Longevity begins with alchemy master

At dawn, there was a rapid knocking on the door of the clinic.

A moment later, a boy rushed in.

"Young Master, Young Master Yuqi has come to visit you," Granny Lin said, her expression not very good.

Zhou Yuqi, oblivious to Granny Lin's disgusted expression, hurriedly went into the inner room.

"Mayfly, how is little Momo?"

The thin boy drew the bed curtains, then turned around, revealing his face, which showed he hadn't slept all night.

He stared intently at the chubby-faced Zhou Yuqi, as if trying to discern something from him.

Zhou Yuqi said anxiously, "I heard them say this morning that someone rushed into the Haibo clan elder's clinic last night. After hearing that it was you, they rushed over to visit you immediately."

Zhou Fuyou suddenly asked, "Who are they?"

Zhou Yuqi was taken aback and subconsciously replied, "What happened to Yin Si Niang and the servants?"

Zhou Fuyou did not speak.

Yin Si Niang was the middle-aged woman who had previously delivered the tonic on behalf of Seventh Uncle's family.

Her status was the same as that of her own grandmother, Granny Lin; both were maids who came with her as part of her dowry.

Thirty years ago, the Zhou family took over Bailuze.

Seven years ago, the Zhou family of Bailuze, the Lin family of Qingtong, and the Yin family of Hanjiang Valley formed an alliance and began initial cooperation.

The specific cooperation involves many aspects, one of which is a marriage alliance.

Many lower-ranking members of the clan intermarried among the three families.

In this respect, the Zhou family benefited the most, marrying many female cultivators from the Lin and Yin families.

Zhou Fuyou's mother came from the Qing Tong Lin family, while Zhou Yuqi's mother came from the Hanjiang Valley Yin family.

Because they have similar family backgrounds and were born in the same year, Zhou Fuyou and Zhou Yuqi often play together and have the best relationship.

Sometimes, when they get carried away, they'll eat and stay at each other's homes.

The two families usually get along very well and often exchange small gifts.

It's not surprising that Uncle Qi's family had Yin Si Niang deliver tonics a few days ago; it had happened before, so we didn't check it too much.

But because of this one oversight, something bad happened.

Zhou Fuyou was willing to believe the elder of the Haibo tribe who said that his sister had simply mistakenly drunk his tonic, causing her to be too weak to tolerate it. But after he took the heat-clearing pill and vomited out some inexplicable toxins, he no longer believed those were tonics!
In particular, how did Uncle Qi's family find out about the clinic this morning when they only arrived last night?
Could it be that Yin Si Niang has been spying on her own family all along?
Was this her own action, or was it at the behest of her seventh uncle and aunt?

"Mayfly, what's wrong?"

A puzzled voice came to Zhou Fuyou's ears, and she came to her senses.

"It's nothing, Mao Mao is just feeling a little unwell. We'll be going home soon."

Zhou Yuqi breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, a smile spreading across his face. He said repeatedly, "It's good that you're alright, it's good that you're alright. Little Mao Mao's health is so poor, it's your fault as her older brother. You must take good care of her from now on!"

"Ah."

Zhou Fuyou nodded gently, her gaze fixed on Zhou Yuqi.

That smile was genuine, carrying the clear innocence unique to children.

"He probably didn't know, right?" Zhou Fuyou thought to herself.

Outside the clinic, the rain kept falling, as if it would never stop.

The cultivators from the Zhou family seemed to have long been used to it.

It's just that the clan doesn't have many resources right now, otherwise they would have already set up a large array to shield against this chilling spring rain.

Around noon, the rain gradually subsided.

Grandma Lin, holding an umbrella, walked out of the clinic with Zhou Fuyou carrying the still-sleeping Mao Mao on her back.

The chubby-faced Zhou Yuqi followed behind, offering to take them home.

However, as soon as they stepped out of the clinic, Zhou Fuyou suddenly spoke.

"Yuqi, you don't need to see me off, go home!"

Zhou Yuqi was stunned.

Just as I was about to say something, my friend, carrying his sister on his back and being cared for by servants, stepped into the rain, their figures gradually becoming blurry.

……

The Zhou family has a history of eight hundred years in Beihai.

At its peak, the clan had over ten thousand cultivators and over a hundred million members, far exceeding ordinary Nascent Soul sects and almost indistinguishable from secular dynasties.

Unfortunately, when they fled from Beihai, only a few dozen people remained.

It's so tragic!

