Chapter 6, The Attack of the Monster Beasts.

In the past hundred years or so, several generations of the Zhou family have been stuck at the bottleneck of foundation building. This has led to deep obsessions in the hearts of elderly people like Zhou Quan. Their only obsession is to hope that they can see another foundation building cultivator from the Zhou family in their lifetime, to take over as the guardian of the clan.

Even for a foundational family like the Zhou family with foundational cultivators, it is difficult to cultivate a truly profitable second-tier alchemist. They must select talented children and invest heavily in order to do so.

Therefore, he has never resented his parents for not being able to see them for years. Instead, he writes multiple letters every year to his family elders to send to his parents, sharing his daily life experiences with them. He knows that these seemingly ordinary and boring things are what his parents most want to see.

On the other hand, when Zhou Qi returned home with the magical tools and insights refined by Zhou Yang and submitted them to the patriarch, it immediately attracted the high attention of Zhou Minghan.

And in order to allow their son to go further in the practice of Daoism than themselves, Zhou Xuanhao and Lin Yuting, this couple, did not have any more children afterwards, and put all their efforts into earning spiritual stones and taking care of Zhou Yang.

However, he said it like this. The next moment, he couldn't help but sigh with a regretful expression, saying, "What a pity, what a pity that I won't be able to witness the day you establish your foundation. Otherwise, even after I die and descend to the Yellow Springs, I would still have the face to meet the ancestors of the Jade Spring!"

Watching his clan brother Zhou Qi leave, Zhou Yang manipulated the formation to restore it to its original state, and then closed the door to read the long letter entrusted to him by his parents through his clan brother.

As long as you are clear in your heart, it's fine. I'll leave first.

Just as his parents in his previous life worked hard to support his education, leaving their hometown to work in the city at a young age, everything Zhou Xuanhao and Lin Yuting are doing now is also for his future foundation and for him to go further on the path of cultivation.

At that time, his mother Lin Yuting was being pursued by enemies and escaped to the vicinity of the Yuquan Lake Oasis, where she was saved by him. As a result, the two became husband and wife, and a few years later, they gave birth to Zhou Yang.

After reading the entire letter, he carefully put away the letter paper and whispered to himself, "There are still two years left. After I complete the remaining two years of the garrison mission, I will return to the family and prepare to break through to the seventh level of Qi cultivation. As long as I break through to the later stage of Qi cultivation, I will apply to the old patriarch to be stationed in the market area. Then our family can reunite!"

Yang'er, Qingping Mountain is far away from the family. Whenever encountering matters, one must think carefully before acting, and prioritize self-protection above all else...

Zhou Qi ranks third in the "Yuan" generation of the Zhou family. Both of his parents are ordinary people. He is already 32 years old this year, but due to his low spiritual root quality, he has only reached the third level of Qi cultivation. There is no hope for him to build the foundation in this lifetime.

Son, the business at this restaurant has been getting better and better recently. It's all thanks to the idea you gave me last time that got things going. My son is truly a genius. He will definitely become a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the future, no, he will definitely become a Nascent Soul cultivator!

With the experience of the first successful attempt, Zhou Yang's success rate in refining subsequent times improved significantly. Basically, he could succeed once every ten attempts.

Hehe, I'm old now. Even if I pass away tomorrow, it doesn't matter. Being able to see outstanding descendants like you in the family before passing away, I can die with no regrets!

If the art of refining tools were so easy to master, the profession of alchemist would not be the most coveted in the cultivation world.

The old man Zhou Quan smiled happily, reached out and gently patted Zhou Yang's shoulder to show his affection, but he had long been indifferent to life and death.

"San ge said, I will work hard to cultivate, and will never let the elders down!" Zhou Yang nodded, responding with a serious expression.

After experiencing seventeen failures, Zhou Yang finally succeeded in refining a finished product, the "Qingfeng Sword," and officially became a first-tier craftsman.

After he feels confident, he will start a new attempt again.

Zhou Yang looked at the letter written by his parents word by word, with a sincere smile on his face. A simple letter from his parents was more motivating than a thousand words from others.

Before Zhou Yang, there were many "Xuan" generation cultivators in the Zhou family who studied the art of refining tools. However, only his seventh uncle, Zhou Xuanlin, barely advanced to the second rank of a refiner. This was achieved with the guidance of Zhou Minghan, a third-rank refiner, and after investing thousands of spirit stones in materials.

The arrival of Zhou Quan not only demonstrated the high regard of the elder patriarch and the clan towards him, but also exposed the inadequacy of available manpower within the clan.

He personally inspected the magical instruments refined by Zhou Yang one by one, pointed out their shortcomings, and provided improvement suggestions. He also answered the questions recorded by Zhou Yang on the experience of refining instruments one by one. Then, he asked a senior elder of the "Guang" generation in the family to personally deliver some higher-level refining materials and refining experiences to Zhou Yang.

While Zhou Yang was thinking about how to break this heavy atmosphere, a burst of fire suddenly pierced through the clouds outside Qingping Mountain and landed in front of him. From it came the extremely panicked voice of Zhou's steward on the iron ore mine outside: "Master Immortal, please save us! There is a powerful monster attacking the mine!"

The refining process of "Flame Blade" is generally similar to that of "Azure Edge Sword". The difference lies in that, during the refining of "Flame Blade", the prohibition arranged inside the blade is not "sharpness", but "flame" prohibition.

Although Zhou Yang has had a successful experience in refining the "Qingfeng Sword", he still failed in his first attempt to refine the "Flame Knife" magical weapon.

Zhou Yang fell silent, and his mood became heavy as well.

Zhou Yang looked at the old man who was laughing so hard that his mouth was wide open, feeling both touched and deeply sighing in his heart.

Most alchemists have a little bit of alchemy talent and rely on countless materials to accumulate their alchemy skills.

As long as he can successfully build the foundation and show a little talent in refining, even if he is smashed with spirit stones, Zhou Minghan is confident that he can smash him into a third-rank alchemist!

At this time, the old patriarch still had a lot of basic refining materials left for him, but he did not continue refining. Instead, he handed over the finished magical artifacts he had refined, the insights he had gained during the refining process, and the letters he had written to his parents to Zhou Qi, a fellow clan cultivator who came to collect the iron ore. He asked Zhou Qi to take them back to the clan and deliver them to the old patriarch and his parents who were far away.

So Zhou Minghan hopes that Zhou Yang can inherit his alchemy skills, implying that he hopes he can successfully build the foundation.

After hearing that Zhou Yang had become a first-level alchemist, he was naturally surprised at first, and then he took the things with a happy face and nodded vigorously, saying, "Ninth Brother, rest assured, I will definitely bring the things and the letter to the old patriarch and uncle and aunt."

The elderly person is already 112 years old, very close to the lifespan limit of a Qi cultivation practitioner. If it weren't for Zhou Minghan personally ordering him by name to make a trip, no one in the family would dare to disturb this old man who is about to pass away.

However, the limit for a Qi refining cultivator is only a second-order Refiner. In order to become a third-order Refiner, one must first become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.