Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Tracking

Why would Zhou Zhengkang go to the Spirit Beast Pavilion?

Even after returning to the interior of the Spirit Beast Restaurant, Zhou Chun couldn’t figure it out.

“Uncle Sixteen, has anyone from the family visited the shop in the past few days?”

After returning to the shop and hesitating for a while, Zhou Chun couldn’t help but inquire indirectly to Zhou Jiasheng about the matter.

“No, why do you suddenly ask about this?”

Zhou Jiasheng looked at Zhou Chun with a puzzled expression, not understanding what he meant.

“It’s nothing, just pretend I didn’t ask!”

Zhou Chun’s mouth twitched, and in the end, he still shook his head slightly, deciding not to mention what he had seen of Zhou Zhengkang.

Whatever Zhou Zhengkang had done at the Spirit Beast Pavilion, it wasn’t appropriate for him to bring it up, especially behind the backs of other elders.

Zhou Chun had suffered from a similar mistake in his previous life and naturally couldn’t make the same error again.

Seeing Zhou Chun respond in this way, Zhou Jiasheng frowned slightly and then nodded, saying, “Since it’s nothing, then just focus on looking after the shop and getting on with work.”

“Yes.”

Zhou Chun replied and immediately settled down inside the shop.

Another day passed, and he didn’t see Zhou Zhengkang visiting the Spirit Beast Restaurant.

On the third day, Zhou Chun finally waited for the loose cultivator, Luo Guangshun, to visit—but he had brought demon beast meat again.

“Oh, it’s this strange fish again this time? It seems like Taoist Friend Luo’s trip to the Heavenly Immortal Tower was in vain last time, huh?”

In the back courtyard of the Spirit Beast Restaurant, Zhou Chun looked at the two strange fish corpses Luo Guangshun had packed in a wooden box, a curious glint flashing in his eyes, as he teasingly addressed the latter.

Hearing Zhou Chun’s words, Luo Guangshun’s face immediately showed an embarrassed expression.

But having muddled through the cultivation world for decades, what kinds of awkward experiences hadn’t he gone through?

He soon waved at Zhou Chun with a bitter smile, saying, “Let’s not mention it. The last time I almost got beaten up with clubs by the shopkeeper of the Heavenly Immortal Tower. I daren’t go there anymore!”

Seeing this, Zhou Chun immediately laughed, “Taoist Friend Luo need not worry. Even if the Heavenly Immortal Tower doesn’t accept the fish, I do. My two spirit pets usually eat plenty of beast meat, and they find fish meat gives a unique flavor that they quite enjoy.”

Upon hearing this, Luo Guangshun immediately showed a grateful look, saying, “With these words from Taoist Friend Zhou, I am at ease.”

“Next time you come over, Taoist Friend Luo, could you bring a few more of these strange fish? A senior in my family who raises spirit beasts has been getting pickier with his appetite lately, refusing to eat many types of beast meat. If I can give him a few of these strange fish corpses, I think he would be very happy!”

As Zhou Chun said this, he also gestured with his hands, adding, “If Taoist Friend Luo can deliver three or four of these strange fish corpses within ten days, I can offer you one and a half times the price.”

Hearing this, Luo Guangshun’s eyes lit up as he eagerly asked, “Taoist Friend Zhou, are you serious?”

After speaking, he quickly added, “I’m not doubting Taoist Friend Zhou, I just wanted to ask if you only want three or four strange fish corpses, or the more the better?”

“Three or four will do. I can’t afford to buy any more than that,” Zhou Chun shook his head, expressing what clearly disappointed Luo Guangshun.

Luo Guangshun’s look of disappointment flickered in his eyes as he nodded slightly and said, “Alright then, within ten days, I will definitely bring the items to Taoist Friend Zhou!”

“Then I’ll be waiting here for Taoist Friend Luo’s good news,” Zhou Chun replied with a smile and personally saw Luo Guangshun out of the shop.

After Luo Guangshun left the Spirit Beast Restaurant, he didn’t immediately leave the marketplace; instead, he went to an inn to meditate and cultivate.

After cultivating for over two hours and coming out, he waited at a certain spot in the marketplace.

Only when the other three cultivators who had come to the marketplace with him had gathered did the four leave the marketplace together.

The four of them were old hands who had muddled through the cultivation world for decades. They had entered and left Hongya Marketplace countless times, and had even figured out their relatively safe routes.

Moreover, their individual cultivation levels and strength were not weak, not something average bandit cultivators could easily contend with, so their departure from the marketplace went very smoothly.

Once they were outside the Hongyan Mountain Range, the four of them dispersed, each heading back to their dwellings.

Since cultivating in the wild was not an option, the living preferences of loose cultivators varied significantly.

Some preferred peace and quiet, so they often carved out cave dwellings in the desolate mountains near their cultivation sites.

Others preferred comfort, thriving in bustling and lively places, so they would establish estates in nearby mortal towns to become local powerhouses.

