Cultivation Begins From The Desert

Chapter 632 - 617: Family Reunion, Heading Overseas

The [True Dragon Essence Blood] was filled with spiritual energy and attempted to escape after leaving Dragon Taming Golden Radiance’s body, unwilling to be captured by Zhouyang.

However, it was merely a mass of essence blood, not a true dragon, so it couldn’t evade Zhouyang’s grasp. He quickly seized it and sealed it inside a jade bottle.

Then he glanced at the shriveled corpse of Dragon Taming Golden Radiance on the ground due to the loss of [True Dragon Essence Blood], and with a flick of his hand, he sent forth a True Flame, turning it to ashes.

After completing all this, Zhouyang gathered all his belongings and left the area with his daughter, Jiang Yufeng.

Days later, within a secret base near the East Sea of the Donghua Immortal Palace, Zhouyang and Jiang Yufeng finally reunited with Jiang Fengxian.

Their swift gathering was, of course, thanks to the transmission formation of the Donghua Immortal Palace.

As the premier sect of the Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm, Donghua Immortal Palace has established a highly efficient and powerful transmission formation system, with secret formations spread across half of the realm.

Ling Chao, as the Young Palace Master of Donghua Immortal Palace, arranged for Zhouyang and his companions to use the transmission formation, which wasn’t difficult at all.

"Fengxian!"

"Zhou Lang!"

In the quiet room, Zhouyang and Jiang Fengxian, who hadn’t seen each other for over two hundred years, were both very emotional, calling out to each other affectionately.

Then the two of them each took a few steps forward, seemingly wanting to embrace each other.

However, after just these two steps, Jiang Fengxian suddenly halted and raised her hand to stop Zhouyang from approaching for an embrace.

"I’m sorry, I’m late. If I had come searching for you a hundred years earlier, you and Feng’Er wouldn’t have suffered so much!"

Zhouyang looked at Jiang Fengxian, whose expression suddenly calmed, and apologetically whispered.

"No, I’m just glad you came to rescue us, showing that I still have a place in your heart, that you haven’t really forgotten me!"

Jiang Fengxian shook her head slightly, indicating she wasn’t blaming him.

Hearing this, Zhouyang couldn’t help but exclaim, "How could I forget you? Even if I forgot everything else, I would never forget you, nor the wonderful times we had in Kunxu Realm!"

Jiang Fengxian’s face immediately flushed, clearly remembering certain things.

But she quickly suppressed these bodily reactions with her magical power, shaking her head and saying, "Let’s not talk about those things. You and I are impossible. Let’s let the past pass; we can’t continue making mistakes!"

Zhouyang hurriedly said, "How can this be a mistake? I’ve already told Ying’Er about you, and she even said I could bring you back to live with us. Since she doesn’t mind, why do you still care?"

Jiang Fengxian, however, insisted, shaking her head repeatedly, "There’s really no need. I’m used to being alone; even Feng’Er sometimes finds me boring. If I were to live with you, I couldn’t adapt!"

Habits can be changed.

Zhouyang looked at Jiang Fengxian, but ultimately didn’t say this sentence.

He realized that Jiang Fengxian still had unresolved issues and couldn’t get past them, so talking to her at this time would be pointless.

He nodded helplessly and said, "Alright, let’s talk about it later. For now, we need to prepare to escape. The Dragon Taming Family and Divine Lady Palace won’t take this lying down!"

Hearing this, Jiang Fengxian’s expression turned serious too, responding solemnly, "We must treat this matter prudently."

Zhouyang had already prepared an escape plan, and now they just needed to follow it.

Before he arrived here with his daughter, Jiang Yufeng, the seal on Jiang Fengxian had already been lifted by experts from Donghua Immortal Palace, and during the time he was catching up with Jiang Fengxian, the expert was helping Jiang Yufeng break the seal.

Due to having her cultivation interrupted for nearly a hundred years, Jiang Fengxian’s current cultivation was still at the Seventh-Layer Golden Core, same as Zhouyang.

