Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Chapter 489 Entering the Secret Realm [Please Subscribe]

The return of Zhou Daoyi and others greatly improved the Zhou family's manpower situation.

Zhou Chun ordered Zhou Zhengyong, who had just opened up the Purple Mansion, to be stationed at Jiufeng Ridge, and also sent Lin Wan'er to the Jade Mountain stronghold in the wilderness to be stationed there.

Zhou Daoyi, led by the Zhou family, joined forces with cultivators from Tianjing Manor and other forces to form a joint demon-slaying team, responsible for clearing out the remaining demonic cultivators in Lingzhou and Lanzhou.

Because the Zhou family was willing to subsidize the members of this joint demon-slaying team with spirit coins, and because killing demonic cultivators could also earn rewards from the alliance, some cultivators were willing to join the joint demon-slaying team.

At this time, the cultivation world in Jingguo had largely returned to normal operation.

Apart from the fact that the war caused a large number of cultivators to die, be injured, or flee, making the area somewhat deserted, all aspects of production and operations were not much different from before the war.

One by one, the cultivation families began post-war recovery and reconstruction work, and commerce and trade were slowly recovering.

However, due to the significant loss of cultivators, it may take several decades or even centuries to recover to pre-war levels.

One of the things that has been giving Zhou Chun a headache lately is that many families have come to propose marriage and give away their daughters.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see the Zhou family's current momentum.

Therefore, many families wanted to establish marriage ties with the Zhou family before Zhou Chun successfully formed his core, so that they would have a ready-made way to ask the Zhou family for help in the future.

Zhou Chun did not object to this kind of marriage alliance.

However, although the Zhou family is no longer short of manpower, it is not yet at the point where they can openly marry off their daughters everywhere.

Whether it was him or Zhou Mingde and others, they preferred that male and female cultivators within the family mutually absorb each other.

Large families like the Zhou family have had their bloodlines passed down for countless generations, with hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in the secular world, and they also have relatively complete family genealogies available for reference.

It is neither uncommon nor impossible for people of the same surname to marry each other and become Daoist partners.

Of course, since they are all from the same clan and have been called brothers and sisters since childhood in school, romantic feelings between men and women are sometimes even more difficult to develop.

This makes internal digestion a difficult task.

After all, forced relationships are never sweet, and without feelings involved, Zhou Chun, as the clan leader, cannot arbitrarily arrange marriages.

Conversely, those families that wanted to form marriage alliances with the Zhou family must have already persuaded the female cultivators within their families beforehand.

As far as they were concerned, as long as the Zhou family was willing to arrange for a cultivator to receive the woman, they could simply marry her off to them.

For some ordinary members of the Zhou family, marrying a female cultivator from a family of immortal cultivators would seem like a good option.

As long as the female cultivator is attractive and has a good figure, her personality and other qualities are actually negligible to them.

After all, the Zhou family is the powerful one. Those female cultivators from humble families who marry into the family, no matter how bad their original personalities were, have to obediently become virtuous wives and loving mothers.

Otherwise, even if they can tolerate those shrewish women, the Zhou family's clan rules will not be able to tolerate them!

In short, Zhou Chun had too many problems, and in the end, he had no choice but to hold a marriage recruitment event every three years.

At that time, any Zhou family woman who is interested in getting married or finding a husband can register for the marriage recruitment event.

Those cultivators who wish to marry into the Zhou family or become sons-in-law of the Zhou family can prepare gifts in advance and register for the marriage proposal event.

Then they could try to attract the attention of the Zhou family's female cultivators by presenting treasures and showcasing their talents, and see if they could win the beauty's heart.

In fact, this is a common practice among many families specializing in Golden Elixir cultivation.

Time passed slowly, and two years went by in the blink of an eye.

That day, Zhou Chun suddenly received devastating news from Zhou Zhengyong at Jiufeng Ridge.

After consuming the Green-haired Ape Demon Core, the Green Wood Spirit Ape ultimately failed to break through and evolve using the power of the demon core.

However, it was quite lucky. Its body wasn't burst by the immense power of the demon core due to the failed breakthrough. It only suffered some backlash and internal injuries from the failed attempt and may need to recuperate for a few years to recover.

