Beast-controlling fairy clan.

Chapter 538: Exchange of Demon Pills, Opportunity to Advance [Subscribe]

It turned out to be a fourth-level demon pill!
At the exchange meeting, Zhou Chun looked at the fiery red demon pill in the jade box with a look of surprise in his eyes.

The fourth-level demon pill is a treasure and extremely difficult to obtain.

Generally, a fourth-level monster will know to escape even if it is no match for a cultivator.

Even if they cannot escape, they will usually choose to self-destruct their demon cores to prevent human cultivators from having the chance to obtain the most precious things on them.

Therefore, in the world of immortal cultivation, third-level demon pills can be seen occasionally, but fourth-level demon pills are extremely rare.

Moreover, the application range of the fourth-level demon pill is much wider than that of the third-level demon pill. It is very useful whether it is used as the main material for refining some rare elixir, or for refining magic weapons, or for cultivating fourth-level demon beasts.

Even cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage wouldn't mind exchanging such treasures.

The fact that Xu Bin was able to produce a fourth-level demon pill basically proves that his words were true and that he was indeed extremely lucky to have encountered a fourth-level demon beast that was in a weak and seriously injured state after just breaking through.

As mentioned before, if a monster beast’s bloodline is not strong enough to be promoted directly to the fourth level, it needs some kind of heaven-defying opportunity to change its fate if it wants to break the shackles of its bloodline and be promoted to the fourth level.

In many cases, even if the monster breaks through to the fourth level by swallowing some rare treasures, the monster itself will be in a weak and seriously injured state.

At this time they will be very weak and even unable to control the rapidly increasing power of the demon pill in their bodies.

With Xu Bin's cultivation level close to the middle stage of the Golden Core, it would be very easy for him to kill such a fourth-order monster and leave behind a monster pill.

To be honest, if this was not a fire-attribute demon pill, but a gold-attribute demon pill or an earth-attribute demon pill, even a wood-attribute demon pill or a wind-attribute demon pill, Zhou Chun might have changed it immediately.

Because of the existence of such a fourth-level demon pill, any of his three spirit pets can break through to the fourth level after refining the demon pill. At worst, it can be given to Zhou Daoyi's Green Dragon to take.

But it happened to be a fire-attributed demon pill!
None of his spirit pets is compatible with this magic pill. If he swallows it by force, at least 60% of its power will be wasted.

As a result, Zhou Chun was a little conflicted.

The chance to encounter a fourth-level demon pill is rare, and it would be a pity to miss it.

However, after exchanging for the demon pill, he couldn't cash it in immediately.

It's not right to change it, and it's not right not to change it.

While struggling, Zhou Chun looked at the other cultivators and found that although these people also coveted the magic pill, none of them seemed to have any intention of exchanging it.

Only Zhang Shiyao from the Chen State Fire Spirit Sect spoke up, expressing his willingness to exchange his earth-attributed magic stick, but was rejected by Xu Bin.

The person only wants to exchange a defensive magic weapon and has no shortage of offensive magic weapons.

The result was naturally nothing, and Xu Bin's exchange was ultimately unsuccessful.

When it came to Zhou Chun, he showed some magic weapons, spiritual materials and rare spiritual medicines, only in exchange for the spiritual medicines that could be used to refine the two kinds of spiritual pills, [Ancient Dust Pill] and [Jade Dew Golden Cloud Pill].

Just as he was not interested in the things his acquaintances took out, his acquaintances just looked at the things they showed him.

If those people really had what he needed, they would have exchanged with him long ago!
However, this time, Wang Jun and Zhang Shiyao both contributed one or two spiritual medicines to Zhou Chun, one of which was an auxiliary medicine for refining the [Jade Dew and Golden Cloud Pill], so his trip was not in vain.

After the exchange meeting ended, as usual, everyone began to share their experiences in cultivation.

Zhou Chun actually likes this kind of exchange meeting, because many cultivators will speak out about the difficulties they encounter in practicing certain magical powers and want to seek answers.

This kind of answer is not free. If the other party answers your question, you must also express your gratitude, either by giving him elixirs and spiritual coins, or by sharing some of your own experiences with him.

Zhou Chun once asked others for advice on the difficulties in practicing "Golden Escape Technique" and [Genjin Sky-Splitting Thunder], and thus solved some of the doubts he encountered.

