Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 469 Zhou Mingde's Breakthrough [Please Subscribe]

The red-robed old man who came to Zhou Chun's rescue introduced himself as Liu Boyang, from the Three Wonders Sect of Shen Kingdom, and said that he had been friends with Wei Yong for hundreds of years.

Entrusted by Wei Yong, this man secretly resides in the camp headquarters, ready to rush to Zhou Chun's aid as soon as he detects Zhou Chun's distress signal.

It was his timely arrival after receiving the signal that prevented Zhou Chun from directly engaging in battle with a Golden Core stage demonic cultivator.

Entrusted by Zhou Chun, he immediately performed a soul search on Ge Changsheng, the "White-Haired Blood Demon" who was still unconscious.

In the quiet room, Liu Boyang sat cross-legged, his hands forming a hand seal. Soon, he placed his palm on Ge Changsheng's head, closed his eyes, and began to search Ge Changsheng's soul.

Zhou Chun, on the other hand, was protecting him from the outside.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, Liu Boyang withdrew his hand and slowly opened his eyes.

"How is it? Senior Liu, have you discovered anything?"

After waiting for a while, seeing that Liu Boyang had no intention of speaking, Zhou Chun couldn't help but ask.

Upon hearing this, Liu Boyang immediately spoke slowly, "A restriction has been placed deep within his soul, preventing him from accessing some important memories. However, fortunately, he can still glean quite a bit from some recent events."

At this point, his expression darkened, and he continued in a grave tone, "Young friend Zhou, you're right. These demonic cultivators were able to pinpoint this place precisely to ambush you; it was indeed a carefully planned scheme. Someone tipped them off, or even deliberately let them pass through multiple lines of defense!"

"Who? Who tipped them off and gave them preferential treatment?"

Zhou Chun's expression turned angry, and he shouted angrily in a low voice.

It's one thing to speculate, and it's another to turn speculation into fact.

He had worked diligently on the front lines to resist the invasion of the Yuanmo Legion, shedding blood and sweat for the Tianling Legion, but now he had been betrayed by his own people.

Anyone would be furious.

Many people believe that if a person lives a long life, sees many things, and gains more experience, they should be able to control their emotions and remain calm and composed in the face of everything.

Those are all just presumptuous ideas!

As long as one is still a human being, and as long as one has not become heartless and devoid of humanity due to cultivating certain special techniques or supernatural powers, then no matter how rich one's experiences are, one will still have one's own joys and sorrows.

The longer a person lives, the more likely they are to become moody due to their many experiences.

He might not care at all about things that ordinary people care about very much.

However, he might care a lot about certain small things that ordinary people don't care about!

A simple example is a wealthy man who leaves a large sum of money outside his door and sleeps with the door closed at night.

He had already prepared himself for his money to be stolen the next morning.

But when he opens the door in the morning and finds the money gone, he will definitely feel negative emotions at that moment.

Then he could simply shake his head dismissively, sighing that people's hearts are no longer what they used to be, and that would be the end of it.

You can also angrily mobilize your own energy to find the person who stole the money.

Regardless of which choice he makes, one thing cannot be denied: he was once furious because his money was stolen!

Take Zhou Chun for example. Even if he had guessed in advance that someone must have betrayed the information to the demonic cultivators, he still had a chance.

Now that his suspicions have been confirmed, he can't help but feel angry and disheartened.

Of course, he could control his emotions and not show any reaction.

But he didn't need to do that.

Because Liu Boyang was not his subordinate, nor one of his younger relatives in the Zhou family, but his senior, a stranger with whom he had little interaction.

He doesn't need to deliberately control his emotions to show that he has the ability to remain calm even when Mount Tai collapses in front of him, or to appear that he is very shrewd or composed.

On the contrary, by indulging his emotions and expressing his anger, he not only avoids suppressing himself but also makes it easier for people to perceive him as a person of strong character, thus fostering goodwill and identification with him.

After all, most people don't want to deal with someone who is extremely shrewd and keeps everything to themselves.

It is normal to behave differently in front of family, friends, superiors, subordinates, juniors, strangers, and enemies.

Zhou Chun is humble and polite in front of her elders and relatives, and is not afraid to show some of her shortcomings.

In front of ordinary friends and relatives, he would make people feel that he was knowledgeable, capable, and trustworthy.

In front of his superiors, he would be humble and polite, carefully trying to understand and flatter their wishes.

In front of his subordinates and younger colleagues, he is both authoritative and approachable, always keeping his word, and possesses outstanding abilities that earn him their trust.

In the presence of strangers and enemies, he can act as he sees fit, without needing to pay too much attention to his words and actions.

