Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 243 Zhou Daoyi's Worries, Beast Tide Approaches [Please Subscribe]

"Eighteenth Brother, your Ironback Bear can't just be used as a meat shield. You need to let it get close and attack in coordination with your attacks."

"Seventeenth brother, you and your wife shouldn't just focus on fighting that one black crocodile; try to help your nephews too!"

"Oh no, niece Xinhuan, watch out behind you!"

On the grassy bank of the river, Zhou Zhenglan, who had the highest cultivation level on site, was forced to become the captain. While directing the other tribesmen to fight against the Black Water Crocodile, she also dragged her husband Pang Chong along to act as firefighters, helping those tribesmen in danger everywhere.

Actually, these people just lack experience.

If they had any experience in coordinated operations, a mere dozen or so blackwater crocodiles would be no match for their superior equipment.

Hedong in thirty years and Hexi in thirty years.

The Zhou family today is not the same as the Zhou family of twenty or thirty years ago.

When the Zhou family first settled in Jiufengling, they didn't receive many possessions during the family division, so when Zhou Chun's magical artifact broke, he couldn't even get it replaced by the family.

Now, as long as a Zhou family cultivator reaches the mid-stage or late-stage of Qi Refining, the family will bestow upon them a magic weapon corresponding to their cultivation level.

Moreover, when they came out this time, the family not only provided each of them with an extra magic weapon corresponding to their cultivation level, but also provided them with twenty magic talismans and a number of pills.

With this setup, dealing with some blackwater crocodiles that aren't particularly strong in combat once they come ashore is really not difficult for someone who knows how!

So, after the initial panic and the realization that the black water crocodiles weren't actually that strong, the twelve Zhou family cultivators gradually recovered from their panic and began to cooperate in battle.

Once they began to cooperate in combat, they quickly achieved encouraging results.

One after another, the black crocodiles were killed by them, and the battle ended in no time.

After the last black water crocodile was killed by Zhou Xinlan's Crimson Flame Vajra Monkey spirit pet with a single punch, Zhou Chun slowly descended from the sky and nodded slightly to the Zhou family cultivators who had just endured a fierce battle:

"You did a good job. I hope you can learn from this battle, learn to fight together, and make good use of your magical artifacts, talismans, and spirit beasts to truly unleash your full power, or even exceed it."

These words can be seen as an affirmation of the twelve people's contributions.

Therefore, the Zhou family cultivators who heard his words all showed undisguised joy and responded loudly in unison, "Yes, we will certainly remember the Vice Clan Chief's teachings!"

"Alright, let's clean up the battlefield. There's nothing good on these black crocodiles, just their eyes will suffice as evidence!"

Zhou Chun waved his hand and made new arrangements.

In the midst of a beast tide, slaying monsters also earns merit.

To gain battle merits by slaying demonic beasts, one must present relevant evidence to the cultivators of the three major sects who compile battle merit statistics.

For example, when killing a black water crocodile, you should show its two eyeballs; of course, it's better if the whole body is intact.

For killing certain second-tier demonic beasts, it may be necessary to present the entire corpse or half of the corpse to gain recognition.

A short while later, all fourteen pairs of black crocodile eyes were collected and handed over to Zhou Chun for safekeeping.

The carcasses of the black crocodiles were casually feasted on by the Zhou family's spirit pets and then discarded on the riverbank.

Then the Zhou family set off on foot, going upstream along the river, clearing away the monsters that had already penetrated deep into the inland areas.

In just one day, Zhou Chun and his group had traveled more than a hundred miles along the riverbank, killing forty-six first-tier demonic beasts along the way.

Only a few of the first-tier high-grade demonic beasts were personally killed by Zhou Chun; the rest were used as whetstones by the twelve Qi Refining stage cultivators of the Zhou family.

After a day of intense fighting, these Zhou family Qi Refining stage cultivators, who were new to the battlefield, finally honed their skills and began to understand how to kill enemies and survive on the battlefield.

"Alright, that concludes today's mission. I'll take you back to the base now. Remember to reflect on today's experiences, learn from them, and make sure you don't repeat the same mistakes next time!"

Outside a small fishing village by the river, Zhou Chun, who had been on patrol, glanced at the peaceful and tranquil atmosphere inside the village, then waved his hand, ending his patrol.

Since this small fishing village by the river has not been attacked by monsters, it means that the monsters that travel upstream have not yet passed through this area, so the river can be considered clean for the time being.

