Beast-controlling fairy clan.

Chapter 535: Two Years in a Hurry [Subscription Request]

Having inherited a master-level alchemy legacy and obtained the fourth-tier pill recipe of [Jade Dew and Golden Cloud Pill], Luo Qingni naturally responded to all of Zhou Chun's requests.

She readily gave Zhou Chun the green light, and at Zhou Chun's request, helped mobilize her connections to collect materials for refining the [Ancient Dust Pill].

At the same time, the two quickly reached an agreement to jointly collect materials to refine the [Jade Dew Golden Cloud Pill].

After everything was settled, Luo Qingni went to refine the [Dragon Transformation Pill] for Zhou Chun first.

Zhou Chun also took the opportunity to rent a cave in the city as a place to live in the future.

Not long after, Luo Qingni came out of seclusion and handed the successfully refined [Dragon Pill] to Zhou Chun.

After getting the elixir, Zhou Chun did not delay and immediately went back to Jingguo in secret, delivered the elixir back to the Zhou family, and handed it to Zhou Daoquan.

As for whether Zhou Daoquan's spiritual pet, the Blood Flame Dragon Python, can successfully evolve into a third-order dragon through this [Dragon Transformation Pill], it all depends on its own luck.

After Zhou Chun returned to the Great Zhou Kingdom, he took the letter of introduction that Luo Qingni had given him and went to the gate of Yuankuimen.

Before this, he felt that he was not strong enough and did not dare to go to the mountain gate of the sect where the "Master Thousand Machines" was, for fear that the other party would harbor malicious intentions to harm him.

Now that his own strength is no less than that of a mid-stage Jindan cultivator, Zhou Chun dares to go and purchase a fourth-order puppet.

Yuankui Sect was once a large sect with Nascent Soul cultivators in charge. However, now there is a shortage of Nascent Soul cultivators within the sect, so the sect has shrunk its influence and has become much more low-key.

However, as one of the few sects that can refine fourth-order puppets, even though the Yuankui Sect has declined now, ordinary people and forces dare not covet them.

After all, no one knows how many fourth-level puppets are hidden inside the gate of Yuankui Sect, let alone whether there are fifth-level puppets equivalent to Nascent Soul cultivators hidden inside!
As a force that started out with puppetry, Yuankui Sect does not recruit just anyone as other sects do when it comes to disciples. Instead, it would rather have no one than have someone who is not qualified, and only recruits those cultivators who are talented in controlling or refining puppets.

Of course, if one has top-grade spiritual roots, Yuankuimen will also consider it.

All in all, the number of disciples in this sect is very small, and the total number of people, big and small, in the sect is less than a thousand!

Fewer people means less overall demand for cultivation resources, so the Yuankui Sect now only guards its own mountain gate to make a living, and only retains a market outside that is controlled by the sect, specializing in selling some mid- and low-level puppet magic tools.

It is worth mentioning that puppet magic tools below the fourth level do not need to use spirit crystals as energy to drive them, but can be driven by a "Spirit Source Pearl" specially refined by the Yuankui Sect.

This "Spirit Source Pearl" itself is an energy storage device. Depending on its grade, it can store one-third of the mana of a cultivator at the corresponding level.

For example, a third-grade top-quality "Spirit Source Pearl" can store one-third of the mana of a late-stage Purple Mansion cultivator.

Once the magic power in the "Spirit Source Pearl" is exhausted, the cultivator needs to recharge it before it can be used again. Moreover, the magic power in the "Spirit Source Pearl" cannot be preserved for a long time and will gradually dissipate over time.

If it were just this, the "Spirit Source Pearl" would still be a great invention.

But the biggest flaw of this energy storage device is that it can only store the magic power of the device's owner.

And because the cultivator's own mana attribute is seriously biased, if a "Spirit Source Pearl" that stores full of gold-attribute mana is used to drive a puppet that is good at fire-attribute means, not only will the efficiency be very low, but it will also cause great damage to the puppet itself.

These kinds of restrictions make it rare for immortal cultivators to use puppets below the fourth rank in the world of immortal cultivation. Only the disciples of the Yuan Puppet Sect will use them as a means of fighting against the enemy.

After Zhou Chun hid his cultivation and came to the market controlled by Yuankui Sect, he bought a few second-level puppet magic tools and matching "Spirit Source Pearls" out of curiosity to study them.

