Chapter 11

In the blink of an eye, five or six days passed. The Song family searched for that group of robbers nearby several times, but gained nothing. They could only report this matter to the Huang family, a large Foundation Establishment family nearby. Unexpectedly, the Huang family did not care about this matter, only verbally comforting the people of the Song family.

Unexpectedly, half a month later, a major event happened in Qinghe County. A Qi Refining cultivator of the Huang family was attacked and killed by robbers from Eagle Nest Ridge outside Qinghe Market.

This time, it poked a hornet's nest. The Huang family is an old Foundation Establishment family in Qinghe County, and there are still three Foundation Establishment cultivators in the clan. For the past hundred years, it has always been the largest cultivation family in Qinghe County.

In the following days, several major Foundation Establishment families in Qinghe County, led by the Huang family, gathered dozens of law enforcement cultivators with great momentum and began a large-scale investigation of strange foreign cultivators within the scope of Qinghe County. Seeing that the matter was exposed, these robbers from Eagle Nest Ridge all chose to flee in a panic.

Foreign forces killing people and seizing treasures outside Qinghe Market is a matter that will seriously affect the reputation of Qinghe Market. Qinghe Market is the foundation of many cultivation forces in Qinghe County, and all large and small cultivation families in Qinghe County have some industries in Qinghe Market.

The major cultivation families showed unusual unity in the face of common interests. This operation not only captured and killed more than a dozen famous robbers, but also unexpectedly discovered that a shop in Qinghe Market had been colluding with the robbers from Eagle Nest Ridge for many years.

This shop was originally operated by several old loose cultivators in Qinghe County. Driven by interests, they had been selling customer information to the robbers from Eagle Nest Ridge for a year.

This made the several major Foundation Establishment families angry, and they once again united with the Xiaoyao Sect cultivators stationed there to check all the major shops in the market, making Qinghe Market jump around for half a month before slowly returning to its former prosperity.

On Mount Lingyuan, Song Qingming, who had fully recovered, did not know everything that happened outside. Healing at home for more than ten days, without having to go out to patrol the ore veins daily, also gave him rare leisure time.

At this moment, he was in the small room where he usually practiced, staring thoughtfully at a gray, simple animal skin in his hand, and not far away was a beautiful cyan jade box.

This animal skin was only four or five inches in size. The front was painted with some patterns of mountains and rivers, but there were many defects, and no clue could be seen at all. The back was painted with several patterns of immortal clouds, and several nameless magic formulas were engraved, which were also incomplete things.

Speaking of the origin of this remnant map, it had to go back to the cave where Song Qingming almost died a few days ago.

On that day, in order to fool Zhu Wu, Song Qingming hid in the waste soil in the cave, and his body happened to be pressed on this jade box. After Zhu Wu left, Song Qingming, who crawled out of the soil pile, also dug out this little thing that had been annoying him for half a day. Seeing that the jade box outside was very exquisite, he put it into the storage bag and brought it back.

It was not until more than ten days later that Song Qingming, who was too bored, remembered that he originally thought that there might be some treasure in this jade box, but he didn't expect it to be a broken picture that he couldn't understand at all, which really disappointed him.

"This jade box is quite good-looking. I can take it to Second Sister to exchange for a few grains of Qi Refining Powder, or it's also good to keep it to hold things."

"As for this broken picture..."

Song Qingming raised his hand and threw the picture into the air, and his left hand released a fireball technique.

After a burst of flames and firelight, what he didn't expect was that this animal skin remnant map was actually as good as new, and not a trace of change happened.

Is this picture not an ordinary thing, or is it a spiritual object? Even if it is a spiritual object, it shouldn't be unchanged in this flame. Could this be a high-tier magic tool?

"Forget it, I'll ask Ninth Uncle tomorrow."

Song Qingming, with a look of surprise, carefully put away the remnant map and put it back into the jade box.

Early the next morning, after patrolling the mine, Song Qingming came to Song Zhangxin's small building.

Song Zhangxin looked at this gray remnant map and thought for a long time before opening his mouth to say:

"Look, this should be a fragment of an incomplete magic treasure. When I was training on Mount Ziyun, I had also seen similar things in the market nearby. A magic treasure is a powerful magic tool that can only be refined by Core Formation cultivators. Even a fragment is much tougher than an ordinary magic tool."

"This kind of incomplete thing can also be exchanged for a few spirit stones, and can be used as a high-tier material to be refined into a new magic tool. These patterns, I think, must have been deliberately drawn by someone to disguise it as a place where senior cultivators hide treasures. There are often people in the market holding this thing to fool you naive people who have just entered the world."

Song Qingming, who left Song Zhangxin's residence, felt calm in his heart. This thing was originally picked up by him accidentally. Although it is not a high-tier magic tool, being able to be worth a few spirit stones is already very good.

He didn't intend to sell it in the market. After experiencing a life-and-death situation, Song Qingming needed to arm himself more urgently.

"Although this remnant map has no other use, it is very tough. Find a magic garment and sew it on the vital part. Maybe it can save my life at a critical moment. In this day and age, cultivation is still the most important means of saving one's life."

Song Qingming returned to his residence, dug out the old and broken magic garment he had worn before, sewed this remnant map on his chest, and wore it as an inner shirt inside his magic garment.