This is when the importance of teachers is seen.

If Zhou Chun had an elder who practiced the same kind of magical power as him, and the elder's progress in practicing this kind of magical power was much better than his, then he would be able to avoid many detours in practicing this magical power and progress much faster.

If there is a Yuanying stage master who is proficient in the "Golden Escape Technique" and is willing to teach him how to cultivate this magical power, then his progress in cultivating this magical power will definitely be several times or even ten times faster than his current blind guessing!
Therefore, the Jindan-stage cultivators from large sects with a long history really have a great advantage in cultivating supernatural powers.

As long as they practice the supernatural powers that their predecessors have practiced and use the experience and lessons left by their predecessors as a reference for their practice, their early progress will be very obvious.

This kind of thing really requires the predecessors to pave the way for the future generations to follow!

After the exchange meeting ended, all the Jindan stage cultivators said goodbye and left.

At this time, Zhou Chun finally made up his mind and secretly sent a message to Xu Bin to invite him to his cave for a chat.

Not long after, Xu Bin came to visit Zhou Chun in his cave as promised.

Since the two of them were not old acquaintances, after the initial pleasantries, Xu Bin looked directly at Zhou Chun and asked, "Did you really mean what Brother Daoist Zhang said before? Do you really have a defensive magic weapon that you are willing to exchange with me?"

"Of course, it's not only a defensive magic weapon, but also a mid-grade defensive magic weapon!"

As Zhou Chun spoke, he raised his hand and patted his storage bag, taking out the white shield magic weapon he had obtained from the Ice Prison Gate killer.

This magic weapon was stolen property. He would never dare to use it himself, nor would he dare to give it to the Zhou family cultivators.

But there would be no problem exchanging it with a Jindan stage cultivator like Xu Bin.

"This magic weapon..."

Xu Bin looked at the magic weapon in Zhou Chun's hand with a look of surprise and suspicion. Instead of joy, there was a hint of vigilance in his eyes.

He looked at Zhou Chun cautiously and said, "I'm afraid there is something wrong with the origin of this magic weapon of Fellow Daoist Zhang."

Zhou Chun couldn't help but smile faintly when he heard this, "Fellow Daoist Xu, you are joking. When we, the Jindan-stage cultivators, exchange magic weapons, how many of them are truly made by ourselves or inherited from our predecessors?"

"What Zhang can guarantee to Fellow Daoist Xu is that the original owner of this item was not a cultivator from the Great Zhou Kingdom or the Rong Kingdom!"

Hearing what he said, Xu Bin's expression immediately relaxed a lot.

As long as it is not owned by a Jindan-stage cultivator from a certain sect or family in the Great Zhou Kingdom, the risk of this treasure being contaminated will be much smaller.

But despite the fact, he couldn't let go of the opportunity to bargain.

He immediately said: "Even so, holding such an item of unknown origin in my hand will also bring me a lot of risks, and this ice-attributed magic weapon is not compatible with my own attributes..."

How could Zhou Chun not know what he meant by that? He immediately rolled his eyelids and said, "Fellow Daoist Xu just wants me to lower the price. That's easy to say. I can give you 70% of the normal value of a mid-grade magic weapon, right?"

However, Xu Bin was even greedier than he thought. He immediately shook his head and said, "70% is too high. I can only accept this item at the price of a normal low-grade defensive magic weapon."

Zhou Chun was so angry that he laughed. He immediately picked up the tea on the table and took a sip. He said in a cold tone: "If that's what Fellow Daoist Xu said, then please forgive me for not seeing you off!"

But Xu Bin's original intention was just to bargain, so there was no way he would leave just like that.

Seeing him like this, the man immediately gritted his teeth and said again: "Fifty percent, if you can discount it by fifty percent, I will exchange it!"

"It's 70% and 70% respectively. If Fellow Daoist Xu doesn't want it, I can just send it to an auction. They won't care about the origin of the item!"

Zhou Chun glanced at him and gave him an ultimatum in a firm tone.

After all, the Ice Prison Sect is just a large sect with a Nascent Soul cultivator in charge. Even if they knew that this magic weapon was being auctioned in the Great Zhou Kingdom, it would be impossible for them to target the auction house or the cultivator from the large sect who won the auction.

So Zhou Chun was not really afraid of having no place to sell the stolen goods.

