73: Chapter 73 Return

Outside of Qingyang Mountain, Chen Yuanwen led the Chen Family members to clean up the corpses of the Yao Beasts.

Over a hundred Rank-1 Yao Beasts, if completely exchanged for Spirit Stones, would amount to at least several thousand.

Just as the Chen Family members were still processing the Yao Beasts, a group of Cultivators came from afar.

The aura of each of the leading Cultivators made the Chen Family tremble with fear; these few individuals were all Foundation Establishment Cultivators who had been ordered to come around Qingyang Mountain to establish a Tier-3 Formation.

At the same time, the Li, Zhao, Wang, and Zhou families also faced the same situation. After understanding the intentions of these Cultivators, the several families, just like the Chen Family, had no choice but to accept them.

The main reason was because this was an order personally issued by the Yuxu Sect; otherwise, how could they possibly allow other Cultivators to wander around inside and outside their homes at will.

Coupled with the fact that the Chen Family's current Foundation Establishment Cultivators were on the battlefield, even if they wanted to refuse, they did not have the strength to do so.

After the Formation was set up, several days had already passed.

The few Foundation Establishment Cultivators did not treat themselves as outsiders at all in the Chen Family, directly Cultivating within the Tier-2 Immortal Cave carved out by the Chen Family. This infuriated the Chen Family members, who were about to step forward to reason with them, but they were stopped by Chen Yuanwen. After all, some of them came from Purple Mansion factions, and some came from Foundation Establishment factions far stronger than the Chen Family, leaving the Chen Family with no choice but to endure it.

As for the Qi Refining Cultivators brought by those Foundation Establishment Cultivators, seeing that the leading Foundation Establishment Senior didn't give the Chen Family any Face at all, and that the Chen Family dared not make any other moves...

Immediately, their attitude became much more arrogant. Some of the Cultivators forcibly occupied the Chen Family's fine Cultivation Immortal Caves, while others, driven by lust, wanted to go to the Chen Family's backyard to bully some fair-faced women.

These overbearing actions directly provoked the Chen Family into taking action against them, and both sides immediately became at loggerheads.

Although every member of the Chen Family was fearless of life and death, in the initial disputes involving only a dozen or so people, relying on the resources of these past years and the Chen Family's fierce Heart-Nature, they beat those Cultivators who wanted to come to the Chen Family's backyard until they were quite heavily injured.

However, as these conflicts intensified and more and more Cultivators from both sides got involved, the Chen Family gradually found themselves at a disadvantage. Originally, there weren't many Family members, and a portion of Cultivators had been conscripted to the battlefield. In contrast, the opposing Cultivators stationed in the Chen Family not only numbered nearly one hundred and fifty, but their cultivation realms had all reached the Middle Stage of Qi Refining and above, with over thirty of them being in the Late Qi Refining Stage.

Fortunately, the Chen Family had anticipated this kind of thing right from the beginning, gathering all Family members and every treasure in the Family treasury here in the Chen Family's backyard, and setting up two Rank-1 Top-Grade Formations, which barely managed to save their own Face.

Now, across the entire Qingyang Mountain, apart from some spiritual rice and resources that could not be taken away, there was nothing else worth noting. Even the blood sun grass on the Tier-2 Spiritual Vein had long been uprooted and put away. It had to be said that Chen Yuanwen truly lived up to being the person with the highest intelligence in the Family, having made all preparations long ago during the period when those Cultivators were setting up the Formation.

As for the remaining four families, the Li and Zhao families had more Foundation Establishment Cultivators, so those Cultivators did not dare to act too presumptuously. As for the Wang and Zhou families, their luck wasn't as good; these past few days, some of the female relatives within their families were directly seized to serve others, prompting Cultivators from both families to directly resort to violence. Although quite a few Cultivators died during this period, those who suffered the most casualties were still the Wang and Zhou families.

However, these minor episodes were naturally not worth mentioning in the eyes of the Yuxu Sect; they could only blame themselves for being too weak.

