Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 317 Underground Treasure Exchange, Corpse Moth [Please Subscribe]

After the plan was finalized, Zhou Chun quickly explained it to the Fourth Elder, Zhou Jiahe.

As an elder of the family, Zhou Jiahe would naturally not refuse the family's decision.

She had already repaid the favor she owed Zhou Yu last time.

Although she didn't want to plot against this former elder, she had no choice but to carry out the family's decision.

So the next day she left Jiufeng Ridge and headed towards Fengguo.

Zhou Chun, on the other hand, only secretly left the family's mountain gate with Zhou Mingde three days after Zhou Jiahe left the family, and headed to Feng Kingdom together.

According to the plan, after arriving at Jinchangfang City in Fengguo, Zhou Chun will have a brief meeting with Zhou Jiahe and hand over the Foundation Building Pill to her.

Later, Zhou Chun will find another way to enter the underground Yi Bao Society.

Several days later, Zhou Chun, after disguising himself, successfully gave the Foundation Establishment Pill to Zhou Jiahe.

After obtaining the Foundation Establishment Pill, Zhou Jiahe went straight to a shop mentioned in Zhou Yu's letter and received a token from the shopkeeper that allowed him to enter the Underground Treasure Exchange Association.

Meanwhile, after some shopping, Zhou Chun successfully purchased a token for entering the underground Yi Bao Society from a shop in Jinchangfang.

However, there were still more than half a month before the underground treasure exchange officially began, so Zhou Chun could only stay in Jinchangfang for the time being.

For the next two weeks or so, Zhou Chun stayed in the inn where he was staying, quietly cultivating himself and reading, so as not to alert the enemy.

It wasn't until the evening of the day the underground exchange of treasures began that he disguised himself and, carrying the token, went to a secluded spot in the market.

He arrived at the location marked on the token, outside the door of a shop. He looked up at the signboard hanging above the shop and saw that the five large characters "Black Flame Refining Shop" were covered with a lot of dust, as if they had not been wiped clean for a long time.

Just as he was looking at the tightly closed shop, wondering how to get in, the door suddenly opened a crack, and a deep voice came from inside, saying, "Senior, are you also here to participate in the underground trade fair?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun's eyes flashed, and he immediately replied, "That's right, there's a token to prove it."

The voice has been subtly altered, becoming a neutral tone that makes it difficult to distinguish between male and female.

With that voice, coupled with the loose robe he was wearing now and the face-covering hat on his head, even those who knew him well would probably find it difficult to recognize him by his voice and appearance even if they came close.

As he spoke, Zhou Chun also extended his hand from his sleeve, revealing a round iron plate made of black iron, with a silver spiritual pattern imprinted on it that was not easy to imitate.

To achieve the best results, he had soaked his palms and wrists in whitening solution beforehand, making them look very fair and tender.

"Since you have the token, please come in, senior."

It seemed as if someone was secretly observing the token in Zhou Chun's hand through the crack in the door. Several dozen breaths passed before the voice from behind the door sounded again.

Then the door was pushed open a little from the inside, creating an opening just big enough for one person to enter.

"Thank you for your trouble, fellow Daoist."

Zhou Chun responded and stepped through the gate.

Only after entering did he see that the cultivator he had been talking to was also wearing a silver-white mask, and his cultivation level was not high, only a Qi Refining stage cultivator.

After welcoming him in, the man gestured to him and said, "Please follow me, senior."

After saying that, he led Zhou Chun out through the inner door of the front hall and into the back courtyard, eventually arriving at a well in the courtyard.

Then he pointed to the well and said to him, "Going down from here will take you directly to where you are going, senior. I have other seniors to entertain, so I will not go down with you."

Zhou Chun looked down at the well and saw that the water was shimmering and full of steam, just a normal well.

He didn't ask any further questions, but simply clasped his hands in a respectful bow to the man and said, "Thank you for showing me the way, fellow Daoist."

After saying that, he released his magic to form a protective shield around himself, and then jumped into the well.

Once Zhou Chun actually jumped into the well, he realized that the well water he had seen earlier was just a deliberate illusion.

In reality, the well water was only two or three zhang deep, but the bottom was blocked by a water-repelling artifact.

After passing through the waterproof layer, he reached the actual bottom of the well and saw a bright underground passage in front of him.

After walking for more than ten feet along the underground passage, Zhou Chun entered an underground cavern.

At this moment, forty or fifty cultivators have gathered in this spacious underground cave, and none of them have a cultivation level lower than the Foundation Establishment stage.

