The Pastoral Life of a Cultivation Master

Chapter 3060 A Resentful Gaze
The moment the button was pressed, a roar echoed across the entire lake. The ripples spread far and wide, reverberating through the valleys. Each press of the button produced a deafening roar.

After the roaring sound dissipated, Qian Ying and Zhou Zixing stared at the lake, wondering if the strange beast would leap out of the lake from the bottom of the lake as before, when the roaring sound echoed through the valley.

However, after waiting for several minutes, no strange beast appeared, and the two looked at each other in bewilderment.

Qian Ying was a little skeptical, so she pressed the button several more times, and the roar was emitted each time, but the beast still did not appear.

"Elder Qian, it seems that the unicorn beast won't appear. This button might not be able to summon it," Zhou Zixing said to Qian Ying with some disappointment.

Qian Ying remained silent, staring at the lake. After a long while, she finally sighed, "It seems that releasing the unicorn was a mistake."

After saying that, he said with deep regret, "If I have the chance to see that unicorn again, I will definitely not let it go and will find a way to kill it."

"What if those two strange beasts don't appear after we cross this lake?" Zhou Zixing thought about how the two beasts were badly injured by him and Qian Ying, and if they still appeared later, they would be courting death.

However, based on his observations, the two strange beasts possessed a certain level of intelligence, so they wouldn't appear. After all, they had been beaten so badly; if they still showed up, they would be incredibly stubborn.

Upon hearing this, Qian Ying inwardly scoffed. What else could he do if the strange beast didn't appear? Was he supposed to jump into the lake and search for it at the bottom? Had he consumed too many pills, or had he been in seclusion for too long, to have such thoughts?

Putting aside the question of how deep the lake is, and whether one could defeat the beasts once inside, just considering the vast expanse of the lake, how long would it take to find two beasts? Only someone who is completely clueless would stubbornly try to find and kill the beasts simply because they haven't appeared yet.

Even though the beasts were enormous, their size was nothing compared to the entire lake area.

What the hell is this? If the beast is valuable, then spending time searching for it is understandable. But if you've already crossed the lake and the beast is completely useless, then what's the point of searching for it?
So, listening to Zhou Zixing's questions, Qian Ying felt very tired and didn't want to answer.

Zhou Zixing didn't hear Qian Ying's reply, and looked at Qian Ying with some curiosity. He found that Qian Ying was staring intently at the lake. He sighed inwardly, thinking that Elder Qian might really be trying to find the strange beast.

As the two remained silent, a shadow appeared beneath the lake.

However, the shadow appeared slowly, rising gradually. Finally, the beast didn't leap out of the lake, but instead swam slowly towards their position. Upon reaching the shore, its enormous head and single horn gradually emerged from the water, then it slowly climbed onto the bank and growled softly at the two.

However, the sound was very soft, and the beast did not show any ferocity. Its scarlet eyes revealed a hint of helplessness, resignation, and resentment.

That gaze made Qian Ying and Zhou Zixing feel a little awkward.

The beasts were incredibly docile this time, no longer arrogant and ferocious as before, only submissive and slow in their movements.

It was from the beast's gaze and actions that Qian Ying and Zhou Zixing realized that their previous frantic attacks on the unicorn beast had severely injured it. Otherwise, it would have looked at them with such a meaningful gaze after it appeared.

From the beast's complex gaze, the two understood why it had appeared so slowly: it was severely injured, but had no choice but to appear after being summoned. So it could only drag its wounded body slowly up from the bottom of the lake, and seeing that it was still the two old men who had injured it, it naturally looked at the two old men with complicated expressions.

Without waiting for the two old men to say anything, it lowered its huge head, and its scales immediately began to move as before, detaching the horn from its head.

After the two old men saw it, they looked at each other first, and then Qian Ying said to Zhou Zixing, "Elder Zhou, you stay here and watch this strange beast. I'll use this horn to check the small dents that have appeared."

"Okay!" Zhou Zixing's lips twitched.

It now seems that the beast they attacked earlier was quite badly injured, which is why it was moving so slowly. And when it offered up its horn, the resentful look in its eyes made the two old foxes feel a little embarrassed.

After inserting the unicorn, Qian Ying observed some changes in the building and even touched the etched patterns with her finger to feel the situation where Zhou Zixing's finger had been stuck.

Although I had seen this kind of etched pattern before, I had never handled it. This experience was quite unique.

After carefully examining each part, they finally removed the horn and placed it back in front of the unicorn beast. The beast's head then once again enveloped the horn. Once the horn was back in place, the beast growled softly at the two old men. Seeing that the two men didn't react, it turned and disappeared into the lake. "It seems there's a strong connection between this button and the beast. Once the button is pressed, the beast has no choice but to appear, even if it's injured," Zhou Zixing remarked.

