Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 262 Zhou Zhengyong Establishes Foundation, Breaks Through to Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment [Please Subscribe]

Good things come in pairs. Just two months after Zhou Mingde and his group returned, the Li family, who dealt with pills, and the You family, who dealt with formations, also relented.

Although they still disagreed with the Zhou family taking a 40% share, they no longer insisted on taking a 40% share themselves.

After some discussion, the three parties finally agreed to each take a 30% share, with the remaining 10% to be handed over to Qinglian Temple as protection money.

At the same time, both the Li and You families promised that if the Zhou family had any needs for pills and formations in the future, as long as they had the materials, they could ask their families for help, and they would definitely give them the lowest preferential price.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun didn't stand on ceremony at all. He quickly took out the high-grade spiritual herbs he had plundered from the Dragon Transformation Sect and asked the Li family to help refine some pills to improve the magical power of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The Zhou family now has seven Foundation Establishment stage cultivators, and there may be one or two more in the future.

The Zhou family will have a great demand for this kind of pill that can enhance the mana of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

As for formations, after Zhou Chongshan's death, the Zhou family really didn't have anyone capable of doing that. In the future, when there is a need in this area, they can only rely on the You family.

After finalizing the cooperation agreement, Zhou Chun informed the Li and You families of the location chosen by Lin Wan'er, instructing them to be responsible for the construction of the stronghold.

Of course, for the sake of the Zhou family's interests, Zhou Chun still sent Zhou Jiarui, who had just recovered from his injuries, along with four Zhou family cultivators to help, to demonstrate the Zhou family's presence.

Then comes the issue of how to allocate the two Foundation Establishment Pills.

The Zhou family currently has nearly twenty cultivators whose cultivation level is at the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage. Even after removing those cultivators whose lifespan exceeds eighty years, there are still ten who meet the criteria for using Foundation Establishment Pills.

With more monks than porridge, the Foundation Establishment Pill is hard to get.

In other words, the news about the Foundation Establishment Pill is still being kept secret; otherwise, the Zhou family cultivators who came to plead for Zhou Chun would probably have been lining up at his door long ago.

It's not good to keep the pills to ourselves; we should use them sooner to strengthen our family's power.

Therefore, after much deliberation, Zhou Chun made a decision.

He first privately approached Zhou Zhengyong, his closest friend, and gave him several rare spiritual items that he owned, asking him to donate them to the family in his own name in exchange for the family's good deeds.

Zhou Zhengyong had served as a steward of the Zhou family for many years, and with the support of his Daoist partner Sun Yujiao, he had already accumulated nearly two thousand merits.

At this time, with Zhou Chun's guidance, he offered up several rare spiritual items and gained more than three thousand points of family merit.

In this way, with more than 5,000 points of family merit, Zhou Zhengyong undoubtedly fulfilled one of the family rules previously set by the Zhou family.

Any clan member who possesses more than 5,000 merit points in the family's Qi Refining stage will automatically be promoted to a Foundation Establishment seed in the family and will have priority in consuming Foundation Establishment Pills.

At this time, Zhou Chun used his family's merits to exchange for those rare spiritual items, and at the same time announced that his family possessed two Foundation Establishment Pills.

As expected, the Zhou family was once again in an uproar as soon as the news was announced.

Those Zhou family members with cultivation levels at the eleventh and twelfth levels of the Qi Refining stage all came to Zhou Chun to inquire about the distribution of Foundation Establishment Pills.

Even the elders, out of consideration for personal relationships, came over to inquire about the matter.

Zhou Chun was naturally prepared for this. No matter who came, he only gave one answer: the two Foundation Establishment Pills would be distributed to the family's "Foundation Establishment Seeds" in accordance with family rules.

Since the Zhou family currently lacks any native cultivators with superior spiritual root aptitude, and also lacks Qi Refining stage cultivators who have made significant contributions to the family like Zhou Chun did, there is naturally no true "Foundation Establishment seed".

Therefore, if you really want to obtain the Foundation Establishment Pill, you can only accumulate good deeds and make your good deeds exceed five thousand points, so that you will automatically advance to become a Foundation Establishment seed in your family.

But just as the Zhou family cultivators were racking their brains about how to quickly raise their family merit points to 5,000, they suddenly learned that someone had already used up all their family merit points to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill.

This surprised everyone else.

However, many people fell silent after learning that Zhou Zhengyong was the one who exchanged the Foundation Establishment Pill.

No one is a fool. How could Zhou Zhengyong suddenly have so many family merits? Every Zhou family cultivator who knows about his relationship with the patriarch Zhou Chun knows perfectly well.

Even if they felt uncomfortable about it, they couldn't blame Zhou Chun or Zhou Zhengyong for it.

After all, Zhou Chun's willingness to exchange his personal savings for family merits was his own business, and others had no right to interfere.

