CHAPTER 378: CHAPTER 363: WELCOMING THE SUPREME ELDER BACK TO THE MOUNTAIN [PART 1]

"Phew, after seventeen years away from home, I’ve finally returned!"

Amidst the vast desert, Zhouyang stood on the flying ship, just outside the range of the snow-covered peaks of the Broken Cloud Mountain Range, looking ahead at the endless yellow sands, feeling an indescribable sense of familiarity.

As the saying goes, "A golden nest and a silver nest are no better than your own doghouse."

No matter how good the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm was, he was still an outsider there, always feeling restricted and unable to find satisfaction.

However, in this Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm, he stood at the very top of the pyramid, where his word was law.

"Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix," has always been Zhouyang’s belief.

In truth, this journey home was quite smooth, with the "Illusory Cloud Ship" paired with "Hidden Spirit Incense" navigating the misty regions of the Broken Cloud Mountain Range. Unless coincidentally passing by a Tier Four Demon Beast, there was generally no chance of being discovered.

Zhouyang did not hesitate to pay a hefty price to acquire this magical artifact, and it indeed turned out to be worth the exchange.

"Let’s go, we should first return to Red Tiger Mountain. After being away for over a decade, I wonder how the Zhou Family has developed under Guangxiang’s leadership."

Red Tiger Mountain was less than ten thousand miles in a straight line from the Broken Cloud Mountain Range. Although the location where Zhouyang and his group exited the mountain range was not exactly along this straight line, it wasn’t very far off. After just a few hours, the lush Red Tiger Mountain Oasis appeared in sight.

With an intention to test the vigilance of the clan cultivators, Zhouyang, upon seeing the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis, transformed the "Illusory Cloud Ship" into a white cloud hidden among the clouds above, and then released the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, directing it to release an aura of animosity as it flew toward the oasis.

This Golden-winged Thunder Eagle was hatched in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm. Even Zhou Guangxiang did not know about this pet, and with its Tier Three High-Grade Demon Beast cultivation, it wouldn’t lead Zhou Guangxiang to issue an alert to the Yellow Sand Sect, avoiding unnecessary confusion.

Since there were past instances of the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle attacking the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis, as soon as the eagle, exuding intense hostility, appeared above the oasis, it was first spotted by the stationed cultivators arranged by the Zhou Family on the borders of the oasis. These stationed cultivators promptly ignited special smoke signals to alert Red Tiger Mountain.

This special smoke emitted red, yellow, and green colors, indicating a Tier Three High-Grade Flying Demon Beast’s invasion of the oasis. Once this smoke rose, it was visible for several hundred miles. Upon discovering this, Zhou Family cultivators in the rear would naturally ignite smoke signals to further alert those even further back.

"Not bad, not bad. They’ve even established spirit mountain outposts on the edges of the oasis. It seems the family’s financial income over these years must be quite significant; otherwise, Guangxiang wouldn’t spend spirit stones on these aspects."

In the sky, Zhouyang watched the continuous beacon fires with a slight smile on his face, feeling quite satisfied.

This practice of establishing artificial spirit veins on the border of the oasis and stationing cultivators, was not an original innovation. Zhouyang, on his first trip to the Baisha River Oasis, had rested overnight on such a spirit mountain and was extorted for a sum of spirit stones by the Chen Family’s Chen Ping’an’s son, Chen Fangping.

After acquiring the large oasis of Red Tiger Mountain Oasis, the Zhou Family also formulated a development plan to establish border spirit mountain outposts for the clan’s long-term benefit.

However, after Zhouyang left with seventy to eighty percent of the family’s stored spirit stones, this plan should theoretically have been delayed for a long time. Unexpectedly, it had already been implemented, undeniably indicating that the family’s financial income had significantly increased over these years.

As the smoke spread throughout the oasis, the Zhou Family cultivators and mortals on the oasis immediately began acting according to two separate plans.

Upon seeing the smoke, those cultivators, except for the low-tier cultivators stationed in mortal towns who needed to instruct the mortals, all of the other Zhou Family cultivators and those affiliated with the family quickly converged on the nearest spirit mountain, prepared to rely on the mountain’s guardian array to repel the demon beast attack.

Meanwhile, the mortals in the towns rapidly evacuated to nearby underground safety caves under the organization of the City Lord’s Mansion’s official personnel.

Both of these distinct action plans were determined by Zhouyang during his time there.

Now, seeing everything proceed according to the plans he laid out, a sense of satisfaction welled up inside him.

"Not bad, not bad. It seems Guangxiang has put in some effort over these years. For the mortals to adapt so quickly to these plans, they must have conducted numerous demon beast attack drills usually."

Looking down at the actions of the Zhou Family cultivators and mortals below, he evaluated briefly and followed the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle deep into the oasis, spanning over a thousand miles.

At this point, the Foundation Establishment cultivators like Zhou Guangxiang from Red Tiger Mountain rode forth on the Eagle Lion Beast and Flying Divine Leopard, these two Tier Three Demon Beasts, intercepting mid-route.

When Zhouyang left, the Zhou Family only had three Foundation Establishment cultivators of their own: Zhou Xuanhao, Zhou Guangxiang, and Zhou Guangqing. Others like Huang Yi and Ma Shaoyang were merely affiliates.

But now, besides Zhou Guangxiang and his sister riding on the back of the Tier Three Demon Beasts, there was a new face, Zhou Guangtai.

And according to the plan Zhouyang designed back then, in case of a Tier Three High-Grade Demon Beast attack on the oasis, the Zhou Family had to keep a Foundation Establishment cultivator at Red Tiger Mountain to operate the array.

