Beast Taming Immortal Clan

Qinglian Peak.

After returning to her family, Zhou Zhiying quietly moved into Zhou Chun's cave dwelling.

Reminded by her, Zhou Chun, along with Zhou Mingde, also began to focus their attention on the Core Formation process of Xu Fu and his wife, preparing to break the barrier and save them should any unexpected situation arise.

The secret chambers where Zhou family cultivators cultivate to form their core are all protected by a complete set of individual protective spells, so even if the mountain-protecting formation is attacked, it will not affect them.

Within the entire Zhou family, only Zhou Mingde and Zhou Chun possess the method to forcibly activate this set of forbidden techniques.

On the third day after Zhou Zhiying returned to Qinglian Peak, an unusual fluctuation of spiritual energy suddenly appeared in Zhou Yuanyuan's secluded cultivation room, but the celestial phenomenon of Core Formation was not revealed for a long time.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun consulted Zhou Zhiying and immediately took action without hesitation to forcibly break the protective barrier of the place and open the door to the secret room from the outside.

When the door opened, they saw Zhou Yuanyuan lying on the ground, coughing up blood, barely breathing and almost unconscious.

"mother!!"

After all, she was her own mother, a blood relative. Even though Zhou Zhiying's relationship with her mother wasn't particularly close before, seeing her mother's life hanging by a thread, she couldn't help but burst into tears and quickly went forward to hug her.

It seemed that her shout awakened the deep-seated obsession within her. Zhou Yuanyuan, whose consciousness had almost faded, twitched her eyelids slightly, showing signs of waking up.

Noticing this, Zhou Chun quickly released the Wood Spirit Mu Sang and had it treat Zhou Yuanyuan.

Given Zhou Yuanyuan's current condition, it is obviously impossible to truly save her.

However, it's not a problem to let her have a brief moment of lucidity before she dies.

Under the treatment of Mu Mei Mu Sang, part of the life essence that was rapidly draining from her body was immediately stopped, and her consciousness was quickly restored.

When she opened her eyes, she saw her daughter, who was holding her in her arms and crying her eyes out.

Seeing his daughter, the pride of his life, the disappointment and despair of failing to achieve the Golden Core seemed to dissipate almost entirely. He couldn't help but gently stroke his daughter's pretty face and murmur, "Ying'er, you're back. With you by my side to see me off in my final moments, I can die without regrets!"

"It's my fault for being unfilial. If I had known you were going to attempt to break through to the Core Formation stage, I should have come back sooner!"

Zhou Zhiying cried and blamed herself, her eyes filled with remorse.

"Silly child, it's not your fault. It's just that your mother lacked the ability and opportunity, and ultimately failed the clan leader's trust and high expectations!"

As Zhou Yuanyuan spoke, she also cast an apologetic glance at Zhou Chun, who was standing to the side.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun sighed softly and said, "Oh! Xiaoyuan, you don't need to think like that. Since things have come to this, you two should have a good talk. I won't disturb you any longer!"

After saying that, he shook his head, turned around, and left the secret room.

After waiting outside for about half an hour, a heart-wrenching cry from Zhou Zhiying rang out from inside. Zhou Chun and Zhou Mingde, who had rushed over, exchanged a glance and shook their heads repeatedly.

Zhou Yuanyuan's failure not only cost her her life, but also deprived the Zhou family of another Core Formation seed and a Purple Mansion stage elder.

This is quite a loss for the family.

Unfortunately, because Xu Fu was also in seclusion to form his golden core, and it was inconvenient to disturb him during his seclusion for this matter, he did not even have time to see his Daoist partner one last time.

However, at Zhou Zhiying's earnest request, Zhou Chun and Zhou Mingde agreed to her request to temporarily refrain from holding a funeral for Zhou Yuanyuan, instead freezing her body and waiting for Xu Fu to come out of the pass and preside over the funeral.

If Xu Fu could successfully form the elixir!

This wait lasted for more than three years.

Three years later, a strange phenomenon of surging spiritual energy suddenly appeared where Zhou Xinyan was in seclusion, which quickly triggered the celestial phenomenon of Core Formation.

This scene immediately delighted many Zhou family cultivators.

The fact that the family has gained another Golden Core cultivator is something to be very happy about in itself, especially since Zhou Xinyan was the elder who had previously managed the family's affairs, which made him quite popular.

"Not bad, not bad. Xinyan is doing quite well; she's made a good start!"

Looking at the gathering dark clouds in the sky, Zhou Chun felt relieved and couldn't help but nod and smile.

