Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 376 A Moment of Conflict Imminent [Please Subscribe]

boom!

The sound of something being smashed suddenly rang out.

Inside the main hall, Yu Jinghua angrily smashed the jade slip personally inscribed by Qingweizi, the abbot of Qinglian Temple, and shouted furiously, "This is outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!!"

No wonder he was so angry; Qingweizi's demands were simply too unreasonable.

Not only must the Tianjing Sect hand over all those involved in the murder of Zhou Zhengbo to the Qinglian Temple for punishment, but the deputy head of the Tianjing Sect must also stand up and publicly apologize to the Zhou family.

Such a request is surely bullying.

There is absolutely no way Yu Jinghua would bow down to the Zhou family!

"Damn you old Taoist priest, do you really think you've got me cornered? Do you really think your Qinglian Temple is still the same Qinglian Temple as before?"

Yu Jinghua let out a series of low growls, his eyes flashing with ferocity, completely enraged.

He was already seething with anger from being trapped inside the mountain gate by the Golden Core cultivators of Qinglian Temple.

After the Jiang family was destroyed, many cultivation families in Lingzhou were in a state of panic and put pressure on him in various ways, wanting him to give a reassuring explanation. This annoyed him greatly and made him very angry.

Now Qingweizi actually wants him to apologize to the Zhou family in public, which is simply trying to humiliate him.

How could he not be angry!

The relationship between Yu Jinghua and the Zhou family of Lanzhou is well-known throughout the entire Jing Kingdom, but at least among the cultivation families in the several prefectures under the jurisdiction of Qinglian Temple.

Making him apologize to the Zhou family in public would be more painful for him than killing him!

At this moment, in a fit of rage, Yu Jinghua once again went to the cave of the Heavenly Mirror Immortal.

"Ancestor, you are wise to judge. The Qinglian Temple has gone too far. The various families below are in a state of uproar because they are grieving the destruction of the Jiang family. If I were to apologize in public as they suggested, the reputation that my Tianjing Sect has worked so hard to build would be completely destroyed, and we would become a laughing stock in the cultivation world!"

Outside the secluded cave of Master Tianjing, Yu Jinghua passionately denounced the current situation, making no attempt to conceal his anger.

He knew that Master Tianjing had his own concerns, but he cared more about his own feelings.

If he was going to live such a stifling life in the Heavenly Mirror Sect, then why did he even join the Heavenly Mirror Sect in the first place?

The reason he joined the Tianjing Sect was because the Tianjing Master told him that as long as he joined the Tianjing Sect, he could have an equal dialogue with the Golden Core cultivators of major sects like Qingweizi.

If he were to remain silent in the face of Qing Weizi's aggressive behavior as before, why would he have joined the Tianjing Sect?

At this moment, perhaps they understood what Yu Jinghua was thinking.

The Heavenly Mirror Immortal, who had not invited him into his cave, sighed softly, "Very well, since you are still unsatisfied, then do as you please!"

Upon hearing this, Yu Jinghua's face lit up with joy, and he immediately bowed in gratitude: "Thank you for your understanding, Ancestor!"

Then, with great ambition, he set off to make the arrangements.

Soon, a jade slip containing a handwritten letter from Yu Jinghua was also delivered to Qingweizi.

In the letter, Yu Jinghua also vehemently denounced the Zhou family for slaughtering the Jiang family, accused Qinglian Temple of protecting and shielding the Zhou family, and ordered Qing Weizi to personally bind all the Zhou family members and bring them to the Tianjing Sect's mountain gate to apologize.

Such arrogant words made Qingweizi laugh.

"What an arrogant fool!"

"Does he really think that with Tianjing backing him up, he can compete with our sect?"

Qing Weizi muttered to herself with a cold smile, then immediately ordered, "Men, immediately issue an order to all cultivation families in Yunzhou, Lanzhou, and Lianzhou, and to all cultivation families within Lingzhou who have acted perversely and disregarded the law. These families are to be added to the list of heretics immediately, strictly prohibited from entering the three states. All their properties in the three states will be confiscated, and any individuals found in these families will be executed!"

They should be killed on sight!

These four simple words fully conveyed the true meaning of Qingweizi's order.

According to his order, from now on, cultivators in the three states under the jurisdiction of Qinglian Temple can kill people from various immortal cultivation families within Lingzhou at will!

Once this order was issued, it was practically equivalent to a complete break with the Tianjing Sect.

Thanks to the efforts of the Qinglian Temple disciples, Qingweizi's order quickly spread throughout the three states and to all the cultivation families there.

At this time, news of the Zhou family's westward expedition against the Jiang family had just spread and had just sparked heated discussions in the four states.

Suddenly, the Qinglian Temple issued this order, which immediately triggered a major earthquake in the cultivation world.

