Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 108 Human Relationships and Social Skills, The Zhang Family of Tiantai [Please Subscribe]

"The story of the Heavenly Spirit Trial dates back thousands of years."

"Around seven or eight thousand years ago, the vast area where the three countries of Jing, Cheng, and Shen were located was under the oppressive rule of a powerful immortal cultivation sect called Tianling Sect."

"It's said that at its peak, the Heavenly Spirit Sect had over a dozen Nascent Soul stage cultivators!"

"The Heavenly Spirit Trial is a trial specially created by the Heavenly Spirit Sect to select outstanding disciples."

"There are three trial grounds in the Heavenly Spirit Trial, corresponding to cultivators at the Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Purple Mansion realms respectively. They can enter the trial grounds with Heavenly Spirit Tokens of different levels."

"Within each trial ground, there are various dangerous trials and treasures arranged by the Heavenly Spirit Sect for the trial disciples. The better the trial disciples perform in the trial ground, the higher the rewards they will receive after the trial ends."

"However, the Heavenly Spirit Sect has long been destroyed, and two of the trial grounds where the Heavenly Spirit Trials were held have been discovered and broken. Only the trial ground for Qi Refining stage cultivators has not yet been discovered."

"Due to the destruction of the Heavenly Spirit Sect, those who wish to participate in the Heavenly Spirit Trial and enter the Trial Grounds can only do so by using the Heavenly Spirit Token during certain special time periods, through the teleportation altar on the ruins of the Heavenly Spirit Sect."

"As far as I know, every time the Heavenly Spirit Trial opens, cultivators from the three kingdoms enter the trial grounds with Heavenly Spirit Tokens to plunder its resources. Some have even brought out thousand-year-old spiritual herbs from there!"

Inside the Zhongping Hall, facing Zhou Chun's question, Zhou Daoyi organized his thoughts slightly and then told him everything about the "Heavenly Spirit Trial".

After speaking, he sighed with regret, "It's a pity I wasn't there at the time. Otherwise, if it were only a little over five thousand spirit coins, I could have tried to obtain that Heavenly Spirit Token and let Zheng Chun go to the trial grounds to investigate the situation!"

Zhou Daoyi was quite familiar with Zhou Chun's abilities.

Now that the Rock Tortoise and the Silver Lightning Python have both been fully cultivated, coupled with the secret techniques he has practiced and the magical artifacts he possesses, it is difficult for anyone within the Qi Refining stage to defeat him.

If you participate in that "Heavenly Spirit Trial," you should be able to gain a lot.

However, Zhou Chun's attention was now drawn to the powerful Tianling Sect that Zhou Daoyi had mentioned.

He didn't react much to his sigh, but instead asked with great curiosity, "As the clan leader said, the Heavenly Spirit Sect was so powerful at its peak, so how did it perish?"

Zhou Daoyi shook his head this time and said, "I don't know about that. After thousands of years, I'm afraid that apart from those knowledgeable Golden Core cultivators, most ordinary cultivators would hardly know the truth about this matter."

After saying that, he waved to Zhou Chun and said, "Alright, you only need to know a little about these things. There's no need to pay too much attention to them. From now on, focus more on your cultivation and reach the Foundation Establishment stage as soon as possible!"

"Yes, I understand."

Zhou Chun obediently responded and immediately took her leave and returned to her residence.

Within a few days, the news that the family had obtained five Spirit Ascension Fruits spread throughout the entire Zhou family clan.

Unlike in the past when only the best candidates were selected to take the Foundation Establishment Pill to establish their foundation, this time Zhou Daoyi put all five Spirit Ascension Fruits into the family treasury, allowing family members to exchange them for merits earned through family deeds.

Each Spirit Ascension Fruit is worth 2,000 points of family merit.

This price is roughly at cost, or even slightly discounted.

However, among all the Qi Refining stage cultivators in the Zhou family, only two people have more than two thousand points of family merit. One of them is Zhou Chun, who has no need for the Spirit Ascension Fruit, and the other is already over ninety years old and basically has no hope of reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.

Therefore, neither of them participated in the competition for the five Spirit Ascension Fruits.

However, instead of vying for the Spirit Ascension Fruit, others coveted the family merits they possessed.

Shortly after the news came out that the Spirit Ascension Fruit could be exchanged for family merits, several family elders approached him with the same goal: to borrow merits from him.

It's no secret that Zhou Chun is the cultivator with the most merits among the Qi Refining stage cultivators in the Zhou family.

He still needs some time to break through to the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage, let alone to open up all 108 acupoints in his body.

Therefore, the elders of the Zhou family who needed the Spirit Ascension Fruit but whose own family had not accumulated enough merit easily set their sights on him.

Faced with these elders' requests, Zhou Chun was in a dilemma.

If he doesn't lend it, his elders will inevitably say he's stingy and have a bad opinion of him.

If he lends it to any of his many elders, who will he actually lend it to?

