Chapter 67, Dire News 

Translator: Raznick

 

Because Liu Shiyun left, the Spirit Beast Pavilion only had Zhou Jiasheng as the shop manager and Zhou Chun as the apprentice again. Zhou Chun could no longer slack off as he used to. 

 

However, since their business had been heavily poached by the rival establishment recently, there wasn’t much for him to do anyway.

 

This situation left him unsure whether to laugh or cry.

 

[Ah well, perhaps I should just wander around and take a look. If we can’t find a way to bring back some customers, it might come to the point where even my position as an apprentice wouldn’t be necessary!]

 

Thinking about Uncle Zhou Jiasheng’s gloomy expression every day, Zhou Chun felt he had no choice but to do something.

 

After all, many stores in this market didn’t even have an apprentice—they were run solely by the shop manager.

 

If the Spirit Beast Pavilion was to fall into that kind of situation, it would truly be a disappointment to Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi’s expectations.

 

From then on, Zhou Chun frequently went out to investigate market demand and look for new business opportunities. He even sneaked into the rival establishment, the Spirit Beast Edifice, several times to gather information.

 

But opportunities like that weren’t easy to come by, especially when it came to products that couldn’t be easily imitated. Over the past month, Zhou Chun had interacted with more than six hundred cultivators but still hadn’t found a viable solution.

 

Meanwhile, the Green Lotus Monastery’s recruitment had reached its conclusion. Among the three representatives sent by the Zhou Clan, only Zhou Zhengchen, a thirteen-year-old prodigy, managed to join the sect. Surprisingly, Liu Shiyun, whom Zhou Chun had initially not held in high regard, also succeeded in gaining admission into Green Lotus Monastery.

 

Zhou Chun was astonished but quickly informed Liu Qingshan, who was laboring away at the market.

 

Not surprisingly, Liu Qingshan, was overwhelmed. He tightly gripped Zhou Chun’s hand and repeatedly expressed his gratitude: “Thank you so much, Fellow Daoist Zhou! I can’t thank you enough! Once my daughter returns home after her training, I will surely throw a feast at the Celestial Immortal Inn to repay your kindness!”

 

The Celestial Immortal Inn was the finest restaurant in Red Cliff Market, where every dish and wine was prepared with ingredients infused with Qi. Such establishments were far beyond the budget of ordinary Qi Refining cultivators. Even the most basic banquet there would cost at least a hundred spirit coins. For someone like Liu Qingshan—a rogue cultivator—it wasn’t uncommon to go an entire year without earning that much.

 

It went without saying how grateful he was to Zhou Chun at this point. However, Zhou Chun’s mind was preoccupied with ideas on boosting the Spirit Beast Pavilion’s revenue, so he merely exchanged a few polite remarks and returned to the shop. Little did Zhou Chun realize that before he could even come up with a plan to increase Spirit Beast Pavilion’s business, a piece of tragic news reached them from the Zhou Clan.

 

It turned out that High Elder Zhou Mingshan had exhausted his lifespan and passed away peacefully in cultivation!

 

With only four Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Zhou Clan, the passing of High Elder Zhou Mingshan would have an enormous impact on the clan. Particularly, the various pills produced by the Zhou Clan were mostly crafted by this High Elder’s hand—accounting for eighty percent of their production.

 

“When it rains, it pours. Misfortunes loves company!”

 

Inside the Spirit Beast Pavilion, both Zhou Chun and Jiasheng bore grim expressions, overwhelmed with gloom. They could foresee that the clan’s supply of Beast Spirit Pill and other pills to the shop would decrease in the future. This would have an even greater impact on the shop’s revenue than the recent drop in customer numbers.

 

If the rival Spirit Beast Edifice were to publicize this matter again, the consequences would be even more unpredictable.

 

In the store, Zhou Chun sat idly for quite some time before thinking about going out for fresh air. Just as that thought crossed her mind, someone arrived at the store.

 

“Welcome esteemed guest, may I ask…”

 

Zhou Chun heard the footsteps and instinctively wanted to put on a welcoming smile, but then she saw who it was and paused.

 

He nodded slightly instead: “Oh, it’s you, Fellow Daoist Luo. Are you here again to deliver demon beast meat for me today?”

 

The person who entered the store was an elderly man in his fifties with a pockmarked face.

 

This pockmarked old man was named Luo Guangshun, at the Eight Layer of Qi Refining Stage, one of the suppliers who specialized in providing demon beast meat to Zhou Chun every month.

 

As a rogue cultivator and having spent decades navigating the cultivation world, regardless of other aspects, his ability to read people’s expressions was certainly not lacking.

