Chapter 325: Chapter 312: To kill you, one man, Zhou, is enough!
Zhouyang’s guess was correct. The "Wind Media" who received his Spirit Stone quickly resold the information to Zhu Ziyu.
However, after Zhu Ziyu learned of this, he didn’t immediately invite friends to set up an ambush outside the city as Zhouyang had imagined. Instead, he bribed a Deputy City Lord of Seven-Colored Immortal City, and then openly led a team of patrol cultivators to search the Immortal Inn.
If Zhouyang hadn’t maintained a high level of vigilance after entering the Immortal Inn, he might have been exposed and cornered inside.
But even though he managed to change his appearance and escape from the Immortal Inn in time, he didn’t dare stay in the city any longer and hurriedly left the Immortal City.
He stayed outside the Immortal City for two days before changing his identity and re-entering the city.
This time, he didn’t rush to find someone to inquire about Zhu Ziyu’s whereabouts and instead rented a cave dwelling in the city to settle down temporarily.
After the previous events, he realized that Zhu Ziyu’s influence within Seven-Colored Immortal City was larger than he had imagined. With the official support of Seven-Colored Immortal City, setting traps for Zhu Ziyu was entirely unrealistic.
Thus, he changed his plan, deciding to lay low in Seven-Colored Immortal City and patiently await an opportunity to act.
To avoid exposing his identity, the cave dwelling he rented was only suitable for Foundation Establishment Cultivators, meaning he couldn’t rely on the Spiritual Qi within the cave to cultivate.
This wasn’t a problem because he planned to use elixirs to break through to the Second-Layer of the Purple Mansion. The spiritual potency from refining the elixirs would be sufficient for his cultivation needs.
At this point, it had been over twenty years since Zhouyang opened up his Purple Mansion. After over two decades of cultivation, his power was already very close to the Second-Layer of the Purple Mansion.
Therefore, with just two Spirit Pills consumed and six months spent, he successfully increased his cultivation to the Second-Layer of the Purple Mansion.
Since he raised his cultivation by only one layer within a minor realm, the increase in magical power was just twenty to thirty percent, which didn’t significantly boost his overall strength.
However, Zhouyang was very satisfied, as his cultivation speed finally returned to normal.
Indeed, under normal circumstances, most Early-Stage Purple Mansion cultivators require more than twenty years to advance one layer, and the difficulty of cultivation increases thereafter.
Thus, a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator aiming for Core Formation must successfully open up their Purple Mansion before the age of two hundred to have enough time to increase their cultivation to the Ninth-Layer of the Purple Mansion and then attempt to form a Golden Core.
But in reality, the chance of successfully forming a Golden Core is very low, often requiring multiple attempts.
Most Purple Mansion Stage cultivators aiming for Core Formation need to reach the Ninth-Layer before four hundred to have two or three opportunities to attempt forming a Golden Core repeatedly.
This is why top sects like Profound Sun Immortal Sect require opening up the Purple Mansion before the age of one hundred as a prerequisite for recruiting core disciples.
If one could open up the Purple Mansion by the age of one hundred and be nurtured with the abundant resources of Profound Sun Immortal Sect, those core disciples could reach the Ninth-Layer of the Purple Mansion before the age of three hundred fifty. This gives them four or even five opportunities to attempt forming a Golden Core.
Knowing this, it’s not hard to understand why the core disciples of Profound Sun Immortal Sect have such a high success rate of advancing to Golden Core Stage Cultivators.
Zhouyang set very high standards for himself, aiming to reach the Ninth-Layer of the Purple Mansion before the age of three hundred. This way, he would have two hundred years to repeatedly attempt advancing to the Golden Core Stage.
There’s no choice; his Spirit Root talent is only a Middle-Grade Spiritual Root!
Naturally, the chance of a Middle-Grade Spiritual Root cultivator forming a core is already lower than that of a Top-grade Spiritual Root cultivator. If he doesn’t reach the Ninth-Layer of the Purple Mansion by the age of three hundred, any future core formation attempts would be entirely left to luck.
Now, with the help of elixirs to speed up his cultivation, and estimating that he can advance one layer every decade in the future, Zhouyang is naturally thrilled.
After six months of laying low, he sensed that Zhu Ziyu’s vigilance might have relaxed somewhat, so he began to leave the cave and formally started making arrangements.
Through a series of search and arrangements, Zhouyang successfully used generous Spirit Stone rewards to entice a father-and-son pair of Qi Cultivation Stage Loose Cultivators to voluntarily become his eyes and ears, helping him monitor Zhu Ziyu of the Purple Star Pavilion.
Now that he had a hostage, the father in the loose cultivator pair naturally dared not continue to leak information.
Zhouyang waited another six months.
This day, after his daily cultivation, Zhouyang began training his new Spirit Pet, the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle," preparing its combat abilities within the cave.
After killing Murong Qianqian, he obtained substantial insights into cultivating Spirit Beasts from her belongings, which greatly inspired him and allowed him to make relevant cultivation plans for the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle."
During this year in Seven-Colored Immortal City, while cultivating in seclusion, he also fed the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle" a "Beast Spirit Pill" that he had purchased from the Flying Giant Ship, as well as some secret spirit beast rations from the Beast Taming Sect found in Murong Qianqian’s Storage Bag.
The "Beast Spirit Pill" could make a Spirit Beast infant grow several times over within a year, while the secret Spirit Beast rations from the Beast Taming Sect similarly accelerated Spirit Beast growth.
