Chapter 153, Breakthrough Period and Monkey King Gives Birth

Translator: Raznick

 

Mist Province’s southeastern region held Green Mist Pond.

 

At this moment, the ten bandit cultivators seized from outside Red Cliff Market, along with the three ordinary individuals harboring spirit root potential procured through rogue cultivator channels, were all transported to a small island deep within Green Mist Pond.

 

The island’s location was isolated, devoid of resources, and rarely visited by cultivators.

 

Even if cultivators did venture here, those not from the Foundation Establishment would be driven away by the island’s Wood Spirit Apes.

 

One day, Zhou Clan’s Grand Elder, Zhou Mingde, quietly departed Nine Peaks and arrived at this island under the cover of darkness.

 

He first scanned the captured bandit cultivators with his Divine Sense.

 

These bandit cultivators had been drugged into a stupor and were under constant surveillance by Wood Spirit Apes, completely unaware of their location.

 

The other three ordinary individuals who dared to dream of cultivation were housed within a mountain cave, forbidden to leave.

 

The Zhou Clan hadn’t deceived these individuals; they’d made it clear that pursuing cultivation meant traveling far away, with little chance of returning to see their families.

 

Having willingly embarked on this path, these individuals could not blame the Zhou Clan for any hardship they faced at the Dragonized Sect.

 

After briefly communicating with the Wood Spirit Apes, Zhou Mingde concealed himself, awaiting the arrival of personnel from the Dragonized Sect.

 

After nearly half a day, a giant black turtle suddenly surfaced from the lake water outside the island, and a middle-aged woman in a red robe stood on its back.

 

Such a movement naturally did not escape the notice of Zhou Mingde on the island.

 

When he realized the woman in red wasn’t Lin Hongyu but a late Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Dragonized Sect serving as an envoy, he breathed a sigh of relief.

 

Truthfully, outside the Zhou Clan, he’d been rather apprehensive about meeting someone as formidable as Lin Hongyu alone.

 

Fortunately, Lin Hongyu had been reasonably trustworthy, choosing not to appear in person herself.

 

Immediately, he cast an art to obscure his features and presented himself before the woman.

 

“I am Lin Yan. Greetings, Senior.”

 

Upon seeing Zhou Mingde emerge, the woman in red, who had been hunched upon a giant tortoise, quickly bowed in respect.

 

“Oh? You also have the surname Lin. Could it be you’re from the same clan as Fellow Daoist Lin?”

 

Zhou Mingde’s gaze scrutinized the woman in red, his voice low and measured.

 

Upon hearing this, the woman in red quickly shook her head in denial, “No, Senior is mistaken. I merely share a surname with Guardian.”

 

“I see.”

 

Zhou Mingde nodded, not dwelling on the matter.

 

He immediately looked at the other person and said, “Fellow Daoist Lin should have already explained everything to you, right? Do you have the items?”

 

“Yes, Guardian has already explained everything to me, and I have brought the items to be exchanged.”

 

The beautiful woman in red spoke, then proactively patted her waist, drawing out three jade boxes and presenting them to Zhou Mingde.

 

Seeing this, Zhou Mingde was exceptionally cautious, using his spiritual power to open the jade box from a distance, avoiding direct contact.

 

The opened jade box revealed a total of three different rare treasures.

 

Inside one jade box was a dark crimson Blood Ginseng of exceptional quality.

 

Inside another jade box was a piece of crimson jade, three fingers wide and half a foot long.

 

Inside the last jade box was a reddish-brown egg.

 

“A Blood Ginseng over three hundred years old, a Scarlet Dragon Jade, and the last egg is an egg of a dragonic demon beast, a Flaming Dragonic Python.”

 

As Zhou Mingde examined the treasures within the jade box, the woman in red, Lin Yan, had already introduced the origins of the three items for him.

 

Undoubtedly, these three items all belonged to the special spiritual items of the Dragonized Sect.

 

As a force possibly guarded by a fifth-order Flood Dragon, the Dragonized Sect was not lacking in these dragon blood items.

 

Lin Hongyu, as Guardian of the Dragonized Sect, might find it difficult to obtain the greater dragon blood items, but obtaining some lesser dragon blood items would certainly be easier.

 

After all, the Dragonized Sutra of the Dragonized Sect required various dragon blood items to support the cultivation process.

 

But Zhou Mingde merely nodded slightly and said, “The items are passable, but next time I hope to exchange them for things that our Zhou Clan needs more. Here is a list; pass it to Fellow Daoist Lin after you return.”

 

“Yes, I will definitely bring the senior’s words and items.”

 

The woman in red respectfully responded and put the jade slip that Zhou Mingde gave her into her storage bag.

 

Zhou Mingde at this time also shook his sleeves and closed the lids of the three jade boxes and put them into his storage bag.

