The Test: Heading to the Sun Family [Reading this today is very important]

Chapter 42 The Test: Heading to the Sun Family [Reading this today is very important]

"That Ninth Brother is only a low-grade spiritual root. The clan leader's grand treatment of him is probably not for his own good, but rather to set an example and inspire us!"

On the way back to Baozhi Peak, Zhou Zhengyong suddenly looked at Zhou Chun and said these words out of the blue.

Zhou Chun, who was deep in thought, was slightly taken aback by his words. She glanced at him and asked curiously, "Brother Yong, since you understand this, what are your plans?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong immediately replied without hesitation, "Of course, I will respond to the clan leader's call and find a Daoist partner as soon as possible to have many children!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun's brows furrowed, and she looked at Zhou Zhengyong with her mouth slightly open. After hesitating for a while, she asked in a low voice, "What if, I mean, what if, you give birth to children without spiritual roots?"

To his surprise, Zhou Zhengyong answered this question, which he thought would be difficult to face, without the slightest hesitation.

"If they don't have spiritual roots or aptitude, then they don't have them. It's all about luck. If they don't have them, they can only blame their bad luck; they're not destined to cultivate immortality!"

This answer, which attributed everything to fate, made Zhou Chun frown deeply.

He quickly voiced his deepest concern: "Brother Yong, aren't you afraid that after you successfully establish your foundation and your lifespan greatly increases, you'll watch your children, who can't cultivate, die before you?"

As expected, Zhou Zhengyong fell silent after the question was asked.

Just when Zhou Chun thought he would remain silent for a long time before answering, Zhou Zhengyong suddenly looked at him with a strange expression and said, "Thirteenth Brother, the questions you asked today are very strange. Don't tell me that the reason you don't want to find a Daoist partner to have children is because you're worried about these things, right?"

At this point, Zhou Zhengyong shook his head, then looked at Zhou Chun with a serious expression and said, "If that's really the case, Thirteenth Brother, you'd better change your mind quickly, or it could be very dangerous!!"

"What you just described also applies to ordinary mortals, even if it doesn't apply to us cultivators. Wild beasts, diseases, wars, and all sorts of natural and man-made disasters can leave parents helplessly watching their children die before their eyes!"

"Does this mean that all parents will stop having children?"

"To put it bluntly, even if you can guarantee that all your children will possess spiritual roots, can you guarantee that they will all be safe and sound when they go out in the future? Can you guarantee that they will all successfully establish their foundation?"

"If these things can't be guaranteed, does that mean you won't have children at all?"

"You're truly throwing the baby out with the bathwater; you're worrying unnecessarily!"

Am I just worrying unnecessarily?

Zhou Chun's lips moved, but in the end he sighed softly, "Sigh, maybe Brother Yong is right, I'm just overthinking things!"

After saying that, she pursed her lips and muttered softly, "But I still think that if we can wait until our cultivation level is higher before finding a cultivation partner and having children, at least our offspring will have a much higher starting point than they do now, and they will be able to go much further on their cultivation path in the future!"

Zhou Zhengyong nodded in agreement this time, saying, "That's true. Many of the elders in the family who never married or had children actually share this idea, but..."

However, Zhou Zhengyong did not say it explicitly, but he knew that Zhou Chun would definitely understand.

After returning to Baozhi Peak, the two went their separate ways.

It should be said that in a cultivation family like the Zhou family, the words of the patriarch are quite effective.

After the full moon celebration that day, some of the elders in the Zhou family who had dual cultivation partners soon found that their partners became pregnant again.

When Zhou Chun went to Jingling Pavilion to oversee things, he often heard some elders complainingly about how a certain cousin had taken leave to visit other cultivation families, hoping to seduce female cultivators from other families and make them their wives.

That guy Zhou Zhengyong was one of them.

Sometimes, even female cultivators who came to cultivate would flirt with him, trying to attract his attention.

This left Zhou Chun feeling both amused and exasperated.

I can only blame myself for being too charming and attracting too many women!

On this day, Zhou Zhengyong, who had disappeared for almost half a month since that day, finally reappeared in front of Zhou Chun, and once again asked him for help.

It turns out that this guy disappeared for more than half a month to go to the Sun family in Golden Maple Ridge to find Sun Yujiao, the female cultivator he met in the Wang family in Red Medicine Valley.

It must be said that this guy is quite capable. In less than half a month, he managed to win the heart of the female cultivator Sun Yujiao and introduce her to her parents.

Sun Yujiao's father was also a Qi Refining Stage 12 cultivator in the Sun family, and her mother was from another small cultivation family.

Sun's father did not show any objection to his daughter becoming a cultivation partner with Zhou Zhengyong, but he did set a test for Zhou Zhengyong to complete.

For Zhou Zhengyong, the test set by Sun's father was neither too difficult nor too easy.

That is, he is only allowed to bring one cultivator below the late stage of Qi Refining as an assistant, and go to a certain place to kill a first-grade high-quality demon beast, the Purple Flame Sable, and take its pelt as a betrothal gift to marry his daughter.

Under these circumstances, Zhou Zhengyong naturally had no choice but to seek help from Zhou Chun.

"In short, thirteenth brother, you must help me this time. Whether I can successfully win the heart of my beauty depends entirely on whether I can satisfy Miss Yu Jiao's father!"

Inside the reception room, after explaining his purpose, Zhou Zhengyong looked at Zhou Chun expectantly with a face full of anticipation.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Chun immediately nodded earnestly and said, "Since it concerns your happiness, Brother Yong, I naturally can't stand by and do nothing!"

After saying that, he looked at Zhou Zhengyong and asked, "But have you spoken to the clan leader about this?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "Ah, not yet! If you hadn't brought it up, Thirteenth Brother, I really wouldn't have remembered it!"

