Pills and Magic Tools

Although Mu Xuanfeng had put it politely, he was asking Zhou Chun to leave the Mu Family.

How could Zhou Chun not understand what this "asking" meant? Naturally, he did not dare refuse his "kind intentions."

Thus, before Zhou Chun had even warmed a seat in the Mu Family, and before he had time to greet Mu Family cultivators such as Mu Ziying and Mu Yunqing, with whom he had fairly good relations, Mu Xuanfeng personally escorted him to the Zhou Family of Nine Peaks Ridge.

After arriving at Nine Peaks Ridge, Zhou Chun, despite being a Zhou Family cultivator, was instead left waiting outside Zhongping Hall.

He waited for nearly half an hour before finally seeing the Zhou Family Patriarch, Zhou Daoyi, send Mu Xuanfeng out of the hall with a smile, escorting him all the way to the mountain gate before returning.

After returning to Zhongping Hall, Zhou Daoyi called Zhou Chun, who had been waiting outside, into the hall and began discussing his arrangements.

"Mu Xuanfeng has told me everything about what happened in the Mu Family. Zheng Chun, you truly worked hard this time. I and the family will remember your contributions to the family."

"In a moment, take my token to Hundred Medicine Peak and ask the Grand Elder for one bottle of Spring Sun Pills and three bottles of Beast Spirit Pills. Consider them the family's reward for this mission."

"After that, stay in the family and cultivate diligently. If there are any other missions, I will summon you again."

This arrangement did not surprise Zhou Chun. It was more or less what he had expected and was perfectly normal.

Moreover, the rewards were excellent, and they were all things he needed.

He hurriedly bowed and thanked him. "Thank you, Patriarch, for the reward."

Then he left Pagoda Peak with the token Zhou Daoyi had given him.

However, Zhou Chun did not hurry to Hundred Medicine Peak to collect the pills from the family's Grand Elder. Instead, he first returned to his residence atop Precious Lingzhi Peak.

He had not returned in over a year, and many withered branches and fallen leaves had already drifted into his residence. A layer of dust had also settled over the tables and chairs.

Seeing this, he opened the doors and windows, then formed a spell seal with his hand. A Dust Removal Technique immediately shook all the dust from the tables, chairs, and stools, and a breeze carried it out into the courtyard.

Only after seeing that the room looked much cleaner and brighter did Zhou Chun nod in satisfaction. He closed the doors and windows again and began counting his spoils.

He opened the Storage Bag Mu Xuanfeng had given him and directly dumped everything inside onto the floor.

To Zhou Chun's surprise, there was quite a lot inside.

Besides the several magic tools he cared about, there were also talismans, books, Spirit Coins, clothing, and all sorts of other items commonly carried by cultivators.

This showed that Mu Xuanfeng truly had not touched anything inside the Storage Bag.

Indeed, with the Mu Family Patriarch's status, these things are nothing to him. Why would he be petty and invite ridicule?

After figuring this out, Zhou Chun could not help laughing at himself. He realized he had been thinking like a petty man.

Shaking his head, he immediately began counting the pile of items on the floor.

Aside from the magic tools, there were seven talismans: five First-grade Low-tier Talismans and two First-grade Mid-tier Talismans.

The books included a cultivation manual, notes on personal cultivation insights, and several volumes recording knowledge about spirit medicines and demon 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 black iron shield magic tool, a silvery-white short sword magic tool, and a black saber magic tool.

Of these four magic tools, the Bamboo Leaf Flying Magic Tool was equivalent to a First-grade Mid-tier magic tool, as were the iron shield and short sword. The black saber magic tool was only 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.

To control a magic tool as one wished, a cultivator first had to leave a Spiritual Sense Imprint inside it and refine it with their magical power.

The original owner's Spiritual Sense Imprint had already been erased from the three magic tools in Zhou Chun's hands. It had probably been done by Mu Xuanfeng, which saved him quite a bit of trouble.

Otherwise, with his Level Seven Qi Refining cultivation, erasing the yellow-robed, middle-aged man's Spiritual Sense Imprint would have required him to focus his energy and spend several days at the very least.

Now, he only needed to use the refinement incantation to leave his own Spiritual Sense Imprint inside the tools, then inject his magical power to wash away the previous owner's remaining aura.

In this manner, refining the three magic tools took Zhou Chun less than two days.

The power of the new magic tools also left Zhou Chun extremely satisfied.

The silvery short sword was exceptionally sharp. When controlled, it could unleash razor-sharp sword light to kill enemies. Unless one possessed a magic tool of the same grade, it would be difficult to withstand its edge.

The black iron shield was even more marvelous. After being refined, it could fly around its master at will, protecting him from front and back. Although it could not provide full-body protection, its defensive power alone far surpassed that of the First-grade Mid-tier spell Adamantine Shield.

Most importantly, as long as a magic tool was not damaged, it could be used continuously, whereas spells and talismans all had limited durations.

As for the flying magic tool, it was far too conspicuous, so Zhou Chun did not dare fly high into the sky to try it. He merely found an open space outside the courtyard and flew a few circles, finding it extremely satisfactory.

