Chapter 5343: The Changes Surrounding the Zhou Clan
Chapter 5343: The Changes Surrounding the Zhou Clan
According to Bai Yunqing’s senior uncle, the Unageing Peak was under the jurisdiction of an old man who went by the surname of Zhou.
Old Man Zhou had placed a treasure with the power to heal world spirits at the zenith of the Unageing Peak, declaring that anyone who could awaken the treasure would be able to take it away with them. This suggested that the Unageing Peak should be open to outsiders.
Yet, Chu Feng could see a powerful protection formation shrouding the Unageing Peak. It was too resilient for him to breach, which meant that he couldn’t even scale the Unageing Peak, let alone awaken the treasure.
However, it was fortunate that there were a few people scattered around the foot of the Unageing Peak. They were chatting softly amongst themselves, but Chu Feng could easily pick up their conversation thanks to his sharp ears.
“Eyy, Old Man Zhou’s reputation has been sullied by his useless offspring. Those rotten wastrels would have driven Old Man Zhou to his grave even if he hadn’t died of illness!” one of the elders spoke with a critical tone.
It was clear that they knew the inside story, so Chu Feng walked over and asked, “Elders, may I know what happened at the Unageing Peak? Why is it sealed off by a protection formation?”
“Young friend, are you an outsider?” one of the elders asked.
“Yes, I am. I heard that there’s a treasure on the Unageing Peak that I can take away with me as long as I awaken it, so I wanted to give it a try,” Chu Feng said.
“Don’t bother about it anymore and head back,” the elder replied.
Chu Feng frowned upon hearing those words. He knew that a complication had occurred, but this was a treasure that concerned Eggy’s health. How could he back down so easily?
“Elders, did someone lay claim to that treasure?” Chu Feng asked.
“That’s not it. The Unageing Peak is currently not receiving any challengers anymore. It’s the fault of Old Man Zhou’s useless offspring!” an elder replied.
“Who says that the Unageing Peak isn’t receiving any challengers anymore?” a feminine voice suddenly echoed.
A woman floating in mid-air was gazing coldly in the direction of Chu Feng and the others. The elders revealed frightened looks upon seeing the woman and quickly scattered, leaving Chu Feng on the spot.
Chu Feng raised his head to a.s.sess the woman. She had a young appearance, but it was likely that she was at least a few centuries old. She was carrying a token that had the word ‘Zhou’ inscribed on it.
“Young miss, are you Old Man Zhou’s offspring?” Chu Feng asked.
“I am a member of the Zhou Clan. Old Man Zhou is my grandfather. You’re here to challenge the treasure located on our Zhou Clan’s Unageing Peak?” that woman asked.
“Yes, I’d like to give it a try,” Chu Feng replied.
“You can challenge the treasure, but you’ll have to first prove yourself by breaching this formation first,” the woman said. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed a box to Chu Feng.
As the box was about to reach Chu Feng, the woman formed a hand seal. The box abruptly dissipated into a flood of aura before swiftly morphing into a formation around him.
Chu Feng could tell that this was no ordinary formation. It was a formation that tested an individual’s formation construction skill rather than their spirit power. It would have posed a challenge to most world spiritists, but it was a piece of cake to him.
After all, his greatest strength currently lay in formation deciphering after he had inherited Lord Qin Jiu’s heritage.
“Give it a try. If you’re able to breach the formation, I’ll tell you what to do next. Otherwise... you can come again another time. Perhaps, you might be able to directly access the Unageing Peak by then,” the woman said.
Despite her words, her expression indicated that she didn’t bear much hope for Chu Feng. She was merely giving him a chance for the sake of formalities.
It was then that a voice transmission was relayed to Chu Feng’s ears.
“Young friend, don’t bother working on the formation. It’s impossible to decipher it. It was left behind by Old Man Zhou. Even his offspring aren’t able to decipher it. Don’t let them make use of you. What they are doing here goes against Old Man Zhou’s will,” one of the elders that had left earlier told him.
It turned out that the group of elders was still lingering in the vicinity.
Chu Feng knew that they were advising him out of goodwill, but he was here for the treasure. He couldn’t give up on it that easily. Thus, he released his spirit power.
“White Dragon G.o.d-cloak?”
The woman from the Zhou Clan and the elders were stunned. They didn’t think that Chu Feng would be such a formidable world spiritist.
What Chu Feng did next made them doubt their eyes.
With a wave of his hand, Chu Feng constructed a deciphering formation and activated it. A ray of light pierced through the formation the woman tossed out.
“He deciphered the formation? How could he be so fast?”
