Chapter 623: Purple Moon Fairy Visits

Wang Changsheng nodded as vast spiritual power poured into the formation plate. The plate lit up with a dazzling spiritual light, emitting astonishing spiritual energy fluctuations.

He formed a peculiar hand seal and cast a spell onto the formation plate.

The ground suddenly shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck, and more than half of the island began to shake intensely.

Several clansmen working in the spiritual fields lost their footing and fell to the ground. They all looked towards where Wang Changsheng was seated.

A short while later, the island stopped shaking. A large amount of pure spiritual energy emerged from the ground near the spiritual mountain, and green plants broke through the soil, growing rapidly.

In less than ten breaths, the spiritual mountain was covered with weeds taller than a person.

More than half a day later, the spiritual mountain was overgrown with weeds five to six zhang tall, and spiritual energy was abundant.

Sea Cucumber Island had a high-grade second-tier spiritual vein, along with several first-tier spiritual veins scattered across the island. The areas containing these first-tier spiritual veins were developed into spiritual fields.

“This is great! We can cultivate here from now on,” Wang Ruyan said excitedly, feeling the abundant spiritual energy emanating from the spiritual mountain.

After the spiritual vein was upgraded to a low-grade third-tier, she would be able to cultivate on it.

A single low-grade third-tier spiritual vein would be somewhat strenuous to support two Core Formation cultivators and dozens of low-tier cultivators.

To set up the formation for upgrading the spiritual vein and the medium-sized teleportation array, Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan had almost exhausted all their savings. In the short term, they did not have enough spirit stones to upgrade a second third-tier spiritual vein.

The spiritual vein on Crab Island was a mid-grade second-tier one, and upgrading it to a low-grade third-tier would require even more resources.

After upgrading the spiritual vein to a low-grade third-tier, Wang Changsheng immediately set up two sets of third-tier formations.

The Azure Wave Overturning Sea Array, a low-grade third-tier defensive formation, also served as a concealment array.

The Four Symbols Guarding Essence Array, a mid-grade third-tier defensive formation, was purely for defense.

After setting up the formations, Wang Changsheng took Wang Changyue and Ye Lin to Crab Island to set up the teleportation array.

Since they didn't have many third-tier formations on hand, only a mid-grade third-tier defensive formation, the Three Talents Golden Adamant Array, was set up on Crab Island.

“The teleportation array is set up. It can transport eight cultivators at a time, and the spirit stones need to be replaced after twenty uses. Reliable personnel must be assigned to guard it. I deliberately left an extra slot; if a spirit stone is placed there, cultivators will not only be unable to teleport away but will also be torn apart by spatial forces.”

Ye Lin pointed to a specific empty slot and said with a solemn expression.

Wang Changsheng secretly noted down this slot. The teleportation array would certainly need to be guarded, and he had already decided on the guardians: Mo Caiyun and Wang Qingqing, each guarding one array.

“You two can teleport back now! Send half of the clansmen here to cultivate spiritual fields and construct buildings.”

Crab Island and Sea Cucumber Island had been previously inhabited; their former residents had moved, but the buildings remained and could be lived in after minor repairs. The spiritual fields were also existing, though overgrown; they simply needed to be replanted with spiritual grains and herbs.

The two islands together had four hundred and eighty-five mu of spiritual fields and five independent spiritual herb gardens.

Fifty mu of spiritual fields were designated for cultivating spiritual grains, while the remaining fields were for spiritual herbs commonly used by Qi Refinement cultivators. The spiritual herb gardens were for spiritual herbs used by Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators.

Crab Island had a lake of over ten mu, which was used for cultivating spiritual fish.

Wang Changsheng had brought a large quantity of supplies for this trip, including Foundation Establishment Pills, second-tier elixirs, spiritual grains, and spiritual herb seeds. The Wang clan members would farm and fish on the islands, Wang Ruyan would cultivate on Sea Cucumber Island, and Wang Changsheng would be stationed on Crab Island.

