Chapter 73 - Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Touch of Despair

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: Touch of Despair

The Zhou Family of Jiufeng Ridge has now become quite a famous cultivator family in Lanzhou.

Originally, many loose cultivators lived around Jiufeng Ridge, and nowadays, two or three hundred of them come to the Zhou Family daily for cultivation practice.

Therefore, Luo Guangshun’s placement among them hardly attracted any attention.

In reality, Luo Guangshun should really be grateful to Zhou Chun.

Because Zhou Daoyi’s previous opinion was to silence him by killing him, which was simple and hassle-free.

It was only after Zhou Chun spoke up and recommended strongly that the Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi’s decision was changed, opting to imprison Luo Guangshun first within the Zhou Family.

In Zhou Chun’s view, if only his cousin Zhou Jiawei on the fourteenth uncle’s side could hasten the research on the antidote and bring the poison to market quicker.

After three to five years, it would be sufficient for other cultivators to only recognize the brand of Spirit Beast Restaurant when purchasing related medicines, thus reviving the previously waning popularity in one fell swoop.

Once the value of the poison was demonstrated, the strange fish in the underground river would naturally attract the attention of the Zhou Family, who would then invest greater efforts into its exploitation.

By the time the Zhou Family takes control over that area, even if Luo Guangshun is released and outsiders learn the secret of mucus, would Spirit Beast Manor really attack the Zhou Family directly just for a poison recipe that can’t be consumed?

Therefore, there was no need to silence someone by killing them for a secret that wouldn’t matter in a few years.

After all, in Zhou Chun’s eyes, resorting to murder to keep a secret was not entirely out of the question, but it should only be used as a last resort when no other options were available.

As long as there are better solutions, even if they are more troublesome, one must not easily resort to the seemingly simple method of silencing by killing.

The Zhou Family is not even the overlord in Lanzhou, let alone in the entire Jingguo Country Cultivation Realm.

Matters of silencing by killing are best avoided if at all possible.

Otherwise, if the matter were to leak out and be capitalized on by someone with an agenda, the trouble that would ensue could be exponentially more problematic than taking a bit more effort to accommodate a Luo Guangshun now!

In this matter, Zhou Chun’s long-term vision and perspective also greatly impressed Zhou Daoyi.

He might not believe that killing a minor loose cultivator to silence him would bring any trouble to the Zhou Family.

But he did appreciate Zhou Chun’s way of thinking and vision for considering the long-term development of the family.

This was something most Zhou Family cultivators lacked.

Most cultivators are extremely selfish, and this selfishness often blinds them to long-term benefits in favor of immediate gains.

Of course, this isn’t because they aren’t intelligent enough, but rather due to the environment of the Cultivation World.

A loose cultivator who lives a life of uncertainty, without even security, must be extremely selfish to survive better and longer in the harsh Cultivation World.

Even many low-ranking family cultivators and sect cultivators are the same.

However, an individual may be extremely selfish, a clan leader of a family cannot be extremely selfish, and a Sect Leader even less so.

If such an overly selfish person becomes the clan leader or Sect Leader, it would be a disaster for the family or the sect!

Zhou Daoyi was chosen as the Clan Leader of the Zhou Family because he was fair, strict, thorough, and capable of deep, strategic planning for the future.

And ever since the Zhou Family settled down in Jiufeng Ridge, facing various internal and external pressures, he had come to understand one thing even more clearly.

A Clan Leader of a cultivation family must not only be fair and strict, act thoroughly, but must also have a long-term vision and not only focus on immediate benefits but also consider long-term interests.

Unfortunately, he had not seen this ability in any other Zhou Family cultivators besides Zhou Chun.

Because of this, he valued Zhou Chun, the junior, even more, and for most of Zhou Chun’s suggestions, as long as he didn’t foresee any severe consequences, he would usually agree.

He sought to cultivate Zhou Chun’s confidence and to encourage him to be more eager to make suggestions and keen to develop and improve the family.

In fact, Zhou Daoyi’s approach indeed had an effect.

At the very least, after repeatedly having his recommendations accepted by Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi and feeling his trust and care, Zhou Chun’s sense of belonging to the Zhou Family grew exponentially, driving him to desire the betterment of the Zhou Family with all his heart!

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another three months had passed.

During these three months, Zhou Chun made two more trips to the underground river, delivering more than ten strange fish carcasses for research to Uncle Fourteen, Zhou Jiawei.

After numerous experiments, Zhou Jiawei finally concocted what he named the “Touch of Despair” antidote.

“Touch of Despair,” just like its name suggests, brings despair upon contact.

