Chapter 33: Wang Yaoliang

Wang Yaoliang is sixty years old this year. He possesses a three-element spiritual root and, in his youth, was a key cultivation prospect for the family, ranking ninth among his peers.

Unfortunately, he was unable to reach the ninth level of Qi Refining before the age of forty, missing the optimal time for Foundation Establishment.

At that time, Wang Yaozong had already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining and was the most talented clansman of the "Yao" generation.

The family's resources were insufficient to support two clansmen undergoing Foundation Establishment. After a resolution by the elders, Wang Yaozong was prioritized for Foundation Establishment.

To everyone's surprise, Wang Yaozong, in front of all, gave the Foundation Establishment Pill to Wang Yaoliang. Wang Yaoliang was deeply moved.

Wang Yaozong's aptitude was even better than Wang Yaoliang's, giving him a greater chance of successful Foundation Establishment. Wang Yaoliang pondered all night long and ultimately returned the Foundation Establishment Pill to Wang Yaozong.

The Foundation Establishment Pill, which the family had acquired at a high price through auction, was then consumed by Wang Yaozong.

Wang Yaozong did not disappoint the clansmen; he successfully advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Later, as the family produced more promising talents, Wang Yaoliang knew his own chances of Foundation Establishment were low. Coupled with his grandson's good aptitude, he gave up hope of achieving Foundation Establishment himself and reserved the cultivation resources issued by the family for his grandson.

Wang Yaoliang had three grandsons. The most talented among them was Wang Changping. Wang Changping is fifteen years old this year, with a Wood spiritual root sensitivity of sixty-five. Among the "Chang" generation of the Wang family, his aptitude was considered upper-middle. He had already reached the fifth level of Qi Refining and ranked fourteenth.

When Wang Changping was eight years old, his father was killed while escorting goods back. Wang Yaoliang took Wang Changping into his own residence and carefully nurtured him.

Wang Yaoliang deeply cherished Wang Changping. Ordinarily, he was frugal, unwilling to spend even a single spirit stone on himself. However, when Wang Changping needed cultivation resources, as long as Wang Yaoliang could provide them, he would not hesitate, immediately taking out spirit stones to purchase the necessary cultivation resources for Wang Changping.

Because the Profound Gold ore vein was extremely important, Wang Yaozong assigned Wang Yaoliang to personally escort the extracted Profound Gold ore.

Wang Yaoliang was responsible for escorting the Profound Gold ore, which earned him more cultivation resources each month. He was a cautious man. Although Ping'an County was their family's territory, whenever he escorted Profound Gold ore back to Qinglian Mountain, he was extremely careful on the road. His departure times and routes were irregular, precisely to prevent ambushes.

Early one morning, while the sky was still dim, Wang Yaoliang, accompanied by three clansmen, quietly left the quarry.

He did not use the Cloud-Riding Technique, as that would attract too much attention.

The quarry was not far from Guanglin County. Guanglin County was the territory of the Song family of Pingyang Prefecture. According to reports from clansmen in Qingshi Town, there had been many new faces in the town recently. These newcomers were all inquiring about the quarry, indicating that the Song family had clearly discovered something unusual about the quarry.

This was unavoidable. The Profound Gold ore vein was extremely important. If a formation was not set up for mining, it was inevitable that someone would secretly mine it, causing even greater losses.

Wang Yaoliang had already informed Wang Mingyuan to dispatch more personnel as soon as possible.

After leaving the quarry, Wang Yaoliang and the three other clansmen held hands and began to chant incantations.

Soon after, a yellow light glowed around their bodies. The four of them spun rapidly and vanished into the ground.

This was a low-tier, high-grade spell: Earth Evasion Technique. It allowed them to burrow up to fifty zhang deep underground.

A hundred zhang away from the quarry, behind a large yellow boulder, a yellow light suddenly flared, revealing a middle-aged man in a yellow robe.

The yellow robe on the middle-aged man appeared ordinary, but if anyone were to scan with their spiritual sense, they would absolutely not detect his presence.

"Have they finally escorted the ore away?" the middle-aged man muttered to himself, pulling out a palm-sized yellow toad from his robe.

The yellow toad was covered in pustules, making it appear extremely repulsive.

He closed his five fingers, squeezing the yellow toad.

The yellow toad let out a strange cry, and its body rapidly expanded.

He put away the yellow toad, a yellow light glowed around his body, and he vanished into the ground.

Less than half an hour later, in a dense forest, a large mound suddenly bulged from a patch of ground, emitting yellow light. It looked as if something was about to emerge from underground.

With a muffled sound, Wang Yaoliang and three clansmen emerged from the ground.

"Let's rest a bit, then continue on our way," Wang Yaoliang waved his hand and instructed.

For safety's sake, Wang Yaoliang intended to use the Earth Evasion Technique all the way back to Qinglian Mountain. This would take longer, but it guaranteed safety.

Wang Yaoliang walked to the foot of a towering tree, took out his dry rations, and began to eat.

Suddenly, he frowned, turned his head to look at a large tree in the distance, and loudly exclaimed, "Who's hiding there? Show yourself, old man!"

After saying this, his lips moved slightly, and a faint blue light barrier appeared close to his body. The other three clansmen also promptly cast protective shields on themselves.

"Haha," a somewhat mocking voice suddenly rang out. "I didn't expect that merely using a trace of spiritual power would lead to Fellow Daoist Wang discovering me. No wonder Fellow Daoist Wang was chosen to escort the ore."

As the voice fell silent, five men in black emerged from behind several large trees.

The five men were dressed in identical black clothes, their faces covered by black cloth. Their eyes gleamed with malevolence.

One was at the eighth level of Qi Refining, and four were at the fifth level.

Wang Yaoliang inwardly cursed, but calmly said, "Fellow Daoists, what is the meaning of this? I am a clansman of the Wang family from Qinglian Mountain. I don't know how I might have offended any of you?"

"Heh heh, it's not a matter of offense," the black-clad leader chuckled sinisterly, "but Fellow Daoist Wang has something we want. Be sensible and hand it over obediently."

Wang Yaoliang's eyebrows slightly furrowed. He sneered, "Just the few of you? A joke! Do you really think I, Wang, am afraid of you?"

"Hmph, what if we're added to the mix?!"

A massive white cloud descended from the sky, and ten masked cultivators in black robes emerged from within it.

Fifteen Qi Refining cultivators in total: three at the eighth level of Qi Refining and twelve at the fifth level. In contrast, on Wang Yaoliang's side, apart from Wang Yaoliang, who was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, the remaining three clansmen were all at the fifth level of Qi Refining. The disparity in strength between the two sides was immense.

"Enough chatter with them! Attack! We have important matters to attend to!" a cold female voice rang out.

Wang Yaoliang's heart sank. He hastily took out a shimmering silver talisman, murmured a few words, and threw it in the direction of Qinglian Mountain.

"No good! Stop the transmission talisman quickly!" a tall black-clad man urgently ordered in a loud voice, but it was too late.

The moment the silver talisman left his hand, it transformed into a dazzling silver light and streaked towards the horizon, moving at an extremely high speed.

"Finish them quickly! Kill them!"

The black-clad figures all summoned their spiritual artifacts and charged at Wang Yaoliang and his three companions.

Wang Yaoliang reacted swiftly. As the black-clad figures brought out their spiritual artifacts, he took out seven blue talismans and scattered them around.

The moment the seven blue talismans left his hand, they burst open, and a vast expanse of white mist surged forth, obscuring an area of a hundred zhang in circumference.