If he is like this, then other cultivators can naturally be like this too!

In fact, in the cultivation world, many low- to mid-level cultivators like to imagine what the lives of high-level cultivators are like.

But the reality of Golden Core cultivators is completely different from what they imagine.

Some Golden Core cultivators feel they have reached their limit in this life, so they indulge themselves, revel in pleasure, take in many concubines, and enjoy beautiful women, fine wine, and delicious food every day like a wine pool and meat forest.

Some Golden Core cultivators may become engrossed in a particular cultivation technique and devote themselves to studying it.

Some Golden Core cultivators may be obsessed with wilderness adventures and enjoy venturing into dangerous places for challenges.

These Golden Core cultivators are not necessarily smarter or more shrewd than Qi Refining cultivators.

However, the power they wield allows them to completely overwhelm cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, rendering their so-called intelligence, wisdom, and composure a joke!

This is also the charm of the cultivation world!

In the mortal world, intelligent people can use their wisdom to control the resources of a country, or even the world.

However, in the world of cultivation, wisdom can only give you a slight advantage in the early stages. The further you go, the less important wisdom becomes.

In the cultivation world, cultivation level and strength are still highly valued.

The strength of one's cultivation level is not entirely determined by intelligence or wisdom!

In short, Liu Boyang was not surprised to see Zhou Chun angrily asking him about the informant, nor did he develop any ill feelings towards him.

He simply shook his head slightly and said, "The specifics were all handled by that 'Netherworld Prince' Yin Shaotian. Ge Changsheng only knows about these circumstances and doesn't know the specific details."

At this point, his tone turned serious, and he said in a deep voice, "However, if such a thing really happened, and if those people did such a thing, we will always be able to find something out and won't let them get away with it forever!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun frowned.

It wasn't that he didn't believe Liu Boyang's words, but rather that he knew in his heart.

Without concrete evidence, it would be extremely difficult to uncover the big fish by simply investigating those who turned a blind eye and allowed the demonic cultivators to enter the country.

I'm afraid the final result will be to deal with some small fry who have shown their true colors, and then let the matter rest.

Even knowing this would happen, there's nothing he can do now but wait for an opportunity!

Next, Zhou Chun and Liu Boyang, along with "White-Haired Blood Demon" Ge Changsheng, went to the camp headquarters to wait patiently for Wei Yong's return.

Zhou Chun did not give up searching for any surviving cultivators from the first brigade, hoping to find them and understand what happened after he left.

Another requirement is to have a survivor to testify that their killing of Yue Feng was in accordance with the rules of the battlefield.

Persistence pays off. After using his connections to search for two days, Zhou Chun actually found two survivors.

Both survivors were Foundation Establishment cultivators. After the formation at their base was destroyed that day, they and the other cultivators used their own survival methods to escape and managed to break through the encirclement and hide.

With these two witnesses in hand, Zhou Chun breathed a slight sigh of relief and immediately bestowed upon them top-quality healing and replenishing pills to restore their vitality.

After waiting at the camp for more than half a month, Wei Yong and his men finally broke through the demonic cultivators' stronghold.

However, Wei Yong, who already knew what had happened in the rear, was not happy at this moment.

After sending a deputy commander to lead the main force back to their base, he personally went ahead and returned to the battalion headquarters.

"Rest assured, Zheng Chun, now that this has happened, I will definitely petition the higher authorities for a thorough investigation. I will never let the brothers of the First Battalion who died be killed in vain!"

Inside the battalion command post, Wei Yong, upon seeing Zhou Chun, didn't even ask for details before looking at him with a serious expression and making a statement.

This deeply moved Zhou Chun, who immediately bowed deeply and said, "On behalf of our fallen brothers, I thank you, Commander. With your words, Commander, I would gladly go through fire and water for you!"

"Well, now Masaru, tell me about what happened that day."

Wei Yong nodded, and then asked Zhou Chun about what had happened that day.

Zhou Chun immediately began to recount the events from the appearance of the demonic cultivator, explaining the whole story in detail, including his own thoughts on the spot when he decided to kill Yue Feng.

He claimed that the only reason the Golden Armored Mountain-Carrying Turtle could carry him to safety was because he used a beast-taming technique and merged with the spirit pet's aura, which allowed him to be carried underground by the Golden Armored Mountain-Carrying Turtle.

Compared to treasures or the like, secret techniques are undoubtedly a more difficult excuse to expose.

After all, we can't expect Zhou Chun to hand over his secret technique to him!

As expected, Wei Yong didn't dwell too much on the earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a type of magic/escaping technique), but only expressed his concern about the two things: his killing of Yue Feng in battle and his capture of Ge Changsheng.