Immediately, Zhou Chun summoned the Silver Lightning Python, which had been resting all the way, to carry the twelve exhausted Zhou family Qi Refining stage cultivators back to their stronghold.

When they returned to the stronghold, there seemed to be many more people there than the day before, and Zhou Chun also saw many cultivators who appeared to be independent cultivators.

After handing over the mission, Zhou Daoyi, who had been at the base, took the opportunity to talk about Qing Lingzi's arrangements.

"According to Senior Qing Lingzi's plan, the Zhou family and several powerful families will each form their own teams, and some rogue cultivators will be added to form a hundred-person team. At that time, he will directly issue orders to us team leaders, and we will just need to follow the orders."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun murmured to himself with a slight look of surprise, "To be willing to delegate power at this time, this Senior Qing Lingzi really has guts!"

After saying that, he nodded slightly and said, "But this is indeed a great thing for us!"

"This is indeed a good thing, but with the decentralization of power, the responsibility also falls on our shoulders. If anything goes wrong, we'll likely face serious consequences!"

Zhou Daoyi shook his head at this point and changed the subject, saying, "From what Senior Qing Lingzi said, it seems he wants to use Qingqing's existence to do something, which makes me very worried and uneasy!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately replied, "If we're going to use the Azure Flood Dragon as a tool, we'd either rely on its dragon might to disperse the beast horde, but that's unlikely to work in a beast tide. Those fourth-tier demonic beasts won't just sit idly by!"

"Either we use the Azure Dragon to attract the attention of the fourth-tier dragons behind the beast tide, and lure them out!"

After saying that, he said thoughtfully, "If it is the latter, then there are probably more than just Senior Qing Lingzi, a Golden Core cultivator, here."

"That's what I think too, that's why I'm worried!"

Zhou Daoyi looked worried and muttered to himself, "Qingqing's bloodline has reverted to its ancestral form and transformed into a dragon. It has never seen any other dragons yet. If it were to encounter a fourth-tier dragon, although I'm not afraid of it turning against me and breaking free of the contract, I'm worried that it might affect its personality and thoughts, and plant some hidden dangers!"

His concern was not unfounded.

Most of the spirit pets of the Zhou family cultivators are raised from a young age, so they usually have a very close relationship with their masters.

In the past history of the Zhou family, many of the spiritual pets of Zhou family cultivators even died alongside their masters.

However, once a spirit pet comes into contact with wild monsters of its own kind and lives together for a long time, its feelings for its owner can easily change.

Moreover, the higher the cultivation level of a demon beast, the higher its intelligence, and the more susceptible it is to this influence.

Although under the restrictions of the "Soul Control Blood Array," it is almost impossible for a demon beast of the same level to break free from the contract and turn against its master, if it really harbors thoughts of betrayal, it will still cause great trouble in the future.

The Azure Dragon is already a third-tier demon beast. Under Zhou Daoyi's training for over a hundred years, its intelligence is now comparable to that of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old human boy.

The intelligence of a fourth-order dragon is roughly at this level, or even higher.

If the two meet, and the fourth-tier dragon conveys some ideas to the azure dragon about resisting humanity and liberating the demon body, it's hard to guarantee that the azure dragon won't be affected.

Once the seed is planted, it may sprout and grow at any time, until it fills the heart.

Zhou Chun had this concern back then, which is why he spared the Golden-Winged Tiger's parents and did not kill the Golden-Sword Tiger and the Winged Tiger.

Faced with Zhou Daoyi's worries, Zhou Chun could only comfort him, saying, "Clan leader, your concerns are not without merit. However, this is a hurdle we must face sooner or later. I believe that your century-long relationship with Qingqing cannot be disrupted or destroyed by the slanderous words of that treacherous beast!"

"Well, I hope so!"

Zhou Daoyi sighed softly, realizing there was no better solution.

Time flies, and two more days have passed in the blink of an eye.

At this point, almost all the various cultivation families that had been conscripted to Biyanze had arrived.

Since the main force of the beast tide was heading towards Yunzhou, most of the cultivation families mobilized from Lanzhou this time were local Lanzhou cultivation families, with a few from Lianzhou.

On the contrary, the sources of independent cultivators are extremely wide.

Many independent cultivators from the north, due to time constraints, were unable to reach Yunzhou, or simply did not want to face the main force of the beast tide, so they came to Lanzhou to join the battle.

