Beast-controlling fairy clan.

Chapter 246: Sudden Situation, Zhou Family Crisis [Subscription Request]

With Zhou Daoyi's advice, Zhou Chun finally managed to stay.

Also left behind were eighteen Qi Refining cultivators from the Wang and Yang families, plus Zhou Xinlan from the Zhou family.

It is not difficult to see from this personnel arrangement what Zhou Daoyi and the other three Purple Mansion Stage cultivators are planning.

After staying behind, Zhou Chun did not immediately lead people to clean up the monsters that had fled into the inland areas. Instead, he led people to continue digging pits to bury the bodies, and buried all the monster corpses all over the mountains and plains into the ice caves.

However, not all the monster corpses were obtained by the Zhou family this time, so some of them had to be divided between the Wang family and the Yang family afterwards.

As for those independent cultivators who also contributed, they had already filled their storage bags, so there was naturally no need to give them any benefits.

After burying the corpses of thousands of monsters, Zhou Chun led his men into the inland area at the rear to clean up the fleeing monsters.

He sent a dozen of his Qi Refining cultivators to the nearest towns and asked them to contact the local mortal government forces. As long as they got any news about monsters, they would personally rush over to eliminate the monsters.

In just two days, Zhou Chun killed twenty-three murderous monsters.

But the good times did not last long. Before long, Zhou Chun received news that the main force of the beast tide that besieged Qing Lingzi's stronghold had once again sent out more than two thousand low-level monsters to rush inland.

These low-level monsters moved in groups of three or five, and their routes were completely different, so they could no longer be intercepted as before.

Obviously, these low-level monsters were released deliberately to disperse the strength of the Jingguo monks.

If Qing Lingzi ignores these monsters, many mortals will die at their hands after they flee into the hinterland of Lanzhou.

But if we really send troops to clean up these monsters, the defense power of the stronghold will be weakened.

Therefore, Qing Lingzi turned his attention to the various immortal cultivation families in Lanzhou, and asked each family to form a team to clean up these monsters, whether they had to draw cultivators from their own clan or hire independent cultivators.

The Zhou family was therefore assigned another fifteen targets, including one for a foundation-building cultivator.

"This is really unreasonable!"

Even though Zhou Chun always had a very good temper, he was a little angry after learning about this.

The total number of Qi Refining cultivators in the Zhou family who are able to fight is less than 130.

Now half of the manpower has been withdrawn. Under such circumstances, the Zhou family is still required to send out 15 people. This is simply squeezing people to death and forcing them into a desperate situation!
"No, I have to go back to my family first!"

After thinking it over, Zhou Chun decided to go back to the family mountain gate immediately.

He used the excuse that he needed to recover his magic power and asked the cultivators from the Wang and Yang families to form a team to slowly clear out the lone monsters, while he himself secretly returned to Jiufeng Ridge.

After flying for several hours, he returned to his family.

As he expected, Zhou Mingde, who was in charge of the family, was also worried about the fifteen indicators at this time.

"Zhengchun, you're back just in time. Tell me what we should do about this matter."

"It is impossible for the family to spare so many people now. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, the family will suffer serious losses. However, this order has not only been received by our Zhou family. If we don't follow it, I'm afraid we won't be able to explain it at all!"

Zhou Mingde looked at Zhou Chun with a frown, and was also stumped by this matter.

He also didn't expect that he, a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator and the leader of such a large Zhou family, would be stumped by such a trivial matter.

Fortunately, Zhou Chun had already thought about this on the way here.

Facing Zhou Mingde's question, he immediately replied: "In my opinion, this matter can only be solved by hiring independent cultivators!"

Hearing his answer, Zhou Mingde couldn't help but frown and said, "But now most of the independent cultivators in Lanzhou have gone to the front line. Those who are left either don't want to participate in this war at all, or are so weak that they don't have the strength to participate in this kind of war!"

"Those independent cultivators who don't want to participate in this war are simply afraid of danger. As long as we are willing to invest, give each of them ten first-grade superior magic talismans, and promise to reward them with a first-grade superior magic weapon afterwards, and give them a higher hiring fee than Qinglian Temple, there will always be people willing to take the risk!"

Zhou Chun gritted his teeth and said, "If we still can't recruit enough people, we can only recruit some casual cultivators in the early stage of Qi Refining to make up the number. In short, we can't let anyone find fault with the number of people!"

"Okay, then let's do as you say, Zhengchun. I will immediately ask Jiahe, Jiapeng, Zhengyuan and the others to go to the nearby independent cultivator bases to recruit people."

