226: Chapter 226 Western Expedition and Plunder!

Among them, the reaction of White Cloud Temple was the fastest!

The night the news arrived, Daoist Yun Du summoned all the Foundation Establishment Cultivator of the Sect and held an emergency meeting overnight.

The next day, they decisively launched the Western Expedition!

Everyone knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; if missed, who knew how many years it would take for such a prosperous era to come again.

After a day of sleepless preparations, early on the third day.

Over the Yunjian Mountain Range, five warships took to the air. Each flying ship was fully a hundred zhang in size, and with all five coming out together, it was as if they blocked the sky and sun!

On the day of departure.

Under the jurisdiction of the Ming Prefecture Northern Protectorate, over seventy Foundation Establishment Families responded to the call, gathering one after another, moving their entire clans!

Some families brought five or six Foundation Establishment Cultivator and brought along over a hundred Qi Refining Disciples, while some small families only brought one or two Foundation Establishment Cultivator and a dozen clansmen, looking quite shabby.

But regardless of size, those who could come, came.

There was no other reason; profit was paramount. Who would think money burns their hands?

The scale of the gathered army was extremely shocking, with a full ninety-seven Foundation Establishment Cultivator, plus nearly ten thousand Qi Refining Cultivators in tow!

Aside from the five warships, there were twelve thirty-zhang flying ships, arranged in a column to guard the flanks of the warships.

With ten thousand Cultivators following the fleet, they Advanced westward in a mighty force. The scale of this Formation was comparable to a small-scale national war!

This was the current Foundation of the Ming Prefecture Northern Protectorate.

Among the four Protectors of Ming Prefecture, the Northern Protectorate under White Cloud Temple was the most powerful, and it could be considered the face of Ming Prefecture.

This time, Shi Jian did not accompany them.

It was too conspicuous for a Golden Core Great Demon to join the Human Race army on an expedition, but many of his subordinate Yao Beasts did go.

Elder Rat brought the elites of the Wind Rat lineage and mingled with the team.

Shuang Yu brought two young Icefield Bears and followed the Zhao Family's team, intending to earn some battle merits and spiritual items...

The Black Dog Clan and the Five Bear Lineages also had Foundation Establishment Great Demons accompanying them; in such a gluttonous feast, they just wanted a share of the spoils.

The army's Western Expedition went smoothly all the way.

Forces along the way, seeing the massive momentum of White Cloud Temple, retreated one after another.

In peaceful times, various forces would exchange courtesies, but in this day and age, in chaotic times, the rules of the cultivation world have always been that whoever has the harder fist makes the rules...

The appearance of nearly a hundred Foundation Establishment Cultivator was an undeniable force in any province.

Not to mention the leader, Daoist Yun Du, who was a Golden Core Master.

The twelve flying ships set out from Ming Prefecture, passed through the lands of Yin Province, crossed the wilderness of Huang Province, and went straight into the newly established Demon Province territory.

The moment they entered Demon Province, everyone smelled the stench of blood.

It was not a metaphor; it was the real smell of blood.

On the land after the war, there were charred ruins, collapsed forts, and thousands of corpses that had not yet been collected everywhere...

"This is war."

Daoist Yun Du stood at the bow of the ship, his face calm, his heart filled with emotions.

"Pass the order to each Family to act separately according to the previously divided zones."

"Take two months as the deadline. After two months, gather at Tianlie City in Demon Province."

"Remember, no one is allowed to touch the forbidden areas designated by the Shangqing Sect. Do not provoke the territories of other forces either."

"We are latecomers, don't go too far."

"But anything ownerless, whether it be Spiritual Veins, mineral deposits, Immortal Caves, or remnant demonic Cultivators, take them all into your pockets!"

"Squeeze out the last bit of value from this place."

Hearing Daoist Yun Du's message, the group of Foundation Establishment Cultivator bowed from afar and received the order together. In an instant, ninety-seven auras were released simultaneously, causing birds and beasts in the distant sky to flee in terror.

The army dispersed like a pack of hungry wolves, pouncing on this devastated land.

The White Cloud Temple headquarters, led personally by Daoist Yun Du, headed straight for a remnant site of a Demon Sect in the north of Demon Province.

This place was originally a Demonic Path force under the Blood Bone Demon Sect, called the "Phage-Heart Sect."

At the end of the war, the Phage-Heart Sect was crushed by the Shangqing Sect's army, and all the Golden Core Cultivators in the Sect perished, but the mountain gate remained. Underground, there were still two Rank 3 Spiritual Veins buried.

When the flying ships arrived, the mountain gate of the Phage-Heart Sect was already in ruins.

The once majestic halls had been blasted into gravel and rubble, the Formations were shattered, and the Spiritual Qi was dissipating in all directions...

A broken flag was stuck crookedly at the entrance, with the two characters "Phage-Heart" written on it, almost illegible due to wind and rain erosion.

Daoist Yun Du felt no sigh of emotion.

He jumped off the flying ship, formed seals with both hands, and a golden light probed into the ground.

In a moment, he opened his eyes, and a satisfied look appeared on his face.

