Chapter 22, The Elders of the Zhou Clan

Translator: Raznick

 

On Ganoderma Peak, as Zhou Chun observed the younglings in the herb garden, he reflected on his family’s lack of certain resources.

 

A young man dressed in dark gray robes suddenly emerged from the front hall.

 

The young man was slightly shorter than Zhou Chun, standing at about 1.78 meters. Likely due to spending long hours by the forge, his skin was darker and redder, reminiscent of a blacksmith from the mortal world.

 

He emerged from the hall, smiling and waving to Zhou Chun, saying, “Thirteenth Brother, my Master knows why you’re here. Come with me to pay him your respects.”

 

Zhou Chun, upon hearing this, immediately clasped his hands in thanks and said, “Thank you, Sixth Brother.”

 

The young man in question was Zhou Zhengyuan, also a member of the “Zheng” generation from Zhou Clan, ranked sixth among his siblings. He had been training under Zhou Mingshan, the senior elder of the Zhou Clan, learning alchemy for eight years now.

 

Despite his plain appearance, he actually held a high status within the clan, comparable to some of their core members.

 

Zhou Chun followed Zhou Zhengyuan into the hall and quickly arrived at another hall where he met Zhou Mingshan, the High Elder.

 

Though Zhou Mingshan had not much time left, he appeared to be an ancient man with snow-white hair streaked with gray and deep wrinkles etched into his face, radiating an aura of old age.

 

After Zhou Chun entered and completed his formal greetings, the elder merely gave a brief glance at this young subordinate before speaking in a mild tone: “Since it was Clan Leader who sent you to fetch the medicine, I naturally will obey Clan Leader’s instructions.”

 

After speaking, he turned to the other, who was attending beside him, “Zhou Zhengyuan, go get the vials for him.”

 

“Understood.”

 

Zhou Zhengyuan responded with a single word, and immediately went to the back storeroom where the pills were kept, bringing out a vial of Spring Sun Pills and three vials of Beast Spirit Pills, which he handed to Zhou Chun.

 

Once Zhou Chun had them and after he’d personally inspected and found it in order, Zhou Mingshan then gestured dismissively, indicating that Zhou Chun was free to leave.

 

Zhou Chun, however, seemed oblivious to his subtle gesture. After putting the vials away, he bowed once more and said, “Esteemed Senior, if I may, I have another spiritual item here that I would like you to appraise for me.”

 

Upon hearing Zhou Chun’s words, Zhou Mingshan couldn’t help but twitch his eyebrows. Though he didn’t refuse outright, he merely glanced up at Zhou Chun and spoke in a bland tone: “Oh? What kind of spiritual treasure is it? Let this old man have a look.”

 

“It is a centennial Ginseng I obtained from the body of a bandit cultivator.”

 

Zhou Chun said, and then took out the wild ginseng he had purchased at the Red Cliff Market.

 

He had always been thinking of going to a market once he got another chance, to dispose of this item.

 

The experience of their journey to Wolf Ridge made Zhou Chun realize that he should hurry up and improve his cultivation.

 

The cultivation world was fraught with danger; low cultivation and weak abilities mean that venturing out could lead to certain death.

 

Anything that could be used to cash in the rewards quickly should be utilized as soon as possible to enhance one’s strength.

 

After Zhou Mingshan received the wild ginseng passed to him by Zhou Zhengyuan, he briefly examined it before nodding slightly and saying, “The quality is decent. It looks like it’s over a hundred and thirty years old, making it perfect for crafting a Spring Yang Pill as the main ingredient.”

 

“Just over a hundred and thirty years old?”

 

Zhou Chun felt a sudden pang of disappointment.

 

He wouldn’t doubt Zhou Mingshan’s judgment, so it must have been that old seller back then who inflated the age of the herb.

 

But this was just a common situation in the cultivation world. When buying things at the markets, how the sellers boasted about their products didn’t matter, as long as it got sold

 

If you didn’t have a sharp eye for spotting quality items, you could end up losing everything in the market.

 

At least the ginseng wasn’t fake, though its effects were not as strong as the seller had claimed. Upon calculation, he still made a profit.

 

The brief moment of disappointment had passed, and he quickly roused his spirits to gaze at Zhou Mingshan and said, “I wish to offer this item to the clan. Would Elder care to use pills to exchange for it?”

 

Zhou Mingshan pondered briefly upon hearing this, before nodding slightly and saying, “A century-old ginseng should be currently valued at around sixty spirit coins. As for the Spring Sun Pill, each one is worth twenty spirit coins. If we were to make an exchange, I could offer you three Spring Sun Pills in return.”

 

However, he did not inquire further about how Zhou Chun had obtained the wild ginseng.

 

Had Zhou Chun not already thought of several reasons beforehand, he now found himself both annoyed and delighted.

 

“I thank you in advance, Elder.”

 

Zhou Chun bowed, and immediately consented.

 

Soon after, Zhou Chun bade farewell to the master-disciple pair, and retreated back to the top of Ganoderma Peak.

 

Upon returning to his quarters, Zhou Chun immediately took out the pills he had brought.

 

There were five Spring Sun Pills in the original vial. He traded some wildling ginseng for three more, making it eight.

 

Each bottle of Beast Spirit Pills contained ten, so three bottles would be thirty pills.

 

Zhou Chun had also fed the Rock Turtle with Beast Spirit Pills before and knew exactly how to administer them to achieve maximum effect.

 

At this point, he fed Rock Turtle three Beast Spirit Pills at once and instructed it to do its Turtle Breathing, where it gradually began to process the effects of the medicine.

