Chapter 435 The barrier reappears, a new stage of war
Time flies, and six years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Six years have passed, and the intensity of the war between the two major realms of cultivating immortals has obviously heated up, and monks at the Golden Core stage have begun to join the war and die.
At the same time, the second batch of recruitment quotas was also issued to various immortal cultivating families a year ago.
The indicators given to the Zhou family this time are more than last time. The Zhou family needs to send one Zifu monk and three foundation-building monks to serve in the Tianling Legion.
Zhou Daoquan and Zhou Jiapeng, who had served for fifteen years, successfully retired and returned to their families.
As for Zhou Zhengyong, the foundation-building monk of the Zhou family who originally replaced Zhou Jiahe, he still needs to continue serving for fifteen years before he can retire.
Speaking of which, it was Zhou Chun's decision to choose Zhou Zhengyong to replace Zhou Jiahe.
At that time, many Zhou family foundation-building monks were covetous of the unredeemed rewards and military exploits left by Zhou Jiahe, and wanted to take a chance.
Among them, Zhou Zhengyong has the highest cultivation level and the strongest will.
Zhou Chun knew that Zhou Zhengyong was not coveting the rewards and military exploits for himself, but wanted to secure a future for his son Zhou Xinlan.
He himself admitted this point frankly and implored him to help facilitate it.
Although Zhou Chun himself did not want this good brother of the same clan to take such a risk, in the end he could not withstand the other party's persistent entreaties and had no choice but to agree to the matter.
As a person with advantages in seniority and cultivation, once Zhou Zhengyong participates in this competition, other younger monks from the Zhou family will naturally not be able to compete with him.
At that time, those Zhou family monks who failed in the competition naturally did not expect that just a few years later, the second batch of recruitment quotas would come down.
This time, even if they didn't want to go to the battlefield, it was impossible.
So after some discussions and disputes, Zhou Daoyi led three Zhou family foundation-building monks, Xu Fu, Zhou Xinyan, and Zhou Xintie, to Feng Country.
To be honest, this final decision was made after a long debate among several senior members of the Zhou family.
At that time, Zhou Mingde and Zhou Daoyi first eliminated Zhou Chun as an option, and then they both competed to go to the battlefield, and each had their own reasons.
Zhou Mingde used Lin Hongyu and Qingjiao Qingqing as reasons, saying that it was more important for Zhou Daoyi to stay in the family than for him.
Zhou Daoyi used Zhou Mingde's status as the reason, thinking that as Zhou Mingde was the number one figure in rebuilding the Zhou family, nothing could happen to him, otherwise the blow to the Zhou family would be huge.
Moreover, he believed that with the protection of the third-level dragon, he would be more likely to survive on the battlefield than Zhou Mingde.
In this way, the two argued several times but neither could convince the other. In the end, Zhou Chun felt that Zhou Daoyi's statement was more reasonable and supported Zhou Daoyi's departure.
What is worth mentioning is that, sixteen years later, although the Zhou family lost Zhou Jiahe, an elder who was in the late stage of foundation building, they also added two more foundation building monks.
The two newly added foundation-building monks are named Zhou Sijun and Zhou Sihan.
Among them, Zhou Sijun succeeded in building a foundation by exchanging the "Foundation-Building Pill", but Zhou Sihan succeeded in building a foundation by relying on the "Yuan-Building Fruit".
Perhaps because they felt the pressure of the war, when the two Zhou family monks chose their exercises, one actually chose top-level exercises and the other chose fighting exercises.
The one who chose to practice the top-level skills was Zhou Sijun. He chose to practice a top-level skills called "Black Water Mysterious Skill".
Getting started with this top-level technique is relatively simple. You only need to find some rare water-attribute spiritual objects to prepare a special spiritual liquid to assist in practice.
However, this top-level technique is easy to get started but difficult to master.
In the future, monks who practice this technique will need to condense a special kind of true water called "Xuanyin Black Water". Only by condensing the amount of this special true water to a certain amount can they break through the small realm.
Condensing "Xuanyin Black Water" is not only very time-consuming, but also requires a place with strong water-attribute aura to achieve the best results.
Therefore, the cultivation speed of monks who practice "Black Water Mysterious Technique" is actually not as fast as that of monks who actually practice other top-level techniques. This kind of technique is relatively mediocre.