He discovered that although the "Spirit Source Pearl" was also a magic weapon, it actually did not take up much of the cultivator's spiritual awareness when controlling a puppet to fight, let alone magic power.

The spiritual consciousness paid by a cultivator to envoy a second-tier high-grade puppet is roughly equivalent to the envoy's envoy a second-tier high-grade magic weapon and a second-level low-grade magic weapon.

The combat effectiveness of a second-grade top-quality puppet is enough to suppress a cultivator in the middle stage of foundation building without consuming its own mana.

In this way, even an ordinary cultivator in the late Foundation Establishment stage can control two second-grade superior-quality puppets to fight, and at the same time have enough energy to activate a second-grade superior-quality defensive magic weapon to protect himself.

After the mana of the "Spirit Source Pearls" in the two second-grade top-grade puppets is exhausted, you can directly abandon the two puppets and then deal with the enemy in full condition.

"It's a pity that the price is too high. A second-grade high-quality puppet with a 'Spirit Source Pearl' costs almost as much as a third-grade low-quality magic weapon!"

"Except for the disciples of Yuankui Sect, or those wealthy children who have no shortage of money, how many cultivators can equip themselves with two puppets of the same level!"

Zhou Chun shook his head and put several puppets into the storage bag. He would give them to some younger generations of the family as protective gear in the future depending on the situation.

Afterwards, he went to visit Yuankui Mountain not far away, handed over Luo Qingni's letter, and specifically asked to visit the "Master Qianji".

Because Zhou Chun showed his cultivation level of the Jindan stage, the receptionist disciple of Yuankui Sect was very efficient. Soon, a man with the cultivation level of the middle stage of Zifu, who claimed to be a disciple of "Master Qianji", came to greet Zhou Chun.

After following this person to an elegant courtyard deep in Yuankui Gate, Zhou Chun saw the "Master Qianji" he wanted to visit.

This puppet master looked very old, with gray hair and wrinkles all over his face. It seemed that he didn't have much time left, and his cultivation level was only at the middle stage of the Golden Core Stage.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Zhou Chun, he looked directly at Zhou Chun and said, "The puppet remains that Fellow Daoist Luo sent me really inspired me a lot and gave me a lot of insights. Now she wrote in the letter that Fellow Daoist has a more complete puppet remains. I wonder if you can let me take a look at it?"

"of course can."

Zhou Chun nodded, and then took out the basically intact archer warrior puppet from the storage bag.

"They are indeed puppets from the same origin!"

As soon as Master Qianji saw the shape of the archer warrior puppet, his eyes lit up, and he immediately waved his hand to bring the puppet in front of him for a careful inspection.

He was so absorbed in the examination that he seemed to have lost all sense of the passage of time and had forgotten the existence of Zhou Chun, an outsider.

However, Zhou Chun didn't want to disturb him rashly, for fear of upsetting him and ruining his plan to exchange for the fourth-order puppet.

So, after Zhou Chun had waited for most of the day, Master Qianji finally came back to his senses from his state of full concentration and suddenly realized that there was an outsider like him here.

"I'm getting old. It's so easy to forget things. Thank you for waiting for me, Brother Zhou."

He patted his head and apologized to Zhou Chun with an apologetic look. Then he looked at Zhou Chun and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, this puppet is indeed very well preserved and can still be repaired. I wonder what you want to exchange with me for this puppet?"

"Zhou wants to exchange a fourth-level puppet with the master!"

Zhou Chun stated his purpose without hesitation.

Hearing his words, Master Qianji nodded and said, "Well, this request is not excessive. I happen to have a few puppets available for exchange. Fellow Daoist Zhou, please choose one!"

After saying that, he took out three puppets from the storage bag and placed them in front of Zhou Chun for him to choose.

These three puppets, namely the ape puppet, the wolf puppet and the turtle puppet, represent different focuses.

The wolf puppet is better at attacking, the turtle puppet focuses on defense, and the ape puppet is more balanced.

After thinking about it, Zhou Chun chose the ape puppet.

He came to exchange for the fourth-level puppet, not for himself, but to strengthen the Zhou family's foundation.

Compared with the other two puppets with serious biases, the ape puppet undoubtedly better meets his requirements.

"Since Fellow Daoist Zhou has made his choice, this puppet is yours. If the puppet is damaged and needs repair in the future, you can contact us. We will charge a fee based on the difficulty of the repair."

Master Qianji said this as he put away the other two puppets.

"Zhou understands. Thank you for your help, Master."