The first to suffer were the cultivators from the Lingzhou cultivation families who lingered in the three states.

Following Qingweizi's orders, these people became evil heretics in the three states, and everyone who saw them could kill them!

In just a few days, hundreds of cultivators from the Lingzhou cultivation families lost their lives across the three states.

For a time, no one in the three prefectures dared to say that they came from Lingzhou!

On the other side, Yu Jinghua was both shocked and furious upon learning of the order issued by Qinglian Temple, and immediately took reciprocal measures without hesitation.

Unfortunately, the cultivation families in Lingzhou did not follow the orders of the Tianjing Sect as well as the families in the three states followed the orders of the Qinglian Temple.

Very few of them actually dared to kill the cultivators from the three states after receiving the order; most chose to wait and see.

It wasn't until he learned that his clansmen had been killed in the three states that he felt deep remorse and wanted to kill them for revenge.

But by then, there were hardly any people left for them to kill.

This is undeniably a tragedy.

Although these people had joined the Tianjing Sect for various reasons, they did not completely trust the sect and still harbored a wavering and hopeful heart.

As the two sides completely broke off relations and began killing each other's vassal cultivators, the previously relatively peaceful southern states of Jing Kingdom suddenly became turbulent.

Without any further instigation from the leaders of the two major powers, the vassal families of the two powers, who had already stained each other with blood, began to actively seek out and fight each other.

Especially in the Three States region, after the Zhou family of Lanzhou suddenly announced the various gains they had obtained from the confiscation of the Jiang family's property, many powerful cultivation families were eager to follow suit.

In any case, Qinglian Temple has already given them a heads-up: neither Tianjing Zhenren of Tianjing Sect nor Yu Jinghua, a Golden Core cultivator, will be able to leave the Tianjing Sect's mountain gate.

Even if they entered Lingzhou to destroy mountains and clans, the highest level of enemy they would encounter would be at most the Purple Mansion stage.

Therefore, emulating the Zhou family's annihilation of the Jiang family would be a very promising endeavor for some powerful cultivation clans.

But just as the various powerful cultivation clans in the three states were sharpening their knives, preparing to make a fortune in Lingzhou, the Zhou family, which was the catalyst for the clash between the two major forces, made no further moves.

At this time, the Zhou family's memorial ceremony for Zhou Zhengbo had ended, and a cenotaph had been erected.

Because Zhou Zhengbo and his Daoist partner had a daughter, and he died in the line of duty, the Zhou family specially granted his daughter a Foundation Establishment Pill, which she could take once her cultivation reached the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage.

At the same time, a pension of 10,000 spirit coins was issued and given to her Daoist partner to manage for the future cultivation expenses of the mother and daughter.

This compensation is undeniably generous.

This level of compensation also became the standard by which the Zhou family compensated those Foundation Establishment cultivators who died fighting for the family.

In the future, any Foundation Establishment cultivator in the Zhou family who dies in the line of duty like Zhou Zhengbo will be compensated based on this standard, with the amount of compensation increased according to their merits.

With this compensation standard, it's hard to say that all Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Zhou family will be willing to die for their family in the future, but at least when they face life-or-death battles, they won't have to worry about their loved ones being left without care and protection after their own demise.

"Now that Qinglian Temple and Tianjing Sect have completely broken off relations, a major battle between the two sides is inevitable sooner or later, and our Zhou family will certainly not be able to stay out of it."

"So this next period might be our final preparation time!"

Inside the cave, Zhou Chun and other high-ranking members of the Zhou family sat facing each other, discussing the changing situation in southern Jing Kingdom.

The benefits of the Zhou family firing the first shot were obvious. Under the protection of Qinglian Temple, they made a fortune with everything intact.

Moreover, since the Zhou family has already fired the first shot and pledged their allegiance, they will not be criticized by anyone even if they do not participate in the struggle between the two sides' vassal forces at this stage.

Therefore, the Zhou family can still prepare for a while before Qinglian Temple and Tianjing Sect personally engage in battle.

Today, Zhou Chun and the others mainly discussed how to make good use of this last period of preparation time to maximize the Zhou family's strength in order to cope with the fierce battle that would break out later.

Zhou Mingde slowly said, "The Tianjing Sect currently only has one Tianjing True Man and one Yu Jinghua on the surface. Once a full-scale war breaks out, these two will definitely be tied down by the Qinglian Temple, leaving them no time to escape."

"In that case, even if my Zhou family joins the war, we will at most only deal with cultivators in the Purple Mansion stage."

"If we are only dealing with cultivators in the Purple Mansion stage, all we need to do next is to diligently practice our spells and improve our combat power."

The Zhou family's current strength is not particularly strong; on the surface, they don't have a single Golden Core cultivator.

