Level Eight Qi Refining

Thanks to Zhou Jiapeng's warning, Zhou Chun had half a year to prepare in advance.

He first sought out Zhou Jiahe, the Peak Master of Precious Lingzhi Peak, to inquire about the rules for such Daoist martial arts competitions.

He soon learned from him that competitions held to assess younger cultivators generally either prohibited the use of talismans outright or imposed restrictions on the quantity and grade of talismans that could be used.

As for Spirit Pets, there would certainly be no restrictions. Otherwise, magic tools would have to be forbidden as well.

Therefore, to achieve a good ranking in this kind of Daoist martial arts competition, aside from one's cultivation level, one had to put effort into magic tools, Spirit Pets, and spell cultivation.

Zhou Chun's current selection of magic tools was already quite decent. Among the Zhou Family's mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, it ranked in the upper tier, but it could not be considered a major advantage.

As for spell cultivation, registration for the Youth Group was limited to cultivators under thirty. Everyone was about the same age, so the gap was likely not very great.

If he truly encountered someone gifted in spell cultivation, then he could only blame his own bad luck.

There was no need to say much about Spirit Pets. Outside of families like the Zhou Family, which passed down the Beast Taming Arts, most Qi Refinement cultivators could not afford to raise Spirit Pets, much less raise them well.

After turning the matter over in his mind, Zhou Chun decided that aside from ensuring he advanced to Level Eight Qi Refining before participating in the Daoist martial arts competition, he also had to find himself a First-grade High-tier magic tool.

That way, so long as the Youth Group's top ten were not all cultivators at Layer 10 Qi Refining or above, he should stand a very good chance of making it in.

To obtain a First-grade High-tier magic tool, Zhou Chun had only two paths to take: buy one at Red Cliff Market, or exchange for one from the Lineage.

Although the Zhou Family no longer distributed Spirit Coins to its clansmen as welfare stipends, the Lineage Merit Points issued in their place every year could still be used to exchange for items from the family treasury.

But First-grade High-tier magic tools were extremely precious, with a market price of at least three hundred Spirit Coins.

The Zhou Family had only implemented its Merit Points system for a little over two years. As an ordinary clansman, Zhou Chun received only twenty Merit Points in yearly welfare stipends.

Thus, even counting the Merit Points he had earned during his earlier trip to Red Peach Ridge, it was still far from enough to exchange for a First-grade High-tier magic tool.

Fortunately, even if he lacked enough Merit Points, he could make up the difference with Spirit Coins.

Zhou Chun therefore checked his wealth and discovered that, thanks to the compensation he had received during his trip to the Mu Family, he still had nearly eighty Spirit Coins on him.

In that case, he only needed to gather another hundred or so Spirit Coins to exchange for a First-grade High-tier magic tool from the family treasury.

As for how to gather a hundred Spirit Coins, the first thing Zhou Chun thought of was borrowing money.

Whenever ordinary people wanted to buy something necessary but did not have enough money, this was what they thought of.

But after Zhou Chun considered everyone he could borrow from, he hesitated again.

There were not actually many Zhou Family cultivators close enough to him that he could borrow money from.

And those few cultivators who could lend him money all seemed eligible to register for this Daoist martial arts competition.

If Zhou Chun went to borrow money from them now, then unless they had no intention of participating, whether they lent it to him or not, it seemed likely to affect their relationship.

I should sound them out first. I'll tell them the news first, and if they plan to participate, then I won't bring up borrowing money.

With that thought, Zhou Chun immediately began visiting them one by one.

The result was just as he had expected. Upon learning that the five Cultivation Families would jointly hold a Daoist martial arts competition, Zhou Zhengyong and several others all said they would register and bring glory to the Lineage.

Two of them, however, did not plan to register because they were over the age limit or knew their cultivation was too low.

But when Zhou Chun brought up borrowing money, even with the two of them pooling their funds, they could only scrape together fewer than thirty Spirit Coins.

It turned out they had already spent their own Spirit Coins on pills and other items.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun could not bring himself to empty them of the little emergency money they had left, so he abandoned the idea of borrowing.

Since he could not borrow Spirit Coins from the Lineage, Zhou Chun had no choice but to turn his attention to the market.

He had several magic tools on him that he could sell at the market for Spirit Coins. If he took a further risk and purified a Hundred-Year Spirit Medicine with Purifying Spirit Water before selling it, the gap of over a hundred Spirit Coins could be completely filled.

Having made up his mind, Zhou Chun settled down to cultivate, intending to head to the market and carry out his plan after reaching Level Eight Qi Refining.

About another month passed, and the matter of the Five Great Families jointly holding a Daoist martial arts competition was finally formally announced to all Zhou Family clansmen, along with the relevant rules.

According to the rules, every cultivator participating in the Daoist martial arts competition could carry only five talismans into each match, and among them, only one could be a first-grade high-tier talisman.