After listening to Zhou Chun's account, Wei Yong lowered his head and pondered for a while before looking up at him and saying, "According to what you said, Zheng Chun, it can't be said that you did something wrong by killing Yue Feng in battle."

"But Yue Feng is, after all, a late-stage Purple Mansion cultivator, and from a major sect like Fire Cloud Palace. Even if you are in the right and have witnesses, I'm afraid Fire Cloud Palace may not let this go easily!"

At this point, she smiled slightly and said, "Fortunately, Zheng Chun, you captured Ge Changsheng alive. With the information obtained from searching his soul as evidence, even if we can't definitively prove Yue Feng's crime of treason, we can at least make Huoyun Palace swallow this bitter pill and have no further reason to make things difficult for you for the time being!"

It's easy to tell from his words that he wasn't displeased with Zhou Chun killing Yue Feng and genuinely supported Zhou Chun.

Hearing this, Zhou Chun felt somewhat relieved and then spoke frankly, "Actually, I did have some regrets afterward. If I hadn't killed Yue Feng, perhaps with him guarding the garrison, those brothers wouldn't have perished!"

He then shook his head and said, "But Yue Feng's actions at the time made it impossible for me to consider things further; I had no choice but to expel him from the family first!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Yong immediately waved his hand and said, "You didn't do anything wrong. If I were in your shoes, I would definitely have dealt with this malicious fellow first, to avoid being harmed by him later!"

"As for those cultivators who died in battle, one can only say they were unlucky and destined for this calamity!"

Clearly, compared to Zhou Chun, Wei Yong, who had already seen many of his subordinates die on the battlefield, was used to such things and would not be moved by the deaths of these low- to mid-level cultivators.

After a moment's thought, he looked at Zhou Chun and said, "This incident has served as a reminder to us. Given your current condition, it seems unsuitable for you to lead an army out to guard the region alone any longer. I will recommend you to the higher authorities as the patrol commander of this camp. From now on, you will only need to report to me!"

The position of inspector was originally a leisurely one, and in terms of power, it was incomparable to Zhou Chun's current position as the commander of the First Brigade.

However, Zhou Chun did not come to the battlefield to fight for power or enjoy the feeling of having great power.

Therefore, he had no objection to Wei Yong's decision and immediately nodded in agreement, saying, "Your subordinate will obey the Commander's orders."

Wei Yong was also decisive in his work. Once he made a decision, he quickly submitted a memorial to the emperor requesting the transfer of Zhou Chun to be the inspector of the camp, and it was approved without much resistance.

Zhou Chun then took refuge in the camp's garrison, focusing on his cultivation while awaiting the results of the investigation into the traitor.

After waiting for two or three months, the investigation results that Zhou Chun had been waiting for finally came out.

Just as he thought, without factual evidence, it was impossible to catch any real big fish by investigating and gathering evidence from some suspicious people.

The so-called investigation results revealed that three cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage were suspected of colluding with the enemy.

One of the people with conclusive evidence was executed, while the other two, whose evidence was not particularly strong, were merely stripped of their positions and reassigned to the Trapped Camp!

Officially, this investigation has now come to an end.

As compensation and reward for Zhou Chun, his achievement in capturing the "White-Haired Blood Demon" Ge Changsheng earned him another [Demon-Slaying Token].

Even though Zhou Chun was dissatisfied with the result, he could only accept it silently.

But he also asked Wei Yong to help him find out information about the leopard-tailed witch, silently waiting for the opportunity to take revenge.

Wei Yong disagreed with his idea, believing that it was unnecessary for him to do so.

But seeing how determined he was, Wei Yong didn't try to dissuade him further and could only agree.

However, the news he subsequently received forced Zhou Chun to temporarily abandon his desire for revenge.

Because the leopard-tailed witch didn't hold a fixed position in any team, she had relatively more freedom of movement, making it very difficult for him to find her place of long-term residence.

After all, the intelligence system of the Heavenly Spirit Legion couldn't keep working for him to settle personal scores forever.

And so, time passed day after day, and three years quickly went by!

In the past three years, Zhou Chun has been unable to continue his previous miracle.

Because of his widespread fame, whenever he appears on the battlefield, ordinary demonic cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage dare not fight him. They either flee for their lives or are entangled in battle with cultivators at the "Seven Fiends of the Primordial Demon" level.

As a result, although Zhou Chun fought more than ten times in these three years, he only killed seven demonic cultivators at the Purple Mansion stage, and his battle merits were not many.

It's just that because he has killed so many famous demonic cultivators, his ranking among the "Seven Heroes of Heavenly Spirits" remains as stable as Mount Tai and has never been threatened.

