First Spirit Pet

Nine Peaks Ridge, Precious Lingzhi Peak.

After the Zhou Family occupied Nine Peaks Ridge, aside from Pagoda Peak, the main peak where the Grand Elder and clan chief resided, every spirit peak had a Peak Master assigned to it.

The Peak Master of Precious Lingzhi Peak was named Zhou He. She was a Zhou Family female cultivator with Level 12 Qi Refining Stage cultivation and was already sixty-seven years old.

Before Zhou Chun arrived at Precious Lingzhi Peak, a total of twelve Zhou Family cultivators had settled there to cultivate, including Zhou Yong, with whom he had a fairly good relationship.

After returning from Pagoda Peak, Zhou Chun first went up the mountain under Zhou Yong's guidance to pay respects to Zhou He, the Peak Master.

As an elder of the Zhou Family, Zhou He was extremely delighted to learn that a clansman with decent aptitude like Zhou Chun had returned to the family and been placed under her command.

She even brought out Spirit Honey Tea, which she was normally reluctant to drink herself, to entertain Zhou Chun on the spot.

Then she personally led Zhou Chun to an independent courtyard and assigned the secluded mountain residence to him as his home.

Afterward, she took Zhou Chun around to visit the other Zhou Family cultivators on the mountain, letting everyone know that a clansman like Zhou Chun had joined them.

Such warm hospitality left Zhou Chun feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the favor, and his heart felt especially warm.

It was not until deep into the night that he returned to his own courtyard and quietly sorted through everything that had happened that day.

Without question, the day's experiences had fully proven that his decision to return to the Zhou Family had been the right one.

Returning to the Zhou Family did indeed mean being bound by family rules and being managed and ordered about by the clan chief, elders, and others.

But the benefits he could enjoy after returning to the Zhou Family were more than enough to justify those restrictions.

In short, the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages.

Moreover, judging from today's experiences and his interactions with Zhou Fei and the others over the past few days, the atmosphere within the Zhou Family seemed fairly good.

Scheming and intrigue might be unavoidable, but they probably had little to do with Ordinary Clansmen like them.

Of course, he had only just returned to the family, so he could not jump to conclusions yet. Further observation was still needed.

After sorting through the day's events, Zhou Chun suddenly patted his Storage Bag and took out the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg that clan chief Zhou Guyi had bestowed upon him.

When he opened the jade box, a huge grayish-white beast egg came into view.

This giant egg was even larger than the ostrich eggs Zhou Chun had seen in his previous life. It was an egg laid by the Low-grade Demonic Beast, the Rock Earth Turtle.

The Cultivation World classified Demonic Beasts into First through Sixth Rank according to the cultivation realms corresponding to cultivators, then divided them into four grades—low, mid, high, and top—based on their growth potential.

Generally speaking, the upper limit of a Low-grade Demonic Beast's growth potential was First Rank.

Unless it encountered some special opportunity that transformed and evolved its bloodline, a Low-grade Demonic Beast basically had no chance of growing to Second Rank.

By the same reasoning, Mid-grade Demonic Beasts had a growth potential ceiling of Second Rank, High-grade Demonic Beasts of Third Rank, and Top-grade Demonic Beasts of Fourth Rank.

Thus, if someone obtained a Top-grade Demonic Beast Egg or a young beast, then so long as they lived to see that Top-grade Demonic Beast mature, they would gain a fourth-tier Demonic Beast comparable in strength to a Golden Core stage cultivator as a Spirit Pet.

Although the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg in Zhou Chun's hands was merely the offspring of a Low-grade Demonic Beast, Rock Earth Turtles were extremely powerful among Low-grade Demonic Beasts—far stronger, at the very least, than the Wind Shadow Leopard he had previously raised.

Not only did this Demonic Beast possess extraordinarily strong defenses and tenacious Life Force, it also wielded formidable offensive abilities. Once fully grown, it was equivalent to a First-grade High-tier Demonic Beast and could contend with late Qi Refining stage cultivators.

If such a Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg were taken to a market to be sold, it would be worth at least three hundred Spirit Coins.

Thus, Zhou Guyi's reward for Zhou Chun's return to the family could not be called anything less than generous.

After holding the Rock Earth Turtle Spirit Egg in his hands and examining it for a while, Zhou Chun quickly cut open his finger, used blood as ink and stone as paper, and began carving a Contract Array onto a flat stone slab.

As a Cultivation Family renowned for its Beast Taming Arts, the Zhou Family possessed several secret techniques that allowed cultivators and Demonic Beasts to establish contractual relationships.

The Soul Control Blood Array Zhou Chun was using now was one of the safest and most reliable Contracting Secret Techniques among them.

