stage demonic beasts, Meng Ping would have been killed long ago and wouldn't have been able to enter their territory multiple times."

Seeing Chen Ling's slightly furrowed brow, Li Yourong, who had rich experience in the wilderness, smiled lightly and didn't worry too much about the risks of this mountain hollow.

With her early-stage Foundation Building cultivation and having already refined the Pure Yang Spirit Sword to forty percent, she was confident in her ability to fight as long as she didn't encounter a second-stage late-stage demonic beast.

As for second-stage late-stage demonic beasts, their combat power was already not lower than that of the peak Foundation Building stage, so it was unlikely to find them in this wilderness area that had already been incorporated into the Star Sword Sect's territory.

Otherwise, Meng Ping and the others wouldn't have been able to survive in the Heihe Hollow for so long without any trouble.

Chen Ling also thought about it and immediately handed the jade slips to Li Yourong and Shen Zhen.

In a deep voice, he said, "Friend Meng, today you will lead some of our clan members to set up a miasma formation at the entrance of the mountain hollow. Tomorrow, we will start clearing the wilderness."

Clearing the wilderness mainly involved removing the miasma and demonic beasts from the wilderness.

The best way to remove the miasma was to set up a miasma formation, covering a certain area, compressing the miasma, and then burning the miasma grass within the formation.

Only by advancing step by step could the miasma be completely eliminated.

Otherwise, as long as there was miasma, it could invade the bodies of cultivators at any time.

Chen Ling had experienced the pain of this miasma invasion!

Meng Ping clasped his fists in agreement, and then he and Qin Tong each led five Qi Refining mid-stage clan members and flew south.

Then, Shen Zhen arranged for the other clan members to start building temporary dwellings.

After more than three months of development, the Heihe Hollow now looked like a well-organized and well-arranged small village.

There was an abundance of stone and wood, and everything needed was available.

The clan members quickly built the dwellings.

...

Chen Ling, Li Yourong, and Qing Tang went directly to a spacious stone house.

A faint sandalwood fragrance permeated the room.

The wooden bed, desk, wooden chair, and other living supplies were neatly arranged in the room.

It was obvious that someone had deliberately tidied up.

Chen Ling was satisfied with the situation in the mining area.

Meng Ping not only had a talent for exploring mineral veins but also had good management skills, no less than Shen Zhen.

Among the members of the Meng family, he has a very high prestige and is quite bold in his actions.

Daring and adventurous.

Of course, he is not as cunning as Shen Zhen in dealing with people.

But in a short period of time, he is able to manage the mine site in an orderly manner.

Chen Ling honestly admits to himself that he cannot do this.

He can be said to be completely clueless about these trivial matters.

Of course, as the head of the family, what is more important is personal overall strength and the ability to use people wisely.

Rather than personally doing everything and exhausting himself, he is clear about this.

Furthermore, he is not someone who is obsessed with power and personal authority. He is quite generous towards the Qin family and the members of the Meng family, and is able to delegate power whenever possible.

Fortunately, the sense of belonging of the Meng family members to Meng Ping has already risen to 83%, which also relieves him of any worries.

Although Meng Ping has only been affiliated with the Chen family for less than half a year, during this time, the visible improvement in the strength of the Chen family is evident.

Qing Tang cleaned the room with a cleaning spell, and then prepared the bed for Chen Ling.

Li Yourong took out a jar of spirit wine and dried meat, poured a cup for Chen Ling, and then drank by himself.

Chen Ling took a few sips of the spirit wine, looked at the white clouds outside, and his mood was not as nervous as before.

Outside, Shen Zhen, led by Chu Xiong, inspected the veins in the mine.

At dusk, Meng Ping and the others finally returned to the mine site.

A total of four dispelling formations were set up, which can remove the evil energy within a radius of two miles in a day.

If everything goes smoothly, the evil energy in this mountain hollow can be completely eliminated in about ten days.

At night, Chen Ling gathered with Meng Ping, Shen Zhen, and others to discuss the next steps.

Shen Zhen believed that it would be best to extend the Black River Hollow to the Lingmai Mountain Hollow, extending dozens of miles to the southeast, directly eliminating the evil energy in this area.

In the future, the Chen family's territory will be completely connected to the territory already developed by the Star Sword Sect.

Meng Ping's idea is to concentrate on developing the Lingmai Mountain Hollow first, and then slowly expand into the surrounding areas.

Both ideas have their advantages. Shen Zhen is considering it from a business perspective, after all, the Chen family is still primarily focused on refining tools.

The inconvenient transportation around the family is also a trouble.

Meng Ping emphasizes a steady approach, first fully utilizing the advantages of the Lingmai, and then continuing to expand.

