On the other side.
On Cloudmist Mountain, where the Ye family resided.
Ye Yuhong stared at the message from Ye Qingxuan, his expression dazed for a moment.
After a long while, Ye Yuhong finally sighed:
“Wow, a hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye!”
He and that young fellow Ye Qingxuan hadn’t seen each other for a full hundred years.
Thinking back to how he had once pinned his hopes for the Ye family’s turnaround on Ye Qingxuan, Ye Yuhong couldn’t help but chuckle wryly to himself.
His understanding of Fortune cultivators now far surpassed what it was back then, so naturally, he knew how difficult the path was.
He no longer paid any mind to the resources produced by Ye Qingxuan’s contracted first-grade Fortune Land, because he had stopped hoping for anything from Ye Qingxuan.
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in Ye Qingxuan. It’s just that ever since he fully understood what Fortune cultivation entailed, Ye Yuhong already had a rough idea of what a first-grade Fortune Land could produce.
Those few resources wouldn’t make any substantial difference to the Ye family.
Nevertheless, Ye Yuhong still decided to go to the Xuantian Sect in person.
He wanted to convert all the resources into Spirit Enhancement Pills to cultivate the younger generation of the Ye family. And while he was at it, he planned to visit the Ye family’s ancestor, Ye Zhaoyang, to see if he could get some help.
Because the Ye family was no longer what it used to be. They had reached a point where they had no choice but to seek assistance.
Having made up his mind, Ye Yuhong arranged the family’s affairs, sent a reply to Ye Qingxuan, and then headed towards the city of Qingmu Prefecture.
A hundred years had passed, but the number of cultivators in the Ye family had actually decreased rather than increased.
Ever since the Outland Battlefield was opened to the public, a large number of cultivators from the Dìxuán Realm had flooded into the Outland Battlefield, seeking opportunities for further advancement.
The cultivators of the Ye family were no exception.
After all, for cultivators from a small power like the Ye family, the Outland Battlefield was the only place where they could break free from the constraints of their innate talent and gain the possibility of advancing further.
As the head of the Ye family, Ye Yuhong had no way to forcibly restrain them.
In a hundred years, a full one-third of the Ye family’s cultivators had fallen on the Outland Battlefield.
Especially the Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Ye family, whose lack of experience proved costly.
Right when the Outland Battlefield first opened, a large number of Foundation Establishment clan members from the Ye family perished there.
Later, even though the survivors learned from experience and started being more cautious on the battlefield, their low cultivation levels meant the number of casualties continued to rise.
Even if some managed to successfully break through to the Purple Mansion stage through the trials of the Outland Battlefield, the Ye family also had Purple Mansion elders who fell there.
The Ye family only had about a dozen or so Purple Mansion cultivators—nothing like the large numbers they had at the Foundation Establishment level.
Even if every single Purple Mansion elder fell on the Outland Battlefield, it wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a single Golden Core cultivator in return.
So, after suffering heavy losses, following internal discussions within the Ye family,
in the remaining time, the teams from the Ye family going to the Outland Battlefield for training would basically be led by two Purple Mansion elders, with Foundation Establishment cultivators taking turns going in batches.
This way, although their gains decreased somewhat, their losses also reduced considerably.
But this method wasn’t foolproof. The dangers of the Outland Battlefield sometimes couldn’t be avoided simply by numbers.
If they ran into some unscrupulous bandits or a widespread natural disaster, the risk of falling was still there.
So, after nearly a hundred years, although the Ye family’s cultivators had been tempered, their combat power and cultivation levels had increased dramatically.
In the last few years, one Purple Mansion elder even got lucky and broke through to the Golden Core stage.
But due to the high number of cultivators who had fallen, there was almost a generational gap among the Ye family’s lower-level Foundation Establishment cultivators. They were in dire need of elixirs to assist cultivation and nurture the younger generation.
This situation was also a miniature of other small powers.
The Outland Battlefield held significant opportunities, but grasping those opportunities required sufficient strength.
The Outland Battlefield was far more dangerous than inside the Dìxuán Realm.
Within the Dìxuán Realm, some cultivators might still have some scruples.
But once on the Outland Battlefield, all order vanished, and it all came down to what each cultivator held deep in their heart.
Faced with benefits, not everyone could hold onto their principles.
By now, on the Outland Battlefield, some people had completely succumbed, even listing cultivators from the Dìxuán Realm as their hunting targets.
