Although Mu Xuanfeng spoke politely, he was asking Zhou Chun to leave the Mu Family.
But how could Zhou Chun fail to understand what that word "ask" meant? He dared not oppose Mu Xuanfeng's "kind intentions," either.
Thus, before Zhou Chun had even warmed his seat in the Mu Family, before he had even had time to greet Mu Ziying, Mu Yunqing, and the other Mu Family cultivators with whom he was on fairly good terms, Mu Xuanfeng personally brought him to the Zhou Family of Nine Peaks Ridge.
Once they arrived at Nine Peaks Ridge, Zhou Chun, a Zhou Family cultivator, was instead left waiting outside Zhongping Hall.
He waited for nearly half an hour before he saw Zhou Daoyi, the Zhou Family Patriarch, smiling as he escorted Mu Xuanfeng out of the great hall. Zhou Daoyi did not return until he had seen him all the way to the mountain gate.
After returning to Zhongping Hall, Zhou Daoyi summoned Zhou Chun, who had been waiting outside, into the hall and spoke of his arrangements for him.
"Fellow Daoist Mu Xuanfeng has told me everything that happened in the Mu Family. Zheng Chun, you have indeed worked hard this time. Both I and the family will remember the contributions you have made to the family."
"Later, take my token to Hundred Medicine Peak and seek out the Grand Elder. Collect one bottle of Spring Sun Pills and three bottles of Beast Spirit Pills as the family's reward for this mission."
"From now on, remain within the family and cultivate diligently. If there are other assignments, I will summon you again."
This arrangement did not come as any surprise to Zhou Chun. It was a perfectly normal arrangement.
Moreover, the rewards given to him were excellent, all things he needed.
He immediately bowed and said, "Many thanks for the Patriarch's reward."
Then, carrying the token Zhou Daoyi had given him, he left Pagoda Peak.
However, Zhou Chun was in no hurry to head to Hundred Medicine Peak, where the Zhou Family Grand Elder resided, to collect his elixirs. Instead, he first returned to his residence on Precious Lingzhi Peak.
After more than a year away, many dead branches and fallen leaves had accumulated inside Zhou Chun's residence, and a layer of dust coated the tables and chairs.
Seeing this, he opened the doors and windows, formed a hand seal, and used a Dust Removal Technique. All the dust on the tables, chairs, and benches was shaken loose, then carried by a gentle breeze into the courtyard outside.
Only after seeing the room become much cleaner and brighter did Zhou Chun nod in satisfaction. He shut the doors and windows again and began taking stock of his gains.
He opened the Storage Bag Mu Xuanfeng had handed him and directly poured out everything inside.
To Zhou Chun's surprise, there were quite a few things inside.
Besides the several magic tools he cared about, there were also talismans, books, Spirit Coins, clothing, and all manner of items cultivators carried with them.
This showed that Mu Xuanfeng truly had not touched anything in the Storage Bag.
"Indeed. Given the status of the Mu Family Patriarch, these things are nothing to him. Why would he be so petty as to invite ridicule?"
After understanding this, Zhou Chun could not help laughing at himself, realizing that he had judged another by his own petty heart.
Shaking his head, he immediately inventoried the pile of items on the ground.
Aside from the magic tools, there were seven talismans on the ground: five First-grade Low-tier Talismans and two first-grade mid-tier Talismans.
There was also one cultivation manual, a notebook of personal cultivation insights, and several texts recording knowledge related to spirit medicines and demonic beasts.
There were also fifty-seven Spirit Coins.
As for the magic tools, there were four in total: the Bamboo Leaf Flying Magic Tool Zhou Chun had seen before, a jet-black iron shield magic tool, a silver-white short sword magic tool, and a black longsaber magic tool.
Among these four magic tools, the Bamboo Leaf Flying Magic Tool was equivalent to a first-grade mid-tier magic tool. Both the iron shield and short sword magic tools were first-grade mid-tier magic tools, while the black longsaber was merely a first-grade low-tier magic tool.
After inspecting the magic tools, Zhou Chun immediately began refining the three first-grade mid-tier magic tools.
For a cultivator to wield a magic tool as freely as their own limbs, they first had to leave their own Spiritual Sense Imprint within it and refine it with spiritual power.
The Spiritual Sense Imprints left by the previous owner inside Zhou Chun's three magic tools had already been erased. This must have been Mu Xuanfeng's doing, saving him considerable trouble.
Otherwise, with his Level Seven Qi Refining cultivation, erasing the Spiritual Sense Imprint of that middle-aged man in yellow would have required him to concentrate for at least several days.
At this point, he only needed to use the refinement hand seals to leave his own Spiritual Sense Imprint within the magic tools, then infuse them with his spiritual power to wash away the lingering aura of their previous owner.
In this way, refining all three magic tools took Zhou Chun less than two days.
The power of the new magic tools also left Zhou Chun extremely satisfied.
That silver short sword was incomparably sharp. When wielded, it could unleash keen sword light to kill enemies. Unless a magic tool was of the same grade, it would be difficult to withstand its edge.
The jet-black iron shield was even more marvelous. Once refined, it could fly around its owner's front and back according to their will, protecting them. Though it could not provide full-body protection, its defensive power alone surpassed the First-grade Mid-tier spell Adamantine Shield by far.
Most importantly, so long as a magic tool was not damaged, it could be used continuously, whereas spells and talismans both had limited durations.
As for the flying magic tool, it was too conspicuous. Zhou Chun did not dare fly it high into the sky, only finding an open space outside the courtyard to make a few short circuits. It felt extremely good.
This item was actually more useful to him than it would be to any other Qi Refining cultivator.
