Chapter 197

Before leaving the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, Song Qingming specifically asked when the Heavenly Pill Alliance's auction would be held again, wanting to see if he would have a chance to sell some of the thousand-year spiritual milk he had brought out from the secret realm through the Heavenly Pill Alliance auction.

It was a pity that he learned from Deng Zhongkuo that the Heavenly Pill Alliance auction was generally held only once a year, and it happened to have been held just a few months ago. If Song Qingming wanted to participate, he could only wait until next year to see.

Song Qingming did not dare to sell a very precious spiritual item like thousand-year spiritual milk casually in the marketplace. Once someone set their sights on it, he feared even those Golden Core ancestors would be tempted. Now, if he wanted to handle some without attracting attention, he could only pin his hopes on the Heavenly Pill Alliance auction, a place that focused on protecting customer information.

Fortunately, after selling this batch of spiritual medicines, he was not in such a hurry to use spirit stones for the time being. As long as he could sell them safely, waiting for some time would not have any impact on him.

Next, Song Qingming ran to several more medicine shops and finally sold all the remaining spiritual medicines in his hands, exchanging them for nearly two thousand spirit stones at once.

Seeing more and more spirit stones in the storage bag at his waist, Song Qingming then slowly walked toward the marketplace gate with satisfaction, preparing to return to Qinghe County.

Foundation Establishment cultivators flying on swords come and go quickly. It took less than ten days for a round trip from Yangshan Marketplace, and Song Qingming returned to Funiu Mountain.

After handing the Marrow-Cleansing Pill to Song Changfeng, Song Qingming also put some thought into compiling his own Foundation Establishment experience from back then, as well as some Foundation Establishment experience Xu Ziyan had told him, into a book of Foundation Establishment insights and handed it to Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng, hoping it would be of some help to him.

Although he already had the help of two auxiliary Foundation Establishment spiritual pills, Song Qingming knew very well in his heart that as long as there was no Foundation Establishment pill, it was very dangerous for a cultivator to forcibly reach Foundation Establishment.

In the two-hundred-year history of the Song family, besides Song Changfeng, there was another Song family elder a hundred years ago who had taken this step. That Song family elder also had an auxiliary spiritual pill prepared at the time, but unfortunately, he failed in the end. A few months later, after failing Foundation Establishment, he directly passed away in his cave dwelling, not even leaving a last word.

At that time, the Song family's strength was much weaker than it was now. Suddenly losing a peak Qi Condensation powerhouse also caused the entire Song family to be hit hard, attracting the prying eyes of many rogue cultivators in the surrounding area toward this spiritual land of Funiu Mountain.

Fortunately, later on, the entire Song family was united as one. After repelling several probes by rogue cultivators, they passed the difficulty and did not lose this ancestral land of Funiu Mountain. Otherwise, the Funiu Mountain Song family might have already disappeared in the long river of history of Qinghe County.

Since then, for more than a hundred years, no one among the cultivators who cultivated to the ninth layer of Qi Condensation in the Song family dared to forcibly reach Foundation Establishment.

For one thing, the risk of forcibly reaching Foundation Establishment without a Foundation Establishment pill was truly too great. If things went wrong, it would be immediate death and dissipation. This was a choice that left no retreat for oneself. Daring to take this step required the cultivator to have the determination to face death.

Secondly, every cultivator in the Song family who could cultivate to the ninth layer of Qi Condensation and have a chance at Foundation Establishment was very important to the entire family. Once such a pillar was easily lost, the Song family was very likely to suffer a devastating disaster, which also added a layer of concern for these people when making this choice.

The reason why Song Changfeng, who was the patriarch of this generation of the Song family, would make this choice now was partly because after Song Qingming reached Foundation Establishment, it greatly reduced his concerns in this regard.

As long as Song Qingming, this Foundation Establishment ancestor, did not fall, even if the Song family lost a patriarch like him at the ninth layer of Qi Condensation, the impact on the entire family would not be too great.

Ever since Song Qingming reached Foundation Establishment, it had been a great encouragement to all the cultivators of the Song family. Over these few years, not only had Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng taken this step, but several people whose cultivation was already close to the ninth layer of Qi Condensation and were qualified for Foundation Establishment, including Ninth Uncle Song Changxin and Second Sister Song Qingwan, all had some thoughts of forcibly reaching Foundation Establishment in their hearts, more or less.

After all, outsiders might not know, but they knew very well that Song Qingming's aptitude in the Song family back then was also very ordinary. That he, a four-spirit-root aptitude, could finally successfully reach Foundation Establishment greatly lowered the Song family's estimation of the difficulty of Foundation Establishment.

They did not know that when Song Qingming reached Foundation Establishment back then, he not only had an auxiliary spiritual pill like the Marrow-Cleansing Pill but also used two Foundation Establishment pills before finally succeeding.

The clansmen underestimated the difficulty of Foundation Establishment. Song Qingming actually also began to have some worries about this point in his heart, even though the news of Third Brother Song Qingze's failure in Foundation Establishment had already reached Funiu Mountain, everyone's view on this point had not changed much.

However, because of this reason, the Song family cultivators' cultivation had generally been much more diligent than before over these few years, and several more late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators had been added. Song Qingming was still very gratified by this point.

After patriarch Song Changfeng went into seclusion for Foundation Establishment, all the affairs in the clan also fell onto Song Qingming's shoulders, which also made him somewhat busy on Funiu Mountain, and he did not even have time to go to Qinghe Marketplace to stroll around.

Just after being busy for more than a month, Funiu Mountain welcomed an unexpected guest, which made Song Qingming, who had already begun to have a headache, reveal a smile. This person was none other than his old acquaintance from Guiyun Marketplace, Shi Chun.

Learning of Shi Chun's arrival, Song Qingming, who was drawing spiritual talismans in his cave dwelling, was so happy after hearing the news that he threw the unfinished spiritual talisman to the side and hurriedly ran down the mountain himself to welcome him.

Seeing Song Qingming, this senior Foundation Establishment cultivator, come out of the mountain to welcome him personally, Shi Chun, who had come to seek refuge, was also very surprised. After all, he was only an ordinary late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator and did not have any powerful immortal cultivation skills. He had not expected Song Qingming to value him so much.

In the cultivation world, the levels of various cultivators are strict. It is rare to see someone who, after reaching Foundation Establishment, still keeps an ordinary Qi Condensation friend in their heart. Back then in the Fuyun Mountain Range, Song Qingming could put down his status and take the initiative to come and help. To be honest, in Shi Chun's eyes, this was already a very rare thing. This was also the biggest reason why he finally made up his mind to come and seek refuge with Song Qingming over these few months.

Ordinary Qi Condensation immortal cultivation families are too weak and can only trust their own bloodline; they will not take the initiative to recruit rogue cultivators from outside into the family, so as to avoid being taken over by outside cultivators or causing unprovoked disasters due to not knowing people well.

Only Foundation Establishment families, after their strength grows, will take the initiative to absorb some rogue cultivators with skills from outside into the family to hold positions like guest elders to help manage family industries.

After Song Qingming reached Foundation Establishment, the Song family also recruited several rogue cultivators with relatively clean backgrounds like Li Quan in the marketplace to help manage several shops in Qinghe Marketplace.

Before this, the Song family had just become a Foundation Establishment family, and there were not many industries under their name. Their own cultivators could still handle it. Ever since they started managing the Duanliu Mountain refined copper mineral vein together with the Huang family, the Song family had sent many cultivators to help guard it, and Funiu Mountain suddenly became much emptier. Shi Chun's arrival was indeed just in time.

(End of chapter)