So they could only ask each person how much good deed they wanted to borrow, and then use the excuse that they needed time to consider it to delay, while secretly weighing the options.

First of all, he definitely needs to borrow good deeds. If he doesn't borrow any, it seems like he won't offend anyone, but in reality, he will offend everyone.

Moreover, if the good deeds lent out successfully help someone achieve foundation building, that would be a considerable favor.

As a result, Zhou Chun had only considered it for less than two days when two of the five Spirit Ascension Fruits were exchanged for.

However, someone had managed to gather enough merit from other clansmen and struck first.

Now the remaining members of the Zhou family were anxious, and Zhou Chun faced even greater pressure.

After much deliberation, he made a decision.

He first invited his twenty-seventh uncle, Zhou Jiapeng, who had come to inquire about the situation, into his residence, and then said with a serious expression, "Uncle Peng, I have always remembered your kindness and care for me. Since you have asked, I will naturally lend you these thousand points of merit!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Jiapeng's face lit up with ecstasy, and he exclaimed repeatedly, "Good, good, good! I knew I hadn't misjudged you! Zheng Chun, you really are a kind, righteous, and grateful boy!"

At this moment, Zhou Jiapeng was indeed overjoyed.

Because he also knew that compared with some family elders who also came to Zhou Chun to borrow merit, he actually only had this little advantage, while he was at a great disadvantage in other aspects.

For example, his cultivation level had only recently broken through to the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage, and he still needed at least another year of cultivation before he could consume the Spirit Ascension Fruit.

This alone gives Zhou Chun sufficient reason to exclude him when considering lending out his merits.

Not to mention that he also wanted to borrow as many as a thousand points of family merit at once!

In this situation, Zhou Chun was still willing to lend him over a thousand merit points as he requested.

How could he not be overjoyed and ecstatic?

Overjoyed, he immediately assured him, "Zheng Chun, don't worry. I will compensate you with these thousand points of family merit as soon as possible after I consume the Spirit Ascension Fruit, regardless of whether I succeed or fail. You will not suffer any loss!"

"Then I wish you all your dreams come true, Uncle Peng!"

Zhou Chun smiled and offered her blessings.

Then, on the spot, Zhou Jiapeng was given a letter transferring 1,000 points of family merit, which he was instructed to take up and exchange for the Spirit Ascension Fruit.

After seeing off the overjoyed Zhou Jiapeng, Zhou Chun invited his thirteenth aunt, Zhou Jiahe, to his residence.

"When I first arrived at Baozhi Peak, Aunt Fourteen took great care of me. I have always remembered this kindness. Now that you have asked, Aunt Fourteen, I naturally cannot refuse to lend you these 650 points of family merit!"

Inside the room, Zhou Chun looked at Zhou Jiahe, whose hair had turned gray, and couldn't help but recall when she first arrived at Jiufengling twelve years ago.

At that time, he was only at the sixth level of the Qi Refining stage and had only been in this world for a short time.

At that time, Zhou Jiahe was already sixty-seven years old, but he didn't look as old as he does now.

Actually, given Zhou Jiahe's current age, if he could take the Foundation Establishment Pill to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, then there would be much to discuss.

After all, there is a precedent of Zhou Jiarui, who was over seventy years old, successfully establishing his foundation.

However, it's hard to say what the success rate will be if one tries to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage by consuming the Spirit Ascension Fruit.

Most importantly, if she fails, her physical condition at her age will make it difficult to withstand the backlash of failure.

Zhou Chun felt that the reason this old man dared to take such a gamble was probably because he had never married and had nothing to worry about after his death.

Even in failure, it's just dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

When Zhou Jiahe heard that Zhou Chun was willing to lend him the family's merit points, he was extremely happy, but he did not lose his composure like Zhou Jiapeng.

He simply looked at Zhou Chun with a kind expression and nodded repeatedly, saying, "Zheng Yong is right. Zheng Chun, you are indeed someone who remembers old friendships. I will remember this kindness today."

She didn't say anything about repaying Zhou Jiapeng, but Zhou Chun wasn't worried at all that she would renege on her promise.

We are all members of the same family, so there is still that trust between us.

So after giving Zhou Jiahe a letter of loan for the family's good deeds, Zhou Chun saw the family elder off from his residence.

As for the remaining family elders, he could only regretfully express that his abilities were limited and he could not help them.

This will naturally disappoint those people and even cause them to have some opinions about him.

However, he couldn't possibly attend to everyone's needs, so he could only let things take their course.

After Zhou Jiapeng and Zhou Jiahe each exchanged for a Spirit Ascension Fruit, the last Spirit Ascension Fruit was quickly exchanged as well.

Whether these five Spirit Ascension Fruits will ultimately lead to the emergence of a new Foundation Establishment cultivator in the Zhou family remains to be seen.

In short, this was a huge profit for the family.