"Failed? It seems that breaking through to the third tier is indeed not so easy for demonic beasts!"

Zhou Chun looked at the urgent message in his hand and couldn't help but shake his head and sigh slightly.

In fact, it is far more difficult for a second-tier demon beast to advance to the third tier than for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to open up their Purple Mansion.

Otherwise, Zhou Daoquan wouldn't still be without a third-tier demon beast spirit pet, and Zhou Mingde and Zhou Daoyi wouldn't only focus on cultivating one spirit pet instead of cultivating more like him.

Zhou Chun was able to raise several spirit pets to the third tier mainly because he followed the right path, obtained suitable spirit objects, and the spirit pets themselves had excellent foundations.

For someone like the Green Wood Spirit Ape to force a breakthrough by consuming the demon core of a third-tier demon beast is purely a risky gamble, a last resort.

The failure rate is naturally much higher than the success rate!

But in any case, from this point on, Zhou Chun and the Zhou family no longer owed Qingmu Lingyuan, this elder and meritorious member of the family, anything.

After all, the value of a third-grade low-level demon core is only slightly less than that of a spiritual item that helps open the Purple Mansion.

Next, Zhou Chun personally visited the Green Wood Spirit Ape and asked the Wood Spirit to stay in Nine Peaks Ridge to help it recuperate, as a way of thanking it for taking care of him back then.

Just as he was stopping by to visit Luo Qingni, who was cultivating in seclusion there, he saw her suddenly look at him and ask, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, Qingni has almost finished researching the formula for the [Holy Spirit Blood Pill]. Would you like to start refining the pill now?"

"Oh, it's done so quickly?"

Zhou Chun's gaze sharpened slightly as he looked at Luo Qingni with some surprise.

He still remembered the recipe for the Dragon Spirit Pill; the other party had studied and researched it for a long time before daring to start refining it.

Moreover, even after studying and researching for so long, the initial success rate of refining was not high.

"The recipe for the Holy Spirit Blood Pill isn't actually that complicated; it's just that the ingredients are extremely rare and precious. Moreover, Qing Ni's alchemy skills have improved over the years."

Seemingly understanding the meaning in Zhou Chun's eyes, Luo Qingni immediately explained the details further.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun quickly said, "Fellow Daoist Luo, you misunderstand. I didn't mean to distrust you. It's just that the [Holy Spirit Blood Pill] is extremely important to my Zhou family, and there's only one set of materials. I still hope that you can act only when you have the greatest chance of success!"

Hearing this, Luo Qingni didn't argue with him anymore, but simply nodded and said, "Very well, since Fellow Daoist Zhou isn't in a hurry, then let's wait until Fellow Daoist Zhou brings that item back before Qingni begins refining it!"

"Yes, that would be perfect!"

Zhou Chun nodded repeatedly, agreeing with her words.

As the saying goes, "If you want to do something well, you must first have the right tools."

A good alchemy furnace is more precious to an alchemist than any magical artifact or treasure.

Furthermore, a magic-grade alchemy furnace can provide alchemists with tremendous assistance during the alchemy process, both in terms of success rate and quality of the finished product.

"In at most another year, I, Zhou, will be able to embark on my journey to the Great Zhou with Fellow Daoist Luo!"

Before leaving Jiufengling, Zhou Chun gave Luo Qingni a definite departure date.

In the following year, Zhou Chun began preparing for his journey to the Great Zhou Kingdom in his spare time from cultivation.

Although he expected that it might not take too long for him to form his core, three to five years would be enough if things went smoothly.

But it's better to be safe than sorry.

In case he can't return to the family so quickly, some things still need to be arranged in advance.

More than seven months later, during a meditation session, Zhou Chun discovered that he could no longer refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into his own magical power.

The magical power accumulated in his dantian had reached its personal limit, and it would be difficult to make any further progress!

At this point, apart from condensing the Golden Core, he could no longer improve his magical power by even a fraction through cultivation.

"Has your magical power finally reached its limit?"

