Shop Crisis, Qinglian Gate Opens

Chapter 65 Shop Crisis, Qinglian Gate Opens

The two magical artifacts that Zhou Daoyi rewarded Zhou Chun had their previous owners' divine imprints erased beforehand, so Zhou Chun quickly refined the two artifacts after returning to Baozhi Peak.

In this way, he now possessed four first-tier high-grade magic artifacts.

Frankly speaking, with his current level of magical power, it's almost impossible for him to control four first-grade high-quality magical artifacts at the same time.

The [Little Thousand Mountain Seal] is a magical artifact that consumes too much mana.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, he should use the [Moon Blade Meteor Wheel] and [Bright Cloud Pendant] as his usual magical artifacts, and only use the [Small Thousand Mountain Seal] and [Golden Lock Ring], which have special uses, under certain circumstances.

Of course, while reaping enormous benefits himself, Zhou Chun would not forget Liu Shiyun's contributions.

After all, that medicine valley was discovered by them, so they should deserve some credit.

He happened to have a few discarded magical artifacts that he needed to dispose of, so he gave Liu Shiyun his original silver short sword and copper gourd magical artifacts, and also waived the more than one hundred spirit coins that he had previously paid to "redeem" her.

Both of these first-tier mid-grade magic artifacts are of good quality. If handled properly, the harvest could be over a hundred spirit coins, which wouldn't be considered unfair to her.

As for Liu Shiyun, she only led the way for Zhou Chun this time, and apart from helping to collect herbs later, she did not put in any effort at all.

Zhou Chun's willingness to share one-fifth of the income from the Medicine Valley with her was already a pleasant surprise and made her very satisfied.

She would only feel grateful and thankful for this, and would not have the slightest dissatisfaction.

The two spent more than a day at the Zhou family's house in Jiufengling before heading to Hongyafang Market together.

Because of Liu Shiyun's presence, Zhou Chun actually traveled for more than a day using normal methods before returning to the market with her.

After returning to the Spirit Beast Hall, Zhou Chun followed the teachings of the clan leader Zhou Daoyi and began to bide his time and cultivate in peace.

Because Liu Shiyun helped look after the shop, Zhou Jiasheng didn't pay much attention to him, only letting him come out to keep an eye on things when he wasn't in the shop.

Zhou Chun also used Liu Qingshan's connections to find several independent cultivators who frequently visited the market and placed long-term orders with them to supply him with monster meat, providing him with one or two batches of fresh monster meat every month.

Of course, he also made sure to visit the street market every day to see if he could find any valuable medicinal herbs.

Zhou Chun still has quite a few medicinal herbs that he hasn't found an opportunity to sell. If he were to sell them all, it would bring him considerable profits.

Time passed slowly, and soon another six months had gone by.

In the past six months, Zhou Chun has hardly left the market, and his cultivation has been steadily improving with the help of pills.

The Qiyun Alliance, which had caused quite a stir in Lanzhou, was suddenly disbanded.

The elite were led by the three alliance leaders to Lingzhou to join the "Tianjing Manor," while the remaining rogue cultivators became rootless and adrift, not even daring to mention that they had once joined the Qiyun Alliance.

Meanwhile, the Crimson Iron Ore mined by the five major cultivation families has begun supplying buyers from all sides, continuously and steadily earning a large amount of spirit coins for the five major cultivation families.

For the Zhou family, this Crimson Iron Mine is not only their most profitable source of income, but also the foundation for their alliance with the other four major cultivation families.

After the battle with the Qiyun Alliance, the Zhou family of Jiufengling has made a name for itself and gained more recognition and affirmation from the local forces in Lanzhou, thus consolidating its foundation.

As long as we continue to solidify our relationships with the other four major cultivation families and establish connections with more local forces, it won't take more than twenty or thirty years before no one cares where the Zhou family came from.

However, there was one thing that made Zhou Chun and Zhou Jiasheng, the two Zhou family cultivators in the market, quite unhappy.

Just over a month ago, Spirit Beast Manor, which was also split off from the Three Absolutes Sect, finally opened a shop in Red Cliff Market, and even used the name "Spirit Beast Pavilion" which is similar to Spirit Beast Shop.