However, this method was only suitable for contracting Demonic Beast Eggs such as the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg, which had yet to develop Spiritual Intelligence. It was difficult for it to affect young Demonic Beasts that had already hatched and opened their eyes, or adult Demonic Beasts.

After spending nearly two quarters of an hour carving the Contract Array, he proceeded to inscribe the relevant Spirit Marks onto the shell of the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg.

Only after the grayish-white Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg was covered in all manner of blood-colored Spirit Marks did Zhou Chun place it upon the stone slab bearing the Contract Array. Then, using blood as the catalyst, he formed Hand Seals and chanted an incantation, activating the Contract Array.

As the Contract Array activated and began to operate, the array patterns on the stone slab, drawn with Zhou Yang's blood, immediately turned into rising Blood Mist like water boiled dry and surged toward the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg at the center.

Very quickly, the entire Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg was enveloped within a hazy cloud of Blood Mist.

At that moment, the previously motionless Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg seemed to sense something. It suddenly emitted a pulling force, drawing the Blood Mist into itself and transforming it into nourishment for its own growth.

Once all the Blood Mist had been completely absorbed, the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg returned to its earlier grayish-white appearance.

But by then, Zhou Chun had already formed a mysterious connection with the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg. He could faintly sense that the life within, whose growth had originally been sealed, was rapidly developing.

Generally speaking, if someone obtained a Demonic Beast Spirit Egg but had not yet found a suitable owner for it, cultivators who possessed special sealing secret techniques would use those techniques to temporarily seal the egg's Life Force, greatly delaying its growth and hatching.

Only after an owner contracted the Demonic Beast Spirit Egg would the seal be lifted and rendered ineffective. At that point, the egg would rapidly develop and hatch many times faster than normal.

After observing the Rock Earth Tortoise Spirit Egg for nearly an hour, Zhou Chun concluded that it would hatch in as little as two days or as long as three.

Thus, he did not put it away. Instead, he placed it beneath his bed and allowed it to hatch on its own.

In the latter half of the night, Zhou Chun slept lightly for less than two hours before rising and heading for the summit cliff of Precious Lingzhi Peak.

He had thought he had arrived early enough. When he got there, it should not yet have been Maoshi, five in the morning.

But upon arriving, he discovered that Zhou Yong and three other Zhou Family cultivators from Precious Lingzhi Peak were already waiting there.

There was truly no shortage of diligent people in this world!

Zhou Chun sighed softly to himself and found a place to sit cross-legged.

By around the second quarter of Maoshi, when the sky at the horizon was gradually beginning to brighten, seven Zhou Family cultivators had gathered atop the cliff.

At that moment, the seven each sat cross-legged on the cliff, formed Hand Seals, and swiftly entered a meditative cultivation state.

When the morning sun first rose and purple qi came from the east, the seven had already entered the perfect state, collecting a wisp of Morning Purple Qi in their most complete condition and refining it into their bodies.

When Zhou Chun opened his eyes again, finished his cultivation, and rose to his feet, the sky was already bright, and it was the fourth quarter of Chenshi.

By then, three Zhou Family cultivators had already finished cultivating and departed, while the other three, including Zhou Yong, were still meditating.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun silently left the summit cliff as well and headed to the communal dining hall on Precious Lingzhi Peak for breakfast.

When the Zhou Family had migrated from the distant Feng Kingdom, the vast majority of their mortal clansmen had been left behind in Feng Kingdom and could not be brought along. Only the mortal relatives of several high-level cultivators, such as the Foundation Establishment Realm elders, had been brought here to Jing Kingdom.

The Zhou Family was now in a state where everything awaited rebuilding. Even these mortals, though they were relatives of the Zhou Family's high-level cultivators, had to contribute their own share of effort to the family.

Thus, places such as the dining halls and laundry rooms on each peak were all run by these people.

However, these people had once been accustomed to comfort and privilege. Now that they were doing such work, it was only natural that they could not satisfy others.

Zhou Chun took several meat buns for breakfast, only to find that two of them were not even fully cooked. If not for the fact that he had not paid for them and did not want to cause trouble just after arriving, he truly would have cursed aloud.

In the end, he angrily tossed aside the buns and left, deciding that from now on, he might as well cook for himself.

After casually finding some edible wild fruits in the mountains to fill his stomach, Zhou Chun headed to the residence of Peak Master Zhou He.

Although Zhou Fei and the others had previously explained some things about the Zhou Family's current circumstances, they had not gone into much detail, especially regarding the various rules.

Zhou Chun still needed Peak Master Zhou He to explain everything to him in detail, so that he would know what was what.

Haha, one reader really did guess some of it. Everyone may as well keep guessing what other main battle Spirit Pets will appear later—I have already planned out around seven kinds of Spirit Pets!