I'm in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have one equipment slot!

Chapter 332 Cultivators Surround and Suppress! Zhou Yuan Infiltrates the Tianyue Mountains!

"Gentlemen, I can tell you with certainty that Zhou Yuan came to the Great Jin Dynasty alone this time!"

'

"I confirmed this when I fought him on the grasslands; there were absolutely no elders or disciples of the Ascension Sect secretly following me!"

Lin Yinping stood in the center of the hall, her tone resolute, her cool self-glow sweeping over the Nascent Soul elders of the Yinluo Sect present, attempting to dispel any concerns they might have.

She paused, then changed the subject, her tone becoming serious: "However, fellow Daoists, you must not underestimate him because of this."

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"Zhou Yuan is no ordinary late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. His strength far surpasses that of his peers, and he is a natural nemesis, especially for those who cultivate demonic techniques!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the several Yinluo Sect elders in the hall became somewhat unnatural.

Lin Yinping seemed oblivious to the change in their expressions and continued, "I do not mean to belittle your sect, but based on multiple sources of intelligence, I feel compelled to remind you all."

"In Zhou Yuan's possession lies a set of golden flying sword magic weapons crafted from ten-thousand-year-old Golden Thunder Bamboo! This bamboo naturally contains exorcising divine thunder, making it the nemesis of all evil and demonic cultivation techniques!"

"Back then, the former sect leader of the noble family, a dignified late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, was brutally killed in front of everyone by Zhou Yuan, who was then only in the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm, using this Golden Thunder Bamboo Flying Sword!"

"Enough! We know more about this than you do!"

The newly appointed sect leader, Li Gu, slammed his hand on the armrest of his chair, interrupting Lin Yinping's words with a stern voice. His face was so dark it was almost dripping with water.

Zhou Yuan's killing of the former sect leader was the greatest humiliation since the founding of the Yinluo Sect. Lin Yinping's direct exposure of this wound made him feel as if he were being pricked by needles.

He took a deep breath, suppressing his surging anger, and said coldly, "We naturally know that Zhou Yuan's Golden Thunder Bamboo magic weapon counters my demonic cultivation techniques, and there's no need for the Holy Maiden to remind us repeatedly! However, my Yinluo Sect has stood in the Great Jin Dynasty for ten thousand years, with profound foundations. How could we be helpless just because the other party has a magic weapon that counters demonic techniques?"

He turned his gaze to the elders in the hall, his tone resolute and unwavering: "Pass on my order! From this moment forward, utilize all secret channels, at any cost, to invite righteous cultivators who have a past with me, or those who have no enmity with Zhou Yuan of Tiannan but covet his treasures, and even some Nascent Soul cultivators from neutral sects! As long as they are willing to lend a hand, the reward will be generous! I refuse to believe that Zhou Yuan can suppress demonic arts, let alone all kinds of magic in the world!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yinping's lips, hidden beneath her white veil, revealed a barely perceptible smile. She added, "Sect Leader Li is wise. I will immediately send a message back to the grasslands to invite Master Xu Changqing of my clan to come to the Great Jin to offer assistance."

Master Xu had traveled extensively in the Great Jin Dynasty in his early years, earning a great reputation. His Taoist supernatural powers were unfathomable, and he was not a demonic cultivator, so he was not subject to the evil-repelling divine lightning.

With his intervention, the chances of dealing with Zhou Yuan increased even further.

"Oh? Fellow Daoist Xu Changqing will also be here?" Upon hearing this, Li Gu's eyes revealed a hint of surprise.

He had naturally heard of Xu Changqing's name. He was the most outstanding genius cultivator in the Tianlan Grassland in nearly a thousand years. His Daoist techniques were profound and his strength was unfathomable. Even compared to Qian Laomo, the Grand Elder of his Yinluo Sect who was in seclusion for many years, he was probably not inferior!

If we could get help from this person, it would be like adding wings to a tiger!

Lin Yinping nodded: "Not only Master Xu, but I will also try my best to persuade Master Sun Erniang to come along. Moreover—"

She paused, a confident glint in her eyes, "Because I have a special sensory connection with the sacred beast, as long as Zhou Yuan stays in one place for a little longer, I can roughly sense his location! With my intelligence, he's like a firefly in the dark of the Great Jin Dynasty, nowhere to hide!"

"Excellent! Excellent! With the Holy Maiden providing the means of tracking, plus Fellow Daoists Xu and Sun, and the power of my Yinluo Sect, Zhou Yuan has no chance of escaping this time!" Li Gu clapped his hands and laughed, his face filled with the pleasure and greed of impending revenge. He seemed to already see the wonderful scene of Zhou Yuan being surrounded and killed by them, and the Void Heaven Cauldron, the Golden Thunder Bamboo Flying Sword, and countless treasures on his body all going to them.

