Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 13 Patrolling the Mountains
As a newly risen star in the Li family, the Police Department certainly had a lot of influence. In just three days, Li Xiangru brought the family head's transfer order.

This time, Li Xiangming accepted it readily. Since there was a transfer order, he didn't say anything, and Li Qianyuan from the fourth branch also hinted that he should join the police force.

Next, the two went to the outer courtyard to meet the hall master, Li Xiangren.

This was also the first time Li Xiangming had met his renowned cousin.

Li Xiangren was already twenty-eight years old, but he looked like he was only in his early twenties. He was tall and slender, with a handsome appearance, especially his pair of sword-like eyebrows, which added to his heroic spirit.

It is said that this person once followed Li Huinan to guard Pushui Town for ten years and made many contributions. After the Wuliang Sword Sect defeated the Nanbin Demon Clan, they quickly returned to Luqing Road. As a result, the Demon Clan was restless and launched many counterattacks.

As one of the main forces in the later stages of the Battle of Nanbin, Hengyue Sect built several large camps for cultivators along the Pu River. At that time, the Li family, who were vassals, were also active in Pu County because of this.

Li Xiangren was very easy to talk to. He didn't have the arrogance that comes with geniuses. On the contrary, he was very good at dealing with people. He chatted with Li Xiangming for a long time and even invited the two of them to stay for lunch.

After the meal, Li Xiangren convened a meeting to formally announce Li Xiangming's joining the company.

Eleven people attended the meeting, but according to Li Xiangru, the entire police station, including Li Xiangming, has twelve official members and eight probationary members, totaling twenty people.

The distinction between formal members and prospective members is mainly based on their cultivation level. For example, Li Xiangming, who is at the sixth level of Qi Refining, is a prospective member, while Li Xianghua, who is at the seventh level of Qi Refining, is a formal member.

The treatment and say of probationary members are not as good as those of regular members, but in daily tasks, there is actually no difference between the two.

In short, these twenty people encompassed almost all the elites of the Li family's Xiang generation.

"Xiangming, go patrol the mountains in Yin District. Be careful."

After some pleasantries, Li Xiangming was assigned his jurisdiction, located northeast of Danggui Mountain.

When a police station is newly established, the most important thing is to understand the surrounding situation.

Li Xiangren devised a plan: using the twelve earthly branches (子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥) as directions, he divided the 200-li Danggui Mountain into twelve areas, assigning one person to each area to patrol and investigate any activity.

In addition, at the heart of Tailai Peak, four people are on standby on the mountain, while four others guard the four directions at the foot of the mountain.

Each person's jurisdiction and tasks are not fixed. They rotate every three months, which means they rotate four times a year. After working for a few years, they can basically become familiar with the entire Danggui Mountain area.

As a newcomer, Li Xiangming was immediately assigned to patrolling the mountain, a task that was more arduous than guarding the mountain. However, he did not complain, as the patrol missions were rewarded with more merit points.

Merit and achievements are good things.

After packing his things, Li Xiangming left the police station, and at the same time, he realized why Li Xiangru was in such a hurry to find him.

It turns out that Li Xiangyu, the original head of Yin District, went into seclusion, supposedly to try and break through to the ninth level of Qi Refining. The patriarch granted him special permission to leave the police station and focus on cultivation.

The three districts of Yin, Mao, and Chen on the east side of Danggui Mountain are all dense forests, stretching for over a hundred miles, with extremely poor visibility. The Li family has put in a lot of effort to clear out this area.

Even so, he still couldn't completely tame this dense forest. Along the way, Li Xiangming saw no fewer than ten monsters.

However, most of them were weak demonic beasts that posed no threat to cultivators, so Li Xiangming did not make a move.

However, letting them off the hook doesn't mean ignoring them.

Li Xiangming took out the jade slip he had received from the police station, which was engraved with the character "寅" (Yin). He used his divine sense to record the shape, origin, range of appearance, and special features of the animals into the jade slip—this was the police station's main task.

At that time, the family will only need to check the jade slip to have a complete understanding of Danggui Mountain.

And so, Li Xiangming patrolled the mountains during the day and practiced cultivation in a random corner at night, living a life of working during the day and resting at night.
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A month later.

Li Xiangming woke up covered in sweat during his cultivation.

Is this the bottleneck?

Suppressing his palpitations, Li Xiangming opened his palm, which was still damp.