When the two of them stepped out from the quiet room, they saw Jiang Yufeng, whose cultivation had been restored, conversing with Ling Chao and a stern-looking middle-aged man in a purple robe.

The purple-robed middle-aged man’s identity was extraordinary; he was a clone of the current Palace Master of Donghua Immortal Palace, possessing Nascent Soul-stage cultivation!

Zhouyang approached the purple-robed middle-aged man, bowed respectfully, and said, "Greetings, Elder Ling. I’m deeply grateful for your assistance, and this great favor will never be forgotten by my family!"

"No need for such politeness; this is just a clone accompanying you. You can thank the true one later when you meet him,"

The purple-robed middle-aged man spoke softly, flicking his sleeve to help Zhouyang rise.

"Yes, I’ll remember your words, elder."

Zhouyang responded respectfully without daring to have any contempt due to the man’s words.

Although a clone might not match the true one’s capabilities, there isn’t any difference in status.

Even the Nascent Soul stage cultivators from Donghua Immortal Palace have to treat this purple-robed man with respect, without any rudeness.

This was evident from how Ling Chao, the Young Palace Master, showed the clone much respect.

The purple-robed man seemed genuinely indifferent to these, waving his hand, "Now that I’ve lifted the seals on the two Fellow Daoists Jiang, you can leave Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm without worry. I won’t hold you back any longer; let’s part here."

"Understood. We will send you off, elder."

Zhouyang paused slightly but quickly agreed.

Then he cupped his hands to Ling Chao and said, "Thank you again, Young Palace Master Ling, for your help. I surely will repay this favor!"

"Take care on your journey, Fellow Daoist Zhou."

Ling Chao nodded slightly and then glanced at Jiang Yufeng beside him, wanting to say more but ultimately just sighing gently, "Take care."

Zhouyang saw this scene, his eyes flashing, but didn’t speak.

After the purple-robed man left with Ling Chao, he turned to Jiang Yufeng and asked, "So, Feng’Er, you’re still unsatisfied with Young Palace Master Ling?"

"It’s not dissatisfaction, but given our family’s current situation, romantic matters aren’t priority now."

Jiang Yufeng shook her head, her expression complicated, quietly expressing her thoughts.

Zhouyang found himself speechless.

Jiang Fengxian agreed, nodding, "Feng’Er is right; now’s not the time for romance. The Dragon Taming Family has suffered a massive loss this time, not only losing face but also a direct family member. They certainly won’t rest until they search all of Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm. It’s best we leave here quickly."

"Alright, let’s leave here first, then."

After saying this, Zhouyang took the mother and daughter from this secret base.

In fact, Jiang Fengxian understated the situation.

The moment Dragon Taming Golden Radiance fell, the whole Dragon Taming Family was in an uproar.

It’s been uncertain how many years since a direct line member of Dragon Taming Family was killed externally!

Indeed, Dragon Taming Family is usually quite low-key, with direct members seldom appearing publicly, but this doesn’t mean they’re easily bullied.

Contrarily, it’s always been Dragon Taming Family bullying others, with few daring to bully them.

Even Donghua Immortal Palace, the supposed largest force in Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm, is highly wary of them, having instructed disciples not to engage in conflict with Dragon Taming Family.

Now, their direct family member, the clan leader’s second son, was intercepted and killed on a significant day like his wedding; this news incited immense fury among Dragon Taming Family’s direct members.

Though they’re allegedly the largest cultivation family in Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm or possibly the entire "Spirit Realm," the direct members of Dragon Taming Family are relatively few, making them exceptionally united and harmonious.

They even have a family tradition where, whenever a new direct member is born, all other direct members immediately gather wherever they might be to offer blessings.

Every direct member of Dragon Taming Family knows each other’s names and shares close blood ties.

