Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 333 Disappearance, Cold Cave [

After Qingjiao led Zhou Daoyi and Zhou Chun away from Thunder Lizard Island, they flew back to the mainland along the route they had taken on their way there, guided by Zhou Daoyi.

However, they had only flown less than 500 miles when they discovered Zhou Mingde chasing after them using the "Flowing Fire Flying Star Escape" technique.

After learning from Zhou Mingde that a fourth-tier demonic beast might be chasing after them, the group discussed the matter briefly and then assigned Zhou Chun, the weakest cultivator, to escort the Foundation Establishment Fruit Tree back to the mainland.

Of course, to protect Zhou Chun's safety and prevent any unforeseen circumstances, Zhou Mingde entrusted him with the Vulcan Jackal to carry with him.

Then Zhou Daoyi and Zhou Mingde each fled separately along different routes toward the mainland.

In this way, the risk is dispersed again.

If a fourth-tier demon beast were to catch up, it would most likely not chase after a human cultivator with second-tier cultivation.

However, Zhou Mingde and Zhou Daoyi had to gamble on luck.

If a fourth-tier demonic beast catches up, one of them will definitely become the target.

Whether they can shake off their pursuers will depend heavily on luck.

At this moment, Zhou Chun could only pray silently for the two elders of the clan.

After parting ways with his two elders, he rode the Golden-Winged Tiger to escort the Zhuyuan Fruit Tree back along the route they had come from.

They had already traveled this route on their way here, and had not encountered any noteworthy dangers along the way.

At this point, only half an hour had passed since Lu Ran returned along this route, so if Zhou Chun continued on, the danger would certainly not be great.

And that was indeed the case. Zhou Chun returned along this route, and although he encountered some ignorant first and second-tier monsters along the way, he easily dealt with them.

Until he successfully reached the land on the shore of Longyuan Marsh, he did not encounter any noteworthy dangers.

As soon as he returned, Lu Ran appeared to see him.

"It seems Fellow Daoist Zhou and your companions have succeeded. I wonder why the other three fellow Daoists did not return with you?"

At the water's edge, after Lu Ran revealed himself, he only glanced at the Foundation Establishment Fruit Tree being carried on the back of the Golden-Winged Tiger before looking at Zhou Chun with a strange expression and inquiring about the situation of Zhou Mingde and the other two.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Chun pondered for a moment before speaking truthfully: "Just as Senior Lu reminded us, those Thunder Lizard Beasts are indeed protected by fourth-tier demonic beasts. After the three Supreme Elders discovered that the Thunder Dragon Lizards were asking for help, they decided to split into four groups to return to the shore. I just happened to be assigned to the path that Senior Lu had taken, which is why I arrived first."

Although he was worried about his three elders, he did not believe that they would all perish in the Dragon Abyss Marsh.

Therefore, he was not afraid that Lu Ran would dare to make any moves against him.

If one's words are evasive and an attempt to cover up the truth, it is likely to have the opposite effect.

Sure enough, after hearing his words, Lu Ran nodded thoughtfully and said, "I see? Then we'll wait here for the other three fellow Daoists!"

"It would be wonderful if Senior Lu would be willing to accompany us."

Zhou Chun agreed without hesitation.

The two then waited patiently on the shore.

They waited for almost an hour before Zhou Mingde returned.

"Elder, you've finally returned!"

Upon seeing Zhou Mingde appear, Zhou Chun breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly stepped forward to inquire about the situation.

At this moment, Zhou Mingde's face was sallow and dry, and he looked like he had suffered a great loss of energy.

Faced with Zhou Chun's concerned inquiry, he waved his hand and said, "I'm fine. It's just that using the escape technique has taken a toll on my vital energy. I'll recover in a month or two."

After saying that, she met Lu Ran's gaze, nodded slightly in greeting, and then looked at Zhou Chun, saying, "What? Haven't Dao Yi and Dao Quan returned yet?"

"Yes, so far, I have only seen you return!"

Zhou Chun nodded with a worried expression.

"Perhaps it's because I chose the right direction and arrived first!"

Zhou Mingde's eyes flickered as he spoke softly, seemingly unconcerned about whether anything would happen to Zhou Daoyi and the other man.

After saying that, he glanced at the Foundation Establishment Fruit Tree that was placed on the ground, and suddenly said again, "It's not a good idea to leave this Foundation Establishment Fruit Tree here. We need to transplant it back to the family as soon as possible. Zhengchun, you take it back and plant it first. I will wait for Daoyi and the others here."

"this……"

Zhou Chun hesitated slightly as he looked at Zhou Mingde's face.

But all they saw was the unwavering determination in the other person's eyes.

So he could only swallow his words of modesty and nodded slightly, saying, "This junior understands. Then this junior will take his leave first."

