Reborn as a lotus, she initially refuses to hand it over to the state.

Although Black Dragon Mountain was originally a restricted area, in the end, it was only because of Chu Zhou's presence that the surrounding beasts dared not act recklessly.

But things are different now. Once Qingfeng's vines spread out completely, it's like giving the entire Black Dragon Mountain a pair of omnipresent eyes.

The mountain wind blew, and the grass and trees swayed. Those seemingly ordinary vines were actually all connected to Qingfeng's consciousness.

Even if a mouse crawls through the ground, Qingfeng can detect it immediately, and these vines are not just for surveillance.

Once an intruder enters, the vines will instantly burst forth, forming the first strangulation net.

In the past few days, Qingfeng has discovered many exotic beasts, including a pack of black wolves, a red-eyed lynx, and several large armored wild boars.

Most of these strange beasts were attracted by the rich spiritual energy of Black Dragon Mountain. They instinctively knew that the richer the spiritual energy, the more suitable it was for evolution.

However, not long after they stepped into the outer perimeter of Black Dragon Mountain, countless vines blocked their way.

At first, a few strange beasts were defiant, especially the armored wild boars, who, relying on their thick hides, actually tried to force their way in.

The next second, dozens of green vines shot out from the ground, directly binding their limbs and suspending them in mid-air.

No matter how much the armored boars struggled, they couldn't break free. Qingfeng's icy mental energy spread throughout the mountains and forests: "Submit, or die."

The beasts dared not resist any longer, and they lay on the ground, trembling. In this way, the first batch of beasts from the outer perimeter who had voluntarily surrendered to Black Dragon Mountain were all incorporated into Qingfeng's army.

They are not very strong, most of them are only at the first level, and there are not many at the second level, but there are quite a few of them, more than three hundred.

When Chu Zhou learned of this, he did not stop it. Now that Black Dragon Mountain was expanding, it needed these low-level alien beasts.

For a forbidden zone to truly take shape, it cannot rely solely on a few high-level demon kings; it also requires a large number of low-level exotic beasts as its foundation.

These low-level beasts can patrol, transport medicinal herbs, and guard the outer perimeter.

When the second spiritual energy tide arrives, many powerful individuals will inevitably emerge from it.

Meanwhile, in the direction of Lingquan Valley, the Black Tiger King was also training exotic beasts according to Chu Zhou's orders.

It was originally the overlord of the southeastern mountains and forests. Now, after submitting to Chu Zhou, it obtained the Azure Lotus Mark, and not only were its internal injuries completely healed, but its demonic power also became more refined.

This made it even clearer to the Black Tiger King that submitting to Chu Zhou was not a humiliation, but an opportunity.

In the valley, hundreds of strange beasts were divided into several groups.

The black wolf pack was responsible for reconnaissance, the giant leopard for the raid, and the other beasts for defense. These beasts used to fight on instinct and had no coordination whatsoever, but under the Black Tiger King's oppressive presence, they had no choice but to act according to orders.

At first, it was chaos; the black wolf ran into a wild boar, and the giant leopard was almost trampled to death by a mountain buffalo.

The Black Tiger King's eyes turned cold as he watched, and in the end, he directly entered the fray, swatting away any that disobeyed his orders with a single paw.

Those that dared to run around were pinned to the ground and roared at. After several days, these strange beasts finally began to resemble something.

Although they are still far from being a true legion, at least they are no longer a completely disorganized mob.

Meanwhile, the Mountain Demon was also busy, having roamed almost the entire perimeter of Black Dragon Mountain in the past few days.

Wherever it went, almost no strange beasts dared to resist; when it encountered weak ones, it simply suppressed them with its aura.

If anyone dared to challenge him, he would immediately throw a punch. Over the course of a few days, Shan Kui managed to subdue more than a dozen different beast tribes.

What surprised Chu Zhou the most was a group of red-eyed apes, which originally lived in a valley in the southwest.

There are about two hundred of them, and their intelligence is higher than that of ordinary beasts.

In particular, their leader is a red-eyed ape king at the peak of the second tier.

It originally wanted to have a go with the mountain demon, but the mountain demon slapped it down from the tree and knocked it into the ground.