This meant that if Zhou Guangxiang hadn’t altered the response plan, during the seventeen years Zhouyang was away, the Zhou Family had produced another Foundation Establishment cultivator besides the newly-promoted Security Elder Zhou Guangtai.

Upon realizing this, while Zhouyang was happy, a trace of concern also appeared in his eyes.

"Before I left, I gave Guangxiang four Foundation Establishment Pills, and in just seventeen years, the Zhou Family has had two Foundation Establishment cultivators. Could it be that he changed the exchange standards?"

Exchanging twenty thousand clan contribution points for a Foundation Establishment Pill was a rule he set. If Zhou Guangxiang took advantage of his absence to change this clan rule, Zhouyang would indeed be disappointed in this successor.

It’s not that clan rules cannot be changed. After all, when he was the Clan Leader, he changed the clan rules more than once.

However, according to Zhouyang, the rule he set before returning has been relatively considerate of the clan’s cultivators.

Zhou Guangxiang cannot foresee everything and know that he would return with over a dozen Tier Four Demon Pills and a "Yuan Condensing Fruit" tree. If he were to modify this rule, it would be akin to playing with the clan’s legacy.

"Let’s see how they perform in battle!"

Suppressing a trace of displeasure in his heart, Zhouyang secretly commanded the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle to attack. The golden bird let out a sharp screech and launched a fierce assault.

The combat prowess of the Tier Three Top Grade Golden-winged Thunder Eagle is formidable enough to contend with an Early-Stage Purple Mansion Cultivator, not to mention that Zhouyang’s Golden-winged Thunder Eagle has also consumed a "Spirit Awakening Pill" and a Barbaric Beast Heart, awakening the Barbaric Bird Bloodline.

With a flap of its wings, bolts of pale golden lightning struck at the three people and two beasts opposite. The power of these pale golden lightning bolts was immense. The Flying Divine Leopard, which had just advanced to a Tier Three Demon Beast, let out a wail and plummeted to the ground, causing the heartbroken Zhou Guangxiang to nearly shed tears.

The Eagle Lion Beast, also a Tier Three High-Grade Demon Beast, fared much better, suffering only minor damage with some feathers burnt by the lightning.

"Vile creature, cease your arrogance!"

Zhou Guangxiang, who had been Clan Leader for over ten years, had begun to establish an air of authority. Standing on the back of the Eagle Lion Beast, he shouted mightily and pointed at the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, casting an earthy-yellow spiritual light upon it.

The Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, which originally moved as swiftly as lightning, had its speed reduced by two or three tenths under the pressure of the earthy-yellow spiritual light.

Seizing this opportunity, Zhou Guangxiang and his companions unleashed their magical artifacts, and the Eagle Lion Beast spewed wind and fire breath, inundating the sky around the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle.

Such a fierce attack would have severely injured, if not killed, a normal Tier Three Top Grade Golden-winged Thunder Eagle.

However, Zhouyang’s Golden-winged Thunder Eagle was different. Having devoured the Barbaric Beast Heart and awakened the Barbaric Bird Bloodline, its physical strength was slightly inferior to a barbaric bird of the same tier.

The attack from Zhou Guangxiang and others only caused a few feathers to fall off, not even considered a minor injury.

This, however, completely enraged the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle. Blood flashed in its dark golden eagle eyes as it was about to unleash the "Frenzy" talent it had gained upon awakening the Barbaric Bird Bloodline.

Observing from the sky, Zhouyang hurriedly revealed himself and shouted loudly, "Enough, stop everything!"

"Ninth Uncle!"

"Supreme Elder!"

The exclamations rang out as Zhou Guangxiang and others spotted the revealed Zhouyang.

They looked at the sky with both surprise and joy, seeing Zhouyang and his wife, and then at the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle, which withheld its hostility and halted its assault upon hearing Zhouyang’s command, they finally understood what had transpired.

"Alright, less idle talk, let’s send out word for our clan members to resume their normal lives, we’ll discuss everything back home!"

Zhouyang waved his hand to stop the younger clan members from offering their greetings.

Seeing this, Clan Leader Zhou Guangxiang immediately dispatched a Communication Flying Sword to the cultivators stationed on Red Tiger Mountain, explaining the situation and lifting the state of emergency.

Then, they boarded Zhouyang’s "Illusory Cloud Ship," and with Zhouyang’s guidance, returned together to Red Tiger Mountain.

When the "Illusory Cloud Ship" appeared outside Red Tiger Mountain, Foundation Establishment Cultivator Zhou Guangqing, who remained stationed at the clan’s mountain, had already opened the Mountain Protection Array, leading hundreds of Zhou Family members to wait respectfully outside the mountain.

"Zhou Clan Members, welcome the Supreme Elder back to the mountain!"

"Zhou Clan Members, welcome the Supreme Elder back to the mountain!"

"Zhou Clan Members, welcome the Supreme Elder back to the mountain!"

Under the leadership of clan elder Zhou Guangqing, hundreds of Zhou Clan Members, as if well-rehearsed, bowed as one towards the descending Zhouyang and shouted in unison.

The shouting began at Red Tiger Mountain and rapidly spread tenfold, a hundredfold, until it echoed throughout the entire Red Tiger Mountain Oasis within half a day.

Upon hearing the news of Zhouyang’s return, every Zhou Family member, whether cultivator or mortal, enthusiastically bowed and paid tribute towards Red Tiger Mountain.

Several cultivation clans affiliated with the Zhou Family, upon receiving the news, sent their clan leaders rushing towards Red Tiger Mountain, fearing that any delay would leave a negative impression on Zhouyang and the Zhou Family.

Even more so, the Sect Leader of the Yellow Sand Sect, Zhang Yunpeng, upon receiving the news, urgently dispatched Zhou Yuanchen to Red Tiger Mountain Oasis to investigate the situation.