Chapter 174

Huang family, Mount Taiyuan.

This spirit vein, the best in the entire Qinghe County, after over a thousand years of management by the Huang family, now has a dense population within a radius of several dozen miles, presenting a scene of peace and prosperity, as if it were a paradise on earth.

On this day, a cyan sword light suddenly came from the east side. The mortals at the foot of the mountain, seeing this scene, thought it was an immortal from their own mountain and knelt down one after another to worship devoutly.

"It is truly worthy of being the ancestral land managed by the Huang family for a thousand years. The number of mortals here is already enough to rival Qinghe Market." Looking at the endless villages and towns below, Song Qingming, stepping on his flying sword, could not help but sigh.

In the dozen or so small towns at the foot of Mount Taiyuan, nearly three hundred thousand mortals live. These people are almost all of the Huang family's bloodline, and every year they can send two or three children with spirit roots to the Huang family. Compared to a Foundation Establishment family like the Song family that has just risen, the thousand-year foundation of Mount Taiyuan is something they can hardly compare to in a short time.

Just after coming out of closed-door cultivation, the Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng handed him the letter sent by the Huang family. Only then did Song Qingming know that the Huang family had already made an appointment for him to meet at Mount Taiyuan five days ago. After briefly explaining a few words to Song Changfeng, he hurriedly rushed here.

Under the guidance of the Huang family cultivators at the foot of the mountain, Song Qingming soon arrived at the top of Mount Taiyuan. Several Huang family cultivators who had been waiting for a long time greeted him hurriedly after seeing Song Qingming.

Song Qingming stepped forward and cupped his hands: "I have been in closed-door cultivation for the past few days and did not see the letter sent in time, making several fellow Daoists wait for a long time. I am truly ashamed, I hope you can forgive me!"

"No matter, no matter! I didn't expect that after not seeing you for half a year, Fellow Daoist Song's cultivation has improved again. This is truly something to be happy and congratulated about."

Huang Shengyue, with a smile on her face, stepped forward to greet Song Qingming, then pointed to an old man beside her and introduced: "Fellow Daoist Song, this is my Nineteenth Uncle. He joined the Xiaoyao Sect in his early years and has also returned specifically to help this time."

Upon hearing this, Song Qingming hurriedly stepped forward to greet the old man, only to unexpectedly discover that this old man, who looked extremely ordinary, was actually a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator with profound cultivation, just like Huang Shengxin. He could not help but have some new understanding of the Huang family's strength.

The old man's name was Huang Chengding. He was of the same generation as Huang Chengliang in the Huang family genealogy, and he had been in the Foundation Establishment stage for over a hundred years.

Huang Chengding joined the Xiaoyao Sect when he was a teenager and rarely returned to Qinghe County, so much so that Song Qingming, a native cultivator of Qinghe County, had never heard that the Huang family had such a powerful Foundation Establishment expert in the Xiaoyao Sect.

Since everyone had arrived, Huang Shengxin, the Huang family patriarch, coughed lightly, then soon took out a silver flying boat from his body and carried everyone to set off directly to the north.

A flying boat is a type of flying magic tool that can carry multiple cultivators and requires cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage to operate. Like the second-tier flying boat used by Huang Shengxin, it can generally only carry about ten people. If it were a third-tier flying boat driven by a Golden Core cultivator, it would be very normal to put hundreds of people inside.

Standing on Huang Shengxin's flying boat, feeling the speed that was three parts faster than his own sword flight, Song Qingming could not help but feel a trace of envy in his heart. When he had the opportunity in the future, he must also get such a magic tool. With this, he could greatly speed up his escape speed when encountering danger.

However, such a spirit object as a flying boat is much more expensive than ordinary second-tier magic tools. Any second-tier flying boat requires two thousand spirit stones to purchase, which is almost the price of a second-tier top-quality magic tool. Ordinary people cannot afford such things.

For this long journey, the Huang family did not bring any Qi Refining cultivators. On the flying boat, except for the Huang family Qi Refining cultivator who discovered the spirit herb and was responsible for leading the way, the rest were all Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The Huang family was very well prepared for this third-tier spirit herb. The three Huang family Foundation Establishment cultivators—Huang Shengxin at the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment, Huang Chengliang at the fifth layer, and Huang Shengyue at the fourth layer—were already quite strong. Added to them were Huang Chengding at the seventh layer of Foundation Establishment and Song Qingming, who had just broken through to the second layer of Foundation Establishment. Dealing with two late-stage Foundation Establishment demonic beasts was already more than enough.

If there were no accidents on this trip, achieving the goal should be a sure thing. The only thing that made Song Qingming a little worried was that from the moment he met Huang Shengxin, the Huang family patriarch, Song Qingming felt that he seemed to have just recovered from an injury not long ago. He did not know if it was the injury he sustained when fighting for the spirit herb with the two demonic beasts a year ago.

The group flew north for two days. After passing through Pingyang County, they soon entered the Fuyun Mountain Range. On this journey, everyone took turns driving the flying boat without stopping to rest. After five days of long-distance trekking, they finally arrived at their destination, beside a high mountain covered with all kinds of weeds.

Previously, Huang Shengxin and Huang Shengyue had been here once and knew the location of the demonic beasts on the mountain. In order not to alert them first, the group, under Huang Shengxin's command, put away the flying boat when they were still more than ten miles away from the mountain and walked quietly toward the spirit mountain.

On the way, the group on the flying boat had repeatedly discussed this battle. In the end, they planned to split into two paths. One path would act as bait to approach quietly from the front to lure the two late-stage Foundation Establishment wolf demons on the mountain out. Then, the other path of cultivators would take advantage of the second-tier wolf demons being lured out to enter the mountain quietly from the side, take the opportunity to take the spirit herb, and then go to meet the others.

After the plan was set, the few people divided the work. Huang Shengxin and Huang Chengding, the two late-stage Foundation Establishment experts, were responsible for luring the enemy, while the remaining Huang Chengliang, Huang Shengyue, and Song Qingming would take the opportunity to pick the spirit herb.

After Huang Shengxin and his companion set off, Song Qingming and the others used their breath-concealing techniques one after another, carefully controlling the spiritual energy on their bodies, and lurked on the side, waiting slowly.

Unexpectedly, after a while, Huang Shengxin and his companion flew back empty-handed, and no trace of the demonic beasts could be seen behind them.

"Strange! I don't know what happened on the mountain. I didn't see a single demonic beast. The place where we encountered the demonic beasts last time is the same."

"Could it be that someone has already arrived first?" Hearing Huang Shengxin's words, everyone showed a trace of surprise.

Huang Shengxin shook his head and said: "This is hard to say. I didn't see too many traces of fighting. I don't know if this pack of wolf demons has already migrated. In any case, let's let Sirui take us to the mountain to see quickly. I don't know if that third-tier spirit herb is still there."

Hearing this, the Qi Refining cultivator who was hiding behind the crowd and was the first to discover this third-tier spirit herb hurriedly stepped forward and nodded.

The group of six, under the leadership of the Qi Refining cultivator, soon arrived at a pool on the high mountain. Sure enough, here, everyone saw a spirit herb about half a foot high emitting a trace of spiritual light. This was the third-tier Tianmang Flower they had been thinking about day and night.

"It's really lucky. Those wolf demons didn't destroy this spirit herb at all."

After Huang Shengxin stepped forward and carefully picked the spirit herb, a voice that was very strange to them suddenly sounded from the bodies of the few people.

"A few little guys, you've been turning around outside for a long time, just for this spirit herb?"

(End of this chapter)