If they can't criticize this, can they criticize Zhou Chun's method of distributing Foundation Establishment Pills?

That would be cutting off your own path to exchanging Foundation Establishment Pills!

In fact, Zhou Chun's use of this method to help Zhou Zhengyong was already an effort to uphold justice within the family.

Any Zhou family cultivator with a sense of the bigger picture is aware of this.

So after that initial discomfort subsided, the remaining Foundation Establishment Pill became the target of fierce competition among the other Zhou family cultivators.

At this point, only borrowing money could help them quickly gather the five thousand points of family merit.

However, the Zhou family had long stipulated that Foundation Establishment cultivators were not allowed to lend their merits to Qi Refining cultivators in such matters.

However, it is not something that ordinary elders can afford to support in order to emulate the practices of Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong.

After all, the treasures Zhou Chun gave him were all high-quality items that ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators would find difficult to obtain.

In this situation, it is quite a test of one's interpersonal skills and character to borrow so much merit from among the many Qi Refining stage cultivators in the family.

But that's not something Zhou Chun needs to worry about.

With this important matter settled, there were few things left for him to worry about in the family, and he could finally focus on improving his cultivation.

This is the rule of the Zhou family, or rather, the rule of all sects and families.

Because the sect leader and clan head have devoted a great deal of energy to the affairs of the sect and the clan, they can receive priority support and care from the clan in terms of those elixirs that enhance magical power.

Therefore, most of the magic-enhancing pills that Zhou Mingde and the others obtained from the Kingdom of Le ended up in Zhou Chun's hands.

Zhou Chun himself still had a lot of pills that he had obtained through various means.

This made his cultivation very comfortable.

Other Foundation Establishment cultivators might only be able to take one pill to improve their magical power every few years, or even not be able to take such a pill for several years.

However, he was able to take one pill every three or four months while minimizing the effects of erysipelas.

He had already collected a large amount of the pure gold energy he needed for cultivation by purchasing it from outside sources.

Once Zhou Chun calmed down and entered a state of cultivation, his cultivation level improved rapidly.

Six months later, Zhou Zhengyong successfully established his foundation by taking the Foundation Establishment Pill, becoming the eighth Foundation Establishment cultivator in the Zhou family, thus filling the vacancy left by the passing of the Second Elder, Zhou Chongshan.

"Congratulations, Brother Yong, on successfully establishing your foundation!"

On the Pagoda Peak, Zhou Chun greeted Zhou Zhengyong, who had successfully completed his Foundation Establishment cultivation, with a broad smile.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong's smile vanished instantly.

He then bowed deeply to him with a face full of gratitude, saying, "Thirteenth Brother, I have no way to repay your kindness, so I can only express my gratitude in this way!"

Without waiting for Zhou Chun's response, he looked up at her and said solemnly, "From now on, whatever the clan leader commands, Zheng Yong will go through fire and water without batting an eye!"

Judging from his words, one can tell how grateful he is to Zhou Chun.

He knew very well that without Zhou Chun, he, Zhou Zhengyong, would never be where he was today.

He could never repay Zhou Chun's kindness, no matter what he did.

Therefore, in Zhou Zhengyong's mind at this moment, he could ignore the words of any member of the Zhou family, but he absolutely could not hesitate in the slightest when it came to Zhou Chun's words.

The saying goes, "A scholar will die for one who understands him." If Zhou Chun ever needs him, he is willing to repay Zhou Chun's kindness with his own life!

After hearing Zhou Zhengyong's words and looking at the serious-looking Zhou Zhengyong in front of him, Zhou Chun was filled with emotion.

Undoubtedly, his initial close relationship with Zhou Zhengyong was motivated by a desire to exploit him.

But over the years, he has come to truly regard Zhou Zhengyong as his brother and family.

In fact, given his current status in the Zhou family and his standing among the elders, whether he has one more or one less Zhou Zhengyong supporting him, it will not shake his position in any way.

But when he got those two Foundation Establishment Pills, the first person he thought of was Zhou Zhengyong.

This is what brothers are all about!

Zhou Chun also made no attempt to hide his brotherly feelings for Zhou Zhengyong.

A smile flashed across his face as he stepped forward, grasped Zhou Zhengyong's hand, and said, "Brother Yong, you're too kind. It's mainly because you were ambitious enough to succeed in Foundation Establishment on your first try."

As someone who had been through it, Zhou Chun certainly knew the difficulties of Foundation Establishment.

He even failed to reach the Foundation Establishment stage once!

Zhou Zhengyong's success in achieving Foundation Establishment on his first attempt, regardless of whether it was due to better luck than his predecessor, truly demonstrates his determination.

At least this way, no one will have any objections to Zhou Zhengyong exchanging a Foundation Establishment Pill for another one.

Next, Zhou Chun personally held a Foundation Establishment Ceremony for Zhou Zhengyong to celebrate his successful Foundation Establishment.

