CHAPTER 277: CHAPTER 264: GENEROUS GIFT!

"Junior Dong Tianming, greets Elder Zhou."

Atop Red Tiger Mountain, Dong Tianming, the Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Yellow Sand Sect left to stay behind, hurried forward with a respectful demeanor to greet Elder Zhou upon seeing Zhouyang and his wife descend.

At this time, the news that Zhouyang, Chen Ping’an, and Nie Qiufeng had become Honored Guest Elders of the Yellow Sand Sect had already spread across most of the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm, thanks to Zhang Yunpeng’s deliberate promotion. As a cultivator of the Yellow Sand Sect, Dong Tianming was certainly aware of it.

"Fellow Daoist Dong, please dispense with the formalities, but I do trouble you to explain the situation here to Zhou." Zhouyang smiled, raising his hand, and an invisible force gently lifted Dong Tianming to his feet.

"I wouldn’t dare let the Elder say ’trouble’; I invite the Elder to first join the junior in the cave mansion to sit and listen to my gradual report on the situation of the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis."

Dong Tianming remained respectful and did not relax in the slightest despite Zhouyang’s approachable manner.

Not daring to be disrespectful!

The name carries weight; Zhouyang’s feat of slaying Luo Yunqing, who possessed the Seventh-Layer of Purple Mansion cultivation, had already circulated throughout the entire Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm.

Although Dong Tianming had once served under Luo Yunqing, he had not defected along with Luo Yunqing, yet he couldn’t help but feel anxious facing Zhouyang.

Uncertain whether Zhouyang knew of his past service under Luo Yunqing, Dong Tianming could only act with extreme caution to avoid giving Zhouyang any reason to find fault with him.

Zhouyang assumed Dong Tianming’s character was just like that, and upon hearing this, he did not insist further on formality; instead, he took the jade hand of his Dao companion Xiao Ying and followed Dong Tianming into a cave mansion on the mountain.

Given that many spiritual objects, including the Mountain Protection Array on Red Tiger Mountain, had been removed by the Yellow Sand Sect, Dong Tianming’s cave mansion was somewhat simple, but fortunately, none of the three here minded the matter.

"Elder, please take the seat of honor."

Inside the cave mansion, Dong Tianming gestured, inviting Zhouyang to sit at the foremost position, then stood upright and began to eloquently describe the situation of the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis.

"Elder, please discern clearly, the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis is three thousand six hundred plus miles long from east to west, and nine hundred eighty plus miles wide from north to south; within a five thousand mile radius, there are three medium and small-sized oases that it governs. In total, it boasts one Tier Four Top-Grade Spirit Mountain, one Tier Three Top-Grade Spirit Mountain, two Tier Three Middle-Grade Spirit Mountains, three Tier Three Lower-Grade Spirit Mountains, thirteen Tier Two Top-Grade Spirit Mountains, and seven Tier Two Middle-Grade Spirit Mountains."

"Since the sect occupied this Red Tiger Mountain Oasis, only the Spirit Veins above Tier Three have been slightly developed. Currently, over one thousand two hundred forty acres of spirit fields, more than three hundred fifty acres of medicinal gardens, and over five hundred eighty acres of spirit fruit gardens have been opened on various spirit mountains."

"These spirit medicine gardens and spirit fruit gardens, along with the spirit wood on various spirit mountains, account for two hundred thirteen types, including seven types of Tier Four Spirit Elixir seedlings, thirty-five types of Tier Three Spirit Elixir seedlings, seventy-seven types of Tier Two Spirit Elixirs, six types of Tier Three Spirit Wood, nine types of Tier Two Spirit Fruit, twenty-three types of Tier Two Spirit Wood, sixteen types of Tier One Spirit Fruit, and forty types of Tier One Spirit Wood."

"According to the sect leader’s instructions, in each garden, the sect only transplants and takes away some mature spirit elixirs and half-mature rare spirit elixirs, as well as a few rare types of spirit elixirs and spirit fruit trees; the rest of the spirit elixirs and spirit fruit trees are offered as gifts to the Zhou Family to congratulate the Elder on establishing a Purple Mansion."

