Chapter 523: Post-War Settlement

Seeing Ma Hongshan's head in Jin Ziyuan's hand, the rest of the Xiaoyao Sect crowd was also very happy.

The Ma family betrayed the sect. If the sect had exhausted all its strength this time but still failed to kill the culprit Ma Hongshan, allowing him to successfully flee to Yue Guo, even if the Xiaoyao Sect could kill many low-tier cultivators under the Ma family, this time it would definitely greatly damage the sect's reputation.

This battle, although it failed to completely wipe out the entire Ma family and still allowed Ma Qiudie and some Ma family cultivators to escape, the Xiaoyao Sect had already made them pay a considerable price, which was enough to deter other cultivation families within Wei Guo.

This great battle, caused by the Ma family's rebellion and lasting several days, finally came to an end at this moment.

Li Mu heard the battle results reported by Jin Ziyuan and Chen Xuanxin, and his face still showed a trace of satisfaction. He voluntarily opened his mouth to praise Song Qingming and the few who went to pursue Ma Hongshan.

In addition to those Ma family cultivators who were killed, this time the Xiaoyao Sect also captured a large flying boat of the Nine Origin Sect, which was loaded with many supplies that the Ma family was preparing to transport to Yue Guo, among which many were just snatched from the Tuoyun Mountain market. These spiritual items, plus that large flying boat, were worth nearly one hundred thousand spirit stones.

Because Ma Hongshan had already handed over many precious items of the Ma family to Ma Qiudie in advance, although Song Qingming and the others later found a storage bag on him, there were no good things found inside except for a few volumes of cultivation techniques, two magic treasures, and some spirit stones, which really made the Xiaoyao Sect crowd somewhat disappointed.

After returning to Mount Tiexian Fortress, Li Mu took Song Qingming and many Xiaoyao Sect Elders and immediately set off to return to Guyang Mountain, handing over the aftermath matters in Mount Tiexian Fortress to Chu Fengping, who had always been relatively good at communicating with people.

Nowadays, in Mount Tiexian Fortress, all the Ma family cultivators have evacuated, but more than one million ordinary mortals have been left here, as well as more than a dozen vassal cultivation families near Mount Tiexian Fortress.

Regarding mortals, the Xiaoyao Sect has always not implicated them at will. However, having lost the protection of the Ma family, it is probably difficult for these people to return to the carefree days of the past.

In order to prevent so many mortals of the Ma family from gathering together, which is not conducive to management, Chu Fengping specifically transferred a large flying boat of the sect to transport a portion of the mortals to Guiyun Market and Gao Yun County in the south.

Like the Liu family of Jingyuan Mountain back then, the ringleaders were basically executed directly, and the remaining low-tier cultivators were directly sent to several mines controlled by the Xiaoyao Sect to become mine slaves. Even the Yinfeng Ridge mine in Qinghe County received many such cultivators this time.

As for the more than a dozen Foundation Establishment immortal clans under the Ma family, the Xiaoyao Sect also handled them in batches according to their crimes. The few Foundation Establishment immortal clans that were of one mind with the Ma family and prepared to jump ship and flee to Yue Guo were all quickly liquidated and had their homes raided and clans wiped out by the Xiaoyao Sect, ending up in a worse situation than the Ma family.

According to the rules of the Xiaoyao Sect, these mortals of the Ma family, even if they will not be specially punished now, if cultivators with spiritual roots appear in the future, they will not have the qualifications to ascend to immortality for at least one hundred years and can only be ordinary mortals for a lifetime.

Facing Chu Fengping's interrogation, these vassal cultivation families, at the beginning, regardless of whether they truly betrayed the sect with the Ma family, all cried injustice and accused each other, immediately disrupting the rhythm of the Xiaoyao Sect's interrogation.

For the remaining fence-sitters who had not completely wanted to follow the Ma family to the end, the Xiaoyao Sect also understood that they were under the Ma family and were forced to participate in the Ma family's betrayal. For these cultivation families, Chu Fengping still gave some relatively loose policies at his discretion, only warning them verbally and confiscating many merit points of these cultivation families in the sect's Merit Pavilion.

Through several nails that the sect had secretly buried in Mount Tiexian Fortress for many years, Chu Fengping quickly dug out the few cultivation families led by the Chen and Li families who deliberately confused the public, allowing these die-hard cultivation families of the Ma family to receive the punishment they deserved.

However, although the Xiaoyao Sect has not interfered much in the affairs of Mount Tiexian Fortress over the years, the fact that the Ma family has become more and more disobedient over the years has long attracted the attention of the Xiaoyao Sect. Among the many cultivation families under Mount Tiexian Fortress, several have long been secretly controlled by the sect to monitor every move of the Ma family for the Xiaoyao Sect.

Through this round of cleansing, the remaining forces of the Ma family in the entire Mount Tiexian Fortress have been completely uprooted. The Xiaoyao Sect has regained control of the entire Mount Tiexian Fortress and also controlled all the markets and mines of the Ma family near Mount Tiexian Fortress.

Regarding these accomplices who assisted in the rebellion, although the Xiaoyao Sect did not wipe them out like the Ma family cultivators, the days of these cultivation families were not much better.

Soon, the news of the Ma family betraying the sect spread throughout Wei Guo. In less than half a month, the Ma family, which had been glorious for more than five hundred years in the northwest of Wei Guo, completely disappeared in the long river of history of Wei Guo.

