Cooking Oil Over a Roaring Fire

Pingyun Mountain.

The mountain was covered entirely in pines and cypresses, teeming with endless birds and beasts. Agile mountain apes revealed themselves among the forests, letting out long howls into the sky, while smaller beasts scurried about, bringing vibrant life to the peak.

At its summit stood a towering ancient pine over ten zhang tall, its massive canopy casting shade over a hundred zhang.

This was the Huang Clan's first-grade spirit plant, the Green Pine. Its pine nuts were delicious and tender, holding the miraculous effect of advancing cultivation. A single nut rivaled three or four Qi-Enhancing Pills, making it highly sought after and beloved by cultivators far and wide.

Because of this, the Pingyun Huang Clan enjoyed a widespread reputation, earning the name of the Green Pine Huang Clan.

Huang Bailin, his white hair disheveled, sat cross-legged beneath the Green Pine. Feeling its rough, vigorous bark, he let out a silent, long sigh.

"Tell me, is the path my Huang Clan has taken right or wrong?"

Gusts of mountain wind swept past, causing the layered forest to sway and roar like an ocean wave, yet no one answered him.

The Green Pine was merely a first-grade spirit plant, naturally lacking any spiritual intelligence. He was only questioning his own Dao Heart.

"Eighteen years remain. Can Zhengming and the others truly rise up in time?" Huang Bailin murmured.

He was already one hundred and two years old. He had only eighteen years left before reaching the absolute lifespan limit of the Qi Condensation realm. Even if he were fortunate enough to obtain some life-extending methods, he would not survive much longer.

He deeply understood that while his clan currently basked in boundless glory, it was merely cooking oil over a roaring fire. If their successors proved mediocre-unable to suppress the various families of the four southern counties or resist the powerful clans of the prefecture-they might face sudden ruin.

The only reason the Li and Song families had yielded the business of the four southern counties to the Huang Clan was because of his existence. If Huang Bailin passed away and the Huang Clan's strength proved insufficient, those two families would naturally seize the territory back.

Given the current circumstances, the Huang Clan had no other choice.

They monopolized the four counties and ruthlessly extracted cultivation resources from the other immortal families simply to elevate the cultivation of Huang Zhengming and a few others as quickly as possible. They needed someone to prop up the family after his death.

After all, aside from him, the strongest member of the Huang Clan was Huang Zhengming, who was currently only at the fourth level of Qi Condensation.

To make matters worse, the path he cultivated was the Dao of Fire. Fire-attribute Heaven and Earth Qi had always been scarce. Aside from the great drought in Nanyang Prefecture a decade ago which brought a slight surplus, very little could be purchased in ordinary years.

Without specialized Heaven and Earth Qi, they could only rely on a massive accumulation of other cultivation resources to slowly grind away at the bottleneck, seeking a breakthrough through sheer water-grinding effort.

This was why the Huang Clan did not hesitate to squeeze the other families, desperately scraping together every available resource. They intended to pile everything onto Huang Zhengming and the others, forcing them to the seventh level of Qi Condensation within the next decade.

Huang Zhengming walked slowly up from the foot of the mountain and knelt respectfully before Huang Bailin.

He was not very old, only in his forties, and still maintained the handsome appearance of a youth.

"Grand-uncle."

Huang Bailin looked at this outstanding grand-nephew with eyes full of relief and spoke slowly. "How is your cultivation progressing?"

"The sixth level of Qi Condensation. I should be able to break through in a year or two."

This speed was by no means slow, yet a look of disappointment still surfaced on Huang Bailin's face.

At this rate, by the time he died, Huang Zhengming might barely break through to the seventh level of Qi Condensation.

And Huang Zhengming already possessed the highest aptitude in the Huang Clan, bearing a Spirit Light of a full two cun and eight fen.

As for the others, even their past breakthroughs had relied on luck. No matter how many resources were piled onto them, they would likely stagnate at the fourth or fifth level, completely unable to shoulder the clan's burdens.

"How is Xuanqing's alchemy progressing?"

"He can already refine Blood Replenishing Pills and Qi Recovering Pills. He succeeds about three or four times out of ten," Huang Zhengming replied respectfully.

"Then reduce the amount of pills you refine daily. Let Xuanqing handle it, and free up your time to focus properly on your cultivation."

