Chapter 254: Clan Council

Song Qingming, who was cultivating in his cave dwelling, suddenly had a wisp of faint green smoke appearing above his head, continuously emerging from his body.

As the green smoke on his body became more and more abundant, Song Qingming finally put away his cultivation technique. After his body recovered, he opened his eyes and muttered to himself.

"I truly didn't expect this single spell to be so exquisite. No wonder it has the effect of assisting in Core Formation after being cultivated to completion."

After breaking through to the fourth layer of Foundation Establishment, Song Qingming once again operated his techniques to test the various spells he had cultivated in the past, wanting to see how much his strength had improved. He didn't expect this to give him an unexpected harvest.

Ever since he established his Foundation, the Hidden Origin Technique, which he had been unable to enter the door of for many years, had finally been successfully initiated this time. He didn't expect this spell to have such high requirements for the magic power within an individual's body; it was completely impossible to enter the door before cultivating to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.

Originally, he had been cultivating this spell without results and was almost about to give up. He didn't expect that this time, he would actually find a way into it, which was truly a big surprise for him. According to the description in the Jade Profound Scripture, this cultivation technique could help a cultivator condense a Golden Core. If this could really be cultivated to completion, it would be much more useful than ordinary Core Formation spiritual items. Thinking of this, a trace of a joyful smile gradually appeared on Song Qingming's face.

When cultivating the Hidden Origin Technique, one could refine the spells cultivated on ordinary days into one's own flesh and hide them. Although these spells couldn't be taken out and used on ordinary days, cultivating them could strengthen one's own flesh and could also be used at critical moments to protect one's own weak points for a moment. It could be considered a defensive divine ability and was still somewhat useful.

Just like that, Song Qingming once again fell into seclusion for a long time. It wasn't until half a month later, when Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng sent a sound transmission notifying him to attend the clan's annual council, that he was invited out of this cave dwelling.

Song Qingming arrived at the council hall in front of the mountain and saw that many Song clan cultivators, including Song Qingyu, had already been waiting there for a long time. After smiling and greeting everyone, he sat down next to Song Changfeng at the head of the table.

After Song Qingyu established her Foundation, although Song Qingming had issued an order within the clan to keep this matter secret, it was very difficult to hide such things for a long time. In fact, most of the cultivators within the Song clan had already known about it over these past few years. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, Song Qingyu certainly had to participate in such important clan meetings.

Ever since Song Qingming established his Foundation, he had basically not missed the clan's annual council. Song Changfeng arranging it at this time this time had also been discussed with him long ago. It wasn't until today, when all the elders were gathered on the mountain, that he was invited out via sound transmission.

"Everyone is here, so let's start the council. The old rules apply: first, everyone report on the accounts under your management. Let's start with Qingwan." Seeing that everyone was present, Song Changfeng first spoke to announce the start of the meeting.

The first to speak was the second elder sister, Song Qingwan, who was responsible for managing the clan's industries in Qinghe Square. She took out the accounts that had been prepared long ago and said to everyone:

"This year, our four self-operated shops in the square had a total income of 4,612 spirit stones. After deducting the costs of the shops and personnel expenses, there is a total balance of 861 spirit stones this year.

Among them, the elixir shop, the grocery shop, and the restaurant are all fine. The business of the shop selling magic tools and spiritual talismans was really poor this year; the accounts just barely managed to cover the expenses."

In the Song clan, only the second elder sister Song Qingwan's alchemy skills were presentable in Qinghe Square. Other skills like artifact refining and talisman making simply couldn't compete with the Huang and Gao families. In previous years, they could only eat the leftovers of others. He didn't expect that they wouldn't even earn a single spirit stone this year. Although this result was within Song Qingming's expectations, hearing it now still made him feel somewhat unacceptable in his heart. He silently noted this matter, thinking that he would have to find a way to improve this problem in the future.

"After deducting expenses, the clan's several mineral veins earned a total of 600 spirit stones this year, which is considered relatively normal. However, the black iron ore at Mount Lingyuan is nearing exhaustion, and this income will begin to decrease year by year."

Ninth Uncle Song Changxin had been responsible for managing several mineral veins outside for these past few years. He spent most of his time at Mount Duanliu and rarely had the opportunity to return to Mount Funiu.

The next to speak was the sixth elder brother, Song Qinghe, who had only recently been appointed as a clan elder. His cultivation talent was not high, and he had only recently broken through to the seventh layer of Qi Condensation. However, with his spiritual planting skills, he was now a top-grade spiritual planter and had completely taken over the clan's spiritual field affairs.

"There are a total of twelve mu of spiritual fields on Mount Funiu. The spiritual rice, medicinal herbs, and other spiritual items planted there harvested a total of 1,450 spirit stones this year. The spiritual rice contributed by the several vassal families below totaled 120 spirit stones. Added together, after deducting expenses, there is a balance of 840 spirit stones.

Ever since the Supreme Elder established his Foundation, the clan has increased the planting of many spiritual herbs. Now, some spiritual herbs have begun to mature, and the income in this area will continue to grow every year."

The spiritual field area was actually the most stable source of income for the Song clan over these many years. This was also the area most valued by large and small cultivation families in the cultivation world.

In the past, when the Song clan was still a small Qi Condensation family, they were afraid of bringing disaster, so they didn't plant many spiritual herbs and didn't dare to cultivate spiritual fields on a large scale. It wasn't until after Song Qingming established his Foundation that the clan's spiritual vein was upgraded and they had a second-tier mountain-protecting formation to guard it, that everyone slowly let go and began to increase investment in this area.

Besides the three items mentioned above, the hunting team managed by the thirteenth uncle and the general affairs managed by the eldest brother had no spirit stone income, so they didn't speak.

Finally, the clan leader Song Changfeng, who was in charge of the Golden Treasury, combined everyone's accounts and summarized them for everyone present.

"This year, including the Golden Treasury I manage, the clan had a total income of 2,733 spirit stones.

Next, I want to talk about the expenditure part.

Nowadays, not including those hired from outside, the clan has a total of 53 cultivators, including two Foundation Establishment cultivators, ten late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators, twenty-nine mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivators, and twelve early-stage Qi Condensation cultivators.

According to the standards, the total salary paid to all clan cultivators every year is 1,400 spirit stones. Maintaining the spiritual vein formations in several places also requires about 500 spirit stones a year. Besides these two major items, there are some miscellaneous expenses that add up to about 200-plus spirit stones. The total expenditure this year is about 2,100 spirit stones."

"In other words, the balance this year is no more than 600 spirit stones."

Hearing the news about this year's accounts, Song Qingming was also slightly surprised. The accounts in previous years' councils hadn't been this ugly. He didn't expect that the clan would have more and more cultivators these past few years, and the burden would also follow and become larger.

If it weren't for the shares of the Mount Fengtou mineral vein that happened to be available, which could be divided into 500 spirit stones every year, the entire Song clan's annual account income would only be left with 100 spirit stones. If they encountered a disaster year, they would likely have a significant deficit, not to mention wanting to take out spirit stones to cultivate new spiritual veins.

How to say it, the Song clan's foundation was still too thin. Whether doing business in Qinghe Square or mining mineral veins themselves, they were still too far behind compared to other veteran Foundation Establishment families.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 255 =====