Chapter 294: Miscellaneous Affairs Hall

However, after this battle, excluding the spiritual items consumed when surrounding the mountain, the remaining spirit stones were just enough to barely make up for the losses of the marketplace last time. The major Foundation Establishment families like the Song family did not earn any spirit stones on the surface after a great battle, but instead had to subsidize some relatives and clansmen of the dead cultivators.

Their biggest harvest was the bounty rewards they could get for beheading these bandits.

Among the Qi Refining bandits, some were heinous and wanted by major marketplaces. These heads were unified by Lu Yuanfeng and sent to the places where they were wanted to exchange for rewards, which were used to reward those who performed outstandingly in this battle and to comfort the dead and injured cultivators.

The three leaders, Cheng Yilong and the others, were all bandits on the Xiaoyao Sect's list. After their heads were taken to the Xiaoyao Sect, each family participating in this battle received some merit points bestowed by the Xiaoyao Sect. Of course, the bulk was still taken by the Huang and Gao families, who contributed the most. These hard-won merit points could be directly exchanged for spiritual items from the Xiaoyao Sect's Miscellaneous Affairs Hall.

Besides being open to disciples of the sect, the Xiaoyao Sect's Miscellaneous Affairs Hall was also accessible to vassal families who had made great contributions to the sect.

It was just that the ways for sect disciples to earn merit points were more numerous and relatively easier, while the vassal families below could only get some merit points when the sect summoned them to deal with demonic beast turmoil or perform relatively dangerous tasks such as beheading bandits wanted by the Law Enforcement Hall. Back then, when Song Qingming killed the demonic cultivator Han Tongshan, besides sharing the spirit stone reward, he also obtained two hundred merit points for the Song family. Once these merit points accumulated to a certain quota standard, they could be exchanged for the spiritual items they wanted.

The Miscellaneous Affairs Hall of a Nascent Soul sect was not comparable to an ordinary marketplace. As long as you had enough merit points, let alone Foundation Establishment Pills, even the spiritual items needed for Core Formation were available. It was just that the required merit points were also very exaggerated, and a Foundation Establishment family could not exchange for them even if they accumulated them for hundreds of years.

In this regard, the Xiaoyao Sect also gave some convenience to the vassal families under its sect. As long as these cultivation families accumulated merit points to a certain proportion, they could exchange for the spiritual items they wanted from the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall by handing over spiritual items of equal value on the basis of deducting merit points.

That is to say, a Foundation Establishment Pill required 10,000 merit points, equivalent to 10,000 spirit stones. Cultivation families of this kind could also exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill in the Xiaoyao Sect's Miscellaneous Affairs Hall by accumulating the required 2,000 merit points and handing over 8,000 spirit stones. Old-school Foundation Establishment families like the Huang and Gao families mostly obtained Foundation Establishment Pills to cultivate Foundation Establishment cultivators in this way.

Besides this method, there was another more direct one. As long as you could find the rare spiritual items the Xiaoyao Sect wanted, just like the Water Spirit Fruit Song Qingming obtained back then, with such spiritual items, you could also directly go to the Xiaoyao Sect's Miscellaneous Affairs Hall to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill. It was just that you had to explain the origin of these spiritual items clearly. After all, the Xiaoyao Sect was also a famous sect and would not accept some stolen goods of unknown origin at will.

Situations like this were very rare. Wanting to obtain these spiritual items that the Xiaoyao Sect's Miscellaneous Affairs Hall could look upon was not a simple matter. Besides looking at each person's opportunity, it also depended on the strength of their own family.

Back then, although the Liu family could find the Water Spirit Fruit tree, they ended up with nothing because their strength was insufficient. In the Fuyun Mountain Range, in order to obtain that third-tier spiritual medicine, the Huang family not only lost the Foundation Establishment cultivator Huang Chengliang but also almost lost Song Qingming's life. If the strength was insufficient, not only might they not get the spiritual items they wanted, but they might also lose the fate of the entire family.

