Chapter 472: First Clash

Under the comfort and encouragement of Song Qingming and others, the numerous Foundation Establishment cultivators present gradually gained more confidence. This beast turmoil, although extremely dangerous for the human side, was also accompanied by many opportunities to quickly earn spirit stones.

In the past, after every beast turmoil, many people on the cultivator side could earn a large amount of cultivation resources. Some used these cultivation resources to break through realms and greatly increase their strength, and some were able to soar into the sky and successfully establish their foundation not long after. These crises were also filled with many opportunities.

Added to the cultivators from Qinghe County who had come to support, there were now nearly 1,500 cultivators in Jin Shan Market. The number of cultivators even exceeded that of the battle when the human cultivators counterattacked Jin Shan Market back then, but currently, there were relatively few Foundation Establishment cultivators, only twenty-plus.

Among these cultivators, the major Foundation Establishment families native to Pingyang County occupied the majority. They brought a total of eleven Foundation Establishment cultivators and eight hundred Qi Refining cultivators. The Xiaoyao Sect also had six Foundation Establishment cultivators and more than two hundred Qi Refining disciples sent to Jin Shan Market to assist in the defense.

Qinghe County brought a total of six Foundation Establishment cultivators. Besides Song Yuanfang, who had just established his foundation, Song Qingyu, Song Yuanli, and Huang Siyuan had all arrived at Jin Shan Market. The Huang family brought Huang Shengyue and Huang Mengde, and the Lu family still only had Lu Xingde. The Qi Refining cultivators brought by the Song, Huang, and Lu families together also numbered more than four hundred.

The rest were the loose cultivators recruited by Jin Shan Market over these years. Besides two Foundation Establishment loose cultivators, Jin Shan Market also recruited nearly three hundred Qi Refining loose cultivators. Although this force looked relatively weak, it was also a force that Song Qingming and the others had spent several years to gather with great difficulty.

To boost the morale of the cultivator side, Song Qingming did not just comfort them with words but also took out some spirit items on the spot and distributed them to all the cultivators who were about to participate in the battle.

Although they were only some low-tier spirit talismans and elixirs of low value, such a large number of cultivators added up to a not-insignificant expenditure. Song Qingming naturally would not be willing to spend spirit stones like this by himself. These expenses were all counted in the treasury of the entire Jin Shan Market.

Because of guarding against the beast turmoil, Song Qingming went to Jin Shan Market early to sit in town. Over these years, the Xiaoyao Sect directly handed over all the rights to manage Jin Shan Market to Song Qingming, including some spirit items and nearly ten thousand spirit stones left in the treasury of the market, which were not transported away.

After Song Qingming arrived at Jin Shan Market, all the expenses for recruiting these loose cultivators over these years were also paid from here. Although the major Foundation Establishment families in Pingyang County also had some shares in the treasury of Jin Shan Market, they did not dare to offend Song Qingming, this Golden Core ancestor, for the sake of these spirit stones.

Two days later, just as the cultivators of Jin Shan Market were eager to have a great battle with the beasts, the vanguard troops of the beast side finally arrived outside Jin Shan Market.

Unlike Song Qingming and these high-tier cultivators, almost all the Qi Refining cultivators participating in the battle in the market had never seen such a great battle of hundreds of cultivators and beasts fighting in a melee. Facing such a beast army charging over like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses, these young cultivators who had never seen the world could easily collapse psychologically and retreat in fear of battle.

Among the hundreds of beasts that arrived first, there were not many high-tier beasts. Only the three leading beasts were second-tier beasts, and the others were some messy first-tier beasts mixed together, numbering about two or three hundred.

However, in this situation, as long as one has experienced a battle and tempered oneself slightly, one can basically get used to such a big scene. Song Qingming was the same when he participated in the beast turmoil back then. After experiencing the great battle of Huoyun Mountain, he soon got used to it. This vanguard army of hundreds of beasts in front of him was precisely the best opponent delivered to the door for the human side to temper themselves.

Facing the beast attack, the reason why Jin Shan Market chose to take the initiative to attack was, on one hand, to save some spirit stones for operating the mountain-guarding formation, and on the other hand, because attacking and repelling the beasts head-on could greatly increase the morale of the human side, letting everyone know that these beast armies that looked imposing and charging over were actually not that scary.

Therefore, in order to fight this first battle well, Song Qingming also specially sent out a combat force far stronger than the beast vanguard army in front of him. Not only was the number of cultivators sent out twice that of the beasts, but he also sent out six Foundation Establishment cultivators at once, including late-stage Foundation Establishment powerhouses like Cao Rongxue and Song Qingyu. From the perspective of strength alone, the human cultivator side already had an overwhelming advantage over these beasts.

Besides Song Qingyu and the others who had killed their way out of the market, Song Yuanli had also led a law enforcement cultivator team of over a hundred people to arrive outside Jin Shan Market.

Seeing that among the first batch of beasts that came outside the market, there were only three second-tier beasts, before the beast army could get close to the market's mountain-guarding formation, Cao Rongxue and Song Qingyu, who had been prepared for a long time, suddenly led four Foundation Establishment cultivators and over five hundred Qi Refining cultivators to kill their way out of the market from both sides and rushed directly toward the beast army.