 

At this moment, he noticed that Zhou Jiasheng at the counter behind the desk had an unusual expression on his face. He also saw that Zhou Chun, who usually greeted him with a smile, had no trace of a smile on her face today. This made him realize that he had come at an inappropriate time.

 

But since he was already here, he could only said, “Yes. Would Fellow Daoist Zhou be willing to chat?”

 

Zhou Chun glanced at Zhou Jiasheng. After noticing that Zhou Jiasheng made no indication, he nodded slightly and said softly, “Let’s go.”

 

Leading the way to the back of the store, which was off-limits to ordinary customers, Luo Guangshun, without needing Zhou Chun to ask, casually slapped his waist storage bag. From it, he produced a sealed hardwood box and opened it in front of Zhou Chun.

 

Inside the box were three silver-black fish of varying lengths, from five to seven feet. To keep them fresh, there was broken ice scattered among them.

 

“What kind of demon beast is this?”

 

Zhou Chun peered into the box, his eyes filled with curiosity and suspicion. He reached in to pick up one of the fish for a closer look.

 

The fish resembled catfish, with sharp teeth, no scales on their bodies, and skin as tough as rubber. Some areas still had traces of mucus that hadn’t been washed off. Its pectoral fins and dorsal fins were lined with sawtoothed spines.

 

“Fellow Daoist Zhou, be careful! The mucus is poisonous; touching it causes numbness and pain in the limbs,” Luo Guangshun cautioned promptly, seeing Zhou Chun’s interest in the fish’s mucus.

 

“Oh!”

 

Zhou Chun immediately withdrew his hand and thoughtfully returned the strange fish to the wooden box. He then looked at Luo Guangshun and asked, “Do you recognize this strange fish, Fellow Daoist Luo?”

 

Upon hearing this, Luo Guangshun wore a bitter smile and sighed, “It seems even Fellow Daoist Zhou doesn’t recognize what kind of demon beast this is!”

 

He shook his head and said, “If Fellow Daoist Zhou, who specializes in beast-taming arts, doesn’t know, how could I?”

 

Without waiting for Zhou Chun to ask further, he continued, “I caught this strange fish in a deep mountain lake. It naturally possesses water arrow and water projectile among other water mystic arts, with considerable combat ability in water. I had to put in great effort to capture just these three!”

 

After explaining the basics of the strange fish, Luo Guangshun looked at Zhou Chun with an expectant expression and said, “Fellow Daoist Zhou, you’re an honest man. In your opinion, what should be the value of this?”

 

Zhou Chun immediately understood his hidden motives upon hearing this. He waved his hands repeatedly and said, “No need for Fellow Daoist Luo to flatter me. I have less cultivation experience than you. Facing an unknown demon beast like this, I dare not speak ill of it.

 

“Speaking of which, I only deal in demon beast meat transactions with Fellow Daoist Luo. So whether you gives me the complete bodies or just pieces, I can only conduct the transaction at the previously agreed price!” Zhou Chun said directly, staring at the other person.

 

He had the money, but he wasn’t stupid.

 

Perhaps these unknown fish-like demon beasts could yield some special utility value. But that was beyond his current capability and something that couldn’t be achieved overnight.

 

Why would he offer a higher price to Luo Guangshun for these demon beast corpses just because of this uncertainty?

 

Seeing that Zhou Chun wasn’t buying his story, Luo Guangshun’s hopes sank further. He sighed in resignation and said, “Alright, then I’ll leave two of these strange fish corpses to Fellow Daoist Zhou. The remaining one I’ll take to the Spirit Beast Edifice to see if they’re willing to offer a good price for it.”

 

With that, he sold the two larger fish to Zhou Chun for four spirit coins and left with the smaller one.

 

Once Luo Guangshun was gone, Zhou Chun pondered for a moment before sealing one of the fish corpses in ice and storing it away. He then scraped off the remaining mucus from the other fish, saving it in a vial along with some strips of skin.

 

After that, he cut off a suitable-sized piece of meat, purified it with Spiritual Water to remove any Savage Qi, and cooked it in various ways—fried, stir-fried, boiled, and deep-fried—all for tasting purposes.

 

In the end, the taste test showed that this strange fish’s meat lacked any unique flavor, not even matching many ordinary fish meats. It only had a slight edge over them in terms of Qi.

 

This result completely extinguished Zhou Chun’s interest in the remaining fish meat. He chopped it all into chunks and fed it to Silver Thunder Python Whitey as food.

 

Whitey was already over a year old, and its cultivation was about to advance.

 

This was still in the absence of Zhou Chun feeding it any Beast Spirit Pills.

 

From what could be seen, even a wild Silver Thunder Python left to its own devices would likely become a superior first-grade demon beast within ten years.

 

It could only be said that the average demon beast bloodline was truly powerful!