Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 356 The Wood Spirit Submits, Heading to the Snowfield [Please Subscribe]

Hongyufeng Stronghold.

Although Zhou Chun discovered the problem in time and took measures to retain him.

However, the allure of the Foundation Building Pill was simply too great.

Many young independent cultivators who still had some hope did not want to miss this rare opportunity, and they all ignored the attempts to persuade them to stay and embarked on their journey to the snowfield.

The departure of these people undoubtedly had a significant impact on the stronghold.

Because of their departure, the remaining monks will have to shoulder even heavier tasks and will never again enjoy their former carefree lifestyle.

Therefore, it is necessary for Zhou Chun to distribute spirit coins as a monthly subsidy to everyone.

Without this "overtime pay," these independent cultivators would certainly not be willing to spend so much time guarding the "Pure Spirit Pavilion" every day.

"Keep an eye on the news and see why the Snow Soul Palace suddenly issued this bounty. Also, increase the recruitment benefits. Newcomers who join a stronghold will receive a subsidy starting from their first month, and after six months, they will receive an additional ten spirit coins!"

Inside the council chamber, Zhou Chun, with a furrowed brow, gave orders to Fu Changqing and the other two.

After the three left, he began to search for information about the Snow Crystal Insects.

Han Yuan of the Thousand Spirits Sect had spent many years cultivating in seclusion in the Yang Kingdom, and he had also made research records on the Snow Crystal Insect, a kind of demonic insect that existed on the snow plains of the Yang Kingdom.

Zhou Chun quickly found information about this demonic insect in the demonic insect encyclopedia he left behind.

According to the illustration, the Snow Crystal Insect is a special kind of monster insect unique to the snowfield environment. They look like earthworms, are snow-white all over, and like to move around in snow and ice. They can only appear on the snow surface when a blizzard occurs.

These monstrous insects have little fighting ability, but they are extremely good at escaping.

Just like wood spirits can merge into trees, they can easily burrow into thick snow or ice. And when they are hidden in the snow and do not move, even the divine sense of a Purple Mansion stage cultivator is difficult to detect anything unusual.

Therefore, catching this kind of monster is extremely difficult, and you can basically only try your luck during a blizzard.

This is why Snow Soul Palace, whose mountain gate is clearly located in the snowfield and which already has tens of thousands of inner and outer disciples, still issues a bounty to buy this kind of demonic insect.

Even Han Yuan, who was very knowledgeable about demonic insects, did not know what unknown and precious uses the Snow Crystal Insect had.

After all, Han Yuan's main ambition was to cultivate a powerful demonic insect, but the characteristic of the Snow Crystal Insect that it could only survive and move on snowfields and icefields meant that it was unlikely to attract him to conduct in-depth research on this demonic insect.

"Hopefully this matter will pass quickly!"

With a soft sigh, Zhou Chun put away the book and paid no further attention to the matter.

Less than two months later, Lin Wan'er returned safely to the Hongyufeng stronghold and brought back a letter from home to Zhou Chun.

The family letter was written by Zhou Jiarui, and it mainly recounts the various events that happened in Jingguo and the family during the year or so that he was away from the family.

There are only three things that Zhou Chun should pay attention to.

One is that the Zhou family cultivators from Longxing Valley have moved to their new stronghold, "Caiyu Mountain," and the mining of spirit jade veins has been put on the agenda.

Secondly, Zhou Zhengbo, a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Zhou family, married a female cultivator from the Li family of alchemists. This was the first marriage between the two families after they moved to Jingguo.

This matter was also approved by Zhou Mingde.

Thirdly, Qinglian Temple suddenly issued a "taxation order," requiring all cultivation families in its three states to pay a tax to Qinglian Temple based on the number of cultivators in each family.

The tax amount is not very high. Each Qi Refining stage cultivator needs to pay ten spirit coins, each Foundation Establishment stage cultivator needs to pay one hundred spirit coins, and each Purple Mansion stage cultivator is exempt from taxation.

Based on this calculation, given the size of the Zhou family, they would likely have to hand over approximately four thousand spirit coins.

To be honest, this kind of "levy order" is not a new thing. Many major sects sometimes levy taxes on the cultivation families under their command.

But Qinglian Temple hasn't done this for over a hundred years, so the sudden collection of taxes now makes people wonder.

Zhou Chun is still unsure what Qinglian Temple is trying to do, but just as Zhou Mingde said back then, no matter what happens, the Zhou family, with its limited size, can only go with the flow and is powerless to change anything.

So after reading the letter from home, he didn't think too much about it.

Lin Wan'er's return allowed him to return to his previous life and no longer have to worry about things at the stronghold.

