Cultivation Begins From The Desert - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Crushing Strength

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“How is your Divine Sense so strong? Don’t say it was because of the Camel Beast. Third Brother has cultivated the Earth Evasion Technique to a silent level. It’s impossible for a mere Camel Beast to discover his whereabouts!”

The two black-robed cultivators who attacked Zhou Yang were both shocked and angry. They couldn’t help but look at the white-robed young man with a hint of fear in their eyes.

This was too strange!

They knew their companion’s ability. Although his cultivation was not as high as theirs – only at Qi Refinement Level 7 – he had been practicing the Earth Evasion Technique for more than thirty years. His mastery of the technique could fool even a Level 9 Qi Refinement cultivator.

The trio had worked together and relied on this technique to kill countless powerful enemies, including expert rogue cultivators. But who would have thought that today was the day their technique would fail against a young man who looked to be in his twenties or thirties? This was too strange!

“You guys talk too much!”

Zhou Yang looked at the two shocked sand bandits and raised his hand to throw two Grade 2 spiritual talismans at them.

He would never reveal the reason his innate Divine Sense was much stronger than cultivators of the same level was that he had been reincarnated from another world. Although his mana equaled to that of a Level 8 Qi Refinement cultivator such as the sand bandits before him, his Divine Sense was at a level that could surpass that of an immortal cultivator at the Great Fulfillment of Qi Refinement.

He had once asked the elders in his family at Qi Refinement Level 8 and learned that the range of the Divine Sense of an ordinary immortal cultivator at that cultivation level was only within a radius of seventy to eighty meters.

But Zhou Yang’s current Divine Sense range was within a radius of more than 150 meters!

This range might not be comparable to the Divine Sense range of Foundation Establishment cultivators which could easily reach thousands of meters in radius, but Zhou Yang’s Divine Sense range was impressive enough for ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators.

Even Zhou Xuanhao’s Divine Sense range was only within a hundred meters.

Though an immortal cultivator’s Divine Sense range was not as important as the cultivation of their mana, the benefits of having a higher range of Divine Sense were obvious.

Zhou Yang, for example, was able to identify many dangers that could not be seen with the naked eye earlier than other immortal cultivators. The attack range of his spiritual artifacts also far exceeded that of immortal cultivators of the same level.

Moreover, if an immortal cultivator’s Divine Sense was powerful enough, his resistance to many mind-deceiving spells and divine abilities would also be much stronger than that of ordinary cultivators. Better Divine Sense would also make it easier for immortal cultivators to break through to the realm of Zifu as well as work on their Golden Cores to reach the realm of Core Foundation.

In short, there were many benefits to having a powerful Divine Sense. Though Zhou Yang was born with a powerful Divine Sense, he had not even told his parents about it, so how could he casually reveal it to outsiders?

The elders in his family had warned them from a young age that if they wanted to live long in the immortal cultivation world, they had to learn what could be revealed and what to keep secret to be used as a trump card later. The more trump cards they had, the stronger they would be as they would have a greater chance of winning when fighting with the enemy.

The two sand bandits thought that he would be easy to bully due to his age. After all, the duo was already at Level 8 of Qi Refinement and had the advantage in numbers. They were confident they could take him out.

Unfortunately, they had completely underestimated him.

Zhou Yang did not have many other things on him, just his many spiritual talismans, medicinal pills, and magical artifacts!

What could he do? He had a good godmother who was an Advanced Grade 2 talisman maker and an alchemist for a father who was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Zhou Yang himself was also an Advanced Grade 2 artifact refiner!

After he threw out the first two spiritual talismans at the sand bandits, he decided to throw out more.

Usually, using an Advanced Grade 2 spiritual talisman would only consume less than half of his mana as a Level 8 Qi Refinement cultivator. However, Zhou Yang had almost more than twenty such talismans on him.

The market price of Advanced Grade 2 spiritual talismans was usually around thirty lower-tier spiritual stones. The price of defensive and other special types of spiritual talismans would be slightly higher.

For a normal Advanced-Stage Qi Refinement cultivator, having one or two Advanced Grade 2 spiritual talismans on them was already good enough since they would be used as trump cards to turn the tables. They were extremely precious, so how could anyone bear to throw them out like Zhou Yang did as if they were trash?

The Fireball Talisman, Ice Spear Talisman, Golden Sword Qi Talisman…

When they saw several Advanced Grade 2 spells of different elemental types bursting forth from Zhou Yang’s spiritual talismans, the two bandits’ faces turned pale. They finally realized what they had gotten themselves into.

“Damn it, I didn’t expect this kid to be a Foundation Establishment Seed of a certain clan. We’ve suffered a great loss this time!”