In other words, after arriving in Zhongzhou, it took more than a hundred years of recuperation and restoration before it had just recovered some of its vitality.

However, the number of core members is actually not that many.

The "core clansmen" mentioned here refer to those who can cultivate and have formal generational names, rather than those from collateral branches who are not even worthy of having generational names.

Counting from the ancestor Zhou Yun Shen, there are only five people in the second generation, who are also the five Golden Core cultivators of the Zhou family today.

The third generation had about a hundred people.

Zhou Fuyou's father, Zhou Baihan, was one of them, belonging to the "Hai" generation.

Moreover, because he successfully established his foundation, he now holds a certain status within the Zhou family.

Therefore, Zhou Fuyou's family not only has a private courtyard, but also a decent second-tier mid-grade cave dwelling, which is sufficient to support the daily cultivation of Zhou Baihan and Lin Jingshu.

Besides Granny Lin, there were several mortal servants in the house who were unable to cultivate, serving them their daily needs.

After Zhou Baihan and his wife went out on a mission, Zhou Fuyou became the de facto and nominal head of the family.

After returning home, he first settled his younger sister in and instructed Granny Lin to take good care of her. Then he went back to his favorite Yinlu Water Pavilion.

He needs to be alone now.

Overnight, the sudden and shocking change left the boy's brain extremely exhausted, and his thoughts were far more chaotic than in the four years he had been able to remember.

Standing by the waterside pavilion, the boy stared blankly into the water, his gaze wandering aimlessly among the green algae.

Gradually, his attention began to focus, and his expression became firm.

He turned around, left the Drinking Green Pavilion, and headed towards his father's study.

……

"Brother... Brother... Brother!"

Suddenly, the little girl woke up, her face covered in fine beads of sweat.

Grandma Lin gently wiped away her sweat with a handkerchief.

Zhou Qingyu fearfully grasped the old woman's hand, "Grandma, where's my brother?"

"Don't worry, he's here."

"I want to see my brother!"

"But……"

"I want to see him, sob sob sob..."

As she spoke, Zhou Qingyu began to cry.

Grandma Lin had no choice but to dress the little girl in thick clothes and then carry her out of the room.

After asking the servants, Granny Lin looked puzzled, but urged by the little girl, she still headed towards where Zhou Fuyou was.

A short while later, Grandma Lin arrived at a study.

Unlike the poetic and picturesque Yinlu Water Pavilion, this study is predominantly red and black, giving it a rather serious feel.

On that desk, a young boy was flipping through a scroll of bamboo slips.

"Young Master, Miss Qingyu has woken up."

Zhou Fuyou suddenly woke up and took the thrashing little girl from Grandma Lin's arms.

"Mao Mao..."

The little girl nestled into his arms and laughed, as if nothing had happened yesterday.

Grandma Lin looked at the two siblings with affection, her eyes glancing at the bamboo scroll on the desk.

The Classic of Returning to the Sea

Granny Lin's expression immediately changed drastically. "Young Master Fuyou! How could you disregard the warnings of the master and mistress and start practicing Qi cultivation techniques before you are of legal age?"

Zhou Fuyou, holding her younger sister, calmly replied, "I didn't cultivate; I was just taking a look."

Grandma Lin breathed a sigh of relief, but her expression remained serious.

"Young Master, our cultivation depends on spiritual roots, talent, and age. Without spiritual roots, one cannot cultivate; if one's physical aptitude is insufficient, cultivation will harm the body. And all of this must be based on reaching the appropriate age."

"You are not yet twelve years old, your body has not yet fully developed, your meridians and acupoints are not yet fully developed, and you have not even shown whether you have spiritual roots. You must not start cultivating prematurely."

"Otherwise, at best it will affect the future path, at worst it will lead to death on the spot."

Zhou Fuyou raised an eyebrow, realizing the seriousness of the old man's words.

Even the mildest consequence would be affecting one's future path to enlightenment, which shows the harm of cultivating ahead of time. He comforted her, "Don't worry, Grandma, I've just read too many martial arts manuals, Taoist classics, and local chronicles to pass the time."

Grandma Lin looked intently at the boy, but she still felt uneasy.

Finally, she cautioned, "Practicing ahead of time will lead to endless troubles. Remember that!"

Zhou Fuyou smiled and offered a few more words of comfort, which put Grandma Lin at ease.

Then Zhou Fuyou played with her younger sister for a while. The little girl was tired soon after recovering from her minor illness, so Zhou Fuyou asked Granny Lin to take her back.

