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 learn about the rules for the upcoming Daoist martial arts competition.

He soon learned from him that in most such competitions, which were held to test the younger cultivators, talismans were either prohibited outright or restricted in number and grade.

As for spirit pets, they definitely would not be restricted. Otherwise, magic tools would have to be banned as well.

Therefore, to achieve a good ranking in this sort of Daoist martial arts competition, one had to work hard not only on one's cultivation level but also on magic tools, spirit pets, and spell cultivation.

Zhou Chun's current magic tool setup was actually quite good. Among the mid Qi Refining Stage cultivators of the Zhou Family, he was considered above average, but he could not yet claim to have any great advantage.

As for spell cultivation, registration for the Youth Group was limited to cultivators under thirty. Everyone was roughly the same age, so the differences probably would not be too great.

If he really encountered someone with exceptional talent in spell cultivation, he could only blame his own bad luck.

There was no need to say much about spirit pets. Unless they belonged to a family like the Zhou Family, which had inherited the Beast Taming Arts, most Qi Refining cultivators could not afford to raise spirit pets, let alone raise them well.

After thinking it over again and again, Zhou Chun decided that, besides ensuring he advanced to Level Eight Qi Refining before participating in the competition, he would also try to obtain a First-grade High-tier magic tool.

If he managed that, then as long as the top ten in the Youth Group were not all cultivators above Layer 10 Qi Refining, he should have a very good chance of making it in.

To obtain a First-grade High-tier magic tool, Zhou Chun had only two options: purchase one at Red Cliff Market or exchange for one through the family.

Although the Zhou Family no longer distributed Spirit Coins as benefits and stipends to its clansmen, the Merit Points issued in their place each year could still be exchanged for items from the family treasury.

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

The Zhou Family had only implemented the Merit Points system for a little over two years. As an Ordinary Clansman, Zhou Chun could receive only twenty Merit Points in benefits each year.

Even counting the Merit Points he had obtained during his trip to Red Peach Ridge, he was still nowhere near having enough to exchange for a First-grade High-tier magic tool.

Fortunately, even if he did not have enough Merit Points, he could make up the shortfall with Spirit Coins.

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

In that case, he only needed to gather roughly another hundred Spirit Coins before he could 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 they needed but did not have enough money, this was usually what they thought of.

But after Zhou Chun went over everyone he could borrow money from, he hesitated again.

There were actually not many Zhou Family cultivators who had a good enough relationship with him to lend him money.

Moreover, the few cultivators who could lend him money all seemed likely to register for this Daoist martial arts competition.

If Zhou Chun asked them to lend him money now, unless they themselves did not plan to participate, whether they lent it or not seemed likely to affect their relationship.

I'd better sound them out first. I'll tell them about this news. If they're planning to participate, I won't ask to borrow money.

With that thought, Zhou Chun immediately began visiting them one family at a time.

The result was exactly as he had expected. After learning that the Five Great Families were joining forces to hold a Daoist martial arts tournament, several people, including Zhou Zhengyong, said they planned to register and win glory for the family.

Two of them had no intention of registering because they were over the age limit or knew that their cultivation was too low.

However, when Zhou Chun brought up borrowing money, the two pooled their resources and could only scrape together less than thirty Spirit Coins for him.

As it turned out, they had already spent the Spirit Coins they had on hand purchasing pills and other items.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun felt too embarrassed to empty the small amount of emergency Spirit Coins they had left, so he abandoned the idea of borrowing money.

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

He had several magic tools that he could sell at the market for Spirit Coins. If he took a little risk and used Purifying Spirit Water to purify a Hundred-Year Spirit Medicine before selling it, he could completely make up the shortfall of more than a hundred Spirit Coins.

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

Another month or so passed. At last, news about the Five Great Families jointly holding the Daoist martial arts competition was formally announced to all the Zhou Family clansmen, along with the relevant rules.

According to the rules, every cultivator participating in the competition could bring only five talismans into each match, and only one First-grade High-tier talisman was permitted.

Each family could send only ten people from each group to participate in the Daoist martial arts competition.

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

Because of this restriction, the Zhou Family first had to hold a preliminary selection tournament.

The selection tournament was also scheduled. It would be held one month before the official start of the event.

With the announcement of this news, the qualified Zhou Family cultivators all began rubbing their fists and preparing for battle with great effort.

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 a good ranking in the event, they would not only receive the prizes jointly prepared by the Five Great Families but also earn the favor of the Patriarch and elders. The benefits waiting for them in the future would be countless.

Under these 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, while the few left were all the sort of unwanted junk no one wanted.

"It seems I can't count on the family anymore. I'll have to find a way through the market."

A gloomy look flashed through his eyes. Zhou Chun could not help shaking his head as he abandoned the idea of exchanging for a magic tool from the family.

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

At this point, less than two months had passed since his twenty-fourth birthday.

A twenty-four-year-old Level Eight Qi Refining cultivator was considered among the faster cultivators in the Zhou Family.

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

However, after consuming a Blood Spirit Pill, Zhou Zhengyong's spirit pet, the Crimson Tail Monkey, had successfully advanced into a First-grade High-tier Demonic Beast, and its strength had increased tremendously.

As for Zhou Chun's Rock Earth Turtle, after consuming all three bottles of Beast Spirit Pills, its cultivation had only just caught up with that of its master.

If he relied only on his 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 who were participating in the Daoist martial arts competition were truly not high.

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

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

"The area outside Red Cliff Market is a mix of fish and snakes, and rogue cultivators run rampant. Zheng Chun, if you're going to the market, you'd better find someone to accompany you. And when you leave, be extra careful not to let anyone follow and ambush you."

In Zhongping Hall, Zhou Daoyi looked at Zhou Chun before him and pondered for a while. In the end, he did not refuse Zhou Chun's request to leave, merely giving him a solemn warning to be careful while traveling outside.

After hearing him out, Zhou Chun replied solemnly, "This junior will certainly remember the Patriarch's teachings."

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

Zhou Chun naturally would not ignore Zhou Daoyi's warning, but what he intended to do this time was truly unsuitable for having a Zhou Family cultivator accompany him.

After traveling roughly a hundred miles from Nine Peaks Ridge, he changed his clothes and then summoned his flying magic tool to continue on his way.

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

After spending more than half a day on the journey, Zhou Chun arrived outside the Red Rock Mountain Range.

Standing at the outskirts of the mountain range and gazing toward Red Cliff Market, he could not help recalling his first visit there more than three years earlier.

At that time, his journey to the market had been fraught with danger at every step, and he had been terrified to the extreme.

But this time, that situation would definitely not happen again!

Zhou Chun first found a place to meditate and restore his spiritual power. Once it had completely recovered, he took a large gulp of Purifying Spirit Water, used his flying magic tool to rise more than three hundred zhang into the air, raised a protective shield, and flew directly toward Red Cliff Market.

This action undoubtedly exposed him to the view of many cultivators in the mountain range below.

However, when the rogue cultivators saw how high he was flying, they abandoned the idea of attacking one after another.

At such a height, they could not lock onto their target at all if they attacked, and would only expose their own locations.

Moreover, anyone who possessed a flying magic tool would make them wary of his background and origins to some degree, so they would not rashly attack.

Thus, Zhou Chun flew all the way to the outskirts of Red Cliff Market and descended without encountering a single attack.