Zhou Chun looked inward at himself, gazing at the golden lake of magical power within his dantian, and felt a slight surge of excitement.

If you do the math, he has already lived past two hundred years old, and he should be two hundred and four years old this year.

I have been in this world for 178 years!

Now we've finally reached this point.

Once the Golden Core is formed, one can live for a thousand years, master immense supernatural powers, and completely ascend to the upper echelons of the cultivation world, becoming a truly high-level cultivator.

If he were a rogue cultivator, once he formed his Golden Core, he could basically live a carefree life for a thousand years as long as he was careful not to provoke those major sects.

As a family cultivator, once he forms his Golden Core, the Zhou family will immediately be promoted to a Golden Core family. As long as he lives, the family's status will never decline.

Even for most cultivators from major sects in this world, the Golden Core stage is the final destination of their cultivation journey in this lifetime!

The process of transforming the core and forming the nascent soul is something that even many Golden Core cultivators from major sects dare not even dream of.

Only when you reach their level do you realize just how difficult this step is.

A very simple example.

Even if a Qi Refining cultivator has poor aptitude, theoretically, as long as they don't give up on cultivation and have enough time to cultivate, they can basically cultivate to the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage and have the qualifications to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage. Note that it is qualifications.

However, among Golden Core cultivators, five or six out of ten have no chance of cultivating to the late Golden Core stage!

Of the remaining cultivators who can cultivate to the late stage of Golden Core, there may only be one, or even none, who will ultimately be qualified to reach the stage of Core Transformation and Nascent Soul Formation!

In reality, unless one is exceptionally talented or has had a great stroke of luck, the vast majority of Golden Core cultivators outside of major sects simply cannot cultivate to the late Golden Core stage.

In this situation, the Golden Core stage truly becomes the ultimate goal for over 90% of cultivators in the cultivation world.

"With my preparations, forming the Core Formation isn't difficult. However, given the Zhou family's situation after that, they're destined to be unable to help me much anymore. Therefore, if I don't want to stop at the Golden Core stage, I need a great stroke of luck!"

"This opportunity has presented itself to me, and I must cherish it, seize it, and make a fortune!"

Zhou Chun opened his eyes, his gaze sharp and determined, having already made up his mind.

A few days later, Zhou Chun quietly went to the wilderness and brought with him most of the adult and almost all of the mature "Frostbees".

As a famous rare insect on the "List of Strange Insects of Heaven and Earth", the "Frost-Cold Bee" poses a great threat to even Golden Core cultivators once its numbers reach a certain level.

Zhou Chun has been raising this swarm of "Frostbees" for nearly a hundred years. The number of bees has now reached more than 300, which is almost double the number when he first captured the swarm.

The number of mature bees has reached thirty-eight, exceeding one-tenth.

Generally speaking, even at the peak of a bee colony's natural growth, the number of mature bees will not exceed one-third of the total population, unless an environment particularly suitable for the colony's growth is encountered.

Zhou Chun created a very good habitat for these demon bees. Not only was the cold environment adequate, but there were also abundant food resources around.

In addition, he also occasionally feeds the bee colony with spiritual substances that are beneficial to its growth. It should not be a problem for the number of mature demon bees in the colony to exceed 30% in the future.

At this point, he collected most of the adult bees and almost all of the mature bees at once, which would have a huge impact on the growth of the bee colony.

Therefore, when leaving, Zhou Chun specifically instructed the Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Zhou family at the Dragon Rising Valley stronghold to come and put frozen demon beast meat into this cave every month, so that the remaining adult demon bees could bring their juvenile demon bees directly to carry the food without having to risk going out to hunt.

After returning to Tuyunling, Zhou Chun visited Lin Hongyu again and retrieved the magic weapon [Wutu Vajra Shield] from her, which he then carried with him.

If Zhou Chun successfully forms his core in the secret island, he will definitely not have time to refine his natal magic weapon. In that case, the dark blue banner magic weapon he obtained from the Su family patriarch, as well as this [Earth Vajra Shield] magic weapon, will become his most important reliance for seizing treasures inside.

With everything prepared, Zhou Chunming announced on the surface that he would be in seclusion on Tu Yunling to form his core, but secretly he used the [Hundred Illusion Pearl] to disguise himself and leave Tu Yunling.

