Harvest, Martial Arts Tournament

Chapter 26 Harvest, Martial Arts Tournament

Red Peach Ridge.

When Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong reunited, it was after Zhou Jiapeng had brought Zhou Daoquan, the third elder of the Zhou family, over.

When Zhou Jiapeng rushed back to Monkey Valley, he was astonished to find that Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong were nowhere to be seen, and that the red-tailed monkey troop had returned.

Fortunately, the person who came with him this time was the Third Elder Zhou Daoquan. They quickly found the two people hiding in the mountains based on the scents left behind by Zhou Chun and the other person.

However, compared to Zhou Chun, who only suffered from excessive depletion of magical power, Zhou Zhengyong was in a much worse state.

He was hit head-on by the flames spewed by the red-tailed monkey king, and his whole body was covered in blisters, not even his face was spared.

He was able to escape by finding a river and holding his breath to dive underwater, which allowed him to shake off the red-tailed monkeys.

Seeing Zhou Zhengyong, covered in injuries, brought back by Zhou Daoquan, Zhou Jiapeng was filled with remorse and self-reproach, saying, "It was my carelessness. I should have stayed behind and let the two of you go back to find the elder!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong, who was lying on the ground, immediately comforted him in a low voice: "Uncle Peng, there's no need to blame yourself. It would have been most appropriate for you to go back to the family and find the elders. No one can be blamed for this. We can only blame our bad luck. Who would have thought that those red-tailed monkeys would have a golden monkey as their backer!"

Upon hearing him mention the Golden Monkey, Zhou Chun, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but turn his gaze to the open space to the side.

On the open ground, several demon monkeys, including the Red-tailed Monkey King and the Golden Monkey, were lying unconscious and fast asleep.

After driving away Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong, the red-tailed monkey troop, probably to thank the Golden Monkey, held a banquet for it in the Monkey Valley, offering it various wild fruits and medicinal herbs such as Solomon's seal and Ganoderma lucidum. They even had two female monkeys accompany it.

When Zhou Jiapeng arrived with Zhou Daoquan, Zhou Daoquan immediately used his methods to capture them all and drugged them with a secret medicine.

"These mischievous monkeys! The family is just about to rebuild the animal enclosure; we'll throw them all in there and slowly wear down their ferocity!"

Zhou Jiapeng glanced at the demonic monkeys on the ground and cursed them angrily.

"Alright, I've examined it. Zheng Yong's injuries only appear serious on the surface. He can actually recover in a month or two with rest. You've done a great service to the family this time, and the clan leader will certainly not treat you unfairly."

Zhou Daoquan waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to dwell on these matters any longer.

Then he first took out a spirit beast bag and put all the unconscious demon monkeys inside, and then began to transplant the Zhu Yang Fruit.

It's worth mentioning that while the spirit beast pouch can hold living creatures like demon beasts and spirit pets, it's only if the demon beasts don't resist.

For someone like Zhou Daoquan to directly take in a monster that hasn't been subdued through a contract, it's essential to ensure that the monster won't wake up halfway through.

Otherwise, if the awakened monster struggles and attacks, it can easily break through the spirit beast pouch from the inside and escape.

At this moment, Zhou Chun was also watching intently as the Third Elder, Zhou Daoquan, transplanted the Zhu Yang fruit trees.

He first took out a flowerpot-shaped magical artifact from his storage bag and placed it on the ground. Then, he made a hand seal and used a special method of gathering spiritual energy to gather the surrounding wood spirit energy and turn it into blue spiritual water, which he then sprinkled onto the Zhu Yang fruit tree.

After waiting for about half an hour, the Zhu Yang fruit tree absorbed a large amount of spiritual water containing the spiritual energy of Yi wood, and its vitality became exceptionally strong.

Zhou Daoquan then used his magic artifact to break through the stone wall. Under the precise control of his divine sense, he dug out the Zhu Yang fruit tree without damaging its roots and placed it into the flowerpot magic artifact.

At this moment, Zhou Daoquan quickly took out a jade bottle magic artifact from his storage bag and poured the large amount of spiritual water stored inside into the flowerpot.

The spiritual water in this jade bottle is somewhat similar to the hydroponic nutrient solution Zhou Chun used in his previous life. It can provide growth nutrients for spiritual plants when transplanting them, increasing the survival rate. Its formula is also considered a family secret.

After the transplanting process was completed, Zhou Daoquan raised his hand and moved the flowerpot containing the Zhu Yang fruit tree onto the back of his fire crane spirit pet.

Then he waved to Zhou Chun and the other two and said, "I need to protect this Crimson Sun Fruit Tree, so I won't be taking you back with me. You can return to your families on your own!"

Upon hearing this, the three quickly replied, "We respectfully see the elder off."

After watching Zhou Daoquan leave, Zhou Chun thought Zhou Jiapeng would suggest going to find the lair of the golden monkey to see if they could find anything else.

Unexpectedly, he seemed to have completely overlooked this, and simply nodded to Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong, saying, "Let's go, let's go back to the family."

But at this moment, Zhou Zhengyong, who was usually carefree, actually thought of the same thing as Zhou Chun, and even looked at Zhou Jiapeng before Zhou Chun did, saying, "Uncle Peng, are we still looking for that King Kong monkey's lair? Maybe we'll find something else!"

Hearing this, Zhou Jiapeng's face immediately darkened, and he glared at him, scolding, "You brat, you're practically half-dead, and you're still thinking about these trivial things. You've already forgotten the pain before the wound has even healed!"

After saying that, he shook his head and said, "Don't think too much about such good things. The King Kong Monkey is an outlier in the monkey troop. It likes to wander around and make its home wherever it is. There is no chance of finding anything good in its temporary nest."