Because of the emergence of the "Spirit Beast Pavilion," the business of the Spirit Beast Shop has been affected to some extent, and its turnover has gradually decreased.

This is because the "Spirit Beast Pavilion" not only sells the various secret medicines owned by the Spirit Beast Pavilion, but also sells many special products that the Zhou family of Jiufeng Ridge currently does not possess.

For example, the spirit honey produced by the Jade Bee, the milk produced by the White Jade Goat, and the antlers produced by the Blood Sun Deer...

These items were originally high-quality spiritual objects found and cultivated by the ancestors of the Zhou family and the predecessors of the Three Absolutes Sect. They were one of the flagship products of the Three Absolutes Sect's foreign trade in the past.

However, with the dismantling of the Three Absolutes Sect, all the spirit bees and spirit beasts originally tamed by the Zhou family cultivators were forcibly taken away by Yu Jinghua, that traitor, and taken to the Spirit Beast Manor.

Now, it has become a specialty product of their Spirit Beast Manor, used to suppress and seize market share from the Zhou family of Spirit Beasts.

Such behavior infuriated Zhou Chun and Zhou Jiasheng, who secretly cursed Yu Jinghua's entire family countless times.

"One-third less! Compared to before the Spirit Beast Pavilion opened, our shop's revenue this month is a full third less!!"

Inside the Spirit Beast Shop, Zhou Jiasheng's hands trembled as he calculated the new month's revenue, his face turning ashen.

Zhou Chun listened to his words with a worried expression and remained silent.

Zhou Chun didn't have any good solutions to this problem either.

After all, in the world of cultivation, products are the foundation of a shop.

Now, all of Ling Shou Zhai's products are sold by Ling Shou Ge, and they also release rare items that Ling Shou Zhai doesn't have from time to time to retain customers. What can Ling Shou Zhai use to compete with them?

In the end, all they could do was sigh, "This isn't our fault. Once the clan leader and the rest of the clan know the details, they'll surely understand and won't blame us!"

"It's not that I'm afraid of the clan leader's wrath; I'm just unwilling to accept this!"

"Those things originally belonged to the Zhou family, but now they're being used to undermine our family and destroy our very foundation!"

"This is absolutely infuriating!!"

At this point, Zhou Jiasheng slammed the ledger onto the table with a loud "bang," looking furious.

Zhou Chun felt the same way he said, and he was also angry.

After all, Zhou Chun now truly considers himself a member of the Zhou family and genuinely wants the family to prosper.

However, he didn't have as much of a temper as Zhou Jiasheng; at least he could control his emotions and avoid losing his composure.

After a moment's thought, he finally spoke up, saying, "The only way to compete with them for customers is to launch unique products that are difficult for them to imitate!"

"So, Nephew Zhengchun, do you have any thoughts on this?"

Zhou Jiasheng immediately looked at him, his eyes filled with anticipation as he asked.

"Not available at the moment."

Zhou Chun shook his head, giving him a rather disappointing answer.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Jiasheng couldn't help but sigh, "Well, let's think about it some more. I'll also report this to the clan leader and ask him to mobilize the clan's cultivators to consider this matter!"

However, before the Zhou family could come up with a good way to recover their lost market share, another major event occurred in Lanzhou, or rather, in several southern states of Jingguo.

It turns out that Qinglian Temple, which actually rules several southern prefectures of Jingguo, is preparing to open its gates to recruit disciples again, and this time the number of disciples recruited is 50% more than before.

Large sects like Qinglian Temple typically only recruit disciples on a large scale every twenty or thirty years, and each time they open their gates to recruit disciples, it is a grand event in the cultivation world.

For example, this time, it is said that the number of disciples recruited will reach more than 700.

Based on past examples, the actual number of cultivators who can enter Qinglian Temple is almost one-tenth of the number of cultivators who meet the registration requirements.

One in ten is chosen – that's the true value of a disciple from a major sect!

Zhou Chun also received a message from the clan leader Zhou Daoyi via flying eagle, asking if he was interested in signing up to participate in this grand event.

(End of this chapter)