On the other hand, Zhou Sihan, a monk of the Zhou family, is the first monk among the many foundation-building monks of the Zhou family to choose to practice fighting techniques.
He has ice-attributed spiritual root qualifications, and the technique he chose to practice is called "Xuanbing Jue". During the practice, he needs to use thousands of years of Xuanbing as an auxiliary spiritual object.
It just so happens that there are a lot of these things in the ice cave in the wilderness.
Once you successfully practice this "Xuanbing Jue", you will be able to obtain two powerful magical powers. A body of Xuanbing mana will also have a great bonus when casting ice walking spells.
In fact, the changes in the choice of exercises by Zhou Sijun and Zhou Sihan are exactly the feedback of the changes in the power and strength of the Zhou family.
In the past, when the Zhou family was weak, most of the new foundation-building monks chose to practice techniques that could quickly improve their mana cultivation. This way, they could improve their cultivation level faster and require less resources.
Now, the Zhou family is powerful and has a deep foundation. With enough Zifu monks and foundation-building monks to protect them from the wind and rain, and the ability to collect all kinds of rare spiritual objects, the new foundation-building monks will naturally
There are more choices.
This is also another sense in which the predecessors plant trees and the descendants enjoy the shade.
On this day, in the cave on Tuyun Ridge, after Zhou Chun woke up from meditation, he felt the magic power in his body that was difficult to gain an inch, and couldn't help but murmur to himself: "The barrier of the realm in the later stage of Zifu has finally been touched.
The Supreme Elder has been stuck on this step for more than 20 years, and there is still no hope of a breakthrough. How long will I be stuck on it?"
However, after sixteen years of practice, with an average of one pill per year, as originally expected, he had pushed his cultivation to the peak of the middle stage of Zifu, and was stuck in front of the barrier of the small realm of the late stage of Zifu.
Having had the experience of being stuck in front of the small barrier in the middle stage of Zifu, Zhou Chun certainly knew that it would not be easy to break through this barrier.
The last time he spent almost ten years polishing his magic power, he finally broke through the barrier with his water-milling skills.
If you choose to use this method this time, I'm afraid it will take longer.
The key is that it may not be effective!
Take Zhou Mingde, the supreme elder of the Zhou family, for example. He has been stuck in front of the late Zifu barrier for more than 20 years, and he still has no hope of breaking through.
In fact, the further you go in cultivation, the more obvious this kind of thing becomes.
For example, it is not unusual for the ancestors of the Su family and other golden elixir stage monks to be stuck by such a small realm barrier for a hundred or two hundred years.
Even some golden elixir stage monks have difficulty breaking through this small realm barrier throughout their lives!
"It's a pity that we reached this barrier a year too late. Otherwise, I should have been allowed to go to Feng Country in place of my great-uncle, and then use my military exploits to exchange for elixirs that can help break through the barrier!"
Xianggui thought this way, but Zhou Chun knew in his heart that even if he really touched the late Zifu barrier a year in advance, Zhou Mingde and the others would not directly go to the battlefield on their own.
However, now that his cultivation is facing a realm barrier and it is difficult to make progress, he no longer needs to practice hard every day like before. He only needs to take some time every day to polish his own magic power.
This way he can have more time to practice secret techniques and deal with family affairs.
Nowadays, due to the increasing intensity of the war between the two major cultivating worlds, in order to supplement various consumption, the Tianling Alliance has also issued various production task targets internally.
For example, the Zhou family is ordered to provide the alliance with ten trained monster mounts every year, as well as related animal skin talismans, animal blood talismans, and other spiritual objects.
The purchase prices offered by the Tianling Alliance for these things are not high, so I can barely say that I will not lose money, but it is impossible to make a profit.
And because a large number of casual cultivators went to the Fengguo battlefield, many businesses of the Zhou family and other families were affected, and their income generally declined severely.
Even the income of "Zhou Tong Tianxia" trading firm has been greatly affected.
The impact of war on the economy is universal.
Even Zhou Chun had no good solution when faced with this kind of thing.
The situation of the Zhou family means that it is destined to be difficult to make war fortune.
Those who can make war fortune at this time are those who refine magic weapons, elixirs, and magic talismans, because the frontline battlefield consumes a lot of these things.