Meanwhile, Luo Qingni, who was on Jiufeng Ridge, had left more than a month earlier and was now waiting for him within the territory of Shen Kingdom.

After Zhou Chun arrived in Shen Kingdom, the two met up and Luo Qingni immediately led them to Da Zhou Kingdom at full speed.

Less than half a month later, Zhou Chun and Luo Qingni returned to Tianyuan Immortal City, which they had not visited for decades.

After entering the city, the two headed straight for Luo Qingni's cave dwelling within the city.

Since Luo Qingni successfully formed her core and decided to reside permanently in Tianyuan Immortal City, her original cave dwelling, "Qingni Residence," was given to her by the Tianyuan Immortal City government for free.

This is also a special benefit offered by Tianyuan Immortal City to master craftsmen at the Golden Core stage.

After all, Golden Core cultivators have a lifespan of up to a thousand years. If they were willing to stay in a certain market and accept commissions from other cultivators for alchemy and weapon crafting, they would bring great popularity to the market.

The reason why Tianyuan Immortal City was able to become the number one immortal city in the Great Zhou Kingdom was largely because they retained a large number of weapon-refining masters and alchemy masters to refine pills and weapons for people.

After bringing Zhou Chun back to her cave, Luo Qingni quickly looked at him and said, "We will rest in Tianyuan Immortal City for a few days. After I have inquired about the situation, I will personally escort Fellow Daoist Zhou to Muli Lake!"

"No problem, I, Zhou, will follow Fellow Daoist Luo's arrangements!"

Zhou Chun readily nodded and agreed without hesitation.

In the following days, Zhou Chun stayed in the guest room inside Luo Qingni's cave and did not stay at any other inns.

While Luo Qingni was gathering intelligence, he also stopped by several shops in the city and retrieved the fifteen Foundation Establishment Pills that Lin Wan'er had originally ordered.

I also took the opportunity to inquire about the market situation.

As expected, as inflation gradually emerged in the Heavenly Spirit Realm, the prices of spiritual resources such as Foundation Establishment Pills in the Great Zhou Kingdom also rose slightly, and bundled sales measures began to appear.

If you want to purchase strategic spiritual resources such as Foundation Establishment Pills in bulk, you also need to purchase a batch of other types of pills or talismans.

This is also a disguised price increase!

However, another piece of good news is that the price of ritual implements has not been significantly affected.

Zhou Chun has now accumulated a large number of third-tier and second-tier magic weapons. The quantity of these magic weapons is enough to arm ten Purple Mansion stage cultivators!

The Zhou family simply cannot use so many magical artifacts in the short term.

Therefore, he planned to sell most of the magical artifacts to obtain resources.

However, with his current cultivation level at the Purple Mansion stage, it is not safe to sell third-tier magic artifacts in such a large quantity, so he plans to wait until he forms his core before selling them.

After spending eight days in Tianyuan Immortal City, Luo Qingni finally finished gathering intelligence and confirmed that nothing particularly significant had happened on the Dolan Grassland recently. She could now take Zhou Chun to the secret island in Muli Lake.

This time, the beasts that carried them to Muli Lake were Zhou Chun's two spirit pets, the Golden-Winged Tiger and the Thunder Dragon, who took turns carrying them.

Lei Jiao Bai Bai even used the [Hundred Illusion Pearl] to conceal his true identity.

Compared to the second-tier superior six-winged flying lizard from last time, Zhou Chun's two spirit pets are undoubtedly much more powerful in terms of both speed and endurance.

Moreover, even if they encounter "Winged Clan" mages or other grassland monsters on the road, these two spirit pets are more than capable of using their speed to leave them behind or kill them on the spot.

In less than a month, Zhou Chun and his group returned to the shores of Muli Lake.

The water was Lei Jiao Bai Bai's domain. After entering the water, Zhou Chun and Luo Qingni rode on its back together, and under Luo Qingni's guidance, they headed to the location of the secret island.

Before long, the two people and the dragon arrived outside the secret island.

