Chapter 128: Meeting Du Yucheng Again

After selling most of the spiritual items he had, the remaining gap of 2,000 spirit stones could only be filled by his own efforts in talisman making.

Fortunately, the market here in Yangshan was large enough, and there was no shortage of talisman-making materials or shops that bought spiritual talismans. Relying on the ability of the remnant map, Song Qingming continuously made talismans, earning over 400 spirit stones in half a year.

If everything went smoothly, he should be able to save over 1,000 spirit stones in a year and a half. By then, he would just need to sell the last second-tier magic tool he had, and it should be about enough.

Just as Song Qingming was moving forward step by step according to his plan, Third Brother Song Qingze suddenly came to Yangshan Market to find him, wanting to invite him to help execute a sect mission.

Every disciple of the Xiaoyao Sect relied on sect merit to exchange for various spiritual items in the sect's treasury, including the Foundation Establishment Pill.

During the beast turmoil two years ago, the Xiaoyao Sect killed a total of three beast kings. After spending two years gathering other auxiliary spiritual herbs, they refined over 40 more Foundation Establishment Pills. Besides a portion used to compensate the descendants of those Foundation Establishment cultivators who died in battle, many Foundation Establishment Pills flowed into the sect's treasury.

To accelerate the cultivation of new Foundation Establishment cultivators to replenish the sect's blood, the Elder of the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Hall specifically lowered the exchange price of the Foundation Establishment Pill. For a time, it stirred up a wave within the Xiaoyao Sect, and many Qi Refining ninth-layer disciples began running around to earn merit, just to gather the merit needed for Foundation Establishment as soon as possible.

The Xiaoyao Sect's Hall of General Affairs set up many types of sect missions, but the fastest way to earn a large amount of merit was to hunt various beasts within the sect's territory. Although hunting beasts above the second tier earned merit quickly, Qi Refining cultivators could not complete such missions alone, so everyone had to spontaneously form teams to take action to have a chance. A single second-tier beast was worth two or three thousand merit, and even if split among several people, it was still much more than other missions.

Song Qingze came to find Song Qingming this time because he and several fellow disciples had recently accepted a mission from the Merit Hall to hunt a second-tier low-quality beast near Guyang County.

After accepting the mission, Song Qingze had already found six people willing to take action together, but facing a second-tier beast, several people in the team felt there were too few people, so Song Qingze had no choice but to come to Yangshan Market to ask Song Qingming for help.

Although sect missions forbade inviting outsiders to help, the places where such missions were carried out were thousands of miles away in the wilderness. If you didn't say anything, who would know if there were outsiders helping? It was impossible for any high-level sect members to specifically investigate such matters.

"Qingming, as long as you are willing to take action this time, we will each give you 50 spirit stones after completing the mission, totaling 300 spirit stones. This should be worth your effort!"

Upon seeing Song Qingming, Song Qingze got straight to the point. Song Qingze had shown enough sincerity in coming to Yangshan Market to ask Song Qingming this time.

To be honest, Song Qingming's original intention was not to go out and take risks at this time. However, Third Brother Song Qingze had helped him a lot in obtaining the opportunity to exchange for the Foundation Establishment Pill this time, so it was really hard to refuse. Plus, he happened to be short of spirit stones, and here was an opportunity to earn them quickly. After thinking about it slightly, he agreed to Song Qingze.

After Song Qingming packed up, he and Song Qingze quickly left Yangshan Market together. After leaving the market, they walked south for half a day and met the other cultivators participating in the mission in a roadside pavilion.

These people were all disciples of the Xiaoyao Sect, all at the ninth layer of Qi Refining. A man and a woman stood together, seemingly a Daoist couple. The remaining three were all men, of varying heights, and about the same age as Song Qingze.

One of them felt familiar to Song Qingming. After looking carefully for a few times, he remembered that this person was the Du family cultivator who had participated in the Liu family mission with him over a decade ago, Du Yucheng.

After Song Qingming returned from the Mount Fuyun range, he had heard about Du Yucheng, but the news from the Du family had always been that Du Yucheng had gone missing after that mission. Song Qingming did not expect him to appear here.

Du Yucheng here seemed not to recognize Song Qingming, just glanced at him casually and then turned his gaze away. He was the same as he had been over a decade ago, still so taciturn.

After Song Qingze greeted the others and introduced Song Qingming to them, he introduced the others to Song Qingming.

The Daoist couple, the man was named Liu Qiting and the woman was named Meng Ran; both were cultivators from Guyang County and had joined the Xiaoyao Sect when they were very young.

The other two, a tall man named Gu Feng, was born in Huaishan County in the south of the State of Wei. The shorter Daoist also came from Guyang County and was Song Qingze's close friend in the Xiaoyao Sect, Wei Wuyang. This person was also a top-grade formation master.

The rest was the taciturn Du Yucheng. Song Qingze had also recognized him when forming the team, but they had no interaction when they were in Qinghe County. Song Qingze had only learned that Du Yucheng had suddenly joined the Xiaoyao Sect after going missing not long ago when forming the team.

Although the two of them both came from Qinghe County, they had no interaction after joining the Xiaoyao Sect. It was only after forming this team that the two of them got to know each other again.

Hearing Song Qingze's introduction, Du Yucheng then pretended to react and greeted Song Qingming with a smile. Song Qingming also hurriedly replied to him with a calm expression.

Seeing Du Yucheng, a trace of unease suddenly welled up in Song Qingming's heart.

When fighting the Silver-Armored Crab beast in the Mount Fuyun range back then, Song Qingming knew that Du Yucheng had been swept into the water pool just like him before going missing. Whether Du Yucheng knew about him picking up Liu Tianlong's storage bag in the water pool, he really had no idea.

The group of six Xiaoyao Sect cultivators, plus Song Qingming, exactly seven people, walked south for six days and finally arrived by a large river. Following the river upstream for another few dozen miles, a high mountain appeared before everyone's eyes.

The mission they accepted this time was to deal with a second-tier low-quality Flowing Flower Leopard that had been entrenched here for years.

This Flowing Flower Leopard had already occupied a second-tier spiritual vein south of the Liu River, occupying this piece of land that originally belonged to the human race under its feet.

The Flowing Flower Leopard, a type of beast, liked to be alone and did not like to drive a group of low-tier beasts like ordinary second-tier beasts. This was also the reason why they dared to target this second-tier beast.

This team of theirs consisted of the top cultivators in the Qi Refining realm. Among the seven, the lowest was at the ninth layer of Qi Refining, and several were experts who had broken through the ninth layer of Qi Refining for many years. Liu Qiting even had a second-tier magic tool, plus the second-tier formation borrowed by Wei Wuyang, so they had great confidence in hunting this beast.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 129 =====