"Yes, it seems so. When we lead the team over, crossing this lake should be easier."

“However, Elder Qian, I still suggest bringing more branches and wood. In case the bridge becomes too old to carry people, we can use rafts to cross the lake,” Zhou Zixing suggested, still somewhat worried.

“That’s true, it’s always good to be prepared, so let’s do it this way.” Qian Ying readily agreed, after all, Zhou Zixing’s considerations were necessary. If there were any problems and the boat couldn’t carry people, then they could build a wooden plank to cross the lake.

Judging from the appearance of the strange beast, it has most likely been defeated and subdued, so even if we use a raft to cross the lake, there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Of course, the raft is only a backup. We'll wait until everyone arrives and see if the bridge is usable. If it is, we'll use the bridge to cross the lake, since the raft might pose other dangers.

After discussing it for a while, the two of them didn't say much. Instead, they went to a place not far from the hive area, but one that was away from the red bees' activity area, and stayed there, cultivating while waiting for night to come.

If you want to get back to the canyon, you have to take advantage of the nighttime. Otherwise, crossing this area during the Red Bees' activity period would be tantamount to suicide.

Since they were there to explore the lakeside, they hadn't brought much luggage, just two bottles of honey each and some simple food. Therefore, they dared not consume honey while meditating, in case they were attacked by the red bees while crossing the area that night, and without honey to counteract their poison, it would be a huge problem.

It got dark quickly, but since it was just getting dark, the buzzing of some red bees could still be heard, so all we could do was wait.

Around midnight, the two drank the honey in one gulp, then quickly made their way through the bushes along the black soil, not daring to get any closer to the beehives on either side.

Along the way, they encountered only a few First-Line Reds. They used their innate domain to separate all the First-Line Reds they encountered and continued on their way regardless. The small number of First-Line Reds had limited attack power and could not break through the barrier of the innate domain, so there was no need to worry about them.

So the two old men moved very quickly, and without any unexpected incidents, they safely rushed into the bush passage.

……

Meanwhile, Chen Mo went to the hillside nursery during the day and specifically went up to the nursery to dig up a lot of snow lotus, especially many thousand-year-old snow lotus. Although he was attacked by the large white dough and other things, he was not in any danger due to the combination of the formation and his own strength.

Especially since there were no other martial artists in the hilly area, he was able to go all out and naturally collected the snow lotus very smoothly. After collecting them, he found a safe place and used an array to plant the collected snow lotus into the Qiankun Pearl.

Of course, some were also kept in the Qiankun bag. Later, some could be given to Ouyang Ruoxi and some to Shen Tingting. These snow lotuses are quite good cultivation medicines for martial artists. However, they are most effective for innate masters; for those with acquired strength, it might be a waste.

However, for Chen Mo, there was no regret in giving it to Ruoxi and Shen Tingting. After all, since it was planted inside the Qiankun Pearl, the Golden Thread Snow Lotus could be harvested continuously in the future, so there was no question of wasting it.

Furthermore, the Golden Thread Snow Lotus can be used to refine Tranquilizing Pills, which will greatly benefit his cultivation. After this trip, he needs to prepare a trip to the Little Bookstore to use the alchemy furnace located underground at Mount Fuji to refine some pills.

After planting, all the formations were retrieved, and then they quickly returned to the canyon.

Unexpectedly, during his absence, Ouyang Nan and the other two took turns protecting him and seizing the time to cultivate, each of them experiencing a boost in strength. The improvement in strength over just a few days was several times faster than their previous cultivation outside the valley; how could the three of them not become completely absorbed in it?

Ouyang Ruoxi's strength has advanced to the ninth level of the Acquired Realm. Ouyang Nana's strength has also taken a big step forward, advancing to the peak of the ninth level of the Acquired Realm. As for Ouyang Nan, his current strength has also reached the peak of the Acquired Realm. However, he has not yet touched the bottleneck of the Acquired Realm Perfection. He still has a long way to go in his cultivation if he wants to break through the Acquired Realm and advance to the Innate Realm.

As for Qian Zhenghao, he hasn't returned to the Qian family's temporary camp these past few days. Instead, he found a place near Ouyang Nan and the others and entered a frenzied cultivation mode.

Meanwhile, the martial artists from other families were also immersed in cultivation, and their strength had improved in various ways. However, their improvement was not as significant as that of Ouyang Nan and the other three. This was mainly because the honey was limited; many people only had two or three bottles, and even those with more honey still had limited supply, unlike Ouyang Nan and his group who had a great deal of honey.

After Chen Mo returned, he quietly began to protect Ouyang Nan and the other two, allowing them to cultivate in peace. Qian Zhenghao did the same; since they were already very close, he felt even more at ease and focused on his cultivation after noticing Chen Mo's return.