As time slowly passed, more than five months later, Zhou Chun and Mu Mei's patient contest finally came to an end.

After more than two years of torment and suffering, the Wood Spirit finally succumbed to the torment and chose to surrender.

Zhou Chun took the opportunity to form a contract with it and made it his fourth spirit pet.

With the wood spirit successfully subdued, Zhou Chun was relieved of a worry and was freed to act freely.

He immediately took the Wood Sprite to the deep mountains and forests of the Great Cloud Kingdom to test its ability to find medicine and its supernatural powers.

Upon returning to the forest, the Wood Spirit was extremely excited.

Having been tormented by Zhou Chun for more than two years, it was severely depleted of its vital energy. Upon returning to the forest, it immediately began to recover its own vitality by absorbing the life force of the ancient trees.

The older the ancient trees in the forest, the more vigorous and powerful their vitality will be, as long as they are not affected by diseases and pests.

Wood spirits are naturally able to draw life force from ancient trees to heal their wounds.

For it, this pure vitality of plants is more effective in healing than any elixir.

In less than half a day, it recovered most of the vital energy that Zhou Chun had tormented it to the point of exhaustion. This speed of recovery greatly shocked Zhou Chun.

Zhou Chun then ordered the Wood Spirit to use its talent to find elixirs for him.

Perhaps because she had suffered enough before, or perhaps because of this hard-won freedom, Mu Mei didn't resist Zhou Chun's orders much and quickly began to act according to them.

In just half a day, it found Zhou Chun a 300-year-old ginseng, five 200-year-old Polygonatum and ginseng, and fifteen other 100-year-old medicinal herbs.

These medicinal herbs are almost all the high-aged medicinal herbs that can be found within a radius of a hundred miles.

This result also made Zhou Chun very satisfied.

Because he knew very well that the forest he had chosen was not some sacred mountain or blessed land, and that it must have been visited by many rogue cultivators over the years.

The fact that the Wood Spirit could find so many medicinal herbs in half a day under these circumstances fully demonstrates its powerful ability to find medicinal herbs.

"Excellent! Excellent! It wasn't for nothing that I went to so much trouble to tame you. You truly are a treasure-hunting deer!"

Zhou Chun patted the green deer's head with satisfaction and then smiled as he put all the spiritual herbs into his storage bag.

He's just testing the Wood Spirit's ability to find medicinal herbs; he'll truly show his skills once he returns to the Zhou family.

With the presence of the Wood Spirit, those rare medicinal herbs that are difficult for ordinary people to find in the wilderness will have nowhere to hide from him from now on!

Next, Zhou Chun had the Wood Spirit demonstrate all the supernatural powers and spells it knew.

All the magical abilities and spells possessed by the Wood Spirit are related to the Wood element, covering a wide range of areas such as attack, defense, trapping enemies, illusion, concealment, escape techniques, and healing.

However, being a jack-of-all-trades means having no specialization.

In terms of offense, the Wood Sprite's destructive spells are not very powerful, especially those that directly attack the air.

Defense and trapping enemies are much stronger than offense, especially in forest environments where they can gain a significant home-field advantage.

Regarding illusion and healing, the Wood Sprite can only be said to have related spells, but in reality, it doesn't use them very often.

Its two strongest talents are stealth and concealment, and Zhou Chun had already witnessed the power of these two talents.

In addition, the Wood Spirit also possesses a special supernatural power, the kind that Zhou Chun had once seen that could greatly enhance its cultivation and magical power.

That supernatural power is called "Gift of Life," and it is a supernatural power that can only be used under special circumstances.

As a child of the forest, the Wood Spirit is loved and blessed by the forest, and also has the responsibility to protect it.

When the forest is threatened with destruction, or when the wood spirit itself is in mortal danger, the spiritual consciousness of the plants and trees in the forest will sacrifice themselves to transfer their original life force to the wood spirit, enhancing the wood spirit's cultivation and strength, and giving it the power to protect the forest and itself.

Judging from the description and actual effect, the "Gift of Life" supernatural power is undoubtedly extremely domineering and powerful. It does not even cause the strengthened monsters to suffer from weakness aftereffects like "Ancestral Revival", and its duration is also quite long.

Unfortunately, the prerequisites for activating this supernatural power are too difficult.

First of all, if the Wood Spirit or Zhou Chun actively creates a disaster that destroys the forest, the conditions will definitely not be triggered. Instead, the spiritual consciousness of the plants and trees will abandon the Wood Spirit, making it unable to even use spells like Wood Escape Technique.

Sending the Wood Sprite into direct combat with the enemy, putting it in mortal danger, is like dancing on a knife's edge; one wrong move and the Wood Sprite could actually die.

