Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 457 Helping Hand
"you"

Shi Fengxue stared blankly at that retreating figure.

The enormous monster stood in stark contrast to the opponent's "thin" body.

However, it was this seemingly ordinary figure that effortlessly broke the neck of the Thunder Crimson Demon Eagle, known as the "evil spirit."

"Master Li!"

Several excited shouts rang out.

The group of people behind them surged toward them like birds returning to their nests.

Shi Fengxue finally came to her senses and realized that she was saved. She tightly gripped "Cui Luan" and whispered, "My mother, save my mother!"

Li Xiangming casually shook off the golden-eyed "bald ghost" and glanced back at Shi Fengxue.

This child, at such a young age, already possessed the cultivation level of the sixth level of Qi Refining, and his magical power was quite substantial, demonstrating his solid foundation. Yet, in front of the Thunder Crimson Ghost Eagle, whose cultivation level was not far behind, he performed so poorly.

Even though he has met so many people, he is still one of a kind.

"Stand still."

Li Xiangming spoke calmly, then flicked his finger, sending out several cold stars.

"quack!!"

The Thunder Crimson Demon Eagles that surrounded the woman in the blue dress cried out in agony. Three out of four were killed, and the remaining one desperately flapped its wings and flew high, disappearing into the clouds.

Li Xiangming ignored it and instead flicked his sleeve, revealing the massive Black Water Serpent, which stood like a gate to hell between the Crimson Flame Demon Hunting Team and the flying demon beasts chasing behind them.

"Hiss!"

The Blackwater Serpent let out a low whimper, as if it were roaring in anger.

A powerful aura unique to demonic beasts was revealed.

Dozens of flying beasts seemed to have crashed into the south wall, stopping in their tracks and scattering in panic.

Seeing this, Li Jihu and the others mustered all their energy and swarmed over, surrounding Li Xiangming, each of them exuding the exhilaration of escaping death.

"Great!"

"Master Li has arrived!"

"We're saved now."

Li Xiangming remained expressionless, his gaze fixed solely on Li Jihu.

The cheers suddenly subsided.

Everyone seemed to sense the dissatisfaction emanating from Li Xiangming.

Li Jihu was the first to be hit. He didn't even dare to raise his head and could only stammer, "Uncle Nineteen!"

Upon hearing that familiar address, Li Xiangming's pent-up anger dissipated considerably. Seeing Li Jihu carrying Zhang Guangqing on his back, his face covered in sweat and looking disheveled, he ultimately refrained from scolding him. Instead, he ordered in a deep voice, "There are no Bone-Melting Demon Cultivators in the beast tide. Guide them to Golden Scale Slope."

"okay."

Li Jihu immediately smiled, and everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.

They knew that the captain was the most favored among all the demon-hunting teams under Master Li!
The group left one after another.

Soon only Li Xiangming and Shi Fengxue, mother and daughter, remained on the field.

Thank you very much.

Shi Fengxue seemed very nervous and stammered out her thanks.

The woman in the blue dress, no longer haunted by any demonic beasts, was much calmer. She regained her composure in a few breaths, pulled Shi Fengxue aside, and bowed slightly: "I thank you, young master. If it weren't for your help, my daughter and I would be in grave danger. Could you please tell me your life? Once we are safe, I will be able to repay you in kind."

"It's just a little effort."

Li Xiangming waved his hand and said, "The birds in the sky are nothing to fear; the real threat is the large group of demonic beasts on the ground. I will lure them away, and you can take the opportunity to escape."

He could tell that the two had extraordinary bearing and were probably of high status.

However, in such a critical moment, it was obviously inappropriate to pry, and the other party did not voluntarily reveal their identity.

The so-called repayment is nothing but polite talk.

Of course, he didn't care.

He was more concerned about the monstrous beast before him than about the gratitude of the two passersby.

He was genuinely startled when Song Ye reported the arrival of the beast tide.

But after calming down, he quickly deduced that Jinlinpo had the strength to fight.

The reason is simple: the beast tide did not come from the monster stronghold of Puyin Mountain, but from the direction of Dai Mountain, heading south.

Although the demonic calamity in Daishan is severe, the main force of the demons is still near Lingyue Peak. The rest of the demons have swept across the vast Dainan and Daibei areas. How many troops can they spare to travel all the way to Monkey Valley?
As he expected, the group of demonic beasts chasing Li Jihu was only comparable in size to the beast tide in Yuanmen Town, and it was not led by a demonic cultivator at the Bone Fusion stage.