 

He walked into the cultivation chamber and took out a Spring Sun Pill, swallowing it down.

 

Immediately, a faint honey-sweet flavor and herbal aroma filled his mouth.

 

Zhou Chun swallowed the pill with some effort, then quietly began to practice Elemental Dawn cultivation method, relying on the pill’s power to further his cultivation.

 

This cultivation, however, brought about entirely different sensations compared to the usual.

 

When cultivating by absorbing Nature Qi, that primal energy seemed as insubstantial as cotton candy—abundant in appearance but, once refined into spiritual energy for cultivation, incredibly scarce.

 

However, the potent power contained within the Spring Sun Pill was as dense as liquid mercury, of exceptional quality, and extremely easy to absorb and refine.

 

In the days that followed, it took Zhou Chun roughly three days to fully absorb and process the effects of the Spring Sun Pill.

 

And it was precisely this one pill that saved him two or three months of cultivation time, helping him break through a crucial acupuncture point.

 

The powerful effect of the medicine caused Zhou Chun to be both surprised and delighted.

 

He seemed to have found a shortcut to rapidly advance!

 

“It makes sense why among these four major proffessions—alchemy, artifacts, talismans, and arrays—alchemy is ranked first.

 

“If one doesn’t consider the special nature of the Purification Array, for cultivators, the role of alchemy is indeed much more important than artifacts, talismans, or other types of arrays.”

 

Zhou Chun couldn’t help but feel deeply moved, recognizing the crucial role of alchemy.

 

However, as good as alchemy may be, one shouldn’t abuse it.

 

The saying goes that every medicine has three parts poison. While alchemy can save cultivators a lot of time when cultivating, even the most skilled alchemist couldn’t completely remove all impurities from the pills.

 

Ordinary cultivators, even if they were like Zhou Chun and obtained several pills at once, would not dare to take them consecutively in a short period of time for fear that the toxins from the pills would accumulate and inflict irreversible damage on their bodies.

 

According to the experiments of senior cultivators, Spring Sun Pill was suitable for cultivators in the mid and late Qi Refinement Stage. For those in the middle period, taking one every one or two months would not result in any harm from the medicine’s toxicity.

 

So, even though Zhou Chun still had seven Spring Sun Pills in his possession, he refrained from taking any more.

 

In contrast, demon beasts and spirit pets exercised little caution in this regard, likely due to their robust builds and following the path of bloodline evolution, which gave them self-toxin removal capabilities far surpassing cultivators.

 

Several days later, after Zhou Chun had some free time, he decided to head back to Flying Stone Peak.

 

This time when Zhou Chun arrived at Flying Stone Peak, it wasn’t to spend his day in the library reading as usual. Instead, he had come specifically to pay a visit to Third Elder Zhou Daoquan.

 

The three Zhou Clan Elders each had their unique skills.

 

High Elder Zhou Mingshan was highly skilled in refining elixirs, with much of the Zhou Clan’s pills crafted by his hand.

 

Second Elder Zhou Chongshan was highly skilled in arrays, having trained under a Violet Palace Stage cultivator from the renowned You Clan of the Jing Kingdom. He himself had designed and erected both the formidable Zhou Clan’s protection array and the Purification Array.

 

Third Elder Zhou Daoquan inherited the beast-taming techniques of the clan and achieved such mastery in this art that he rivaled even Grand Elder Zhou Mingde, boasting the training of two second-grade spirit pets.

 

As for Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi, he was said to possess a formidable skill in creating talismans as well. Moreover, in the art of beast-taming, his accomplishments were only slightly behind those of Third Elder Zhou Daoquan.

 

This time, Zhou Chun came to Flying Stone Peak to pay his respects to Elder Zhou Daoquan, seeking the beast tamers’ expert opinion on the mysterious snake egg he had acquired from the Mu clan.

 

“Oh, there’s actually such an item? Please take out that snake egg for me to see.”

 

On Flying Stone Peak, upon receiving Zhou Chun and hearing his intentions, Zhou Daoquan was visibly surprised. He immediately asked him to produce the snake egg.

 

“Here, Elder.”

 

Zhou Chun reached out and tapped his storage bag, bringing out the jade box containing the snake egg. He then presented it with both hands to Zhou Daoquan.

 

He took the snake egg in his hand. First, he closed his eyes and used his Divine Sense to probe it. Then, he gestured with his hands, employing arts that Zhou Chun found familiar and unfamiliar with to test and evaluate the egg.

 

“That’s strange. That’s the first time I’ve ever come across such a bizarre phenomenon.”

 

With his brows furrowed as he gazed at the serpent’s egg in his hand, Zhou Daoquan pondered for a moment before turning to Zhou Chun and saying, “This egg is indeed of great value. If you agree, I would be grateful if you could keep it here with me so that I may conduct some research on it.

 

“If I can research a way to hatch it, when the time comes, I will naturally let you come to contract and subdue it.

 

“If, because of my research, it were to sustain damage, I would compensate you with five hundred spirit coins. How does that sound to you?”

 

It was such a good thing that Zhuo Chun naturally couldn’t refuse.

 

“Elder, feel free to to do it. As a junior, I have no objections at all.”

 

Zhou Daoquan was satisfied with this answer as well. He nodded immediately and said, “Mm-hmm, you can dismiss yourself for now. Once there’s a change, I’ll inform you.”

 

“I’ll take my leave.”

 

Zhou Chun performed a salute and promptly left Flying Stone Peak.