As for Chen Ling, for now, he can only watch and eat, and first occupy the Lingmai.

Returning to the stone house.

Li Yourong and Qing Tang have already fallen asleep.

Thinking that they will be pioneering tomorrow, Chen Ling doesn't dare to act recklessly.

He lies down on the bed and falls asleep quietly!

The next day!

The cloud boat landed on a vast and gentle slope, surrounded by a sea of ​​trees. This slope was cleared in advance by Meng Ping and the others.

And dozens of meters ahead of the slope is the Lingmai Mountain Hollow shrouded in a faint mist.

The sunlight shines on the mysterious mountain hollow, and the plants and rocks inside seem to be covered with a layer of gray, making people feel a little creepy.

Without removing the evil mist inside, this place is simply not suitable for cultivators to survive.

Chen Ling, relying on his powerful divine sense, can capture a trace of faint spiritual energy in the evil mist, perhaps emitted by the underground spiritual veins.

In this kind of evil mist, even though Chen Ling's divine sense is strong, he still feels exceptionally obscure and uncomfortable.

Originally, he could extend it for about three hundred zhang, but now it is less than two hundred zhang.

He found that within this distance, there are only a dozen first-stage demonic beasts, and there is no aura of second-stage demonic beasts.

He retracted his divine sense.

"Activate the dispelling formation!" Chen Ling ordered calmly.

Meng Ping and Qin Tong nodded simultaneously, each holding one of the four formation discs used to dispel evil spirits.

They both began to recite the activation spell.

Then...

A buzzing sound.

The entire mountain hollow trembled.

Outside the hollow, four beams of yellow light burst forth, instantly enveloping an area of several hundred zhang in diameter.

In the next second, the mist of evil spirits shrouded within the yellow formation was forcefully compressed by the yellow mist in a powerful manner, rapidly surging towards the center of the formation.

The yellow mist surged like turbulent waves, continuously pushing the mist of evil spirits towards the center of the formation.

As the mist of evil spirits gathered more and more, Meng Ping and Qin Tong pointed their fingers at the formation discs, infusing spiritual energy into them once again.

Then, a fierce flame erupted from each of the four formation eyes, incinerating the condensed black mist in the air.

At the same time, in the misty forest, more than ten demonic beasts seemed to sense the danger. Without hesitation, they rushed out of the forest, baring their fangs and claws as they pounced towards Chen Ling and the others.

Among them were giant pythons, blood apes, black wind tigers, and various other first-order demonic beasts of different shapes.

Seeing more than ten demonic beasts flying towards them, Chen Ling's gaze slightly condensed. He waved his hand towards the clan members who were already prepared behind him and shouted, "Fire!"

Suddenly, "pu" and "pu" sounds were heard as twenty or thirty fireball thunder beads exploded among the demonic beasts.

As they burst, the demonic beasts exploded one after another, scattering flesh and blood.

In the face of a large number of fireball thunder beads, these first-order demonic beasts had no ability to fight back.

After half an incense stick's worth of time, the yellow mist in the four formations gradually connected into one, and the dense black aura was completely compressed to the flames in the formation eyes.

After another half incense stick's worth of time, the black aura in the formations was completely cleared.

Then, Meng Ping and Qin Tong put away the formation discs and quickly advanced with ten clan members each, continuing to set up anti-evil formations ahead.

The other clan members activated low-level runes for construction, using earth-armored warriors.

More than twenty earth-armored warriors lined up in a row, like giant bulldozers, uprooting the trees in the mountain hollow. In less than a quarter of an hour, they had cleared a large area of flat land.

In just one day's work, the boundary line of the mountain hollow had advanced several li ahead.

It was much faster than Chen Ling had anticipated.

At night, the Chen clan members set up tents at the cleared mountain hollow and rested on the spot.

Two mid Qi Refining stage clan members took turns leading patrols in the surrounding area.

The remaining clan members built residences on a gentle slope next to the mountain and set up illusion formations, the Four Symbols Formation.

In the following days, everything proceeded in an orderly manner, and half of the mountain hollow was cleared.

They didn't encounter a single second-order demonic beast throughout the entire process.

Chen Ling and Li Yourong didn't need to take action at all.

Chen Ling was even a little surprised by how smoothly everything was going.

He directly ordered the clan members that if no late first-order demonic beasts appeared, they should use magic arrows instead of wasting fireball thunder beads.

"Husband, don't be careless. Based on my experience, there must be second-order demonic beasts in this mountain hollow. Otherwise, there wouldn't be such a large number of first-order demonic beasts, and they would also coexist peacefully," Li Yourong warned.