They did not directly participate in the attack on the beasts but blocked the front of the market, staring closely at this fierce battle ahead.

These law enforcement cultivators were all elite cultivators selected by Song Yuanli over the past two years from the Song family, Xiaoyao Sect disciples, and the major Foundation Establishment families in Pingyang County. They were all people who had fought against beasts all year round and had relatively rich combat experience.

Besides supervising the battlefield to prevent those cultivators who dared to retreat in the face of battle, the law enforcement cultivators also needed to supervise the performance of each cultivator on the battlefield for the evaluation of merits and demerits after the battle, and also to urgently treat some injured cultivators who retreated from the battlefield, trying to minimize the casualties of their own side after the battle.

Song Qingyu and Cao Rongxue were both late-stage Foundation Establishment experts. The two soon each faced the two second-tier beasts rushing at the front of the beast army. These two beasts were only second-tier low-grade. Facing two late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, they hadn't fought for a few rounds before they quickly fell into a disadvantage.

Cao Rongxue's cultivation was higher, and she was ultimately more skilled. After circling with her opponent for a few rounds, she quickly found an opportunity, cast a spell with both hands, released a rapidly growing green vine, and firmly trapped the opponent.

Subsequently, Cao Rongxue quickly raised the top-grade flying sword in her hand and beheaded the opponent's huge head from the air to the ground with one sword.

Song Qingyu, facing a second-tier low-grade pig demon, although she was slightly slower than Cao Rongxue because her cultivation manual attribute was restrained by the opponent, she also did not let the opponent go.

After controlling the Green Water Bell in front of her to block the opponent's desperate counterattack before death, the two blue flying swords in Song Qingyu's hand quickly penetrated the opponent's fatal parts, ending this duel.

After Song Qingming formed his core, the second-tier magic tools he originally had were of no use to him now. Basically, he took them out and distributed them to other Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Song family. Among them, the Green Water Bell, the magic tool with the best quality on him, fell into Song Qingyu's hands.

The Green Water Bell was originally a water-attribute magic tool, which was also very compatible with the manual Song Qingyu cultivated. The power it could unleash in her hands would also be a few points greater.

As for the two blue flying swords in Song Qingyu's hand, they were also a pair of second-tier top-grade water-attribute male and female swords. Song Qingming happened to see this magic tool in the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Pavilion a few years ago. At that time, he felt that this item was very suitable for Song Qingyu to use, so he used the merit points in his hand to exchange for it and gave it to Song Qingyu.

With these two top-grade magic tools in hand, although Song Qingyu's cultivation was only at the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment, her fighting ability was already not inferior to veteran ninth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivators like Cao Rongxue.

The last second-tier mid-grade fire ox was besieged by two Foundation Establishment cultivators from Jin Shan Market. Seeing that the situation was not good, it quickly abandoned the low-tier beasts below and fled north alone.

Because Song Qingming had issued a strict order before the battle not to pursue these high-tier beasts without authorization, these two Foundation Establishment cultivators chased for a few miles. Seeing that they couldn't stop the opponent, they could only retreat empty-handed with regret.

The leading second-tier beasts above were dead or fled, which soon made the first-tier beasts below lose their footing. Originally, the human cultivator side had a larger number of people, and with Foundation Establishment cultivators pressing the formation, they had already occupied the upper hand. Now that there was no deterrence from second-tier beasts, these low-tier beasts soon turned around and began to flee north.

Seeing that the beast side had begun to gradually collapse, the morale of the Jin Shan Market cultivators was greatly boosted. They began to pursue these beasts that wanted to escape and fought hard to chase for more than ten miles before stopping the pursuit under the orders of the Foundation Establishment cultivators above.

After a great battle, the entire battlefield was filled with all kinds of bloody smells. After the battle, looking at the beast corpses everywhere that could be seen everywhere, the cultivators who survived the battle were also extremely excited.

Standing above the market city gate, Song Qingming, who had watched the entire battle, was also very satisfied with the performance of the Jin Shan Market cultivators in this battle.

Besides the beast corpses far away from the battlefield, which belonged to those who killed them respectively, Song Yuanli had already led the law enforcement team cultivators to start dealing with the beast materials on the main battlefield in front of Jin Shan Market.

After the news of the first battle's victory was sent back, it soon boosted the morale of all the cultivators in Jin Shan Market. Looking at the piles of beast materials moved into the market by the law enforcement team, those cultivators who had not participated in the battle also began to feel a trace of loss in their hearts, only hating that they were not selected to participate in this battle.

However, the result of this battle, although it was a great victory for the human cultivator side, this kind of great battle between humans and demons was also very cruel.

Although this battle achieved the brilliant result of killing nearly a hundred beasts, including two second-tier beasts, Jin Shan Market also had more than thirty cultivators who were accidentally injured in the great battle, and seven or eight unfortunate people left their lives on the battlefield just now.

Some people were busy cheering and receiving the battle merits they had just established, while others would also be weeping and grieving, mourning the relatives who had just passed away. The war in the cultivation world is just so cruel.

Song Qingming and those high-tier cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage all knew very well in their hearts that what was in front of them was just the beginning. Next, when the real beast army arrives, the battle in Jin Shan Market will be even more cruel than it is now.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 473 =====