"Additionally, there are three identified ore veins belonging to the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis: a medium-sized Wutie Ore, a small-sized Red Gold Ore, and a small-sized Yellow Rock Jade Ore, of which only the Red Gold Ore and Yellow Rock Jade Ore are currently being mined."

"Lastly, regarding the mortals, the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis originally had several hundred thousand mortals, but due to various reasons, there are now only seventy-eight thousand people, scattered throughout multiple places in the oasis."

"There’s another matter for the Elder to know: although the three small oases and the three Tier Three Spirit Mountains above them also belong to the sect, they have always been used to accommodate loose cultivators. Even though the sect now entrusts those three oases to the Elder and the Zhou Family for management, how to handle those loose cultivators is up to your discretion."

Dong Tianming recited these data fluently, then patted his storage bag, took out three jade scrolls, and handed them to Zhouyang, saying: "Detailed records of all identified spiritual objects and demon beasts on the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis, along with other information the junior has not explained comprehensively, are contained in these jade scrolls for the Elder to review thoroughly."

"However, pardon the junior’s straightforwardness, due to the sect’s relaxed management of the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis in recent years, the actual quantity and types of some spiritual objects might differ slightly from the data, so I request the Elder to examine carefully!"

When Cao Wenjin and Zhouyang conducted their transaction, they only handed over the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis to the Zhou Family, excluding the nearby several medium and small-sized oases.

But when Zhang Yunpeng took over as sect leader, he realized that given the Yellow Sand Sect’s current strength, after transferring the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis to the Zhou Family, maintaining control over those several medium and small-sized oases would only scatter their already limited cultivator forces with little benefit.

Simply put, without the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis as a transfer station, those small oases became somewhat redundant for the Yellow Sand Sect, something of no practical use yet hard to abandon.

Therefore, after much consideration, Zhang Yunpeng decided to make a favorable move, assigning them to Zhou Family management as well.

Anyhow, after eliminating various rebellious clans, the Yellow Sand Sect collected dozens of Tier Three Spirit Mountains and oases, and sacrificing these few oases and spirit mountains does not affect their foundation at all.

Therefore, after listening to Dong Tianming’s words, Zhouyang first nodded, then asked, "Fellow Daoist Dong, you are currently guarding Red Tiger Mountain, but what about the other Spirit Mountains? Is anyone guarding them?"

Upon hearing this, Dong Tianming quickly replied, "According to the Sect Leader’s instructions, before the Zhou Family cultivators come to take over, I’m guarding Red Tiger Mountain, and the other Spirit Mountains are guarded by a Qi Cultivation disciple since the arrays are still in place."

The Yellow Sand Sect does not lack Tier Three Array Masters, so the Tier Three Arrays in the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis were sold to the Zhou Family at a ten percent discount from market price after discussions between Zhouyang and Zhang Yunpeng, with the spirit stones paid from the Zhou Family’s public funds.

Now, hearing Dong Tianming say this, Zhouyang was pleased and nodded, saying, "Very well. Let those people continue guarding for a few more months, and once our Zhou Family’s cultivators have migrated, we will proceed with the handover."

After speaking, he paused and smiled slightly, saying, "Of course, please inform those people that as long as they diligently complete this task and properly guard the Spirit Mountains for our Zhou Family, our family will definitely not mistreat them afterwards."

"I will definitely convey the elder’s words as they are." Dong Tianming quickly responded.

Subsequently, Dong Tianming personally went to each Spirit Mountain to convey Zhouyang’s message, while Zhouyang redeployed the "Heaven Wind Cloud Thunder Array," a Tier Four Lower Grade Array taken from Red Fox Ridge, to Red Tiger Mountain.

Once this "Heaven Wind Cloud Thunder Array" was set up on a Tier Four Top-Grade Spirit Mountain like Red Tiger Mountain, with a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator or several Foundation Establishment cultivators stationed there, it could hold off even Purple Mansion Stage cultivators for a long time.