Although there were previous examples of Zhou Yuanlian successfully forming her core, Zhou Yuanlian's identity was somewhat sensitive, and she was destined to remain an invisible figure within the family, unable to take on any major responsibilities openly.

Zhou Xinyan, however, is different.

As the first cultivator with superior spiritual root aptitude born after the Zhou family established its foundation in Jiufeng Ridge, he was a true descendant of the Zhou family and had always been highly praised within the family.

Meanwhile, during the past one or two hundred years, he managed the family affairs on behalf of Zhou Chun, and he managed everything in an orderly manner, demonstrating remarkable management skills.

In this way, once he successfully forms his core, he will become the best role model for the Zhou family and serve as their face.

"I'll be busy with the Core Formation and Nascent Soul stage soon, so I won't be able to focus on family affairs. I'll talk to Xinyan about the handover of the clan leadership after he comes out of seclusion!"

Zhou Chun pondered in his heart and had new ideas and plans.

Soon after, as the celestial phenomenon of Core Formation dissipated, the news of Zhou Xinyan's successful Core Formation spread rapidly.

This news not only caused a sensation in the Zhou family, but also sparked some discussion outside, especially among some older cultivators in the Purple Mansion stage, who felt as if they had been transported back two hundred years.

More than two hundred years ago, it seems that the Zhou family also experienced a similar phenomenon of several members successively achieving the Golden Core stage.

At that time, Zhou Chun returned from his journey to form the Golden Core stage, which completely announced to the outside world that the Zhou family had returned to the status of a Golden Core family.

Then Zhou Mingde, at the age of over four hundred, successfully formed his core, causing a sensation in the cultivation world of Jingguo.

Now, the Zhou family has first had Zhou Yuanlian successfully form her core, and now another Zhou Xinyan has appeared. The situation is so similar to that time!

Back then, the Zhou family was just a Golden Core family that had made a comeback. Now, however, it has become the third largest power in the Jing Kingdom, with Nascent Soul cultivators as its backers. On the surface, it has as many as five Golden Core cultivators!

Over the next month or two, congratulatory letters poured in from all over Jingguo to the Zhou family, many of which came from forces that had previously had no dealings with the Zhou family.

It is obvious that with the successive emergence of new Golden Core stage cultivators in the Zhou family, the term "nouveau riche" no longer applies to the Zhou family.

If a family produces several geniuses in a certain period or generation, leading them to grow and prosper, that family can be described as "nouveau riche".

So, after hundreds of years, if this family is still able to produce Golden Core cultivators, then no one can still use the term "nouveau riche" to describe them.

Therefore, facing the Zhou family, whose power has now become overwhelming, many forces, even those who have little interaction with the Zhou family due to distance, are willing to take the initiative to extend goodwill and make friends, based on the principle that having more friends means having more options.

On the contrary, the Moon Wheel Sect and the Flame Sun Sect did not seem to care much about the Zhou family's successive Core Formation, and simply sent a Purple Mansion stage cultivator to deliver a congratulatory letter as a matter of courtesy.

Zhou Chun, on the other hand, was happy to see this happen.

He wasn't afraid of the two factions looking down on the Zhou family; he was afraid that the two factions would value the Zhou family too much.

Of course, there are reasons why the two factions don't care.

Over the years, both factions have had members successfully forming their core, all thanks to the immense benefits they received during the previous beast tide.

With so many talented individuals emerging within their own factions, neither side's leadership had any reason to worry that the mere Zhou family would pose a threat to them.

As long as no Nascent Soul cultivator appears in the Zhou family, the more Golden Core cultivators appear, the better it is for the higher-ups of both factions.

This would at least alleviate some of the pressure on the two factions of cultivators facing the demon race of Yunzhou, and allow the Zhou family to also arrange for Golden Core stage cultivators to participate in the rotation.

Time passed slowly, and more than a year went by in no time.

The discussions about Zhou Xinyan's successful formation of his core had long since ceased, and even within the Zhou family, no one talked about it anymore.

It was under these circumstances that the place where Xu Fu was in seclusion suddenly experienced a change in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, followed by the celestial phenomenon of Core Formation that everyone could see.

Another member of the Zhou family has successfully formed their core!

Many Zhou family cultivators were stunned when they saw the Core Formation celestial phenomenon appearing in the sky.

Even the Heavenly Mirror True Man, who was cultivating in his cave, couldn't help but take another look at the location of the Core Formation Celestial Phenomenon.

"Could it be that the Zhou family has truly been blessed by heaven? So many members have successfully formed their cores one after another; this can't be explained away as mere luck!"

He muttered to himself, feeling quite surprised.

