Chapter 213 Jiuxu Linglong Tower
Chapter 213 Jiuxu Linglong Tower
Time flies.
In the blink of an eye, three weeks had passed. During these three weeks, thanks to the Hartmann family's rear support in supplying elixirs and magic tools to the front lines, the East Defense Zone scored victory after victory against the zombie horde on Lotus Island.
The enemy was pushed back to the main island of the Lotus Islands—the very corpse refining site that Luis and Zhou Mubai had explored.
However, after months of management by the Sun Fu brothers, the island became a labyrinth of densely packed formations, and the air was thick with evil spirit.
Even ordinary Qi Refining cultivators taking the Evil-Breaking Pill could not withstand the oppressive, overwhelming presence of that evil energy.
Faced with this situation, Zhou Mubai had no choice but to adopt a blockade strategy: he surrounded the island on three sides and left one side open.
That gap was aimed directly toward Cangzhou Fairy City. Zhou Mubai's plan was simple—let the zombies from Lotus Island spill out and wreak havoc on Cangzhou Fairy City.
The battle between the two sides lasted for a long time. Although millions of zombies on Lotus Island were wiped out, the remaining numbers likely still approached tens of millions.
With such a massive force of corpses, combined with the third-level Yin Vein, even if Guang'an Prefecture managed to eliminate this zombie tide completely, it was estimated that hundreds of thousands of cultivators—or even more—would be killed.
Fighting on the main island of Lotus Island was very different from battles fought on the smaller city-gate islands. Lotus Island was the home ground of the zombies; if a cultivator went there to fight, his true energy and essence would be greatly suppressed.
In such conditions, one side would lose strength while the other side gained ground. The gap between the Qi Refining cultivators and ordinary zombies would narrow, inevitably leading to heavy losses.
Zhou Mubai certainly did not want to suffer such losses. Even though the casualties were not all members of his own Zhou family but mostly independent cultivators from Guang'an Prefecture, these independent cultivators formed the backbone of the major families in Guang'an Prefecture and were very important to the Zhou family.
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Zhou Main City.
Zhou family residence.
A beam of light flashed across the sky. As the fading light descended, a human figure appeared. I saw a handsome monk wearing a white Taoist robe and a jade crown on his head, walking confidently toward a hall in the Zhou family's residence.
Inside the main hall, a red-haired monk was secluded, practicing. His consciousness stirred slightly, and when he sensed someone approaching, Zhang Yu opened his eyes.
He then stood up and stepped out of the hall to greet the visitor.
Luis's cultivation had just advanced from the first level of Foundation Building to the third level. The changes in his cultivation were evident.
Zhang Yu raised his fiery red eyebrows and said with a smile, "It has been such a short time since we last met. Daoist Luis, you have made great progress in your cultivation."
"Senior Zhang, you are too kind," replied Luis, bowing.
"Now, the Jiuxu Linglong Tower has been delivered to you, Fellow Daoist Luis. The transportation fee you prepaid to us and the accumulated military merits are all written off."
"It should be, it should be," Luis replied as he bowed repeatedly. "I'll let Senior Zhang take the blame."
Zhang Xu smiled and shook his head. "It's just my duty. In the whole Guang'an Prefecture, your Hartmann family is only the second to own this tower. That is no small feat."
After saying this, he looked at Luis with a meaningful look.
"It was a stroke of luck. If it weren't for this battle with the zombies on Lotus Island, my family wouldn't have made such a fortune."
Luis smiled, his face full of humility.
"So, war is the best way for small families and independent cultivators like us to rise."
Zhang Xu sighed meaningfully. "Senior Zhang is right."
Luis replied, "In that case, I won't disturb your meditation. Goodbye."
"Goodbye—I won't see you off," Zhang Xu said with a nod as he watched Luis leave, murmuring, "Hartmann Family of unknown origin, I wonder if you can one day truly become one of us."
On his way out, Luis intended to stow the small green tower in his storage bag, only to find that it wouldn't fit at all.
"Of course," he mused, "two magical instruments that use a spatial array will conflict with each other and are completely incompatible." He smiled and shook his head. If that weren't the case, nesting storage bags within storage bags could create infinite space—which is obviously impossible.
By the time Luis's cultivation had advanced to the third level of Foundation Building, the true energy within his Dantian Qi Sea had reached the limit described in the "Qianyuan Sword Classic."
In other words, at the Foundation Building stage, no matter how much he practiced, he could not improve the quality of his true essence; he could only increase the quantity of his true energy.
Yet his energy is infinite.
Aside from the sword realm and secret techniques, the only other means to significantly enhance his strength were external objects—specifically, various magical instruments.
These included high-level flying swords, defensive spiritual armor, auxiliary magical weapons, and so on.
For example, he possessed a high-level flying sword called the Rainbow Sword—a third-level top-grade flying sword gifted to him by Yang Linyuan, the ancestor of the Yang family.
His defensive spiritual armor was a bit lacking, but he also had a set of second-level top-grade spiritual armor custom-made for him.
Indeed, the Hartmann family had exchanged military merits from the Qianyuan Sword Sect to acquire their second-level spiritual armor inheritance.
This inheritance cost them a full 100,000 great merits—almost equivalent to one-fifth the price of the Jiuxu Linglong Tower.
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