Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 104 Three Years of Change, Underground Auction [Please Subscribe]

The trip to Qinglian Temple in Lianzhou was far more fruitful than Zhou Chun had anticipated.

So he was in a very good mood when he left.

After leaving Lianzhou, he did not rush back to his family to report the good news, but instead went to Hongyafang City.

Since being transferred back to the clan as the clan chief's secretary, Zhou Chun has not come to Hongya Market again.

He went to the market this time to deal with the magical artifacts, talismans and other items that had accumulated in his storage bag.

The best course of action for these items would have been for the Zhou family to purchase them at market price and use them for exchange among their clansmen.

The problem is that after the battle with the "Qiyun Alliance," the Zhou family's treasury is no longer lacking in magical artifacts.

Moreover, the Zhou family only has so many members, so they don't change their magical artifacts very quickly, and they don't really care about some mid-grade first-tier magical artifacts.

Therefore, Zhou Chun had no choice but to come to the market to handle the matter himself.

After entering the market, he naturally went to the Spirit Beast Shop where he had worked for several years.

The current owner of Ling Shou Zhai is still Zhou Jiasheng, but the shop assistant has been changed to Zhou Chun's cousin, Zhou Zhengqiang, a 27-year-old youth with the fifth level of Qi Refining.

As Zhou Chun stepped through the door, Zhou Zhengqiang, who was sitting on a stool behind the door, heard the footsteps and hurriedly stood up to look at the visitor.

Upon seeing that the visitor was Zhou Chun, he was first taken aback, then smiled and bowed to Zhou Chun, saying, "Younger brother greets Thirteenth Brother. What brings you to the market today?"

Upon seeing this, Zhou Chun first smiled in return, then glanced around the shop and asked, "Sixteenth Brother, are you alone in the shop? Where is Uncle Sixteen?"

"I heard that someone from the Li family was selling a treasure. Because the treasure was quite valuable, Manager Li couldn't tell if it was genuine or not, so he asked Uncle Sixteen and the managers of several other shops to come and help him take a look."

Zhou Zhengqiang answered Zhou Chun's question softly, her words filled with envy.

Zhou Chun naturally understood why he was envious.

An item that even the owner of Li's Pharmacy dared not easily decide to acquire must have involved more than five or six hundred spirit coins.

And after such treasures are acquired, their value can generally be more than doubled.

This is a very impressive achievement for the store.

However, in terms of family status, Zhou Chun is now a notch above Zhou Jiasheng, the manager of Ling Shou Zhai, so such matters can no longer disturb his mind.

Therefore, she didn't ask any further questions, but instead looked at Zhou Zhengqiang and inquired, "How's business at the store lately? How are the sales of 'Touch of Despair'?"

"Business is alright, mostly with regular customers. Sales of the Touch of Despair are increasing. It seems some independent cultivators have spotted a business opportunity and are pooling their money to buy large quantities of the Touch of Despair from us to sell in neighboring states!"

At this point, Zhou Zhengqiang's face showed indignation again as she said, "If you ask me, our Zhou family should send people to transport the Touch of Despair to other places for sale ourselves. Why should we let those rogue cultivators make that money!"

"You're wrong about that."

Zhou Chun shook his head and carefully educated his cousin, "You must know that the fundamental purpose of our Zhou family developing the Touch of Despair is not to make a lot of money from this product, but to use it to attract popularity and boost the sales of other items."

"If we really do as you say, not to mention that our Zhou family's production of the Touch of Despair has already reached its limit and we may not be able to supply that many goods, the safety of the people who arrange to transport the goods will also be difficult to guarantee."

"Therefore, we need to have a long-term vision and know what kind of money can be made and what kind of money is not easy to make."

At this point, he got into the conversation and immediately pulled his sixteenth brother to sit down.

He continued, "Doing business is like a team going on an adventure to hunt monsters. If only you make money and profit, over time, no one will want to team up with you anymore."

"Take this Touch of Despair as an example. Since the production is limited and the family doesn't have the resources to open branches in other states, it's destined not to make much money. So why not make it a signature product in our store?"

"The money that independent cultivators make from reselling it is nothing to our family, but it actually brings them a considerable profit."

"This way, they'll make money from this, and they'll trust and support our Zhou family even more. In the future, if we release any new products or recruit rogue cultivators for anything, they'll definitely prioritize buying and applying."

"This is what we call a win-win situation, you know?"

Zhou Zhengqiang certainly won't understand the concept of win-win cooperation so quickly.

However, Zhou Chun's explanation calmed his resentment.

He immediately nodded and said, "I understand, thank you for your guidance, Brother Thirteen."

After checking the store's ledgers again and seeing that Zhou Jiasheng still hadn't returned, Zhou Chun decided not to wait any longer and left the store directly.

