Chapter 301: Chapter 288: Foundation Establishment Pill Completed
Since the Zhou Family determined to recruit talented individuals from outside to serve as Honored Guest Elders, they have classified the position into three levels: First-class, Second-class, and Third-class, with different rights and benefits for each level.
First-class Guest Elders can only be held by Foundation Establishment Cultivators. They can possess a Third-grade cave dwelling on Red Tiger Mountain or establish a residence on other Tier Three Spirit Mountains within the Zhou Family. They also receive an annual stipend of two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones from the Zhou Family.
Nephew cultivators of the Zhou Family, apart from the seven Deacon Elders and Foundation Establishment Elders, must pay respect and greetings to First-class Guest Elders. Moreover, First-class Guest Elders can instruct Zhou Family Qi Cultivation Cultivators to help with errands and menial tasks.
The requirement for these First-class Guest Elders is that every five years, they must complete one task for the Zhou Family free of charge. If there is no task within a five-year period, the number of tasks will accumulate.
If a second task is received after completing their required task within five years, they will receive significant rewards upon completion. The rewards could be Tier Three Spirit Pills, Spirit Talismans, Magical Artifacts, or a substantial amount of Spirit Stones.
Additionally, if the Zhou Family faces external attacks, Guest Elders must unconditionally fight to defend the family.
First-class Guest Elders enjoy excellent benefits and high recruitment standards from the Zhou Family. Currently, no one has been deemed worthy of being recruited.
Compared to First-class Guest Elders, Second-class Guest Elders receive significantly lesser benefits, not only receiving only eighty Low-grade Spirit Stones annually, but also residing in an independent courtyard on Red Tiger Mountain. Their status within the Zhou Family is equivalent to regular late-stage Qi Cultivation Cultivators.
Most importantly, Second-class Guest Elders are required to complete one task arranged by the Zhou Family annually, with task count also accumulating.
As for the least favored Third-class Guest Elders, they don’t even qualify to live on Red Tiger Mountain but must reside on those Tier Three or Tier Two Spirit Mountains. They receive only fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones annually, and are required to complete two tasks each year.
However, these treatments aren’t unchangeable. If a Second-class Guest Elder successfully establishes their foundation after joining the Zhou Family, they can be automatically promoted to First-class Guest Elder without examination.
Moreover, after serving the Zhou Family for every ten years, Third-class Guest Elders can apply to the clan for a promotion assessment. If they pass, they can be promoted to Second-class Guest Elder.
The Zhou Family employs a hierarchical management system for these Honored Guest Elders, where First-class Guest Elders are directly managed by the Clan Leader. In principle, only after securing approval from Zhongyang, the retiring Clan Leader becoming the Zhou Family Supreme Elder, can someone be granted First-class Guest Elder status.
As for the recruitment of Second-class and Third-class Guest Elders, it only requires the Clan Leader’s approval, and their daily management is led by the Foreign Affairs Elder.
Understanding this, it’s not surprising why Luo Qiang has been so enthusiastic about recruiting outside talent into the Zhou Family after succeeding as the Foreign Affairs Elder.
Liu Xuanxuan’s talent in artifact creation is undeniable, but she is after all just a twenty-one-year-old young girl at the third-layer Qi cultivation level, and even if she could obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill from Zhouyang to establish her foundation in the future, the Zhou Family is still unlikely to grant her First-class Guest Elder status before her foundation establishment.
This is actually a means of protection for her.
If the Zhou Family grants her First-class Guest Elder status, not only would the clan members question this decision, but outsiders hearing the news might also harbor ill intentions.
There are certainly many who don’t want the Zhou Family to produce another genius like Zhouyang, given its already immense and difficult-to-manage state.
For these reasons, Zhouyang did not exhibit any particular attention toward Liu Xuanxuan or personally intervene in organizing this matter after the assessment ended.
By not letting others know the extent of his favor towards Liu Xuanxuan, she would be able to live more steadily and safely in the Zhou Family in the future.
It’s akin to how Master Cyan Yang simply granted him a ’Profound Sun Order’ without further actions despite valuing him greatly in the past.
Zhou Guangxiang may not understand Zhouyang’s thoughts, but he possesses the virtue of never questioning Zhouyang’s intentions, faithfully carrying out Zhouyang’s orders.
Therefore, Zhouyang was quite satisfied and smiled after hearing Zhou Guangxiang’s report on the arrangements.
Following Zhou Guangxiang’s arrangements, not only did Liu Xuanxuan move into the residence prepared for Second-class Guest Elders, but her grandfather Liu Changhe was also allowed to stay in her courtyard as a family member to cultivate.
Subsequently, Zhou Guangxiang arranged for her to work in the Zhou Family’s Hundred Arts Hall, enabling her to openly learn a portion of the Zhou Family’s artifact refining skills and earn rewards by completing artifact refining tasks within the Hundred Arts Hall.
The tasks that Second-class Guest Elders need to complete annually aren’t specifically quantified by the Zhou Family; they can be combat and demon-slaying tasks or artifact refining and alchemy tasks.
As long as Liu Xuanxuan joined the Hundred Arts Hall with Zhou Guangxiang’s covert care, she could pass through each year by only completing artifact refining tasks, shielding her from missions that might pose dangers due to her current low cultivation.
