Chapter 173

After Huang Siyuan sent over the Soul-Bewitching Banner, Song Qingming had thought he would be setting off for the Fuyun Mountain Range immediately. Unexpectedly, the Huang family was not in a hurry, delaying the departure time by another half a year. After Song Qingming handed over the garrison duties to Gao Jinhe, he simply took the Song family cultivators who had been stationed at the market for the past few years and returned to Mount Funiu.

Before leaving, Huang Siyuan had wanted to return to Mount Funiu with Song Qingming, but she was ultimately persuaded by Song Qingming to stay at Qinghe Market for the time being. After all, the Xianfeng Pavilion was considered a Song family asset; her sudden departure would certainly have a significant impact on the shop's business. He would let her leave once a suitable replacement was found.

That gluttonous Skyfire Peng was also left by Song Qingming with Huang Siyuan. Over the past six months, she had taken care of this spirit beast quite diligently, which was indeed much better than Song Qingming, who was often out or in seclusion. Even when she was busy, there was still that girl Li Hongyu who could help look after it. All in all, paying her three spirit stones a day to look after the spirit beast was a bit expensive, but it certainly saved Song Qingming a lot of trouble.

Through Huang Siyuan's careful cultivation over the past six months, the Skyfire Peng had also grown very quickly and could already carry a cultivator to fly around. To better train it, Huang Siyuan often took it to catch wild beasts around the market.

On the Mount Funiu side, after nearly half a year of preparation, Bai Yunhua had already laid out the second-tier Spirit Gathering Formation used for upgrading the spirit vein. Once the remaining spirit stones were refined by the formation, the spirit vein upgrade would be completely finished in another two months.

In the past few months, everyone had clearly felt that the spiritual energy on the mountain was becoming more and more abundant. Every Song family cultivator was very much looking forward to this upgrade of the Mount Funiu spirit vein; with a second-tier spirit vein for cultivation, it would be more convenient for everyone to practice.

For over two hundred years, Mount Funiu, this Song family ancestral land that had always been obscure, finally began to change. Not only the concentration of spiritual energy, but even the height of the entire spirit mountain had suddenly increased by several hundred zhang, making it much more majestic and magnificent than before.

Two months later, after the spiritual energy concentration reached the standard of a second-tier low-quality spirit vein, it gradually stabilized, and the Song family's spirit vein upgrade was completely finished.

It had to be said that Bai Yunhua's formation level was truly impressive. The time required for this spirit vein upgrade was nearly two months ahead of what Song Qingming had estimated. Even Song Qingsi, who had followed him as an assistant for half a year, had improved her formation level quite a bit.

It was just a pity that there was no suitable second-tier mountain-protecting formation on hand. Otherwise, he could have taken this opportunity to have Bai Yunhua help replace the original Mount Funiu formation. With a second-tier mountain-protecting formation, the defensive capabilities of Mount Funiu would be greatly improved. Even if Song Qingming were not there, it would be very difficult for ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators to attack this spirit mountain in a short time.

After accepting the two hundred spirit stones reward given by Song Changfeng, Bai Yunhua found Song Qingming to bid farewell and soon left Mount Funiu to return to the Xiaoyao Sect.

For a cultivator like him with very mature cultivation skills, the Xiaoyao Sect would normally strongly support their Foundation Establishment. After all, for the Xiaoyao Sect, as long as there was a Foundation Establishment Pill, they could easily cultivate Foundation Establishment cultivators, but cultivators who could raise a cultivation skill to the second tier were not something they could have just because they wanted them.

Song Qingming's talisman-making and formation levels had long since reached the first-tier top-quality, but he had tried to break through the second-tier bottleneck several times, and all of them had failed without exception, also costing him quite a few materials. This made him give up this idea for the time being.

Once a cultivation skill reaches the second tier, as long as you make a name for yourself, you often don't need to specifically collect these production materials. Others who have materials will take the initiative to come to you and ask for your help, just like Song Qingming went to Bai Yunhua to set up a formation and found Huang Shengyue to refine magic tools. This also shows how popular second-tier cultivation skills are.

In the entire Qinghe County, among thousands of cultivators, only five people have mastered second-tier cultivation skills, which is even fewer than the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Less than two months after the spirit vein was upgraded, the Song family's last remaining Gu-generation cultivator, the former Third Elder Song Gulan, also passed away on Mount Funiu. This Song family elder lived to be one hundred and twenty years old and was one of the few Song family cultivators who could pass away normally and die of old age.

She not only saw that the Song family had someone reach Foundation Establishment and become a Foundation Establishment family, but before she left, she also witnessed the Song family upgrading the Mount Funiu spirit vein. For her, who had cultivated on the mountain for a lifetime, it could really be said to be very fulfilling.

After the spirit vein upgrade, Song Qingming opened a new cave dwelling at the top of Mount Funiu, where the spiritual energy was most abundant. He was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and the spiritual energy he needed to absorb was far more than that of Qi Refining cultivators, so naturally, he could no longer cultivate together with other Qi Refining cultivators.

In the cave dwelling, Song Qingming felt the concentration level of the upgraded spirit vein; it should be able to supply two or three Foundation Establishment cultivators to practice on this mountain. At least for a few decades, the Song family would not have to worry about the spirit vein problem.

Cultivating on such a higher-level spirit vein did not only benefit Song Qingming, this one Foundation Establishment cultivator; every Song family cultivator could obtain more abundant spiritual energy than before, which was somewhat helpful for every cultivator to break through their realm.

However, in order to raise spirit stones to upgrade the spirit vein, the Song family had almost emptied all the spirit stones in the treasury. For the next few years, the entire family's finances had almost become a deficit. The Ninth Uncle Song Changxin, who was responsible for managing the family's Golden Treasury, could only throw this problem to the two people in charge of the family.

After Song Qingming and the Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng discussed it, they decided to stop paying the salaries of all cultivators for two years, all of which would be converted into merit records in the Golden Treasury. They would slowly make up for it after the family's finances recovered. Only the children in the family school who had not yet broken through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining were not included in this policy. These people were the future of the family, and unless it was a last resort, the family still could not affect their current cultivation.

During the five years that Song Qingming was stationed at Qinghe Market, another three-spirit-root cultivator was discovered among the family's Xin-generation. This person was named Song Xinyu, ranked eighth among the Xin-generation, and was a gold, wood, and fire three-spirit-root cultivator, who happened to be able to practice the family's inherited cultivation method, the "Red Flame Art."

As long as there were no accidents with this child, his cultivation talent should exceed that of Qingyu. Although he could not catch up with the Third Brother Song Qingze of that year, the difference would not be too far.

After tidying up the new cave dwelling, Song Qingming soon entered closed-door cultivation again. It had been almost six years since he broke through to the Foundation Establishment realm. The magic power in Song Qingming's body had reached a critical point. A few months later, he, who had been in closed-door cultivation, finally successfully broke through his realm to the second layer of Foundation Establishment.

In the Foundation Establishment realm, for ordinary cultivators to break through one layer of cultivation, it takes at least five years or more. Song Qingming spent six years breaking through one layer of realm, which was already considered relatively fast. This was also beneficial because he had never lacked the elixirs and spirit veins needed for cultivation.

After breaking through his cultivation, not long after Song Qingming walked out of the cave dwelling, the Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng hurriedly came to his door.

(End of this chapter)