After leaving the shop, Zhou Chun did not go to the street market where he usually dealt with magical artifacts.

He has more than a dozen magical artifacts in his possession, and if he takes them all to the street market to sell, it will take him at least ten days to half a month to sell them, and he may not be able to get a high price for them.

So he went directly to a reputable Buddhist artifact store in the market.

This magical artifact specialty store, named "Jibaoxuan," was opened by a well-known late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator from Lanzhou, who is also the leader of a certain independent cultivator organization.

Therefore, in the sales of low- to mid-range Buddhist artifacts, this store has an advantage that large stores like "Tianbaoge" do not possess.

Therefore, when they recycle some religious artifacts, the prices are generally fair.

Of course, this fairness depends on who is being treated.

For someone like Zhou Chun, who comes from a family of cultivators, has his own sales channels, and is very familiar with the market, the price can naturally be fair.

For independent cultivators or even bandits, the price is another matter.

Therefore, when Zhou Chun came out of the "Jibaoxuan", there were six or seven hundred more spirit coins in his storage bag.

At this moment, Zhou Chun's storage bag contained more than two thousand spirit coins!

It was also because his mindset changed after he killed the Foundation Establishment cultivator in black.

Otherwise, if he were to walk down the street carrying such a large sum of spirit coins, he would really worry about attracting unwanted attention.

Zhou Chun doesn't plan to spend these spirit coins right now.

He has already begun preparations for the future foundation building; good steel must be used where it counts!

When Zhou Chun returned to the Spirit Beast Shop, Zhou Jiasheng also came back. He caught up with him and then entrusted him with selling some items that were not suitable for individual sale.

This kind of business, selling certain treasures on behalf of clansmen, is also one of the services offered by family shops like Ling Shou Zhai.

After completing all the tasks at the market, Zhou Chun returned to his family and began to cultivate in peace.

Over the next three years, the resurgent Hualong Sect indeed clashed multiple times with the Qinglian Temple, which guarded the southern part of Jingguo.

First, the Qinglian Temple issued an order to all major cultivation families, small sects, and independent cultivator organizations in the four southern states of Jingguo—Lianzhou, Lanzhou, Yunzhou, and Lingzhou—demanding a thorough investigation of the remnants of the Hualong Sect who had infiltrated Jingguo. Rewards would be given for discovering or killing any remnants of the Hualong Sect.

During this period, including the Qinglian Temple itself, which arrested and killed as many as two or three hundred formal and prospective members of the Hualong Sect through information channels, they even killed several missionaries of the Hualong Sect.

The Hualong Sect was not to be outdone.

First, they used a tactic of luring the snake out of its hole to ambush and kill some Qinglian Temple disciples who came to arrest them after hearing the news.

Then, with ruthless methods, they successively wiped out three cultivator families and two independent cultivator organizations that had made a mistake, giving a strong shock to various small and medium-sized forces.

At the same time, they openly proclaimed the slogan of "education for all" and recruited followers on a large scale, attracting Jingguo monks to join with all sorts of seemingly irresistible conditions.

They even went so far as to print the "glorious history" of the Hualong Sect, which had been banned by various factions in Yasukuni, into booklets and spread it widely in order to "rectify" their own reputation.

This posture makes it seem like they're about to re-enter the Yasukuni Kingdom and challenge the various factions.

Therefore, after the Hualong Sect made these reactions, not only were the high-ranking members of the Qinglian Temple furious, but the Moon Wheel Sect, the Flame Sun Sect, and other forces that had participated in the destruction of the Hualong Sect in the past also became vigilant and sent high-level cultivators to the Qinglian Temple to find out what was going on.

If necessary, these families would certainly not hesitate to send people south to strike at the Hualong Sect.

However, the power struggles and schemes among these major forces have little to do with the Zhou family or Zhou Chun.

As a cultivation family under the jurisdiction of Qinglian Temple, the Zhou family can only obey the orders of Qinglian Temple unless Qinglian Temple has lost control of Lanzhou. There is no room for them to waver.

Zhou Chun was no exception.

Therefore, during these three years, apart from verbally responding to the call of Qinglian Temple and investigating the rogue cultivators who entered the family's mountain gate for cultivation, the Zhou family actively prepared for war to enhance the family's strength.

From patriarch Zhou Daoyi down, every cultivator in the Zhou family is working hard to improve their own cultivation level or the cultivation level of their spirit pets.

Three years have passed, and not only has the patriarch Zhou Daoyi's cultivation level recovered to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, but the other Zhou family cultivators have also made significant gains.

For example, Zhou Daoquan, the third elder of the Zhou family, had his spirit pet Zhu Yanhe promoted to a mid-grade second-tier demon beast.

