By the small river, Zhou Chun watched the thoroughly dead body of the man in black and let out a sigh, raising his hand to wipe the nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
The situation just now had been extremely perilous for him.
If the two "Xinjin Sword Qi" hadn't killed the man in black on the spot, he would have been injured by the man's attack.
After all, the man's transformed dragon claw was equivalent to a second-tier Magic Artifact.
Fortunately, the two "Xinjin Sword Qi" didn't disappoint him, justifying the pain he had endured to practice this secret technique.
Now, looking at the body of the man in black, Zhou Chun steadied his mind and then grinned, saying, "A Qi Refinement Realm Cultivator slaying a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, if this were told, no one would believe it, right?"
Overcoming a higher-level Cultivator is not unheard of in the Cultivation World, but it is extremely rare.
Normally, only those Cultivators with powerful backgrounds could achieve it, relying on the various treasures given by their elders.
But for a Cultivator like Zhou Chun to do it entirely on his own strength, that was indeed very, very rare.
Even if his opponent had been a heavily injured Foundation Establishment Cultivator without a suitable magic artifact at hand, it was still the same.
Under normal circumstances, even when faced with such a situation, few Qi Refinement Realm Cultivators would dare to be as courageous as Zhou Chun and actively hunt a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
By making the decision he did, Zhou Chun had already surpassed many of his peers in the same realm.
Not to mention that he was actually successful!
So at this moment, he didn't need to conceal his pride at all.
After basking in pride for a moment, Zhou Chun cast his gaze toward the right hand of the man in black.
As the man in black died, his hand that had transformed into a dragon claw quickly reverted back to a human hand.
This made Zhou Chun even more curious about the "Dragon Transformation Secret Technique."
If practicing the "Dragon Transformation Secret Technique" would completely turn a person into a monster, then no matter how powerful the technique, Zhou Chun would not be interested at all.
He had finally gotten a chance to start from scratch, why would he foolishly transform himself into a monstrosity?
But seeing the situation with the "Dragon Transformation Secret Technique," it was clear that it remained fundamentally human, with the dragon transformation merely serving as a special form to enhance strength.
That was quite interesting!
Immediately, Zhou Chun went over to the corpse and searched it, collecting everything worth taking.
Then, he casually set the body on fire, turning it to ashes.
After destroying the evidence in this way, Zhou Chun didn't hurry to check his loot on the spot but quickly stowed away the Rock Earth Turtle and left the scene.
One of the most important taboos in the Cultivation World is to count your spoils at the scene of a wilderness killing.
Because no one knows if, while checking your gains, you've already become the prey of someone else who heard the commotion and has come!
After speeding away for several tens of miles, Zhou Chun finally stopped in a Mortal Marketplace.
The greatest concealment hides within the market.
In mountains and forests, any person that appears will usually be easily regarded as a Cultivator by passing Cultivators in the sky.
Many Foundation Establishment Cultivators might even cast their Divine Sense to check them out of curiosity.
But places like Mortal Marketplaces, most Foundation Establishment Cultivators would just fly over above the clouds, too lazy to even glance down.
In a guest room in an inn, after checking in, Zhou Chun first meditated for several "shichen," replenishing the mana he had consumed.
Afterward, he took out the Purification Stone Pot and drank several big gulps of Purification Spirit Water to expel the Evil Qi from his body.
Then, he took out the Storage Pouch he obtained from the man in black.
Although the man was a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator, his Storage Pouch wasn't much more advanced than Zhou Chun's.
It was just a bit larger in volume, about ten feet square, large enough to fit the contents of a room.
It is said that only high-level Storage Pouches used by Purple Mansion Phase and Golden Core Stage Cultivators really differ significantly from the low-level ones.
Those advanced Storage Pouches not only have larger internal volumes but are also protected with a restriction like a password lock.
If someone else got the Storage Pouch, without knowing the correct spell to unlock it, they couldn't open it.
Forceful decryption would only cause the Storage Pouch to be destroyed, causing the items inside to flow into another space.
Zhou Chun now spent some effort to erase the Spirit Sense Imprint left by the man in black and took out the items from the Storage Pouch one by one for inspection and identification.
Clearly, although the man in black's Storage Pouch was large, it wasn't filled to the brim; even including some clothes and miscellaneous items, it used less than half of its volume.
Among these items, a large portion turned out to be records on the newly recruited members of the Dragon Transformation Sect.
Zhou Chun took a quick glance and was surprised to find that just under this Black Dragon branch, the number of new Sect Members had already reached over a hundred, including some Family Cultivators who were having a tough time!
However, these individuals were still preliminary members and had not received the "Dragon Blood Baptism" or been taught the "Dragon Transformation Secret Technique."
Furthermore, with the Green Lotus Temple aggressively investigating and combating the infiltrating members of the Dragon Transformation Sect, whether these preliminary members still wished to join was a question.
Despite this, Zhou Chun quickly realized that this information might become very useful to the Zhou Family in the future.
So he organized the materials and put them back into the Storage Pouch, then turned his attention to the other items that were truly valuable to him.