The Clan Leader, Zhou Daoyi, had promised Zhou Chun that once he achieved Foundation Establishment, all cultivation techniques and secret arts of the Zhou Family would be available for him to choose and cultivate.
He came to the Book Collection Tower today for the purpose of selecting a secret technique.
Since the "Golden Cauldron Profound Technique" could not be learned at the moment and his cultivation level could not be improved, Zhou Chun planned to use the time originally reserved for meditation and cultivation to practice several secret techniques.
Of course, with his current cultivation level, he would definitely not practice the common secret techniques on the second floor, but those beneficial to Cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Stage.
After taking the position of Vice Clan Leader, Zhou Daoyi taught Zhou Chun the spells to release the restrictions on places like the Book Collection Tower.
He had learned and mastered them in the past few days.
At this moment, he activated the Forbidden Technique on the second floor of the Book Collection Tower on his own, and all the collected secret techniques and cultivation methods appeared within his sight.
Gazing at the bookshelf labeled "Cultivation Technique," Zhou Chun's eyes flashed with interest, and he walked over immediately.
Although he came with the intention of selecting secret techniques, looking at these cultivation techniques wouldn't hurt either.
He casually picked up a technique called "Stone Dragon Art" and began to flip through it.
This "Stone Dragon Art" was the type of technique that allowed one to master powerful Divine Skills after cultivation, and just by achieving the first level, one would acquire two formidable Divine Skills, "Spirit Stone Dragon Transformation" and "Stone Dragon Armor."
Just from the description alone, the power of these two Divine Skills probably wouldn't be inferior to the two Divine Skills accompanying the "Myriad Woods True Technique."
However, to successfully cultivate the "Stone Dragon Art," one also needed to use precious spirit materials like "Wutu Element Stone" and "Earth Spirit Precious Jade." No dangers associated with its cultivation were recorded.
Yet, the speed of cultivating the "Stone Dragon Art" was extremely slow!
According to examples left by senior Zhou Family Cultivators, even a cultivator with superior Spirit Root Aptitude would take nearly a century to break through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment without consuming any elixirs that advanced mana and cultivation level.
By that calculation, the time required to break through from the middle to the late stage of Foundation Establishment would be much longer!
And even if one could reach the Purple Mansion Phase by relying on the power of elixirs, the slow cultivation speed thereafter would make further advancement in cultivation incredibly difficult.
After all, as one ascends to higher levels, there are fewer elixirs suitable for high-level Cultivators to advance their mana and cultivation levels.
Zhou Chun, when he was in the Qi Refinement Realm, could purchase elixirs to advance mana and cultivation levels as long as he had Spirit Coins.
However, elixirs that could advance the mana and cultivation level of Cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Phase were in high demand and short supply, making them hard to find in ordinary marketplace shops.
Seeing this, Zhou Chun couldn't help but shake his head and put the book back.
Then, he picked up another technique from the lower shelf called "Essence Condensation Technique" and started reading.
Compared to the previous "Stone Dragon Art," this "Essence Condensation Technique" was the complete opposite.
Cultivating the "Essence Condensation Technique" did not require any spirit materials, and any cultivator who had just achieved Foundation Establishment could practice it.
However, after successful cultivation, it would only bestow the "Gathering Spirit Technique," a Divine Skill with no combat abilities that could gather spiritual energy faster to accelerate cultivation.
Even a cultivator with an average Spiritual Root cultivating this technique, with the enhancement of "Gathering Spirit Technique," could advance to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment within fifty years without consuming any elixirs for advancing cultivation and mana.
Advancing from the middle to the late stage of Foundation Establishment would also take less than eighty years, with very few bottleneck stages encountered along the way.
In other words, ideally, if a Cultivator with average Spirit Root Aptitude succeeded in Foundation Establishment at the age of sixty and chose to cultivate the "Essence Condensation Technique," they would have a high likelihood of advancing to the late stage of Foundation Establishment before the age of two hundred, with a chance to breakthrough to the Purple Mansion.
It seemed quite impressive!
But in reality, unless you were a descendant of a higher-ranking cultivator, who could stay indoors without going out to fight or battle with others and could cultivate within the sect.
Otherwise, one would inevitably have to venture outside to engage in battles and skirmishes with other cultivators and demon beasts.
For a loose cultivator who has just entered the Foundation Establishment Stage and doesn't even possess a second-tier magic artifact, after cultivating the "Essence Condensation Technique," they would likely only be able to bully weaker demon beasts. They would have to flee upon encountering any second-tier demon beast.