After returning to Guyang Mountain, Li Mu immediately rewarded many Jin Dan Elders of the Xiaoyao Sect who participated in this battle, including Song Qingming and the others, who all finally received many rewards of sect merit.

Besides this, in order to compensate Song Qingming and Lu Boyang who were accidentally injured in this battle, Li Mu also generously rewarded each of them with a third-grade low-quality spirit talisman, which really made Song Qingming somewhat surprised in his heart, and he accepted this spiritual item with a happy face.

This time, in the great battle of Mount Tiexian Fortress, after Song Qingming killed the Foundation Establishment late-stage elder of the Ma family outside the mountain-protecting formation, he not only obtained a valuable talisman treasure "Green Leaf Three-Star Ruler" from him, but later also found more than three thousand spirit stones and many miscellaneous spiritual items in the elder's storage bag.

Even without counting the value of that talisman treasure, just the other spiritual items in that elder's storage bag added up to an estimated nearly ten thousand spirit stones. These spiritual items were all obtained by Song Qingming alone by killing enemy cultivators on the battlefield. The Xiaoyao Sect side did not say much after knowing this and directly generously rewarded these spiritual items to Song Qingming.

After Li Mu finished rewarding the merits, Yao Ganshu on the side asked somewhat cautiously: "Uncle Li, this time because of the obstruction of the Nine Origin Sect, we failed to achieve our full goal and completely wipe out the Ma family, still leaving a hidden danger for the sect. Now that we have formed a grudge with the Nine Origin Sect in the west, should we take more precautions in Mount Tiexian Fortress in the future?"

Li Mu smiled and shook his head: "No matter. Ma Hongshan is dead, Wang Ziheng is heavily injured. The Nine Origin Sect has lost two Jin Dan combat powers at once and now has no strength to contend with us. They dare not easily cross the Skylark Mountain Range now. Having Fengping there is enough.

The Nine Origin Sect's interference in our Wei Guo affairs this time has already been recorded by me. Sooner or later, we will still have to settle this account with the Nine Origin Sect."

After the battle with the Nine Origin Sect, although Li Mu was very angry in his heart, he always maintained his reason and did not lead Song Qingming and the others to rush into the territory of Yue Guo to continue to entangle with the Nine Origin Sect.

However, because the Nine Origin Sect interfered in the Ma family affairs of Wei Guo, the two sects have now completely broken their faces. If there is an opportunity in the future, Li Mu will definitely think of ways to deal with them.

"In Tuoyun Mountain, Feng Yangde is now dead. The loose cultivators on the mountain are leaderless. Up to now, even the formation has not been repaired. Should we send a suitable person to take over Tuoyun Mountain?"

"Do not be so anxious about this matter for now. Those loose cultivators are all people who are used to being free. Wanting them to submit to the sect so quickly is also a difficult thing to achieve. Let us not interfere in the spiritual vein of Tuoyun Mountain for now. Send a few more second-grade formation masters over, and also let the two disciples of Chen Jinliang go back to see first." Li Mu sighed.

After staying in Guyang Mountain for a few days, Song Qingming also bid farewell to the Xiaoyao Sect crowd and returned to Qinghe County alone.

After learning that the Xiaoyao Sect was going to attack Mount Tiexian Fortress, the Xiaoyao Sect immediately mobilized the power of the entire Wei Guo, preparing to fight a decisive battle with the Nine Origin Sect and Mount Tiexian Fortress. The Song family, far away in Qinghe County, also received the mobilization order issued by the sect's Miscellaneous Affairs Hall and began to get busy.

It is just that before they could mobilize the cultivators to set off, the news that high-tier Xiaoyao Sect cultivators like Song Qingming had broken through Mount Tiexian Fortress and wiped out the Ma family quickly spread to Funiu Mountain, interrupting the busy figures of Song Qingyu and the others.

Seeing Song Qingming returning to Funiu Mountain from afar, Song Qingyu and several other Song family Elders immediately greeted him and asked with concern.

Including Song Qingyu, in the letter sent by the Xiaoyao Sect two days ago, they learned that Song Qingming was injured in the great battle of Mount Tiexian Fortress, and the Song family crowd was also somewhat panicked.

Song Qingming has always been the biggest pillar of the entire Song family. If Song Qingming were to have any mishaps, this family that had just risen not long ago might immediately fall back down.

Seeing everyone's concern for him, Song Qingming also helplessly smiled and explained. This time in Mount Tiexian Fortress, although Song Qingming's natal magic treasure was severely damaged and could no longer be used, his injury this time was not serious. He only lost some essence blood in his body. Song Qingming only needs to cultivate patiently and nourish it for some time, and then it will be fine.

After learning about Song Qingming's situation, Song Qingyu and Huang Siyuan and the others finally felt relieved.

After returning to Funiu Mountain, Song Qingming immediately began to close-door cultivate to heal his injuries. His natal magic treasure was damaged, and even this corpse puppet "Jin Feng" was heavily injured. In this battle of Mount Tiexian Fortress, although Song Qingming harvested many spiritual items and sect merits, he also paid some price.

Just two months after Song Qingming had just started his close-door cultivation to heal his injuries, Funiu Mountain suddenly welcomed two relatively unfamiliar guests, forcing Song Qingming to choose to come out of seclusion in advance.

"Senior Song, the two of us have an urgent matter and beg you to do us a favor. I hope you can forgive us for any rudeness." Just seeing Song Qingming walk in, Zhang Rong and Lin Yutang on the side hurriedly stood up and bowed to him.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 524 =====