With the array set up, Zhouyang finally had the leisure to take a closer look at the entire Red Tiger Mountain.

Back then, he had spent some time here, but he was then an outsider conscripted, and many areas on the Spirit Mountain were off-limits, plus he wasn’t in the mood to consider these things at the time.

But now it’s different. Now Red Tiger Mountain belongs to him, belongs to the Zhou Family, and as the Clan Leader, it would be laughable if he didn’t understand the foundation of the family.

He saw that Red Tiger Mountain had a main peak over seven hundred fifty zhang high, and three auxiliary peaks ranging from five hundred to seven hundred zhang in height. The four peaks shared one spirit vein, with more than thirty cave mansions of varying sizes opened up, and numerous palace and pavilion structures built on the mountain’s surface.

Zhouyang took the jade scroll given by Dong Tianming and found that Red Tiger Mountain had thirty-two independent cave mansions, categorized into A, B, and C levels based on the concentration of spiritual qi.

Among them, there were only four A-level cave mansions, one on each of the main and auxiliary peaks, ten B-level cave mansions, with four on the main peak and two on each of the other three peaks, and eighteen C-level cave mansions.

Besides these cave mansions, Red Tiger Mountain also had an Earth Fire Hall, which contained over a dozen Earth Fire Chambers for alchemy and artifact refining, saving Zhouyang the effort of setting up his own Earth Fire Chamber.

Similarly, like Baisha River Oasis, it had a Communication Hall with a remote communication array that could directly communicate with the Yellow Sand Sect Mountain Gate.

If Zhouyang or the Zhou Family needed to contact Yellow Sand Sect to address issues, they could transmit messages through the communication array, and could even ask the people from Yellow Sand Sect to help relay messages to Zhou Family cultivators at Jade Spring Lake Oasis.

Of course, this required them first to find someone to repair the communication array on Jade Spring Peak, which had been destroyed.

Additionally, there was a "Seven-Star Spirit Measuring Array" previously used by Yellow Sand Sect to test the spiritual roots of mortal children in the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis.

Lastly, Red Tiger Mountain had three cultivation spiritual lands: "Pine Moon Pavilion," "Fire Spirit Cave," and "Yellow Stone Valley."

"Pine Moon Pavilion" was located within a pine forest on the mountainside of the main peak, where a spiritual acupoint exists that periodically emits pure earth vein spiritual qi every half month. Over time, the ancient pines surrounding the spiritual acupoint absorbed the spiritual qi and transformed into Tier Two Spirit Pine Wood.

Upon discovering this spiritual acupoint, the Yellow Sand Sect built a stone pavilion nearby and arranged an array to confine the emitted earth vein spiritual qi for cultivators to absorb and refine.

"Fire Spirit Cave" was located beside the Earth Fire Hall, in a cave where a fire vein was accidentally opened when Golden Core cultivator Jiang Ming harnessed earth fire after capturing Red Tiger Mountain. Although the Golden Core Stage cultivator eventually suppressed the underground fire vein by great magical power, it unexpectedly formed the "Fire Spirit Cave" as a spiritual land.

Cultivators practicing fire element techniques, if they can withstand the erosion of the earth fire evil qi in the "Fire Spirit Cave," can refine their magical power just as Zhouyang did in the past by using the earth fire evil qi, making their magical power more refined.

"Yellow Stone Valley" was located on an auxiliary peak’s small valley, where a peculiar yellow stone gathered earth spirit qi, making the valley’s earth spirit qi two to three times denser than the outside world, a treasure land for Earth Element Technique cultivators.

In the past, Zhouyang, while in the Qi Cultivation Stage, cultivated in the "Jade Sun Cave," a cultivation spiritual land atop Zhou Family’s Jade Spring Peak, saving several years of cultivation time, illustrating the importance of such cultivation spiritual lands to low-tier cultivators.

Discovering three different types of cultivation spiritual lands on Red Tiger Mountain was an unexpected delight for him.