"It means that this demonic beast is either powerful or has already awakened its intelligence, able to subdue other demonic beasts!" she continued.

At night, Chen Ling first swept his spiritual sense over an area of several hundred zhang to confirm that there was no danger nearby before relaxing. He relaxedly discussed with Li Yourong that there were probably no second-order demonic beasts in this mountain hollow.

But Li Yourong still cautiously reminded him.

Chen Ling thought for a moment and realized that he couldn't be careless!

After all, Li Yourong's experience in surviving in the wilderness far surpassed his own.

These experiences were all learned through bloody lessons and were rarely wrong!

Suddenly, his spiritual sense moved and quickly swept towards the outside of the tent.

At the same time, he shouted loudly, "Everyone, watch the sky!"

The sound of vigilance rang outside the tent.

Although the land reclamation was progressing smoothly, both the Meng and Qin clan members had just experienced considerable hardships, so they didn't have the slightest bit of carelessness.

During the night patrol, from beginning to end, they maintained a high level of vigilance.

With Chen Ling's reminder, flames shot up into the night sky.

Chen Ling leaped out of the tent, followed closely by Li Yourong and Qingtang.

People from other tents also quickly jumped out.

Everyone looked up at the night sky.

In the pitch-black sky, two giant birds with massive bodies were diving down from high above.

Although it was dark, with Chen Ling's current spiritual awareness, he could naturally see everything clearly.

These two giant birds had bodies that reached about ten zhang in length, with black wings covered in sharp, icy thorns, sharp teeth filling their mouths, and a ferocious appearance.

Standing on the back of one of the giant birds was a firebird with feathers that were completely red.

The firebird appeared to be only about one and a half meters tall, but its body was shining with a dazzling flame, making it particularly eye-catching in the night.

With slightly narrowed eyes and a slightly open beak, occasional strands of hot, fiery red gas overflowed from its fiery red feathers.

And what happened next made Chen Ling and the others look shocked, as if they were witnessing something unbelievable.

"You humans dare to trespass into my Lingyang Valley. What crime should you be punished with?"

The two diving giant birds temporarily stopped their movements and hovered in the air.

The firebird opened its mouth, and an angry voice followed.

"It's actually a second-stage beast with awakened intelligence? It's probably a bloodline of the spirit demon level!"

Li Yourong said with some surprise as the Pure Yang Sword silently appeared in his hand.

"Spirit demon bloodline?"

Chen Ling's gaze slightly condensed.

Having traveled through many years, he also knew that the strength of the demon race in the cultivation world was not lower than that of the human race.

According to bloodline classification, there were ordinary demons, spirit demons, earth demons, heavenly demons, and so on.

It was likely that this firebird, which could awaken its intelligence at the second stage, had a bloodline that was not low.

Moreover, it could make the black thorn giant bird, which was also at the second stage, submit, indicating that it probably had bloodline suppression.

Three second-stage early-stage demons suddenly appeared, which was not easy to deal with.

And there was also a demon with awakened intelligence, which seemed to already know the power of the Flame Thunder Bead in the hands of the Chen family members and was not eager to attack.

In the air, the attacks launched by the Qi Refining cultivators from the ground were also limited in their threat!

"This is my Ling Valley? This will be the territory of my Chen family from now on. Since you have awakened your intelligence and cultivation is not easy, get lost quickly, and I'll spare your life!"

Li Yourong sneered.

Then he turned to Chen Ling and said, "Husband, leave this second-stage demon to me!"

Chen Ling nodded. The only ones who posed a threat to these three demons in the air were Li Yourong and Qingtang, who were at the Foundation Building stage.

"You little yellow-haired girl, you have quite the attitude! You have angered this king."

"But, as long as you give this king the Pure Yang Sword in your hand, I can spare your life!"

The firebird stood on the back of the giant bird, its gaze fixed on the Pure Yang Sword in Li Yourong's hand, its pupils flashing with greed, constantly swallowing its throat.

Then, it flapped its wings, and an unparalleled flame shot up into the sky.

In the dark night, it was like the scorching sun.

The pressure was astonishing!

Some of the Qi Refining cultivators behind Chen Ling, who were at the early and middle stages, couldn't help but tremble under this terrifying pressure.

"What a strong demonic aura!"

Li Yourong coldly snorted, "Blossoming Fire Lotus!"

Spiritual energy poured into the Pure Yang Sword, and then, a blazing flame bloomed from it.

In the rising flames, a fire lotus slowly condensed, and the three fiery red lotus leaves that bloomed emitted a sharp sword aura, exuding an astonishing sharpness.

(End of this chapter)