Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 1664: Chapter 1020: Vermilion Bird Cloud Boat, Sand Nightmare Beast (2)

As for Yun Xiao, he’s gone into seclusion to cultivate.

Yun Xiao was also quite frustrated. Although he is a Golden Core Cultivator, the gap between a Fake Pill and a True Pill is quite large.

As a Fake Pill Cultivator, he lacks confidence when facing real Golden Core Cultivators.

Whenever it involves matters concerning Golden Core Cultivators, he always feels somewhat redundant.

And for matters that do not involve Golden Core Cultivators, there is no need for him to personally intervene.

So he simply hid away in the Immortal Palace to comprehend the Divine Dao Intent.

After Que Lingyu headed to True Yang Immortal City, Yang Zhenshan also returned to the Life Realm Immortal Palace for seclusion.

This encounter with Chi Yuan, although perilous, brought him many unique insights, especially in the Void Dao Intent, where he gained a lot.

…

While Yang Zhenshan was in seclusion, a massive Flying Boat pierced through the skies and arrived at Sun Giant Mountain.

This Flying Boat was the Vermilion Bird Cloud Boat, designed by Ma Qiuyan and constructed over five years by a thousand Array Masters and Artifact Refiners from the Spirit Source Land.

The Vermilion Bird Cloud Boat is sixty zhang long, twenty zhang wide, and forged entirely like molten gold. The bow is sculpted into a Vermilion Bird’s head, its beak hooked, holding a Red Copper Fire Pearl, with cracks flickering like fire tongues under the sunlight, glowing with an eye-catching red light. The mane along its neck rolls like flames, each feather is engraved with spiral fire patterns, from a distance, it appears as though a divine bird is poised to take flight.

The hull is as broad as a reclining whale, with twelve flame-shaped wing plates on each side, the edges thin as knife blades, the surfaces hammered with fine scale patterns, each scale embedded with vermilion, and when wind passes, the plates clash, sounding like crackling timber fire. The deck is paved with scarlet-patterned sandalwood, the wood grain naturally resembles flowing fire, with copper strips inlaid into fire sickle designs at the seams, making the boards warm underfoot, as if heat is seeping through the seams.

The stern has seven lookout towers, with railings on each level carved into flame shapes, and a bronze bell hangs from the top, inscribed with “Burn the Sky,” with sulfur filling the characters. When struck, smoke and flame seep out from the inscriptions, visible from a hundred li away. The hull bears thirty-six fire patterns inlaid with Mystical Iron, appearing as dark red blood vessels at rest; when airborne, they glow with bright white flame, supporting the entire ship in midair, with a yard-long flame tail trailing behind like burning silk.

The cabin doors are shaped like cauldrons, the copper rings sculpted into the heads of fire beasts, with the character “Li” engraved on the lintel, filled with red sand between the trigrams. The portholes on both sides are set with red crystals, filtering light like molten glass, casting a warm hue on everything viewed from inside. When stationary, the entire boat is like a dormant fire prison; in motion, it resembles a red dragon threading through the clouds, with flame light flowing around, making even the air seem to sizzle lightly.

The design of the Vermilion Bird Cloud Boat was based on the blueprint for a large Flying Boat left behind by the Sun True Sect. However, during the design process, Ma Qiuyan also referenced the Nether Prison Sect’s Mystic Fort Flying Boat and incorporated the Array and Refining standards of the Spirit Source Land.

Overall, the Vermilion Bird Flying Boat possesses about half the might of the Flying Boat in the Sun True Sect blueprint, but even so, it far surpasses the Nether Prison Sect’s Mystic Fort Flying Boat.

The flying speed and defensive capabilities of the Vermilion Bird Flying Boat are not particularly impressive, but its offensive arrays are extremely powerful.

It is equipped with the Vermilion Bird Burn the Sky Array, which, when pushed to the limit, causes the three-legged crow shadow at the top of the stern tower to detach and resonate with the Vermilion Bird head at the bow, manifesting a hundred-zhang Flame Vermilion Bird.

The Vermilion Bird flaps its wings, the flames burn the sky, and do not extinguish for a hundred days.

In the western regions of Sun Giant Mountain, a dark red cloud bank floated in the distant sky, quickly drawing near. The fire pearl on the Vermilion Bird’s head shone dazzlingly, and the twelve flame-shaped wing plates flapped, stirring up hot winds and sparks like countless red butterflies skimming across the sky.

Fire patterns on the hull lit up in sequence, moving from the bow to the stern, like glowing iron chains weaving through the clouds. The hull passed through the cloud banks, leaving a trail of scorched red in its wake.

The Vermilion Bird Cloud Boat flew openly across the sky, immediately attracting the attention of many people within Sun Giant Mountain.

In a dark red stone forest, a man and a woman, both Foundation Establishment Cultivators, were looking up at the Vermilion Bird Cloud Boat in the sky.