Without the Bone-Merging Demon Cultivator, isn't this just a rabble?

Li Xiangming was overjoyed. If he could lure them to Golden Scale Slope and launch a brilliant counterattack, he could definitely reverse the panic in Monkey Valley regarding the beast tide.

It is unknown how many people will eagerly join the Demon Suppression Camp at that time.

While Li Xiangming was lost in thought, the woman in the blue dress beside him was already in a state of confusion.

The young man in green robes in front of her was unwilling to reveal his name, did not seek any reward, and even wanted to take on the dangerous responsibility of attracting the beast tide. She must have heard correctly.

Are there still such good people in this world?

However, this is undoubtedly the best outcome for the mother and daughter.

The woman in the blue dress immediately bowed sincerely and said, "I will never forget your great kindness and virtue, young master. May you be blessed with good fortune."

After saying that, she tugged at Shi Fengxue and flew off in a different direction with her daughter.

Li Xiangming ignored them and called out, "Xiao Hei, let's go!"

Upon hearing the summons, the Blackwater Serpent instantly shrank in size and flew back to Li Xiangming's side, lazily coiling around his arm.

Li Xiangming noticed the other's fatigue and couldn't help but pat its little head—since Xiao Hei released its innate divine power at Puyin Mountain, it has not yet recovered its full demonic power, and the promised Netherfire Mushroom has not been redeemed because it has not returned home.

"Thanks a lot."

Li Xiangming offered a word of comfort and was about to leave.

At that moment, a series of piercing and unpleasant eagle cries rang out again.

He turned around and frowned.

The scattered flying beasts actually regrouped, especially the Thunder Crimson Ghost Eagle, which was eager to bypass him and continue its mischief.

"These mere mid-stage Spirit Summoning demonic beasts are able to maintain their courage even under the pressure of the Black Water Serpent! These bird-like creatures do have some value in training."

Li Xiangming didn't make another move. While chasing after Li Jihu and the others, he pondered to himself.

After ten years of development, the Li family's animal breeding center has begun to show results, but it has not yet formed its own series of spirit pets.

Take the twenty beast-taming cultivators sent by the family, for example. Their spirit pets are diverse, with almost no duplicates.

While this has maintained the diversity of spirit pets to some extent and made cooperation between beast-taming cultivators more possible, it has also brought about many problems.

First of all, each type of monster has different habits.

Even experienced beast tamers like Li Xianghong, Gong Wan, and Chen Chihe need to spend two or three months observing and confirming the basic condition of an unfamiliar beast before they can begin to make targeted contact with it.

This only covers appeasing the demon beasts and does not include the time cost of training the spirit pets.

Secondly, the methods for raising different monsters vary greatly.

Putting aside other factors, just considering the most basic territoriality, snake-type monsters need deep caves and ponds to lower their guard, while tiger- and leopard-type monsters prefer dense forests and vast grasslands.

The construction of just a hundred or so animal enclosures, each with its own array formation, was a huge expense.

In order to transform into a beast-taming family, the Li family has gone to great lengths. Every year, at least half of Mao Jing's income is invested in the beast-breeding house.

If the Li family could focus on cultivating a single type of spirit pet, such as the Fire Kirin Steed, like the Luo family, they could develop a mature cultivation system over many years.

Under this system, it is clear at a glance how to feed and train a foal from birth.

Even a novice beast tamer can follow the process to raise a usable Fire-Scaled Steed, saving a lot of time, energy and resources.

The Li family then invests these resources into the production process, expands the scale of training spirit pets, produces more spirit pets, quickly generates profits, and then benefits the family.

In this way, the Li family was finally on the right track in the art of beast taming.

However, as a newly established beast-taming family, the Li family is not yet able to breed spirit pets.

Or rather, the conditions are not met.

Because most of the wild monsters captured from Puyin Mountain are unique.

Even if there are occasionally other demonic beasts of the same species, such as the few cubs of the Purple-Gold Cloud Eagle that the Green Sheep Taoist once sent over, the Beast Breeding Room can usually only train a few of them.

This involves the principles of Heaven!

Any living being with cultivation, whether human or beast, will inevitably experience a sharp decline in its reproductive ability.