Luo Guangshun, who was over fifty years old, felt that there was little possibility for him to make any further progress on the path of cultivation in this life, so he chose the latter path. He built a large estate in a small mortal town not far from Hongya Marketplace and took in seven or eight concubines.

After returning from the marketplace, he first went back to his estate and hid most of the Spirit Coins he obtained from his trip in a secret compartment in the wall of his bedroom, keeping only two with him.

This secret compartment was known only to him; not even his most favored concubine was aware of it.

At this moment, as he looked inside the jar in the hidden cabinet that was already filled with nearly a hundred Spirit Coins, his eyes held both satisfaction and a hint of sorrow.

“Alas! I don’t know if I will ever truly need these hard-earned Spirit Coins before my death!”

“What’s the point of all this hardship if I can’t sire an heir with Spirit Root Aptitude to inherit my wealth?”

Thinking of the Spirit Coins, which he had scrimped and saved for, one by one, over five or six years to accumulate so many, Luo Guangshun felt both proud and extremely distressed.

His own life was already in its twilight.

If there was any hope left, it was to sire an heir with Spirit Root Aptitude and nurture them from a young age.

He wanted them to inherit his mantle and not walk the same old path he had.

However, thus far, few of his concubines had managed to get pregnant, let alone bear a descendant with Spirit Root Aptitude.

“After finishing this deal with Taoist Friend Zhou, I’ll take in a few more concubines. As long as I keep trying, I refuse to believe I can’t produce an heir with a Spiritual Root!”

Luo Guangshun gritted his teeth, closed the hidden cabinet, and summoned two concubines to dote on them.

After resting at home for two days, Luo Guangshun set out again.

The place he was going to was not nearby, so when Luo Guangshun left, he rode an excellent horse raised at home. After traveling more than two hundred miles, he stopped just outside a mountain range.

He then expertly tied the horse inside a cave in the mountains, prepared food and water in one of the mangers, and left the cave to walk into the deeper mountains.

Meanwhile, Luo Guangshun, who was advancing through the forest, had no idea that a “tail” was following him about a dozen miles behind.

In the forest, Zhou Chun was steadily moving forward, following a palm-sized blue-black butterfly, heading in the direction of where Luo Guangshun was.

It turned out that the order Zhou Chun had previously placed with Luo Guangshun was meant for fishing.

Before Luo Guangshun left the shop, Zhou Chun had sprinkled refined pheromones of a female “Black-Spotted Blue Powder Butterfly” onto the Spirit Coins.

After Luo Guangshun touched the Spirit Coins, his hands and clothes would be stained with the butterfly powder.

So it was very easy for Zhou Chun to track down Luo Guangshun to his estate using a male “Black-Spotted Blue Powder Butterfly” he had specially requested from his family.

That night, while Luo Guangshun was doting on his two concubines, Zhou Chun had already sneaked into his estate and sprinkled more butterfly powder on the back and saddle of the horse he would ride.

Therefore, even though they were now more than a dozen miles apart, Zhou Chun could easily tell where Luo Guangshun had gone.

After following Luo Guangshun for tens of miles into the mountains, Zhou Chun saw him stop by a mountain-side pool with clear aquamarine waters.

Luo Guangshun wrung the neck of a wild chicken he had caught on the way and threw it onto the pebble-covered shallows by the pool, then he took out a fish-spear Magic Artifact from his Storage Pouch, readying himself.

Before long, bubbles surged on the calm surface of the water. A silver-black strange fish quickly surged up the waves onto the shallows, trying to pounce on the wild chicken.

However, at that very moment, Luo Guangshun’s fish-spear Magic Artifact flew from his hand and struck the strange fish dead center, pinning it to the shallows.

Without giving the injured and pained fish a chance to struggle free of the spear, Luo Guangshun summoned a black meteor hammer Magic Artifact and smashed it heavily onto the head of the fish, smashing its head open on the spot.

After easily capturing the first strange fish, Luo Guangshun skillfully roped the fish’s body and dragged it ashore, placing it in a wooden box, and then continued to keep watch.

After standing guard for almost half a day, using up just four wild chickens, Luo Guangshun easily killed five strange fish and completed Zhou Chun’s commission.

Afterward, he did not linger and quickly began his return trip with his spoils.

Only after ensuring that Luo Guangshun had gone far away did Zhou Chun, who had been hiding himself with the “Forest Concealment Cicada-Breath Technique,” step out from the shadows and then looked thoughtfully at the pool in front of him.

He had watched Luo Guangshun catch fish from start to finish.

The entire process, well, could be described in two words: too simple.

Too simple to the point where it made him feel a pang for the Spirit Coins he had spent.

No wonder Luo Guangshun seemed so disappointed when he heard that Zhou Chun only wanted to buy three or four strange fish.

“But how could this small mountain pool continually produce so many demon fish? What do these demon fish eat to grow so big?”

Zhou Chun looked at the pool before him, his eyes flickering uncertainly.