Zhou Chun's face lit up with joy, and he immediately bowed to express his gratitude, then put the ape puppet away.

He didn't expect that things would go so smoothly.

This master of thousands of machines didn't seem to care where he got the bow and arrow warrior puppets, or that he followed the rules of the world of cultivating immortals very much, but asked about the origin of these items.

After achieving his goal, Zhou Chun did not stay in Yuankuimen for long and soon said goodbye and left.

When returning to Tianyuan Fairy City, Zhou Chun was still very cautious, worried that Master Qianji might be deliberately paralyzing him and secretly trying to kill him.

But it turned out that he seemed to have overthought it. His journey back was very smooth and he did not encounter any trouble.

This made him sigh that there are still normal people in the world of immortal cultivation!

After returning to Tianyuan Fairy City, Zhou Chun devoted all his efforts to collecting the spiritual medicines needed to refine the [Ancient Dust Pill].

Zhang Liang had been operating in Tianyuan Immortal City for dozens or even hundreds of years, and had made the acquaintance of quite a few cultivators.

Zhou Chun also spread the news at this time, and even went to the "Tianyuan Palace" to post tasks to collect spiritual medicines. Soon many Purple Mansion cultivators and Golden Core Stage cultivators in the city knew that he was collecting certain spiritual medicines at high prices.

Doing so would certainly allow those who possess the relevant spiritual medicines to take advantage of the opportunity to raise the price, but it would indeed be able to raise the relevant spiritual medicines for Zhou Chun faster.

Anyway, he is not short of spiritual coins now, and he has stockpiled a lot of ordinary thousand-year-old spiritual medicines, so he can accept the transaction even at a premium.

Now Zhou Chun has only one idea, which is to upgrade a spirit pet to the fourth level as soon as possible!

Facts have proved that as long as Jindan stage cultivators are willing to spend the money, most thousand-year-old elixirs can be obtained, except for some rare and precious magic weapons and spiritual materials that are difficult to obtain in a short period of time.

Zhou Chun paid a premium to purchase the materials at a price that was 30% to 50% higher than the normal price. Together with the spiritual medicines he already had, he was able to collect enough materials for two furnaces of [Ancient Dust Pills] in just two years.

At this time, Luo Qingni was still practicing and studying the alchemy inheritance given to her by Zhou Chun. She would only open the furnace to make elixirs a few times after a period of time.

After Zhou Chun collected all the materials, she immediately helped Zhou Chun refine the [Ancient Dust Pill] without saying a word. Perhaps because she had practiced twice more, or perhaps because her alchemy skills had improved, Luo Qingni refined two furnaces of [Ancient Dust Pill] this time, and a total of fourteen pills were produced.

After obtaining these fourteen [Ancient Dust Pills], Zhou Chun immediately made a distribution.

Lei Jiao got six elixirs for free, Shitou, the golden-armored mountain turtle, got six elixirs, and the remaining two were given to the golden-winged tiger.

According to his distribution arrangement, after the three spirit pets have swallowed all the elixirs, Lei Jiao Baibai will definitely be able to break through to the third-rank upper-grade monster. Because Shitou, the golden-armored mountain turtle, had also swallowed a silver-horned rhino monster pill before, he will also definitely be able to break through to the third-rank upper-grade monster.

The reason why Zhou Chun did not give all the [Ancient Dust Pills] to one monster was, firstly, that he did not want to be too partial, and secondly, because if too much of this kind of pill was taken in succession, drug resistance would also occur.

And in the future he will continue to collect spiritual herbs for refining [Ancient Dust Pill]. If he is willing to spend money, it should not be a problem to gather the materials for a furnace of pills in five or six years.

Just when Zhou Chun was expecting several spirit pets to break through, Zhou Daoyi followed Lin Hongyu to Tianyuan Fairy City.

It turned out that Lin Hongyu had exchanged for a spiritual object that could help to form the elixir, and this time she brought Zhou Daoyi here to meditate and form the elixir.

At the same time, the two of them also brought Zhou Chun a piece of news that was neither good nor bad.

After Zhou Daoquan's spiritual pet, the Blood Flame Dragon Python, took the [Dragon Transformation Pill], it was not able to evolve into a Blood Flame Dragon.

However, the medicinal power of the [Dragon Transformation Pill] helped purify its blood, thus breaking the shackles of its blood and breaking through to become a third-level monster, the Blood Flame Dragon Python.

