Chapter 96: The Heart of Revenge (Part 1)

  Xiao Ziyang walked down the mountain with his hands behind his back, taking slow steps along the stone stairs.

  The Cangshan stronghold is now very different from three years ago. In the past three years, Xiao Ziyang has successively recruited some honest and kind-hearted mountain people to open up the mountainous plain below Cangshan stronghold, and selected some orphaned children with good character from the county as nominal disciples. The stronghold is no longer deserted as it used to be.

  In the spacious martial arts arena in the mountains, Shanzi was instructing a group of boys aged 10 to 15 in martial arts. Nowadays, Shanzi's complexion had become even darker, like half an iron tower, and at just 15 years old, the children were almost as tall as Xiao Ziyang.

  Xiao Ziyang was busy cultivating and didn't have time to teach his disciples. Er Zhu was also busy with cultivation, so the task of teaching his younger brother fell on Shanzi's shoulders, who was not yet fifteen years old.

  Shan completed this task extremely well.

  Nowadays, Shanzi has already practiced the Wuhu Duanmen Knife to perfection. After being improved by Xiao Ziyang, the power of the Wuhu Duanmen Knife has greatly increased. Xiao Ziyang also taught him the first layer of body training method from "Zi Yu Sheng Yan", and now Shanzi's two arms have a strength of 1,000 jin. With the 72-jin thick-backed Wu steel knife in his hand, he is already among the top second-rate masters. Shanzi is a cold-faced person, and his fellow disciples both respect and fear him.

  Xiao Ziyang came down the mountain, and Shanzi led his disciples to come over and pay their respects. Xiao Ziyang patted Shanzi's shoulder and praised him a few times.

  Er Zhu and An Jia sisters were both in seclusion; Xiao Ziyang suddenly had a feeling of having nothing to do.

  Xiao Ziyang returned to the Zhongyi Hall, drank a gourd of fine wine; led out a black-hoofed dragon-scaled horse, turned around and galloped towards the outside of the camp.

  In front of Cangshan Village, there is a mountainous plain, about 4-5 li wide and 8-9 li long, with a river flowing through the middle. Although the area is not large, it is suitable for farming. If fully developed, it can be cultivated into ten thousand mu of good farmland.

  Xiao Ziyang recruited some mountain people. With the principle of "better to be lacking than to have too much", the requirements were strict, and also had to avoid some big surnames in Nanba County; In three years, only about 30 households were recruited. Only about 700-800 mu of paddy fields were opened up on the riverbank.

  Xiao Ziyang galloped his horse rapidly on the small path between fields.

  The farmers who were tilling the fields stopped what they were doing and bowed to Xiao Ziyang from a distance. Xiao Ziyang slowed down his horse and returned their greetings, a smile on his face but seemingly distracted.

  At this time, he had already stepped into the threshold of cultivation. The deep-seated blood feud that had been suppressed for a long time naturally rushed to his mind.

  Xiao Ziyang galloped for a while, loosened the reins, and let the horse run slowly. Before long, he crossed the mountain plain and came to a gorge on the east side of the plain.

  Beyond the canyon is the vast and rich Fuyu Lake. At the entrance of the canyon, there is a small dock, which was built by Xiao Ziyang's organization. With this dock, it is much more convenient to transport goods from the county town into the mountain village.

  Xiao Ziyang tied the dragon horse to a tree by the dock, took down the wine gourd from the horse's back and slung it over his shoulder, then boarded a small boat; he rowed towards the center of the lake.

  Xiao Ziyang moored the small boat in the middle of the lake, lay down at the bow, gazing up at the blue sky and white clouds, sipping fine wine in small mouthfuls, and unknowingly drifted off to sleep...

  When he woke up, it was already late in the day. The small boat had drifted somewhere unknown, and the dock's shadow could not be seen.

  Xiao Ziyang rowed the small boat back to the dock, and it was already nightfall. When he came to the tree and untied the reins, he felt that Longma's eyes seemed to have a hint of resentment, as if complaining that he had abandoned him without care. Yes, for half a day, Longma had not eaten any water grass.

