Chapter 454: Seclusion Cave Dwelling

After leaving the Xiaoyao Sect, Song Qingming headed north. Compared to when he came to Mount Guyang, he was not in such a hurry this time. He traveled by day and hid by night, and it was not until over ten days later that he slowly passed through the north of the Wei State and entered the Fuyun Mountain Range.

Perhaps because the turmoil of the Northern Frontier demon beasts was drawing near, there were far fewer cultivators on the edge of the Fuyun Mountain Range than before. After penetrating deep into the demon beasts' territory, Song Qingming slowly accelerated his flying sword and rushed toward his destination this time.

After flying for another seven or eight days, the flying sword beneath Song Qingming's feet finally descended from the sky and stopped beside a large river.

After carefully checking his surroundings and finding no traces of any cultivators having been there, Song Qingming walked to a small pool not far from the large river. He unfolded a Green Water spell and jumped directly into it. After passing through the dark water flow, Song Qingming soon arrived at a cave dwelling hidden beneath the pool.

Just as he walked into the main gate of the cave dwelling, Song Qingming suddenly saw a wave of scorching fire clouds rushing toward him. He hurriedly cast a spell to open the Profound Light Armor he had cultivated for many years, and with great effort, he finally managed to block the strike.

Before Song Qingming could catch his breath, another even more violent wave of fire clouds rushed toward him. An anxious Song Qingming immediately shouted loudly, "Senior Qingluan, do not be agitated! It is me!"

Following this panicked shout from Song Qingming, the fire clouds that were about to reach him slowly stopped and vanished before Song Qingming's eyes.

Before long, a large cyan bird, much taller than Song Qingming, walked slowly toward him with an arrogant gait.

"So it is you, brat. Didn't you send word that it would be a few more days before you arrived? Why have you arrived early?"

Hearing Qingluan's mocking voice, Song Qingming slowly squeezed out an awkward smile and said slowly, "I was originally supposed to arrive in two days, but I was afraid that you, Senior, would be anxious waiting here, so I accelerated my pace. Please do not be angry, Senior!"

"Hmph! It was His Highness who told me to come here first to wait for you. Isn't it better that you arrived early? Why would I be angry? Do I look like I am angry?" After Qingluan finished speaking, her large eyes stared fixedly at Song Qingming.

"Hehe! No, not at all. It was Junior who misunderstood. Please do not mind, Senior. These items are what Junior brought specifically for you this time. It will be hard work for you, Senior, for a period of time, and I hope you will not despise them."

Seeing that Qingluan did not seem very friendly in her speech, Song Qingming hurriedly took out a pile of delicious pastries and spirit wine he had prepared long ago from his storage bag and placed them directly before Qingluan.

"You are becoming more sensible. However, I must tell you in advance: I came here because His Highness sent me to guard this cave dwelling, not to listen to your commands. Do not expect me to help you do anything."

Seeing Qingluan happily putting away the spirit items he had just offered, Song Qingming slowly breathed a sigh of relief. Facing this "auntie" who would set him on fire at the drop of a hat, to be honest, he was truly a bit afraid of her in his heart.

After temporarily settling things with Qingluan, Song Qingming turned around with a calm expression and walked into a stone door inside the cave dwelling, arriving beside a spring eye sealed by a formation restriction.

Looking at the small spring before him that was continuously emitting pure spiritual energy, a look of joy suddenly appeared on Song Qingming's face. Next, he would prepare to go into seclusion here to attempt the Core Formation realm once again.

The place where Song Qingming was preparing for Core Formation this time was precisely the Jin Dan cultivator's cave dwelling that he, Gao Yuyao, Duan Xueyi, and others had found deep in the Fuyun Mountain Range. The small spring eye before him was the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" that the group had found together.

The reason Song Qingming did not choose to go to the place where Huo Feng was during his first Core Formation, but instead ran thousands of miles away to this abandoned Jin Dan cave dwelling, was precisely for this "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" before him.

After discovering this place with Gao Yuyao and the others back then, under Duan Xueyi's introduction, Song Qingming had also heard from her that the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" had some effect on cultivators breaking through realms and achieving Core Formation.

It was just that at the time, Song Qingming had only heard her explanation of this item from Duan Xueyi's mouth alone and was not certain how much help this "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" could truly provide for a cultivator's Core Formation.

Added to the fact that this place was located deep in the Fuyun Mountain Range, where there were many high-tier demon beasts and even demon kings above the third tier, for an ordinary cultivator to run here for Core Formation was basically no different from seeking death. After leaving this place, Song Qingming did not take this matter to heart.

Ever since his failed Core Formation at Huo Feng's place, over these dozen years, Song Qingming would often analyze the reasons for his final failure and prepare in advance for his next Core Formation.

Under these circumstances, Song Qingming accidentally remembered this cave dwelling he had visited back then and the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" inside.

For this reason, Song Qingming specifically searched through many books introducing various spirit veins in the cultivation world and finally found detailed records and introductions to the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" before him. Upon close inspection, he discovered that it was indeed as Duan Xueyi had said: the pure spiritual energy produced by this "Spirit Machine Spring Eye" truly had a certain effect on a cultivator's Core Formation.

