Bad News

Chapter 67 Bad News

Because of Liu Shiyun's departure, Ling Shou Zhai was left with only Zhou Jiasheng as the manager and Zhou Chun as the employee, and Zhou Chun could no longer take a break as before.

However, because the store's business has been taken away by the Spirit Beast Pavilion recently, there has been less work to do in the store, so he is not very busy.

This left him unsure whether to laugh or cry.

"Sigh, I'd better keep looking around. If I can't find a way to win back some customers, I'm afraid the shop won't even need me as an employee anymore!"

Thinking of his sixteenth uncle, Zhou Jiasheng, who always looked worried and gloomy, Zhou Chun felt that he had to do something.

Many shops in this market have no employees, only a shopkeeper to support them.

If the Spirit Beast Hall were to fall to such a state, it would truly be a disappointment to Clan Chief Zhou Daoyi's high expectations.

So Zhou Chun frequently went out to investigate market demand and look for new business opportunities. She even disguised herself and entered the Spirit Beast Pavilion several times to investigate the situation.

But business opportunities are not so easy to find, especially products that cannot be easily imitated by others.

Over the course of more than a month, Zhou Chun contacted more than 600 cultivators but still couldn't find a feasible solution.

Meanwhile, the matter of Qinglian Temple opening its gates to recruit disciples also came to a conclusion.

Of the three people sent by the Zhou family, only thirteen-year-old Zhou Zhengcen was able to become a disciple of Qinglian Temple.

Liu Shiyun, whom Zhou Chun hadn't initially thought highly of, surprisingly succeeded in joining the Qinglian Temple.

Upon learning this news, Zhou Chun was surprised and quickly relayed the message to Liu Qingshan, who was "reformed through labor" in the market.

As expected, upon learning that his daughter had successfully joined the prestigious Qinglian Temple, Liu Qingshan was overjoyed. He grabbed Zhou's hand and repeatedly expressed his gratitude, saying, "Thank you so much, Fellow Daoist Zhou! Thank you so much! When my daughter returns from her journey down the mountain, I, Liu, will definitely host a banquet at the Heavenly Immortal Pavilion to express my gratitude!"

Tianxianlou is the best restaurant in Hongya Market. All the food and drinks there are made with spiritual ingredients that contain spiritual energy, making it a place that ordinary Qi Refining cultivators cannot afford.

Setting up a banquet there, even at the lowest standard, would cost at least a hundred spirit coins.

As for independent cultivators like Liu Qingshan, sometimes they might not earn that many spirit coins even in a year.

This shows how grateful he was to Zhou Chun at that moment.

However, Zhou Chun was preoccupied with how to increase the sales of the Spirit Beast Shop, so he only gave a few polite replies before returning to the shop.

To Zhou Chun's utter surprise, before he could even come up with a way to increase the revenue of the Spirit Beast Shop, a piece of bad news came from the Zhou family.

It turns out that Zhou Mingshan, the eldest elder of the Zhou family, had exhausted his lifespan and passed away peacefully!

The Zhou family currently only has four Foundation Establishment stage cultivators. The departure of the First Elder, Zhou Mingshan, will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the Zhou family.

In particular, most of the various pills produced by the Zhou family in the past were made by this elder.

Now that Elder Zhou Mingshan, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, is no longer here, the production of pills by the Zhou family will likely be greatly reduced in the future.

"This is truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly, just like a ship sinking under a headwind!!"

Inside the Spirit Beast Pavilion, both Zhou Chun and Zhou Jiasheng looked grim and were extremely dejected.

Both of them could foresee that the supply of Beast Spirit Pills and other elixirs from their families to the shop would likely decrease significantly in the future, which would have a greater impact on the shop's revenue than the current decrease in the number of customers.

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

After sitting in the shop for who knows how long, just as Zhou Chun was thinking about going out for some fresh air, someone came to the outside.

"Welcome, esteemed guest. May I ask...?"

Hearing footsteps approaching, Zhou Chun instinctively wanted to greet them with a smile, but then stopped when she saw who it was.

He then nodded slightly and said, "So it's Fellow Daoist Luo. Are you here to deliver demon beast meat to me again today?"

The cultivator who entered the shop was a pockmarked old man who was over fifty years old.

The pockmarked old man was named Luo Guangshun, and he had the cultivation level of the eighth level of Qi Refining. He was one of the cultivators who supplied Zhou Chun with monster meat every month.

As a rogue cultivator who has spent decades in the cultivation world, his ability to read people and situations is undoubtedly excellent.

At this moment, he noticed that Zhou Jiasheng, the shopkeeper behind the counter, looked strange, and Zhou Chun, who usually greeted him with a smile, was not smiling at all. He knew that he had come at the wrong time.

But since he was already there, he could only bite the bullet and say, "That's right. Fellow Daoist Zhou, would it be convenient for you to come inside for a chat?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun couldn't help but glance at Zhou Jiasheng, the shopkeeper.

