Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Rock Earth Turtle Advances

The five great cultivation families surrounded the Qiyun Alliance sect, seemingly prepared to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

But just when the onlookers from the Lanzhou cultivation world thought they were about to witness an intense and thrilling annihilation, the situation abruptly ended.

That’s right, it ended!

Because the true backbone figure behind the Qiyun Alliance finally stepped forward to speak.

It turned out that Tang Yuan, the Alliance Hierarch of the Qiyun Alliance, was actually the registered disciple of “Tianjing Hermit,” a Golden Elixir Cultivator from Jingguo Country’s Lingzhou, and the Qiyun Alliance was established under his command.

And that “Tianjing Hermit” was a renowned character throughout Jingguo Country, possessing a cultivation level that had reached the late Golden Core Stage, making him one of the highest-level Loose Cultivators in Jingguo.

The “Tianjing Villa” that he had established in Lingzhou was also a massive force among Loose Cultivators.

Now that this late-stage Golden Elixir Loose Cultivator of significant standing among the Loose Cultivators in Jingguo had spoken up, the five great cultivation families from Lanzhou wouldn’t dare to harm a single hair on the Qiyun Alliance.

Although their departure was somewhat disorderly, the upper echelons of the five great cultivation families were not the slightest bit panicked; in fact, they were very pleased.

Since the “Tianjing Hermit” had been forced to come out and protect the Qiyun Alliance, there would be no need for them to deal with it in the future.

Whether it was the Green Lotus Temple or the forces with Golden Core Stage Cultivators in Lanzhou, none would allow the Qiyun Alliance to continue stirring up trouble and expanding in Lanzhou.

So even if the Qiyun Alliance could continue to exist in Lanzhou, they would definitely not dare to openly retaliate against the five great cultivation families.

This was the unspoken rule shared in the cultivation world.

How the small forces fight and kill each other was not a matter of concern.

But once it involved a Golden Core Stage Cultivator, a place like Lanzhou with “an owner” would not allow a Golden Core Stage Cultivator from another region to behave recklessly.

Otherwise, Sanjue Sect wouldn’t have been forcibly dismantled by the Green Lotus Temple in the past.

Not long after the incident ended, Zhou Jiasheng returned to Hongya Marketplace.

“Thank heavens, Uncle Sixteen, you finally came back safely!”

Inside the Spirit Beast Restaurant, upon seeing Zhou Jiasheng return safely, Zhou Chun immediately showed a touched expression and exclaimed with relief.

Then, with a face full of concern, he asked, “How is it? How are things with the family? I heard that many people died in the battle with the Qiyun Alliance. Is our Zhou Family alright?”

Hearing this, Zhou Jiasheng just sighed with a bitter smile, “How could we be alright!”

Then he spoke in a low voice, elaborating, “In this battle, not only did three clan members die, but one also lost an arm, many were injured and require a long recovery, and numerous clan members’ Spirit Pets were either killed or crippled. The losses were indeed tremendous!”

Saying this, Zhou Jiasheng also looked at Zhou Chun and said, “Initially, the Clan Leader had planned to have you return to the family to receive your reward after the matter was settled.”

“But now with all the aftermath to be managed, he can hardly spare the time to worry about this right now. I hope you can understand that,” he added.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately expressed, “Uncle Sixteen, rest assured, I can certainly understand.”

“As long as you understand,” Zhou Jiasheng replied.

Zhou Jiasheng nodded, and then he looked at Zhou Chun and said, “How has the business been during this period? Show me the account books for the store’s transactions during this time.”

As the shopkeeper, he naturally had to check the books upon returning.

Luckily, Zhou Chun was prepared for this and immediately produced the relevant account books for him to review, even going so far as to not hide the fact that he had used his own personal funds to buy the Red Essence Ganoderma and resell it for a profit.

Such a thing could not be hidden.

The shopkeeper from Li’s Herbal Shop, Li Siyuan, was just waiting for an opportunity to reclaim his position.

If Zhou Jiasheng were to find out while around in the Marketplace, who knows what he would think of the matter.

Having heard about his dealings with the Red Essence Ganoderma, Zhou Jiasheng was not only surprised and envious of his luck but also nodded his head gently and remarked, “This is your personal fortune and opportunity; even if the Clan Leader knew about it, he wouldn’t say much.”

Actually, almost every shopkeeper in the Marketplace has done this kind of transaction.

Otherwise, why would the position of Marketplace shopkeeper be so sought after among the various forces?

Some practiced it excessively, directly using the shop’s funds for these dealings.

While others were like Zhou Chun, purely using their own savings for the endeavor.

The former would be directly punished upon being discovered by the family.

And the latter, even if found out, would generally not be pursued by their respective forces.

After all, if you want the horse to run, you certainly have to let it eat some grass.

It’s necessary to give the shopkeeper and the assistants some incentives, so they would be willing to put their heart into running the store and build its reputation.

As for clan power, the better the store’s reputation, the better the sales volume, and ultimately, the more they earn.