Zhou Jiapeng, a core member of the clan, finally found a female Iron Feather Eagle to breed with and successfully lured and captured her into the Zhou family's mountain gate.

Then there's Zhou Chun. Three years have passed, and his cultivation has broken through to the eleventh level of the Qi Refining stage. Ninety-six acupoints in his body have been opened. As long as he opens four more acupoints, he can break through to the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage.

At the same time, his spirit pet, the rock tortoise, had also eaten the "Tianhuang Stone." With its bloodline strengthened, it not only reached a level comparable to a cultivator at the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage, but also awakened a very practical earth-elemental spell called "Gravity Spell."

But the biggest change is undoubtedly in the Silver Lightning Python, Bai Bai.

At this moment, the Silver Lightning Python Bai Bai had broken through to become a first-tier high-grade demon beast, and the dragon bloodline in its body had been initially awakened and strengthened.

This caused it to not only grow to over five zhang in length, but also its snake scales to transform into those of a dragon, greatly enhancing its defensive capabilities.

After becoming a first-tier high-grade demon beast, the Silver Lightning Python Bai Bai's various lightning-based spells were finally ready to be used and form a powerful combat force.

The current Silver Lightning Python, Bai Bai, possesses a total of six spells: Lightning Spell, Chain Lightning Spell, Strike Lightning Spell, Thunderstorm Spell, Lightning Shield, and Lightning Net.

These six spells reveal the growth trajectory of the Silver Lightning Python, Bai Bai.

If we apply Zhou Chun's previous life's theories, the Rock Tortoise is a tank, responsible for absorbing damage and attracting fire, while the Silver Lightning Python is a turret mage, a damage-dealing machine.

With two powerful spirit pets, one for offense and one for defense, and two newly cultivated "Xin Jin Sword Qi" as his trump cards, he is virtually unbeatable within the Qi Refining stage, unless he encounters a Foundation Establishment cultivator!

However, the passage of time always has both advantages and disadvantages.

The downside was that the Zhou family lost three family cultivators in three years, including two "Shou" generation members who died of old age, and one "Jia" generation member who went missing.

Although the Zhou family gained five more children and infants with spiritual root aptitude during this period, the loss of cultivators obviously could not be made up for in the short term.

But this is the normal situation for a family; birth, aging, illness, and death are always unavoidable.

"News came from Jiasheng in the market area that someone is preparing to hold an underground auction to sell items that are not convenient to be auctioned openly."

"According to some information revealed by the organizers, it is confirmed that items such as Foundation Establishment Pills and Soul Nourishing Jade will appear at the auction."

"The family still has a considerable amount of spirit coins in its accounts. I'd like to ask the Fourth Elder to see if he can purchase a Foundation Establishment Pill. Zheng Chun, would you like to come along and broaden your horizons?"

On this day, Zhou Chun had just returned from cultivating at the top of Pagoda Peak when the clan leader, Zhou Daoyi, suddenly looked at him and said something that surprised him.

Zhou Chun had long heard of the so-called "underground auction" when he was a shop assistant in the market.

Such activities are usually organized secretly by certain powerful forces, and are generally jointly organized by several forces.

The event is by invitation only. Before the event, the organizers will send invitations to any organizations or individuals they deem to have the financial resources, and briefly mention some of the important treasures that will be auctioned to attract people.

If anyone is interested in the underground auction, they can go to the designated location at the time specified in the invitation, and then be led by a designated person to the venue of the underground auction.

Because these underground auctions are not held very often, when they are held, they attract many Foundation Establishment cultivators and even Purple Mansion cultivators.

Even some monks from other states, upon hearing the news, would try to obtain invitations to participate.

If Zhou Chun remembered correctly, the last time an underground auction appeared in Lanzhou was more than ten years ago, before the Zhou family had even moved to Jingguo.

After a moment of surprise and stunned silence, Zhou Chun bowed to Zhou Daoyi and said, "I am naturally extremely grateful that the clan leader has given me such an opportunity to broaden my horizons."

After a slight pause, a look of doubt crossed his face as he continued, "However, since Fourth Elder is going to purchase such an important treasure as the Foundation Establishment Pill, will it really be a problem for me to accompany him?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Daoyi immediately reassured him, "Don't worry about that. Since I dared to let you go with the Fourth Elder, I am confident that I can ensure your safety."

Hearing his confident words, Zhou Chun's expression changed, as if she had thought of something, and she put her worries aside.

About half a month later, Zhou Chun and the Fourth Elder Zhou Jiarui left Jiufeng Ridge and headed to the designated meeting point for the underground auction near Hongyafang City.

Second update delivered.

(End of this chapter)