Once the Purple-Gold Cloud Eagles reach adulthood, they possess the cultivation level of the late-stage Spirit Awakening realm. It is already extremely difficult for them to produce offspring. To expect them to produce dozens of offspring within a mere thirty to fifty years and complete the Li family's grand ambition of transforming into a beast-taming family is nothing but a pipe dream.

However, there are always exceptions. The pig demon that Li Xiangming once captured was a mutant species capable of multiplying in large numbers.

After taking over this creature, Li Xianghong used the Myriad Spirits Manual to create a new generation of pig demons with even better aptitude, naming it Evil Hyena Gentleman. To this day, Evil Hyena Gentleman remains one of the important research subjects in the Beast Breeding Room.

Unfortunately, the Fiendish Hyena has an exceptionally volatile temper and is difficult to tame as a spirit pet. Apart from Li Xianghong, everyone in the Beast Taming Room is terrified of it.

In addition, the Ten Directions Valley, run by Cao Yanjun, also shows signs of giving birth to a series of spirit pets.

The Fire Kirin Steed is not a demon beast. In fact, its reproductive ability is quite good. Cao Yanjun used a secret method to cause the foal born by "Qingfeng" to evolve into a new demon beast species, which Li Qianxiong personally named the Jade Horn Kirin.

Unfortunately, the Jade Horned Qilin is only a half-demon and is not good at fighting.

Even if they can eventually be bred and trained in large numbers, they can only be used as riding pets.

The Li family's ambitions don't stop there.

The Beast Breeding Center still needs to find many more and better monsters to cultivate a series of spirit pets unique to the Li family.

In Li Xiangming's view, the Thunderclap Red Ghost Eagle could be included as an alternative option.

These "bald ghosts" generally have low cultivation levels, and most of them are at the mid-stage of spirit summoning after reaching adulthood. They are also different from other eagles, as they prefer to live in groups and act in gangs.

This means that their reproductive ability is guaranteed to a certain extent.

Even if the Li family can't get every pair of "bald ghosts" to produce eaglets, they still have the opportunity to manually capture a sufficient number of Thunder Red Ghost Eagles by visiting their nests.

This is incredibly favorable compared to other "lone wolves".

Li Xiangming's thoughts wandered further and further away. Seeing that he had retreated on his own initiative, the Thunderclap Red Ghost Eagle behind him seemed to feel that it had lost its threat and suddenly became aggressive.

After circling a few times in the sky, they sped off like lightning toward the distant black dot at an astonishing speed.

Other flying beasts and monsters were not to be outdone and followed closely behind.

"Strange!"

Li Xiangming was greatly surprised. The Thunderclap Crimson Ghost Eagle did not retaliate against him, nor did it hold a grudge against the Crimson Flame Demon Hunting Group, which had a larger number of members. Instead, it set its sights on the mother and daughter who had just escaped.

After a moment's thought, Li Xiangming decided not to cause any further trouble.

He had already saved the other person once, so it was impossible for him to rush to save them a second time.

The most important thing right now is to lure the beast tide to Jinlinpo!

Just then, the black torrent below suddenly changed direction, causing a huge chaos. Countless monsters were trampled and surrounded, suffering heavy casualties.

But those who survived rushed forward, relentlessly chasing after the Thunderbolt Red Demon Eagle.

It was as if the Thunderous Red Ghost Eagle was their navigator.

wrong!

The beast tide's target was that mother and daughter!
Li Xiangming suddenly realized what was happening.

He said that Li Jihu and others were not entangled by the beast tide, but rather by a "crippled" beast tide.

So it turns out they were implicated.

These demonic beasts did not invade Monkey Valley in an organized manner. Instead, they were attracted by the mother and daughter and gradually gathered from small groups of demonic beasts into the current "beast tide". That is why they were not led by a Bone-Merging Demon Cultivator and their command was chaotic.

"Mother, those bald devils are here again."

Did Shi Fengxue and her daughter not notice this scene?
As the monstrous beasts from the sky and the ground surged in like a tidal wave, a deep despair appeared in both of their eyes.

"How could this be? How could this be?"

The woman in the blue dress was both angry and frightened, and her hand holding Shi Fengxue's was trembling.

For some reason, a green robe suddenly flashed through Shi Fengxue's mind. She covered her mother's palm with her own, as if this could offer her some comfort. "Mother, I'm not afraid anymore."

"Feng Xue."

The woman in the blue dress turned her head, her face full of regret: "I'm so sorry, Mother. If you had stayed at Shengyi Gate, your father would have been able to protect you."