At night, it was another day of boring cultivation. Song Qingming sat cross-legged as usual and began to practice the "Kun Yuan Art."

Song Qingming had broken through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining for only half a year. With his four-spiritual-root aptitude, it was still far from normal cultivation to the fifth layer of Qi Refining. Wanting to take pills to save cultivation time, he now had only a dozen spirit stones in total, and still owed Thirteenth Uncle and the others more than twenty spirit stones, which was even more impossible.

Just when he was halfway through his cultivation, a feeling of overflowing spiritual energy came from his body, making him feel extremely puzzled for a moment.

"Usually, it takes three or four hours of meditation to fully restore spiritual energy. Today, it has only been an hour, why is the spiritual energy in my dantian already about to overflow?"

Song Qingming, who felt something different, hurriedly entered meditation and used his spiritual sense to check the abnormality in his body.

"I haven't broken through my cultivation, why has the speed of absorbing spiritual energy accelerated so much? What is going on?"

"Could it be..."

Song Qingming took off the magic garment outside, operated the "Kun Yuan Art," and began to absorb the surrounding spiritual energy. At this moment, the remnant map on his chest suddenly emitted a faint white light, and the flow of spiritual energy in his body was several times faster than usual.

After a repeated toss, Song Qingming finally confirmed the reason for the abnormality in his cultivation, which was precisely on the remnant map he sewed on his chest today.

"This remnant map can actually affect the speed at which I absorb spiritual energy. This is also too amazing."

It seems that this thing is not a magic treasure fragment as Ninth Uncle said, and I don't know what it is.

A month later, Song Qingming, who was huddled in the room, was looking with satisfaction at the two complete sets of low-grade formations in his hand.

The speed of restoring spiritual energy inexplicably accelerated, making his injuries that should have been healed in a month basically healed in less than half a month, which also greatly exceeded Song Qingming's expectations.

Especially the trauma to his spiritual sense caused by excessive consumption of spiritual energy, which used to cause intermittent pain in his brain, Song Zhangxin said it would take half a year to slowly recover.

However, he had already felt that the spiritual sense in his body had recovered more than half in the past few days, and he tried to use spells that consumed more spiritual power several times without any stinging pain as before.

At this time, Song Qingming slowly felt some horror. This remnant map is probably a treasure that is not simple. Except for a few pills that help restore spiritual energy, Song Qingming had never heard of any spiritual object that could accelerate the speed of restoring spiritual energy.

If other cultivators discovered its use, the Song family would definitely not be able to protect him. I am afraid that those high-and-mighty Foundation Establishment cultivators would be jealous of this thing.

Although Song Qingming stayed in the room all day, he did not dare to use the remnant map to cultivate too much. Fortunately, when this remnant map is used, it will not cause much movement, and it will only emit a faint white light that ordinary magic tools can emit. Sewn on the inner shirt, when practicing, wearing a magic garment outside will not show any abnormality, and it will not easily attract the attention of ordinary people.

Several times the speed of restoring spiritual energy allowed Song Qingming to make a set of formations in three months in the past, but now he can complete a set in one month. If there are sufficient materials, according to this speed, he will be able to pay off the spirit stones of Thirteenth Uncle and the others this year.

After more than a month of pondering, Song Qingming gradually saw a business opportunity. Although the remnant map on his body did not improve his usual cultivation speed much, it could help him greatly save the time of meditation and cultivation, and he had several times the time to concentrate on making formations.

Normal cultivators have to spend four or five hours a day meditating to restore spiritual energy. He can now complete it in about an hour. The spiritual power consumed by making formations is several times easier to restore than usual.

The key is that he has no materials on hand now. The seven or eight spirit stones left on his body are barely enough for his usual cultivation. Excluding the mid-grade flying sword purchased last time in the storage bag, only these two sets of formations are worth some money. He must find a way to go to the market again, and use these two sets of formations to exchange for spirit stones to purchase new talisman-making materials.

Song Qingming understands that the biggest disadvantage of a formation master is that making formations consumes too much time. Making a set of low-tier formations, if you don't want to delay cultivation time, generally takes about three months to complete.

Excluding material costs, a set of low-tier formations can only earn four or five spirit stones. Fortunately, making formations generally does not waste materials. Compared to talisman making, alchemy, and weapon refining, which have higher risks, the income is relatively stable.

It's just that after the last attack incident, the elders in the clan gave instructions that Song Qingming cannot go far alone within a year, which also made his money-making plan encounter a big difficulty. The materials used for this set of formations in Song Qingming's hand were purchased by Song Zhangxin when he went to the market, entrusting him to help.

Last time he was injured, the elders in the clan were also worried that the spiritual sense injury on his body had not fully recovered, and going out alone might have accidents. For a small cultivation family like the Song family, every cultivator is very important to the family. They cannot let low-tier cultivators take too many risks. Only by ensuring that young cultivators in the clan grow up as much as possible can they make more contributions to the family.

It's just that they didn't know that Song Qingming's spiritual sense had already recovered almost completely. Song Qingming also dared not reveal the special ability of the remnant map, and also dared not explain his injuries to them, so he could only wait patiently for other opportunities to go to the market.

(End of chapter)