Chapter 152: Foundation Establishment Family

Hearing Song Qingming's question, Huang Siyuan shook her head and said:

"I do regret it a bit, but it has nothing to do with you. Even if I didn't come to the Song family, I would eventually be sent to other families. By comparison, being able to marry you, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, is indeed the best choice I have now."

Hearing this, Song Qingming truly looked at her with new eyes. This woman, who looked very gentle on the outside, had indeed long since seen through the cold and warmth of the cultivation world, knowing how to fight for the greatest benefits for herself.

Even when facing Song Qingming, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, although she was a bit nervous, she didn't show any stage fright at all. She stated directly what she wanted, not hiding the purpose that she came for spirit stones at all. Even when facing Song Qingming's doubts, she was still able to respond calmly. Just this courage alone far exceeded the vast majority of cultivators of the 'Qing' generation in the Song family.

After sending Huang Siyuan away, Song Qingming didn't rush to deal with the spiritual beast egg, but called Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng back in.

"Sixth Uncle, after Big Brother and the others arrive, you should go back first. With you at home, we can all feel at ease."

Song Changfeng nodded and said, "Qingming, after we take over those two shops of the Qian family, should we rent them to others first, or keep them for our own use?"

"It's better to keep them for our own use first. I'm just making a suggestion. It's better to discuss this matter with Second Sister later. After all, she has the final say in the market affairs."

In this Qinghe council, according to Lu Yuanfeng's allocation, the Song family not only obtained ten percent of the shares in Qinghe Fang, but the three shops originally belonging to the Qian family in Qinghe Fang also all belonged to the Song family. The five Qi Refining families near the northwest corner of Qinghe County were also placed under the Song family's rule. The Song family could be considered to have officially been promoted to a Foundation Establishment family.

For the next five years, Song Qingming had to stay in Qinghe Fang to assist Lu Yuanfeng in guarding the market. Unless there was an emergency at home, he couldn't easily get away.

Soon, led by Thirteenth Uncle Song Changxiong, a team of Song family cultivators arrived in Qinghe Fang. The reason they appeared here was precisely because Song Qingming and Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng had discussed it and transferred them over to help guard the market.

The entire Qinghe Fang now, apart from the two Foundation Establishment cultivators Lu Yuanfeng and Song Qingming, also had Qi Refining cultivators responsible for daily patrols and guarding the market, totaling forty or fifty people. Half of them were rogue cultivators recruited by Lu Yuanfeng in the market, and the other half were Song family cultivators transferred by Song Qingming and Lu Yuanfeng's disciples.

The four major Foundation Establishment families in Qinghe County rotate every five years, delegating at least one Foundation Establishment cultivator and ten Qi Refining cultivators to help guard the market.

For cultivators who enter the market to guard, apart from daily patrols and guarding, the biggest benefit is that they don't need to spend spirit stones for daily expenses while living in the market. The spiritual energy of this second-tier mid-quality spiritual vein of Qinghe Fang is very sufficient, which is completely enough for their daily cultivation here. He had finally bid farewell to the days of consuming spirit stones for cultivation every day, which also had to be attributed to the Huang family taking the initiative to exchange guarding time, temporarily solving this difficult problem for him. It was just that one rotation only lasted five years. After five years, he would still have to leave Qinghe Fang. By then, Song Qingming would still have to find a way to solve the problem of his daily cultivation.

After Foundation Establishment, the few spirit stones left were basically spent after returning to Mount Funiu and sitting and eating, and the rest were earned by Huang Siyuan. If it weren't for the fact that he had recently made some spiritual talismans to subsidize it, he would probably have already reached out to Sixth Uncle for spirit stones.

Qinghe Fang, relatively speaking, was still quite peaceful. Although the several major Foundation Establishment families would also fight secretly, once someone dared to touch the common interests of Qinghe Fang, everyone would consciously put aside their contradictions and act in unison. Lu Yuanfeng had guarded Qinghe Fang for decades, and his several disciples were very familiar with all kinds of things below. Generally, things would not disturb the two Foundation Establishment cultivators. Song Qingming also rarely had a few years of worry-free cultivation time.

After agreeing to the marriage alliance, although the Huang family agreed to delay the wedding for two years, Huang Siyuan would still occasionally ask the shop assistants below to send some spiritual food to Song Qingming's cave dwelling. Song Qingming was not that polite about this and accepted everything that came. In any case, for him, it was free food, and it was rare to be able to taste such good craftsmanship.

The several shops divided from the Qian family, apart from one in a bad location being rented out, the other two were taken over by Second Sister Song Qingwan. The Song family's business in Qinghe Fang immediately expanded quite a bit. Second Sister, apart from alchemy, originally had some talent for business. Plus, with Fourth Uncle's family helping, the business of the Song family's several shops gradually got on the right track, making the Song family's reputation in Qinghe Fang gradually grow, which could be considered to gradually have the appearance of a Foundation Establishment family.

The ten percent of shares obtained from Qinghe Fang could bring the Song family more than five hundred spirit stones in revenue every year. After deducting the expenses of the guarding cultivators, at least two hundred-plus spirit stones could be saved every year. These spirit stones were fixed income obtained every year, and accumulating little by little was very important for the long-term development of a family.

Although the Song family had established their clan for two hundred years, because the place for mortals to survive in the early stage was limited, the population had actually been expanding very slowly, so there had never been many cultivators in the clan. It was not until the last few decades, after receiving a portion of the mortals originally belonging to the Liu family and re-establishing the living space for mortals expanded in Mugud Town, that the number of mortals below slowly increased. Now the number of cultivators in the clan also slowly increased a lot.

Remembering when Song Qingming went down the mountain back then, there were no more than twenty cultivators in the clan. Now, after more than twenty years, there were already more than thirty. It was just that compared to other Foundation Establishment families in Qinghe County, their foundation was still far behind.

Among the original major Foundation Establishment families in Qinghe County, the Huang family ranked first, with more than two hundred cultivators, and more than twenty Qi Refining families below. Their strength was in the first line among the dozens of Foundation Establishment families in Jiangling County.

The Gao family also had more than one hundred cultivators, and there were more than ten Qi Refining families under their command. It was just that compared to the Huang family, it was still much inferior. The Lu family, ranking last, also had more than sixty cultivators. Although their foundation was shallower, they were still stronger than some newly promoted Foundation Establishment families. Even the Qian family, which had just been promoted to a Foundation Establishment family twenty-plus years ago, was much stronger than the current Song family.

To tell the truth, the Song family, not to mention in Qinghe County, even among the nearly one hundred Foundation Establishment families in the entire State of Wei, was ranked at the bottom. It was also because of this that Song Qingming and Song Changfeng had to continue to choose to rely on the Huang family back then.

However, they still had one advantage. Compared to some families that were already declining and unable to cultivate new Foundation Establishment cultivators, Song Qingming was now less than fifty years old, which was a great time for family development. As long as they were given more time to cultivate new Foundation Establishment cultivators, the Song family would eventually become a Foundation Establishment family with deep foundations like the Gao family and the Huang family. Regarding this future scene, the entire Song family, including Song Qingming, was very expectant.

Need to correct it later.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 153 =====

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