 

Then he pointed in a certain direction and said, “The persons are in there; take them away yourself. I will leave now.”

 

He spoke, then soared into the air, returning to the Zhou Clan.

 

Upon seeing him depart so abruptly, a flicker of surprise and doubt crossed the eyes of the crimson-clad woman, Lin Yan.

 

She swiftly headed in the direction Zhou Mingde had indicated.

 

It wasn’t until she discovered ten unconscious rogue cultivators within, along with three ordinary mortals imprisoned in the cave, that she breathed a sigh of relief.

 

A short while later, the ten bandit cultivators and the three mortals were all transported onto the black giant turtle’s back by the crimson-clad woman.

 

Then, as if she materialized from nowhere, she steered the giant turtle and submerged beneath the water, leaving through the depths.

 

Returning to the clan, Zhou Mingde also summoned Zhou Chun to his cave to discuss the details of the transaction.

 

“At present, the other party seems to be trustworthy; we can continue as planned.

 

“However, for the safety of the clan, Daoyi, you must redouble your efforts; now, everything rests on you.”

 

His gaze lingered intensely on Zhou Daoyi as he said this.

 

“Grand Elder, rest assured, I am acutely aware of the immense responsibility on my shoulders, and I dare not slacken even for a moment.”

 

Zhou Daoyi nodded emphatically, his voice deep and resolute. “If all goes well, within three to five years, I should be able to achieve a breakthrough!”

 

“Excellent! Then we’re going to play along for a few more years.”

 

Zhou Mingde gave a satisfied nod, then reached out and slapped his waist, retrieving three jade boxes from his storage bag.

 

“These three things are useless to me; you take them and dispose of them carefully. Be careful not to leak any news because of them.”

 

He handed the items to Zhou Daoyi.

 

“Yes, we’ll take care of it, Grand Elder, rest assured.”

 

Zhou Daoyi acknowledged and accepted the items.

 

The two of them stayed in Zhou Mingde’s cave for a while before returning to the Central Palace.

 

“This three-hundred-year-old dragon blood ginseng came at just the right time. Zhengchun, you put it away; when your Silver Thunder Python accumulates enough, it will be just right to use it to advance to second-grade.

 

“As for this egg of the Flaming Dragonic Python, let the elders see who is willing to nurture it. Although it is a lesser demon beast, with subsequent use of dragon blood items, the probability of advancing to second-grade is still not small.

 

“This dragon blood jade—our clan does not have a refiner who can bring out its usefulness, so we’ll put it away for now and see if we can use it to exchange something needed later.”

 

Inside the Central Palace, after Zhou Daoyi and Zhou Chun returned, they immediately arranged for the disposition of the three treasures obtained through the transaction.

 

These things of questionable origin are certainly best known by as few people as possible.

 

It was therefore impossible to release them for ordinary clan members to exchange and use.

 

And for those in the clan leadership, like Zhou Chun, they have an excess of merits that they couldn’t use up anyway, so using them to exchange for these items was just right.

 

Therefore, Zhou Chun didn’t decline at all and graciously accepted the dragon blood items and ginseng, and according to Zhou Daoyi’s instructions, notified several elders to come and discuss the disposition of the Flaming Dragonic Python egg.

 

After a discussion, the Flaming Dragonic Python egg was still taken into the care of Fourth Elder Zhou Jiarui.

 

After the items exchanged were disposed of in this way, everything in the Zhou Clan returned to its former calm.

 

At this time, learning that Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi would be able to successfully break through to late Foundation Establishment in three to five years, Zhou Chun also began preparing for the matter of changing cultivation method.

 

Through his continuous and self-funded release of metal Qi collection tasks, the amount of metal Qi collected is already quite a bit.

 

Therefore, he could boldly use a portion of the metal Qi as a consumable for simulation attempts.

 

Just like the process when he first cultivated the Hard Gold Sword Energy secret art, those who cultivated the Golden Cauldron Mystic Art must first allow the entire body’s meridian to be able to withstand the invasion of metal Qi.

 

As long as the final step of casting a cauldron was not performed, this behavior of absorbing metal Qi would at most slightly injure the meridians, and there would be no danger to life.

 

Within the quiet chamber, Zhou Chun sat cross-legged, then raised his hand to flip open the lid of the storage artifact for metal Qi, and with a slight manipulation of his fingers, he drew it out.

 

Instantly, an invisible stream of metal Qi was drawn out by him, directly entering his body through his nostrils and going into his lungs.

 

Among the five organs, the lungs belong to metal; therefore, spreading the metal Qi through the meridian located in the lungs to spread throughout the body was the most suitable.

 

But metal Qi was ultimately a destructive external malignant qi. Even though Zhou Chun’s meridian had been strengthened considerably after Foundation Establishment, this sudden invasion of a large amount of metal Qi also made him sweat on his forehead and clench his teeth in pain.

