Chapter 30: Qingwu Talismans

Having finally gained a few days of leisure on Mount Funiu, Song Qingming also returned to Mujiao Town to see his family. Coincidentally, the family had just encountered a happy event.

Song Qingming's fourth younger brother had married a year ago, and recently gave birth to a son. The family was discussing when to hold a full-month banquet for the child when they happened to meet Song Qingming returning home. Father Song Dezhang decided that there was no time like the present, and the family held a grand banquet the day after next.

This banquet was held for two consecutive days, and guests came in an endless stream. Many relatives and friends in Mujiao Town came to offer gifts. Because Song Qingming had become an immortal cultivator, the Song family was now considered a wealthy family with status in the western part of Mujiao Town, and naturally, there were many people clinging to them now.

After the banquet, Mother Song led her daughter-in-law to hold the newborn grandson and came to a quiet room in the backyard. Seeing Song Qingming sitting in the room holding a book, Mother Song smiled and said.

"Third son, your father said you are leaving tomorrow, and I don't know when you will return."

The book in Song Qingming's hand flashed with green light and was put into his storage bag. He paused and replied softly, "Child has accepted the family's mission to guard a spiritual mountain outside, and it will be a year before I can return to the mountain. After I return, there will be two years of free cultivation time, so naturally, I won't let Mother miss me for too long."

Both parents had reached the age of enjoying their grandchildren, which was already quite old for mortals. Although they had taken some low-tier spiritual fruits that Song Qingming had obtained on the mountain, no signs of aging could be seen yet, but Song Qingming knew in his heart that a mortal's lifespan was at most no more than that.

"Your father discussed it with me yesterday; we still want to ask you for a name for this eldest grandson, so he can soak up some of your immortal aura. Who knows, perhaps this child will also have a chance to ascend to immortality in the future." Mother Song smiled as she took the child from her daughter-in-law's arms and presented him to Song Qingming.

Beside them, the younger daughter-in-law, a woman born into a scholarly family, had been dutiful in managing the household and respectful to her parents-in-law since entering the Song family, deeply winning Mother Song's favor. At this moment, her eyes were filled with anticipation as she looked at Song Qingming, who was lost in thought.

"A few months ago, the family made a trip to the Fuyun Mountain Range. Our luck was quite good, and I personally gained quite a few opportunities. Since this child was born just as I returned, I think we should call him Yunshan!"

"Song Yunshan." Mother Song recited the name, felt it was quite good, and nodded, letting her daughter-in-law take the child and leave first.

"Third son, I know you immortal practitioners don't like to be tainted by the vulgarity of us mortals. You have your own matters to attend to. Thanks to your blessing, life at home is getting better and better. Mother has nothing left to ask of you, only that you come back to visit often when you can."

Although Song Qingming had been at home for these past few days, he had basically stayed in his own room and had not interacted with anyone other than his immediate family. Mother Song also understood that there was a boundary between immortals and mortals, and that her son ultimately did not belong in this small house.

"The reason I haven't wanted to go out and see people these past two days is simply because I'm afraid people in the town might gossip about our family. After all, everyone on the mountain has worldly relatives, and matters from down here inevitably spread up to the mountain, saying I don't follow clan rules and am too involved in worldly affairs."

"I quite like this small room the family left for me. I've already set up a formation in this room over the past few days. When I'm not here in the future, please don't let anyone come inside, lest they trigger the formation and suffer for it. Mother, rest assured, I will definitely come back often when I have time."

Mother Song nodded after hearing this, then sighed and said, "Sigh, you've grown up, and your conduct in handling affairs has become much more mature. But Mother always feels that you aren't as cheerful now as you were when you were a child."

"Mother, people always have to grow up, don't they?" Song Qingming said with a playful smile at Mother Song. Looking at him, Mother Song felt as if he had returned to the appearance of his youth.