He just didn't want the Ice Prison Gate to know through this magic weapon that Zhang Liang and Zhou Zhengchun were the same person, and he didn't want to waste Zhang Liang's identity.

As if seeing Zhou Chun's determination at this moment, Xu Bin also became hesitant.

In exchange for 70% of the price, he actually made a lot of money.

As for the incompatibility of attributes, he can simply exchange it with other monks who practice ice-walking techniques to find magic weapons with attributes that match his own.

Apart from anything else, the Xuepo Palace in Yang State, which is next door to their Rong State, is a major sect that practices ice-walking techniques. They would definitely be willing to pay a high price to exchange this magic weapon with him.

Thinking of the Snow Soul Palace of Yang Country, Xu Bin's heart suddenly jumped. He looked at Zhou Chun with a vigilant face and asked, "Fellow Daoist Zhang, this thing has nothing to do with the cultivators of the Snow Soul Palace of Yang Country, right?"

"It's nothing to do with it. The original owner of this item was a cultivator from a remote country. As long as you don't show off your possession of this treasure, I guarantee you'll be fine!"

Zhou Chun said, then waved his hand and said, "Okay, Brother Xu, if you want to change, then change. If not, then leave!"

Seeing him chase people away again, Xu Bin knew there was no room for bargaining, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Then let's change it. How do you want to change it, Brother Zhang?"

What he asked for before was just a low-grade defensive magic weapon, but his demon pill and the corpse of the demon beast were enough.

But now he had a mid-grade defensive magic weapon, and no matter how greedy he was, he knew that demon pills and demon beast corpses alone were not enough.

After all, his monster corpse was said to be a fourth-level monster, but in fact, it was still far inferior to the monster that had truly stabilized at the fourth-level realm. Fortunately, Zhou Chun's next words surprised him.

Zhou Chun didn't need him to pay for any thousand-year-old elixir. He just needed to use other thousand-year-old elixirs and magic weapon materials, or even spiritual coins to make up the difference.

After some bargaining, both of them were satisfied with the deal.

"It turns out to be a Fire Scale Lion Demon Core that has fortunately broken through to the fourth level. This will give the Fire God Jackal a try!"

Inside the cave, Zhou Chun looked at the fiery red demon pill in the jade box in front of him, and a hint of understanding flashed in his eyes.

The Fire Scaled Lion and the Fire God Jackal are both high-level monsters, and the difficulty of breaking through the fourth level for both should be similar.

This Fire Scaled Lion had the opportunity to break through to the fourth level, it must have swallowed some natural treasure that suited it.

And considering that he was killed just after breaking through the fourth level, perhaps there is still some power of that rare treasure left in his demon pill.

Even if there is nothing left, compared to the demon cores of other fourth-level monsters with noble bloodlines, this fourth-level Fire Scale Lion's demon core is actually more suitable for a third-level top-quality monster to use to impact the fourth level.

That’s right, Zhou Chun exchanged this fourth-level demon pill for the Fire God Jackal.

As Zhou Mingde's spiritual pet, the Fire God Jackal is now only a little bit away from breaking through to become a third-rank top-grade demon beast.

After it breaks through to the third-grade upper-quality demon beast realm, its potential is almost exhausted. If it wants to break through to the fourth level, it must have the help of a noble person.

A fourth-order, low-grade fire-attribute demon pill whose properties are very compatible with its own is an excellent spiritual object for it to break through the realm, equivalent to the spiritual object used by immortal cultivators to form pills.

When Zhou Chun was weak, the Fire God Jackal saved his life several times and helped him out of danger.

This time, exchanging this fourth-level demon pill for it was Zhou Chun's way of repaying it for saving his life.

In the eighth year after arriving in Tianyuan Fairy City, Zhou family elder Zhou Zhengyong and Lin Wan'er came to the Great Zhou Kingdom together and reported several important things to Zhou Chun.

"Two years ago, Qinglian Temple added a new Jindan-stage cultivator. Afterwards, Qinglian Temple expelled the clan members in Lanzhou and Lianzhou, closed the family's shop, and prohibited the Zhoutongtianxia business from operating in Lanzhou and Lianzhou!"

"In addition, the business between our family and other vassal families of Qinglian Temple has also been greatly affected. Many families have received bans, strictly prohibiting them from conducting trade cooperation with our family!"