After saying goodbye to Lu Ran, he released the Golden-Winged Tiger again and ordered it to carry the Zhuyuan Fruit Tree all the way to the underground waterway exit.

After Zhou Chun had been gone for a while, Lu Ran suddenly looked at Zhou Mingde and said, "Does Fellow Daoist Zhou not have the life soul tablets of the other two fellow Daoists?"

The Soul Tablet he mentioned was a special treasure that could collect a wisp of divine soul separated from a cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage.

If this cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage were to die unexpectedly, his life soul tablet would shatter, letting people know that something had happened to him.

Generally, cultivators in the Purple Mansion stage of major sects keep such life-soul tablets within the sect so that the sect can keep track of their life or death status in a timely manner.

The Zhou family did have life spirit tablets before, like Zhou Mingde himself.

When he left the family, the life spirit tablet would be placed in the Zhou family ancestral hall, and the Zhou family patriarch would go there every day to check if the life spirit tablet was in good condition.

However, neither Zhou Daoyi nor Zhou Daoquan, who later successfully opened up the Purple Mansion, had a Life Soul Tablet.

Faced with Lu Ran's question, Zhou Mingde immediately said, "The crafting of the Soul Tablet requires precious spiritual woods such as Soul Nourishing Wood. Although my Zhou family has some savings, we have never had the chance to encounter such spiritual objects."

"Besides, I, Zhou, believe that Dao Yi and Dao Quan are both blessed with good fortune, and there's absolutely no need to worry about their safety!"

Hearing his answer, Lu Ran fell silent.

On the other side, after Zhou Chun escorted the Zhuyuan Fruit Tree into the underground river exit, he switched to the Silver Lightning Python Bai Bai and went upstream, taking nearly two days to return to Lanzhou.

After that, he changed into the Golden-Winged Tiger and safely transported the Zhuyuan Fruit Tree back to the Zhou family's Jiufeng Ridge.

As for precious spiritual roots like the Zhuyuan Fruit Tree, they should naturally be planted in the safest and most spiritually rich place in the Zhou family.

Therefore, after returning to his family's mountain gate, Zhou Chun went straight to Pagoda Peak.

He continued until he reached the vicinity of the mountaintop, in front of Zhou Mingde's cave.

Then, the jade jar containing the Zhuyuan fruit tree was moved horizontally above a pit, the fruit tree was pulled out and placed into the pit, and soil was quickly filled in.

After doing all that, he turned to Zhou Jiahe, who had arrived, and said, "Thirteenth Aunt, the rest is up to you."

"Rest assured, Clan Chief, I will do everything in my power to take good care of this spiritual root!"

Zhou Jiahe nodded solemnly, then immediately stepped forward, made hand seals, and cast a spell to gather spiritual energy and send down rain to nourish the Foundation Establishment Fruit Tree.

Zhou Chun stayed on the mountaintop for a while, and after observing the situation, seeing that there were no major problems, he returned to his lodgings to rest.

After Zhou Chun meditated and rested for several hours, he still hadn't heard any news of Zhou Mingde and the others returning.

This immediately made him feel heavy-hearted.

He hoped that Zhou Daoyi and Zhou Daoquan had simply gotten lost; otherwise, the loss of either of them would be an unacceptable and enormous loss for the Zhou family.

Moreover, from an emotional standpoint, Zhou Chun didn't want these two elders who cared for her the most to be in any danger.

As time went by, Zhou Chun found it increasingly difficult to fall asleep each day.

Even with his Daoist partner Su Yuzhen constantly comforting him, he couldn't feel any sense of security.

After waiting for five days, he finally saw Zhou Mingde return.

Yes, Zhou Mingde returned alone, while Zhou Daoyi and Zhou Daoquan were nowhere to be found.

This result made Zhou Chun's expression instantly turn ugly.

Seeing his expression, Zhou Mingde knew what he was feeling and immediately took the initiative to explain, "After you left, Zheng Chun, I waited for half a day before Dao Quan returned. However, Dao Quan and I waited for three days, but Dao Yi still didn't return!"

"Although we don't know why Dao Yi is so late, Dao Quan and I felt there was no need to wait there any longer. Therefore, we asked Fellow Daoist Lu Ran to arrange for someone to wait there in our place, while Dao Quan and I returned separately!"

As he finished speaking, Zhou Mingde's voice became much heavier.

Without a doubt, among the three Purple Mansion stage cultivators in the Zhou family, Zhou Daoyi is definitely the most important one.

But now, unfortunately, there's no news from him.

This left Zhou Mingde and Zhou Chun feeling very heavy-hearted.

But since things had come to this point, no matter how worried they were, they could only accept reality.