After seeing Mother Song off, Song Qingming took out his flying sword and carefully pried up a stone floor tile in the room. He then dug a small pit, placed the jade box containing the Water Spirit Fruit inside, and slowly returned the stone slab to its original position. He had no use for the item right now, and it was somewhat inconvenient to carry it on his person at all times, so he simply hid the Water Spirit Fruit in Mujiao Town. This place was within the protective formation of Mount Funiu, which was much safer than hiding it on Mount Lingyuan.

After staying on Mount Funiu for a few days, Song Qingming finally received permission from the Fourth Elder, Song Gucai, and returned to Mount Lingyuan.

Having not returned for over two months, his Ninth Uncle, Song Zhangxin, missed him dearly. During the days Song Qingming was away, the family had not arranged for anyone else to come to Mount Lingyuan to help him due to a lack of manpower. In order to keep an eye on the normal operation of the mine, he had been unable to go into closed-door cultivation for any extended period during this time.

Seeing Song Qingming return, Song Zhangxin tossed him a pile of spirit talismans and miscellaneous items and immediately went back into closed-door cultivation. Song Qingming also quickly began to resume his former days of garrisoning and cultivating.

However, this time, Song Qingming had brought back a pile of spiritual items from Guiyunfang, so he would have plenty to keep him busy in the days to come.

Over half a month ago at Guiyunfang, Song Qingming had spent several hundred spirit stones in a single day. His once-wealthy storage bag instantly became poor again, and now he only had a few dozen spirit stones left on him.

On the journey back, Song Qingming had already decided that he must first find a way to expand his own financial resources.

After thinking about it along the way, Song Qingming chose to first improve his own talisman-making skills. After two years of desperate talisman-making, his skills had reached a bottleneck where he could break through. In the last half-year, he had also begun to attempt making mid-tier spirit talismans. Although he ultimately failed every time, it was limited by the fact that the materials required for making mid-tier spirit talismans were scarce here at Caolu Mountain, and he had no way to purchase them in large quantities.

Now that he had exchanged for quite a few mid-tier talisman papers at Guiyunfang, he finally had the confidence to break through as a mid-tier talisman master. As long as he could produce mid-tier spirit talismans in large quantities in the future, he wouldn't have to worry about a lack of spirit stones in the short term.

The price of a mid-tier spirit talisman was several times that of a low-tier one. Although the production cost would also increase, as long as he could maintain a thirty percent success rate, the profit would be equally impressive—far beyond what Song Qingming could compare to when he made low-tier spirit talismans every day.

Mid-tier spirit talismans were also much easier to sell on the market than low-tier ones. Even at Caolu Mountain, Song Qingming didn't need to worry too much about sales.

The Song family's talisman-making path was quite well-known among the nearby Qi Refining families. The clan had not only cultivated two top-tier talisman masters but also six mid-tier ones. Even bitter cultivators like his Ninth Uncle, who spent a large amount of time on cultivation, were able to improve their talisman-making skills to the mid-tier level in their spare time.

After returning to his residence, Song Qingming first took out the talisman-making manual he had obtained at Guiyunfang and began to study it.

This talisman-making manual, called "Qingwu Talismans," was written by a second-tier low-quality talisman master, Daoist Qingwu. Although it didn't record many types of spirit talismans and its market value wasn't high, it recorded in detail the lifelong talisman-making experience of this rogue talisman master, including many of his personal insights into the path of talismans. For a low-tier talisman master like Song Qingming, the experience of a second-tier talisman master still held some value.

After reading it carefully several times, Song Qingming benefited greatly. He then took out the Song family's talisman manual to compare them carefully and found many commonalities and clever techniques. This senior cultivator named Qingwuzi indeed had some unique insights into the path of talisman-making.

The talisman styles recorded in "Qingwu Talismans" were not numerous, and were far inferior to those recorded in the Song family's manual. However, the explanations of the talisman-making process within it were very detailed, which was of no small help to Song Qingming in improving his own talisman-making level.

Taking out the talisman brush he hadn't used for several months and opening the various talisman-making materials he had collected, Song Qingming began his path of refining his talisman skills once again.

(End of chapter)