Because he has consistently maintained his ranking among the "Seven Heroes of Heavenly Spirits" without dropping, he receives one [Demon-Slaying Token] as a reward every year. He now holds eight [Demon-Slaying Tokens], more than many Golden Core cultivators!

Although Zhou Chun himself did not achieve many military exploits, he gained a great deal over the three years.

First, Lei Jiao Bai Bai successfully advanced to a third-tier mid-grade demon beast after refining the demon core of the third-tier high-grade demon beast, the Silver Armored Dragon Fish.

After refining the third-grade low-level earth-attribute demon core, the Golden Armor Mountain-Carrying Turtle Stone also accumulated its cultivation to the peak of the third-grade low-level demon beast. Even without external assistance, it would take at most another ten years to break through.

At the same time, Zhou Chun also received two pieces of good news.

First, Lin Wan'er, who took the "Mysterious Heart Purple Return Pill" and opened her Purple Mansion for the second time, successfully opened her Purple Mansion and became a Purple Mansion stage cultivator.

Secondly, Zhou Mingde finally broke through the barrier of the minor realm through persistent effort and his cultivation broke through to the late stage of the Purple Mansion realm!

Upon learning the good news that Zhou Mingde had broken through to the late stage of the Purple Mansion realm, Zhou Chun was overjoyed and specially entrusted Wei Yong to deliver the few remaining "Dragon Spirit Pills" to him.

Because Zhou Chun himself broke through the barrier of his cultivation by taking the Breakthrough Pill, he dared not take any more pills to improve his magical power and accelerate the accumulation of magical power.

However, Zhou Mingde has not taken many pills over the years, so he can take the "Dragon Spirit Pill" to quickly improve his magic power to the limit and then try to break through to the Core Formation stage!

Yes, Zhou Chun wanted Zhou Mingde to also attempt to break through to the Core Formation stage!

The Zhou family currently has "surplus" spiritual items for Core Formation. The [Extreme Yang Fire Spirit Liquid] and [Extreme Cold Ice Marrow Liquid] obtained from "Corpse Fiend General" Jiang Zhong will be completely useless to Zhou Chun when he forms his Core because their effects overlap with the [Five Elements Spirit Fruit].

Therefore, it is entirely possible to let Zhou Mingde give it a try as well.

If it succeeds, we'll make a fortune.

Even if it doesn't succeed, it's still a sign of respect for Zhou Mingde, a patriarch-level figure in the family.

He dedicated his entire life to the Zhou family and never took advantage of them. Now that he's old, he deserves to be supported by his family!

Meanwhile, during these three years of war, the Heavenly Spirit Legion had recovered nearly half of its lost territory, and the Yuan Demon Legion's offensive could be said to have lost momentum and was no longer as fierce as it had been at the beginning.

But then a problem arose.

Because the Yuanmo Legion lost half of its controlled territory, they were able to consolidate their forces and build an even stronger defensive line.

If the Heavenly Spirit Legion wants to break through the remaining defenses and completely drive the Yuan Demon Legion out of the Heavenly Spirit territory, the difficulty will be extraordinary.

The battle between the two sides was once again at a stalemate.

However, this time the Heavenly Spirit Legion is thinking about how to completely defeat and drive the Yuan Demon Legion out of the Heavenly Spirit Realm, while the Yuan Demon Legion is thinking about how to defend this last stronghold and retain the hope of continuing to invade the Heavenly Spirit Realm.

……

Fengguo, inside the Jingyang Sect's mountain gate.

Just when the battle on the front lines reached a stalemate, more than twenty Nascent Soul stage cultivators stationed on the front lines of Feng Kingdom gathered here for a high-level meeting.

At the meeting, a middle-aged man clad in golden armor said in a deep voice, "The reason has now been clarified. The reason why the number of reinforcements sent by the demonic cultivators has decreased is because the spatial teleportation channel they used was inexplicably interfered with and malfunctioned, preventing the continuous transmission of large numbers of cultivators as before!"

"Therefore, we must seize this opportunity and, before the interference from that spatial teleportation channel is eliminated, drive them into the Desolate Desert and completely shut down that spatial teleportation channel!"

Not long after the words were spoken, an old Daoist in white robes wearing a black lotus crown frowned and interjected, "Fellow Daoist Tu Ling speaks so lightly, but have you considered that the number of Nascent Soul stage demons coming to our Heavenly Spirit Realm is not much less than ours, and many of them possess bizarre supernatural abilities, making them actually stronger than many of our fellow Daoists!"