In terms of strength and potential, the third-level monster Blood Flame Dragon Python is naturally much inferior to the third-level Blood Flame Jiao, but it is definitely not inferior to Zhou Mingde's Fire God Jackal.

Zhou Daoquan himself was not disappointed about this, and specially asked Zhou Daoyi to help thank Zhou Chun.

Another thing that made Zhou Chun feel at ease was that the Zhou family had been generally stable in the past two years and had not been harassed.

This proved that his approach was effective. The Ice Prison Gate might have been concerned about the expert behind the Zhou family, so they temporarily restrained themselves and did not take any further action.

In fact, this is also normal. Although the killer sect of Ice Prison Gate has a high completion rate in the past, it is not without failure experience.

The reason why the assassins they sent out were killed or captured was usually because there was a strong person behind the target.

In this situation, the Ice Prison Gate would usually investigate the situation first to see whether the target was easy to deal with or not.

If the target's own situation is investigated clearly and it is easy to grasp, the Ice Prison Gate will naturally gather killers to uproot it.

But if the target is indeed backed by someone powerful and has the protection of a Nascent Soul cultivator, the Ice Prison Gate will have no choice but to admit defeat most of the time.

After all, they are not yet so powerful that they are allowed to assassinate others but not others to kill them in return!
It is very irrational to offend a Yuanying stage cultivator for the sake of a Jindan stage killer!

Although Zhou Chun was not fully aware of the Ice Prison Sect's methods, he could roughly guess that if they were unable to find the missing killer and fully understand the details, they would certainly have some reservations and would not easily attack the Zhou family again.

As for Qinglian Temple, I think after learning about the disappearance of the Ice Prison Gate killer, they will also be cautious and dare not attack the Zhou family easily.

All Zhou Chun needs to do now is to delay for a few decades, and he will be able to have the strength to not be afraid of the Ice Prison Gate killers and the Qinglian Temple.

The next things were easy to handle. Lin Hongyu and his wife rented a cave to form the elixir. On the surface, Zhou Chun still had no relationship with them, but he was actively collecting related elixirs in Tianyuan Fairy City.

On this day, Zhou Chun was practicing in the cave when he suddenly received a message from Sun Yuanjing, the owner of Tianbao Pavilion, asking him to come to Tianbao Pavilion for a chat.

Because of the initial purchase of [Taiyi Xuanjin Qi], and the purchase and refining of the [Guchendan] elixir in recent years, the friendship between Zhou Chun and Sun Yuanjing has steadily improved.

At this time, the other party sent him a message to invite him, although he did not specify what it was about. He did not neglect it and went to Tianbao Pavilion after finishing his work.

"Brother Sun suddenly invited me here today. Could it be that he found the elixir that I need?"

In the private room of Tianbao Pavilion, when Zhou Chun saw Sun Yuanjing, he half-jokingly asked the other party why he invited him.

But Sun Yuanjing shook his head and said, "That's not the case. I invited Fellow Daoist Zhang here today because someone asked me to do so."

Then he lowered his voice and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhang, do you still remember Fellow Daoist Zeng who asked you to help cure his stubborn illness? This time, Fellow Daoist Zeng asked me to invite Fellow Daoist Zhang to come over and have a private meeting with him!"

"That's it..."

Zhou Chun looked at Sun Yuanjing and couldn't help but lower his head to ponder, thinking in his heart about the intention of the monk named Zeng.

The deal he had made with the monk named Zeng was just a deal, and he didn't even know the other party's real name.

Now that the other party suddenly said that he wanted to meet him privately, he must have something to ask for.

From the bottom of his heart, Zhou Chun certainly didn't want to cause any trouble.

But he also knew that since the other party had asked for help from Sun Yuanjing, it meant that they would not give up easily.

If he refused at this time, it would only offend Sun Yuanjing, but he was afraid that it might not be able to completely dispel the idea of ​​the cultivator named Zeng.

Therefore, after thinking about it, he nodded slightly to Sun Yuanjing and said, "Since it is Daoist Sun who asked, I will naturally give Daoist Sun a favor, so please arrange a place for me!"

Hearing his words, Sun Yuanjing immediately laughed and said, "Haha, then I would like to thank you, Brother Zhang."

Then he confessed: "Zeng Daoyou has already said something beforehand, if Zhang Daoyou agrees to meet, you can go to the private room of Tianzihao in the Green Bud Teahouse in the city to meet!"