 

Fortunately, he had experienced this before, and although the pain was immense at this time, he did not panic but focused on using his mind to stimulate spiritual power to promote the slow circulation of metal Qi within his body, preventing it from randomly surging into important areas like the heart meridian.

 

After waiting in the quiet chamber for half a day like this, Zhou Chun walked out with a pale face and came to the courtyard.

 

Ugh!

 

It was seen that he opened his mouth to vomit, and a large pool of blood appeared on the ground.

 

This was the internal bleeding damage caused when the metal Qi circulated within his body.

 

And after spitting out the stagnant blood-tinged water within his body, Zhou Chun immediately felt much lighter and promptly returned to the room to recuperate.

 

Thus, in the time that followed, Zhou Chun would absorb metal Qi every one or two months to temper his internal meridian, allowing his meridian to adapt to this external malignant energy.

 

On this day, Zhou Chun received good news transmitted by Zhou Zhengyong.

 

A female monkey, frequently favored exclusively by the new monkey king, Blazing Diamond Monkey, had discovered she was pregnant.

 

Upon learning of this, he also attached great importance to the matter and went to Flying Stone Peak.

 

“Currently, based on the signs of pregnancy, it’s difficult to ascertain anything definitive, but according to Zhengyong’s account, there’s a greater than ninety percent certainty that the female monkey is carrying the seed of a Blazing Diamond Monkey.”

 

“I firmly believe that this time, we will be able to propagate this demon beast, the Blazing Diamond Monkey, into a formal population within the Zhou Clan!”

 

On Flying Stone Peak, Zhou Daoquan, facing Zhou Chun, who had come to inquire about the news, stated his judgment with confidence.

 

Clearly, he had never doubted his previous assertions.

 

Seeing this, Zhou Chun also revealed a smile and said, “If Elder says so, I am relieved. Then I will await the good news.”

 

Then he bid farewell to Zhou Daoquan and went to the library.

 

Entering the library, he saw the Diamond Ape studying how to write, following the Wood Spirit Ape.

 

Upon seeing him enter, the Diamond Ape intended to put down his pen and greet him.

 

But the Azure Giant Ape unceremoniously slapped it across the head.

 

For a moment, it whimpered in grievance and could only look away and continue picking up his pen to write.

 

Zhou Chun, witnessing this scene, also revealed a smile and watched from the side.

 

He only glanced up and asked, “How is it? Do you think this old monkey is worthy of cultivation?”

 

Hearing his words, the Azure Giant Ape immediately replied, “It’s certainly a bit slow, and its temperament is difficult to calm, but for guarding the estate, it should be adequate. The rest is up to fate.”

 

Zhou Chun naturally understood the meaning behind fate.

 

He refrained from voicing an opinion on the matter, merely smiling and saying, “Then I’d be relying on you, Ape Elder, to teach it some manners, to avoid it causing me any trouble later on.”

 

“That’s easy enough; just keep the spirit fruit and spirit wine coming, and old ape, I will ensure it’s well-behaved and universally praised.”

 

The Azure Giant Ape patted his chest, making an immediate guarantee.

 

It was said that only by having experienced something would one desire more.

 

Previously, the Azure Giant Ape had been accustomed to plain food and water, utterly content.

 

But since enjoying the spirit fruit and spirit wine that Zhou Chun had purchased from outside with spirit coin, it found those ordinary wild fruits and water bland and tasteless, feeling quite uncomfortable.

 

Now it even understood how to dilute wine with water and savor it slowly.

 

“No problem, I’ll handle this.”

 

Zhou Chun smiled and readily agreed, then communicated with the Diamond Ape briefly before returning to Pagoda Peak.

 

Two months later, good news arrived from the Deer Pen.

 

Ordinary female deer brought in for pairing had already been impregnated by the male Eight Antlers Stag.

 

Although offspring from the combination of this demon beast and wild animals might not all become demon beasts.

 

But as long as two or three out of ten became demon beasts, it would already be a considerable profit.

 

Wild beasts containing demon beast bloodlines possessed a far greater physical strength compared to ordinary beasts, making them excellent mounts as well.

 

The fact that the two clans primarily cultivated demon beasts that both brought good news was undoubtedly a very auspicious sign for a beast-taming clan such as the Zhou Clan.

 

Many of the older generation Zhou Clan cultivators considered it a sign of the clan’s resurgence, genuinely delighted by it.

 

However, the allocation of these newly born demon beasts became a rather troublesome matter for Zhou Chun, this Deputy Clan Leader.

 

Whether it was the Blazing Diamond Monkey or the Eight Antlers Stag, they were ideal contract partners for a Qi Refining cultivator.

 

Even before the beast cubs were born, some Zhou Clan cultivator came to him wanting to place pre-orders.