Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 161 The Tragedy of Puxian
Was it coming from home?
Li Xiangming's heart stirred. He took the communication jade slip handed to him and probed into it with his divine sense.

Sure enough, inside was the patriarch's order, instructing him to lead a group of people back to Tailai Peak to escort Li Xianghong to Pushui Market.

After putting down the jade slip, Li Xiangming said to Li Xianghua, "I will return home immediately. Please take care of Monkey Valley."

"Yes."

After discussing with Li Xianghua, Li Xiangming immediately summoned everyone from the animal trapping house.

Recruiting beast tamers is a major event, and the Beast Breeding Center will not only assign Li Xianghong alone, nor will Li Xiangming escort them alone.

Looking at the crowd in front of him, Li Xiangming pondered to himself.

Li Xiangchuan, as the deputy in charge, was to stay and take charge of the overall situation.

Li Qianzhong is currently gathering intelligence on monsters in Puyin Mountain. They were just discovering the migration of the Broken Jade Fox, and it would be inappropriate to suddenly interrupt their work.

Li Xiangting's team was working with Li Xiangchuan to capture monsters.

In contrast, Li Xiangfeng was the most free.

Logically speaking, Li Xiangming should have brought Li Xiangfeng with him, as this person had been by his side for a long time and was easy to use.

But Li Xiangfeng was the only person besides himself who knew the Puyinshan Guild Hall well.

Just as the traveling merchants were collectively dealing with Zhang Mazi, Li Xiangming was worried that Zhang Mazi would resort to desperate measures, so he asked Li Xiangfeng to take charge of the squad in his place and station them near the animal trapping camp and Taibai Restaurant in order to provide armed support to the guild hall.

If Zhao Jindou and the others cannot find themselves or Li Xiangfeng, their morale will likely collapse.

After much deliberation, Li Xiangming decided to leave Li Xiangfeng behind and instead select Li Xiangting's squad to accompany him to Pushui Market.

There's no rush to capture monsters anyway.

After finalizing the work plan for the animal trapping facility, Li Xiangming, Li Xiangting, and the other five left Puyin Mountain.

When Li Xiangming passed by Qingyang Temple, he stopped there. When he found it empty, he couldn't help but feel worried.

It's been almost a year since Qingyang Daoren went out to gather herbs, hasn't it?
But there has been no word from them!
With a sigh, Li Xiangming stopped thinking about it and returned directly to Tailai Peak.
-
"Did something happen to the Blackwater Serpent?"

On the Beast Breeding Peak, Li Xiangming was greatly surprised!
"That's right. The Blackwater Serpent has the ability to change its size. We didn't replace the Demon-Trapping Talisman in time, and it almost escaped."

Li Xianghong blushed, feeling somewhat guilty.

The animal breeding facility now receives strong support from the family, with guards and service monks stationed day and night, making it heavily fortified.

Even the Talisman Array Room is working hard to refine Demon-Trapping Talismans or set up arrays for the major beast farms, making the Beast Breeding Peak an impenetrable fortress.

Even so, the Blackwater Serpent almost escaped.

The root cause lies in the mismanagement of the animal trapping facilities.

As the deputy in charge, Li Xianghong cannot escape blame.

As for Li Qianyuan, who was in charge, he certainly also bore responsibility.

However, Li Qianyuan is not a beast tamer; his main responsibility is to coordinate with his family to secure greater benefits and support for the animal breeding facility.

All the work related to beast taming was in Li Xianghong's hands.

However, Li Xianghong was good at controlling beasts, but not at controlling people.

This is not the first time an accident has occurred at the animal trapping facility.

"The Blackwater Serpent once ran out of the Beast Breeding Peak, but fortunately the family reacted in time. More than a dozen cultivators stopped the Blackwater Serpent, and then the family head personally took action to subdue it."

Li Qianyuan told Li Xiangming the details, and Li Xiangming's heart trembled as he listened.

You must know, he risked his life to get the Blackwater Serpent back.

It wasn't that the process of capturing the Blackwater Serpent was particularly dangerous, but afterwards, they encountered the Burning Sky Ape and narrowly escaped death.