Especially magic weapons.
In the past, there was a surplus of magical artifacts in Jingguo and even surrounding countries. Just to avoid disrupting the market, no one resorted to large-scale sales to sell magical artifacts to make money.
However, with the advent of war, especially demonic monks who are generally good at defiling and corroding the magical tools of immortal cultivators, many of the magical tools of immortal cultivators were seriously damaged.
In the past, a suitable magic weapon could be used for decades or even passed down for several generations.
Now it may not last even three years!
This made the magic weapon business become extremely popular. Families with inherited skills in weapon refining, such as the Zhu family that the Zhou family cooperated with in the Yanyang Sect area, made a lot of money.
Even the prices of some magic weapon materials have increased a lot.
The rest of the elixirs and talismans are also best-sellers, and many forces are hoarding them to buy them.
The Zhou family is undoubtedly far behind in these aspects.
Currently, Zhou Xintie, who has the best weapon refining skills in the Zhou family, can only refine second-level mid-grade magic weapons, and the success rate is not very high.
In terms of alchemy, Zhou Zhengyuan and Zhou Xinlan are both quite good. The alchemy inheritance they received from the Jiang family has greatly improved the Zhou family's knowledge in this area.
Coupled with the fact that the Zhou family collected a large amount of elixirs from the wilderness for the alchemists within the clan to practice, the inheritance of the alchemists of the Zhou family is now considered to be very sound, and they can now often release some elixirs to the market to generate income for the family.
But in terms of competitiveness, it is still far inferior to the Danyao Li family, which really relies on this skill to make a living.
The same goes for making talismans. Although there are several foundation-building monks who have dabbled in making second-level talismans, none of them are particularly talented.
Moreover, in times of war like this, every family cannot have too many magic talismans. It is impossible for Zhou Chun to sell a large number of his family's strategic reserve magic talismans just to earn spiritual stones.
What's worse is that due to the impact of the war, the Zhou family's previously good sales of monster eggs and monster cubs are now in a completely bleak market.
In this kind of war period, the top priority for cultivators is to improve their cultivation and their ability to fight the enemy.
Spiritual pets that require investment of resources and time to cultivate are certainly not within the scope of most monks' consideration at this time.
On this day, after Zhou Chun checked the family's financial accounts, he shook his head repeatedly and couldn't help but sigh: "It can't go on like this. Now the family's expenses are not small. Once the income cannot keep up with the expenses, the family's bottom line will not be able to bear it.
It will be eaten up in a few years!"
Hearing his words, Zhou Jiarui, who had been handling family affairs for him, finally found an opportunity to complain, and immediately sighed and complained: "Isn't it like this? Now due to the impact of the war, the family's main sources of income have shrunk.
Many, especially the land rent for training rooms and the sale of monster cubs, have shrunk by half!"
At this point, he also made a tentative suggestion: "In my opinion, if this situation of shrinking income cannot be improved as soon as possible, we can only reduce the benefits of the tribesmen first. In this special period, I think the tribesmen will also understand.
That’s it!”
Zhou Chun frowned when he heard this and did not respond immediately.
In fact, Zhou Chun also knows that many families are indeed tightening their belts and reducing the welfare benefits for the clan members, as Zhou Jiarui said, and calling on the clan members to overcome the difficulties together.
But he didn't want the Zhou family to do the same.
Because once this is done, it means that the Zhou family has fallen into a financial crisis, which will be a big blow to people's morale.
"This matter needs to be carefully considered. This method should not be used unless it is a last resort."
In the end, Zhou Chun decided to postpone the discussion of the matter and was not in a hurry to make a decision so quickly.
After separation from Zhou Jiarui, Zhou Chun returned to the cave, looked at the vibrant purple mulberry tree in the valley, and began to think about ways to alleviate the Zhou family's financial crisis.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After thinking about it like this, something that had been put aside for a long time suddenly came to his mind.
"Looks like I have to go to the Scaled Frog Tribe again!"
He murmured to himself, and soon told Zhou Mingde, who was practicing in Tuyunling, where he was going, and headed to the wilderness alone.
Soon after, Zhou Chun appeared above a lake in the wilderness with the high priest Ukuru of the Scaled Frog tribe and some warlocks and warriors of the Scaled Frog tribe.