This item was actually more useful to him than to any other Qi Refining cultivator.

Other Qi Refining cultivators had to worry about exhausting their magical power while outside and would never dare use this tool to travel by air.

But he could meditate and recover his magical power anywhere in the wilderness, so he had no need to worry about exhausting it.

However, using this item to fly while traveling was indeed too conspicuous. With Zhou Chun's current cultivation, he was probably still unable to deter those bandit cultivators.

Therefore, his intended use for it was still similar to that of the yellow-robed, middle-aged man: he would only use it in certain emergencies.

After refining and testing his newly acquired magic tools, Zhou Chun suddenly remembered that there was still one thing he had not done, and he hurried to take care of it.

He carried the Stone Jar filled with Purifying Spirit Water into the courtyard and directly fed half a jar to the Rock Earth Turtle sleeping beside the courtyard gate.

It was rather interesting. The Rock Earth Turtle normally hardly drank water at all, relying only on tree bark and leaves for its water intake.

Purifying Spirit Water was an exception, however. Although Zhou Chun could not taste anything in the water, the turtle seemed able to savor a flavor he could not detect and accepted it without refusing.

Zhou Chun was more than happy to see this.

According to the studies and comparisons conducted by senior cultivators, demon beasts were less affected by Turbid Fiendish Energy than cultivators, but they were still affected.

Thus, even without cultivators feeding them various pills and spiritual items, demon 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 more intelligent.

Under such circumstances, cultivators who raised Spirit Pets generally tried their best to keep them from absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the wild, lest they become tainted by Turbid Fiendish Energy.

However, demon beasts had far less control over this than cultivators. Even if a low-tier demon beast had its master's orders, once it used a spell and expended its magical power, it would passively absorb more or less spiritual energy from heaven and earth to replenish and recover its power. This was an instinctive bloodline talent that was difficult for them to control.

Zhou Chun's Rock Earth Turtle had fought in the wild before and had naturally absorbed spiritual energy tainted by 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 fed it Purifying Spirit Water now, to purge the Turbid Fiendish Energy from its body.

Only after ensuring that the Turbid Fiendish Energy in the Rock Earth Turtle's body had been completely purified did Zhou Chun pat its head as it conveyed feelings of happiness and satisfaction to him, then leave the courtyard.

It was time to go to Hundred Medicine Peak and collect the pills that Zhou Daoyi, the Zhou Family Patriarch, 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 better suited for growing various spirit medicines. Thus, after the Zhou Family occupied Nine Peaks Ridge, they designated this peak as the family's future Spirit Medicine Garden and stationed the family's Grand Elder, Zhou Mingshan, there.

As the Zhou Family's Grand Elder, Zhou Mingshan was an elder of extremely high standing whose seniority and cultivation were second only to the Grand Elder Zhou Mingde.

He was also currently the Zhou Family's most accomplished alchemist. Most of the pills consumed by the Zhou Family cultivators and their Pet Beasts came from his hands.

Unfortunately, as far as Zhou Chun knew, this Zhou Family elder had very little lifespan remaining and would very likely exhaust his years and pass away within a decade.

Therefore, unless something especially significant occurred, the Zhou Family clansmen rarely saw this Grand Elder leave Hundred Medicine Peak.

When Zhou Chun reached Hundred Medicine Peak and explained the reason for his visit, an alchemy apprentice who received him went to inform Grand Elder Zhou Mingshan.

While waiting outside, he took the opportunity to look over Hundred Medicine Peak.

When the medicine fields had first been opened, Zhou Chun had come to Hundred Medicine Peak to work and turn over the soil.

Two years had passed since then. The medicine fields that had been opened were now planted with Spirit Medicine Seeds, and many of them already showed emerald-green seedlings poking through the soil. Some fast-growing varieties were even more than a chi tall.

At a glance, Zhou Chun easily recognized common medicinal herbs such as ginseng, polygonatum, fleeceflower root, and poria.

These herbs looked no different from the medicinal materials of the same names found in mortal medicine shops. In truth, however, they were superior spirit seeds selected and cultivated by cultivators, with high-quality Hundred-Year Spirit Medicines as their parent plants.

After growing in the medicine fields for two or three decades, they could be used as spirit medicines in pills. Once they reached a hundred years, they would become extremely valuable Hundred-Year Spirit Medicines.

For any Cultivation Force with a long-standing heritage, a Spirit Medicine Garden was one of its greatest treasures and one of its most important places.

When the Three Absolute Sect withdrew from Feng Kingdom, its thousand-year-old Spirit Medicine Garden had been among the first things moved.

Yet as Zhou Chun looked at the tender seedlings in the medicine fields scattered across Hundred Medicine Peak, he knew that the rare spirit medicines transferred away by the Three Absolute Sect had probably all been divided among the three forces with Golden Core cultivators overseeing them.

From this, it could be seen that although the Zhou Family was nominally a Cultivation Family with a heritage spanning more than a thousand years, aside from its inherited Beast Taming Arts and some cultivation manuals, it was no different from a newly established family in terms of spirit medicine resources and mine resources. Everything still had to start from scratch and be accumulated anew.