The two bandits lamented over their bad luck as they quickly took out their life-saving talismans and activated them while activating their magical armor with their mana to defend themselves.

For bandits like them, strength might be beneficial but having a good eye was more important.

They would never provoke anyone they found more powerful or dangerous than them. They would rather let their prey go than risk their lives.

Their existence today was proof that they had had a good eye in choosing their victims so far.

Before ambushing Zhou Yang, the three sand bandits had been secretly following Zhou Yang for half a day. After several investigations, they found out that Zhou Yang was indeed alone, so they decided to attack him that night.

Under normal circumstances, Zhou Yang shouldn’t have been able to stand up against their attacks even if he had an exceptional magical artifact.

After all, they were pretty well equipped themselves. Even the Scarlet Banner held by one of the sand bandits was an Advanced Grade 2 magical artifact.

However, who hasn’t made a mistake before?

The trio had planned so well but never would they have been able to predict that the prey they had chosen was actually a Foundation Establishment Seed of an immortal cultivation clan!

The Foundation Establishment Seed was a clan genius like Zhou Yang who had been placed with high hopes by the elders of their respective immortal cultivation clans. Strictly speaking, as long as they didn’t die prematurely, the Foundation Establishment Seed was the person expected to take the Foundation Establishment Pill to reach the realm of Foundation Establishment.

These Foundation Establishment Seeds generally wouldn’t leave their clan’s territory easily. Even if they did, they would usually travel together with their clan elders and would certainly carry life-saving items given by their clan elders.

When sand bandits encountered a group that consisted of the young and old, the sand bandits would generally avoid them. No one wanted to mess with potential Foundation Establishment cultivators or an entourage of immortal cultivation clan elders.

Since Zhou Yang was alone and at Qi Refinement Level 8, the sand bandits simply thought that he was just another cultivator from an ordinary clan. How were they expected to know who they were dealing with until it was too late?

Now that they had realized the reality of the situation, the sand bandits immediately knew that they would definitely not be able to see through their mission today.

Therefore, after using up the defensive spiritual talismans and their magical armor to block Zhou Yang’s attacks, the black-robed cultivator waved the Scarlet Banner and released seven or eight crimson fireballs the size of a human head to counterattack Zhou Yang. “Second Brother, the winds have turned against us. We need to go, now!”

The sand bandit shooting the fireballs immediately slapped a Lower Grade 2 Divine Escape Talisman on his back to increase the speed of his movements. Then, he turned around and fled.

“Wait for me, Big Brother!”

The other sand bandit with the conical magical artifact panicked and hurriedly slapped the same talisman on his back to chase after the other sand bandit, afraid that he would not be able to leave if he was a step late.

Zhou Yang had been defending himself with the Silver Shield against the oncoming fireballs and noticed that the sand bandits had fled. “You want to run after wasting so many of my talismans? You’re not going anywhere!”

Zhou Yang raised his right hand and shot out a foot-long dark red flying needle.

The needle flew through the night at the speed of sound, aiming for the fleeing sand bandits. Never would they have thought that Zhou Yang would also have a yin magical weapon.

By the time their Divine Sense detected the dark red flying needle, they had no time to react.

“Ah! Brother, save me!”

A dark red spiritual light flashed and the sand bandit with the conical magical weapon fell forward with a scream.

The flying needle was an Advanced Grade 2 magical weapon that specialized in breaking through protective spells such as the poorly-casted Golden Protection Light Technique that was just as thick as a piece of paper on the sand bandit’s body .

When the other sand bandit saw this, he ran even faster. He even used a black shield to protect his back as he ran. It was obvious that he had learned a lesson from his companions, fearing that Zhou Yang would stick a needle in him too.

Once you have lost the element of surprise, the tide of the battle would have turned on you.

It was not easy to refine a flying needle. The magical weapon was much weaker than a flying sword of the same level. If one were to attack rashly with it only to be intercepted, the flying needle would be easily destroyed. Zhou Yang did not want to take such a risk with his flying needle.

Besides, he’s got more than one card up his sleeve.

He looked at the desert bandits who were about to escape the range of his Divine Sense and gritted his teeth as he activated a talisman in his hand that was glowing with faint blue electricity.

Rumble!

Suddenly, there was the sound of thunder in the pitch-black night sky. Then, a blue thunderbolt as thick as an arm zapped down from the sky and struck the body of the sand bandit who had escaped to the top of the sand slope mountain.

The sand bandit’s defense was no match for this attack. He didn’t even have time to take one last breath before his entire being, along with the belongings, were zapped into a pile of charcoal..