By the way, Li Xiangru still can't get out of bed.

If the Blackwater Serpent escapes, Li Xiangming will be so angry he'll vomit blood.

"Xiang Hong, the Blackwater Serpent is my heart and soul; I cannot afford to lose it." Li Xiangming earnestly and repeatedly urged him.

"I know! This will never happen again."

Li Xianghong lowered his head and whispered his guarantee.

Seeing this, Li Xiangming said nothing more.

But he knew that once there was one, there would be two, and Li Xianghong's cultivation level was relatively low and his prestige was insufficient.

He is also fond of research and often doesn't show his face for more than ten days.

The beast tamers below naturally became lax and did not strictly follow the beast taming procedures set by the beast breeding room.

To change this situation, we need to recruit a highly skilled and authoritative beast tamer to free Li Xianghong and allow him to take charge of specialized beast taming work.

Li Qianxiong must have been well aware of this, otherwise he wouldn't have repeatedly reminded himself of it.

Upon his return, Li Xiangming not only needs to protect Li Xianghong, but also needs to help him select and recruit not only beast tamers, but also experienced beast tamers.
-
After leaving Beast Breeding Peak, Li Xiangming and his group, along with Li Qianyuan, Li Xianghong, and two other beast tamers, a total of ten people, headed to Pushui Market.

The journey was uneventful.

Everywhere he looked, there were refugees who were barely clothed. They were thin and emaciated, with sunken eyes, and they staggered across the desolate land, each step dragging endless exhaustion and despair.

"Puxian County is experiencing food shortages, and refugees are everywhere. It's pitiful!"

Li Xianghong's eyes were filled with pity. He had always stayed in Danggui Mountain, and his family provided for everything he needed. He had never seen such a tragic scene before.

"It's all Bailu Gate's fault."

Li Qianyuan muttered something, expressing his dissatisfaction with Bailumen's actions.

Indeed, Master Xuanling had planned for several months and succeeded in eliminating the locust demon and quelling the locust plague.

However, the famine that followed the locust plague continued to ravage this land.

But Bailu Gate remained indifferent.

Not only did they fail to properly handle the conflict with Hengyue Sect, resulting in a large amount of grain already purchased being trapped in Zhangning Prefecture, but they also failed to cooperate with forces in Shun'an Prefecture such as Qixuan Sect and Yinglong Sect to introduce local grain to make up for the crisis.

Even worse, to avoid being blamed, Bailumen forcibly relocated hundreds of thousands of households in the Pushui River basin to other jurisdictions.

Some of these people were accepted, such as the Li family of Danggui Mountain, who established Su'an Township and accepted 40,000 households.

The reason why the Li family was able to absorb this population was partly due to proper management, and partly because the Li family had a foundation of hundreds of years—at least the Li family was able to build Su'an Township within a few months.

However, more than 80% of the people in Pu County are emerging forces that were granted titles due to their military achievements, such as the Chi family of Xiaolangu and the Feihu Cave of Daishan.

While these forces may have a powerful leader, their foundation is insufficient to control large territories and populations.

Even if refugees enter the territory of these emerging powers, they are still forced to wander in the wilderness, surviving by chewing tree roots and eating yellow soil.

During this time, countless lives were lost in silence, their deaths utterly meaningless.

Bailumen could not have been unaware of all this, but they still chose to do it anyway.

Li Xiangming sighed deeply at this.

Mortals are like ants, insignificant in the face of cultivators.

Ironically, even seemingly extraordinary cultivators are nothing more than cannon fodder in the face of stronger individuals at higher levels.

Only by exhausting all paths to the Dao, reaching the realm of immortals, and mastering the great power of heaven and earth, can one break free from all constraints and take control of one's own destiny.

However, how difficult it is!
"Let's get on with it."

Li Xiangming shook his head. The famine in Puxian County would last for at least a year and a half, and there was nothing he could do about it.

As for attaining immortality, that's an unattainable dream.

All he can do is deal with the present moment.

(End of this chapter)