Shortly after Liu Xuanxuan joined the Zhou Family, Zhouyang finally received positive news concerning something he had long awaited.
Thanks to the Zhou Family’s generous investment in nurturing, Xiao Ying successfully refined a batch of Tier Three Top Grade Spirit Pills, becoming the first Tier Three High-grade Alchemist in the Zhou Family’s history.
Xiao Ying, at that time, had only been at the Seventh-layer Foundation Establishment for a few years and was just ninety-seven years old.
To achieve the status of a Tier Three High-grade Alchemist at such a young age with this level of cultivation is a testament to her extraordinary talent in the art of alchemy, beyond any doubt.
Knowing Zhouyang’s eagerness to journey out and also being filled with anticipation for returning to the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm herself, Xiao Ying began crafting Foundation Establishment Pills just two months after she officially advanced to a Tier Three High-grade Alchemist.
Crafting a Foundation Establishment Pill is indeed a significant task!
During Xiao Ying’s crafting of the Foundation Establishment Pill, Zhouyang stopped everything and devoted himself to protecting her at the entrance of the alchemy room in the cave residence, serving as a guardian for his Dao companion.
After several days of extended crafting, Xiao Ying, to everyone’s delight, successfully crafted her first batch of Foundation Establishment Pills in life.
Although she succeeded in the end, being her first time crafting Foundation Establishment Pills resulted in producing only three pills.
Even considering that one Foundation Establishment Pill is worth twenty thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones, crafting this batch of pills caused the Zhou Family to lose tens of thousands of Low-grade Spirit Stones on material costs.
This is precisely why, under normal circumstances, Foundation Establishment Pills, a Tier Three Lower Grade Spirit Pill, are usually crafted by Tier Four or even Tier Five Alchemists.
However, Zhouyang understood that for the Zhou Family, this calculation isn’t exactly accurate.
Firstly, the primary materials for crafting Foundation Establishment Pills, the Tier Four Demon Pill and "Earth Element Spirit Milk", can be sourced by the Zhou Family themselves. Thus, buying the remaining auxiliary materials could be entirely covered with one or two thousand Spirit Stones.
Secondly, Foundation Establishment Pills are rare and priceless in the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm. Even in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, purchasing at market price comes with many restrictions, so their value isn’t simply calculated with twenty thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.
For instance, if Zhouyang were to sell Foundation Establishment Pills to all loose cultivators and clans in the Boundless Desert Sea, even pricing them at fifty thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones each would still attract many buyers.
Thirdly, as Xiao Ying has just advanced to a Tier Three High-grade Alchemist and it’s her first time crafting Foundation Establishment Pills, yielding three pills is quite normal. With more practice, she would increase the yield to four or even five pills per batch.
By that time, crafting Foundation Establishment Pills would surely be profitable.
"Ying’Er, you’ve worked hard. Please rest well, and let me handle the rest."
Outside the alchemy room, after receiving the freshly crafted three Foundation Establishment Pills from his Dao companion, Xiao Ying, Zhouyang affectionately embraced her waist and carried her gently to her bedroom to rest, then left the cave residence with the pills.
Upon leaving his "Qianyang Cave" of cultivation, Zhouyang immediately commanded the Zhou Family elders and deacon elders to hold a closed-door meeting at Red Tiger Mountain.
A few days passed, and once even Zhou Xuanhao, stationed at Red Fox Ridge, arrived, Zhouyang revealed the Foundation Establishment Pills crafted by Xiao Ying and announced the purpose of the meeting.
"As you can see, these three Jade Bottles each contain one Foundation Establishment Pill, personally crafted by Elder Xiao Ying a few days ago!"
In the meeting hall, once all attendees were present, Zhouyang lined up the three Jade Bottles containing the Foundation Establishment Pills on the stone table in front of everyone, announcing the names of the pills inside.
Boom!
Like the sound of Celestial Thunder, upon hearing Zhouyang’s words, all the elders and deacon elders of the Zhou Family were momentarily stunned.
The next moment, the empty meeting hall was filled with the sound of rapid breathing.
Zhouyang didn’t need to look to know that these sounds must have come from the seven deacon elders still in the Qi Cultivation Stage.
As Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators and deacon elders who currently hold actual power in the Zhou Family, these individuals and their descendants clearly had a better chance of acquiring Foundation Establishment Pills compared to others.
Faced with the sudden appearance of three more Foundation Establishment Pills within the Zhou Family, especially crafted by one of their own elders, it’s no surprise that their composure was affected.
However, knowing is one thing, but he still needed to issue a warning.
With a simple wave, Zhouyang put away the three Jade Bottles containing the Foundation Establishment Pills, and with a severe gaze directed at the seven deacon elders, he coolly reminded, "You all must not behave like this. Family rules cannot be easily changed, so no matter how many Foundation Establishment Pills the clan has, you are still required to redeem them with contribution points, and do not expect the clan to make exceptions for anyone not meeting the criteria!"
Stirred by his piercing and icy look and the words laced with heavy warning, the seven Zhou Family deacon elders immediately came to their senses. They exchanged glances, tacitly understanding each other, and respectfully replied in unison, "As instructed by the Clan Leader, we will etch it firmly in our minds."
"I’m pleased you understand. Now, for the reason I gathered you here today—I intend to officially step down from the position of Zhou Family Patriarch, with Guangxiang to succeed me. Do you have any objections?"