Thus, Dragon Taming Golden Radiance’s death signifies not only a severe challenge to the family’s dignity but also real pain from losing a loved one for many family members.

Therefore, before Dragon Star River could return and explain the situation, several Nascent Soul stage cultivators from Dragon Taming Family, who had been preparing a banquet on "Five Dragon Island," directly headed to the place where Dragon Taming Golden Radiance fell.

Then in the middle of their journey, they encountered the approaching Dragon Star River.

It turned out that not long after Zhouyang took Jiang Yufeng through the teleportation, Zhu Zizhen also released Dragon Star River and left alone.

She had agreed with Zhouyang that after saving the people, she would directly return to the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, leaving no chance for the Dragon Taming Family to retaliate.

As for the other "Master Cangming," he had long abandoned the entanglement with Divine Lady Palace’s Palace Master Lou Feifeng the moment Zhouyang teleported away and fled the battlefield ahead.

Lou Feifeng, worried about the situation of the Divine Lady Palace, did not pursue, as there was no certainty in capturing "Master Cangming," opting instead to help Dragon Star River deal with Zhu Zizhen.

After Zhu Zizhen withdrew, she explained the situation to Dragon Star River and hurriedly returned to the Divine Lady Palace.

Afterwards, Dragon Star River started searching everywhere for the Dragon Taming Golden Radiance who had been suppressed and taken away by Zhouyang.

Only after half a day passed did he find some residual traces at the place where Dragon Taming Golden Radiance died.

By using the Divine Technique "Circular Light Retrospect" to review the scene, he clearly saw Zhouyang extracting True Dragon Essence Blood and killing Dragon Taming Golden Radiance, which infuriated Dragon Star River to the extreme.

If there’s anything that angers the direct lineage members of the Dragon Taming Family more than killing one of them, it’s the theft of their True Dragon Bloodline.

This is not only a desecration of their dignity but also a significant loss to their family.

Many powerful cultivators in the Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm have heard the legend of the Dragon Taming Family’s Dragon Transformation Pool. It’s said that a demon snake can bathe in the pool and immediately transform into a flooding dragon, shedding its snake form.

If a flood dragon frequently bathes in the pool, its bloodline can sublimate, condensing True Dragon Essence Blood, with the potential future evolution into a True Dragon.

Only people of the Dragon Taming Family know that this is not a legend but a fact.

The Dragon Transformation Pool has magical effects on all creatures with True Dragon Bloodline or Jiao Dragon Bloodline.

Members of the Dragon Taming Family’s direct lineage can only enter the pool for cultivation if they achieve great merit for the family.

Like Dragon Taming Golden Radiance, who already possessed Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivation; if he could cultivate in the pool, with its assistance and the auxiliary Nascent Soul Spiritual Object he prepared, he had at least a seventy to eighty percent chance of successful Nascent Soul Formation!

But the power of the Dragon Transformation Pool doesn’t come out of nowhere. It requires continuous inputs of spiritual objects from the Dragon Taming Family, with the best being the corpses of their direct lineage members and Tier Six Flood Dragons.

The Dragon Taming Family has a rule that every direct lineage member, whether dying naturally or perishing outside, must have their corpses brought back and placed in the pool.

It’s relying on this incredibly mystical Dragon Transformation Pool that the Dragon Taming Family continually produces Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, using the opportunity of bloodline sublimation to exchange with the East Sea Flood Dragon Race for Flood Dragon Eggs for their direct lineage members to hatch and use.

Otherwise, given the power of the East Sea Flood Dragon Race, even with True Dragon Bloodline, it would be impossible for them to allow the proud Dragon Race to serve as their subordinates.

Now, not only is Dragon Taming Golden Radiance dead, but his True Dragon Essence Blood was extracted and taken, and his corpse was burned to ashes, resulting in a huge loss for the Dragon Taming Family.

Enraged, Dragon Star River immediately rushed to the family’s main base, Five Dragon Island, preparing to mobilize the entire family to find the enemy and retrieve the stolen True Dragon Essence Blood.