But if you're talking about weakness, then it's definitely not weak.

Even a powerful immortal cultivation clan like the Jiang family of Lingzhou, which had a history of over a thousand years, was wiped out just like that.

To put it bluntly, below the Golden Core stage, the Zhou family is now second to none among all forces.

Even if they were to intervene in a war between major powers, they could still serve as a backbone force.

Therefore, when discussing the potential war between Tianjingmen and Qinglian Temple, Zhou Mingde is no longer as apprehensive as he was when he participated in the Southern Expedition.

My confidence is clearly much stronger than it was before.

Upon hearing his words, Zhou Chun nodded in agreement, saying, "The Supreme Elder is absolutely right. No matter when the war breaks out, focusing on improving our own combat strength is the best way to deal with it."

After saying that, he added with even greater confidence, "Things are different now. With Senior Lin here, no matter what happens, we have a stable way out, so there's no need to worry too much."

A family with a Golden Core cultivator is truly different from a family without one.

As long as the Golden Core cultivators are still alive, even if a family is forced to leave their hometown, it is not difficult to find a place to start over.

Therefore, with Lin Hongyu backing them up, Zhou Chun and other high-ranking members of the Zhou family are no longer as easily alarmed as before when there is any disturbance in the situation in Jingguo.

At worst, we can just expose Lin Hongyu's existence and then have her entire clan relocate from Jingguo.

"Then it's decided. Zhengchun, you'll make a trip to the Great Zhou Kingdom later to deal with the spoils we got from the Jiang family, and while you're at it, see if you can buy the spiritual materials needed for Fellow Daoist Lin to refine his natal magic weapon!"

Zhou Mingde looked at Zhou Chun and immediately made arrangements for him.

After pondering for a while, Zhou Chun did not refuse the arrangement.

However, before setting off for the Great Zhou Kingdom, Zhou Chun first went to Longyuan Marsh to trade with the Scaled Frog alien race.

The Great Zhou Kingdom is located deep inland. Although it is a vast country with abundant resources and various spiritual resources, the rare aquatic treasures produced in Longyuanze are still not easy to find.

Since Zhou Chun discovered that aquatic treasures sell better in the Great Zhou Kingdom, he has been consciously and quietly hoarding some precious aquatic treasures in recent years, instead of handing them over to Qinglian Temple for selection.

Actually, the Zhou family had done similar things before, but they didn't dare to do it too obviously for fear of angering Qinglian Temple.

At most, they would hoard some truly precious aquatic treasures, but they dared not sell these treasures, lest the Qinglian Temple find out and punish them.

But things are different now. The Zhou family has not only reached a new agreement with the Scaled Frog alien race in private, which will greatly increase trade volume in the future, but also has the Great Zhou Kingdom as a sales channel.

Given the vast distance between the Great Zhou Kingdom and the Jing Kingdom, as long as the Zhou family doesn't go too far, it would be difficult for the Qinglian Temple to learn of this matter.

The best candidate to go to the Great Zhou Kingdom to sell the rare aquatic treasures was Lin Hongyu, a Golden Core cultivator.

That way, not only would the price be better, but even if the news reached Qinglian Temple, it would be difficult to suspect the Zhou family because of Lin Hongyu's Golden Core stage cultivation.

But now that a major war could break out in Jingguo at any time, Lin Hongyu cannot leave easily.

This time, Zhou Chun brought a lot of pills that he had obtained from the Jiang family's ransacked property. He used these pills and magical artifacts, two rare treasures of the Scaled Frog race, to successfully exchange for many of their treasured aquatic gems.

After returning from Longyuanze, Zhou Chun did not go back to his family, but instead quietly headed north to the Great Zhou Kingdom.

Because the Silver Lightning Python was still in a weakened state after the "Ancestor's Revival," Zhou Chun could only ride the Golden-Winged Tiger and use his own magic power to travel.

Even so, he was still much faster than Zhou Daoyi.

After all, he doesn't need to go around looking for places where cultivators gather to meditate and restore his mana, which saves him a lot of time in that regard.

Twenty-one days after departing from Lanzhou, he arrived in the Great Zhou Kingdom without incident.

After entering the territory of the Great Zhou Kingdom, Zhou Chun did not go to the Xiandu Market he had visited before. Instead, he determined the direction and went to another market in the Great Zhou Kingdom that was even more prosperous than the Xiandu Market.

Calling it a market town isn't quite accurate; it should be called a Celestial City, a city exclusively for cultivators!

That is the "Tianyuan Immortal City" located in the northwest of the Great Zhou Kingdom.

It's so hard to type this on my phone. I haven't been sleeping well or eating well these past few days. It's been so difficult! And I won't be discharged until the 24th or 25th!

(End of this chapter)