Not only did they cancel 10,000 points of family merit through the Spirit Ascension Fruit recycling, they may also gain one or more Foundation Establishment cultivators.

While the Zhou family was celebrating the acquisition of five Spirit Ascension Fruits, the Zhang family, another cultivation family in Lanzhou, was mourning the death of their family elder.

The Zhang family of Tiantai Mountain is a long-established family of cultivators in Lanzhou with a rich history.

The Zhang family ancestors were just independent cultivators, without even reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.

However, he managed to have three sons and two daughters, five descendants with spiritual roots, by taking many concubines and fathering children. One of them even had a high-grade spiritual root aptitude.

Later, it was through these three sons and two daughters, along with hundreds of ordinary children, that the Zhang family of Tiantai Mountain spread its branches and laid the foundation for its existence.

To this day, the Zhang family has a history of seven or eight hundred years, with two or three hundred cultivators and hundreds of thousands of ordinary people.

This time, Zhang Yunjin, the second elder of the Zhang family, went to the underground auction with a family mission, hoping to bid for a Foundation Establishment Pill and add another Foundation Establishment cultivator to the family.

However, to the surprise of everyone in the Zhang family, going out to carry out such a simple task would lead to Zhang Yunjin, who had the cultivation level of the late Foundation Establishment stage, never to return and perishing outside.

If the Zhang family hadn't mobilized their connections to investigate, they might not have even known how this family elder died or who killed him.

"Clan leader, the news is now confirmed. The Second Elder was killed by the Fire God Jackal tamed by the Zhou family's Supreme Elder. What are you and the Supreme Elder still hesitating about? Why don't you lead us to their doorstep to demand an explanation?"

"Yes, the Zhou family killed my Zhang family elders and seized my family's property. If my Zhang family doesn't respond, what will outsiders think of us? What will the family members think of us elders?"

"I don't understand what you're worried about, Clan Chief. The Zhou family are outsiders. In the past, we should have been grateful if we hadn't bothered them. Now they dared to kill an elder of the Zhang family. If we don't go and demand an explanation from them, won't our Zhang family become a laughingstock!"

Inside the main hall of the Zhang family's patriarch's office on Tiantai Mountain, several Foundation Establishment elders of the Zhang family surrounded Patriarch Zhang Kaida, urging him to come forward and demand an explanation for the death of the Second Elder, Zhang Yunjin.

Just as Zhou Jiarui had expressed his concerns to Zhou Daoyi, when the Fire God Jackal killed Zhang Yunjin, it was seen from afar by several Foundation Establishment cultivators who had left the flying ship around the same time as them.

At the time, those people didn't know who had died, but they at least knew that it was the Zhou family's Fire God Jackal who had killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

When the Zhang family realized that their second elder, Zhang Yunjin, had not returned to the family, they searched everywhere for information. Naturally, someone was willing to do them a favor and revealed what they had seen that day.

Furthermore, since no other forces have been searching for the missing Foundation Establishment cultivator recently, the situation has become completely clear.

Thus, the scene unfolded where several Foundation Establishment elders of the Zhang family were furious and wanted to go to the Zhou family to demand an explanation.

However, facing the angry questioning of several elders, Zhang Kaida, the head of the Zhang family, said angrily with a grim expression, "You think it's so easy to come here and demand an explanation!"

"Even if we know that the Second Elder was killed by that fire-breathing jackal from the Zhou family, who would be willing to come forward and testify?"

"Furthermore, the Second Elder may have started it himself, making it difficult for us to have a legitimate reason to stand up for ourselves!"

"Most importantly, the Zhou family is no longer what it used to be. Don't forget, two years ago, Senior Mingxia from Qinglian Temple personally visited the Zhou family. Moreover, the Zhou family has close ties with the Wang, Mu, and Sun families, and they fought together!"

"Without a solid reason and without the support of other forces, what right does our Zhang family, with only one Purple Mansion cultivator, have to come knocking on the door of another family that has a Purple Mansion cultivator and a third-tier demonic beast to demand an explanation?"

At this point, Zhang Kaida glared fiercely at the elders who were shouting excitedly and roared, "You few Foundation Establishment cultivators? Which of you can stop that Fire God Jackal? Which of you can fight against Zhou Daoyi, who single-handedly killed three Foundation Establishment cultivators while riding a dragon?"

Fortunately, the soundproofing of this office hall was excellent; otherwise, Zhang Kaida's roar could have been heard by almost half of the family's cultivators.

His shout startled the Zhang family elders, who exchanged glances but dared not utter a sound.

After quite some time, someone asked with a resentful expression, "So, is that all? Did the Second Elder die in vain?"

"Of course we won't let it go like this!"

Zhang Kaida responded with a gloomy expression, his voice low and menacing: "Our Zhang family will remember this grudge for now, and when the opportunity arises, we'll make the Zhou family pay a heavy price!"

(End of this chapter)