If it were a Family Cultivator, even with a second-tier magic artifact provided by the family, they could only contend with weaker second-tier demon beasts. Encountering a slightly stronger one among the same rank, they would still be unable to win.
Moreover, if they were to encounter an enemy cultivator of the Foundation Establishment Phase, who also held a second-tier magic artifact and whose cultivated techniques included powerful offensive Divine Skills, escape would be difficult!
Just like Zhou Chun once battled a Foundation Establishment loose cultivator named Shen Han who seemed not to have used any formidable Divine Skills from beginning to end, relying solely on magic artifacts and spells.
Most likely, he was a cultivator of the Foundation Establishment Stage who, greedy for quick cultivation progression, had cultivated a technique similar to the "Essence Condensation Technique."
Of course, extremely cultivation speed-focused techniques like "Essence Condensation Technique" did not occupy an absolute mainstream position.
Many class-two techniques also pursued cultivation speed, but often took into account aspects of self-defense and protection.
Just like the techniques practiced by several of the Zhou Family Cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage. Their cultivation speed was nearly seventy percent as effective as "Essence Condensation Technique," and the Divine Skills that came with it were mostly for self-defense and escape, providing much stronger survival capabilities when faced with danger.
After reviewing the descriptions of these techniques, Zhou Chun felt even more fortunate about his decision to choose a top-tier technique and his resolve grew stronger.
He quickly left the technique area and arrived at the section where secret techniques were stored.
The Zhou Family had collected many kinds of secret techniques suitable for cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Stage, but many of them had stringent cultivation requirements.
Zhou Chun, currently occupied with the arduous task of cultivating the "Golden Cauldron Profound Technique," didn't have the energy to distract himself with those overly complex secret techniques.
Thus, he had a clear objective this time: to prepare for the cultivation of the Beast Taming Secret Technique passed down in the Zhou Family.
Speaking of which, although the Zhou Family was known for their beast taming heritage, apart from most clan members taming their own demon beast spirit pets and possessing some beast taming skills, they didn't seem to display any powerful Beast Taming Secret Techniques.
To outsiders, it might appear to be a case of reputation not matching reality.
But that was all a misconception!
Since the Zhou Family had chosen the Beast Taming Technique as their family's hereditary skill, it naturally came with corresponding Beast Taming Secret Techniques.
Not to mention the "Soul Controlling Blood Array" that Zhou Chun had used before, a pact-based technique. The truly powerful Beast Taming Secret Techniques of the Zhou Family could only be cultivated by those at the Foundation Establishment Stage, and many of them even had requirements for the strength of the spirit pets they aimed to use.
For example, the Beast Taming Secret Technique used by Zhou Daoyi could stimulate the flood dragon bloodline within a Sky Azure Cloud Python, transforming it into a flood dragon and allowing it to slaughter all around!
This time, Zhou Chun had come to the Book Collection Tower mainly to seek out such secret techniques.
After searching through the bookshelves, he quickly found a jade slip that recorded this kind of secret technique.
"Ancestral Resurrection," which when used on demon beasts containing top-tier demon beast bloodlines, can activate their ancestral blood, allowing them to temporarily enter an ancestral state, harnessing some of their ancestors' Divine Skills at that realm.
The demon beast subjected to this technique must be at least at the second tier, must have a contract relationship with the casting cultivator, and must not resist the cultivator's power.
Moreover, the concentration of their ancestral bloodline must reach a certain level; the higher the bloodline concentration, the more significant the strength increase after the technique is applied.
Indeed, the secret technique Daoyi had used was not, as Zhou Chun had originally thought, specifically aimed at the Flood Dragon Clan, but was useful for many types of powerful potential demon beasts.
Although every Zhou Family Cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage could cultivate this technique, there were not many who actually had spirit pets meeting the requirements, so it was not commonly practiced.
Apart from "Ancestral Resurrection," Zhou Chun also chose another Beast Taming Secret Technique for himself called "Beast Spirit Armor."
"Beast Spirit Armor" can harness the mana of a demon beast to condense a strong spirit force armor that protects the demon beast, with the strength of the defense varying according to the cultivation level of the beast and its master.
In fact, the Zhou Family's Beast Taming Secret Techniques include several other types, but Zhou Chun knew that biting off more than he could chew would be unwise. After mastering these two, cultivating other secret techniques could wait.