At this point, he looked at Zhou Zhengyong with a hint of disappointment and said, "Moreover, the most urgent thing is to send you back to your family to recover from your injuries. Everything else, no matter how good the supplies are, is more important than your life?"

After being reprimanded repeatedly, Zhou Zhengyong dared not say another word, and seeing Zhou Jiapeng's attitude, Zhou Chun dared not risk getting into trouble and bring up the matter again.

So he offered to make a stretcher, and he and Zhou Jiapeng carried the injured Zhou Zhengyong on their way.

By the time the three returned to the Zhou family at Jiufengling, three days had passed.

Upon returning to the clan, since the Third Elder Zhou Daoquan, who had returned ahead of time, had already explained the situation, the clan leader Zhou Daoyi quickly gave the three of them a reward after meeting them.

Zhou Zhengyong, who made the greatest contribution and achieved the greatest merit, was rewarded with a Blood Spirit Pill, which is useful for low-level demon beasts to purify their bloodline and break through bottlenecks, as well as one hundred family merits.

Zhou Jiapeng and Zhou Chun were each awarded 80 and 50 merit points respectively.

Compared to the previous rewards Zhou Chun had received, this reward was rather ordinary.

But that's normal, since he was helping out of personal friendship and shouldn't even be entitled to a reward from the family.

The reason they are now rewarding him for his good deeds is because they indirectly helped the family capture a rare golden monkey and a group of red-tailed monkeys.

Zhou Chun's biggest gain from this trip was probably Zhou Zhengyong's favor and his friendship with the elder Zhou Jiapeng.

That's how sects and families are; it's easier to find someone to help you when you need something, and it's also easier to make friends you can trust.

Zhou Chun helped Zhou Zhengyong this time, so next time Zhou Zhengyong asks for help, he will definitely help him. Otherwise, it will be difficult for him to stay in the family. All the family members will stay away from someone who only takes advantage of others and is unwilling to give anything in return.

By helping Zhou Zhengyong, he demonstrated his considerable wealth, strength, and wisdom, which earned him the appreciation of his elder, Zhou Jiapeng.

The relationship between the two changed from a mere nominal uncle-nephew relationship to a close, familiar one.

In this way, if he needs Zhou Jiapeng's help in the future, the probability of Zhou Jiapeng being willing to help will undoubtedly be very high.

At the same time, if Zhou Jiapeng needs help in the future, he will be more likely to think of him.

In conclusion, cultivating immortality is not just about fighting and killing, nor is it just about practicing in seclusion. Human relationships and worldly affairs are also a very important aspect for cultivators.

After returning to her family, Zhou Chun's life returned to normal, except for two additional things: visiting Zhou Zhengyong, who was recuperating at home, and using the pretext of seeking advice on raising spirit pets to get closer to her 27th Uncle, Zhou Jiapeng.

Three more months passed quickly, and with the aid of the Spring Sun Pill, Zhou Chun's cultivation steadily progressed.

On this day, when Zhou Chun visited his twenty-seventh uncle, Zhou Jiapeng, he suddenly learned some news from him.

"A few days ago, the patriarch called me over and said that in another six months, the Zhou family and several local cultivation families in Lanzhou will jointly hold a martial arts competition between Qi Refining stage cultivators. At that time, they will be divided into youth group and elite group."

"Zhengchun, if you can reach the eighth level of Qi Refining before that martial arts competition, with your magic weapon and that rock tortoise, you might be able to compete for a place in the top ten of the youth group."

Inside Zhou Jiapeng's residence, just as Zhou Chun was about to take her leave, he suddenly looked at Zhou Chun and said this news.

This surprised Zhou Chun slightly.

After a moment of stunned silence, he looked at Zhou Jiapeng with wide curiosity and said, "Uncle Peng, could you tell me more about this?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jiapeng shook his head and said, "The clan leader didn't tell me the specifics. He only knows that the Wang family of Red Medicine Valley, the Mu family of Biyun Mountain, the Sun family of Golden Maple Ridge, and the He family of Green Bamboo Mountain originally had this exchange activity, which was held every ten years or so. It's just that our Zhou family was able to join in this time."

"More details will probably only be available after the clan leader announces this news."

Are the Mu family from Biyun Mountain also here?

Hearing the name of this family again after more than half a year, Zhou Chun felt a mix of emotions.

In fact, over the past six months, he had inquired about the Mu family's situation from the rogue cultivators and Zhou family members who came to the Zhou family to cultivate.

However, news from Wild Wolf Ridge seems to be heavily restricted. The information Zhou Chun gathered could not be guaranteed to be true. The only certainty was that the Mu family had a fierce conflict with a rogue cultivator organization called "Qiyun Alliance," resulting in the deaths and injuries of low-level cultivators on both sides.

Now it seems that Wild Wolf Ridge has also been occupied by the "Qiyun Alliance".

Zhou Chun didn't know what the Mu family was thinking, but this was clearly something he couldn't get involved in right now, so he hadn't paid attention to the Mu family's situation for a while.

After a brief moment of distraction, Zhou Chun quickly regained his senses, bowed to Zhou Jiapeng, and said, "I understand, thank you for telling me, Uncle Peng."

Seeing this, Zhou Jiapeng patted him on the shoulder earnestly and said, "Prepare well. If you can get a good ranking in this exchange meeting, becoming an elite clansman ahead of time will definitely not be a problem. The clan leader and elders will also reward you in other ways."

"Yes, I will definitely try my best to seize the opportunity."

Zhou Chun nodded vigorously, clearly taking the matter to heart.

A new week begins, please vote! I'll start writing the final chapters of Desert today, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, Desert should be finished this week.

(End of this chapter)