Zhou Chun breathed a slight sigh of relief after seeing the Core Formation celestial phenomenon.

He couldn't help but say to Zhou Zhiying beside him, "Ying'er, you saw it too, your father succeeded. Now you can rest assured!"

Hearing his words, Zhou Zhiying felt both joy and sorrow, and couldn't help but sigh softly, "It's such a pity that Mother didn't get to see this day!"

"The family gathering might get a bit lively soon, so you should stay out of it for now. Once your father emerges from seclusion, I'll have him go to Jiufeng Ridge to help you with your mother's funeral!"

Zhou Chun glanced at his dejected apprentice and whispered his arrangements.

"Yes, disciple understands."

Zhou Zhiying responded softly, without any objection.

Just as Zhou Chun said, when the news spread that someone from the Zhou family had successfully formed their core again after more than a year, the entire cultivation world of Jing Kingdom was in an uproar!

Not only in the cultivation world of Jingguo, but throughout the entire cultivation world, the Golden Core stage is the highest pursuit of the vast majority of cultivators in their lifetime.

Nascent Soul stage cultivators are extremely rare; some small countries might only see one in a thousand years. Unless one has top-grade spiritual roots and an extraordinary background, no one would even dare to dream of achieving the dream of transforming their core and forming their nascent soul.

Therefore, it is truly astonishing that three members of the Zhou family have successfully formed their core in less than thirty years.

Even for a major sect like the Moon Wheel Sect, which has a history of thousands of years, the number of times this has happened is extremely limited!

Therefore, many people can't help but suspect that the Zhou family possesses some special spiritual object for Core Formation, such as the Five Elements Spiritual Fruit Tree, or some heaven-defying secret technique that can increase the success rate of Core Formation!

These doubts quickly spread throughout the cultivation world of Jingguo. Even within the two major sects, the Moon Wheel Sect and the Flame Sun Sect, many cultivators were discussing it, including some Golden Core stage elders from both sects who harbored doubts.

Under these circumstances, the two major sects were investigating the information of the individuals who had recently achieved Core Formation, while also sending their Golden Core elders to the Zhou family to offer their congratulations.

While ostensibly a congratulatory gesture, it was actually a test of the Zhou family's true intentions.

However, Zhou Chun is innocent this time and has nothing to fear from being investigated or tested.

The fact that these three Zhou family cultivators were able to successfully form their cores was truly due to their own luck and strength, and had nothing to do with Zhou Chun.

Apart from Zhou Yuanlian using a Golden Dragon Fruit, the other two used normal spiritual items for Core Formation, so they were not afraid of being investigated.

Even the Golden Dragon Fruit was a spoil of war he obtained on the battlefield between immortals and demons, and it can withstand investigation.

Therefore, when Zhou Chun dealt with the Golden Core cultivators from the two major sects, he was confident and at ease.

After a period of this commotion, the two major sects, having found nothing unusual, could only attribute it to the Zhou family's good fortune.

Several more months passed, and Zhou Xinyan, who had successfully formed his core first, finally emerged from seclusion after two years of consolidation and cultivation.

"Congratulations, my dear nephew, on achieving the Golden Elixir! Longevity is within your reach!"

On Qinglian Peak, Zhou Chun smiled and offered his congratulations to Zhou Xinyan after she emerged from seclusion.

"Thank you for your congratulations, Uncle Thirteen."

Zhou Xinyan responded with a beaming smile, then bowed deeply to Zhou Chun with eyes full of gratitude, saying, "Thanks to Uncle Thirteen for bestowing upon me the spiritual object for Core Formation, I was able to successfully form my Core. Uncle Thirteen, I will never forget your kindness in this lifetime!"

Seeing this, Zhou Chun felt quite gratified, but said, "There's no need to be so polite. We have all seen the hard work and contributions you have made for the family over the years. Those Core Formation spiritual items were earned through your own efforts."

"Yes, I will definitely work even harder in the future to repay Uncle Thirteen's trust and support!"

Zhou Xinyan responded in a very artistic way.

Then the uncle and nephew discussed the Golden Elixir Celebration in a relaxed manner.

At the same time, Zhou Chun also hinted at his preparation to step down and hand over the reins to a more capable person.

But perhaps because her mindset had changed after she reached the Core Formation stage, Zhou Xinyan didn't seem very interested in taking over as clan leader and had no intention of doing so.

Zhou Chun was somewhat helpless about this.

If Zhou Xinyan is unwilling, he can't force her to agree.

After all, the other party is now a Golden Core cultivator, so they should be treated with the respect due to them.

Therefore, Zhou Chun could only ask him to continue to manage family affairs and at least train a qualified agent before letting go.

