Chapter 275

The reason for being in such a hurry to go back was not that Song Qingming was really afraid that the people he offended at the exchange meeting would come to look for trouble with him, but mainly because Song Qingming was anxious to go back to collect materials so that he could break through his formation level faster.

This trip to Guiyun Market could be considered very smooth. Song Qingming not only had a pile of spirit stones on him again but also unexpectedly obtained a 'Qingxi Brush Talk' that improved his formation level. Speaking of which, a small half of the credit still had to thank Shi Chun.

Just when leaving Guiyun Market, Shi Chun also specially distributed the portrait of Huang Siyuan that he had someone draw in these few days to some of his old rogue cultivator friends, asking them to help keep an eye on this person. Once there was news, they should quickly send a message to Mount Funiu, and there would definitely be a reward.

These people had been spending their time in Guiyun Market and the Fuyun Mountain Range for many years. As long as Huang Siyuan really came here, she would inevitably not be able to completely avoid the eyes of these people after a long time, and news would come sooner or later.

After the two left Guiyun Market, they hurried all the way and returned to Mount Funiu smoothly. In a happy mood, Song Qingming even specially gave Shi Chun a second-tier talisman as his reward.

Shi Chun was personally recruited into the Song family by Song Qingming, the family's helmsman. In these years on Mount Funiu, even when the elders of the Chang generation dealt with him, they were all very polite for the sake of Song Qingming's face.

In these years, Shi Chun's life in the Song family had always been quite good. As soon as he arrived at the Song family, Shi Chun served as a guest elder of the family. His status in the Song family was only slightly worse than that of the few managing elders, and he was deeply valued by Song Qingming.

Two years after arriving at the Song family, under the matchmaking of Patriarch Song Changfeng, Shi Chun also married a female cultivator of the Song family's Xin generation as his wife, which could be considered as having completely taken root in the Song family. The two had already given birth to two children in these years, but it was a pity that neither of them tested positive for spiritual roots.

Song Qingming had been studying talisman-making skills in these years, and he already had many second-tier talismans on him. He had found excuses to reward every Qi Condensation ninth-layer cultivator in the family who could use second-tier talismans with a second-tier talisman for protection.

Shi Chun's cultivation had also improved to the ninth layer of Qi Condensation a year ago. Song Qingming happened to have an excuse this time, so he treated him equally and also bestowed him one to use for self-protection in the future.

In the Song family, those who could cultivate to the ninth layer of Qi Condensation were all the absolute backbone of the family. The safety of these people was also what Song Qingming worried about the most. Now, under Song Qingming's intentional reward, everyone had an extra second-tier talisman, and their combat ability naturally improved by a large margin.

Qi Condensation ninth-layer cultivators holding second-tier talismans had strength far exceeding that of ordinary Qi Condensation cultivators. Even when facing Foundation Establishment cultivators, they could still have a little chance to threaten the other party.

After returning to Mount Funiu, Song Qingming immediately fell into seclusion again. It's just that this time he wasn't for talisman-making, but was preparing to start refining second-tier formations to break through his formation skill level.

However, before this, he still needed to spend a little time collecting various materials.

Half a month later, under Song Qingming's instruction, the Song family cultivators immediately began to collect special materials for refining formations in the market on a large scale.

The difficulty of the second-tier formation Song Qingming chose this time was relatively average, and the materials needed for refining were not particularly rare. The Song family only spent a few days in Qinghe Market to collect seven or eight out of ten. As for the remaining second-tier materials that were the most difficult to obtain, after Song Qingming personally made a trip to Jin Shan Market, he also quickly gathered them all.

After half a year of seclusion and deliberation, Song Qingming, as expected, successfully refined his first set of second-tier formations, breaking through his formation skills to the second tier.

This second-tier formation he refined was the most ordinary second-tier Spirit Gathering Formation. Arranging it in the cave dwelling for cultivation could greatly increase the concentration of spiritual energy around his cave dwelling in a short period of time, and it was also a type of formation relatively common in the cultivation world.

The 'Qingxi Brush Talk' classic was written by Qingxi Sanren, a close friend of that old man surnamed Gu.

This Qingxi Sanren was once a rogue cultivator with a quite resounding reputation near Guiyun Market, and his formation level had already been cultivated to the second-tier top-quality. Although this person was a natural genius and had cultivated to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment early on, he failed several times in forming the core. Decades ago, his lifespan was already insufficient. Before sitting down, because he had no descendants to entrust his spiritual items to, he had to give all the spiritual items on his body to his close friends, letting them help pay attention to some descendants he left in Guiyun Market for the sake of past friendship.

This old man surnamed Gu was a friend of Qingxi Sanren back then and was allocated the formation classic left by Qingxi Sanren. It's just a pity that his formation talent was average, and after obtaining this classic, it didn't come in handy.

Decades passed, and the old man surnamed Gu's friendship with Qingxi Sanren also gradually faded with the passage of time. After all, when people leave, the tea cools, and ordinary friendships are very difficult to maintain for too long.

Recently, hesitating and anxious to break through his realm, the old man surnamed Gu prepared to entrust someone to help refine a furnace of spiritual elixirs, and he happened to be missing several spiritual medicines. He simply took this item out and put it at the exchange meeting. He happened to meet Song Qingming, a person with affinity who liked formations, and exchanged it for some spiritual items that were more useful to him. The two could be considered as each getting what they needed this time.

The Qingxi classic didn't have much effect in his hand, but in Song Qingming's eyes, this classic still far exceeded the things he paid at that time.

In this classic, Qingxi Sanren not only recorded the various formations he encountered in his two hundred years of Dao path into it, but also specially annotated his various insights when refining and arranging formations. It was precisely because of the help of such good annotations that Song Qingming refined the second-tier formation so smoothly this time.

Compared to the breakthrough in talisman-making skills, Song Qingming's interest in the formation path was obviously more talented. His talisman-making skills could improve so fast entirely by relying on practice makes perfect, but the research on formations indeed still had a little bit of his own talent.

Coming out of seclusion this time, Song Qingming could be said to have double happiness. Not only did he improve his formation level, but his own cultivation also broke through to the fifth layer of Foundation Establishment realm as a matter of course a month ago.

Because of the existence of the remnant map, he could greatly shorten the time for his own spiritual power recovery. Even though Song Qingming had been focusing on talisman-making and formation-refining in these years, his own cultivation had also not fallen behind at all.

At the age of seventy, cultivating to the fifth layer of Foundation Establishment, this cultivation speed was already about to catch up with ordinary dual-spiritual-root cultivators. Song Qingming was still very satisfied with his current cultivation realm.

In the entire Qinghe County, the only ones who cultivated faster than him at the same age were Huang Shengxin and the Gao family's Gao Yubai. Being able to keep up with their pace by relying on a four-spiritual-root pseudo-spiritual root, he could already be said to be a kind of miracle.

With the improvement of cultivation, the spiritual power in Song Qingming's body also rose by a large margin. Now, whether he was making talismans or refining formations, his success rate would also slightly increase.

(End of chapter)