Chapter 253: Weighing Options

"Not bad! To be able to see that so quickly, it seems you truly haven't neglected your cultivation these past few years, and you've made quite a bit of progress."

Just as Song Qingyu had said, Song Qingming had spent a full three months in seclusion this time, finally breaking through his cultivation base to the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment.

"Seventh Brother, please don't praise me too much. If it weren't for your constant guidance over these years, my cultivation base would likely be far worse than it is now." Hearing Song Qingming's praise, Song Qingyu hurriedly smiled and spoke modestly.

Four years had passed, and although Song Qingyu's cultivation base had not yet broken through, she was not too far from the second layer of Foundation Establishment. As long as she had another year or two, her breakthrough would be a matter of course.

"The help I can give you is only so much. For your future Dao path, you must rely more on yourself. In terms of spiritual root talent, you are stronger than me; perhaps you will be able to walk further than I can in the future. Do not let down your own Dao heart."

"Qingyu will definitely keep Seventh Brother's teachings in mind."

Song Qingming nodded at her and continued, "Has Sixth Uncle been here recently? Has anything happened in the clan?"

"Sixth Uncle came once half a month ago. This year, the output of the mineral vein at Mount Lingyuan has decreased by another twenty percent compared to last year. Some of the miners living there have no work to do. Sixth Uncle wants to discuss with you whether we should migrate a portion of the mortals back."

"You have also lived at Mount Lingyuan since you were young. How do you think this matter should be handled?" Song Qingming did not answer directly but instead asked Song Qingyu, wanting to hear her opinion.

Seeing that this Seventh Brother seemed to have the intention of testing her, Song Qingyu hurriedly said, "There are already over three thousand mortals at Mount Lingyuan, but the fertile land that can be cultivated there is very limited. The food supply still needs to be supplemented by Mount Funiu every year; the burden is indeed too heavy.

Now that the black iron mineral vein is nearing exhaustion, the clan has no other industries there besides this vein. If things continue this way, migrating a portion of the mortals back is only a matter of time.

It's just that the clan's two existing mortal towns, Mu Jiao Town and Mu Gu Town, are already saturated in population. Migrating so many mortals back all at once would likely be difficult to settle. Our top priority is to quickly build another mortal town to expand the living space for mortals under Mount Funiu."

"You are right. The clan has developed too quickly over these twenty years; we really should have made preparations in advance. Let's do as you said: hurry and choose a suitable location to build a town, and let Sixth Uncle and the others go handle it!" Seeing that Song Xinyu still had some insights of her own, Song Qingming nodded with gratification.

After Song Qingyu left, Song Qingming walked alone to the edge of a cliff not far in front of his cave dwelling, sat down quietly, and blew in the cool breeze while admiring the scenery below the mountain.

After more than two hundred years of change, Mount Funiu had transformed from a dangerous place rampant with demonic beasts into a place where smoke from cooking fires rose and ten thousand families lived in joy. This change was the painstaking management of five generations of cultivators from the Song clan.

This time, Song Qingming's breakthrough to the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment was actually not very smooth. If he hadn't made up his mind at the end to directly consume the Earth Spirit Dew given to him by Huo Feng, it would have been impossible for him to succeed in this breakthrough.

The Earth Spirit Dew was a spiritual item that Song Qingming had also seen in ancient texts. This kind of heaven-born spiritual item was only produced when a demonic beast underwent a Golden Core lightning tribulation. It was an extremely precious spiritual item and rarely fell into the hands of the human race.

The effect of this item was about the same as what Huo Feng had said. Generally, if a Foundation Establishment cultivator consumed it directly, it could help improve their cultivation base by about one layer. Song Qingming had originally intended to save it until he broke through to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment before consuming it.

The reason he was in such a hurry to consume it was that Song Qingming had discovered during his breakthrough to the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment—a small realm—that he had fallen into a not-so-small bottleneck. If he didn't use the Earth Spirit Dew to help, he didn't know how long he would have to wait to break through this bottleneck normally; it was estimated that it might not even succeed in ten years.

There wouldn't be a major bottleneck in the first three layers of the Foundation Establishment realm. Generally, a normal cultivator could cultivate to the third layer of Foundation Establishment in about twenty years.

But when it came to breaking through to the fourth layer—the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment—the difficulty began to change. The difficulty of almost every layer would increase significantly. More than half of the Foundation Establishment cultivators in the cultivation world would be stuck here for a long time.

By the time they slowly broke through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, their lifespan would already be insufficient. These cultivators would then completely lose the opportunity to form a Core.

Among the Foundation Establishment cultivators Song Qingming was relatively familiar with, Lu Yuanfeng of Qinghe Square, Gao Jinhe of the Gao family, and Wang Chengliang of the Wang family from back then were all about the same. This included Huang Shengyue and Lu Xingde, who would likely face the same fate in the future.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator only had a lifespan of two hundred and fifty years. Without massive resources or special opportunities, very few people could raise their cultivation base to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment within a hundred years of their Foundation Establishment.

In the entire Qinghe County, there was only one genius, Huang Shengxin, who cultivated to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment before the age of one hundred and sixty, which gave him one chance to form a Core. It was just a pity that he was still insufficiently prepared when he tried to form a Core back then and failed.

To form a Core, Song Qingming had to accelerate his cultivation speed and raise his cultivation base to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment as soon as possible, so that he could give himself a few more chances to form a Core.

After discovering that his cultivation base had encountered a bottleneck, there were only two choices before Song Qingming: either wait for time to slowly grind it away and save the Earth Spirit Dew to use when he reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment—which, although it could maximize the effect of this spiritual item, had the disadvantage that his cultivation base couldn't improve now, and his own strength could only temporarily stay at this level.

Or, he could decisively use the Earth Spirit Dew to break through, which would allow him to enter the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment faster, immediately raising his own strength significantly. However, future cultivation breakthroughs would have to rely on him finding other spiritual items.

After weighing his options repeatedly, Song Qingming decided to consume the Earth Spirit Dew immediately to help break through his cultivation base, prioritizing the improvement of his strength. Although he also wanted to make better use of this spiritual item, he was, after all, not particularly outstanding in strength among Foundation Establishment cultivators right now. Compared to the future, he had to consider his own life-saving strength first.

However, this Earth Spirit Dew didn't just help him break through the bottleneck of the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment; the excess spiritual power within it also helped him shorten his hard cultivation time by at least five years. His current cultivation base was actually not too far from breaking through to the fifth layer of Foundation Establishment.

The sky had gradually darkened, and various lights were slowly lighting up below the mountain, adding quite a bit of vivid scenery to the entire Mount Funiu. Song Qingming, who had been sitting for a long time, slowly stood up and returned to his cave dwelling.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 254 =====