His authority as clan leader still existed, and Zhou Xinyan dared not refuse his request, so he agreed on the spot.

A year later, Zhou Xinyan's Golden Core celebration was held in a high-profile manner on Qinglian Peak, with as many as fifteen Golden Core cultivators in attendance, including Golden Core elders from the Moon Wheel Sect and the Flame Sun Sect.

In terms of scale, Zhou Chun's Golden Core celebration back then paled in comparison.

After this Golden Core celebration, Zhou Xinyan was officially promoted to the position of Supreme Elder of the Zhou Family.

Two more years passed, and Xu Fu quietly emerged from seclusion.

He had already learned of his Daoist partner Zhou Yuanyuan's failure to achieve her core after he had already formed his core. After emerging from seclusion, he only had a brief meeting with Zhou Chun before heading to Jiufeng Ridge to reunite with his deceased wife and daughter.

A few days later, the funeral of Zhou Yuanyuan, an elder of the Zhou family, was officially held at Jiufengling. Zhou Chun, Zhou Mingde and other senior family members all attended to mourn.

Only after the funeral was over did Zhou Chun have the opportunity to speak with Xu Fu alone.

Inside the quiet room, Zhou Chun looked directly at Xu Fu and asked, "Elder Xu, what are your thoughts on your future path?"

Upon hearing this question, Xu Fu immediately shook his head and said, "This junior has no particular thoughts. As long as the family makes arrangements, this junior is willing to obey."

This answer seemed to be somewhat unexpected for Zhou Chun, and it surprised him for a moment.

He stared at the other person carefully for a few moments before smiling slightly and saying, "Elder Xu, there's no need to hold back. Now that you've successfully formed your core, you're a core member of the family. If you have any thoughts, feel free to speak them freely!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Fu shook his head repeatedly and said, "Clan leader, please don't misunderstand. This junior really has no such idea at the moment."

Seeing this, Zhou Chun could only nod and say, "Alright, it seems I was overthinking things. Elder Xu, you should focus on your cultivation within the family and familiarize yourself with the power of the Golden Core stage. When you have more ideas, you can raise them with the family."

"Yes, junior obeys."

Xu Fu respectfully responded, and then the two ended their conversation.

Although the conversation did not achieve the expected result, Zhou Chun's mission remained unchanged.

Under his arrangement, Zhou Yuanlian went to the Caiyu Mountain stronghold under the pretense of traveling.

As for Xu Fu, regardless of his future plans, he will no longer be allowed to stay there and oversee things.

At present, the Zhou family is not a threat to a relative with the Golden Core stage cultivation level; they are not capable of causing any major upheaval.

However, preventing relatives of the empress from seizing excessive power remains a task that needs to be done.

With his Golden Core cultivation, Xu Fu will no longer be subject to any restrictions or limitations within the Zhou family and will be able to do whatever he wants.

However, he will also lose some real power and will no longer be able to rule a region on his own.

This is the rule that Zhou Chun set for the Golden Core stage cultivators who were relatives of his family!

With Xu Fu's arrangements temporarily concluded, Zhou Chun's journey to refine his elixir and form his nascent soul was quickly put on his agenda.

He has been putting things off for years because of these younger generations, and now he can't delay any longer.

Many of the current problems and hidden dangers will no longer be problems after he truly transforms into a nascent soul!

So after having a long talk with Zhou Mingde, giving instructions to his disciple Zhou Zhiying, and spending several months with his Daoist partner Su Yuzhen at the Su family mountain gate, Zhou Chun left the Qinglian Mountains with his five spirit pets.

According to public accounts, he went out this time to seek an opportunity to break through the barrier of the late Golden Core stage.

Only a handful of people truly know the inside story.

More than half a year later, Zhou Chun appeared outside the Jinxia Mountains, a well-known and dangerous place in the cultivation world of the far west.

The Jinxia Mountains are located in the Jiang Kingdom, a cultivation world in the far west, and are a famous dangerous place in this country and even in the surrounding countries.

This mountain range is not very large, but it is extremely dangerous.

Several rich spirit gold veins exist within this mountain, including a large refined gold vein.

However, because a huge colony of "gold-eating ants" inhabits the mountains, the major powers of Jiang Kingdom can only look on with envy and cannot truly invest in its development.

It's not that they were truly helpless against that "gold-eating ant" colony.

In fact, if a Nascent Soul cultivator were willing to stay here and continuously clean up the ant colony, the ant colony would surely be wiped out after several decades.

But what Nascent Soul cultivator would be so bored as to waste decades here?

