Chapter 162: Chapter 113: Modest Gains, Planning for Foundation Establishment [Subscribe Please]
After leaving the Hongyan Mountain Range, Zhou Chun couldn't help but reflect on the recent events.
"What happened today really illustrates an eternal truth," he thought.
No matter when or whether male or female, the moment one chooses to be a sycophant, they're doomed to be at the mercy of others.
In the world of cultivation, the price of sycophancy isn't just money and emotions, but more likely one's very life.
Moreover, the act of that beautiful lady avenging her husband served as a warning to Zhou Chun.
If he made enemies in the future, he mustn't show mercy if he had the chance to kill them on the spot.
Even if he couldn't kill them immediately, he must remember their faces and find an opportunity to finish them later, not to overlook someone because of their low strength.
After all, this is the cultivation world, a world where one might obtain peerless secret techniques just by jumping off a cliff!
The weakling overlooked today may one day be blessed by fate, gain a powerful inheritance, and then seek revenge, armed with great cultivation and treasures.
By then it won't just be a personal disaster, it will also involve the clan and family members.
Being kind-hearted and softhearted is absolutely unacceptable.
So, when his mana was nearly depleted, Zhou Chun took the opportunity to rest halfway and took stock of his spoils of victory.
The three he had slain this time included one with the cultivation level of the twelfth layer of the Qi Refinement Realm and two at the ninth layer of Qi Refinement.
Thus, Zhou Chun gained two first-grade superior magic artifacts and five first-grade middle-class magic artifacts, including one middle-class flying artifact. .net
The spirit coins in their storage pouches totaled four hundred and fifty-three, which was a considerable sum of wealth.
The various other elixirs, talismans, and sundry items probably amounted to over a hundred spirit coins in total.
Additionally, in the storage pouch of the sycophantic man, Zhou Chun discovered a secret technique for cultivation called "Soul Seeking Technique," a rather rare kind of secret technique focused on location.
According to the classic on this secret technique, the "Soul Seeking Technique" is like an enhanced version of the Aura-Viewing Technique.
When the technique is activated, one can not only discern the cultivation levels of higher realm cultivators but can also view the spiritual radiance emitted by spirit grass, spiritual medicine, and Demon Beasts in the mountains and forests.
The sycophantic man was able to reach the twelfth layer of the Qi Refinement Realm at an age that appeared to be between fifty or sixty years old and owned two first-grade superior magic artifacts for both offense and defense.
Aside from possessing decent aptitude, the main reason was his success in cultivating the "Soul Seeking Technique," which greatly increased his success rate in finding spiritual medicine compared to others.
However, despite the seemingly low requirements for cultivating the "Soul Seeking Technique," as the classic states, it is extremely time-consuming to master.
Based on the cultivation notes Zhou Chun read, which the sycophantic man had kept, he started cultivating this secret technique at eighteen years old, when he was in the fourth layer of Qi Refinement, and it wasn't until he was thirty-two and at the seventh layer of Qi Refinement that he truly mastered the technique to the point of using it to locate spiritual medicine.
And with a touch of pride, he claimed that he was actually quite quick.
His own master had spent nearly twenty-five years mastering this technique!
This revelation swiftly cooled Zhou Chun's initial excitement.
The current Zhou Chun was no longer the man who used to be elated upon acquiring a secret technique.
His understanding of various secret techniques had greatly surpassed his former self.
While the "Soul Seeking Technique" is indeed precious, it is actually quite redundant!
First, it can be affirmed that this technique isn't very useful to Cultivators above the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Because Cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Stage have much stronger Divine Sense and better detection capabilities, their efficacy in locating spiritual medicine will not be inferior.
And which Cultivator, having reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, would still wander the mountains for those spirit medicines less than a hundred years old or barely a century old?
Another point, its ability to discern the cultivation levels of those in higher realms is mostly ineffective against Cultivators in the Purple Mansion Phase.
Therefore, considering the decade or two required to cultivate this technique, isn't it inconsequential for a Cultivator like Zhou Chun, for whom Foundation Establishment isn't a challenge?
It's really only those Loose Cultivators who make a living by gathering spirit herbs that would consider this technique a treasure and be willing to spend long, arduous years cultivating it.
"However, this technique does have some use for the clan. I can suggest to the Clan Leader to bestow it upon common Clan Members who lack the qualifications to cultivate secret techniques. If someone were to succeed later, they could indeed make a fortune with it," Zhou Chun thought as his eyes twinkled, finding a use for this supposed "redundancy."
After tallying up his gains and restoring his mana through meditation, Zhou Chun continued on his journey.
A month later, Zhou Chun returned to the Zhou Family.
This time, he had had good luck and quickly found a golden Qi-rich mine. Not only did he manage to refine two strands of Xinjin Sword Qi in the mine, but he also collected enough golden Qi to supplement three more strands of Xinjin Sword Qi.
And as soon as he returned to Jiufeng Ridge, Zhou Chun received some good news.
After three months of seclusion and consuming the Spirit Ascension Fruit to hit the Foundation Establishment, Baozhi Peak's Peak Master Zhou Jiahe had succeeded in Foundation Establishment!
With that, Zhou Jiahe not only became the fifth Foundation Establishment Cultivator of the Zhou Family but also the only female one.
Moreover, her success diminished the negative impact left by another Zhou Family Cultivator who perished due to a failed attempt at Foundation Establishment, bringing hope and renewed confidence to the other two waiting to use the Spirit Ascension Fruit for their own attempts.