This lake was the place where he killed the blue-scaled dragon fish and discovered the water jade vein.
"This is the place. Fellow Daoist Wukuru, please go down with Zhou to check out the situation first, and then let these juniors try to see if they can go down."
Over the water, Zhou Chun pointed at the lake below and told his plan.
Hearing his words, High Priest Ukuru immediately nodded and said, "No problem, you can make arrangements, Brother Zhou."
So Zhou Chun patted the spirit beast bag on his waist, summoned the thunder python that had transformed into a third-level thunder python using the "Hundred Magic Beads", and rode it into the water.
Perhaps due to the nature of his race, the High Priest Ukuru immediately showed fear after seeing the third-order thunder python.
But he also knew that this was Zhou Chun's spiritual pet, and he quickly adjusted his mentality and followed him into the water.
One person and one frog dived straight into the water, and soon arrived at the original nest location of the blue-scaled dragon fish.
Many years later, this place was occupied by the monster in the lake and turned into its lair, but it was only a second-level high-grade mud dragon monster.
After the demon suddenly sensed the thunder python's white aura, it was frightened to death and hurriedly used its innate magical power to escape from its lair by drilling into the mud and rocks at the bottom of the lake.
Zhou Chun didn't bother to care about these little demons, so he took High Priest Ukuru directly into the lair.
Then he pointed at the exposed water jade ores and said: "This is where it is. What do you think, fellow Taoist Wukuru? Can your ordinary tribesmen come here to mine the water jade ores here?"
"It may be difficult for ordinary tribesmen, but some strong tribal warriors may be able to stay here for a while, and first-level warlocks should be able to reach here without any hindrance!"
After the high priest Ukuru sensed it carefully, he whispered his opinion.
This is actually not much different from what Zhou Chun guessed.
So he quickly looked at him and said: "In that case, let's first let the people you brought here, fellow Taoist Ukuru, come over and give it a try."
Naturally, Ukuru would not object to this, and soon returned to the water in person to take the tribesmen he brought to the Demon Nest.
After testing, the situation is generally similar to what Ukulu said.
A strong scaled frog warrior can probably stay underwater for an hour, while a first-level warlock can stay for more than three hours.
Seeing this situation, Zhou Chun quickly looked at High Priest Wukuru and said, "In that case, let's proceed according to the cooperation plan we discussed before. The Scale Frog clan is responsible for mining the jade mine, and my Zhou family will pay the corresponding value."
Exchange of elixirs and magic weapons, what do you think, fellow Taoist Wukulu?"
"No problem. Ukuru and the Scaled Frog Clan have always believed in the credibility of Fellow Daoist Zhou and the Zhou family. Just leave this matter to Ukuru!"
High Priest Ukuru agreed without hesitation.
So Zhou Chun asked Ukulu to go back to recruit miners, and then he returned to the family and ordered the family's weapon refiners to make suitable mining tools for the miners of the Scaled Frog clan.
Soon after, the mining of Shuijing Jade was officially on the right track.
However, just when Zhou Chun thought that he could use the new source of wealth from the Shuijing Jade Mine to alleviate the financial crisis faced by the Zhou family, what he had been worried about finally happened!
On this day, a piece of explosive news suddenly spread throughout the major immortal cultivating families in Jingguo.
But it turned out that Yunzhou, which borders Feng State, had five immortal cultivating families slaughtered overnight, including a famous immortal cultivating clan!
And it is said that the person who did such a great thing is Jiang Zhong, the "General of the Corpse Evil" in the "Seven Evils of the Yuan Demon"!
This "Zombie Demon General" Jiang Zhong himself practices one of the top techniques of the Corpse Demon Cult, "Earth Zombie Xuan Gong". When this technique is used, his body is comparable to zombies of the same level, and he can also control groups of zombies.
The reason why he is called the "Zombie General" is because he can command and control hundreds of corpses by himself, and has the ability to form an army with one man.
It was also because of this that he was able to kill five immortal cultivating families in one night.
"Has it finally started? What I have been worrying about has finally happened!"
In Tuyun Ridge, Zhou Chun's face instantly became extremely solemn after reading the urgent news from the Yunzhou Intelligence Station.
He knew in his heart that with the "Zombie General" Jiang Zhong massacring five major immortal cultivating families at night, the war had entered a new stage!