Hongya Marketplace.
After negotiating Zhou Chun's return to the family, Zhou Fei also took the initiative to talk about their task for coming to the Hongya Marketplace.
It turned out that after establishing the family residence at Jiufeng Ridge, the Zhou Family began to layout their industry.
The task for Zhou Fei and his two companions in coming to Hongya Marketplace was to investigate the commercial intelligence within the marketplace, to see which goods sold well and where the Zhou Family could get involved.
Upon understanding this, Zhou Chun also actively offered to help with the investigation.
Thus, the four of them split up and began to surveil the nearby shops.
After staying in the marketplace for about seven days, the four had basically gathered all the basic commercial intelligence and were ready to return to the family to report.
This time, with three Zhou Family cultivators accompanying him, Zhou Chun did not have to worry about encountering bandit cultivators like he did on the way here.
Upon exiting the marketplace, Zhou Fei slapped his Spirit Beast Pouch at his waist and released a Blue-Black Demon Wolf over ten feet long to scout ahead.
At the same time, Zhou Jingwen took off the Spirit Beast Pouch at her waist and released a dozen Crimson Sparrows, each the size of a turtledove, to spread out in all directions around them and take up the duty of keeping watch.
With such ground and aerial coordination in scouting, the majority of bandit cultivators wouldn't even think about ambushing them.
Even ordinary bandit cultivators, upon seeing such a display, would actively avoid them to prevent themselves from becoming the prey.
This situation was a complete reversal compared to the anxiety Zhou Chun felt when he first traveled to the marketplace.
It also made Zhou Chun secretly resolve to get one or two Spirit Pets for himself after returning to the Zhou Family.
You see, back when the Zhou Family was still in the Sanjue Sect, they were known for their Beast Taming Technique, with almost every disciple having one or two Spirit Pets.
These Spirit Pets not only greatly increased a cultivator's strength but also provided means of transportation and vigilance when traveling.
Therefore, when the Sanjue Sect still existed, the Zhou Family was often the strongest of the three families.
Now, although the scattered Zhou Family was not as powerful as before, providing Zhou Chun with one or two Demon Beasts as Spirit Pets should not be a problem.
With the pathfinding and warning provided by the Spirit Pets, the group briskly started their journey using the "Light Body Skill."
The reason they did not use the quicker "Wind Control Skill" to hurry along was, of course, due to its greater consumption of Mana, and Zhou Fei and his companions did not dare absorb nature's spiritual energy from the outside environment to restore Mana like Zhou Chun.
Even with the enhancement from the "Light Body Skill," the group left Hongyan Mountain Range in less than a day.
Once on the flat terrain outside, Zhou Fei found several top-quality war horses from a mortal city for them to ride.
Then he administered secret medicines to the horses to boost their potential, raising their speed by forty to fifty percent, as if they had inexhaustible stamina.
However, the consequence of this was that after just half a day, traveling three to four hundred miles, the horses collapsed dead on the ground from overexertion.
If this type of behavior were exposed in Zhou Chun's previous life, the few of them would probably be socially dead on the spot.
But in this Cultivation World, where even human lives are disregarded, let alone the lives of a few beasts.
"We're now less than three hundred miles away from Jiufeng Ridge. Let's continue our journey using the 'Wind Control Skill,'" Zhou Fei said, looking up at the sky without glancing at the corpses of the fallen horses. He then announced the next step in their travel plan in a grave tone.
Less than three hundred miles, if they continued using the "Wind Control Skill," they would arrive in less than a day.
Then, once they returned to the family residence protected by the Spirit Cleansing Formation, they could certainly meditate in peace to recover their Mana.
Zhou Chun was all too eager for this, as on the ride there, to prevent the others from noticing anything unusual about him, he endured the physical and psychological pain, using his Mana to persistently hold out and avoid embarrassment.
Traveling using the "Wind Control Skill" meant relying on the spell's power to carry one's body, which consumed very little physical strength and was almost like taking a normal walk.
The group immediately began to cast spells and control the winds to move forward, resembling a band of Immortals on an outing, their large sleeves billowing as they gracefully danced through the wilderness, their demeanor as free and easy as could be.
Now and then, laboring farmers who saw this scene would be so astonished that they kneeled and kowtowed repeatedly, thinking they had encountered real Immortals.
After riding the wind for nearly two hundred miles, just as they were about to make one final push to reach the Zhou Family at Jiufeng Ridge,
a mournful howl of warning rose from a few miles ahead on the mountain.
"Not good, there's danger ahead!"
Zhou Fei, at the head of the group, changed expression and quickly halted, emitting a long whistle to recall the scouting Demon Wolf Spirit Pet.
At this point, Zhou Chun and the others, alerted by his warning, also halted, either casting Spells to enhance their protective barriers or readying Magic Artifacts and releasing Spirit Pets in preparation for battle.
It wasn't long before the Demon Wolf Spirit Pet, having knocked down several trees as thick as a wrist, returned to Zhou Fei's side.
Hearing its low growls, Zhou Fei, with a grave expression, told Zhou Chun and the others, "They are cultivators, and there are five or six of them!"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Jingwen immediately speculated, "We're less than a hundred miles from Jiufeng Ridge now, and we didn't see any dwellings on this mountain when we passed by earlier. These fellows are probably targeting us specifically!"
"Whether they are or not, just get ready for the fight, as they will be here soon anyway."
Zhou Fei shook his head slightly, then immediately reached out to his storage pouch at his waist and took out a magic artifact.
Sure enough, just dozens of breaths passed, and six cultivators wearing various colored clothes were seen chasing from the direction where the Demon Wolf Spirit Pet had returned.