Zhou Zhengyong's successful Foundation Establishment undoubtedly stimulated the other Qi Refining stage cultivators in the Zhou family, making them even more eager for the remaining Foundation Establishment Pill.

As the clan leader, Zhou Chun was able to clearly know which Zhou family cultivators' merit points were gradually approaching the 5,000-point mark.

Interestingly, several Zhou family cultivators raised their family's merit points to over four thousand by borrowing money.

But the remaining few hundred points were difficult to borrow.

Because behind those with over four thousand merit points, there were several other cultivators with over three thousand and over two thousand merit points.

Zhou Chun didn't interfere with this. Anyway, these people had similar cultivation levels and aptitudes. Whether they could succeed after taking the Foundation Establishment Pill depended entirely on fate. It didn't matter who took it.

Time passed slowly, and two years quickly went by.

On this day, with a surge of magical power within his body, Zhou Chun finally broke through to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.

He was forty-eight years old that year.

He established his foundation at thirty-six and broke through to the mid-stage of foundation establishment at forty-eight. This speed is undeniably fast!

It should be understood that even those cultivators who practice techniques to rapidly increase their magical power still need to cultivate diligently for forty to fifty years without taking any pills to break through to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.

Even if Zhou Chun's cultivation speed is no worse than those cultivation techniques that rapidly improve magical power because he has cultivated the top-level technique "Golden Cauldron Profound Art", it is still an astonishing speed.

After all, he didn't have a top-grade spiritual root aptitude, only a mid-grade spiritual root.

However, Zhou Chun himself thought this was quite normal.

From the moment he began cultivating the "Golden Cauldron Profound Technique," he almost never lacked pills to enhance his magical power, and the types of pills were all different.

According to this calculation, he must have taken at least twenty-six or twenty-seven pills in just six or seven years.

These pills, which are suitable for Foundation Establishment cultivators to improve their magical power, each have an effect that is almost equivalent to one or two years of normal meditation and cultivation.

All things considered, he has actually been cultivating for fifty or sixty years.

So it's perfectly normal for him to have this level of cultivation at this age!

Meanwhile, after several years of feeding by Zhou Chun, the Golden-Winged Tiger had become a first-tier high-grade demon beast, and even the Silver Lightning Python Bai Bai, under the priority supply of demon spirit pills from the family, was getting closer and closer to advancing to a second-tier mid-grade demon beast.

Once it advances to a mid-grade second-tier demon beast, and with Zhou Chun, who has a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation level, in addition to his support, the master and servant working together will be virtually invincible within the Foundation Establishment realm.

Within a few days, news of Zhou Chun's breakthrough to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage spread throughout the Zhou family, and many Zhou family cultivators came to congratulate him upon hearing the news.

At 48 years old, Zhou Chun, a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator, is at a rate of rapid progress in his cultivation. He might even have a chance to break through to the Purple Mansion stage before he turns 100.

By this point, even a fool would know Zhou Chun's true status within the family.

But before Zhou Chun could even celebrate his breakthrough in cultivation for long, a troublesome matter came knocking.

"You said a mystic crystal mine was discovered on the border of our Zhou family's stronghold, and there was a conflict with the Su family of Jiangzhou? People died?"

On Pagoda Peak, Zhou Chun's expression changed as he looked at Zhou Jiarui, who had come to deliver the message in person.

It turns out that after Zhou Jiarui led four Zhou family cultivators to the wilderness to reclaim wasteland with the Li and You families, it took less than two years to establish a reclaiming base. Then, they began to reclaim and plunder the surrounding area with the base as the center.

Although this wave of exploration and plundering did not yield any particularly rare treasures, it did bring a considerable amount of spiritual herbs aged two or three hundred years, as well as some spiritual trees, spiritual fruits, and monster eggs, allowing the three families to reap a substantial harvest.

This made the cultivators from the three families even more excited.

Just half a month ago, the You family suddenly discovered a crystal mine at the edge of their stronghold.

This should have been a great thing, since Xuanjing Stone is a very good auxiliary material for refining magical artifacts, which can increase the hardness of magical artifacts and has always sold very well.

However, just as the three families sent people to survey the size of the Xuanjing Stone Mine, it was inadvertently discovered by the neighboring Su family stronghold.

Then, because the Su family claimed that the Xuanjing Stone mine was on their territory and should belong to them, the two sides argued and eventually fought.

In that situation, once a fight breaks out, it becomes difficult for both sides to control their emotions and the force they use.

After a fierce battle, several Qi Refining stage cultivators died on both sides, which escalated the situation significantly!

Given that the Su family was also a Golden Core family, none of the three families dared to act on their own initiative at the pioneering base. Therefore, Zhou Jiarui returned to his family to report to Zhou Chun.

I have a slight fever, so I'm going to rest early. That's all for today's update!

(End of this chapter)