“Cousin, which power does this Flying Boat belong to, daring to be so ostentatious?” Zhang Ying asked in astonishment, looking at the Flying Boat in the sky.

Zhang Baishan’s eyes were filled with a complicated expression as he said, “The Immortal Clan, Yang Family!”

“The Immortal Clan, Yang Family!” Zhang Ying was initially taken aback, then suddenly nodded in realization, “So it’s the Yang Family’s Flying Boat! No wonder.”

The two of them were Foundation Establishment Cultivators from the Southern Wilderness Zhang family, Zhang Baishan and Zhang Ying.

In the past, Zhang Baishan had been captured by Kou Ta and Hong Fuxiu, and Zhang Ying had accompanied Fang Zhen of the Southern Wilderness Fang family to Yang Family Town to redeem a person.

Back then, after the Fang family and the Zhang family apologized, Yang Zhenshan did not pursue the matter further.

However, later on, the Zhang family started doing business with the Yang family, bringing goods produced by the Yang family to workshops in the Southern Wilderness for sale, generating significant profits for the Yang family.

Now, the Zhang family has become the Yang family’s agent in the Southern Wilderness, specializing in selling various goods from the Yang family in the Southern Wilderness workshops.

Of course, the Zhang family also earns a margin from this.

And now, Yang Zhenshan’s Core Formation has long been no secret, spread throughout the Yunxiao Mountain Range and the Southern Wilderness.

The name of the Immortal Clan, Yang Family, has also caught the attention of various powers.

Foundation Establishment powers do not dare to parade openly in Sun Giant Mountain, but Golden Core powers are a different matter.

In this world, there are very few powers that dare to provoke the Golden Core powers.

However, it’s not unheard of.

Just as Zhang Baishan and Zhang Ying were admiring the Yang family’s Flying Boat, more than a dozen earth-colored streams of light suddenly shot out from the distant stone forest, fast like bullets, and upon closer inspection, they were three-zhang-tall dwarfs.

Their heads as large as buckets, their bodies covered in hardened armor of sand and gravel, talons hooked like eagle claws, and their eyes are two muddy pools of earth yellow—Sand Nightmare Beasts.

Before they even got close to the boat, they all opened their mouths simultaneously, spewing yellow wind that instantly formed a canopy, enveloping with sand and gravel, bearing down on them. The wind carried fine sand blades, scraping against the flame-shaped wing plates of the Red Flame Boat, making a dense “ding ding” sound, like countless needles chiseling iron.

On the Flying Boat, Ning Yun’s pretty face turned unsightly at the sight of the howling yellow wind surrounding them.

“These sand-skinned dogs dare to attack us?”

“Damn it!”

They had just entered the skies over Sun Giant Mountain and were already attacked by Sand Nightmare Beasts.

While they had anticipated the chaos of Sun Giant Mountain, they had not expected to encounter trouble so quickly.

“Senior Sister, you did say they are sand-skinned dogs!” Li Janning, with a sword in both hands, her eyes shining brightly, a cool and deadly look on her face, spoke with an icy tone.

Speaking of sand-skinned dogs, or Sand Nightmare Beasts, they were infamous in the Wanhua Mountain Range.

Compared to ordinary beasts and Mutant Beasts, Demon Beast Clans are relatively rare.

Even within the vast Wanhua Mountain Range, Demon Beast Clans are scarce, numbering only a few hundred clans. The largest could have a few thousand demon beasts, while the smallest only three to five demon beasts.

The number may seem large, but in the vast Wanhua Mountain Range, such clans are extremely rare.

Proliferation of Demon Beast Clans is also challenging; most demon beasts evolve from Mutant Beasts, while a minority are born from demon beasts, making it hard for their numbers to grow quickly.

Among the many demon beast species, Sand Nightmare Beasts are an exception.

Sand Nightmare Beasts resemble hairless hyenas, their skin clad in sand-like keratin scales, pupils vertically slit, reflecting fragmented sand crystal glints.

Compared to other demon beasts, Sand Nightmare Beasts are notably weak, both individually and as clans, far inferior to those powerful Demon Clans.

Additionally, Sand Nightmare Beasts do not enjoy the long lifespans typical of other demon beasts; a Second-Order Sand Nightmare Beast typically lives only about two hundred years.

However, Sand Nightmare Beasts have a particularly special advantage: their rapid reproduction rate.

Second-Order female Sand Nightmare Beasts can reproduce almost every thirty years, bearing three to five offspring each time. Excluding weak offspring, they usually raise two to three descendants each time.

In just thirty years, these two or three Sand Nightmare Beast offspring can grow to adulthood, becoming Second-Order Sand Nightmare Beasts.

As a result, among the various demon beast clans in the Wanhua Mountain Range, Sand Nightmare Beasts are the most populous, divided into dozens of clans spread throughout the Wanhua Mountain Range, making them the most common Demon Clan, without exception.