Chapter 1677: Chapter 635: Ice Silkworm Transformation
The person responsible for hosting this auction is Zhou Yuanyuan, a Family Elder of the Zhou Family.
“Welcome, esteemed seniors and fellow Daoists, for traveling tens of thousands of miles to participate in this auction at the Hundred Beasts Marketplace. On behalf of the Zhou Family, I express my sincerest gratitude.”
On the auction platform, Zhou Yuanyuan first surveyed the room, gracefully giving an opening speech, then promptly patted her storage pouch, taking out an alchemy bottle and holding it in her hand. She loudly announced, “Next is the first treasure of this auction, a Foundation Establishment Pill, starting at a price of eight thousand Spirit Coins, with each bid not less than one hundred Spirit Coins!”
As soon as she finished speaking, those cultivators at the Qi Cultivation Stage who couldn’t enter the private rooms immediately had their eyes turn red.
All of them had fervent gazes fixed on the alchemy bottle in Zhou Yuanyuan’s hand, eager to possess it immediately.
For Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators, the most precious treasure is always the Foundation Establishment Pill.
Even if they had to trade their Dharma Treasure for the Foundation Establishment Pill, they would do so willingly.
After all, they couldn’t use the Dharma Treasure, but the Foundation Establishment Pill could greatly increase their chances of successfully establishing their foundation, taking the most crucial step on the path of cultivation.
In no time, all kinds of bidding voices arose, creating a lively atmosphere.
In the end, that Foundation Establishment Pill was auctioned off for as high as fourteen thousand five hundred Spirit Coins!
In the subsequent auction, various distinctive Spiritual Objects of the Zhou Family became the main products of this auction.
From small items like the Demon Spirit Pill, which boosts the cultivation of Second Order Demon Beasts, to musk produced by the Fragrant Musk Deer, and even to medium-level demon beast eggs like those of the Cloud-Stepping Dragon Colt and Green Striped Water Turtle, as well as the blood essence of a Fourth-Order Jiaolong, everything was brought out for auction.
There were also various thousand-year-old spiritual medicines and spirit materials brought out by Zhou Chun that drew the Golden Core Stage cultivators to bid with eagerness.
The finale was even an inferior-grade Magical Treasure!
Daring to auction an inferior-grade Magical Treasure undoubtedly showcased the extraordinary foundation of the Zhou Family.
For the vast majority of Golden Core families, there is never an excess of magical treasures.
Even if they had so many that their Golden Core Stage cultivators couldn’t use them all, they could transform them into “pseudo-treasures” or refine them into talisman treasures.
The Zhou Family boldly putting their treasures up for auction suggests that they either have a stable channel for acquiring magical treasures, or that they have such an abundance of treasures that a few less don’t matter to them.
Either scenario suggests that the Zhou Family is no longer in the same league as ordinary Golden Core families.
So after this auction, many of the cultivators who participated couldn’t help but look at the Zhou Family with newfound respect.
Perhaps they haven’t yet considered the Zhou Family a Nascent Soul power, nor recognized them as a major force, but they surely wouldn’t dare to see the Zhou Family as just an ordinary Golden Core family anymore.
Yet this auction was just part of the Zhou Family’s display of their foundational strength.
Because shortly after the auction, the Zhou Family convened all families and individual cultivator strongholds from Lanzhou and Lianzhou, holding a demon slaying event.
This demon slaying event mainly targeted the extermination of demon beasts occupying mountains and lakes within the two provinces, even including several Third Order Demon Beasts!
It’s worth noting that over the years, demon beasts occupying Yunzhou hadn’t launched major invasions into Lanzhou and Lingzhou, but there were occasional small-scale beast groups or lone demon beasts entering these Jingguo territories from Yunzhou.
Against these incursive demon beasts, the symbolic patrol teams at the borders were powerless to stop them.
Even after several decades, the beast threat within the central southern regions of Jingguo was not eradicated.
Some cultivators at the Qi Cultivation Stage had to avoid deep forests when traveling, fearing a sudden beast would spring out to treat them as prey.
But this time, the Zhou Family was serious!
More than two hundred Zhou Family cultivators, accompanied by spirits several times their number, and coupled with cultivators from the gathered vassal forces, totaling five to six hundred people, divided into dozens of teams for a net-like sweep hunt, clearing demon beasts within the two provinces.
Many demon beasts usually hid deeply, or were nocturnal, or hid upon smelling cultivators, allowing them to escape previous clearing efforts.
But this time, all Zhou Family teams brought demon beasts adept at tracking, using beasts to find beasts, rendering those cunning demon beasts completely exposed.
This grand demon slaying event lasted over three months before concluding.
Throughout the event, not a single Golden Core Stage cultivator of the Zhou Family intervened, nor was any Fourth-Order Demon Beast sent out.
Yet even under these circumstances, the Zhou Family managed to slay three Third Order demon beasts, over fifty Second Order demon beasts, and more than twenty thousand First Order demon beasts!
The number of fallen cultivators in the event was fewer than fifty, with less than half belonging to the Zhou Family.
It was truly a very successful demon hunt!
After this demon slaying event, the demon beasts within Lanzhou and Lianzhou were basically eradicated, restoring safety to pre-Beast Tide levels.
The execution displayed by the Zhou Family during the event, along with the personal skills shown by the Zhou Family cultivators, greatly intimidated the accompanying vassal forces.
Without comparison, there’s no harm!
During the hunt alongside the Zhou Family members, witnessing the skills and methods displayed by those Zhou Family cultivators, the vassal force cultivators lamented their inferiority.
After this event, when discussing the Zhou Family, these vassal force cultivators were filled with deep respect.
Only now did these force cultivators realize, that their inferiority to the Zhou Family was not just due to the lack of a Golden Core Stage cultivator in charge, but even within the same realm, they were utterly inferior to Zhou Family cultivators!
Once this realization formed, they could only harbor complete reverence for the Zhou Family as their sect master force.
Moreover, this demon slaying event also served as an assessment and evaluation for many clansmen of the Zhou Family.
Those clansmen with outstanding performances during the event received various material rewards from the family afterward, and a few exceptionally prominent individuals caught the eyes of the Family Elder and even the Supreme Elder, gaining favor from the true power holders in the family.
All these outstanding clansmen received a personal audience and were awarded by Zhou Xinyan.
“Zhou Yuanxin, hmm, your father is Zhou Gaoping? Excellent, excellent, your performance in this demon slaying event matches your father—a tiger father breeds no dog son!”
“This Thunder Lizard Beast egg is the family’s reward for your outstanding performance this time. I hope you do not disappoint the family’s nurturing and properly raise this beast, so that one day it may advance to the Second Order, or even the Third!”
In the Central Peace Hall, used for clan affairs, Zhou Xinyan encouragingly smiled and patted the shoulder of a round-faced young man before awarding him his prepared reward.
The round-faced young man, unable to conceal his joy upon receiving the jade box containing the beast egg, promptly held it tightly and solemnly bowed to Zhou Xinyan: “Zhou Yuanxin thanks the Elder for the reward. This junior will surely cultivate diligently, serve the family loyally, and not fail the family’s nurturing and the Elder’s kind favor!”