"More importantly, rumors spread throughout the Jingguo cultivation world that were circulated by Qinglian Temple, saying that our Zhou family is actually a spy planted by the Hualong Sect. The number of our family cultivators who have gone missing or died has increased by several times compared to the past!"

"The Grand Elder has now ordered the tribe members not to go out alone, and has begun to impose certain restrictions on their going out. However, this method is only a temporary solution and not a permanent one. I'm afraid it won't last long!"

Inside the cave, Zhou Chun frowned as he listened to the family news brought by Zhou Zhengyong.

He had thought that Qinglian Temple would attack the Zhou family from a business perspective, but he was really surprised that they would spread rumors that the Zhou family was a spy of the Hualong Sect.

After all, the Zhou family had indirectly killed a late Jindan cultivator of the Hualong Sect before, and the hands of the Zhou family's top leaders were stained with the blood of Hualong Sect cultivators.

"Regarding that rumor, does the Moon Wheel Cult have any comment?"

After Zhou Chun pondered for a while, he looked at Zhou Zhengyong and asked about the relevant situation.

Hearing his words, Zhou Zhengyong shook his head and said, "Because it's just a private rumor, the Moon Wheel Cult has never made any statement."

Hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately said, "Then when you go back, Brother Yong, take a copy of my handwritten letter to the Moon Wheel Sect to pay respect to Elder Su and ask her to pass it to Master Baiyue!"

Then he continued, "As for the increasing number of missing and fallen monks from the Zhou family, simply retreating is not a solution. We can have the elders and core members of the clan secretly follow and protect them, and see who is targeting the Zhou family. If we can catch them alive and prove that they are a certain force, we can kill them as a warning to the rest!"

Zhou Chun didn't believe that Qinglian Temple would dare to send its own people to assassinate the Zhou family's out-of-town cultivators. If they were caught, they would have no way to defend themselves.

Therefore, those who attacked and killed the Zhou family cultivators must have been hired independent cultivators or cultivators from other immortal cultivation families.

In this way, as long as they catch someone alive and leave evidence, the Zhou family can make an example of him to warn the rest, so that those independent cultivators and family forces will know how serious the consequences will be if they get involved in the fights between big families and sects!
This may not completely prevent such incidents, but it will certainly discourage many people and increase the cost of hiring people at Qinglian Temple.

After hearing her words, Zhou Zhengyong nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand. I will definitely tell the Supreme Elder about this."

Then he looked at him and asked, "There is one more thing. Because of the rumors, the Grand Elder is worried that Qinglian Temple has discovered something. He specifically asked me to ask you, Thirteenth Brother, whether it is possible to temporarily stop the ordinary exchanges between the family and the wilderness, and only let the family elders go there every six months to understand the situation?"

Hearing this, Zhou Chun only hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, then let Uncle Daoquan take the Blood Flame Dragon Python to the wilderness and take charge of the situation there with all his strength!"

After talking about these important things, Zhou Zhengyong went on to talk about some other things that happened in the family in recent years.

For example, among the "Zhi" generation, there emerged a cultivator with golden and water dual-attribute superior spiritual roots named Zhou Zhigan. His father was Zhou Yuanliang, a foundation-building cultivator of the Zhou family, but his mother was a female cultivator in the Qi-refining stage who was trained by the Zhou family in the wilderness. She was originally a concubine of Zhou Yuanliang there.

In the past, if a cultivator with superior spiritual roots appeared in the family, Zhou Chun would definitely be very happy.

But after hearing about this, he just asked a few questions casually and then didn't care.

Because compared with the current scale of the Zhou family's cultivators, the appearance of children with superior spiritual roots is not a rare thing.

Another thing is that Zhou Chun's vision has become higher now. Now, among those Jindan stage cultivators he deals with, more than 80% are cultivators with superior spiritual root qualifications. After seeing so many of them, it is no longer surprising to him.

Unless a legendary cultivator with top-grade spiritual roots and aptitude appears in the Zhou family one day, he will be guarded like a treasure.

Such a genius is guaranteed to be a Jindan-stage cultivator.

However, something Zhou Zhengyong mentioned later caught Zhou Chun's attention.