Fortunately, Song Qingming did not work in vain this time. In the end, he not only obtained a mid-grade magic tool from Cheng Yilong but also pocketed the more than 3,000 spirit stones and more than a dozen second-tier spiritual items that he had taken out when he deceived Song Qingming in the battle.

Fortunately, these things were taken out by Cheng Yilong himself. If they were still in his storage bag, Song Qingming would have no way to forcibly open his storage bag in such a short time, and in the end, he could only hand it over to Lu Yuanfeng.

Speaking of that life-and-death duel with Cheng Yilong, Song Qingming and he were actually calculating each other in the end, but Cheng Yilong, this old fox, finally capsized first.

Cheng Yilong initially wanted to escape secretly, but Song Qingming had exposed his hiding place. He also had no choice but to choose to decisively attack and kill Song Qingming. As a result, he didn't succeed in one blow and couldn't break the defense of the Clear Water Bell in a short time, so he was forced to use sinister tricks in the end.

The jade box Cheng Yilong threw out first contained the magic tool he had secretly hidden to sneak attack. Seeing that Song Qingming was not fooled, he took out a pile of spiritual items to lure him, pretending that he only wanted to escape. As long as Song Qingming took the initiative to withdraw the protection of the Clear Water Bell, he could use the previously ambushed magic tool to launch a sneak attack and then kill Song Qingming.

But he didn't know that Song Qingming withdrawing the Clear Water Bell was also calculating him. While playing a verbal game with Cheng Yilong, Song Qingming had also prepared a killing move for him, taking advantage of his close-range sneak attack to use the invisible Jade Light Needles he had secretly condensed to kill him with one blow.

Cheng Yilong didn't know until he died that his last knife was actually blocked by the remnant map Song Qingming had sewn on his body. Without this last defense, the one who should have lost this battle was actually Song Qingming.

Over the years, Song Qingming had constantly studied the remnant map and had long known that this thing was far tougher than ordinary refining materials. Whether it was back in the Qi Refining stage or now in the Foundation Establishment stage, Song Qingming had used many magic tools to attack the remnant map with all his might, but without exception, he could not leave a trace on it. It could be seen that ordinary magic tools could not break through this defense.

Therefore, in order to give himself one more life-saving method, Song Qingming had basically sewn it on his chest all these years. This time, he just happened to use Cheng Yilong's contempt for him, deliberately revealing a flaw in front of his chest when he attacked at the end, and successfully calculated him.

After obtaining these spiritual items from Cheng Yilong, Song Qingming also found that many of them were snatched by him from Qinghefang this time. On the way back, he was still a bit worried that Lu Yuanfeng and the others would investigate the whereabouts of these spiritual items.

Fortunately, he was still a bit overly worried. On one hand, the storage bag of Cheng Yilong he took the initiative to hand over had also been checked by Lu Yuanfeng on the spot, and there were indeed no signs of being forcibly opened. On the other hand, it was not just the spiritual items on him, but many spiritual items in the marketplace had also disappeared. It could be seen that it was not just him who had small thoughts, and Lu Yuanfeng, as expected, did not pursue these matters in the end. For him, winning this battle was the key. As for these small thoughts, as long as they were not too excessive, he could also turn a blind eye.

After taking his family's share of spiritual items, Song Qingming first comforted the dead and injured cultivators this time. After all, they went out this time to sell their lives for the Song family. If the Song family didn't perform well afterward, it would certainly chill the hearts of these vassal families.

The Song family only shared 500 merit points this time. For this reason, Song Qingming specially made a trip to Guyang Mountain, wanting to see if he could add other spiritual items to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill. As a result, he found that the merit points in his hand were still far from the required 2,000 merit points, so he could only awkwardly dispel this thought.

After wandering around in the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall, he didn't find any useful spiritual items he could exchange for, so he could only return disappointed.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 295 =====