Chapter 98: Chapter 84: Collecting Golden Qi, Golden Armored Piercing Mountain Beast [Subscribe Requested]

Zhou Zhengyong’s son, Zhou Xinlan, was discovered to have a medium-grade Spirit Root Aptitude, and the news quickly spread throughout the Zhou Family.

Frankly, a medium-grade Spirit Root Aptitude wasn’t considered exceptionally outstanding, it was just good enough to meet the qualifications for joining the major sects, with a fair chance of achieving Foundation Establishment in the future.

The Zhou Family currently had about twenty to thirty Qi Refinement Realm cultivators with medium-grade Spiritual Roots, so the number wasn’t considered small.

That Zhou Zhengyong’s son was tested to have this aptitude didn’t quite reach the level of excitement for the whole clan to cheer about.

The reason news of his son’s medium-grade Spirit Root Aptitude spread so quickly was because the fellow bragged about it to everyone he met, showing it off wherever he went.

Helpless to change it, the “Xin” generation of the Zhou Family only amounted to seven individuals, and his son was the second one with a medium-grade Spirit Root Aptitude, with the first one having parents who were both mortals.

Therefore, Zhou Xinlan was actually the first one with a medium-grade Spirit Root Aptitude among the descendants of the “Zheng” generation cultivators in the Zhou Family.

This gave him the capital to boast.

The Clan Leader, Zhou Daoyi, was also pleased to see this, and would even prefer it if someone came to him to complain.

Should anyone dare to complain, he would seize the opportunity to say, “If you have the ability, you too should go have a child,” pushing for a hard-core procreation.

Regrettably, no one had yet taken the step to actually come forward and complain.

When little Zhou Xinlan turned one year old, after Zhou Chun finished drinking his birthday wine, he soon left Jiufeng Ridge.

This time leaving the clan, Zhou Chun was going to a deserted Pure Gold Vein to gather high-quality Golden Qi to cultivate the “Xinjin Sword Qi.”

This Pure Gold Vein was located inside a mountain range at the northwestern part of Lanzhou near Lingzhou, originally belonging to the Green Lotus Temple.

After the ore within the vein was completely extracted, the vein was abandoned by the Green Lotus Temple, and now it was occupied by a group of Loose Cultivators.

These Loose Cultivators lived around the abandoned vein and would go digging in it whenever they had the chance, hoping to find any remaining Pure Gold Ore that might have been left behind.

In fact, many Spirit Gold ores sold by the hands of Loose Cultivators came about that way.

And it wasn’t that the Loose Cultivators who had the ore had discovered a new vein themselves.

Such practices of entrusting abandoned veins to Loose Cultivators to squeeze out the last bit of resources from them had become a convention in the Cultivation World.

By doing so, the forces that occupied the veins saved costs while still achieving their goals, and the Loose Cultivators could profit from this arrangement.

The Red Shine Iron Mine that was mined by the Zhou Family and other five major Cultivation families would probably be handled in the same way in the end.

From Jiufeng Ridge to the abandoned Pure Gold Vein, there was a distance of over a thousand li. Zhou Chun traveled alone for four to five days before finally arriving at the designated mountain range.

To avoid attracting attention, Zhou Chun had disguised himself as a slightly dark-skinned youth in green clothes.

His yellowed and darkened complexion made him appear much older, at least in his late thirties.

At this age, his Qi Refinement Realm tenth level cultivation level, albeit still somewhat uncommon, was at least not as conspicuous as the cultivation level possessed by his real age would have been.

At this time, his identity had also become that of the Loose Cultivator Han Sanjue.

Sanjue was a homage to the erstwhile Sanjue Sect.

“That should be the Cangjin Mountains ahead. According to the information, the abandoned vein is large and easy to find, but to save time, I might as well ask the nearby cultivators,” Zhou Chun thought as he surveyed the undulating mountains from horseback, quickly coming up with a plan.

He dismounted, releasing the horse he had bought from a nearby city back into the wild, and then cast the “Wind Control Skill” on himself to dash through the mountains.

At the same time, a dark-plumed hawk was released from the eagle cage on his back by Zhou Chun, soaring into the sky to search for traces of humans in the forest.

This trained hawk, rented from his family specifically for this trip, was meant for locating humans and acting as a lookout.

As for the “Red-Beaked Sparrow” he had used before, it had already died of old age six months prior.

Undoubtedly, compared to the “Red-Beaked Sparrow,” which was relatively small, flew not too high and not too fast, the hawk was far superior in reconnaissance and finding people.

From thousands of zhang in the sky, it could easily spot rabbits hopping in the forest below because it was very fast.

After releasing the hawk, Zhou Chun found a target in less than two hours.

It was a Loose Cultivator searching for herbs in the forest, with a mere fourth layer Qi Refinement cultivation level and appearing to be at least forty years old.

Such an age coupled with this level of cultivation showed that not only was the person’s Spirit Root Aptitude poor, but they also must have begun the path of cultivation at a rather advanced age.

Sure enough, when Zhou Chun sought him out and conversed with him, he learned that the man had only begun to come into contact with the way of Cultivation after turning twenty.

This Mr. Geng, an original mortal herb collector, had chanced upon saving an injured Loose Cultivator who was gathering herbs in the mountains, and in return, received teachings on the path of cultivation and was introduced to the world of Cultivation.

Unfortunately, due to his low aptitude and lack of guidance or support, after nearly two decades, he had only managed to reach the fourth level of Qi Refinement.

However, he had great perseverance and pride; after learning about the dangers of Evil Qi from the Loose Cultivator he saved, he never meditated in the wild to cultivate, even when not actively practicing cultivation.

Otherwise, even with poor aptitude, twenty years of cultivation wouldn’t result in such a low level of attainment.