Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Bad News

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Due to Liu Shiyun’s departure, the Spirit Beast Restaurant was left with only Zhou Jiasheng as the shopkeeper and Zhou Chun as the assistant, and Zhou Chun could no longer slack off as he had before.

However, since the store’s business had been taken away by the Spirit Beast Pavilion recently, leading to much fewer responsibilities in the store, he was not too busy.

This left him unsure whether to laugh or cry.

“Sigh, I’d better get out more and take a look around, if we can’t find a way to win back some customers soon, I’m afraid there won’t be any need to keep me as an assistant anymore!”

Thinking about Zhou Jiasheng, his sullen-faced Uncle Sixteen, Zhou Chun felt that he must do something.

In the marketplace, many stores didn’t even have an assistant, just a shopkeeper keeping the shops going.

If the Spirit Beast Restaurant were to fall to that state, it would indeed let down the high hopes of Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi.

Therefore, Zhou Chun began to frequently go out to survey the market demand, looking for new business opportunities, and even went undercover in the Spirit Beast Pavilion several times to investigate the situation.

But business opportunities were not so easy to come by, especially those that couldn’t be easily imitated by others.

In over a month, Zhou Chun had approached more than six hundred cultivators but hadn’t found a viable method.

Meanwhile, the results for Green Lotus Temple’s disciple recruitment were out.

Out of the three people the Zhou Family sent, only a thirteen-year-old junior, Zhou Zhengcen, managed to secure an apprenticeship with the Green Lotus Temple.

And Liu Shiyun, who Zhou Chun earlier didn’t have much hope for, also successfully joined the Green Lotus Temple.

When Zhou Chun learned of this news, he was surprised, but he also quickly passed the information to Liu Qingshan, who was “reforming through labor” in the marketplace.

Without any surprise, upon hearing that his daughter had successfully joined the great cultivation sect of the Green Lotus Temple, Liu Qingshan became ecstatically grateful, clinging onto his hand and repeatedly thanking him, “I am so thankful to Taoist Friend Zhou, truly grateful. Once my daughter returns from the mountains in the future, Liu must host a banquet at the Heavenly Immortal Tower to thank you for your kindness!”

The Heavenly Immortal Tower is the finest restaurant in Hongya Marketplace, where all the food and drinks are prepared and brewed with ingredients that contain spiritual power, definitely not a place an ordinary Qi Refinement Realm cultivator could afford.

Hosting a banquet there, even the most basic, would cost at least a hundred Spirit Coins.

And for a Loose Cultivator like Liu Qingshan, sometimes he couldn’t earn that much in a year.

From this, one can see how grateful he was to Zhou Chun at this moment.

However, Zhou Chun’s mind was preoccupied with thoughts on how to increase the revenue for the Spirit Beast Restaurant. He responded to Liu Qingshan with casual pleasantries before returning to his shop.

What Zhou Chun never expected was that before he could come up with a method to increase the Spirit Beast Restaurant’s revenue, a piece of bad news came from the Zhou Family.

It turned out that the Great Elder Zhou Mingshan had run out of lifespan and had passed away in meditation!

Now with only four Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators in total, the Zhou Family was greatly impacted by the demise of Great Elder Zhou Mingshan.

Especially since eighty percent of the elixirs produced by the Zhou Family were from the hands of this Great Elder.

Now without Zhou Mingshan, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, the Zhou Family’s elixir production was expected to decrease significantly.

“It’s truly a case of misfortunes never come singly, just like a leaky house facing relentless rain at night, and a broken ship meeting head-on winds. When it rains, it pours!!”

Inside the Spirit Beast Restaurant, both Zhou Chun and Zhou Jiasheng were looking morose and were extremely discouraged at this moment.

Both could foresee that, in the future, the elixirs like Beast Spirit Pills supplied by the family to the shop would likely be greatly reduced, which would impact the shop’s revenue even more than the current reduction in customer numbers.

If their competitor, the Spirit Beast Pavilion, were to publicize this, the consequences would be even more unpredictable.

After sitting listlessly in the shop for what felt like a long time, just as Zhou Chun was considering whether to step outside for a breath of fresh air, a customer came to the shop.

“Welcome, esteemed guest. May I ask…”

Zhou Chun, who heard the footsteps entering, was about to instinctively put on a smile and greet the customer, but when he saw who it was, he stopped short.

Instead, he gently nodded and said, “Oh, it’s Taoist Friend Luo. Are you here today to deliver Demon Beast meat to Zhou again?”

The cultivator who entered the shop was none other than a hemp-faced old man, well over fifty years old.

The hemp-faced old man, named Luo Guangshun, was a cultivator with the cultivation level of the eighth tier of the Qi Refinement Realm, and one of the providers who supplied Zhou Chun with Demon Beast meat monthly.

As a Loose Cultivator who had spent decades in the cultivation world, he might not be proficient in many things, but reading people and situations was naturally not one of his shortcomings.