A conspiracy to ambush Zhou Yuan, involving the Grassland Saintess, the Yinluo Sect, and other powerful figures who may be invited, is being meticulously planned.

At this moment, Zhou Yuan was completely unaware of this, as he was busy traveling through the mountains and rivers of the Great Jin Dynasty, gathering materials for his weapon-refining.

Zhou Yuan was naturally unaware of the secret plot unfolding within the Yinluo Sect.

After leaving Fengzhou, he traveled south and eventually arrived at Qu County in the southern part of the Great Jin Dynasty.

He came here because, according to clues from the original work in his memory, there was a cultivation family in Qu County that had been passed down for hundreds of years—the "Zongping Family".

This family wields considerable power in the Qu County area, and it is said that their family treasury contains a rather rare "Five-Colored Wood".

This wood was a crucial item on Zhou Yuan's list of needs.

Zhou Yuan found the residence of the Zongping family and, without concealing his cultivation level, directly released the aura of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator to pay a visit.

The head of the Zongping family was merely a cultivator in the late stage of Core Formation.

Sensing the sudden arrival of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, they were terrified. They hurriedly led the only two early-stage Nascent Soul elders in their clan, along with a group of core clan members, to open the main gate wide and respectfully welcome Zhou Yuan into the main hall. They offered him the finest spiritual tea, not daring to even breathe loudly.

When Zhou Yuan revealed his purpose—to trade the Five-Colored Wood in their family's collection—Patriarch Zong Ping agreed almost without hesitation.

joke!

When a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator personally comes to their door to "make a deal," how could a small Zongping family have the right or the courage to refuse?

If they anger this senior, he could wipe out their entire family in the blink of an eye!

Seeing that the other party was so sensible, Zhou Yuan saved himself a lot of trouble.

He took out two high-grade spirit stones and a level seven demon beast's inner core as an exchange, based on market price.

This price is nothing more than a drop in the ocean for Zhou Yuan, who is now extremely wealthy.

Patriarch Zongping was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly. He personally went to the family treasury, retrieved the well-preserved Five-Colored Wood, and respectfully handed it to Zhou Yuan.

After Zhou Yuan inspected the Five-Colored Wood and confirmed that it was correct, he left the Zongping family without lingering.

After leaving Qu County, Zhou Yuan did not rush to his next destination, but instead began to travel between large markets and auction houses in several prefectures and counties in southern Jin Dynasty.

He carried that long list of materials, and wherever he went, he would carefully browse the goods in each shop and attend several high-profile auctions.

Whenever he comes across a rare material listed on the list that is extremely rare or even extinct in the Tiannan region, he will not hesitate to bid for it as long as the price is right.

And so, another three months quietly passed.

Zhou Yuan's storage bag has been filled with many more rare refining materials, bringing him one step closer to gathering all the materials needed to refine the late-stage Nascent Soul puppet and the Three Flames Fan.

On this day, Zhou Yuan arrived in Longzhou, in the southwestern part of the Great Jin Dynasty.

Unlike other prefectures and counties where numerous sects and schools of thought contend, the cultivation world in the vast Longzhou has a rather unique structure.

On the surface, this place is almost entirely controlled by two major sects: the renowned Yueyang Palace, a prominent righteous sect, and the Demon Wood Sect, one of the ten major demonic sects of the Great Jin Dynasty.

The two major sects, one righteous and one demonic, have intertwined forces and jointly divide up most of the resources of Longzhou, maintaining a delicate balance.

Zhou Yuan's destination was the righteous sect's giant—Yueyang Palace.

He came here not to oppose Yueyang Palace, but for a strange bird, the Haoyang Bird, kept in the palace. This bird is a descendant of an ancient divine bird, and its feathers contain the most yang and powerful fire elemental energy, which is one of the core materials Zhou Yuan plans to use to forge the replica of the Tongtian spiritual treasure, the "Three Flames Fan"!

The mountain gate of Yueyang Palace is located in the Tianyue Mountains within the territory of Xichuan Prefecture, Longzhou.

This mountain range stretches for over 100,000 li, and is mostly barren mountains and wilderness, rarely visited by humans.

The headquarters of Yueyang Palace is located on a towering peak called "Nantian Peak" in the center of the mountain range.

For tens of thousands of years, Yueyang Palace has been developing the area surrounding Nantian Peak, making its core region, spanning tens of thousands of miles, as impregnable as a fortress.

From the outermost warning illusion array to the inner killing and trapping arrays, it is said that there are as many as thirteen layers!

Layer upon layer, interlocking and interconnected, together forming the impregnable defensive system of the Tianyue Mountains.