Moreover, each family could send only ten people from each group to participate in the competition.

In other words, even if every eligible Zhou Family cultivator registered, they could only send a total of twenty family disciples from the Elite Group and Youth Group.

Because of this restriction, the Zhou Family had to hold an internal selection competition first.

The date for the selection competition had also been set: one month before the official start of the event.

As news spread, all the Zhou Family cultivators eligible to participate began rubbing their palms together and preparing with all their might.

Any Zhou Family cultivator with a bit of sense knew that this joint event of the Five Great Families would be an important performance for the Zhou Family after establishing itself in the Cultivation World of Misty Prefecture, Jing Kingdom.

If they could represent the Zhou Family and achieve good rankings in the event, they would not only receive the prizes jointly prepared by the Five Great Families, but also gain the favor of the patriarch and elders. The benefits afterward would be countless.

Under such circumstances, Zhou Chun soon learned some very bad news for himself.

Most of the remaining First-grade High-tier magic tools in the family treasury had been exchanged away, and the few left were all unwanted dregs.

Looks like I can't count on the Lineage. Now I can only find a way at the market.

A flash of gloom passed through his eyes. Zhou Chun could not help shaking his head as he gave up on exchanging for a magic tool from the Lineage.

Time slowly passed. After Zhou Chun swallowed the eighth Spring Sun Pill, his cultivation finally broke through to Level Eight Qi Refining as expected.

At that time, less than two months had passed since his twenty-fourth birthday.

A twenty-four-year-old Level Eight Qi Refining cultivator—among the Zhou Family's many clansmen, this cultivation speed placed him among the faster group.

Zhou Zhengyong, who was several years older than Zhou Chun, had only recently broken through to Level Eight Qi Refining, and he too had relied on pills to make the breakthrough.

However, after Zhou Zhengyong's Spirit Pet, the Crimson Tail Monkey, consumed the Blood Spirit Pill, it had successfully advanced into a First-grade High-tier Demonic Beast, and its strength had increased enormously.

Meanwhile, after Zhou Chun's Rock Earth Turtle finished all three bottles of Beast Spirit Pills, its cultivation had only barely caught up with that of its master.

If he relied only on Level Eight Qi Refining cultivation and a First-grade Mid-tier Demonic Beast Rock Earth Turtle, Zhou Chun's chances of defeating the late Qi Refining stage cultivators from the other families participating in the competition were truly not high.

After all, the late Qi Refining stage cultivators from the other families participating in the competition would certainly have First-grade High-tier magic tools in hand.

In light of this, after breaking through to Level Eight Qi Refining, Zhou Chun went to Pagoda Peak to visit Patriarch Zhou Daoyi and stated that he planned to go to Red Cliff Market.

"Outside Red Cliff Market, fish and dragons mingle together, and rogue cultivators run rampant. Zheng Chun, if you are going to the market, it is best to find someone to travel with. When you leave, be especially careful as well. Do not let anyone follow you and set an ambush."

Inside Zhongping Hall, Zhou Daoyi looked at Zhou Chun before him and pondered for a while. In the end, he did not reject his application to leave, but earnestly warned him to be careful while away from home.

After hearing this, Zhou Chun solemnly replied, "This junior will certainly remember the patriarch's teachings."

He then left Nine Peaks Ridge and headed straight for Red Cliff Market.

Naturally, Zhou Chun would not disregard Zhou Daoyi's warning, but what he intended to do this time truly was not suitable for other Zhou Family cultivators to accompany him.

After traveling roughly a hundred li from Nine Peaks Ridge, he changed his attire and brought out a flying magic tool to continue his journey.

Each time he flew one or two hundred li, Zhou Chun would stop to meditate for an hour and recover his spiritual power.

After spending more than half a day in this manner, Zhou Chun arrived outside the Red Rock Mountain Range.

Standing at the outskirts of the mountain range, he gazed in the direction of Red Cliff Market and could not help recalling the first time he had come here more than three years ago.

When he had headed to the market back then, every step had been fraught with danger, and he had been terrified to the extreme.

But this time, that would certainly not happen again!

Zhou Chun first found a place to meditate and recover his spiritual power. Once it had fully recovered, he gulped down a large mouthful of Purifying Spirit Water, then rode his flying magic tool over three hundred zhang into the air. Raising a protective barrier, he flew directly toward Red Cliff Market.

This move undoubtedly exposed him to the eyes of many cultivators in the mountain range below.

But upon seeing his flying altitude, the rogue cultivators all gave up on attacking.

At such a height, they could not possibly lock onto their target if they attacked, and they would expose their own positions as well.

Furthermore, someone with a flying magic tool would inevitably make them wary of his background, so they would not rashly strike without thought.

Thus, Zhou Chun flew all the way to the outside of Red Cliff Market and landed without encountering any attack.