Chapter 238: Azure Water Bell

This bottle of Earth Spirit Dew is almost equivalent to nearly ten years of bitter cultivation for a Foundation Establishment cultivator. As Fire Phoenix said, with Song Qingming's current cultivation base, refining this bottle of Earth Spirit Dew now is almost enough for him to break through to the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment immediately.

However, Song Qingming did not intend to refine this spiritual item immediately. He had only broken through to the third layer of Foundation Establishment a year ago. Improving his cultivation again now might attract the attention of others or the Xiaoyao Sect. After thinking it over, to avoid unnecessary trouble, he decided to wait a few years before refining it.

After returning to Mount Funiu, Song Qingming began to enter seclusion, preparing to first refine the copper bell magic tool he obtained in the secret realm.

After returning from this trip to the Taiyuehu secret realm, Song Qingming deeply felt that his strength was still lacking. Facing slightly more formidable Foundation Establishment cultivators of the same tier, he had no confidence in being able to defeat them.

In the battle with Chen Yuan, although Song Qingming ultimately defeated and killed the opponent, it was mainly due to strategy and luck. At that time, had his luck been bad and the opponent not fallen for the trap, the one who would have died in the secret realm might have been himself.

Ever since Song Qingming reached Foundation Establishment, he had actually been quite strapped for cash. The family had consumed a large amount of spirit stones to upgrade the spiritual vein and could not provide him with much subsidy.

The spirit stones he earned himself through talisman making and other methods, after maintaining the daily cultivation and purchasing elixirs for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, didn't leave much behind. Although he had a few second-tier magic tools over the years, they were all the most common low-grade magic tools, which were of very limited help to him in battles against cultivators of the same tier.

However, after this trip to the Taiyuehu secret realm, Song Qingming, now with more money in his pockets, finally had the resources to improve his strength.

Mount Mount Lianhua this magic tool was just the first step. Next, he also planned to go around to nearby markets to find a way to get a few more powerful second-tier magic tools for self-protection. That way, the next time he went out and encountered an ordinary cultivator like Chen Yuan whose cultivation was similar to his, he wouldn't have to worry too much.

This time, refining the magic tool took Song Qingming nearly a month to complete.

Sitting in the cave dwelling, Song Qingming was continuously pouring his magic power into the palm-sized, delicate copper bell in his hand.

Under his control, this copper bell suddenly began to slowly grow larger, stopping only when it completely touched the highest point of the cave dwelling.

At this time, the widest part of the copper bell in contact with the ground was already several zhang wide. As Song Qingming channeled his magic power again, the copper bell suddenly shrank several times, returning to hover above his head and slowly descending, protecting his entire person within.

A few days after refining this magic tool, Song Qingming was finally able to fully control the copper bell beside him and slowly understood some of the special abilities of this magic tool.

Besides its outstanding defensive capabilities, this copper bell could also be released to restrain the opponent. Once covered by this bell, as long as the opponent is not a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator or demonic beast, it is absolutely impossible for them to break free in a short time.

In addition to its outstanding defensive and restraining capabilities, when facing an enemy, this bell could also release several very powerful water-attribute defensive spells, which also had a restraining effect on cultivators and magic tools practicing fire-attribute cultivation techniques.

Aiming at this characteristic, Song Qingming gave this bell a name: Azure Water Bell.

Song Qingming's current cultivation base is only at the third layer of Foundation Establishment. Although he can use the Azure Water Bell, a second-tier top-quality magic tool, he can only exert sixty to seventy percent of its strength. Once his cultivation base improves to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, the power of this bell can be further improved significantly.

After refining this Azure Water Bell, Song Qingming's ability to fight others had improved by at least thirty to forty percent compared to before.

Now, as long as he doesn't encounter a cultivator with strength above the late stage of Foundation Establishment when he goes out, facing someone whose cultivation is one or two layers higher than his, even if he cannot defeat the opponent, he will not have much worry for his life.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, the greatest goal for all cultivators is to form a Jin Dan and become a high and mighty Jin Dan True Person.

Huang Shengxin of the Huang family, who had ventured deep into the Floating Yunshan Range for years to pick high-tier spiritual herbs and entered the Taiyuehu secret realm to search for life-extending spiritual items, did so at such great risk all for that sliver of ethereal chance to form a Jin Dan.

Even if there is a sliver of hope, these powerhouses who have cultivated to the peak of Foundation Establishment will be willing to take the risk. This is the fate that no cultivator can escape. If they cannot successfully form a Jin Dan, after two hundred years, their cultivation will ultimately turn into yellow earth. Having already cultivated to the peak of Foundation Establishment and being only one step away from changing their fate, who would be willing to fall here?

In the State of Wei, almost all large-scale mineral resources are controlled by the Xiaoyao Sect. Cultivation families like the Song family, besides regularly sending disciples with better spiritual root aptitudes to the Xiaoyao Sect, are merely managers helping the Xiaoyao Sect control some remote territories.

Even for those immortal families with several Foundation Establishment cultivators in their clan, the resources they can control are equally very limited. If they want to establish a market in their own territory to collect cultivation resources, they still have to share a portion of the benefits with the Xiaoyao Sect.

In the entire cultivation world, cultivators below the Jin Dan stage can only be considered the bottom-most cultivators. It is very difficult for them to obtain too many cultivation resources. Without sufficient cultivation resources, whether it is a Qi Mount Mount Lianhua cultivator or a Foundation Establishment cultivator, it is very difficult to improve their cultivation to strive for more resources. Having entered this vicious cycle, generation after generation, they can only become vassals of the major sects.

To break away from the control of the Xiaoyao Sect and obtain more cultivation resources, unless someone in the clan successfully forms a Jin Dan and becomes a Jin Dan family like the Ma family of Tiexian Valley, it is impossible.

The cultivation world around the entire Floating Yunshan Range is much the same. Only cultivators above the Jin Dan stage are qualified to sit at the table to distribute resources, and only powerhouses at the Nascent Soul level are qualified to control power and issue orders.

Compared to Foundation Establishment, the difficulty for a cultivator to form a Jin Dan is at least ten times harder. Among all the major cultivation families in the State of Wei plus the loose cultivators, almost every year there are people with better luck like Song Qingming who can successfully reach Foundation Establishment, but for Jin Dan cultivators, in the past hundred years, only one loose cultivator, Li Xianyun, has successfully formed a Jin Dan.

As a loose cultivator born locally in the State of Wei, Li Xianyun was gifted with extraordinary talent. He cultivated for less than a hundred years and successfully formed a Jin Dan on his first attempt by relying on his dual-spiritual root aptitude. This feat of his shocked even the Xiaoyao Sect's Supreme Elder, Li Mufeng, at the time, who personally came forward to invite him to join the Xiaoyao Sect. Unexpectedly, Li Xianyun had high aspirations and was unwilling to be bound by the sect, directly refusing the matter. He didn't even give face to the Nascent Soul ancestor. Not long after, he left the State of Wei to travel, and has not returned here for decades.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 239 =====