Chapter 400 - 231: Formidable Enemy
He stayed for three days straight.
During that time, he enjoyed Shuini’s warm hospitality, which made Lü Zhong feel as if he had returned home.
After returning to Ganquan Island, life went back to normal.
The matter with the Fang Family couldn’t be resolved anytime soon.
So, Lü Zhong simply pushed it to the back of his mind.
Let them maintain their blockade.
This wasn’t without cost for the Fang Family; in fact, they had to bleed a little themselves. Otherwise, why would those family workshops cooperate? Now, it was just a matter of seeing who would give in first.
Judging by the current situation, the Chengde Commerce Association clearly had the upper hand.
’The only worry is that the Fang Family will be the first to lose their patience...’ Thinking this, Lü Zhong felt it was necessary to take some precautions.
In the Changchun Domain, the only person who mattered to him was Yu Feng’er. Since they both lived on Ganquan Island, if the Fang Family decided to make a move, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t lay siege to the island.
This was not without precedent.
The Cultivation Realm had always respected strength above all else.
As long as one employed a decapitation strike and eliminated the high-level cultivators at the top, even the greatest of powers would crumble. Countless similar cases were recorded in the annals of history.
With this in mind, Lü Zhong decided to prepare a few escape routes for himself.
This was to avoid being truly trapped on the island.
So, in the following days, he began digging tunnels. With the Fossil into Mud Technique, digging was extremely easy, even faster than using a Magical Treasure.
In less than a month, the escape routes began to take shape.
Driven by caution, he deliberately created a mix of real and fake paths, setting up numerous false exits.
’It’s a shame the progress in the Nether Abyss Continent has been so rocky. If I had learned how to make Transmission Arrays, I wouldn’t need to go through all this trouble. I’d just set up a dozen of them and guarantee they’d come up empty-handed every time.’
Lü Zhong thought with a pang of regret.
The Chengde Commerce Association’s exploration toward the Nether Abyss Continent had been full of fits and starts.
At this rate, he feared he would have to wait for the Bihai Sect to grow stronger and provide substantial manpower support before he could achieve his goal of finding and mining the Nether Flame Purple Iron Ore.
He quickly pushed the thought aside.
Due to the influence of the Demon Hunting Order, the supply of Demon Beast Materials on the market had surged.
Thanks to this, his practice of the Barbarian Ancestor Heaven-Swallowing Mantra went much more smoothly. He no longer had to wait for materials; as long as his body could withstand it, he could continue cultivating indefinitely.
Recently, Lü Zhong had been focusing most of his energy on this.
...
In the days that followed, not much happened.
The influence of the Demon Hunting Order ceased to expand, and the beast tide showed its first signs of retreat. Evidently, after such a long war of attrition, the Transformed Demon Cultivator in the Northern Great Forest Sea was finally unable to hold on any longer.
A direct consequence of this was that the amount of Merit earned by the camp began to decline.
This made Lü Zhong sigh with great regret.
He had finally gotten the chance to exchange for Changchun Valley’s Tier Three Pills, and he hadn’t even emptied their stock yet, but the war was already ending just like that.
Regrets were regrets, but it was indeed better for the situation to return to peace.
During this period, the Fang Family had launched several attacks, none of which had much effect. On the contrary, Lü Zhong’s counterattacks caused them to suffer heavy losses each time, and their blockade gradually began to loosen.
At this rate, the matter would be over soon.
...
Another year passed, and spring returned with its warmth.
Lü Zhong was in the Central Courtyard, watching the rain.
The fine threads of rain drizzling from the sky brought an inexplicable sense of peace to his mind. Taking a sip of high-quality Spirit Tea, the frustrations from long hours of cultivation instantly vanished without a trace.
He suddenly felt a weight in his arms—it was Yu Feng’er.
"Husband, do you think I can really get pregnant?" she asked, listless and unhappy, a hint of self-blame in her expression.
Over the past period, Yu Feng’er had tried every secret recipe and Secret Skill Shuini had given her, but day after day, there was still no sign of movement in her belly, causing her to overthink things.
"It might be because our cultivation is high... Don’t worry, the Celestial Dao rewards the diligent. We’ll just keep trying, and one day it will happen!" Lü Zhong comforted her, though he couldn’t help but wonder to himself.
’We haven’t been able to conceive... could I be the problem?’
But...
He had used his microscopic vision to check, and there was nothing wrong with his own body.
’How strange!’
It was a common problem in the Cultivation Realm for cultivators, especially high-level cultivators, to have difficulty conceiving. The reason was that while Immortal Spiritual Qi altered one’s constitution, it also seemed to bring side effects.
This manifested as the difficulty in producing offspring.
This was also why those Golden Core and Nascent Soul Ancestors would often fly into an uncontrollable rage, even losing their minds, when a direct descendant died.
Some things, one could only understand the difficulty of after experiencing them firsthand.
"Mm," Yu Feng’er responded softly.
But she still looked weighed down by her worries, clearly not over the matter yet. Seeing this, Lü Zhong knew it was best not to press her further; sometimes, too much persuasion could be counterproductive.
After a while, a serving girl brought their meal.
The meal was made with Jade Spirit Rice, a type of high-grade spirit rice that sold for a hundred Spirit Stones a pound. The Spiritual Qi it contained was exceptionally pure, and eating it could even help a Golden Core Master advance their cultivation.
The effect was just a little weak.
The dishes were all Spiritual Food, meticulously prepared by a Spirit Chef.
Lü Zhong had thought this would be just another ordinary meal.
But he never expected...
A sudden change!
Five streaks of light suddenly appeared and immediately unleashed their respective Magical Treasures, bombarding the Grand Array of Ganquan Island.
THUD, THUD, THUD—five muffled impacts sounded in quick succession.
When he got a clear look at the five figures in the sky and saw that their leader was Fang Xiaoyun, Lü Zhong’s expression changed drastically.
’The worst has happened!’
The Fang Family was truly unwilling to accept defeat. They had actually gathered forces to resolve the conflict with violence. After all, as long as they killed Lü Zhong and took the Chengde Commerce Association for themselves...
Then all of their previous investments would be recouped, and they would even make a huge profit.