Huang Bailin naturally understood that daily pill refinement drained a significant portion of Huang Zhengming's energy. Otherwise, backed by such immense resources, his cultivation would have advanced much further.

But he could not force Huang Zhengming to abandon alchemy completely. Pills were a massive source of wealth; a third of the Huang Clan's current income came from them. Cutting it off entirely would severely cripple the clan's development.

A single strong individual did not make a strong clan; collective strength was what mattered most.

While guaranteeing that Huang Zhengming reached the seventh level of Qi Condensation, they also had to consider the progress of the other Qi Condensation cultivators. If they could raise a few more to the fourth or fifth level, the clan would naturally stand firm.

"Your grandson understands," Huang Zhengming said, before hesitating slightly. "It is just... Old Man Black Crow has already reached the fifth level of Qi Condensation. Should we continue supplying him with living humans for his cultivation?"

Those not of our kin are bound to harbor different intentions.

The Huang Clan naturally understood this principle. This was exactly why Huang Bailin had injured Zhao Wuji while roping in the Fang and Fan families.

It was because Zhao Wuji had broken through to the seventh level of Qi Condensation five years ago.

In any alliance, the strongest naturally held the dominance. If Huang Bailin died, one didn't even need to guess-the Zhao family would inevitably come knocking to oppress them.

In contrast, the strongest cultivator in the Fang family was merely at the fifth level of Qi Condensation, and an old man even closer to the grave than Huang Bailin at that. Moreover, they obeyed the Huang Clan's every word. The Huang Clan naturally treated them as steadfast allies.

Although Old Man Black Crow was also nearing the end of his life, he had only begun cultivating in his twilight years. To reach the fifth level of Qi Condensation in just over twenty years meant that, at this rate, he might actually reach the peak of Qi Condensation before his lifespan exhausted. Huang Zhengming was naturally deeply concerned.

"Let him cultivate," Huang Bailin said with domineering authority. "In eighteen years, I will take him on a walk through the various families. I will slaughter every obstacle in your path."

The names of the experts from the various families continuously surfaced in Huang Bailin's mind.

Zhao Wuji, Wan Kongshan, Wei Donghai, Fan Yu, Zhou Ping...

Although he knew that all these families had cultivators roaming the outside world, making it impossible to completely eradicate their clan lands, these families were fierce. Once he died, they would threaten his own bloodline. Thus, he naturally had to clear away these internal threats for Huang Zhengming.

When his great limit approached, if any of these people possessed a cultivation above the seventh level of Qi Condensation, he would take Old Man Black Crow to execute them. Finally, he would eliminate Old Man Black Crow as well, removing that hidden danger while seeing if he could extract the man's cultivation technique from his corpse.

Naturally, he would only execute the strongest individuals and refrain from exterminating their entire families, leaving a thread of karmic mercy.

Huang Zhengming nodded and began his descent down the mountain, leaving Huang Bailin to sit alone beneath the Green Pine.

Meanwhile, within a certain building on Pingyun Mountain, Old Man Black Crow was indulging in pure depravity. He lay sprawled across a large chair, seemingly in a deep slumber. Spread around him were dozens of white bones, stripped entirely of flesh and blood.

Inside the room, several mortals stared at Old Man Black Crow in sheer terror. Among them were men and women, young children, and the elderly.

Every single one of them held their breath, shifting toward the door with agonizing care, terrified of making even the slightest noise.

This was a twisted game Old Man Black Crow played with these mortals. If they could escape the room before he awoke without making a sound, he would spare their lives.

A woman forced her trembling legs to move, finally reaching the wooden door. A look of overwhelming relief washed over her face.

But at that exact moment, a piercing, sharp crow's cry shattered the silence of the room!

"Caw-!"

A child jolted in fright, his trembling causing a tiny rustle. Everyone froze in absolute horror, too terrified to even turn their heads.

Yet, from behind them came a teasing, aged voice. "Someone made a sound."

Instantly, a frantic swarm of crows materialized from the shadows, blotting out the entirety of the room in a second.

"Caw-!"

"Caw, caw-!"

The deafening, ear-piercing shrieks of the crows echoed into the heavens, viciously intertwined with the miserable screams and agonizing wails of the mortals!

88.181.249.5

ns88.181.249.5da2