Before the Forest Spring Watch massacre, rumors of a disturbance in the Demon Wind Gobi’s demonic beasts had already spread from the Flying Swan Sect. At first, Meng Zhang thought it might be a ploy by the Flying Swan Sect to divert the attention of Daoist Master Roaring Blaze and Guang ZhiDaoist Master. However, when news arrived that three Gold Core Daoist Masters, including Fei TianDaoist Master, were trapped in Demon Wind Gobi, a special warning was issued to all cultivation forces within the Endless Sea of Sand. The warning stated that the demonic beasts in Demon Wind Gobi were restless and preparing for a massive invasion.
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Upon receiving this warning, all cultivation forces in the Endless Sea of Sand became vigilant and started preparing for a battle with the demonic beasts. The invasion had been impending for four or five years, yet it had not materialized. Some forces began to slack off, thinking that time was on their side.
Meng Zhang, however, did not dare to let his guard down. If even the prestigious Flying Swan Sect received a specific warning, the impending invasion of demonic beasts would undoubtedly be significant. Once the battle started, it would be a bloody one.
The current calm was merely the tranquility before the storm. Meng Zhang was doing his utmost to strengthen Taiyi Sect’s combat capabilities before the invasion.
If the cultivators were tied down by the demonic beasts, the ordinary people in various oases would have to rely on various mechanisms and puppets to defend their homes. Therefore, Meng Zhang entrusted all the spirit medicines brought back from Great Wind City to Shi Changqing. Most of the ingredients required to refine the Lesser Foundation Building Pill had been gathered, and the primary medicine was currently being cultivated. Shi Changqing had learned the special methods for handling spirit medicines from the Twin Success Valley records provided by Meng Zhang.
According to Shi Changqing’s estimate, it would take about ten more years before he could begin alchemy.
The water-system spiritual object, Clear Spring Cold Jade, was handed over by Meng Zhang to Hu Jing, the Hall Master of the Beast Controlling Hall. With the help of the Deep Earth Spirit General, she constructed a small lake within the Taiyi Sect’s mountain gate. Then, she placed Clear Spring Cold Jade into it and slowly stimulated the spiritual object’s power. Once the lake water was influenced by the spiritual object’s power and showed some effect, the remaining spirit clams were placed into it.
Hu Jing was busy with this task for half a year before the spirit clams slowly regained vitality and started to grow again. Over time, they would multiply and their population would increase. After some time, when their spiritual pearls were harvested, they would become valuable spiritual objects.
During his trip to Great Wind City, Meng Zhang did not obtain the spirit medicine for refining the Foundation Building Pill, but he did acquire two finished Foundation Building Pills. He double-checked them personally and also had Second Rank Alchemist Shi Changqing inspect them together. Once he confirmed there were no issues, he added them to the inventory of the sect’s treasury for disciples to exchange.
Meng Zhang set a reasonable exchange price of ten thousand virtue merits for each Foundation Building Pill. One virtue merit in Taiyi Sect was approximately equivalent to a low-grade spirit stone in the market. Of course, due to the more extensive functions of sect virtue merits, they could be exchanged for rare spiritual objects, magic tools, elixirs, and even access to the Hidden Scripture Pavilion’s scriptures or guidance from the sect’s elders.
Thus, after many years of development and improvement, the virtue merit system established by Meng Zhang had finally shown some success within Taiyi Sect, becoming the true valuable asset even more precious than spirit stones.
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Additionally, Meng Zhang imposed restrictions on the internal disciples’ exchange of Foundation Building Pills and other strategic resources like the Lesser Foundation Building Pills. Only disciples who had completed the Refining Qi stage and passed the assessment of the elders outside the sect were qualified to exchange for these pills. Any attempt to hoard or sell them outside was strictly prohibited. Perhaps in the future, when the sect grew stronger and resources became more abundant, these restrictions might be eased. But for now, Meng Zhang kept a tight grip on the distribution of Foundation Building Pills.
The acquisition of the two Foundation Building Pills had been no easy feat, and the process couldn’t be replicated. They had to be put to their best use. Five months after storing the Foundation Building Pills in the sect’s treasury, Tian Li, the Hall Master of the Refining Hall, applied to Meng Zhang for the exchange of a Foundation Building Pill. Tian Li had reached the Refining Qi stage quite some time ago, and he intended to use the pill’s medicinal power to break through to the Foundation Building stage.
As the Hall Master of the Refining Hall, Tian Li had made significant contributions to the sect and accumulated a considerable amount of virtue merits. Especially before his uncle, Tian Zhen, left the sect, he transferred all of his accumulated virtue merits to Tian Li. Tian Zhen, as a General Affairs Elder, had accumulated a lot of virtue merits during his years of service to the sect without many expenses. Hence, Tian Li easily exchanged for the Foundation Building Pill and began his closed-door cultivation to break through to the Foundation Building stage.
After another half a year, under Hu Jing’s meticulous care, all the spirit clams had fully recovered. Hu Jing delegated the task of taking care of the spirit clams to disciples of the Beast Controlling Hall and exchanged a Foundation Building Pill for herself. She then began her closed-door cultivation to break through the Foundation Building stage. As the most skilled practitioner of beast-controlling techniques in the sect, Hu Jing had nurtured a large number of spiritual beasts for the sect. Many of the sect’s Crimson Feather Eagles were raised by her, and she also exploited resources using the Beast Controlling Jars. Her efforts this time had revived many precious spirit clams.
As the Hall Master of the Beast Controlling Hall, Hu Jing had also cultivated several First Rank Beast Controlling Masters. These achievements earned her a large number of virtue merits. Before her closed-door cultivation, she handed over all the affairs of the Beast Controlling Hall to these Beast Controlling Masters, who managed everything efficiently.
The two Foundation Building Pills were exchanged quickly before they even had a chance to warm up in Meng Zhang’s hands. He hoped that these two pills would be worth the investment and help the sect gain two more Foundation Building stage cultivators.
After returning from Great Wind City, Meng Zhang devoted most of his energy to his own cultivation. With his talent, there were no bottlenecks in the Foundation Building stage for him. After entering the mid-Foundation Building stage, his cultivation base surged forward without any obstacles.
Several Foundation Building stage cultivators of Taiyi Sect usually dispersed to various Second Rank spirit veins for cultivation to reduce the consumption of these veins. They also took responsibility for managing the oases where these spirit veins were located.
Furthermore, apart from Meng Zhang, as the Sect Master, several Foundation Building stage cultivators took turns to protect the fixed route from Singing Sand City to Flying Swan City.
Seeing the benefits brought by this route, Qiaoshou Sect also expressed interest in joining. Meng Zhang saw an opportunity in this and facilitated a collaboration between the two sects. They established flying boat landing points at crucial locations in both sects’ territories, creating a comprehensive transportation network using a large number of First Rank flying boats and a few Second Rank ones. With this transportation network, the territories of both sects were effectively connected. Especially considering the vastness of Taiyi Sect’s territory, the network not only facilitated personnel movement and resource circulation but also strengthened the sect’s control over its domain.
With the participation of Qiaoshou Sect, the frequency of flying boats traveling from Singing Sand City to Flying Swan City increased. If the timing were right and there were no concerns about Flying Swan Sect’s intentions, Meng Zhang would have considered opening a route to Great Wind City. The Endless Sea of Sand was too barren, and only by establishing external connections could the sect access abundant resources and wealth.
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