On the road, Chen Changqing received word that the Family had a major conflict with the Cultivators dispatched by the Yuxu Sect, and he hurried back. He was already close to Qinghe County and would arrive in just another day or two.

In the Chen Family's backyard, Chen Yuanwen helplessly watched many Qi Refining Cultivators outside attacking the Formation day after day. Originally, he had wanted to coordinate a solution, but in the end, a conflict still broke out.

Another day passed.

One of the two sets of Rank-1 Top-Grade Formations had already been damaged, and the other was nearly finished.

Although not all Cultivators participated in the siege of the Chen Family, over half of them did, and they were not ordinary Cultivators—almost all of them had better backgrounds than the Cultivators of the Chen Family.

Those few Foundation Establishment individuals had long discovered the situation here, but they neither participated nor stopped it.

Anyway, the Chen Family only had one Foundation Establishment Cultivator; even if they wanted to take revenge later, they lacked the strength, not to mention whether they would even dare.

"Bastards, this group of beasts!" Chen Changtian shouted angrily. Thinking of the grievances of these past few days, even a Chen Family Cultivator of his relatively lenient nature couldn't help but start cursing.

"Changqing is coming back. As long as he arrives, even if he can't deal with those Foundation Establishment Cultivators, these mere Qi Refining Cultivators won't be able to make any major waves," Chen Yuanwen said in a deep voice. In the current Family, apart from Chen Xuanyi, the only one they could rely on was Chen Changqing. Thinking back to when Chen Changqing first appeared before him, he was still a very shy child.

Bang!

A relatively small gap was ripped open in the Rank-1 Top-Grade Formation, and the recovery speed was much slower than before. It seemed that this Formation was also reaching its limit.

Seeing this, a surge of resoluteness welled up in the hearts of the Chen Family members.

Someone angrily said, "At worst, we'll fight them to the death."

"Right, if they want to deal with our Chen Family, at worst we'll all die together!" Many others echoed in agreement.

The external Cultivators frantically attacked this gap. As the gap grew larger and larger, some Cultivators greedily looked at the delicately-featured women in the back of the Chen Family, while others stared at the Storage Pouches of the Chen Family Cultivators and the Chen Family's treasury.

During this period of time, they had long figured out certain things, such as why the overall Cultivator quality of the Chen Family was close to or even surpassed theirs. Logically speaking, a Family with only one Foundation Establishment Cultivator could never achieve this.

However, to the Cultivators who had learned about it, it turned out that the Chen Family had obtained a large sum of resources in their early years, and should still have quite a bit left. Coupled with the annual net income of a Foundation Establishment Family, nearly one hundred Qi Refining Cultivators like them could each obtain a substantial amount of Spirit Stones as long as they breached the Chen Family.

Although they had already scavenged a pile of spiritual rice, Spirit Medicine, and some valuable treasures from Qingyang Mountain, this was still not enough to make them stop. Moreover, the Yuxu Sect only asked them and others to garrison the area, without explicitly saying they couldn't do other things. Besides, it was the Chen Family that started it first; they were merely engaging in self-defense.

"Charge." I don't know who shouted this sentence, but most of the external Cultivators hurriedly rushed forward, fearing that others would seize the treasures first.

Chen Yuanwen was the first to rush forward, pinching several Tier-2 Low Grade ice crystal talismans in his hand, and the other few Chen Family Cultivators did the same.

Seeing this, that group of Cultivators was terrified in their hearts and immediately stopped in their tracks. Several Late Qi Refining Stage Cultivators among them also pulled out Tier-2 Talismans.

The two sides faced each other, remaining mutually vigilant.

"Audacious!"

Just as that group of Cultivators couldn't hold back anymore and intended to strike regardless of the consequences, a voice carrying terrifying coercion exploded in the ears of every Qi Refining Cultivator.

Opposite the Chen Family, countless Cultivators bled from their ears and noses, and some even directly passed out.

Even the several Foundation Establishment Cultivators in seclusion on the Chen Family's Spiritual Vein felt an unusual Divine Sense coercion, and they successively came out of their seclusion quarters, looking at that cyan figure in the distant horizon.