The lack of resources was fatal for a family!
Back at the Frigid Cloud Valley, Patriarch Cai once told Lu Li that all the assets of the Liu Family could only afford for one warrior to take three tries at the Fate Wheel Realm!
This was to say that if a warrior aspired to become a powerful one, numerous resources would be consumed. Without resources, there would be no powerful warriors. Then how would the family grow stronger?
When warriors of a family saw no resource and no hope of the family, who would commit to the family? Who would remain loyal? Maybe disciples, let alone warriors of the External Clan, would defect.
That was the reality!
During the battle at the Wu Ling County, the Liu Family spent most of the family resources in order to ask that powerful warrior to fight for them. After that, in order to get to the Thousand-island Lake, they lost and abandoned many of their Mystical Materials and treasures. They didn’t even bring one booklet of advanced Xuan Skill in.
At the Sundown Island, they were blackmailed out of more than 1000 Xuan Crystals. The Liu Family was poor now, in fact, they were impoverished. If they could not come up with something fast, they would all starve to death when all the women, children, the elderly and the invalid were relocated here.
Xuan Crystals must be acquired!
As long as there were Xuan Crystals, the Liu Family could buy resources. Homeless warriors would be solicited, and the Liu Family would grow.
A group of Patriarchs discussed for a whole afternoon and made many proposals. Finally, they decided to purchase some seeds of the Blood Caterpillar Grass and see if they could grow some. Even if the quality was poor, the crying needs could be met when there was some Xuan Crystals earned.
Patriarch Seven brought some treasures from the Liu Family and went to the Blood Evil Island again. They wanted to trade the treasure for seeds and methods of growing Blood Caterpillar Grass.
Patriarch Seven came back after one day. Xue Chou was generous. He didn’t even keep the treasures. He gave some seeds to the Liu Family for free along with growth methods.
However, Xue Chou clearly stated that the lava land at the Blood Dragon Island was not good enough. Maybe they would only be able to recover the costs of planning Blood Caterpillar Grass.
What "costs"?
To grow Blood Caterpillar Grasses would require a large quantity of fresh blood, the blood of beasts and animals. Normally, only after a year would the Blood Caterpillar Grasses bloom and bear fruit—the Blood Caterpillar Fruits. If irrigated by a lot of blood, the growth cycle would be shortened hugely. The Blood Caterpillar Grasses could bloom and bear fruit in half a month, and the quality would be improved.
There was no large beast on the island. The indigenous grasses on the Blood Dragon Island were toxic, and therefore could not be used to raise livestock. Purchasing was the way, and in a large quantity no less.
Of course, there was another way, which was purchasing a Xuan Beast called Blood Rhinoceros. The Blood Rhinoceros was huge in size and had a strong ability in generating blood. Blood of this kind of Xuan Beasts could be drained on a daily basis. But, if so, the Blood Rhinoceros could live for only three months.
Whichever it was, purchasing livestock or Blood Rhinoceros, Xuan Crystals were needed. If the quality of the Blood Caterpillar Fruits were not good enough, money would be lost…
Whether they were going to lose money or not, Patriarch Seven and the rest decided that they must give it a go. Patriarch Seven brought someone with him to purchase the Blood Rhinoceroses at God-down Island. If they were to buy livestock, there wouldn’t be enough animals as their demand was huge. Also, to butcher animals everyday would be brutal and too bloody. On the other hand, several Blood
Rhinoceroses could sustain them for three months. It could be done once and for all.
Several days later, three battleships came back with six Blood Rhinoceroses. Luckily, these Blood Rhinoceroses were water-borne animals. They could float on the lake. Otherwise, the battleships could not take them all as one of the Blood Rhinoceros was of the size of a small mountain.
It was all set. Patriarch Seven chose an open space in a valley as the farm. He planted 1000 Blood Caterpillar Grasses and had someone to take care of them day and night. At the same time, blood of the Blood Rhinoceroses would be drained every day at a set time to irrigate the Blood Caterpillar Grasses.
Recently, Liu Yi would visit the farm every day, and so did many Patriarchs. They had treated the Blood Caterpillar Grasses as the pearl.
However…
Several days later, their looks became more and more awful. The Blood Caterpillar Grasses in the farms started growing, but the color was light. There was no luster. They were far worse than the ones at the Blood Evil Island. Based on the information gathered by Patriarch Seven when he visited the Sundown Island, theirs were of the worst quality.