The Red-Eyed Ape King immediately became obedient and led his entire tribe to kneel and submit.

Upon learning of this, Chu Zhou's heart stirred.

The apes are quite a good group. In my previous life, the core strength under the Qinling White Ape King was the apes.

Those ape-like beasts are inherently highly intelligent and have an extremely strong learning ability. If properly trained, they may become the first batch of soldiers under Shan Kui who can truly understand commands.

So Chu Zhou directly ordered that the Red-Eyed Apes be placed under the command of Shan Kui. Shan Kui was quite happy because although these little monkeys were weak, they were clever.

They could also pick fruit for it and move stones for it; for the first time, the mountain stag felt like it was the boss.

As for Xiao Jinbao, he remains the most restless creature in the entire Black Dragon Mountain.

Since Black Tiger King acquired Spirit Spring Valley, Mountain King acquired ape hordes, Black Armor acquired underground rivers, and Green Edge acquired plant defense lines.

It increasingly felt that its title as the leader of the birds was undeserved.

So every day he kept clamoring to establish the number one avian legion in Heilong Mountain.

On the first day of flying out, it encountered a peak second-tier eagle. However, the eagle discovered that Little Golden Treasure was actually a third-tier eagle, and it ran away before it could even get close.

They even fled within a hundred kilometers of Heilong Mountain, watching as the eagles simply left the area.

Little Jinbao was also annoyed. The next day, he went to recruit a group of crows and strange beasts, but these crows were too noisy, and Little Jinbao disliked them very much.

Finding the crows too noisy, on the third day it finally brought back a dozen or so mutated sparrows, which proudly perched on the treetops, announcing the official establishment of the Black Dragon Mountain Air Force.

Shan Kui glanced at the dozen or so fist-sized sparrows, all only at the first-tier strength, and burst out laughing. Little Jinbao immediately bristled, "What are you laughing at? What monkey? You don't know anything! This is the core team! Don't you understand?"

"From now on, Bird Lord will command a million birds that will blot out the sky and scare you to death."

Qingfeng didn't speak. A vine silently stretched out and pressed down the branch under Xiaojinbao's feet.

Little Jinbao was caught off guard and fell into the bushes with a thud.

Shan Kui laughed even louder, and Black Dragon Mountain became even more lively because of these few clowns.

Despite the excitement, Chu Zhou did not slack off in his cultivation. Every night, he would absorb the moonlight and devour the source energy emanating from the ancient underground city.

At the same time, it will also give back some of its life energy to Heilong Lake in just a few days.

A large number of new spiritual plants have appeared on the shore of Black Dragon Lake, the most common of which is Moonflower Grass.

This grass is entirely silvery-white, and at night it absorbs moonlight and emits a faint spiritual aura.

If low-level exotic beasts are consumed over a long period of time, it can accelerate the cultivation speed. The next best option is the Azure Spirit Vine. Unlike the Azure Blade, the Azure Spirit Vine has not developed sentience.

However, it is extremely resilient and can serve as an outer defensive vine wall. In addition, the spirit fish in the lake have been completely transformed due to long-term nourishment from Chu Zhou's life energy.

The largest spirit fish was nearly two meters long, with silvery scales and extremely fast speed.

Xuanjia incorporates them into the aquatic system, where they are responsible for cleaning the lake bottom and issuing early warnings in case of invasion by foreign aquatic beasts.

Black Dragon Lake is gradually becoming a true spiritual land, and in this process, Chu Zhou is gaining deeper and deeper control over the Azure Lotus Domain.

In the past, his domain was merely a spiritual domain, allowing him to see environmental changes within it and even release pressure. But now it's different. With a large number of spiritual plants and exotic beasts being incorporated into the system, he vaguely senses that the entire Black Dragon Mountain is connecting with him into a unified whole.

The spiritual energy nodes in the mountains and forests, the water veins of the underground rivers, the springs of the Spirit Spring Valley, and the spiritual veins of Black Dragon Lake.

Wherever he goes, underground, his spiritual roots take root at the bottom, and he remains there as his spiritual roots take root.

His efficiency in cultivating spiritual energy naturally improved as well. For a moment, Chu Zhou felt like he was a mountain.

The restricted area seemed to have become a part of him.