When a cultivator achieves Core Formation, they need to spend a large amount of time first purifying the magic power within their body. This point is very important for the later condensation of the Jin Dan. Once the magic power in the body is not pure enough and contains a trace of flaw, the step of condensing the Jin Dan will easily fall short of success. When Song Qingming failed his breakthrough to Jin Dan last time, it was precisely at this step of condensing the core that he fell.

After understanding the function of the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye," Song Qingming quickly made up his mind to set the location for this Core Formation here.

Because achieving Core Formation here was truly too dangerous, after Song Qingming had offered many spirit items to Huo Feng over these years, he finally persuaded her to let Huo Feng specifically send Qingluan here to help him temporarily guard this cave dwelling.

With a demon king like Qingluan here, nearby demon beasts naturally would not dare to come here to disturb Song Qingming's Core Formation. The only thing to worry about was that once Song Qingming successfully achieved Core Formation, the celestial phenomena that would be maintained for several days would certainly attract other nearby demon kings. At that time, with only one demon king like Qingluan guarding this place, he did not know if she could protect him.

Song Qingming had originally wanted to discuss with Huo Feng to have Long Feng, who had stronger strength, come over to protect him, but he did not expect that Long Feng happened to be away during this period, having been arranged by Huo Feng to go elsewhere to handle matters for her. That was why he had no choice but to invite this "auntie" with a fiery temper, Qingluan, over.

After checking that there were no problems with the "Spirit Machine Spring Eye," Song Qingming hurriedly tidied up and cleaned the stone room where he was preparing for seclusion. After all, he would be staying here for a long time, and constantly facing dust all over the floor would sometimes make one feel unhappy.

Just as Song Qingming set up restrictions at the entrance and was preparing to begin his seclusion, Qingluan walked over again and threw a small wooden box to Song Qingming.

"This is what His Highness told me to bring to you. Although the effect of this fruit is not as good as the Red-Cyan Fruit from last time, it should be of some help to your Core Formation. His Highness said that this item is lent to you first, and you must still think of a way to take items to return it to her in the future. Do not forget."

After Qingluan finished speaking, she left on her own, no longer paying attention to Song Qingming, who stood there blankly holding the small wooden box.

Because his last Core Formation failed, wasting many spirit items given by Huo Feng, Song Qingming did not have the face to ask her for Core Formation spirit items again for this seclusion and Core Formation. He only tried to borrow a little power from Huo Feng to help him guard the law.

Song Qingming did not expect that Huo Feng, who usually only took what she needed from him most of the time, would actually take the initiative to have Qingluan bring him a spirit item to assist in Core Formation this time. He was truly surprised in his heart.

Facing this Nascent Soul demon emperor who was usually high above, although Song Qingming was respectful to her in speech, he had always regarded her as his business partner in his heart. When dealing with her, Song Qingming also tried his best to keep both sides from owing each other, so as to avoid asking for too much from her and being unable to pay it back when the other party came knocking.

Facing the small wooden box Huo Feng had taken the initiative to send this time, a wave of warmth flashed through Song Qingming's heart. After opening it to take a look, he discovered that it contained a white spirit fruit that was not much larger than an ordinary elixir.

Although the spiritual energy emitted by this fruit was not as rich as the Red-Cyan Fruit he had consumed back then, it far exceeded ordinary second-tier spirit items. It was certainly a third-tier spirit fruit.

Just after receiving the small wooden box, Song Qingming heard Qingluan mention that the effect of this fruit was similar to the Red-Cyan Fruit, and he roughly knew the function of this fruit in his heart; it should also be used to strengthen a cultivator's dantian.

After setting up the restrictive formation, Song Qingming calmed his mind, sat back down beside the "Spirit-Machine Spring," and patiently meditated to settle his spirit, preparing to begin his seclusion to break through the Core Formation bottleneck.

Because he had an extra spirit fruit given by Huo Feng, Song Qingming had to do the same as before his last Core Formation: he must first refine this spirit fruit to strengthen his own dantian.

After opening the wooden box and swallowing the spirit fruit in one gulp, Song Qingming immediately felt a huge amount of spiritual power appear in his body, rushing straight toward his dantian in his abdomen.

This time, because the quality of the spirit fruit he consumed was worse than the Red-Cyan Fruit he had consumed over a dozen years ago, the spiritual power impact felt by Song Qingming's dantian was also much better than last time.

Added to the experience of refining the Red-Cyan Fruit last time, Song Qingming did not feel too much pressure facing the impact of this spiritual power now; instead, he let his dantian absorb and refine more of the spiritual power contained in this spirit fruit.

It took less than a month for Song Qingming to thoroughly refine and absorb the white spirit fruit given to him by Huo Feng. He used much less than last time. Although because he consumed it directly, he still wasted about 20% of the spiritual power in the spirit fruit, compared to refining the Red-Cyan Fruit last time, this was already no small progress.

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(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 455 =====