Most of those cultivators, like Zhou Chun, disguised themselves, clearly not wanting to reveal their true identities.

However, a small number of cultivators did not conceal their true appearances and showed their faces directly.

These people were either cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage or cultivators at the late Foundation Establishment stage; in short, they were very confident in their own strength.

Since the underground treasure exchange had not yet truly begun, everyone found an open space to sit cross-legged and rest, without making a sound.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun followed suit, found a place to sit down, and patiently waited.

Actually, this was his first time participating in this underground treasure exchange.

This activity is similar to some of the underground auctions he had participated in before, but there are also many differences.

The similarity is that these events also use a token invitation system, allowing only those with the token to enter, and encouraging participants to conceal their identities.

At the same time, the origin of anything that appears on the underground treasure exchange must not be questioned.

The difference lies in the location and revenue structure of underground money laundering clubs.

Underground treasure exchanges are usually held in safe markets, so even if someone gets something good at the underground treasure exchange, they don't have to worry about being ambushed and can have plenty of time to deal with the item in the market.

Meanwhile, the organizers of the underground trading platform will charge the seller a certain venue fee for a successful transaction, which is generally about two percent of the total value of the items sold by the seller.

In addition, the tokens of the Underground Treasure Exchange Society also need to be purchased by participating cultivators using spirit coins.

Taking Zhou Chun as an example, in order to quickly obtain the token, he first spent thousands of spirit coins in a shop to buy pills and talismans in order to gain the qualification to purchase the token.

He then spent another three hundred spirit coins to buy the token.

Most of the spirit coins obtained from the sale of these tokens will end up in the pockets of the organizers.

Therefore, the organizers of these underground trading societies usually have very close relationships with the market managers, or the market managers are simply one of the participants.

Moreover, compared to underground auctions, underground auctions are held more frequently, and in some places they are even held regularly at fixed times.

Therefore, these underground treasure exchange meetings have become the most popular places for Foundation Establishment cultivators and Purple Mansion cultivators to sell stolen goods.

For example, Zhou Chun brought some items he obtained in Jingguo with him to this underground treasure exchange, hoping to find an opportunity to sell them.

Time passed slowly, and as Zhou Chun waited, more and more people entered the place.

After waiting for about an hour, when the number of people in the underground cave reached more than seventy, the previously unusually quiet underground cave finally began to echo with voices.

"Alright, it's almost time. Those who haven't arrived yet don't need to wait."

Zhou Chun looked in the direction of the voice and saw that the person speaking was a Purple Mansion stage cultivator wearing a crimson mask, who seemed to be the person in charge of the underground treasure exchange meeting.

After drawing all the cultivators' attention to himself with his voice, he cupped his hands and said, "My code name is Red Fox, and I am in charge of this underground treasure exchange meeting. Fellow cultivators, you can just call me Red Fox."

After saying that, he went on to recite the rules and some precautions of the underground treasure exchange as if reading from a script.

It's nothing more than a series of general rules such as prohibiting forced buying and selling and requiring payment of venue fees for transactions.

After explaining all the rules and precautions, Red Fox patted his storage bag at his waist, took out several treasures and placed them in front of him, explaining the uses of each treasure and what he wanted to trade for.

Of course, he doesn't have to introduce the treasure. He can simply take out something and explain what he wants to exchange it for. It's all up to him and there are no mandatory requirements.

The very act of exchanging treasures for treasures is a true test of a cultivator's knowledge and experience.

If you are ignorant and make a mistake, you can only learn a lesson by spending money.

Zhou Chun watched silently as several people spoke to the Red Fox about the treasures he had taken out, and within a quarter of an hour, they had taken away most of them.

It seemed that the remaining two treasures had not been agreed upon, so he quickly put them back into his storage bag.

Then, his gaze shifted to another elderly man with a horse-like face who wasn't hiding his features, and he said, "Fellow Daoist, would you be interested in displaying your treasure now?"

Upon hearing this, the old man with the horse-like face pondered for a moment before nodding and saying, "Then I shall respectfully comply."

After saying that, he reached out and patted the storage bag at his waist, taking out five treasures.

"A second-tier, mid-grade defensive magic artifact, the Azure Cloud Scarf, can unleash a defensive glow to protect the entire body and withstand multiple strikes from flying swords of the same tier."

"Three tail feathers of the third-tier demon beast, the Blazing Sun Bird."

"The heartwood of a thousand-year-old shady locust tree is five feet long."

"Seven medium-grade snake saliva fruits."