Although the mineral veins here are quite valuable, they don't hold much appeal for Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

Therefore, even today, the Golden Cloud Mountain Range remains a forbidden area for cultivators. Apart from some low-level cultivators who are not afraid of death and enter the outer perimeter of the mountain range to capture and hunt "Gold-Eating Ants", high-level cultivators will not come here to cause trouble.

But for Zhou Chun, the Jinxia Mountains were clearly a very suitable place for secluded cultivation.

He secluded himself in the mountains to cultivate, so his cultivation level wouldn't fall behind, and he didn't have to worry about being disturbed by other high-level cultivators when he was cultivating the "Purple Flower Demon Subduing Spiritual Light".

As for the "Gold-Eating Ants" clan, which even late-stage Golden Core cultivators fear, Zhou Chun happens to possess the means to subdue them.

After pausing briefly at the outer edge of the mountain range, he transformed into a golden streak of light and flew directly into the depths of the mountain range.

Even after venturing less than two hundred miles into the mountains, Zhou Chun saw a large patch of golden insect clouds appear in the sky ahead of him.

This golden cloud of insects stretched for miles, and in the middle were only some pale golden flying ants the size of a fingernail.

The "Gold-eating Ant" is not a strange insect, but it has a very sharp set of teeth and is born to feed on metal ores.

The magical artifacts and treasures of cultivators easily become food in their presence.

However, these demonic insects have bodies as hard as iron, comparable to magical artifacts of the same level, making it extremely difficult to kill them with magic or supernatural powers.

More importantly, when they gather in swarms, they also possess a group damage transfer talent, allowing countless demonic insects to share the damage from large-scale magical attacks.

Thanks to this special ability and their massive population, most Golden Core cultivators have no choice but to flee when they encounter them.

Fortunately, these demonic insects can only inhabit the vicinity of large spirit gold mines. Once the mine is devoured and depleted by them, they can migrate to other mines in time. If they cannot migrate in time, they will starve to death because they cannot eat spirit gold ore!

Therefore, apart from being extremely destructive to spirit gold mines, these demonic insects do not pose a significant threat to the cultivation world.

Seeing the swarm of "Gold-Eating Ants" rushing towards him, Zhou Chun immediately landed on the ground below and then patted the spirit beast pouch at his waist to release the Golden Armor Mountain-Carrying Turtle Stone.

At this moment, the "Gold-Eating Ants" had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation, nor did they take the enormous Golden Armor Mountain-Carrying Tortoise seriously. They swarmed down towards the ground with the force of Mount Tai pressing down.

But as a hazy aura of light spread from the golden-armored mountain-carrying tortoise stone, the "gold-devouring ants" began to fall to the ground like raindrops, and tens of thousands of them died before they even made contact!

Although these demonic insects were of low intelligence and had no idea what death was, their instinct for survival still made them temporarily stop their swooping behavior.

Under Zhou Chun's command, the Golden Armor Mountain-Carrying Turtle Stone did not move at all, but simply surrounded itself with the [Primordial Magnetic Divine Light].

After a brief stalemate, the ant colony in the sky seemed to receive some signal and launched another desperate charge.

The result was that, apart from dropping tens of thousands of dead flying ants again, nothing changed, and they couldn't even touch that hazy gray aura!

The ant colony seemed completely frightened and quickly left the area.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun happily picked up all the dead flying ants on the ground.

The corpses of these "gold-eating ants" have an extremely high gold content. When smelted with real fire, they can produce a special kind of "ant gold".

This "ant gold" has a special effect: it acts as a harmonizing agent to blend other spirit golds of different attributes, allowing them to combine and bring out their respective characteristics. Refiners highly value this material.

Next, Zhou Chun rode on a tortoise, and wherever he went, ants retreated.

The Golden Cloud Mountain Range, which was extremely dangerous in the eyes of the cultivators of the Jiang Kingdom, was like his own backyard, which he could stroll around at will.

He eventually chose a valley in the mountains with abundant spiritual and metallic energy as his place of refuge, and thus began his life of seclusion and cultivation.

In the days that followed, Zhou Chun would collect the purple energy of the rising sun every morning to condense it, and then collect the essence of the moonlight at night to merge with the purple energy of the rising sun.

Because all of this takes place in the highest heavens, it is not affected by weather changes at all.

Even the fierce winds in the sky are blocked by his spirit pets in turn, so as not to disturb his gathering of the essence of the sun and moon.

The "Gold-Eating Ants" swarm seemed to tacitly accept Zhou Chun's dominance over the area near the valley, and dared not easily venture into the area covered by the aura of the Golden Armor Mountain Tortoise.