Chapter 477

Now that the four main battlefields in the north of Wei had begun to clash with the spirit beasts, only Jin Shan Market, where Song Qingming was located, still held a trace of the initiative on the battlefield.

After learning this not-so-good news, the expression on Song Qingming's face, which had only just relaxed, became solemn again. However, in order not to affect the overall morale of Jin Shan Market, Song Qingming did not inform all the cultivators under his command of this unfavorable news; only the dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators knew some of the inside story.

After knowing that the situation on other battlefields was not good, Song Qingming also stepped up his preparations for war. Although Jin Shan Market had just received reinforcements from cultivators from Liuyang and Jiangling, the number of cultivators defending the market now exceeded two thousand.

But in the last ten days or so, according to information gathered by the law enforcement team, small groups of spirit beasts had been continuously moving south from the north, and the number of spirit beasts gathering in Huangling Valley was increasing every day, meaning the strength of the spirit beast side was also slowly increasing.

Faced with this situation, although Jin Shan Market had won the first battle and gained a certain amount of initiative, it was still far from lifting the threat of the spirit beasts in the north. Song Qingming could not attend to the situation elsewhere for the time being and could only continue to urge all regions in the rear to step up the transport of war materials to Jin Shan Market.

Before every spirit beast turmoil, the major cultivation families in the north of Wei would prepare in advance, storing a batch of strategic materials needed for the great battle, such as spirit talismans, pills, magic treasures, and spirit rice.

After the great battle began, these cultivation families would actively transport the stored spirit items to the front line to support the effort. Besides being able to exchange them for valuable spirit beast materials, they could also obtain quite a bit of sect merit, which was something all major Foundation Establishment families were very willing to do.

Following the issuance of the decree by Song Qingming, the Jin Dan ancestor, the major Foundation Establishment families in Jiangling County successively brought out the spirit items stored in their own treasuries and began to transport them in batches to the front line at Jin Shan Market. This powerful logistical support from the rear was also a huge reliance for the cultivators on the front line of Jin Shan Market to continue fighting.

In order to prepare himself to welcome the next great battle that was about to come, Song Qingming also stepped up his closed-door cultivation.

In the few years since forming his core, Song Qingming had spent most of his time refining his natal magic treasure, the "Five-Colored Divine Light Mirror." As for his own cultivation technique, because he had switched to a new technique after forming his core, Song Qingming had only just cultivated the "Five Elements Profound Gang Art" to the late stage of Foundation Establishment. He estimated that it would take another two or three years to break through to the Jin Dan stage. Currently, the spells he used when facing enemies were still the few spells from the "Jade Profound Scripture" that he had been cultivating all along.

However, Jin Shan Market did not have much time to relax. After resting for about a month, the White Lion Spirit King reorganized its forces and led its spirit beast army aggressively to the outside of Jin Shan Market.

Song Qingming did not expect that after his "Invisible Escape Light Needle" was cultivated to its peak, covering it on a third-tier magic treasure would actually greatly increase its effect. Although he failed to kill the White Lion Spirit King in this battle, Song Qingming still gained a great deal during the fight.

After all, a third-tier spirit beast king's intelligence was no different from that of an ordinary person. Using a strategy like the "Illusion Formation" could only be used to catch it off guard once. A high-tier spirit beast of the White Lion Spirit King's level could not possibly be stupid enough to fall for Song Qingming's trick a second time easily.

He did not expect that after the "Invisible Escape Light Needle" covered the Green Willow Sword, it not only successfully hid most of the aura of this magic treasure as Song Qingming had expected, but also greatly increased the power of the Green Willow Sword when facing enemies later.

Back when he was still in the Foundation Establishment stage, after Song Qingming refined the "Invisible Escape Light Needle," he actually tried to cover it on his second-tier flying sword. But after the coverage was successful at that time, it did not enhance the magic treasure he controlled, and even the effect of helping to hide his aura was not very obvious, so Song Qingming later abandoned this idea.

Precisely because of this, Song Qingming took advantage of the fact that the White Lion Spirit King had not fully reacted, quietly controlled the Green Willow Sword to approach it silently, and immediately launched a sudden attack.

After the situation in Jin Shan Market stabilized, Song Qingming also seized the time to go into seclusion to begin practicing the coordination between the "Invisible Escape Light Needle" and his own magic treasure, the Green Willow Sword. As long as he could improve his proficiency in this aspect, Song Qingming would have a few more chances to defeat the White Lion Spirit King head-on in the upcoming battles.

This time, when ambushing the White Lion Spirit King, after using the "Illusion Formation" to trap the spirit beast king, Song Qingming's heart stirred when he was preparing to deliver a fatal blow, and he tried to attach the "Invisible Escape Light Needle" he had practiced for many years directly onto the magic treasure Green Willow Sword.

He did not expect that this sword not only successfully shattered the White Lion Spirit King's protective gang energy, but even the White Lion Spirit King's powerful physical body was finally penetrated easily by the "Green Willow Sword" like tofu. If it weren't for the White Lion Spirit King controlling its natal inner core in time to block the subsequent attacks of the "Green Willow Sword," Song Qingming might really have had a chance to finish it off.

Subsequently, the spirit beasts and the human cultivator side launched another bloody battle outside Jin Shan Market. Because the strength of the cultivators on the Jin Shan Market side had increased significantly compared to before, the advantage held by the spirit beast side was no longer so obvious, and the overall combat power of both sides was basically evenly matched.