Other Qi Refining cultivators had to worry about exhausting their spiritual power outside and simply did not dare use such an item to fly while traveling.
But he could sit in meditation anywhere in the wilderness to restore his spiritual power, completely free from worries over its consumption.
Still, using this item to fly while traveling was indeed rather eye-catching. With Zhou Chun's current cultivation, he likely could not deter those rogue cultivators.
Therefore, his intended use for it was similar to that of the middle-aged man in yellow: only in certain urgent situations.
After refining and testing the newly acquired magic tools, Zhou Chun suddenly remembered that there was something else he had yet to do, so he hurriedly did it.
Carrying the Stone Jar filled with Purifying Spirit Water into the courtyard, he directly fed half a jar of it to the Rock Earth Turtle, which was lying beside the courtyard gate asleep.
It was quite interesting. The Rock Earth Turtle ordinarily barely drank water, relying solely on tree bark and leaves to replenish its moisture.
Yet Purifying Spirit Water was an exception. Though Zhou Chun could taste nothing at all in this water, the turtle seemed able to savor a flavor he could not perceive, accepting as much as it was given.
Zhou Chun was naturally pleased to see this.
According to the research and comparisons of senior cultivators, demonic beasts were less affected by Turbid Fiendish Energy than cultivators, but they were still affected by it.
Thus, even without cultivators feeding them pills and spirit items, demonic beasts raised in places without Turbid Fiendish Energy grew faster than those in the wild. Their temperaments were also much gentler, and they could even become smarter.
Under such circumstances, cultivators who kept Spirit Pets generally tried their best to prevent them from absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the wilderness, lest they become tainted by Turbid Fiendish Energy.
However, demonic beasts could not control this as well as cultivators. Even if low-grade demonic beasts had an owner's command, once they used spells and depleted their spiritual power, they would still passively absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth to replenish it to some extent. This was an instinctive talent in their bloodline and difficult for them to control.
Zhou Chun's Rock Earth Turtle had previously fought in the wilderness, so it had naturally absorbed spiritual energy tainted with Turbid Fiendish Energy.
Although the amount of Turbid Fiendish Energy was relatively small, he still did not want the Rock Earth Turtle to be affected. That was why he now gave it Purifying Spirit Water to clear the Turbid Fiendish Energy from its body.
After ensuring that the Turbid Fiendish Energy within the Rock Earth Turtle had been completely purified, Zhou Chun patted the turtle's head as it conveyed happy, contented emotions to him, then set out from the courtyard.
Next, it was time to go to Hundred Medicine Peak and collect the elixirs Zhou Daoyi had rewarded him with.
Hundred Medicine Peak lay twelve li south of Pagoda Peak. It was a mountain with exceptionally dense spiritual energy, second only to Pagoda Peak.
Compared with the other peaks of Nine Peaks Ridge, Hundred Medicine Peak had soil and environmental conditions more suitable for planting all kinds of spirit medicines. Therefore, after the Zhou Family occupied Nine Peaks Ridge, they designated this peak as the family's future Spirit Medicine Garden and had the Zhou Family Grand Elder, Zhou Mingshan, oversee it.
As the Zhou Family Grand Elder, Zhou Mingshan was an elder whose seniority and cultivation were second only to the Grand Elder Zhou Mingde. His status was exceedingly high.
Moreover, he possessed the finest Alchemy Skill in the Zhou Family. More than half of the various spirit pills consumed by Zhou Family cultivators and Pet Beasts came from his hands.
Unfortunately, as far as Zhou Chun knew, this Zhou Family elder had little lifespan remaining and would very likely exhaust his lifespan and pass away within ten years.
Therefore, unless something particularly significant occurred, Zhou Family clansmen rarely saw this Grand Elder leave Hundred Medicine Peak.
When Zhou Chun arrived at Hundred Medicine Peak and stated his purpose, an alchemy apprentice who received him went to inform the Grand Elder Zhou Mingshan.
While waiting outside, he took the opportunity to survey Hundred Medicine Peak.
When the medicinal fields had first been opened, Zhou Chun had also come to Hundred Medicine Peak to work and turn the soil.
Now, two years later, those newly opened medicinal fields had all been planted with Spirit Medicine Seeds. In many of them, fresh green shoots had already emerged from the earth. Some of the faster-growing varieties had even reached over a foot in height.
With a single glance, Zhou Chun could easily recognize common medicinal herbs such as ginseng, Yellow Essence, fleeceflower root, and poria.
Though these herbs looked no different from the similarly named herbs found in mortal apothecaries, they were actually superior spirit strains selected and cultivated by cultivators, their mother plants all high-quality Hundred-Year Spirit Medicines.
After growing in the medicinal fields for twenty or thirty years, they could be used as spirit medicines for alchemy. Once they reached a hundred years of age, they became highly valuable Hundred-Year Spirit Medicines.
For any cultivation force with a long inheritance, a Spirit Medicine Garden was one of its greatest treasures and one of its most important places.
When the Three Absolute Sect withdrew from the Feng Kingdom, its thousand-year-old Spirit Medicine Garden had been among the first things transferred.
But as Zhou Chun looked at the tender seedlings in the various medicinal fields atop Hundred Medicine Peak, he knew that those rare spirit medicines transferred away from the Three Absolute Sect had likely all been divided among the three powers guarded by Golden Core stage cultivators.
From this, it was clear that although the Zhou Family was nominally a cultivation family with an inheritance of more than a thousand years, apart from its inherited Beast Taming Arts and certain cultivation manuals, it was no different from a newly established family when it came to spirit medicine resources and Mine Resources. Everything still had to begin from scratch and be accumulated anew.
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