After casually teaching Chan Zi a few tricks of fanning the flames and slow-cooking bones from a secret manual, Chen Xuantian left him watching over the pot. With a flap of his wings, a plump bird soared, stepping on the lake water as it flew away.
Itâs not so easy to boil the marrow out of the Divinity Transformation Taotieâs old bones. According to his calculations, it would take at least eighty-one days of simmering to get a bit of oil. Such a bothersome task of adding firewood and water and watching the heat was naturally given to Chan Zi with some offhand remarks, allowing him to practice his Six Ding Divine Fire without delay.
In any case, Chen Xuantian needed to go level up first. Better to be the early bird, just remember to come back in time for a sip of soup.
And so, without looking back, Chen Xuantian flew away. As for the other stuff in the Beast Cage, he really couldnât care less.
Yes, although Chan Zi had rare potential, his current realm was too low, his cultivation too weak, and his evolution too slow. Even if he were taken as a backup for reincarnation, at this stage, heâs still in the early leveling and resource gathering phase. Such a late-game main ally is temporarily of no use.
Even the current Nangong Family, their standard is just too low, Chen Xuantian hardly cares about them either.
After all, he had just circled around the Beast Cage, checking out the resources, observing the types, and calculating the trade volume. Chen Xuantian already knew where he stood.
What good is it with a group of house guards supporting them? Or a group of Li People following them? Or even a Divinity Transformation ally? Hmm, itâs not bad, but something feels off, maybe thereâs a conspiracy, better keep an eye on it...
But overall, the Nangong Family is just starting out, and their leadership is useless! Their vision is lacking, ability inadequate, and most importantly, their capacity is insufficient! Their outlook is really too narrow!
Theyâre just a bunch of muscle-bound dumplings, their heads empty from all the iron pumping, claiming dominion over a marketplace as if theyâre kings, utterly embarrassing the Immortal Palace.
They have so many subordinates, such a large hunting team, the market and sales channels are already set, yet they canât roll this snowball. If it werenât for being delayed by Chan Ziâs side quest, he wouldâve walked away without looking back long ago.
Why? Because thereâs nothing interesting here!
The whole Beast Cage only captures and gathers a bunch of trash monsters. Frankly, these hunting leaders, those so-called tigers, are actually a bunch of pigs!
The Immortal Fate is inadequate, their insight lacking, and abilities are not up to par, just blindly wandering around this treasure trove in the Southern Border, wasting time, dying in vain, unable to snag anything good, not even scraps!
Come on! This is the Cultivation World! Where fate and causality are emphasized, strength is noted! Just gathering heads and pumping iron wonât help! If you canât use your people properly and have no place to wield your strength, you wonât achieve anything! The trash they slave away for canât even feed a few child laborers, not to mention what Chan Zi picks up outside!
Of course, this isnât an unbreakable bottleneck, nor an unsolvable obstacle after all.
Chen Xuantian, having Peng Juâs leveling experience, was long prepared for Yun Mengâs speedrun efficiency, and he could even swear by it.
As long as the Nangong Family is willing to kneel and acknowledge him, inviting him thrice like Liu Bei did to Zhuge Liang, honoring him as their honored guest, and respecting him as the military advisor brocade bag, making the Twelve Tiger Ministers follow his instructions obediently.
Within less than fifty years, assuming the company or Mystic Sect or Divine Sect doesnât intervene, itâs guaranteed within five years theyâll have eradicated all Yunmeng Swampâs monsters without even fish fry left, and then lay a solid foundation and forge a strong army to push along the Li River.
What Dragon King, Dragon Girl, and exotic beasts, capture them all, lock them in the Beast Cage for scaled breeding day and night. Then everyone will have Dragon Skin Armor to wear, everyone will have Taotie Pork Ribs to eat, and everyone will punch with dozens of layers of Gang Fist. Forget about avenging the Three Constellations, what canât they achieve?
But with this current attitude, whoâs going to take care of them if they die? At least Chan Zi shares a piece of bread with them...
So Chen Xuantian didnât bother to mess with the Nangong Family. Now that heâs found Chan Zi, heâs naturally changed his plans. Since his master also has a hunting team, itâs enough to get started. As long as his master isnât as difficult as the Nangong Family, use this team as leverage and sweep across the Southern Border.
Indeed, itâs just about finding a trustworthy and stable team, enduring the early development phase. Once the snowball starts rolling, resource acquisition is really fast! Tie Dan took just three to five years to almost become invincible, capable of stringing up the thousands-year-old Old Xuan Sect to beat them! Three to five years down the line, Chen Xuantian could find himself qualified to be the one strung up by the Old Xuan Sect!
Ahem, of course, while thereâs a ton of planning, the current level is too low, and pushing through maps alone is risky. To ensure stability, itâs best to wait for Chan Ziâs master to come back to discuss it further.
But while idle, letâs first level up to Level 1 then, conveniently thereâs a resource point nearby. Hmm, this is why the Nangong Family is not suitable, theyâre practically blind to the resource point right near the Beast Cage...
During this period, Chen Xuantian lightly flew over with some Qinggong, and without much effort, reached his destination. After calculating with fingers, he looked around, and this was indeed the place.
Sure enough, at first glance, it was a vast lake surface. Diving under the water revealed a large patch of aquatic plants, seemingly desolate but secretly full of Qiankun, precisely these aquatic plants... hiding miscellaneous fish within.
Locals call them Hidden Reed Fish. In essence, theyâre small fish hiding in the reeds, as slim and skinny as Willow Root Fish, entirely gray-brown, no more than an inch long. They live in groups in the upper layers of streams and lakes with fast-flowing, clear water, and high dissolved oxygen, hiding under the roots and decayed leaves of lakeside wetlandsâ reeds, calamus, or water chestnuts. They primarily feed on aquatic insects, mollusks, plankton, aquatic plants, and lake sand, serving as fodder for various large fish, big birds, and demons, practically at the bottom of Yunmeng Swampâs food chain.