Besides the low-tier spirit beasts and cultivators below, the White Lion Spirit King, whose injuries had mostly recovered, also launched another great battle with Song Qingming outside the market this time.

In this battle, Song Qingming, who had already skillfully used the "Invisible Escape Light Needle" to enhance the power of his magic treasure, was able to gain the upper hand in the head-on confrontation with the White Lion Spirit King. In the end, the White Lion Spirit King only managed to fight Song Qingming to a draw by relying on the help of several powerful late-stage Foundation Establishment spirit beasts under its command.

In the end, with both sides suffering losses, the great battle slowly came to an end, leaving hundreds of corpses outside Jin Shan Market again. Because the human cultivator side was defending on their home turf and relying on the Jin Shan Market protective formation, their overall losses were much smaller than those of the spirit beast side.

Having witnessed Song Qingming's power and the very formidable defensive strength within Jin Shan Market, the White Lion Spirit King did not rashly drive the spirit beast army to launch a full-scale attack on Jin Shan Market again, but instead directed the spirit beast army to concentrate on the east side of Jin Shan Market, confronting the Jin Shan Market cultivators.

After the battle, although the spirit beast side still held a numerical advantage, the human cultivators were backed by several protective formations of Jin Shan Market and could also use the second-tier "Flying Cloud Crossbows" and a steady stream of various spirit items to help. The gap in strength between the two sides was no longer significant, and there was no longer much possibility for the spirit beast side to break through Jin Shan Market head-on.

After confronting the cultivators for half a month at Jin Shan Market, the White Lion Spirit King attacked the market head-on several more times, but it still could not find an opportunity to chew through the hard bone of Jin Shan Market.

After several great battles, the spirit beast side suffered many setbacks and lost many low-tier spirit beasts due to forced attacks, and even over a dozen second-tier spirit beasts were killed by the Jin Shan Market side.

Seeing that there was no hope for a head-on attack on Jin Shan Market, the White Lion Spirit King slowly changed its original strategy of attacking Jin Shan Market head-on. It began to order a portion of the spirit beasts under its command to secretly bypass Jin Shan Market and enter Pingyang County, attacking the spirit mountains near Jin Shan Market everywhere.

The White Lion Spirit King itself led the spirit beast army to remain outside Jin Shan Market, beginning to direct these spirit beasts to harass and attack the market in small waves, attracting the attention of all the cultivators in Jin Shan Market.

As news of the surrounding spirit mountains being captured by spirit beasts reached Jin Shan Market, the many Pingyang County cultivators in the market suddenly became panicked. Although these people were in the market, their relatives and friends were still at home in Pingyang County to the south, so they naturally began to worry about the safety of their families.

The purpose of the White Lion Spirit King's move was to force the Jin Shan Market cultivators to take the initiative to come out and fight a decisive battle with it. As long as they left the market and lost the protective formation and those troublesome "Flying Cloud Crossbows," the Jin Shan Market cultivators would certainly be unable to defeat the spirit beast army in a great battle in the wild.

Faced with the White Lion Spirit King's overt scheme, Song Qingming and other high-tier cultivators of Jin Shan Market were well aware of it and did not fall for it, immediately leaving the city to fight a decisive battle with the spirit beasts.

If they chose to take the initiative to come out of Jin Shan Market to fight a decisive battle with the spirit beast army, they would certainly fall right into the White Lion Spirit King's trap, and the human cultivator side would certainly be the one to suffer.

But if they completely ignored it and let those spirit beasts run rampant in Pingyang County, once more than half of Pingyang County fell into the hands of the spirit beasts, it would inevitably shake the morale of the army over time.

In order to comfort the many Pingyang County cultivators in Jin Shan Market, Song Qingming immediately ordered the many cultivation families in the north of Pingyang County to resolutely implement the strategy of "strengthening the walls and clearing the fields," actively abandoning those spirit mountains that were difficult to defend, preserving their strength to gather at Fire Yunshan in the south, and organizing forces to jointly resist the spirit beast army moving south.

Subsequently, Song Qingming quickly sent several Foundation Establishment cultivators led by Cao Rongxue, leading a group of relatively elite Qi Refining cultivators to quickly rush to Fire Yunshan to divide their forces and support those cultivators guarding the south of Pingyang County. To facilitate their rapid movement, Song Qingming even lent his own second-tier flying boat to Cao Rongxue for use.

After Cao Rongxue and the others arrived at Fire Yunshan one step ahead and joined forces with the many cultivators gathered there, the Pingyang County cultivator side quickly used the method of luring the enemy deep to severely damage part of the spirit beast army moving south under Fire Yunshan, blocking them in front of Fire Yunshan.

Although many places in the north of Pingyang County temporarily fell into the hands of the spirit beasts, because Song Qingming had issued the retreat order early, except for the first few Qi Refining families that did not retreat in time and suffered relatively large losses, other cultivation families quickly abandoned their own spirit mountains and retreated directly to Fire Yunshan after receiving the instructions.

During the last spirit beast turmoil, because the White Lion Spirit King suddenly appeared and broke through Jin Shan Market, the spirit mountains of the major cultivation families in the north of Pingyang County were swept by the spirit beast army, causing them huge losses, and many of those cultivation families perished from then on.

After all, once bitten, twice shy. For the sake of precaution, these many cultivation families who had suffered losses had already sent some of their mortals to the south of Pingyang County long before this spirit beast turmoil.

Although the spirit beast army that divided its forces to move south captured many spirit mountains, the overall losses of the human side were actually not large, except for the loss of a small portion of mortals.

(End of this chapter)