The elders exclaimed incredulously.
The woman rubbed her widened eyes. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. As a member of the Zhou Clan, she knew just how difficult it was to decipher that formation. Thus far, she hadn’t seen a single person who could decipher that formation.
Her highly talented younger brother, Zhou Zhi, had spent ten days of undivided attention on constructing the deciphering formation, only to barely decipher half of it.
Yet, Chu Feng actually deciphered it with a mere wave of his hand. She would have never believed such a thing to be possible if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.
“What else do you need me to do?” Chu Feng asked the woman.
The woman snapped out of her daze. She descended from the air and stood on level footing with Chu Feng.
“This is wonderful! There’s hope for our Zhou Clan!” the woman exclaimed as she grabbed Chu Feng’s arm.
“Young master, I am Zhou Yi, the third daughter of the Zhou Clan’s Clan Chief. May I know how I can address you?” the woman asked.
“I am Chu Feng.”
“Young master Chu Feng, please follow me.” Zhou Yi invited Chu Feng to a palace in the Unageing Peak. “Young master, you’re here to awaken the treasure, right?”
“Yes, young miss. May I know the conditions for me to scale the Unageing Peak?” Chu Feng got straight to the point, not wanting to waste any time.
“I’m embarra.s.sed to say this, but I’d like to ask a favor of you, young master Chu Feng. As long as you help me with this favor, regardless of whether it works out or not, I’ll persuade my father to open the protection formation and allow you to awaken the treasure,” Zhou Yi said.
“What’s the favor?” Chu Feng asked.
Zhou Yi initially revealed a hesitant look, but she soon made up her mind and began explaining the matter to him.
Her grandfather, Old Man Zhou, had been terminally ill for some time now and had recently fallen into a coma. His days were already numbered, thus the responsibilities of managing the Zhou Clan fell on her father, who was the next strongest person in the Zhou Clan.
Zhou Yi had an older brother who died in an accident, as well as an older sister named Zhou Shuang and a younger brother named Zhou Zhi.
Zhou Zhi was much younger than Zhou Yi and was a junior just like Chu Feng. He was highly talented as a world spiritist, having reached White Dragon G.o.d-cloak despite being only 97 years of age. In comparison, Zhou Yi’s father was only at Gray Dragon G.o.d-cloak.
There were many in the Zhou Clan who viewed Zhou Zhi as their future hope, a sentiment that was shared by Old Man Zhou as well. This could be seen in how Old Man Zhou pa.s.sed down his heirloom directly to his grandson, Zhou Zhi, instead of his son.
In spite of the favoritism shown by his father, the Zhou Clan’s Clan Chief still heavily doted on his talented son too. It was almost certain that Zhou Zhi was going to become the next Zhou Clan’s Clan Chief.
There was just one problem.
Zhou Zhi, despite his outstanding talent, had a bad habit—he was obsessed with gambling. Priding himself on his superior world spiritist technique, he went around making bets with others and relished in it.
And to be fair, he rarely lost his bets, if any at all.
But just a few days ago, a mysterious group of people possessing unfathomable strength arrived on their Upper Realm. One of them, who appeared to be the young master of the group, identified himself as young master Bai Yue.
Young master Bai Yue was not a junior, but he wasn’t too old either. He was a White Dragon G.o.d-cloak World Spiritist.
A coincidental meeting with Zhou Zhi led to the two of them holding a couple of bets against each other. It started out with young master Bai Yue losing three consecutive matches, which prompted the gleeful Zhou Zhi to mock the other party.
Unwilling to accept his defeat, young master Bai Yue proposed another bet, just that it would be a big one this time around. He brought out two talismans that had the ability to morph into two identical formations. He proposed for them to decipher the formation together, and the first one to succeed would be the victor.
Young master Bai Yue staked ten formidable pills on his victory. These pills were so valuable that Zhou Zhi couldn’t come up with anything of equivalent value, but confident of his victory, he thought that it would be a waste if he missed out on this bet. Thus, in a moment of recklessness, he staked the family heirloom he had received from Old Man Zhou on the bet.
The family heirloom was an ancient compa.s.s.
Young master Bai Yue could tell that it was an invaluable treasure, so he agreed to proceed with the bet. Zhou Zhi was overjoyed, thinking that the ten invaluable pills were going to be his very soon.
But Zhou Zhi ended up losing that bet.
It turned out that young master Bai Yue’s world spiritist techniques were actually above that of Zhou Zhi’s, just that he had intentionally lost the first three matches to bait Zhou Zhi into staking his family heirloom.