Clan Cultivation: Starting from Beast Taming

Zhou Chun nodded, very pleased with the growth of the Purple Mulberry.

He then turned his gaze toward the several Spirit Pets in the valley.

The Golden Armor Rock Turtle, Stone, had been a second-order top-grade Demon Beast for some years now, and its cultivation had ceased to grow; the next step was to seek an opportunity to break through to the third order.

And with the Golden Winged Tiger catching up rapidly in growth after the two elder brothers ceased sharing resources, it had also advanced to become a second-order top-grade Demon Beast.

The important task for Zhou Chun, aside from his own cultivation, was now to seek opportunities for these two to evolve and break through.

"Stone is easier to deal with. If I can exchange for the 'Mountain Soul Pearl' from the Tianzhi Hermit, with its talent, it should be able to condense a Demon Core without much difficulty."

"The Golden Winged Tiger is a bit more troublesome. Its dual attributes of wind and metal might give it strength far beyond its peers, but they also limit its potential for breakthrough; it probably will have to start with Elixirs!"

Zhou Chun's gaze flickered as he summoned the Golden Winged Tiger and stroked its head, having formulated some plans for the evolution of the two Spirit Pets.

He had always been a sentimental man; these Spirit Pets had followed him from a young age, accompanying him through growth and battle. In his heart, their place was probably even more important than that of his Dao companion, Su Yuzhen.

He had long since regarded them as his own children.

Thus, as long as there was an opportunity to help them evolve into higher-level Demon Beasts, he would definitely spare no effort to accomplish it.

After playing with the Spirit Pets for a while, Zhou Chun sent a message to Zhou Mingde, who was cultivating in Tuyun Ridge, inviting him to his cave dwelling to express his wish to travel to the Great Zhou Kingdom again.

Zhou Mingde naturally would not object, since Zhou Chun had mentioned it when he had returned before.

After admonishing him to be careful for his safety, he let him go.

Thus, Zhou Chun made some brief preparations and quietly set off on the road to the Great Zhou Kingdom.

Since this trip was not urgent, Zhou Chun also took a detour to the Yang Kingdom to visit Lin Wan'er, who was cultivating there.

"Clan Leader, your arrival is timely, as there is a matter I wish to personally report to the family and to you."

Inside the Hongyu Peak Stronghold, Lin Wan'er expressed surprise at Zhou Chun's arrival and immediately pulled him into her cave dwelling to discuss an important issue.

It turned out that after decades of development, the Yang Kingdom had also recovered a good deal of its essence energy, leading to an evolving and less chaotic cultivation world.

Several major sects of the Yang Kingdom that had suffered tremendous losses during the "Thousand Absolute Bug Calamity" now intended to reconstruct their sects.

However, these sects had suffered extreme losses during the calamity; not only had nearly all disciples below the fourth order perished, but even the cultivating families under their command had been annihilated, creating a severe break in the successional chain.

If they wanted to rejuvenate their sects using the old method of slowly recruiting and training disciples, it would be too inefficient and would potentially take hundreds of years without yielding results.

Indeed, it might not even be possible to produce any results.

After all, there were no longer numerous cultivating families to provide them with high-quality disciples; the population of mortals now restored in the Yang Kingdom was simply too small to yield many individuals with Spirit Root Aptitude.

Most crucially, having lost their mountain gates and resource points in the calamity, they had no means to offer the necessary resources to train disciples as before.

Hence, these major sects aimed their sights on the cultivating families and individual cultivators that had migrated within the Yang Kingdom, intending to incorporate these families and loose cultivators to build up their sects' foundational structures.

This project, in principle, would be mutually beneficial for those cultivating families and cultivators above the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Because of this, not only would they have the backing of a strong power above, but they would also have high-ranking cultivators guiding their cultivation and the opportunity to form their own factions within the major sects, thereby gaining considerable power.

However, for the Hongyu Peak Stronghold, this was not an easy matter.

After all, the Hongyu Peak Stronghold was currently operating under the banner of Lin Hongyu, a Golden Core Stage cultivator, and the Yang Kingdom's major sect, Golden Light Sect, wanted to absorb the cultivators of the Hongyu Peak Stronghold and even Lin Hongyu herself by offering her the position of Elder in the Golden Light Sect.

Although the Golden Light Sect had suffered great losses during the insect calamity, it still had a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator and several Golden Core Stage cultivators, so their top-tier combat strength was still intact.

Since the order to absorb them had already reached the Hongyu Peak Stronghold, there were only two paths left for the Hongyu Peak Stronghold.

"I understand this matter, Elder Lin. You can pack your belongings and return to the family tomorrow. I will personally escort you part of the way. Since the Golden Light Sect wants the Hongyu Peak Stronghold, let them have it!"

Zhou Chun listened to Lin Wan'er's account and almost immediately made his decision without a second thought.

Both he and the Zhou Family could not possibly allow Lin Hongyu to join the Golden Light Sect, and he believed Lin Hongyu would not join either.

Therefore, there really wasn't much of a choice. Just packing up and leaving was all that was left to do.

After all, the mission of the Hongyu Peak Stronghold had actually ended once the Earth Origin Crystal Jade vein was depleted.

Giving up the place, aside from Lin Wan'er, who had already spent several decades there, no one from the Zhou Family would feel reluctant to leave.

"Yes, I will obey the command."

Lin Wan'er opened her mouth, but ultimately bowed her head and agreed with a resigned tone.

She had actually known Zhou Chun would decide this, but to give up a place where she had stayed for several decades was definitely not an easy decision to make at heart.

If Zhou Chun had not come, she might have tried to delay the time a bit longer to see if there were any other opportunities.

But now that Zhou Chun had made the decision for her, she had nothing more to say.

Early the next morning, as he said, Zhou Chun personally escorted Lin Hongyu away from the Hongyu Peak Stronghold.

As for the other cultivators in the stronghold, none were likely to follow Lin Hongyu.

After all, compared to a cultivator family like the Zhou Family, which did not even have a Golden Core Stage cultivator, becoming a disciple of the major sect Golden Light Sect was obviously far more tempting.

After escorting Lin Wan'er for thousands of miles, Zhou Chun let her return to the family on her own, while he detoured to the Great Zhou Kingdom.

Several months later, Zhou Chun smoothly arrived at Tianyuan Immortal City.

And the first thing he did after returning to Tianyuan Immortal City was naturally to inquire about Luo Qingni's whereabouts.

The information he gathered turned out as he expected. Luo Qingni had not yet succeeded in Core Formation.

Thus, Zhou Chun went to the place in the city where cave abodes were rented, and directly rented a cave abode not too far from where Luo Qingni's was located, paying five years of rent in advance.

In the time that followed, Zhou Chun devoted himself to cultivation in seclusion in the rented cave abode, waiting for Luo Qingni to finish her seclusion.

About two years later, the heavenly phenomenon associated with Nascent Soul Formation finally appeared above Luo Qingni's cave abode.