"My cultivation speed is too slow!"
Lu Li came out of his stone fort after staying in closed-door cultivation for seven or eight days. Now, he could simultaneously release seven strands of Xuan Power in his usage of the Rolling Thunder Xuan Skill. He couldn’t release more. Repeated tests and comprehension was a must.
The cultivation of Xuan Energy was a pain in the ass for Lu Li.
He had consulted Liu Yi about the cultivation of Spirit Sea, so he had some understanding. The cultivation of Spirit Sea Realm was mainly cultivating Xuan Energy and expanding the Spirit Sea.
When the Spirit Sea was expanded to twice its original size, the middle stage of the Spirit Sea Realm would be reached. The method of expanding was about the same with condensing the Spirit Sea. Sharp pain must be endured. Plus, Xuan Energy must be cultivated to the best state and the Xuan Energy must fill the Spirit Sea completely.
The Xuan Energy in the Spirit Sea was condensed. One strand of such Xuan Energy would be comparable to 100 strands of regular Xuan Energy of a warrior of the Xuan Wu Realm. To make the Xuan Energy fill the entire space of the Spirit Sea would demand a long time. At Lu Li’s current speed, it would take him three years.
Three years to the middle stage of the Spirit Sea Realm?
The how much longer before he could get to the latter stage of the Spirit Sea Realm? Five years, or 10? How much time it would take cost him to get to the Soul Pond Realm? And the Fate Wheel Realm?
It was beyond Lu Li’s imagination.
He now truly saw the importance of resources. Without the help of pellets to increase his cultivation speed, no matter how talented he was, it would be hard for him to get to the Soul Pond Realm in his entire life. As he grew older, the cultivation speed would be slower. The bodily functions would get worse as well…
Additionally, Little White was out of food. On their way to the Thousand-island Lake, Lu Li asked for some Fire Jade Spars from Liu Yi. When they were in the carriages, Lu Li secretly fed a few to Little White daily. Here in the stone fort, Lu Li had left Little White aside. Little White ate a whole bag in just a few days’ time. Lu Li had no choice but to emerge from his cultivation.
He circled around all the stone forts but did not find Liu Yi. After he asked around, he realized Liu Yi had gone to the farm.
Lu Li asked for the location of the farm and walked towards it. He also wanted to see what that Blood Caterpillar Grasses that were so valuable to the Liu Family were.
The farm was not far away. It was located in a small valley just about three miles to the south. The valley was surrounded by mountains on three sides. It was easy to supervise. Patriarch Seven had chosen this site as the farm for this reason.
When Lu Li arrived outside of the valley, he saw a small river outside. Two warriors were guarding at the mouth of the valley. Seeing it was Lu Li that had come here, they didn’t stop him. Lu Li strode in.
The valley was not big, only with a radius of a little more than 1000 feet. The weeds and trees were all cleared out. A red plant covered the brown dirt. A least 1000 plants were there judging by the first look.
The plants were small and red all over. They were only as wide as the middle finger. Four leaves were on the plants.
"Such a strong smell of blood!"
Lu Li went ahead with his nose covered. He saw a few cabins in the corner. A huge pond of blood was next to the cabins. The pond was full.
"Over there!"
He saw Liu Yi in a cabin. She had a frown on her face and was staring at the farm. Lu Li walked over and saluted her with his fists cupped in front of his chest, "Family Patriarch!"
"You are here." Liu Yi turned around and looked at him. She forced a smile and said, "Why aren’t you cultivating today?"
Lu Li pointed to Little White on his shoulder and said, "Little White has no food. I need some Fire Jade Spars."
The existence of Little White was known to many people, but they did not know that it was a Xuan Beast. They just assumed that it was Lu Li’s pet.
Lu Li once asked Liu Yi for Fire Jade Spar. She saw Little White ate them on few occasions. She did not find it strange, though. There were too many peculiar Xuan Beasts in the world. Stone Rats even ate stones.
However, Liu Yi frowned at this moment and said, "Lu Li, it’s not that I am cheap, but there is no more Fire Jade Spars in the family now. When we left the Wu Ling County, we had a big bag full of them, but the bag was lost outside of the Thousand-island Lake. You know the situation of our Family now. We cannot afford to buy Fire Jade Spars with Xuan Crystals. Maybe you can… get rid of your pet."