"If we really rush in and fight to the death, it's fine if we win, but if we lose, this great situation will be lost, and those demonic cultivators will reverse it again!"

"In my opinion, rather than gambling on that probability, it's better to bet that those demonic cultivators simply can't eliminate the interference from the spatial teleportation channel, or that the channel itself will collapse and destroy, completely extinguishing their desire to remain in the Heavenly Spirit Realm!"

Upon hearing the white-robed old Taoist's words, the golden-armored man's eyes widened, and he glared at him angrily, shouting, "Master Qi, don't you find your suggestion ridiculous? To entrust the outcome of a war to unknown factors—even a Qi Refining stage cultivator wouldn't think that way. I never expected that you, a dignified Nascent Soul stage cultivator, would have such a naive idea!"

"Ha, you say my ideas are naive? I'd say your ideas are insane! Only a madman would have such crazy ideas! We've finally cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage and are enjoying thousands of years of lifespan. How can we risk our lives like those low-level cultivators?"

The white-robed old Taoist priest gave a cold smile, refuting the golden-armored man's accusations without any mercy, showing no intention of giving him face, and revealing his inner thoughts without any attempt to hide them.

For these Nascent Soul stage cultivators, sometimes they really do talk like babies, without any reservations or beating around the bush, just doing whatever they want.

Anyway, no matter how fiercely they argue, they rarely actually come to blows.

Even if they actually fight, it's hard to tell who will live and who will die.

Why not live more freely and comfortably!

The other Nascent Soul stage cultivators were not surprised by the argument between the two Nascent Soul stage cultivators, and no one rushed to take sides or express their opinions.

As Nascent Soul stage cultivators, there was no intelligence on the battlefield that was beyond their reach. Therefore, many of them already had ideas in mind before coming to participate in this meeting.

The difference is that some people are deep and reserved and unwilling to easily reveal their thoughts, while others do not care to reveal their thoughts first and seek out like-minded people for themselves.

After a heated argument that could not be resolved, the man in golden armor simply stopped arguing with the old Taoist in white robes and instead turned his gaze to a cultivator sitting at the head of the hall.

It was an elderly man with white hair wearing a purple robe, whose aura was profound and unfathomable, subtly surpassing that of all the cultivators in the hall.

When the golden-armored man's gaze fell upon the purple-robed elder, his expression immediately became much more serious, and he spoke with great respect: "Master Kunxu, what do you think? You personally inspected that spatial teleportation channel; your understanding of it should be far deeper than that of a coward like Master Qi. Do you think it's possible for it to collapse on its own?"

Upon hearing this, an old monster in the Nascent Soul stage immediately echoed, "Indeed, True Person Kunxu, you are a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, quite proficient in the Dao of Space. Why don't you also share your views for our reference!"

"That's right, that's right. Master Kunxu, your words carry far more weight than ours. Let's hear your opinion first, and then we can all express our views and vote to make a decision!"

"I would also like to hear Master Kunxu's insightful opinion first!"

It turns out that the purple-robed elder was actually a rare late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator!

The status of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator is obviously extraordinary. Even the old monsters in the Nascent Soul stage who are at the same level as him in the hall try to curry favor with him and are noticeably more reserved in their speech.

Faced with the requests of the group of Nascent Soul stage elders, the purple-robed elder, Master Kunxu, glanced at everyone with a slight glint in his eyes before speaking indifferently: "Very well, since all of you fellow Daoists want me to share my thoughts, then I will say a few words first."

As soon as the words were spoken, the hall fell silent; you could hear a pin drop.

Soon, only the calm words of the purple-robed elder, Master Kunxu, echoed in the hall.

"It is true that I once ventured deep into the demon's lair and approached that spatial teleportation channel. In my opinion at the time, this stable spatial teleportation channel, transformed from a rift in opposing spaces, was simply a miracle in the cultivation world. I'm afraid even a Nascent Soul cultivator would find it difficult to achieve this!"

"In my opinion at the time, unless I had to attack at close range with all my might, it would be almost impossible to destroy this spatial teleportation channel!"

"Therefore, unless there are any problems with the spatial passage itself, I do not agree with launching a rash all-out attack, because it is very difficult to have the opportunity to destroy the spatial teleportation passage!"

"But now that the spatial teleportation channel has been inexplicably interfered with and is malfunctioning, even a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator might have a chance to destroy it!"

"Therefore, I believe that perhaps we should indeed try to organize an attack to see if we can have a chance to destroy that spatial teleportation channel!"

I wrote 7,000 words today, not counting the extra words. I'll see if I can write 8,000 words in the next two days to make up for the missing words from the previous two days!

(End of this chapter)