Zhou Mingde gritted his teeth and knew that this was the only feasible solution at the moment, so he immediately arranged for three Zhou family foundation-building cultivators to recruit people.

Zhou Chun, however, couldn't wait until the results came out. He didn't even have time to rest and immediately left the family and returned to his original place.

Fortunately, with the huge reward, the Zhou family was able to hire fourteen Qi Refining Stage cultivators of varying levels of cultivation, who were led by Zhou Jiahe to the designated location to meet up.

But the good times did not last long. Within two days, Zhou Chun learned a piece of news that made him look horrified.

The front-line outpost of Bi Yan Ze was lost!

It is said that a fourth-order medium-grade monster called the Earth-Turning Dragon appeared in the beast tide. This beast started from underground, and under the cover of the main force of the beast tide, used its innate magical powers to cut off the ground veins where the front-line stronghold was located, causing the spiritual veins to collapse and become chaotic, affecting the performance of the protective formation, and finally causing the formation to be forcibly broken!

This sudden change caused the monks in the front-line stronghold to be surrounded by a tide of beasts, resulting in heavy casualties.

Zhou Chun was able to quickly learn the details of the incident because he ran into a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator who had managed to escape from the stronghold and learned what had happened from him.

But before he could find out more, the Purple Mansion Stage cultivator had already fled back to his own family in a hurry.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun was also flustered. He hurriedly asked the Qi Refining cultivators from the Wang and Yang families to return home on their own, and then took Zhou Xinlan directly back to the family.

He didn't know whether Zhou Daoyi, Zhou Daoquan and those Zhou family cultivators who were taken to the stronghold were dead or alive, but he knew that as long as those people survived, they would definitely return to the family first.

Moreover, once this front-line outpost is lost, the consequences will be extremely serious!
Although the Zhou family's Jiufeng Ridge is quite a distance away from the front-line stronghold, if a beast tide rages in Lanzhou, it won't take long for it to reach there.

After rushing all the way for several hours, Zhou Chun finally returned to the Jiufengling family gate.

What made him happy was that the clan leader Zhou Daoyi, whom he had been worried about on the way, had already returned to the family before him.

But this happiness did not last long, and was completely dispelled by Zhou Daoyi's subsequent words. "Although I successfully fought my way out of the beast tide with the help of Qingqing and the Fire God Jackal, Daoquan and I were separated by the beast tide at that time, and now his life or death is unknown!"

"Moreover, those Qi Refining cultivators in the family are probably in great danger. It is hard for anyone to escape!"

Just two sentences dispersed all the joy in Zhou Chun's heart, and made his heart sink instantly.

For the Zhou family, whether it is Zhou Daoquan, who is in the late foundation building stage and is expected to open up the Purple Palace, or Zhou Zhenglan and more than 20 other Qi Refining cultivators in the family, they are undoubtedly people who cannot be lost.

However, it is not difficult to know from Zhou Daoyi's words that Zhou Zhenglan and other Qi Refining cultivators are probably in great danger.

Zhou Chun's mind flashed with the voices and faces of the tribesmen who had fought together a few days ago. He couldn't help but stare at Zhou Daoyi with wide eyes and asked, "What happened at the frontline stronghold? I only heard that a fourth-level middle-grade demon beast, the Earth Dragon, cut off the earth veins and disrupted the spirit veins, causing the guardian formation to be breached by the beast tide. But without the guardian formation, can so many cultivators in the stronghold be vulnerable?"

Hearing his words, Zhou Daoyi couldn't help but pursed his lips, and replied with a lingering fear: "It's true that the formation was broken because of the appearance of the Earth-Turning Dragon, but the main reason why we were defeated and fled was because of the Red Dragon Hall Master of the Dragon Transformation Sect and that fourth-level middle-grade Red Fire Dragon!"

“At that time, that man and the dragon suddenly rushed out. The three Jindan-stage cultivators hiding in Qinglian Temple were unable to stop them at all. The breakout formation we formed was even defeated by the Red Dragon Hall Master in one blow. Those who survived by chance could only flee in all directions and seek their own way to survive!”

After hearing this answer, Zhou Chun fell silent.

The head of the Red Dragon Hall, if I remember correctly, should be a cultivator in the late Jindan stage.

The strength of that fourth-order intermediate-grade red fire dragon might even be stronger than that of a late-stage Jindan cultivator.

Such a combination suddenly appeared on the battlefield, coupled with that fourth-level medium-grade earth-turning dragon...