Before leaving, Granny Lin instructed, "Young master, you've been working hard for a day and a night. I'll have the servants prepare some food and hot water so you can eat something and get some rest."

"Okay, I'm sorry to have worried my mother-in-law."

Zhou Fuyou did not disobey Granny Lin's arrangements. She was her mother's confidante and had also watched the two siblings grow up.

Nominally they were maids and servants, but they were not much different from their elders.

After eating the steaming hot food and washing up briefly, Zhou Fuyou went to get a good night's sleep.

But after waking up, he stepped into his father's study once again.

I took down the book I hadn't finished reading yesterday, "The Classic of Returning to the Sea," from the bookshelf.

This is the Zhou family's introductory Qi Refining cultivation method, which has been passed down for a long time and is even sold in the cultivation world of Beihai.

Above that, there should be the "Ten Thousand Rivers Scripture" for the Foundation Establishment stage, followed by the "Canglang Scripture" for the Golden Core stage, and finally the "Boundless Scripture" for the Nascent Soul stage.

In reality, these are all a complete set of cultivation techniques. However, to prevent the leakage of high-level techniques, the ancestors artificially divided them into four chapters, each corresponding to one of the four realms, and only allowed clansmen of the corresponding realms to cultivate them.

When put together, it means all rivers flow into the sea, and the vast ocean stretches endlessly.

The ancestor himself cultivated this technique. Its advantage is that the magical power of those at the same level is abundant, as boundless as the ocean. Its disadvantage is that the advancement is slow and breaking through realms is difficult.

For Zhou Fuyou, even reading the "Return to the Sea Classic" for the Qi Refining stage was quite difficult for him.

But it's just difficult!
He was literate and eloquent at the age of two, and by the age of three he had mastered all the poems and songs.

At the age of four, he was no longer satisfied with ordinary literary classics and began to explore martial arts and Taoist scriptures related to cultivation.

He's still six months away from turning six, but he can already be said to have "thoroughly read the Taoist Canon"!

With such literary skills, coupled with the influence of his parents, both Foundation Establishment cultivators, he was indeed able to painstakingly read through the introductory Qi Refining cultivation techniques little by little without any instruction.

However, remembering Granny Lin's warning from yesterday, he forcibly suppressed the restless thought in his heart.

When Zhou Fuyou was resting, her gaze fell on the bookshelf.

The book contained not only ordinary books distributed by the Zhou family, but also those collected by my father, and some brought over by my mother from the Lin family. My mother, Lin Jingshu, came from a humble family within the Tianyuan Dao Sect, and the cultivation methods she practiced were orthodox Daoist techniques. The books she brought over were even more extraordinary.

If it weren't for the fact that Tianyuan Daozong is now recruiting former Star Gate guest elders, they probably wouldn't have relaxed these restrictions.

"With so many books, let's read and learn as much as we can!"

The boy muttered to himself, his mood calm and composed.

Rain pattered against the leaves outside the study.

……

After Zhou Qingyu's "inability to tolerate tonics and fainting incident," time seemed to slow down.

Zhou Fuyou almost never went out again, and he was turned away by Zhou Yuqi when he came to see him several times.

Nothing major happened within the clan, except that we heard that our second grandfather, Zhou Junxiao, was planning to develop Bailuze.

The Bailu Marsh is vast, covering an area of ​​over three thousand miles. Not only was a new fourth-order spiritual vein born within it, but there are also a large number of scattered smaller spiritual veins.

However, due to the miasma of the swamp, many areas of Shirahaza are still undeveloped.

In particular, the Zhou family has a small number of members, and a group of powerful individuals were sent out to participate in the sea patrol mission issued by the Tiannan Dao Palace, so the plan to develop Bailuze was constantly delayed.

However, the sea patrol missions are not continuous; they are rotated among the various families on the Tiannan Continent. Moreover, the Zhou family was hastily recruited this time, so the mission will likely end in about six months.

Half a year is but a blink of an eye for a cultivator.

But for children, it seems so long.

"Brother, when are Father and Mother coming back?"

"It'll be soon, probably in the next few days!"

"Great, great! It's been so long since Mao Mao heard his father tell stories about the outside world, and it's been so long since he ate his mother's white jade soup."

"Mao Mao, go out and play. Your brother needs to study."

"I won't go out, brother. You see, I won't make a sound."