"Green Bud Tea House? Zhang understands."

Zhou Chun nodded slightly, bid farewell to Sun Yuanjing, and then went to the green bud teahouse.

This Green Bud Teahouse is a high-end teahouse in Tianyuan Fairy City. It only does business with the circle of high-level cultivators. Only cultivators in the Purple Mansion period can book private rooms there, and the prices are very high.

Zhou Chun has been here several times before, and he is also deeply impressed by the several unique spiritual teas in this teahouse.

When he arrived at the teahouse and told the owner of the private room his surname, a beautiful woman came to greet him soon.

Zhou Chun still had some impression of this beautiful woman. She was the one who welcomed him and Sun Yuanjing into the cave residence of the cultivator named Zeng. If he remembered correctly, her surname should be Wei.

When the woman saw Zhou Chun, she immediately bowed respectfully and said, "My concubine greets Senior Zhang. My master has prepared tea in the private room and is waiting for you."

"Thank you, Brother Wei. Please lead the way."

Zhou Chun said this and followed the woman to the No. 1 private room in the teahouse.

After entering the private room, Zhou Chun saw the true face of the monk named Zeng.

At this time, the monk named Zeng was not wearing a mask. His real appearance was that of a handsome man, probably between thirty and forty years old.

Judging from his aura, he had obviously completely cured his chronic illness and returned to normal.

Seeing this, he immediately bowed to the other party and said, "Zhang greets you, Daoist Zeng. Congratulations on getting rid of your old illness and regaining your health."

When the monk surnamed Zeng heard the words, he immediately smiled heartily and said, "Hahaha, Zeng was able to recover, thanks to fellow daoist Zhang, please take a seat, fellow daoist."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and invited Zhou Chun to take a seat, and asked the beautiful woman who was his concubine to serve tea and water to Zhou Chun.

Then he picked up a cup of tea and saluted Zhou Chun, saying, "I am sorry for inviting Taoist Zhang to come here. I will use tea instead of wine to apologize to Taoist Zhang."

"You are too polite, Mr. Zeng."

Zhou Chun responded and raised his tea to return the favor.

After exchanging pleasantries, the monk surnamed Zeng said to Zhou Chun with an apologetic look on his face: "I was suffering from a serious illness at the beginning, so I had to hide my identity. I hope Brother Zhang will not blame me."

After that, he introduced himself: "Actually, my name is Zeng Tai, and I am the elder of Yuanyang Sect of the Great Zhou Kingdom!"

"So Fellow Daoist Zeng is actually the elder of Yuanyang Sect. How disrespectful!"

Zhou Chun's face froze, and he quickly bowed his hands politely.

He had heard of the name of Yuanyang Sect a long time ago. This sect was a powerful sect ranked among the top in the Great Zhou Kingdom. In terms of strength and foundation, it was not inferior to the Jiuyuan Sword Sect.

The current Grand Elder of Yuanyang Sect, "Master Yuanyang", is a great cultivator in the late Nascent Soul stage who is well-known in the Great Zhou Dynasty and has unfathomable strength.

In addition to this supreme elder, the Yuanyang Sect also has another middle-Nascent Soul cultivator and two early-Nascent Soul cultivators.

Zeng Tai is actually the elder of Yuanyang Sect, no wonder Sun Yuanjing would secretly show his favor to this person in every possible way!

Zeng Tai suddenly looked at him with a sharp gaze and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhang, now you know Zeng's origins. I wonder if you can tell me your own origins now?"

He had asked someone to investigate Zhang Liang before, but found that no specific details about Zhang Liang could be found. They only knew that he was a cultivator from outside the Great Zhou Kingdom.

When it comes to forces outside of the Great Zhou Kingdom, even if Zeng Tai is an elder of the Yuanyang Sect, it would be impossible for him to investigate the origins of a fake Jindan-stage cultivator in so many countries.

That's why he came specially to meet Zhou Chun after learning that Zhou Chun was active in Tianyuan Fairy City again.

When Zhou Chun heard him asking about his origins, he immediately became alert and shook his head and said, "Zhang was born in a small family in a remote place, so there is nothing much to say."

"So Fellow Daoist Zhang is a cultivator from a family?"

Zeng Tai nodded thoughtfully, and then stopped biting it. He smiled and said, "Don't worry, Brother Zhang. I have no ill will towards you. I invited you here today just to make a deal with you!"

(End of this chapter)