Even though he had returned to Dangui Mountain and had no shortage of spiritual energy and elixirs, his cultivation efficiency actually decreased significantly.

Moreover, he often feels chest tightness, and is even startled awake when he is in deep meditation.

The key issue is that this heart palpitation is completely unpredictable and impossible to prevent.

Left with no other choice, he took out a Qingling Pill and swallowed it, then slowly began to regulate his breathing.

The Cleansing Spirit Pill was a parting gift from the gray-robed Taoist priest. It had the effect of calming the mind and was quite effective in assisting cultivation. However, the Cleansing Spirit Pill only treated the symptoms, not the root cause, and at most allowed him to cultivate in peace for a short period of time.

He has consumed half a bottle of Qingling Pills in the past month.

Although I haven't heard of any side effects of the Qingling Pill, every medicine has some degree of toxicity. Even the mildest Huangya Pill is not recommended to be taken in large quantities by alchemists, let alone other pills.
Do we really have to use the Heavenly Tranquility Dew?
Li Xiangming couldn't help but feel conflicted. This thing was a lower-grade substitute for the Foundation Establishment Pill, and it was extremely rare. Once it was used, it was almost impossible to get a second drop.

"Wait a little longer, don't be impatient."

Li Xiangming offered a word of comfort, saying that being anxious would not help.

I've only been stuck in this bottleneck for less than a year, while others take three to five years, or even ten or twenty years.

He's only eighteen, he can wait!
What if the bottleneck disappears on its own after a while?

There are precedents for this in the cultivation world.

With that thought in mind, Li Xiangming stopped cultivating and got up to begin his work for the day.

After working in the Yin District for a month, he also gained his own insights and devised four patrol routes for this dense forest, randomly walking one of them every day to prevent any monsters from hiding from him.

So far, the results seem to be good. He hasn't seen any new monsters for three days, which means that he has recorded more than 90% of the monsters in the Yin District.

Besides monsters, Li Xiangming is also responsible for recording some spiritual materials. For example, today he followed behind a wild boar with long tusks and a palm-sized bark and unexpectedly discovered a hornwort.

Achyranthes bidentata has the effect of promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. It is often used by alchemists to refine pills to repair injuries or enhance the effects of other pills.

Achyranthes bidentata, which is not used in elixirs, is indigestible for humans, but demonic beasts do not have this limitation; as long as they consume it, they can increase their qi and blood power.

But the wild boar remained perched to one side, showing little interest in the ox knee flowers.

"These days, even wild boars are this polite?"

Li Xiangming scratched his head, puzzled. If he wouldn't eat even ripe spiritual materials, did he just eat and drink recklessly all the time?

Li Xiangming thought it was possible; when it came to finding spiritual materials, even ten of him couldn't compare to these local demonic beasts.

After thinking about it, I realized it was unlikely. If that were the case, I wouldn't still be this size.

For most monsters, size represents combat power.

"I'll observe for two days first."

Li Xiangming did not rashly collect the ox knee flower, but instead lay in wait nearby.

It wasn't until two days later that he noticed something was wrong.

A giant wild boar, two meters long, swaggered up in front of Li Xiangming.

"Good guy."

Li Xiangming never expected that a pig demon would appear in his jurisdiction.

Demons and beasts are completely different. No matter how savage a demon or beast may be, it is still among the beasts. But anything that can be called a demon is a monster that has awakened intelligence and possesses demonic power.

Everyone knows that magic can create all things, but demonic power is also derived from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth that demons breathe in and transform. It has the same origin as magic and is equally infinitely variable.

Facing a demon is equivalent to facing a cultivator; therefore, in the cultivation world, demons are also called demon cultivators.

The term "demon race" is a general term for demon cultivators and demon beasts, excluding wild animals.

The demon race has a strict hierarchy. The wild boar in front of the boar demon appeared very humble, lying directly on the ground and wagging its tail like a puppy.

The pig demon grunted and said something, while the wild boar offered the ox knee flower as if it were a treasure.

The boar demon circled the ox knee flower twice, seemingly quite satisfied, and then made a few more "plop" sounds, wagging its tail even more enthusiastically.

Seeing this, Li Xiangming immediately understood what had happened.
The wild boar in his jurisdiction is offering tribute to the boar demon.

Just as the pig demon was about to feast, Li Xiangming snorted and swept the sand and dust from his sleeves toward the ox knee flower.

(End of this chapter)