This sticky ointment, once it touches the skin, causes an intense itching sensation within just a dozen breaths that makes one wish to dig out the flesh of the affected area and throw it away!

If there is no antidote, this itching effect would last for a very long time with little relief no matter how one tries to wash it off.

It has been verified in experiments that as long as a Demon Beast is exposed to this poison, its combat ability would drop significantly.

The sensation of itching would greatly distract it, preventing it from focusing and continuing the fight.

After witnessing the effects of the “Touch of Despair” firsthand, Zhou Chun immediately took thirty doses of the poison and ten doses of the antidote back to the Marketplace and urged Zhou Jiawei to use the existing materials to continue the mass production of this poison.

He then quickly launched this new product, vigorously promoting it to the Cultivators shopping in the store.

The result was as he expected.

Every Cultivator who used “Touch of Despair” sang its praises, and the repurchase rate was one hundred percent!

Furthermore, Zhou Chun specially spent Spirit Coins to hire some Loose Cultivators to advertise all over the Marketplace. Within two months, the reputation of “Touch of Despair” soared.

A large number of Cultivators came to buy it, immediately selling out the poison and consequently increasing the sales of other beast-repellent and insect-repellent medicines in the store as well.

This was exactly the purpose of Zhou Chun wanting to develop new products.

He was well aware that, when it came to pricing, the products of Spirit Beast Restaurant and Spirit Beast Pavilion were similar.

The reason the turnover of Spirit Beast Restaurant plummeted after the opening of Spirit Beast Pavilion was solely because the Pavilion drew customers away with its special products.

As customers, since the prices of the same type of products were almost the same in both stores, they would naturally buy from whichever store they went to if they had a need.

And since visiting the Spirit Beast Pavilion offered the chance of purchasing special products not available at Spirit Beast Restaurant, it naturally was the preferred choice.

Now, with the emergence of “Touch of Despair,” a large number of customers came to Spirit Beast Restaurant, and the situation naturally changed.

Meanwhile, when Zhou Daoyi learned of the store’s surge in turnover due to “Touch of Despair,” he quickly decided to support Zhou Jiawei in ramping up production.

Thus, Elder Zhou Daoquan personally took action, taking Zhou Jiahui with him to the underground river to capture more than twenty strange fish and bring them back to the Zhou Family, raising them in several ponds within the family estate to see if they could be bred in captivity.

Zhou Jiahui was also frequently sent to the underground river to capture strange fish and obtain their mucus.

While Zhou Jiasheng and Zhou Chun were delighted with the substantial increase in the store’s income, the shopkeeper of their competitor, Spirit Beast Pavilion, was agitated and furious at the sudden drop in his store’s income.

“Master Uncle Yu, with your discernment, you must know that our store’s income has fallen almost by a fifth compared to last month. The reason, as you may know, is due to Spirit Beast Restaurant’s new product, which has greatly reduced the number of customers coming to our store!”

“And this is just the beginning. If we can’t find a way to change this situation, or increase the distribution of special Spiritual Objects like Spirit Honey and Spirit Milk, I’m afraid the store’s income will continue to decrease!”

In the Spirit Beast Pavilion, as he faced the Foundation Establishment Cultivator Yu Deguang who had come to collect this month’s store revenue, the shopkeeper Luo Guangshun spoke with a face full of worries.

“Regarding that new product from Spirit Beast Restaurant, I have indeed heard about it. Zhou Jiawei, that rascal, seems to have some ability to come up with such a remarkable medicine after the death of Zhou Mingshan!”

“However, what you are saying about increasing the distribution of Spirit Honey and Spirit Milk, that’s absolutely impossible. In fact, the distribution of these items will only become more scarce over time.”

“After all, these items are important resources for our Sect to exchange with other powers for some special resources. Using them to earn Spirit Coins is a total waste of their value!”

Yu Deguang said this, seeing Luo Guangshun’s expression becoming even more distressed, he then quickly changed the subject, continuing to say:

“However, you don’t need to worry too much, nephew Luo. Zhou Jiawei’s little capability won’t trouble Senior Brother Du. It won’t be long before Senior Brother Du can analyze the formula of that poison and then produce a replica.”

Hearing this, Luo Guangshun’s troubled expression faded significantly, and he excitedly responded, “Then I can rest assured. If we can also sell that poison, we will definitely be able to bring the customers back!”

Seeing this, Yu Deguang nodded in satisfaction and said, “So, nephew Luo, just continue managing the shop without worry. The Sect will certainly not forget your contributions.”