"This is the place. Fellow Daoist Zhou, please have your spirit pet stop!"

In a deep body of water at the bottom of the lake, after the Thunder Dragon Bai Bai circled back to its original spot twice, Luo Qingni decisively told Zhou Chun to stop the Thunder Dragon Bai Bai.

Then she looked at Zhou Chun and slowly said, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, are you really sure you want to try forming your core inside?"

"Yes, Zhou Chun is ready!"

Zhou Chun nodded, responding firmly.

"Since that's the case, then Qingni won't try to persuade you any further!"

Luo Qingni sighed softly, then looked at Zhou Chun with a serious expression and said, "I would like to ask Fellow Daoist Zhou to promise me that before forming your core, you should try your best to obtain the treasure I need, to avoid triggering the forbidden spells and being teleported out if you successfully form your core!"

Hearing her words, Zhou Chun replied solemnly, "Of course, before I reach the Core Formation stage, I will definitely try my best to take some risks inside!"

"I trust Fellow Daoist Zhou's character, so I won't ask you to make any oaths against your inner demons. Please keep these things safe, Fellow Daoist Zhou!"

Luo Qingni nodded slightly and handed a storage bag to Zhou Chun, which contained the fourth-grade low-rank puppet she had prepared, as well as some magic talismans and pills.

Finally, she raised her hand and patted the storage bag at her waist, and a simple-looking jade talisman appeared in her hand.

"This jade talisman doesn't need to be refined. Just activate it with your own magic power, and the [Heaven and Earth Reversal Array] here will automatically respond, teleporting you, Fellow Daoist Zhou, to the island. Qingni has also recorded the method for leaving the island in your storage bag!"

Zhou Chun reached out and accepted the storage bag and jade talisman. After briefly examining the jade talisman, he nodded to Luo Qingni and said, "Fellow Daoist Luo, rest assured. If I can successfully retrieve the treasure before I reach the Core Formation stage, I will inform you first. Otherwise, please wait patiently for me to come out!"

Upon hearing this, Luo Qingni nodded slightly and said, "Qingni understands. Then I wish Fellow Daoist Zhou all the best!"

"Then I'll head over first."

As Zhou Chun spoke, he put the Thunder Dragon into his spirit beast bag and then held the jade talisman, slowly injecting magic power into it.

A moment later, the white light emitted by the jade talisman enveloped Zhou Chun's entire body. He moved forward and quickly disappeared from Luo Qingni's sight.

When Zhou Chun's vision returned to normal, he was already on the bluestone square that Luo Qingni had mentioned.

"Such a rich spiritual energy!"

On the bluestone plaza, Zhou Chun looked around and was amazed by the rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the area.

Even among the Moon Wheel Sect's mountain gates he had visited, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was far less abundant in most places.

But thinking about it, it makes sense, after all, this is the cave dwelling of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

Zhou Chun was not in a hurry to explore the place. He immediately put away the jade talisman in his hand and opened the storage bag given to him by Luo Qingni to check the contents.

The storage bag contained a low-grade fourth-order giant ape puppet, a replacement spirit crystal, and three fourth-order magic talismans, including a mid-grade fourth-order magic talisman.

In addition, there are as many as ten high-grade third-tier magic talismans.

In addition, there is a bottle of [Great Replenishing Pill] that can greatly restore mana. There are five pills in total. Taking one pill can restore Zhou Chun's mana to 50% or 60%.

There was also a [Exploding Yuan Pill] among them, which could temporarily boost Zhou Chun's mana. After taking it, his mana would temporarily increase by 30%.

However, the price of taking this pill is weakness for at least a year!

Zhou Chun definitely won't take this pill!

Finally, there was a jade slip containing not only Luo Qingni's experiences exploring the secret island several times, but also a general map of the island and a way to leave.

After checking everything, Zhou Chun first recognized the fourth-grade low-level puppet as his master, and then began to study the information in the jade slip.

Oh no, I'm leaving my hometown tomorrow. I did a lot of things for my family today, so I didn't have time to finish writing the 8,000 words. I only wrote 6,000 words. I'll just write 2,000 words of accounting for now!

(End of this chapter)