Seeing that Zhou Jiasheng didn't react, he nodded slightly and said softly, "Then Fellow Daoist Luo, please follow me."

After saying that, he led the person to the backyard of the shop.

Upon arriving at the backyard, which was inaccessible to ordinary guests, Luo Guangshun, without Zhou Chun even asking, tactfully reached into his storage pouch and took out a sealed hardwood box, opening the lid in front of Zhou Chun.

Inside the hardwood box were three strange, silver-black fish, each ranging from five to seven feet in length, with a lot of crushed ice placed inside to keep them fresh.

"Huh, what kind of monster is that?"

Zhou Chun looked at the strange fish in the wooden box, a look of surprise and doubt flashing in his eyes. He immediately stepped forward and picked one up to examine it.

This strange, silvery-black fish looks somewhat like a catfish. It has a mouth full of sharp teeth, no scales on its body, and its skin is as tough as rubber. In some places, you can see unwashed mucus. In addition, its pectoral and dorsal fins are covered with serrated spines.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, be careful. This sap is poisonous. If you touch it, it will cause numbness, itching, and pain in your hands and feet."

At this moment, seeing that Zhou Chun seemed interested in the slime on the strange fish and reached out to touch it, Luo Guangshun, who had learned his lesson before, hurriedly reminded him.

"Is that so?"

Zhou Chun immediately withdrew his hand and thoughtfully put the strange fish back into the wooden box.

Then he looked at Luo Guangshun and asked, "Fellow Daoist Luo, do you recognize this strange fish?"

Hearing this, Luo Guangshun gave a wry smile and sighed, "It seems Fellow Daoist Zhou doesn't recognize what kind of monster this strange fish is either!"

Then he shook his head and said, "Even a cultivator as skilled in beast taming as Fellow Daoist Zhou doesn't recognize this strange fish, how could I, a mere rogue cultivator, possibly know it?"

Without Zhou Chun needing to ask any further questions, she revealed the origin of the strange fish on her own.

"These strange fish were caught by me from a deep mountain lake. They are naturally endowed with water-based magic such as water arrows and water bullets, making them quite formidable in water. It took me a lot of effort to catch these three strange fish!"

After explaining the basic facts about the strange fish, Luo Guangshun looked at Zhou Chun expectantly and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, you are a fair person. What do you think is the proper way to value this strange fish?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately understood his little scheme.

He immediately waved his hands and said, "Fellow Daoist Luo, there's no need to flatter me. I haven't been cultivating as long as you have. I wouldn't dare to say anything carelessly in front of an unfamiliar demon beast."

After saying that, he looked directly at the other party and said, "The transaction between Zhou and Fellow Daoist Luo is limited to the trade of demon beast meat. Therefore, whether Fellow Daoist Luo gives Zhou the whole carcass of these strange fish or just the mutilated parts, Zhou can only trade with Fellow Daoist at the price previously agreed upon!"

He may be rich, but he's not stupid.

Perhaps there is some special value to be found in this unknown fish-like monster, but that is something he cannot do now, nor can he do it in a short time.

Why would he offer Luo Guangshun a higher price to acquire the monster's corpse because of this unknown fact?

Seeing that he wasn't falling for the trick, Luo Guangshun was very disappointed. He could only sigh helplessly and say, "Well then, I'll leave two strange fish corpses for Fellow Daoist Zhou. I'll take the remaining one to the Heavenly Immortal Pavilion; perhaps they'll be willing to offer a good price there!"

After saying that, he sold the two large monster fish carcasses to Zhou Chun for four spirit coins, and then left the Spirit Beast Hall with the remaining small monster fish carcass.

After Luo Guangshun left, Zhou Chun had a thought in mind. He immediately put one of the strange fish corpses back in ice and stored it away. Then he scraped off the remaining slime from the other strange fish corpse, put it in a bottle, and cut off some fish skin for preservation.

Afterwards, he cut off a piece of fish of a suitable size, used purified spiritual water to remove the turbid and evil energy from it, and then divided it into several pieces. He then fried, stir-fried, boiled, or deep-fried the fish and tasted them all.

The final taste test results showed that the fish meat of this strange fish had no special taste, and was even worse than many ordinary fish meat. It only had a little more spiritual power than ordinary fish meat.

This made Zhou Chun completely lose interest in eating the remaining fish, so he chopped it all into pieces and threw it to the Silver Lightning Python as food.

The Silver Lightning Python, Bai Bai, is now over a year old and its cultivation level is about to advance.

And this is without Zhou Chun ever feeding it any [Beast Spirit Pills].

Judging from this, even wild Silver Lightning Pythons that are not fed will most likely become top-tier first-class demonic beasts within ten years.

All I can say is that the bloodline of a mid-level demon beast is truly powerful!

(End of this chapter)