Once these independent cultivators had gathered to a number of several thousand, Qing Lingzi began to reorganize them.

He offered an extra three to seven spirit coins per day to any Qi Refining stage cultivators willing to participate in the reorganization, and also promised to provide a death compensation.

In this way, they recruited more than 700 brave warriors.

These rogue cultivators were then evenly distributed among eight cultivation families, including the Zhou family, forming eight fully-equipped hundred-man squads. The remaining rogue cultivators served as reserves to replenish the losses suffered at the front.

"Here, here, here, and here—these eight places are all strategically important passes leading to the inland. Your eight hundred-man squads are to set up camp in these locations to defend against and eliminate small waves of beasts, preventing them from penetrating the inland and harming ordinary people!"

"Furthermore, if you receive my summons, you must obey my orders immediately without the slightest delay!"

In a small, exquisite courtyard, Qing Lingzi summoned Zhou Daoyi and eight other cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage and solemnly assigned them relevant tasks.

The border of Jingguo is extremely vast. If all the monsters in the beast tide break into small groups and rush into Jingguo, then with the number of cultivators in Jingguo, it will definitely be impossible to defend such a vast border.

However, those scattered monsters would no longer act according to the commands of the high-level monsters that initiated the beast tide.

It's very likely that they started killing each other as soon as they left the influence range of the high-level demonic beasts, or they simply found a good place and decided to stay.

In this way, not only will the actual killing power of the beast tide be limited, but it will also make it easier for cultivators from the Jing Kingdom to form teams to eliminate those monsters.

Therefore, once a high-level monster launches a beast tide, it generally will not allow the beast horde to leave its sphere of influence, making it easy to know the path of the beast tide in advance.

Based on Jingguo's previous experience in dealing with beast tides, even if a beast tide splits into smaller groups, each smaller group needs at least one third-tier demon beast to lead and restrain it in order to maintain a certain level of destructiveness.

Therefore, Qing Lingzi had Purple Mansion stage cultivators lead teams to guard the eight directions to prevent small groups of beasts from bypassing the front line and rushing into the rear to cause trouble and destruction.

Upon hearing Qing Lingzi's instructions, Zhou Daoyi and the others solemnly replied in unison, "Yes, we obey."

Then they each led their people and set off.

After leaving their stronghold, the hundred-strong Zhou family group headed straight southwest for over three hundred li before stopping on a mountain ridge.

"This is it, Jinji Mountain. We'll hold this area until new orders arrive."

High atop the mountain, Zhou Daoyi gazed at the boundless plains behind him, his expression extremely solemn.

Behind them, on the vast plains, lived no fewer than a million ordinary people. If the beast tide were to enter, countless ordinary people would perish in the beasts' jaws.

Therefore, they bear a great responsibility.

Subsequently, Zhou Daoyi personally led Zhou Chun and others to set up a protective array and a small purification array issued by Qing Lingzi.

Thus, a temporary camp outpost was formed.

After setting up camp, Zhou Chun suggested to Zhou Daoyi, "I think the environment of Golden Rooster Mountain is quite good. There should be many hermits living in the mountains. Perhaps we can recruit them, even if it's just to help control the formation."

"That's one way too. Let Zheng Lan and her husband take some independent cultivators to find people. Tell them that as long as they come, regardless of their cultivation level, our Zhou family will subsidize them with at least one spirit coin per day!"

After a moment's thought, Zhou Daoyi nodded in agreement with Zhou Chun's suggestion.

So Zhou Chun quickly arranged for Zhou Zhenglan and Pang Chong to lead seven or eight rogue cultivators to the mountains to recruit men.

Zhou Chun himself also took the time to train and hone the rogue cultivators he had brought, so that when they actually fought the beast tide, he could tailor his approach to each individual and bring out their full potential.

At the same time, just as the Zhou family set up camp, the beast tide, which had been resting for two days by the Biyan Marsh, officially crossed the wilderness and set foot on the territory of Jing Kingdom.

The main force of this beast tide headed directly towards the stronghold where Qing Lingzi was stationed, clearly indicating that they had already conducted intelligence reconnaissance.

Around the same time, Lin Hongyu, who was far away at the Blood Dragon branch of the Hualong Sect, was also forced to end her recuperation period and was once again summoned back to the mountain.

This is the first update of the day; there will be another update tonight.

(End of this chapter)