Thus, when he ran into the Family Cultivators mid-travel, and upon explaining the situation, these people were equally infuriated, quickly rallying the entire family’s power.

Don’t be fooled into thinking the small number of direct lineage members means they have little manpower to mobilize.

In fact, the manpower and resources the Dragon Taming Family can mobilize are far from weak compared to Donghua Immortal Palace.

They have spent massive resources training external cultivators as peripheral family members, along with numerous vassal clans and sects, and many sect clans wish to show them respect, assisting with what they can.

With the family’s order for pursuit issued, in less than a day, information about Zhouyang and Zhu Zizhen was dug out and delivered to the Dragon Taming Family.

Afterward, the family discovered the intelligence that Zhouyang had been closely associating with Donghua Immortal Palace’s Young Palace Master Ling Chao in recent years.

With this intelligence, they employed all means to search the cultivation realm for Zhouyang, Jiang Fengxian, and Jiang Yufeng, while also sending Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators to Donghua Immortal Palace to sternly demand they hand over the hidden murderers.

Donghua Immortal Palace naturally wouldn’t respond to such groundless accusations.

However, after returning to the Divine Lady Palace, Lou Feifeng learned the details from Shen Luoyan and informed the Dragon Taming Family of the suspected attack by Ling Chao on the Divine Lady Palace. Using this as leverage, the family grouped with another major force, Longevity Immortal Alliance, to pressure Donghua Immortal Palace to hand over Young Palace Master Ling Chao for confrontation.

Ling Chao naturally wouldn’t admit to attacking the Divine Lady Palace, and Donghua Immortal Palace wouldn’t actually hand him over.

To demonstrate "innocence," Donghua Immortal Palace could only order its disciples and vassal forces to refrain from hindering the pursuit by the Dragon Taming Family and the [Longevity Immortal Alliance] of Zhouyang’s family under the guise of assisting the investigation.

Furthermore, the Palace Master of Donghua Immortal Palace, Ling Zixu, personally assured the cultivators of the Dragon Taming Family that Donghua Immortal Palace and its affiliated forces absolutely did not harbor Zhouyang’s family, and if they were lying, they would self-impose punishment to apologize to the world.

With this assurance, the Dragon Taming Family temporarily let go of Ling Chao, the Young Palace Master of Donghua Immortal Palace, and mobilized forces from all directions to conduct a massive search across the Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm, announcing a sky-high bounty to hunt down Zhouyang’s family throughout the cultivation realm.

Along with that, even the [Green Robe Ancestor] of the "Ten Thousand Poison Sect," as well as Zhu Zizhen and [Master Cangming], who had aided Zhouyang, were added to the wanted list, labeled as accomplices to be captured together.

Zhu Zizhen and [Master Cangming] were not from the Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm. After leaving the battlefield, they directly returned to the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm and Beiting Continent Cultivation Realm, thus not fearing the Dragon Taming Family’s pursuit.

However, the [Green Robe Ancestor] suffered greatly, as the Divine Lady Palace was nearly exterminated by him, their sect of thousands of years ruined when he contaminated the spirit and earth veins with toxic water. Not to mention how many disciples died at his hands, and how many were violated and exploited by his disciples.

With such a deep-seated vendetta, the Divine Lady Palace would not let him off easily.

Upon seeing the devastation of her sect, the Palace Master of Divine Lady Palace, Lou Feifeng, immediately returned and killed her way to the "Ten Thousand Poison Sect’s" gates, capturing and refining the souls of all remaining disciples there, and directly destroying the sect.

Listing the [Green Robe Ancestor] as an accomplice to Zhouyang for capture was entirely instigated by Lou Feifeng.

Fortunately, the [Green Robe Ancestor] was a cunning figure with multiple hideouts. After realizing the trouble he had stirred, he abandoned all his disciples, fled overnight to the Celestial South Continent Cultivation Realm with the Ten Thousand Poison Sect’s resources, loot from the Divine Lady Palace’s gates, and hush money from Donghua Immortal Palace.