Such a continuous and extremely wide-ranging super restriction array would be impossible for even a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator to forcibly break into, let alone an ordinary cultivator.

At this moment, Zhou Yuan stood on an inconspicuous hilltop on the outer edge of the Tianyue Mountains, gazing at the distant Nantian Peak, shrouded in mist and with faint rosy clouds rising from it, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Yueyang Palace—this is a bit tricky."

Zhou Yuan muttered to himself, his fingers lightly tapping the storage pouch at his waist.

Such a righteous sect with a history of tens of thousands of years probably has more than double-digit numbers of Nascent Soul cultivators within its ranks, and is further protected by the legendary thirteen-layered mountain-protecting formation.

To openly and legitimately visit someone's home and demand the feathers of their sect's sacred bird is nothing short of a pipe dream.

Forcibly seizing it is the worst possible strategy, not only because the success rate is extremely low, but also because it will completely offend this behemoth and attract endless pursuit.

"However, I did not come here with any intention of confronting them head-on."

A slight smile appeared on Zhou Yuan's lips as he turned his gaze to his shoulder.

There, out of nowhere, appeared a small beast, entirely purple, resembling a ferret, but with a pair of crystal-clear purple horns.

It was that Purple Sky Beast with extraordinary talent, capable of opening spatial rifts—Little Purple!

Over the years, Zhou Yuan has often fed Xiao Zi with high-grade spirit stones. Xiao Zi has grown at an extremely fast pace, and now her ability to open spatial rifts is several times stronger than it was back in the Chaotic Star Sea.

Moreover, Zhou Yuan himself was quite proficient in the study of formations, especially after he inherited some of the ancient restrictions from the Void Heaven Cauldron, which broadened his horizons considerably.

"A thirteen-layered restrictive array—if we could use spatial magic to bypass these restrictions—"

A light gleamed in Zhou Yuan's eyes.

He took Xiao Zi and landed in front of the first layer of the barrier light screen on the outermost edge of the Tianyue Mountains.

This layer of restrictions mainly serves as an early warning and illusion array, with a very wide coverage, but relatively speaking, the defensive power of a single node is not very strong.

Zhou Yuan did not rush to let Xiao Zi take action. Instead, he sat cross-legged in front of the light screen and slowly extended his powerful divine sense, like the most precise instrument, carefully analyzing the flow of spiritual energy and the structure of runes in the first layer of the restriction.

They sat there for half a day.

Half a day later, Zhou Yuan slowly opened his eyes, which were now clear and understanding.

He reached out and gently patted Xiao Zi on the shoulder.

"Xiao Zi, do you see that spot? It's right there. The spatial fluctuations are the most unstable there. Can you open a rift that will allow both of us to pass through?" Zhou Yuan pointed to a spatial node on the light screen ahead that seemed no different from the rest, but which he sensed was slightly abnormal. He then gave the command to Xiao Zi through their mental connection.

Little Purple blinked its purple eyes and looked in the direction Zhou Yuan pointed. Its little nose twitched slightly, as if sensing something. After a moment, it nodded and let out a clear "squeak".

Suddenly, the pair of small purple horns on its forehead lit up with rings of purple spatial ripples! The ripples quickly condensed, transforming into a thin purple ray of light that shot silently toward the spatial node in front of it!

"laugh--!"

A very faint sound, like the tearing of cloth, rang out.

The seemingly stable space ahead was actually torn open by that purple light, leaving a narrow crack that could only allow one person to pass sideways, with edges flickering with an unstable purple halo!

On the other side of the crack, a scene completely different from this side, with a much richer spiritual energy, can be vaguely seen!

"Well done!"

Zhou Yuan was overjoyed and praised Xiao Zi without reservation.

Without further hesitation, he swayed and, like a fish, silently slipped into the spatial rift.

Little Purple followed closely behind and crawled inside as well.

Less than two breaths after they entered, the spatial rift was quickly repaired by a burst of spatial power, disappearing without a trace as if it had never existed.

The outer perimeter of the Tianyue Mountains remained calm and peaceful. The first layer of the barrier light screen was intact, without any signs of being touched or damaged.

Zhou Yuan and Xiao Zi, in this way, silently and without anyone noticing, penetrated the first layer of defense that Yueyang Palace was so proud of and stepped into the core area of ​​the Tianyue Mountains.

And this is just the beginning.

Ahead, twelve more layers of even more powerful restrictions awaited them.

However, Zhou Yuan was confident that, with his understanding of restrictive formations and Xiao Zi's amazing spatial abilities, he would be able to infiltrate Haoyang Bird's territory and achieve his goal without alerting the Yueyang Palace cultivators.