Zhou Chun also dared to go directly to Li’s Herbal Shop to sell Red Essence Ganoderma, and now he dared to talk to Zhou Jiasheng about it because he had already understood the ins and outs of this.

So after getting past this issue, Zhou Chun went back to being an assistant in the store.

Over a month passed, and Zhou Chun’s first spirit pet, the Rock Earth Turtle, finally awoke from its slumber and advanced into a first-grade superior Demon Beast.

For the Rock Earth Turtle species, reaching the status of a first-grade superior Demon Beast meant it had reached adulthood.

At this time, the width of the Rock Earth Turtle’s back was nearly eight feet, with its length from head to tail reaching thirteen feet, and its body was covered with inverted triangular spikes, the shortest of which were as long as one finger.

Such a heavily armored giant turtle, when attacked by an ordinary Demon Beast, would find nowhere to bite.

And what increased wasn’t just its size, but also its formidable strength.

Upon advancing to a first-grade superior Demon Beast, the Rock Earth Turtle once again awakened and mastered several innate Earth Element Techniques, including the offensively not weak “Falling Rock Technique,” the defensively very strong “Stone Armor Technique,” and even an uncommon and rare Earth Element Technique to trap enemies, “Earth Prison Technique.”

With these techniques at its disposal, coupled with its own powerful defense, the Rock Earth Turtle could now exchange blows with a Qi Refinement ninth-level cultivator and have a decent chance of winning.

And if you count Zhou Chun, the master and servant together could take on those with the eleventh or twelfth level of Qi Refinement Realm and still possess the power to fight.

“Good job, Stone, I didn’t raise you in vain, very good, very good!”

In the backyard of the shop, Zhou Chun, seeing the huge earthy-yellow turtle taking up one-fifth of the yard, had a face full of smiles.

He actually wanted to go up and pat the giant turtle’s head, but seeing all the spikes on it, he gave up on the idea.

He could only kick the open space on the turtle’s back with his foot as a form of affection.

At this point, the Silver Lightning Python Baibai sensed its master’s arrival and crawled out of the open window of the bedroom. It quickly climbed up Zhou Chun’s legs onto his shoulder, leaving several wet marks on his face with its flickering forked tongue.

“Baibai, stop fooling around, I can’t carry you now.”

Zhou Chun extended his hand to pat the silvery white python’s head, urging it to get down quickly.

The python now was nearly two zhang long and weighed two to three hundred pounds!

Even for Zhou Chun as a cultivator, whose physical constitution was much stronger than that of mortals, carrying such weight was very uncomfortable.

Hiss~hiss!

After reluctantly hissing twice, Baibai still slid its body to the ground and conveyed to Zhou Chun the desire to eat.

It had been several days since it last ate.

Normally, pythons can go several days to over ten days without needing to eat after a meal.

But Baibai was not yet one year old and was in a period of rapid growth, which meant it needed to eat more often.

Zhou Chun had to watch the shop before, so he couldn’t take it hunting. Instead, he spent some Spirit Coins to buy Demon Beast meat from loose cultivators to feed it.

Because of the presence of Evil Qi, Demon Beast meat had become something that ordinary cultivators couldn’t eat.

Often, when loose cultivators hunted Demon Beasts in the wild, they only took what could be used for Talisman Making, Artifact Refining, and Alchemy, like hide, fur, claws, and teeth. Unless their Storage Pouches had considerable space, they would only take some beast meat and bones.

As a result, it was not so easy for Zhou Chun to buy these things anytime he wanted in the Marketplace.

He had even considered placing a special order with the loose cultivators in the Marketplace, asking them to bring some Demon Beast meat for him when they came to the Marketplace.

After all, the nutritional content of Demon Beast meat was much higher than that of ordinary wild animal meat, and many of the Zhou Family’s Spirit Beast Feed were made with Demon Beast meat as the main ingredient.

But since there was only so much demand for Spirit Beast Feed, the Demon Beast meat harvested by the Zhou Family Cultivators during their own hunts was enough to meet the needs, and the Spirit Beast Restaurant had not yet started purchasing this item.

The main issue was that it wasn’t convenient to store such meat for long periods; it required the establishment of ice storages.

But if they wanted to build a large underground ice storage in the Marketplace, that would mean paying a significant rental fee to the Marketplace administration.

Thus, even though the Zhou Family was purchasing beast meat, they were only buying from loose cultivators who went to the Zhou Family for cultivation.

Seeing the big python looking up at him with eager eyes, Zhou Chun pondered for a moment and then nodded, saying, “Alright, since you’re hungry and Stone has made a breakthrough, we will take a day off and go hunting ourselves today!”

After saying this, he put both spirit pets into the Spirit Beast Pouch and went to the front of the shop to ask Zhou Jiasheng, the shopkeeper, for a leave of absence.

When Zhou Jiasheng learned that Zhou Chun was going out to hunt to feed his spirit pets, he didn’t say much, only asking him to be careful and not to stray too far from the area of the Marketplace.