With these two effects combined, within just a year, the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle" grew into a giant eagle with a wingspan of a ten feet, and its cultivation surged to close to the Tier Two Middle Grade Demon Beast level.
To ensure the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle" adapted to its soaring strength, Zhouyang not only allowed it to exhaust its magical power daily by unleashing thunder and lightning to hone its control over the elements, but also had it occasionally engage in magical combat with human cultivators, accumulating experience in battling cultivators.
And the cultivator who was set against the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle" was the loose cultivator taken as a hostage, who was at the Mid-Stage Qi Cultivation and had a Fifth-Layer Qi Cultivation, making him suitable for this task.
On this day, Zhouyang had just let the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle" face that loose cultivator when a Sound Transmission Talisman suddenly flew into the cave and landed in his hand.
After reading the contents of the talisman, his face lit up with joy, and he quickly shouted to stop the cultivators and spirit beasts in the middle of the contest.
"Yan Xiaoyou, lest because of you someone intentionally plots against Huang, you shall wait within this cave for one more day. If Zhou fails to return in one day, this [Body Fixation Technique] should be able to be broken with your magical power, and then you can use this token to enter and leave the cave. The remaining four years of lease on this cave will be a gift from Huang to you and your father!"
Zhouyang stopped the duel abruptly, executing a "Body Fixation Technique" to immobilize the Qi Cultivation Junior Cultivator who was serving as his spirit pet’s sparring partner. Then, gently explaining to the confused and terrified young man a few things, he put the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle," now a Tier Two Lower Grade Demon Beast after consuming a "Beast Spirit Pill," into his Spirit Beast Bag and left the cave.
After leaving the cave, he hurried outside the city and saw Zhu Ziyu flying towards the unknown west as he was about to exit the city.
Seeing this, he naturally secretly released the "Illusory Cloud Ship" to chase after him.
After chasing for about four or five thousand miles, Zhouyang’s expression suddenly changed, and he stopped pursuing.
He halted, glanced backwards as he saw, from the direction he came from, a man and a woman, two Purple Mansion Stage cultivators, somehow emerged to block his retreat.
In front of him, Zhu Ziyu also stopped her flight, turning back to join her companions in encircling him mid-air.
"Since you’ve come, why hide and refuse to show your true face?"
Zhu Ziyu coldly gazed at the cloud in the sky, waving her sleeve as she casually launched a fireball towards the cloud formed by the "Illusory Cloud Ship."
Seeing this, Zhouyang no longer concealed anything, promptly retrieved the "Illusory Cloud Ship," and sliced through the fireball launched by Zhu Ziyu with his sword.
"It’s you!"
Zhu Ziyu’s expression changed, exclaiming in surprise.
Purple Mansion cultivators have strong memories, especially since Zhouyang had left a deep impression on Zhu Ziyu.
Now, only a few decades since their initial enmity, he certainly wouldn’t quickly forget Zhouyang.
As for Zhouyang’s disguise being easily seen through, that was to be expected; it wasn’t anything sophisticated.
"Yes, it’s Zhou!"
Zhouyang’s gaze met Zhu Ziyu’s, and with a calm and indifferent expression, he admitted openly.
He came for revenge, so he naturally wouldn’t deny or hide his identity. Otherwise, if the enemy died without knowing whose hand they fell by, wouldn’t that diminish the satisfaction of a successful vendetta?
However, seeing Zhouyang’s composed demeanor, Zhu Ziyu was infuriated beyond measure.
She had thought that someone secretly watching her was a formidable Ninth-Layer Purple Mansion opponent, prompting her to go to great lengths to bring a pair of Purple Mansion Stage cultivators to safeguard herself.
Who would have thought that the person who had her worried for over a year was merely a newly advanced Purple Mansion cultivator who had only narrowly escaped years ago!
This realization made her both furious and annoyed, almost wanting to vomit blood.
Thinking about the cost she incurred to hire the couple of Purple Mansion cultivators behind Zhouyang, Zhu Ziyu felt an intense desire to cut Zhouyang into a thousand pieces!
She glared at Zhouyang, gritting her teeth and angrily shouted, "Hmph, youngster, you are quite arrogant! Having opened the Purple Mansion only for a few years, dare to seek revenge on this old man—is it that you think you are like Jia Yunzhen, capable of crossing small realms to kill enemies?"
"Even Jia Yunzhen wouldn’t be arrogant enough to challenge a Eighth-Layer Purple Mansion cultivator with merely a Second-Layer Purple Mansion cultivation!"
"Enough, call out your helpers. Don’t say Zhu won’t give you a chance to call for help!"
Indeed, decades later, Zhu Ziyu’s cultivation had advanced from the Seventh-Layer to the Eighth-Layer Purple Mansion, soon reaching the Ninth-Layer.
Originally, she planned to leave Yunxia Country after advancing to the Ninth-Layer Purple Mansion, returning to the Purple Star Sect’s mountain gate to attempt Core Formation, and she had even prepared some auxiliary treasures for it.
Now, seeing Zhouyang with merely a Second-Layer Purple Mansion cultivation daring to seek revenge on her, although furious, she hadn’t lost her sanity. Instead, she remained vigilant and released her Divine Sense to scan the surroundings, suspecting Zhouyang might have other help.
Yet, Zhouyang heard her words and calmly smiled, saying, "Just because Elder Jia couldn’t kill someone doesn’t mean Zhouyang can’t!"
"To kill you, Zhou alone is sufficient!"