Therefore, although the "Gift of Life" is a powerful supernatural ability, it cannot be truly used as a regular combat force.

In conclusion, given the Wood Sprite's unique abilities, Zhou Chun positions it as a support pet. It can be used to control the battlefield and strengthen defenses during battles, and it can also heal other injured pets after battles. However, there is no need for it to engage in direct confrontations.

After spending several days in the deep mountains and forests of the Great Yun Kingdom, allowing the Wood Spirit to fully recover its energy, Zhou Chun took it back to the Red Jade Peak stronghold.

Upon returning to the Red Jade Peak stronghold, Zhou Chun learned some news that greatly surprised him.

"What did you say? Snow Soul Palace is now even offering pills that help one open their Purple Mansion as a reward?"

Inside the stronghold, Zhou Chun looked at Lin Wan'er with surprise, stunned by what the other had just said.

It turned out that during the few days he was away in the Great Yun Kingdom, the bounty offered by the Snow Soul Palace had changed again.

This time, Snow Soul Palace has offered another kind of bounty, stating that anyone who can hand over the Snow Crystal Insect King can exchange it for a Snow Soul Pill, which helps in opening up the Purple Mansion.

As soon as the bounty notice was issued, Fu Changqing, who was stationed at Hongyu Peak, immediately reported to Lin Wan'er that he had already headed to the snowy plains.

Lin Wan'er knew she couldn't stop him, so she reluctantly agreed.

"What exactly is the purpose of these Snow Crystal Insects that would make Snow Soul Palace invest so heavily in them!"

Zhou Chun muttered to herself, her eyes revealing a hint of excitement.

The elixir that helps open up the Purple Mansion is exactly what he has been seeking but cannot obtain!

"If you wish to go, then go ahead. I can handle things at the stronghold all by myself."

Seemingly sensing Zhou Chun's inner thoughts, Lin Wan'er immediately spoke up softly, offering her support.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun's eyes flickered, and then he nodded and said, "Then I'll have to trouble Elder Lin."

Having made the decision, Zhou Chun didn't delay and set off after resting for half a day.

Among the previous "Thousand Extinction Cricket Plagues", the snowfields in the northwest of Yang Kingdom were the only place that were not ravaged by the "Thousand Extinction Crickets", and could be said to be the last piece of pure land in Yang Kingdom.

By establishing its mountain gate on the snowy plains, Xuepo Palace was able to preserve its sect's strength and became one of the best-preserved sects in Yang Kingdom after the war.

On his way from the Red Jade Peak stronghold to the snowfield, Zhou Chun encountered many fellow cultivators, including Qi Refining cultivators, Foundation Establishment cultivators, and even Purple Mansion cultivators.

The latest bounty issued by Snow Soul Palace is extremely attractive to cultivators below the Golden Core stage.

Even for cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage, catching a Snow Crystal Insect King can net them at least 100,000 spirit coins.

In order to facilitate the acquisition of Snow Crystal Insects, it is said that Snow Soul Palace has now dispatched hundreds of inner disciples with Foundation Establishment cultivation to set up acquisition points in various parts of the snowfield.

Anyone who catches a Snow Crystal Insect can go to the nearest purchasing point to exchange it for a reward with a Snow Soul Palace disciple.

Snow Soul Palace has even thoughtfully prepared information on the living habits of Snow Crystal Insects, which anyone can receive for free.

All these actions demonstrate their current thirst for snowflake insects.

It took Zhou Chun about three days to reach the snowfield. This was mainly because there were too many people on the way, and he didn't dare to make a big show of changing trains to travel.

Yang Kingdom is not Jing Kingdom after all. If he is too flamboyant, he might attract the attention of a cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage, which would be a big problem.

This wasn't Zhou Chun's first time climbing a snow-covered mountain in this world, but it was indeed his first time on a snowfield.

The snowfields of Yang Kingdom are vast, much larger than the four prefectures previously under the jurisdiction of Qinglian Temple, and their altitude is also extremely high, averaging over 1,800 zhang.

On this snowfield, most of the area is covered by snow, and there are ancient glaciers everywhere.

Only in certain low-lying valleys can vegetation grow, birds and animals roam, and humans settle.

These valleys, where vegetation grows, are scattered across the snow-covered plains like lakes scattered across the earth, countless in number.

The larger ones can support hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, while the smaller ones are only the size of a hundred acres of land.

The disciples sent by Snow Soul Palace to acquire Snow Crystal Insects stayed in various snow valleys.

After arriving at the snowfield, Zhou Chun's first task was to find these people and obtain information about the Snow Crystal Insects.

First update delivered!

(End of this chapter)