According to what he said, Xu Fu, who was sent by him to garrison in the wilderness, is now together with Zhou Yuanyuan, a female cultivator from the Zhou family who is building her foundation. Although they have not officially announced that they are a couple, it seems that they have already started practicing dual cultivation!
Zhou Chun was also somewhat surprised upon hearing this news, and couldn't help asking, "Yuan Yuan also has a high-grade spiritual root aptitude, so it shouldn't be a problem for her to open up a purple mansion in the future. Why did she end up with Xu Fu?"

"It seems that Yuan Yuan chose to go to the wilderness to collect spiritual herbs in order to compete for the [Xuan Xin Zi Huan Dan]. However, because she coveted a thousand-year-old spiritual herb, she was chased by a third-level monster. Fortunately, Xu Fu heard the news and rushed to rescue her in time. After that, the two of them fell in love with each other for some reason!"

When Zhou Zhengyong said this, he immediately looked at Zhou Chun tentatively and asked, "Thirteenth brother, don't you agree that the two of them are together?"

"That's not the case. I'm just wondering why Xu Fu didn't marry a female cultivator from the family before, but changed his mind now."

Zhou Chun shook his head and explained the whole story.

Hearing what he said, Zhou Zhengyong immediately guessed, "Perhaps it was because he saw that the family treated Zhang Liang completely differently from him, which gave him new ideas, or perhaps he was too proud to look down on the female cultivators of ordinary families!"

"Well, Brother Yong, what you said makes sense. Let's just let this matter develop. If the two of them can really get together, it will be a good story!"

Zhou Chun nodded, but didn't dwell on it too much.

He has never cared much about the marriage affairs of his younger generations, which is different from many patriarchs of immortal cultivation families.

Many patriarchs of immortal cultivation families truly regard themselves as the patriarch of the family. They like to express their opinions or even forcibly interfere in the marriages of some clan members, especially the marriages of some important clan members.

But Zhou Chun never did this, nor did he encourage the elder monks of the Zhou family to do so.

He always believed that family monks should have the right to choose their own spouse, and other family members other than their parents should not interfere with this right.

Therefore, even if the Zhou family's female foundation-building cultivator finds a Qi-refining cultivator as her partner, he will not stop her.

This open-minded attitude also earned him a very high status in the hearts of the female practitioners in the family.

Because in many immortal cultivation families, the female cultivators in the family often cannot make their own decisions regarding marriage!
Zhou Zhengyong did not stay in Tianyuan Fairy City for long. He only stayed for three months. After seeing the prosperity of the place, he hurried back to the Zhou family.

However, Lin Wan'er stayed to accompany Lin Hongyu, preparing to wait for Zhou Daoyi's Dan-forming results to come out before going back depending on the situation.

For this reason, Zhou Chun also asked Zhou Zhengyong to carry the fourth-level puppet he had exchanged with him to avoid any danger on the road.

Time passed slowly, and soon another two years had passed.

After enjoying a furnace of seven [Ancient Dust Pills] alone, Lei Jiao Baibai had completed one-third of the road to the fourth level.

However, Zhou Chun has been making large-scale acquisitions in recent years and has almost bought up all the spiritual medicines on the market that can be used to refine [Ancient Dust Pills].

It’s not that there are only so many spiritual medicines in the great Zhou Kingdom, but that many forces that have planted spiritual medicines in their medicine gardens, or cultivators who have spiritual medicines on them, do not look down on the purchase price offered by Zhou Chun and are not willing to sell these spiritual medicines at all.

This made him want to leave and travel to other countries to search for magical medicines.

However, just before Zhou Chun was about to set off, he suddenly received a message from "Tianyuan Palace" that someone had accepted a task he had issued.

After reading the message, his expression suddenly lit up with joy, and he immediately flew to the location of the "Tianyuan Palace".

"Do you know where I can find information about a third-tier, top-grade thunder-attributed monster? Are you sure it's a third-tier, top-grade monster?"

Inside the "Tianyuan Palace", Zhou Chun looked at the old man in front of him who was only in the late foundation building stage, and couldn't help but frowned, his face full of suspicion.

It's not that he looks down on others, but with his cultivation in the late stage of foundation building, it is indeed not easy to distinguish the difference between a third-order mid-grade monster and a third-order high-grade monster.

Facing his doubt, the old man answered confidently: "Yes, I am sure. I dare to swear with my own life that it is definitely a silver lightning leopard with the cultivation of the third-grade upper grade!"

(End of this chapter)