Just as they were settling down, Chen Yilong and Chen Yue came to offer their congratulations.

Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan invited them onto the island and hosted a banquet for them at their residence.

“Fellow Daoist Wang, congratulations! This is a small token of my regard.” Chen Yilong took out a green jade box and handed it to Wang Changsheng.

Wang Changsheng thanked him and accepted the green jade box.

“Fellow Daoist Chen, if I may ask, where do most of the cultivators in your Wood Dragon Pavilion come from?” Wang Changsheng asked earnestly. Fifty clansmen were insufficient to guard two islands, and bringing in more personnel from the State of Wei would be too costly. It would be best to recruit locally in the Coral Sea region to save costs.

This was not a secret, and Chen Yilong recounted it truthfully.

The Wood Dragon Pavilion had four methods for recruiting personnel: first, absorbing other small forces; second, recruiting from affiliated cultivation families; third, recruiting from mortals; and fourth, openly accepting disciples. The chance of mortals becoming cultivators was too low, so the Wood Dragon Pavilion primarily used the second and fourth methods to replenish its ranks.

“Fellow Daoist Wang, Madam Wang, do you remember that there were quite a few Foundation Establishment cultivators who leased islands that day? As far as I know, several cultivation families are not far from Sea Cucumber Island. You could forcefully bring them under your control. If you wished, you could even directly absorb them, but they might be supported by other forces. If you directly absorb them, it might displease the forces behind them.”

Wang Ruyan smiled sweetly, poured Chen Yilong a cup of spiritual wine, and said with a chuckle, “Fellow Daoist Chen, you are an expert in this area. Please elaborate.”

“The best approach is to take them as vassals, offer them some protection, have them offer tributes regularly, and ask them to help with certain tasks, such as hunting demonic beasts or gathering intelligence. However, you must also provide them with some benefits. Without benefits, them not helping you would be a minor issue; it’s even possible they might conspire with outsiders against you. It’s best not to indiscriminately absorb personnel, as they might be spies for other forces. The waters of the Coral Sea are deep!” Chen Yilong said meaningfully, then raised his wine cup and drained it.

“Thank you for your guidance, Fellow Daoist Chen. I have learned much.”

Wang Changsheng humbly asked Chen Yilong many questions, and Chen Yilong answered each one, saving Wang Changsheng from many detours.

Just then, Wang Tianqi quickly walked in, glanced at Chen Yilong, and hesitated to speak.

“Fellow Daoist Chen is not an outsider, Tianqi, so just speak directly about what’s on your mind!”

“Yes, Great-grandfather, a senior cultivator calling herself Immortal Purple Moon has arrived outside, claiming to be here to congratulate us on our relocation. Great-grandfather, Great-grandmother, what do you think?”

Hearing this, Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan exchanged glances, somewhat surprised. Chen Yilong’s face showed an amused expression, and Chen Yue looked curious.

“Husband, I’ll go greet Immortal Purple Moon! She is a guest, and it’s not right to make a guest wait at the entrance.”

Wang Ruyan stood up and left to greet Immortal Purple Moon.

Outside Sea Cucumber Island, Immortal Purple Moon floated in the void, gazing at the azure seawater below. A hint of surprise appeared in her beautiful eyes.

She had visited many islands where Core Formation cultivators resided and had seen numerous island-protecting formations. However, she found the Wang family’s island-protecting formation to be quite profound. If she hadn’t learned from Chen Yilong that Wang Changsheng had leased Sea Cucumber Island and Crab Island, she would not have noticed an island here even if she passed by.

Either the Wang family had a third-tier formation master behind them, or Wang Changsheng had purchased a powerful third-tier formation. Immortal Purple Moon believed it was the latter; if the Wang family had a third-tier formation master, Wang Changsheng wouldn’t need to hunt demonic beasts everywhere, as crafting and selling formations would earn much more money!