"mother"

Shi Fengxue didn't know what to say, so she called out softly.

The woman in the blue dress felt a pang of pain in her heart as she looked at her daughter's obedient appearance.

She gritted her teeth, took out an embroidered brocade pouch from her bosom, stuffed it into Shi Fengxue's hand, and whispered, "This is my storage pouch. There are many useful things inside. Take it and go first. I'll hold off these bald-headed devils for you!"

Shi Fengxue was stunned for a moment, then shook her head repeatedly: "No, I won't leave! I want to stay with my mother!"

"obedient!"

The woman in the blue dress had made up her mind. She pushed Shi Fengxue away and raised her voice considerably: "After you leave, find your father and grandfather. They will protect you!"

"mother!"

Shi Fengxue panicked, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Just as she was about to say something more, suddenly, a streak of light, moving with unstoppable force, rushed in from the side.

The two "bald ghosts" at the forefront were struck by the whip and instantly exploded into a cloud of blood mist, leaving no trace of their bodies.

"Gah!"

"quack!!"

The other Thunderclap Crimson Demon Eagles scattered and fled, emitting sharp, piercing cries, as if playing a mournful funeral song for their fallen comrades.

"follow me."

Li Xiangming uttered a sentence and continued flying towards Jinlinpo.

Shi Fengxue and her daughter were overjoyed and quickly followed his escape light.

Li Xiangming turned his head to the side, but instead of looking at them, he observed the flying beasts behind him.

The Thunder Crimson Ghost Eagle had suffered several losses and was no longer a threat, but after a brief period of fear, the other flying monsters still gathered together and followed behind with predatory eyes.

The black torrent on the ground never hesitated at all.

"The beast tide came for you!"

Li Xiangming immediately stated his judgment.
He paused, then added, "At this rate, we'll be caught up sooner or later."

Upon hearing this, Shi Fengxue and her daughter exchanged bewildered glances.

Why are the monsters chasing us?

Shi Fengxue looked puzzled and asked first.

Li Xiangming glanced at her and said indifferently, "That's a question for you. What treasures are you carrying?"

Shi Fengxue shook her head: "We didn't bring anything except some magical artifacts, talismans, and a few spirit stones."

"is it?"

Li Xiangming's expression darkened slightly, and his tone carried a hint of coldness: "I have saved you twice, yet you still cannot be trusted. Very well, we are just strangers who met by chance, and I should not expect your trust."

After saying that, he turned around and left.

"Don't!"

Shi Fengxue was extremely anxious, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Without help, she and her mother had no chance of surviving the beast tide.

Moreover, due to some unfounded accusations, she incurred the dislike of her benefactor, causing her great inner torment.

She kept explaining, even listing out all the things she had on her person.

Li Xiangming frowned upon hearing this.

Could it be that he guessed wrong?

After speaking for a while, Shi Fengxue's mouth was dry. Seeing that Li Xiangming remained silent, she turned to the woman in the blue dress and said, "Mother, we really didn't bring anything special, did we?"

The woman in the blue dress glanced at her daughter, her mouth full of bitterness.

Seeing this, Shi Fengxue was stunned and asked, "Mother, weren't we in a hurry when we left? I remember you didn't even bring many spirit stones with you."

The woman in the blue dress remained silent.

As soon as the beast tide emerged from Puyin Mountain, Shengyi Sect received intelligence. However, no one expected that the beasts' target would be Shengyi Sect's mountain gate—Lingyue Peak.

Although she was unsure, she had always wanted to return to Qingjushan to visit her family, so she immediately asked Shi Yuan to escort her and her daughter out.

However, Shi Yuan refused, arguing that Shengyimen might be in danger and it was not advisable to divide his forces.

Afterwards, when the monsters besieged Lingyue Peak, Shi Yuan completely sealed off the mountain gate, showing a willingness to fight the monster tide to the death.

In her panic, she became even more determined to leave with her daughter.

Before leaving, she had been preparing for more than ten days, and the things she took away using her special connections were countless.

Of course, she kept all of this a secret from Shi Yuan and her daughter.

Unexpectedly, the young man in green robes kept talking about treasures, even claiming that the treasures had attracted a beast tide, leaving her completely bewildered.

On the one hand, she genuinely didn't know which treasure had attracted the attention of the demon beast; on the other hand, she was also afraid that if the beast discovered these treasures, it would lead to her death.

(End of this chapter)