If Lin Hongyu hadn't come to Tianyuan Immortal City, Zhou Chun would have planned to find time to return to the Zhou Family and deliver the Foundation Establishment Pills he had.
But now that Lin Hongyu had come to Tianyuan Immortal City, Zhou Chun naturally didn't have to waste time making the trip.
After handing over the Foundation Establishment Pills to Lin Hongyu, he also immediately wrote several letters home to entrust to her for his elders and relatives, then bade farewell and left.
Once he returned to his cave dwelling, Zhou Chun took out the letters from home brought by Lin Hongyu and began to inspect each one.
There were three letters in total, written respectively by Zhou Mingde, Zhou Daoyi, and Su Yuzhen.
Zhou Mingde's letter mainly expressed concern for Zhou Chun's cultivation progress and mentioned some of the more important events that had occurred in the Jingguo and Fengguo Cultivation Realms over the past decade.
Zhou Daoyi's letter was penned by him personally and detailed the intricate changes in the Zhou Family's development over the years, including various types of data; it was the longest, with tens of thousands of words.
The letter from Su Yuzhen was the one that truly resembled family correspondence, where she shared her longing for her spouse and a few changes within the Su Family.
However, the first letter Zhou Chun read was the one from Su Yuzhen.
Skipping past the affectionate and caring words in the letter, the two most valuable pieces of information were these: one was that Su Yunniang, Su Yuzhen's aunt, had successfully formed her Golden Core and become a Golden Core Elder of the Moon Wheel Sect.
Because of this, the position of the Su Family in Jiangzhou had suddenly risen, and they were now being referred to as the leading Cultivator Family in Jingguo.
After all, no other Golden Core Family had two Golden Core Stage Cultivators.
The other piece was about a celebration hosted by the Su Family to honor Su Yunniang's Core Formation success, where they invited members from related Cultivator Families like the Zhou Family to attend, and also had the younger generations engage in a friendly competition of magical combat, giving out plenty of prizes.
Among the Qi Refinement juniors of the Zhou Family, one named Zhou Sizhen actually won first place in the Qi Refinement category, taking home the "Foundation Establishment Pill" prize prepared by the Su Family.
As a result, the Ancestor of the Su Family felt somewhat shamed and severely reprimanded the Su Family juniors, while privately lambasting Zhou Chun in front of Su Yuzhen.
Su Yuzhen mentioned this incident merely as an amusing tidbit, saying that the Ancestor of the Su Family didn't actually blame the Zhou Family but was rather frustrated by their own family's lack of competitiveness.
"I didn't expect Aunt Yunniang to actually succeed in her Core Formation, this is indeed a joyous occasion!"
"And as for the young lad Sizhen, if I remember correctly, he seems to have the same Wind Attribute Spirit Root Aptitude as Xu Fu, though his Spiritual Root is of medium quality. I never expected him to make such a splash this time!"
Zhou Chun set the letter down and remembered its contents with a faint smile on his face.
Since he and Su Yuzhen were spouses, Su Yunniang's successful Core Formation meant that he had gained another Golden Core Elder in the family, which was naturally good news.
With Zhou Sizhen, a junior of his family, taking first place in the Su Family's magic combat event, it greatly elevated the Zhou Family's reputation and also secured a significant advantage for himself. As the Clan Leader of the Zhou Family, Zhou Chun felt happy for him as well.
Zhou Chun then went on to inspect the letters from Zhou Mingde and Zhou Daoyi one by one.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Zhou Chun withdrew his Divine Sense and sat back in his chair with closed eyes, his expression slightly solemn as he pondered.
Over a decade's time, a lot can happen to a family, both good and bad.
In the past decade or so, the Zhou Family, overall, was still on an upward development trend.
Especially with the full-scale expansion of the courier service business, the Zhou Family's income and prestige had greatly improved.
However, perhaps some forces were unhappy to see the Zhou Family's rapid development.
In recent years, attacks on Zhou Family's courier personnel and transport teams had increased, causing significant losses in manpower and finances for the family.
But these were not the major concerns; now that "Worldwide Circle" was deeply rooted in people's hearts, even if some deliveries were lost due to attacks, as long as the compensation was adequate, many Cultivators would choose to be understanding.
Even if some sought to make trouble and tarnish the Zhou Family's reputation, it would be difficult to have a substantial effect.
This is the advantage of being the first to establish a solid foothold.
However, two issues mentioned in Zhou Mingde's letter made Zhou Chun feel uneasy.
One was the beginning of a new undertaking by the Green Lotus Temple.
Five years ago, the Green Lotus Temple suddenly announced its intention to form a United Patrol Team to strike against Bandit Cultivators.
The high ranks of this patrol team were all Purple Mansion Cultivators from the Green Lotus Temple, but the patrollers were drafted from various major Cultivator Families.
The Zhou Family was also allocated two positions within this patrol team.
Furthermore, according to the Green Lotus Temple, the patrol team had the right to conscript Cultivators from subordinate families for joint action during enforcement.
This meant that the Green Lotus Temple was using the people from all Cultivator Families to build a standing army, with command authority entirely in the hands of the Green Lotus Temple.
What's more, the Green Lotus Temple didn't even spend a penny, as each family had to provide their Cultivators sent to the patrol team with additional subsidies.
In Zhou Chun's view, this move by the Green Lotus Temple was a case of killing two birds with one stone.
They obtained a mid-tier force that could be deployed anywhere at any time without spending a dime, meanwhile, weakening the developing potential of major Cultivator Families.
After all, with a limited number of Foundation Establishment Cultivators, if a few were drafted for patrol duty, the remaining Cultivators would have to split these duties among themselves, thereby reducing their own cultivation and fortune-seeking time.