"Two Rank 3 Spiritual Veins, one Medium Grade, one Low Grade."

"The Medium Grade one has had most of its Spiritual Qi extracted, but the root remains, so it can be saved. The Low Grade one is still intact; it should not have been extracted yet."

"Branch Master Yun Ci, take people down and dig out the Spiritual Veins."

"Yes!"

Branch Master Yun Ci responded and left, leading a dozen Foundation Establishment Cultivator and hundreds of Qi Refining Disciples to drill into the ground and begin setting up the vein-extraction Formation.

Extracting Spiritual Veins is a technical job; violent extraction will damage the roots, so one must follow the veins' patterns and cut them off section by section.

But at this moment, who cared about delicate operations?

Time is everything.

If you don't rob it, others will snatch it all.

Therefore, Branch Master Yun Ci's method was extremely brutal, directly using forbidden techniques to strip the Spiritual Veins from the earth, sealing them into storage Magical Artifacts. Regardless of how much the quality was damaged, he just wanted to get his hands on them first.

Under such operations.

A root Foundation of this Rank 3 Medium Grade Spiritual Vein was tossed and turned into Rank 3 Low Grade, but at least it was obtained...

At the same time, another group of people was rummaging through the ruins of the mountain gate for remaining supplies.

Storage Pouches, Cultivation Technique Jade Slips, broken Medicinal Pill bottles, remaining Artifact Refining materials... Anything valuable was boxed up and taken away.

Even the Formation bases laid on the ground, those Spirit Stone slabs carved with runes, were pried up one by one, stacked neatly, and moved onto the cargo ships.

As for the remaining demonic Cultivator captives...

They searched everywhere for remaining demonic Cultivators and actually captured hundreds of ragged Demonic Path Cultivators.

Most of them were in the Qi Refining Stage, with an occasional waste in the Foundation Establishment - Early Stage. The reason they were called waste was that their Dantians had all been shattered, losing their ability to Cultivate.

Only a Physical Body and a bit of strength remained.

The men were incorporated into the Immortal Slave team to serve as laborers in the future, mining, transporting, repairing Formations... working until they died.

As for the women...

"Pick out those with good quality separately."

A deacon elder ordered: "After returning, send them to the black market and sell them to those Cultivators who need Cauldrons."

"The higher the cultivation, the more valuable they are. A Foundation Establishment - Early Stage Cauldron can sell for at least tens of thousands of Spirit Stones. This is high-grade merchandise!"

This was said flatly, as if picking cabbage at a vegetable market.

No one felt there was anything wrong with it.

The cultivation world is like this; the weak are fish and meat, and the strong are the knife and the chopping board.

Demonic Cultivators treat righteous Cultivators this way, and righteous Cultivators treat demonic Cultivators the same way.

Whoever wins, the result is the same.

Regarding how to torture their own kind, the Human Race is the most authoritative existence under this heaven; compared to the Human Race.

The cruelty of the Yao Race perhaps only stays at physical torture and destruction.

While the Human Race, towards their own kind, subjects them to double humiliation on the Physical Body and the soul; even the Yao Race would have to bow down in comparison.

The first month of the army's Western Expedition.

White Cloud Temple and various forces were like locusts crossing the border; wherever they went, not a blade of grass was left. Even a brick that looked unique had to be dug up!

Like some spiritual fields, as long as the Spiritual Qi was a bit abundant, they had to peel off a layer of soil to take away.

This team from the Ming Prefecture Northern Protectorate swept from the east of Demon Province to the center, destroying seventeen large and small Demonic Path remnant forces.

The harvest was quite considerable: two Rank 3 Spiritual Veins, eleven Rank 2 spiritual veins, over thirty Rank 1 Spiritual Veins, and six types of spiritual mineral deposits, with entire veins being destructively mined.

There were also eight medium and large spiritual plant herb gardens, where even the soil layer was stripped down three feet!

The Magical Artifacts, Medicinal Pills, and Talismans of each Family were countless.

Nearly three thousand Immortal Slave captives were recruited.

Among them, those with good quality as Cauldrons were registered separately, waiting to be auctioned uniformly after the return trip.

The cargo holds of the entire fleet were more than half full in half a month, forcing them to return to Ming Prefecture to unload the cargo temporarily before returning again.

Zhao Yanshan led the Zhao Family's team and operated in the southeast of Demon Province.

Their harvest, although not as rich as the White Cloud Temple headquarters, still captured two Rank 2 spiritual veins, plus an iron spirit mine of decent quality.

What satisfied Zhao Yanshan the most was digging out over thirty volumes of Cultivation Technique Jade Slips from a demonic Cultivator's Immortal Cave. Although they were all Demonic Techniques, a technique is a technique; deconstructing the ideas of the spells within was also helpful for his own Disciples' cultivation.

At worst, he could take them to the black market to sell, which could still be exchanged for a large amount of Spirit Stones.

The Zhao lineage, in this Western Expedition, could be considered to have eaten until they were fat and full; their Foundation increased explosively, and there were signs of rising again!