“`

At this time, Zhou Jiasheng, the shopkeeper behind the counter, had a troubled expression, and even Zhou Chun, who always greeted him with a smile, showed no hint of cheerfulness, signaling that he had come at an inopportune moment.

But having already arrived, he could only grit his teeth and say, “Exactly, would it be convenient for Taoist Friend Zhou to have an inside chat?”

On hearing this, Zhou Chun couldn’t help but glance at Zhou Jiasheng, the shopkeeper.

Seeing that Zhou Jiasheng made no particular sign, he slightly nodded and softly said, “Then, Taoist Friend Luo, please follow me.”

After speaking, he led the visitor to the store’s backyard.

In the backyard, where ordinary guests were not allowed, Luo Guangshun, without waiting for Zhou Chun to ask, thoughtfully patted his waist-level storage pouch and took out a sealed hardwood box, opening it in front of Zhou Chun.

Inside the hardwood box lay three silver-black strange fish, ranging from five to seven feet in length, and to keep these fish fresh, many pieces of crushed ice had been placed inside.

“Eh, what Demon Beast is this?”

Zhou Chun, looking at the strange fish inside the box, had a flash of surprise and curiosity in his eyes, and immediately picked up one to examine it.

The silver-black strange fish resembled catfish, with mouths full of sharp teeth, completely lacking scales, and with skins as tough as rubber. In some spots, one could still see the unclean viscous mucus, and moreover, both their pectoral and dorsal fins were lined with serrated spines.

“Taoist Friend Zhou, be careful, this mucus is poisonous; contact will cause numbness and pain in the hands and feet.”

At this moment, seeing Zhou Chun seemed interested in the strange fish’s mucus, reaching out to touch it, Luo Guangshun, who had suffered before, hurriedly warned him.

“Is that so?”

Zhou Chun immediately drew back his hand, thoughtfully placing the strange fish back into the box.

Then he looked at Luo Guangshun and asked, “Taoist Friend Luo, do you recognize these strange fish?”

At his question, Luo Guangshun revealed a wry smile and sighed, “It seems that even Taoist Friend Zhou, who is proficient in the art of beast taming, does not recognize what Demon Beast these strange fish are!”

He then shook his head and said, “How could I, a lowly loose cultivator, recognize them when even a cultivator like Taoist Friend Zhou, skilled in Beast Taming Technique, doesn’t?”

Without waiting for further questioning from Zhou Chun, he continued on his own to describe the origin of the strange fish.

“These strange fish were caught by myself from a mountain lake. They naturally possess spells such as the Water Arrow Technique and the Water Bullet Technique, and their combat prowess in water is quite formidable. It took quite an effort for me to capture these three!”

Having described the basic details of the strange fish, Luo Guangshun then looked expectantly at Zhou Chun and said, “You are a fair man, Taoist Friend Zhou, what do you think is the appropriate value for these strange fish?”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately understood his ploy.

He waved his hands and said, “Taoist Friend Luo, there’s no need to flatter me; my time in cultivation is shorter than yours. Faced with such an unknown Demon Beast, I dare not casually say anything.”

Furthermore, he directly said to Luo Guangshun, “My transaction with Taoist Friend Luo is strictly limited to the trade of Demon Beast meat, so whether you provide me with the whole carcasses or remnants of these strange fish, I can only trade according to the price previously agreed upon!”

Yes, he had money, but he was not a fool.

Perhaps this unknown species of fish could reveal some special value, but that was not something he could achieve right now, nor in a short amount of time.

Why would he offer Luo Guangshun a higher price for these Demon Beast carcasses just because of the unknown?

Seeing that he wasn’t fooled, Luo Guangshun felt very disappointed. He could only resign himself and sigh, “Well then, I’ll leave two of the strange fish carcasses for Taoist Friend Zhou and take the remaining one to the Heavenly Immortal Tower to see if they would offer a good price!”

After saying this, he sold two larger strange fish carcasses to Zhou Chun for the price of four Spirit Coins and then left the Spirit Beast Restaurant with the smaller carcass.

Once Luo Guangshun had gone, Zhou Chun’s mind teemed with thoughts. He immediately preserved one of the strange fish carcasses by freezing it again, scraped off the remaining mucus with a bottle, and saved some of the fish skin as well.

He then cut a suitably sized piece of fish meat, removed the Evil Qi from it with Purification Spirit Water, cut it into several segments, and cooked it in various ways: pan-fried, stir-fried, boiled, deep-fried, and tasted each method.

The taste test showed that the strange fish’s meat had no particular flavor, even less so than many ordinary fishes—it just had a little more Spiritual Power than regular fish meat.

This made Zhou Chun completely lose interest in the remaining fish meat; he chopped it all up into chunks and threw it to the Silver Lightning Python named Baibai as food.

The Silver Lightning Python Baibai was now over a year old and on the verge of advancing in cultivation.

And that was without Zhou Chun ever feeding it any Beast Spirit Pills.

It seemed that even wild Silver Lightning Pythons raised without any care would most likely become a top-tier first-class Demon Beast within ten years.

One must say, a mid-level Demon Beast bloodline is indeed powerful!