After a long silence, Zhou Chun nodded to Zhou Mingde and said, "This junior understands. Elder, you have worked hard too. Please return to your cave to rest!"

"Don't worry too much. Dao Yi has some life-saving items, so he won't be in that much trouble. Maybe he was just delayed by something!"

Zhou Mingde comforted Zhou Chun again before returning to his cave to rest.

Over the next two or three months, Zhou Chun personally made several trips to Longxing Valley.

However, they received no information whatsoever about Zhou Daoyi.

This made him even more worried about this elder.

Because he was preoccupied with this matter, Zhou Chun couldn't be happy even after the two Qi Refining cultivators from the Zhou family who had obtained the Foundation Establishment Pills successfully completed their Foundation Establishment and emerged from seclusion.

At this point, the news of Zhou Daoyi's disappearance could no longer be kept secret, and almost all the elders of the Zhou family knew about it.

This caused the Zhou family elders, who were originally overjoyed that the family had gained an additional Foundation Establishment Fruit Tree and two Foundation Establishment cultivators, to lose their smiles.

Since the Zhou family settled in Jiufeng Ridge, although many clansmen have died unexpectedly in wars and adventures, not a single person with a cultivation level above Foundation Establishment has died unexpectedly.

Not to mention cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage!

Now that they thought about the possibility that Zhou Daoyi, the most important cultivator in the Zhou family at the Purple Mansion stage, might have met with an accident, everyone who knew about it felt extremely heavy-hearted.

Even Zhou Zhengqing and Zhou Zhengbo, the two newly promoted Foundation Establishment cultivators, lost their smiles.

Only the unsuspecting Qi Refining stage cultivators of the Zhou family were overjoyed because their family had a new type of auxiliary Foundation Establishment spiritual item that they could exchange for.

At that time, of the fourteen Foundation Establishment Fruits hanging on the fruit tree, Zhou Chun took out four at once and put them into the family treasury for the clansmen to exchange.

The rest were all sealed and stored in jade boxes, to be released gradually for people to exchange later.

After all, it takes a hundred years for the Zhuyuan fruit tree to flower, bear fruit, and mature.

If all those Foundation Establishment Fruits were released now, not only would there not be enough clansmen to exchange them all, but even if they were all exchanged, there would be no way to restock them later.

On this day, Zhou Chun, worried about Zhou Daoyi's safety, once again rushed to Longxing Valley ahead of schedule.

He knew in his heart that if Zhou Daoyi returned to the wilderness and couldn't find them, he would definitely go to Longxing Valley first.

To his disappointment, he still did not receive any news about Zhou Daoyi after arriving at Longxing Valley.

But just as he was feeling extremely disappointed and preparing to hand over his belongings and go back, Zhou Zhengyong told him something.

"The day before yesterday, Xu Fu and his men discovered a natural cave in a mountain range. It was chilling inside, and the roars of strange beasts could be heard. The spirit pets they sent in to scout the way died inside very quickly, so they did not dare to make any further moves."

"Originally, I was planning to go and investigate myself today, but since you're here, Thirteenth Brother, I think it would be safer for you to come with me."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun's expression shifted, and he immediately nodded, saying, "Alright, then I'll go with you, Brother Yong, to explore that cave."

After saying that, he and Zhou Zhengyong, along with Xu Fu who was leading the way, headed to the natural cave.

The three of them set off from Longxing Valley and flew for more than a thousand miles before arriving at a place of towering mountains.

The fog was extremely thick in this mountain range, and in many places it was so thick that visibility was extremely poor.

There are also many kinds of monsters in the mountains, including quite a few second-tier monsters.

The natural cave that Xu Fu and his group discovered was actually located in the outer area of ​​the mountain range.

Otherwise, given their team's strength, they wouldn't have been able to penetrate deep into the heart of the mountains.

Guided by Xu Fu, Zhou Chun quickly landed at the bottom of a broken valley. He then scanned the area with his divine sense and discovered the natural cave he had mentioned.

Deep in the valley, a crack extended into the mountain, from which wisps of frosty white vapor continuously drifted out, causing icicles to condense on the nearby valley walls.

Zhou Chun tried to extend his divine sense into the crack to investigate, but to his surprise, he found that after his divine sense had penetrated about a hundred feet, it was blocked by a strange force and could not go any further.

"That's rather strange. Could there be an array set up by cultivators inside?"

A look of surprise flashed in Zhou Chun's eyes. After a moment's thought, he reached out and patted the spirit beast pouch at his waist, releasing a "Mysterious Armor Golden Feather" demonic insect.

Then he used the "Insect Puppet Technique" to attach a wisp of his spirit to the demonic insect, and commanded the demonic insect to fly into the mountain crevice.

First update

(End of this chapter)