Only disciples from major powers could give these people pause.
Disciples from major powers not only had higher cultivation levels and stronger methods, but they were also the ones with the most hidden trump cards and the most devastating power.
So, very few people would target disciples from major powers, because the chance of it backfiring was just too high.
Those targeted were mostly rogue cultivators and people from small powers.
Ye Yuhong’s trip to the Xuantian Sect this time was primarily to collect the thirty percent share of resources from Ye Qingxuan’s Fortune Land, but secondarily to pay respects to his clan’s ancestor and seek help.
The main purpose was to seek assistance from his ancestor.
At this point, Ye Yuhong had no idea that Ye Zhaoyang had been severely wounded and was in seclusion recovering, so he most likely wouldn’t be able to see him.
Sure enough, when Ye Yuhong arrived at the Xuantian Sect, he first went to Ye Zhaoyang’s cave dwelling, but he didn’t get to see Ye Zhaoyang.
So, feeling perplexed, Ye Yuhong followed the directions Ye Qingxuan had given him and headed towards Ye Qingxuan’s Fortune Land.
By the time Ye Yuhong reached the Qingxuan Fortune Land, Ye Qingxuan had already been waiting for a long time with the two brothers, Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu, in the stone pavilion outside the Fortune Land.
Sensing Ye Yuhong’s arrival, Ye Qingxuan stood up and, leading Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu, walked to the edge of the stone pavilion. Looking at Ye Yuhong, who had just arrived, he said with a light laugh:
“Long time no see, family head! Hahaha!”
Ye Yuhong, however, was startled at the sight of Ye Qingxuan. After sizing him up for a moment, a look of amazement appeared in Ye Yuhong’s eyes. After a long pause, he slowly said:
“Qingxuan, it seems the path of Fortune cultivation suits you very well!”
A hundred years apart, the change in Ye Qingxuan’s demeanor was simply enormous.
If not for his appearance remaining the same, Ye Yuhong might not have recognized him.
Just then, the two brothers, Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu, standing behind Ye Qingxuan, stepped forward in unison and said respectfully:
“Zhaoheng, Zhaoyu, pay their respects to the family head?”
Hearing this, Ye Yuhong looked at Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu, hesitating slightly:
“You two are the Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu brothers? How have your cultivation levels increased so quickly?”
Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu were less than thirteen years old when they left the Ye family, and their appearances had changed quite a bit now.
Ye Yuhong hadn’t recognized them at first glance.
Moreover, under Ye Qingxuan’s nurturing, the two brothers had now both reached the peak of the Purple Mansion stage.
They were only one step away from the Golden Core stage.
So, Ye Yuhong hadn’t initially associated the two people behind Ye Qingxuan with Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu.
Hearing Ye Yuhong’s question, Ye Zhaoheng and Ye Zhaoyu looked at Ye Qingxuan with fiery admiration in their eyes and said in unison:
“All of this is thanks to the master’s guidance!”
Hearing this, Ye Yuhong looked at Ye Qingxuan, the confusion in his eyes deepening.
He simply couldn’t figure out how Ye Qingxuan, who appeared to be only at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, could have nurtured two people with triple-attribute spiritual roots to the peak of the Purple Mansion stage in such a short time.
It wasn’t that Ye Yuhong didn’t know about elixirs that could directly increase cultivation.
It’s that the cost of such elixirs was too high. Even the Ye family couldn’t afford to continuously supply such elixirs to their clan disciples all the way to the peak of the Purple Mansion stage.
The rule with such elixirs was either don’t take them at all, or once you start, you can’t stop.
Because if you stopped taking them and tried to cultivate on your own, the lack of spiritual energy purity would actually affect your original cultivation speed.
Therefore, in the Ye family, disciples with triple-attribute spiritual roots or above were strictly forbidden from taking such elixirs.
As for disciples with spiritual roots below triple-attribute, the Ye family adopted an attitude of neither support nor opposition.
But the Ye family itself would never actively supply such elixirs to its own clan members.
Not because they were worried about the elixirs affecting the disciples’ futures—after all, most of the Ye family’s cultivators had low potential anyway, so it hardly made a difference—but mainly because they simply couldn’t afford it.
In this era, where hegemonic powers suppress everything and there’s no need to worry about extermination as a clan,
using such elixirs for cultivation is, for the family as a whole, more detrimental than beneficial.