Zhou Chun could already imagine how bad and desperate the situation was at that time!
In that situation, it was lucky for Zhou Daoyi to be able to save his own life and escape. As for rescuing others, he was truly unable to do so!
At the moment, he could only ask in a low voice: "What should we do now? Since even a strong man like the leader of the Red Dragon Hall has appeared in Lanzhou, the beast tide in Lanzhou will definitely not just wreak havoc in the mortal world. How should our Zhou family deal with this matter?"

"There is no other way now. We can only prepare for the worst. If an irresistible beast tide really rushes towards our family, we can only give up Jiufeng Ridge and protect the remaining cultivators in the family!"

Zhou Daoyi shook his head and spoke in a low voice about how to deal with it.

Do you want to give up Jiufengling?
After hearing this, Zhou Chun was speechless.

Reason told him that this was the best option.

But emotionally, he found it difficult to accept this result.

Because once this is done, the Zhou family’s decades of hard work will be wasted, and everything will have to start all over again!
At this time, Zhou Mingde, who had been silent all this time, suddenly waved his hand and said, "Okay, Zheng Chun, you must be tired after coming all the way here. Go back and rest first. I will arrange for people to do these things."

He had already experienced leaving his hometown, and compared to Zhou Chun, he was undoubtedly more able to accept the worst outcome.

"Then I will take my leave first!"

Zhou Chun looked at the two elders with a heavy expression, bowed, and then left.

At this time, there was really nothing any of them could do.

Everything depends on the three major sects: Qinglian Temple, Yuelun Sect and Yanyang Sect. Let's see how these three major forces will deal with this matter.

Obviously, Qinglian Temple was more anxious than the Zhou family about the loss of the frontline stronghold in Lanzhou.

The location of Lanzhou is very important to Qinglian Temple. It connects Lianzhou, where the mountain gate of Qinglian Temple is located, and Yunzhou and Lingzhou.

If this place were completely occupied by monsters, the supply line between the Qinglian Temple gate and the Yunzhou front would be cut off, and there was even a possibility that the monster tide would advance to the gate.

So just over ten hours after the frontline outpost in Lanzhou was lost, four Jindan-stage cultivators and more than ten Zifu-stage cultivators rushed in from the Qinglian Temple gate and the Yunzhou front line.

These people, together with Qing Yangzi and other Jindan stage cultivators who had retreated from the front line, kept a close eye on the Red Dragon Hall Master and those fourth-level monsters in the beast tide, trying to prevent them from continuing to lead the beast tide to advance and spread.

However, they were able to keep an eye on the fourth-level monsters, but they had no way to stop the beast army that had already rushed into the heart of Lanzhou.

Most of the cultivators from various immortal cultivation families in Lanzhou were transferred to the front-line stronghold of Bi Yan Ze. As a result, they suffered heavy losses due to the loss of the front-line stronghold. At this moment, they were unable to send people to form an army of cultivators to fight against the beast tide.

Even their own mountain gate is now facing the threat of the beast horde.

"The He family of Qingzhu Mountain has already evacuated. Their family gate has been trampled by the beast tide. According to them, the beast tide is spreading in all directions, and its main force is moving towards Lianzhou. It is less than 600 miles away from our Zhou family!"

On the Pagoda Peak, several senior members of the Zhou family gathered together to share the latest intelligence information.

As the beast tide broke into the heart of Lanzhou, cultivators from all over the place fled in fear. All kinds of news were flying around, and it was difficult to tell the truth from the false.

Most of the information the Zhou family obtained came from the monks who fled to the vicinity of Jiufeng Ridge.

The information now sent by the allied family, the He family, is the first official information they have received so far.

And this information is also very important.

After reading the intelligence, Zhou Chun immediately expressed his opinion and said, "Lianzhou is the foundation of Qinglian Temple. If the beast tide enters, it will shake their foundation. They will definitely not sit idly by and watch this happen!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Mingde nodded and said, "Zhengchun is right. Unless there is no other way, Qinglian Temple will never let the war spread to Lianzhou!"

At this point, Zhou Mingde also said in a low voice: "In my opinion, I am afraid that Qinglian Temple will soon send reinforcements to our Zhou family and other families close to Lianzhou, and use our families as fortresses to keep the enemy out of Lianzhou!"

Keep the enemy outside Lianzhou?

Zhou Chun's expression changed, and he quickly said, "If it is really as the Grand Elder said, then we have to move those secular clansmen away now, at least hundreds of miles away from the family gate!"

"Yes, this must be done right now."

Zhou Mingde nodded and agreed to Zhou Chun's suggestion with a serious expression.

At this moment, a familiar voice suddenly sounded outside Zhongping Hall.

"Zhou Jiahe wants to see the Grand Elder and the Clan Leader. I have something important to report to the two elders!"

Second update is here


(End of this chapter)