  Back in the village, Xiao Ziyang sent someone to summon An Jia sisters and Er Zhu to Zhongyitang. All unrelated people were driven away, and four people were asked to take their seats.

  Seeing Xiao Ziyang so serious, the four of them were somewhat surprised; "Brother Xiao, are you going on a long trip again?" An Yurong asked.

  "Today, I invited everyone to come and see something." Xiao Ziyang handed two copies of his handwritten "Wu Xing Dao Shu Chu Jie" to An Jia sisters and Er Zhu. After the four people took the books, they looked at each other strangely, then lowered their heads to read the book.

  After a moment, the three An sisters suddenly lifted their heads together and stared at Xiao Ziyang in surprise.

  "That's right, this is a cultivation secret book, and the kung fu I'm going to teach you comes from this book." Xiao Ziyang said with a smile.

  "Of course I know this is a cultivation secret manual, but why can we actually cultivate it? Could it be that we possess spiritual roots?" An Yuxuan's voice was trembling slightly.

  Xiao Ziyang took out the inherited treasure mirror artifact from his bosom, and after infusing it with true energy, a faint light enveloped An Yucan. The An sisters exclaimed in unison: "Inherited Treasure Mirror!"

  Xiao Ziyang said: "Have you ever seen this treasure?" The three of them didn't respond to him, the two younger sisters stared at their older sister's head, apparently knowing the use of this treasure.

  As soon as Su Yu's head showed a cyan rainbow light, the two exclaimed: "Feng Ling Gen!" After Xiao Ziyang withdrew his true energy, he asked: "How did you know so clearly?"

  An Yu Rong hastily said: "Don't ask for now, quickly take a look at what kind of spiritual root I am!"

  Xiao Ziyang had no choice but to aim the treasure mirror at An Yurong and input his true energy. "It's another Wind Spirit Root!"

  Xiao Ziyang didn't say much, and again aimed the treasure mirror at An Yuhuo. When a cyan rainbow light also appeared on top of An Yuhuo's head, the three sisters were completely stunned.

  "Don't be dazed, quickly tell me how you know so much about the matter of cultivating immortality." Xiao Ziyang asked after putting away the treasure mirror.

  An Yuwan said: "Our Maigu Observation is a subordinate Jianghu faction of the Xianmen faction Maigushan; responsible for collecting some Xian resources in the mortal world for Maigushan. As inner disciples, we know some basic common sense of the Xian world. Alas! Why is it Fenglinggen."

  "Elder sister, don't be too greedy. Although Feng Ling's spiritual root is inferior and difficult to build a foundation with, it is still a spiritual root after all. At least she has stepped into the threshold of cultivating immortality. Even if she can't make a name for herself in the immortal world, being able to live a carefree life in the mortal realm is also a good thing." An Yuhuo said to her sister.

  "Yes, elder sister." An Yurong also said.

  "It was I who was greedy."

  An Yu Rong asked: "Xiao Ge, how did you get this treasure mirror and the 'Five Elements Dao Technique Initial Explanation'? I've heard that in the immortal cultivation world, these things aren't considered precious treasures, but for ordinary mortals, they're priceless. Right, right, what's your spiritual root again?"

  Xiao Ziyang did not answer immediately, but instead asked: "I wonder if you have heard of the Hunyuan Spiritual Root?"

  The three sisters looked at each other, and An Yucan said: "This has never been heard of. We only know that there are eight kinds of spiritual roots, the five elements spiritual root plus ice, wind, and thunder three kinds of heterodox spiritual roots. What is this Chaos Spiritual Root?"

  Xiao Ziyang then told them how she obtained the "Zi Yu Sheng Yan", and how she got the inherited treasure mirror and the "Wu Xing Dao Shu Chu Jie" from the Wen Fu, one by one.

  He didn't elaborate on the wonders of "Purple Jade Smoke". Everyone thought that Chaos Spiritual Roots were just a relatively rare type of spiritual root, with Thunder Spiritual Roots and Wind Spiritual Roots as examples, and they didn't think that spiritual roots had anything good about them.