Upon encountering each other, Zhou Jingwen immediately shouted, "It's really aimed at us, these few fellows are all loose cultivators from Jiufeng Ridge before."
On the other side, seeing the four Zhou Family cultivators, a black-robed muscular man immediately turned red-eyed and roared furiously, "You scum of the Zhou Family! You have occupied my cave dwelling and killed my fellow cultivators, today you shall pay with your blood for your debt!"
"That's right, blood for blood, we must let these outsiders from the Zhou Family know that we loose cultivators of Jingguo Country are not to be trifled with!"
"Blood for blood, kill them!"
...
The six loose cultivators, roaring and shouting, launched their attack directly at the four Zhou Family members.
The cultivation levels of these six loose cultivators were not low; one of them had the same Qi Refinement Realm Level 10 cultivation as Zhou Fei, another one was a Qi Refinement Realm Level 9 cultivator, followed by two Qi Refinement Realm Level 8 cultivators, and the remaining two were also at Qi Refinement Realm Level 7.
Now facing the attacks of six people, the Zhou Family members could only fight back with all their might.
However, before truly engaging in combat, Zhou Fei, to be on the safe side, quickly sent up a Messenger Firework into the sky.
This kind of Messenger Firework was not driven by gunpowder but was refined by cultivators using their artifact refining techniques. It could fly up to hundreds of feet high, and the pattern it formed upon explosion would last for a quarter of an hour without dispersing, with the sound of the explosion reaching a hundred miles.
This place was less than a hundred miles from Jiufeng Ridge, and once the Messenger Firework exploded, the Zhou Family cultivators on Jiufeng Ridge would surely notice and reinforcements would definitely come quickly.
When the loose cultivators saw the Messenger Firework explode, they instantly realized the danger of the situation.
Therefore, they fought even more furiously, using all sorts of skills to quickly fight and kill Zhou Fei and the others before quickly retreating from the place.
In such a situation, Zhou Chun became the most unlucky one.
Because he looked the youngest and seemed to have a high cultivation, he was directly targeted by the loose cultivators as a genius disciple of the Zhou Family and was besieged by one Qi Refinement Level 8 cultivator and one Qi Refinement Level 7 cultivator.
These two, set on quickly killing him, launched their magic artifacts and talismans at him right away.
Zhou Chun had originally only cast an earthen protection spell, the "Earth Spirit Cover" on himself, and seeing this situation, he was so scared that he hurriedly used the "Vajra Shield" talisman he had bought for a hefty price at the marketplace.
An explosion of firelight and the sound of heavy blows and slashes rang out, and Zhou Chun's initially cast "Earth Spirit Cover" dispersed like smoke, while the "Vajra Shield" protective barrier that followed was also violently trembling.
As his protective barrier was broken and his chi disrupted, he felt a tightness in his chest and almost vomited blood.
At this moment, the Zhou Family cultivators also saw the intentions of the loose cultivators.
Zhou Yong, who was fighting a Qi Refinement Level 7 loose cultivator, immediately shouted, "Brother Chun, hold on, I'm coming to help you!"
As he spoke, he ordered his Spirit Pet, the "Red-Tailed Monkey," to stop attacking his opponent and instead help Zhou Chun by restraining one of the enemies.
Meanwhile, Zhou Jingwen also timely sent over five Crimson Sparrows to assist.
Zhou Yong's Spirit Pet, the "Red-Tailed Monkey," was a first-grade mid-tier Demon Beast, equivalent to a mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator, capable of casting several fire element spells and possessing the strength to rip apart tigers and leopards.
The five "Fire Sparrows" that Zhou Jingwen had, although they were just first-grade low-tier Demon Beasts, their combined effort was comparable to a mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivator.
With the help of these two types of Spirit Beasts, and Zhou Chun focusing on defense, he quickly stabilized his footing. No matter how hard the two loose cultivators attacked, they couldn't take him down in a jiffy.
He even had the leisure to glance at the others' battlefields.
He saw Zhou Fei single-handedly facing off against that Qi Refinement Level 10 loose cultivator and another Qi Refinement Level 8 loose cultivator.
He himself and a Spirit Snake Pet that he had released were dealing with the Qi Refinement Level 10 loose cultivator, while the Demon Wolf Spirit Pet was single-handedly handling the Qi Refinement Level 8 loose cultivator, appearing to have the upper hand on both fronts.
Zhou Jingwen, on the other hand, was up against a Qi Refinement Level 9 loose cultivator who was one level higher than her in cultivation. With the help of nine "Fire Sparrows," she was not falling behind at all, leaving her opponent without the will to fight.
Only Zhou Yong, as he had let his Spirit Pet, the "Red-Tailed Monkey," assist Zhou Chun, was somewhat struggling by himself against the Qi Refinement Level 7 loose cultivator, fighting to a stalemate.
All this seemed rather normal.
After all, the Zhou Family members were all formal disciples of the Sanjue Sect before, and the spells, magic artifacts, and Spirit Beasts they possessed were beyond what a loose cultivator could compare to.
If they were to be defeated by a few loose cultivators at this point, that would truly be an embarrassment for both the Sanjue Sect and the Zhou Family.
After fighting like this for a while and seeing that they really couldn't gain an advantage, and also worried that reinforcements from the Zhou Family on Jiufeng Ridge could arrive at any time,
The loose cultivator who was dueling with Zhou Fei suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "This is going nowhere, brothers, let's retreat for now and look for another opportunity to get even!"
Having said that, he was the first to start retreating.
Seeing him retreat, the other loose cultivators didn't dare to stay any longer and quickly followed suit, escaping into the woods.
But seeing this scene, Zhou Fei didn't choose to chase; he just let out a cold snort, "Humph, think they can escape? Do they really believe they can get away?"