"I never imagined, truly never imagined that the Jade Spirit Bees would see the day they return to the Zhou Family!"
Atop Baozhi Peak, dozens of Zhou Family Cultivators including Zhou Chun were all gathered outside a newly established beehive, observing the giant bees flying up and down, familiarizing themselves with their new home, their faces filled with a sense of nostalgia and emotion.
Those giant bees were about the size of sparrows with their bodies covered in emerald-green patterns, even their wings were as if carved from jade, emanating faint ripples of mana.
These were the Jade Spirit Bees, a type of extremely rare and unusual Demon Bee.
Although when gathered in swarms, the Jade Spirit Bees boasted formidable combat strength, their greatest utility for Cultivators was in producing Spirit Honey.
The Spirit Honey fermented by the Jade Spirit Bees was not only incomparably sweet and delicious, but also an excellent nourishing spiritual object.
The applications of this Spirit Honey were extremely varied; it could be drunk simply diluted with water, made into honey tea, or used as an additive in Elixirs.
The spiritual power and nutritional components contained in the Spirit Honey were easily absorbed and refined by Cultivators.
The known uses of Spirit Honey included advancement in Cultivation Level, healing internal injuries, replenishing qi and blood, and even extending lifespan among various other effects.
Cultivators like Zhou Chun and their fellow Zhou Family Cultivators would often suffer from qi deviation and damage to their meridians due to improper cultivation practices when they were children just starting to cultivate.
Most Cultivators would have no choice but to rest and recuperate for ten days to half a month before resuming their Cultivation.
However, Zhou Family Cultivators merely needed to consume a spoonful of Spirit Honey to recover completely within three days and continue their Cultivation.
Due to the exceptional rarity and value of the Jade Spirit Bees, the Ancestor of Zhou Family, Zhou Xia, who originally discovered and brought these bees back, has her name and meritorious deeds etched on the merit wall inside the Zhou Family Ancestral Hall, even though she never advanced beyond the Foundation Establishment Stage in her lifetime.
That same ancestor, Zhou Xia, had in fact initially brought back fewer than a hundred Jade Spirit Bees.
It was the collective effort of the entire Zhou Family nurturing and passing on the legacy from generation to generation that led to the growth and strength of the bee colony, with the number of bees increasing by more than tenfold to date!
Unfortunately, when the Sanjue Sect was divided, all the Jade Spirit Bees were forcibly kept by Yu Jinghua at the Spirit Beast Manor, and not a single bee was allowed to be taken by the Zhou Family.
At that time, many Zhou Family Cultivators even believed they would never see these spiritual bees reappear in the Zhou Family in their lifetime.
Unexpectedly, in just a few short years, the family's higher-ups successfully brought the spiritual bees back to the Zhou Family.
This event also caused those in the Zhou Family who were unaware of the full context to deeply admire and revere Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi and Supreme Elder Zhou Mingde for accomplishing such a feat.
This also somewhat diminished the impact of the subsequent news that Zhou Zhengkang had gone missing outside.
After the matter with Zhou Zhengkang was concluded, Zhou Chun did not get the chance to return to the Marketplace.
Zhou Daoyi arranged a new position for him as Clan Leader's personal secretary, responsible for assisting the Clan Leader in handling family affairs.
Additionally, the task of collecting Poison Thorn Fish mucus, originally assigned to Zhou Jiahui, was also handed over to him.
It was precisely because of this position as Clan Leader's personal secretary that Zhou Chun stepped firmly into the view of all Zhou Family Cultivators, becoming a prominent figure within the family.
Everyone knew that before Zhou Chun, Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi did not have a personal secretary at his side, and all family matters were decided by him alone.
Now, Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi had specifically created a secretary position for Zhou Chun, allowing him to assist with handling family matters.
What this meant was clear even to the simplest of minds.
By this time, all of the various merits Zhou Chun had earned for the Zhou Family over the years were also made public.
When it became known that Zhou Chun, in terms of individual meritorious contributions, had already ranked second among the family's Qi Refinement level Cultivators, all those who had reservations about him being favored and cared for by Clan Leader Zhou Daoyi fell silent.
While the number of meritorious deeds does not wholly represent a person's capabilities, it does indicate the size of one's contributions to the family.
For the family, a Cultivator who has made significant contributions deserves a higher status and better treatment.
What's more, Zhou Chun was only serving as a personal secretary to the Clan Leader, not the Clan Leader himself.
Thus, under these circumstances, the impact of the news that Zhou Zhengkang, the family's Foundation Establishment Seed, had gone missing, was further diminished.
Within just a few months, almost no one mentioned it anymore.
One day, as Zhou Chun was organizing the ledgers in the Central Peace Hall, he suddenly heard a burst of excited laughter emanating from the mountain.
This caused him to stop for a moment, and he immediately stopped writing and stood up to walk out of the hall.
Once outside, Zhou Chun looked up and easily spotted a man in gray clothes suspended in mid-air, laughing exuberantly.
Suspended in mid-air—this was a natural divine skill that Qi Refinement stage Cultivators achieved upon successful Foundation Establishment, a utilization of mana.
Flight by Controlling Qi, True Fire Barrier, Foundation Establishment True Fire...
All these varied applications of mana were divine skills that Cultivators were able to master only after their mana had transformed upon reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage.
However, generally, no Foundation Establishment stage Cultivator would be so ecstatic to lose their composure over mastering such abilities.
There was one exception to this rule!
And it was exactly what Zhou Chun was witnessing now—a Qi Refinement stage Cultivator successfully establishing their foundation and using these abilities for the first time.