Not discussing how others fled for survival, Zhouyang took Jiang Fengxian and Jiang Yufeng and fled eastward into the sea after leaving the secret base of Donghua Immortal Palace.

He had long refined the [Fish Dragon Shuttle] magical artifact gifted by Ling Chao; once he entered the sea, he activated the artifact to dive underwater, traversing into the deep sea.

This [Fish Dragon Shuttle] artifact was a special aquatic artifact created by an overseas cultivation realm refining master, capable of traveling thousands of fathoms deep underwater, utilizing the dense water attribute spiritual qi in the sea to conceal its fluctuations and form, making it exceedingly difficult to detect.

If there was a downside, it was that its speed was far inferior to flying in the sky, merely equating to the normal flying speed of a Purple Mansion Stage Cultivator.

However, this wasn’t an issue, as speed isn’t the sole requirement for escape; concealing one’s tracks and evading detection is of utmost importance.

Zhouyang’s aerial speed could not surpass the Nascent Soul Stage cultivators of the Dragon Taming Family.

Once exposed, given the relationship between the Dragon Taming Family and the East Sea Flood Dragon Race, they might gain the flood dragons’ aid, mobilizing the sea’s demon race to locate him, putting him in grave danger.

As long as his whereabouts remain undiscovered, even if the Dragon Taming Family convinces the East Sea Flood Dragon Race to aid in their pursuit of Zhouyang’s family, without knowing their exact location or destination, even finding them in the vast sea would be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.

This proved true; after they set out to sea, traversing for two to three months, apart from some sea demon beasts discovering and attacking their tracks, forcing them to kill demons and silence them, they encountered no significant dangers worth mentioning.

In two to three months, they had traveled at least one million miles into the deep sea, completely exiting the Donghua Continent Cultivation Realm and entering the overseas cultivation realm.

Among the numerous cultivation realms in the "Spirit Realm," none possesses territory as vast as the overseas cultivation realm beyond the East Sea.

The overseas cultivation realm may not be the most prosperous, but the area it encompasses, including the sea, is as vast as several Liuyun Continent cultivation realms, perhaps even larger.

The sea boasts countless islands, most of which are uninhabited small barren islands. Only the rich and expansive islands show signs of cultivators and mortals residing.

This place is a haven for Loose Cultivators, many of whom occupy an island with a spirit vein, proclaiming themselves as its lord, living freely and joyously.

The entire overseas cultivation realm lacks colossal forces like Donghua Immortal Palace, Great Brightness Immortal Palace; its strongest force, [Nine Immortals Palace], only possesses five or six Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

The absence of such colossal forces prevents single dominance here, creating a highly relaxed and vibrant atmosphere in the cultivation realm.

Of course, this has both pros and cons. The obvious benefit is that cultivators here tend to have lower moral standards, making incidents of murder and treasure theft more common than in any other cultivation realm.

Here, an unwritten rule exists: once off the island, life and death are one’s responsibility.

Meaning in islands housing a cultivator marketplace or Immortal City, safety protection is offered to cultivators entering the market and city, but once outside the island, even being robbed or killed just offshore, no one intervenes.

Such happenings are scarce in other cultivation realms where safety is prioritized in business, fearing leaving a bad impression on patrons.

Moreover, in renowned righteous sects like the Profound Sun Immortal Sect’s territory, murder and treasure robbery are strictly prohibited, with offenders captured and handed over to the victim’s clan or sect for punishment.

Zhouyang possesses a detailed map of the overseas cultivation realm, guiding his choices in direction throughout the journey.

But with prevailing tensions, he dared not immediately show up at any marketplace or Immortal City in the overseas cultivation realm but planned to drift at sea for a year or two, find a suitable island to rest a while, and then consider exploring the overseas cultivation realm.