Zhou Fuyou smiled helplessly and then continued reading the book in her hands.

This is a Qi cultivation method called "Dew Cicada Skill", which is derived from the idea that "morning dew is fleeting and the cicada drinks its last drop of dew".

Its philosophy of spiritual practice is the same.

Most cultivators in the world have ordinary aptitudes and find it difficult to reach high realms in their entire lives, and their lifespan is as short as morning dew and cicada's.

Therefore, some people choose to take shortcuts and practice techniques that allow for rapid progress.

The "Cicada's Dew Technique" is such a technique; in fact, it is a rare all-attribute technique that does not care about spiritual root attributes, and anyone can learn it.

However, the drawbacks are also obvious. While one may reach a higher realm quickly through cultivation, one's magical power is far less profound than that of cultivators of the same level. Moreover, the cold and yin magical power cultivated can easily damage one's meridians and dantian.

It is said that this technique originated from the North Sea, and there is a high probability that it came from the Yuanmo Sect, the former overlord of the North Sea.

That is, demonic cultivation techniques!
If Zhou Fuyou had to choose, he would prefer to select the more solid and reliable cultivation methods such as "The Return to the Sea Classic," "Evergreen Skill," and "Thick Earth Technique."

"Not urgent!"

"After the age of six, one should nurture the body, practice rudimentary body-strengthening techniques, and combine them with medicinal baths to make the body strong. Then, at the age of twelve, the spiritual root attribute will be tested, and at that time, my father and mother will naturally choose a suitable cultivation method for me."

Zhou Fuyou closed the book and stuffed "The Art of Cicada's Dew" into the most secluded corner of the bookshelf.

half a month later.

The entire Zhou family was in an uproar!

Because the powerful members of the families who participated in the sea patrol are about to return.

The Zhou family did the same. Early in the morning, he carried his younger sister and, accompanied by Grandma Lin, arrived at Coral Town to wait.

Coral Town is a small town near the Zhou family's home.

Most of the inhabitants were ordinary people without spiritual roots.

It is conceivable that as the Zhou family develops and its members multiply, many mortals without spiritual roots will be born.

The clever, agile, and loyal among them would stay in the clan to serve the cultivators, but most mortals would be sent to Coral Town.

The population of Coral Town will gradually increase, from a small town to a city, and even gather together with mortals from other cultivation families, forming a small country in the secular sense.

Zhou Fuyou didn't care about any of that; he simply stood in an open space, gazing into the distance.

A surprised voice came from the side.

"Mayflies, you've come too!"

It's Zhou Yuqi.

Zhou Fuyou gave a brief greeting, but when she saw the middle-aged man next to Zhou Yuqi, she couldn't help but look puzzled.

"Who is this?"

Zhou Yuqi explained simply, "He's a mortal innate master I found in Coral Town, who's temporarily in charge of taking care of my daily travels."

Zhou Fuyou looked around and then asked, "What about Yin Si Niang?"

Zhou Yuqi's face showed grief. "Half a month ago, Fourth Sister was accidentally infected with the miasma of Bailuze. The treatment was too slow, and she unfortunately passed away."

Zhou Fuyou was taken aback.

Half a month ago?

Isn't that the time when the rumors were that the family's powerful members were about to finish their mission and return to Bailuze?
Why did Yin Si Niang die at that exact time, of all times?
Moreover, although the miasma in Bailuze is terrifying, as long as one doesn't go too deep and with the help of the family's detoxification pills, it's not so easy to get infected.

Just as he was wondering what was going on, cheers erupted around him.

The cheers grew louder and louder, gradually becoming denser and more numerous.

It was because a small black dot was rapidly approaching in the distant sky.

Soon, that little black dot filled everyone's eyes.

It's the Zhou family's Coral Flying Boat!

boom!
The enormous airship landed on the open ground of Coral Town, stirring up gusts of air.

One by one, figures emerged from within, and members of the Zhou family nearby warmly greeted them.

Only Zhou Fuyou and his siblings, along with their servant, stood there blankly.

They did not see any familiar figures.

Until an elderly, gentle woman walked up to them.

"Elder Shuzhen!" Granny Lin bowed respectfully, and was about to continue speaking.

However, Zhou Shuzhen, who was at the Golden Core stage, sighed and looked at Zhou Fuyou and the little girl he was holding. Meeting their expectant gazes, she slowly spoke.

"Your parents tragically perished during the mission. Please accept our deepest condolences!" (End of Chapter)