Then he quickly said, "Then let's go see the clan leader."

"Alright then."

Zhou Chun responded and immediately went with Zhou Zhengyong to Pagoda Peak to pay respects to the clan leader Zhou Daoyi and explain the situation.

Inside the Zhongping Hall, after listening to Zhou Zhengyong's account, Zhou Daoyi looked at him with approval and nodded, saying, "I know about this matter. If Zhengyong can succeed in this matter, it will also benefit the family, and the family will surely reward him accordingly."

Then, turning his gaze to Zhou Chun, he said, "As for you, Zheng Chun, although you helped Zheng Yong with this matter out of personal reasons, it can be considered as indirectly helping the family. As long as this trip is successful, I will also reward you."

"This junior thanks the clan chief."

Zhou Chun and the other person quickly thanked them, and then went down the mountain together and left Jiufeng Ridge.

Compared to the Wang family in Hongyao Valley, which is quite far away, the Sun family in Jinfeng Ridge is relatively close to the Zhou family in Jiufeng Ridge, only about 300 li away.

If you were riding the [Inkscale Steed], this distance would be less than two hours.

Unfortunately, the Zhou family has not yet purchased the [Inkscale Steed] for breeding; they have only domesticated a type of large-horned blue sheep that is good at climbing mountains and crossing valleys as a mount for their people to travel short distances.

These large-horned blue sheep have hard horns like water buffalo horns, are robust, weigh over a thousand kilograms, can climb mountains and wade through rivers, and can carry a person on their back without any problem.

However, ordinary wild animals have limited physical strength. If they were to carry a person up mountains and across valleys, they could only travel two or three hundred miles a day without using secret medicine to stimulate their life potential.

Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong rode these large-horned blue sheep when they went to the Sun family in Jinfengling.

The two climbed mountains and crossed valleys, taking more than a day to reach the Sun family gate of Jinfeng Ridge.

Since it was a test, Sun Yujiao's father naturally had to supervise it personally to prevent cheating.

After resting at the Sun family's house for a while, Zhou Zhengyong brought a middle-aged couple and the young woman Sun Yujiao to him.

After the two sides met, Zhou Zhengyong immediately introduced them: "Thirteenth Brother, this is Uncle Sun Lianzhong from the Sun family, and this is Aunt Lin. I won't introduce Miss Sun, as you have already met her."

"Uncle Sun, Aunt Lin, this is Zhou Zhengchun, my best brother in the family. He is the one who will help me complete Uncle Sun's test this time."

Upon seeing this, Zhou Chun quickly bowed to the middle-aged couple and said, "Junior Zhou Zhengchun greets Uncle Sun and Aunt Lin."

"Nephew Zhou, you don't need to be so polite."

Sun Lianzhong gently raised his hand, his gaze sweeping over Zhou Chun's handsome face, then looked at his daughter beside him, and couldn't help but shake his head slightly, thinking to himself, "What a pity."

At this time, less than a year had passed since the martial arts competition held by the five major cultivation families. In addition, Zhou Zhengyong had mentioned Zhou Chun before, so he was naturally aware of Zhou Chun's achievements in that martial arts competition.

Now that he has seen Zhou Chun's true appearance, he admires Zhou Chun even more.

In his eyes at this moment, if Zhou Chun was the one who wanted to become his daughter's cultivation partner, then this test would be completely unnecessary.

Zhou Chun and Zhou Zhengyong both saw Sun Lianzhong's actions, but neither of them could read his mind, so they could only pretend they hadn't seen them.

After this exchange of pleasantries, the group of five headed to the place where the purple flame sable lived.

The Purple Flame Sable is a solitary monster with a strong sense of territory, and it is also very intelligent and alert.

The purple flame sable that Sun Lianzhong had Zhou Zhengyong hunt was in the mountains more than 100 miles east of the Sun family's mountain gate in Jinfeng Ridge.

According to him, several Sun family cultivators had previously failed to hunt the Purple Flame Sable and were instead injured by its sneak attacks.

If Zhou Zhengyong can hunt down this Purple Flame Sable, even with the help of others, it would be enough to prove that his abilities are superior to those of the Sun family cultivators, making him worthy of entrusting his daughter to him.

After traveling for half a day, the group arrived at the edge of a forest filled with tall red pine trees.

Sun Lianzhong pointed to the pine forest ahead and said, "This is the red pine forest in front of us. That purple flame sable usually only moves around in this red pine forest."

After saying that, he turned to Zhou Zhengyong and Zhou Chun and said, "Our family will not go in. Let's set a three-day deadline. If you cannot succeed within three days, then we will have failed."

Then he reached into his storage pouch and handed a specially made talisman to Zhou Zhengyong: "Also, if you encounter danger and are outmatched, you can release this distress firework, and I will naturally come to your aid."

"Uncle, don't worry, we'll definitely bring you the carcass of that Purple Flame Sable in less than three days!"

Zhou Zhengyong took the specially made talisman and confidently patted his chest, making a bold statement.

Then he pulled Zhou Chun and strode into the red pine forest.

The plot has been unfolding a bit slowly lately, causing many readers to put the book on hold, but I don't regret writing it this way! My experience tells me that for a book to be engaging, increasingly exciting, and long enough, the groundwork laid in the beginning is crucial! Without proper setup of scenes, characters, and plot, you'll experience severe writer's block in the later stages, running out of things to write about, and eventually just wanting to end it all! So, this writing style might result in a slower start, but since I firmly believe I can write this book to over three million words, I'll choose the writing method that's right for me! Naturally, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the readers who are still willing to follow along every day; you are the true fans, thank you so much!!!

(End of this chapter)