"Two top-grade snake saliva fruits."

The old man with the horse-like face introduced the five treasures he had brought out one by one. After he finished, he looked around and said in a deep voice, "These things can only be exchanged for thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, or spiritual items that can help my cultivation."

After he finished speaking, the cultivators who had been interested in the items he had taken out immediately shook their heads and gave up the idea.

Whether it's a thousand-year-old spiritual herb or a spiritual object that can help a cultivator like the old man with the horse-faced man in the Purple Mansion stage, they would all be more precious than what he took out, and they are not something that the Foundation Establishment stage cultivators here could possess.

Those who truly possess these things obviously wouldn't exchange them for other things.

For a full quarter of an hour, no one communicated with the old man with the horse-like face.

Upon seeing this, the old man with the horse-like face turned pale.

In truth, he was well aware that his exchange request was somewhat excessive, but he wouldn't give up until he tried.

Seeing that no one could offer what he wanted in exchange, he could only compromise and say, "Then I'll take another step back. Any medicinal herbs, such as ginseng or lingzhi, that are over eight hundred years old can be used as bargaining chips."

Once the requirement was lowered, people quickly started communicating with him telepathically.

About fifteen minutes later, three of the five items he had taken out were exchanged, so his trip wasn't entirely in vain.

Only after the remaining two items were left untraded did Red Fox collect the venue fee from the old man with the horse face for the three items.

Then, another cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage, whose face was concealed, was asked to first display the treasures to be exchanged.

The rules of this underground treasure exchange are as follows: those with higher cultivation levels can display and exchange treasures first to get what they want, while those with lower cultivation levels can only appear later.

In the world of cultivation, strength is paramount, and this holds true everywhere.

However, Zhou Chun did not make a single move until all five Purple Mansion stage cultivators present had finished exchanging items.

He's got high standards now. Any magical artifacts, pills, or talismans that aren't at least third-tier are beneath his notice; he has no use for them.

So unless he encounters something that interests him, he's too lazy to make a move.

He waited until five or six more Foundation Establishment cultivators had left before he finally encountered something that interested him.

A late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, who had concealed his identity, patted his storage pouch at his waist, took out a black jade box, opened it, and revealed grayish-black insect eggs inside.

Then the man said, "One hundred corpse moth eggs, plus one ounce of Seven-Leaf Corpse Orchid seeds, can be exchanged for a second-grade high-quality fire-attribute magic weapon."

The eggs of the carrion moth?

A glint flashed in Zhou Chun's eyes, which were hidden by his bamboo hat, and information about this kind of demonic insect immediately came to mind.

The "corpse moth" is indeed a strange insect.

This demonic insect is of little use against normal cultivators.

But it is the nemesis of all kinds of zombies and refining corpses.

The "corpse moth" is extremely sensitive to the aura of corpses and also loves to devour animal carcasses and plant stems and leaves that contain this aura and yin energy.

They are usually clumsy when they fly, and they don't even like to fly.

But when it encounters delicious food, it can fly very fast.

Moreover, the powerful bodies of zombies and refined corpses pose no threat to them; as long as they get close, they can absorb the corpse energy contained within their bodies.

Even various spells and supernatural powers powered by corpse energy are extremely ineffective against the "Corpse Moth".

If Zhou Mingde had possessed a thousand mature "corpse moths" in that underground tomb in Yang Kingdom, then the zombie transformed from the Golden Core cultivator Han Yuan would have been unable to cause any trouble. It would have been easy for those "corpse moths" to drain the corpse energy from his body, turning his corpse into ashes.

However, as far as Zhou Chun knew, the Corpse Demon Sect in Feng Kingdom had been working to eliminate demonic insects and beasts like the "Corpse Moth" that could suppress corpse refining.

After all, the majority of the strength of the Corpse Demon Cult cultivators lies in the corpses they create and enslave.

Under these circumstances, how could this late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator dare to offer the eggs of the "Corpse Moth" in exchange?

Isn't he afraid that if the Corpse Demon Cult finds out about this, it will bring him to his death?

Sure enough, just as Zhou Chun thought of this, Red Fox, from the underground Treasure Exchange Society, frowned and stared at the man, saying, "You're really bold, sir! You dare to trade corpse moth eggs!"

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, the man feigned ignorance and said, "Senior, I don't quite understand what you mean. These corpse moth eggs were merely spoils from one of my adventures. Why can't I trade them with others?"

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the underground cavern instantly became eerie.

First update, one more tonight.

(End of this chapter)