Chapter 535: Family Management

Seeing that the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from the "Heavenly Fire Roc" before him were constantly rising, Song Yuanfang immediately revealed a hint of joy and hurriedly led the several family beast-tamers behind him out of the "Heavenly Fire Roc's" cave.

After Song Yuanhao and the "Heavenly Fire Roc" killed the second-tier giant python together on Mount Qingzhu, the "Heavenly Fire Roc" swallowed the snake gall inside its body on the spot. This finally allowed it to find the opportunity to break through to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and not long after returning to Mount Funiu, it soon fell into seclusion to break through.

It generally takes a slightly longer time for demonic beasts to break through their cultivation than for human cultivators. The "Heavenly Fire Roc" spent this seclusion until half a year later, when its cultivation formally broke through to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, before it flew out of its cave.

Upon learning that the "Heavenly Fire Roc" had successfully advanced to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, Song Qingming specifically returned to Mount Funiu to check on its condition.

The "Heavenly Fire Roc," which had just come out of seclusion and was devouring food, saw Song Qingming, whom it hadn't seen for a long time, immediately abandoned the food in front of it and happily came before Song Qingming, constantly showing off the lightning light on its body, which had become even more powerful.

"Haha! Not bad, you are also stronger than before!"

After Song Qingming comforted the "Heavenly Fire Roc" for a while, he had Song Yuanfang call over the several beast-tamers in the family who took care of spirit beasts and rewarded them well.

Some spirit beasts have low attack power but great strength; after being tamed, they can be used to help cultivators transport goods. Others have valuable demonic beast materials on their bodies, or their meat is very delicious. These types of spirit beasts that can create income for the family in a short time are the ones most liked by most cultivation families to tame.

During the ten years Song Qingming sat in charge of Mount Tuoyun, except for the Song family having some shares in the Mount Tuoyun market, the Song family had not actively intervened in other affairs on the mountain. The management rights of the Mount Tuoyun spiritual vein had always been in the hands of the "Jin Yunge," controlled by Lin Yutang and the others.

Rather than inviting a Jin Dan cultivator of unknown background to take charge of Mount Tuoyun, Lin Yutang and the others were certainly willing to continue cooperating with the Song family. As long as the "Jin Yunge" could retain the management rights of Mount Tuoyun, Lin Yutang and the others were very willing to concede more benefits to the Song family.

Although the ten-year agreement with Mount Tuoyun had been completed, because Lin Yutang and the others had not yet found a suitable retreat, and under their full efforts to retain him, Song Qingming had not yet completely ended his agreement with Mount Tuoyun and had agreed to continue protecting them for a period of time.

The Jin Yunge not only owned the Mount Tuoyun spiritual vein and 30% of the shares of the Mount Tuoyun market, but also secretly controlled several small markets like Mount Bai Long around Mount Tuoyun. Over these years, Lin Yutang and the others had also earned quite a few spirit stones.

Without a Jin Dan stage master to look after them, even if Lin Yutang and the others had sufficient spirit stones, it would be very difficult for them to find a way to obtain better Five Elements Core Formation spirit items. Trying to fully support Zhang Rong's successful core formation was not an easy matter.

Regarding the request from Lin Yutang and the others to extend the agreement, Song Qingming considered it repeatedly. Although he did not directly agree to Lin Yutang and the others' request to stay on Mount Tuoyun for a long time as per the previous agreement, he did agree that he would continue to protect Mount Tuoyun on the surface.

However, managing a family involves many affairs, after all. Some trivial matters below should be safely handed over to other elders of the family to handle; there is no need to do everything personally, and one must not delay one's own cultivation because of this."

This type of spirit beast, although very strong in combat ability, is also very difficult to serve. Sometimes, they might even attack the beast-tamers who tame them.

Hearing Song Qingming's affirmative words, a hint of relief immediately appeared on the faces of Song Yuanfang and Song Yuanxue.

"Hmm! The family currently has too many industries, and the number of cultivators is still somewhat insufficient. This is indeed a problem, and we need to think of a way to handle it properly. Yuanfang, what do you think about this matter?"

After Song Qingming returned to Mount Funiu this time, he was not in a hurry to return to Mount Tuoyun. He planned to stay in the Song family for a few more days and wait until Song Qingyu was ready for seclusion before going to protect her.

Whether it was the Song family or Song Qingming, their reputation in the State of Wei had always been quite good over these years. Having dealt with Song Qingming for so many years, Lin Yutang could also see that Song Qingming had no intention of occupying the spiritual vein of Mount Tuoyun.

"Thank you for your understanding, Seventh Great-Uncle. The two of us actually want to steal some leisure, but now that the family has more and more industries, the people below really cannot make decisions on some relatively important matters."

During the ten years Song Qingming sat in charge of Mount Tuoyun, the Lin Yutang brothers rebuilt the "Jin Yunge," and the power of the local loose cultivators on Mount Tuoyun, represented by them, also developed very quickly.

When Song Qingming first cooperated with them, his main purpose was for the two cultivation inheritances left behind by Chen Jinliang, plus a little push from the Xiaoyao Sect later on.

For one thing, the family's Mount Funiu spiritual vein had not yet been upgraded to the third tier, so Song Qingming staying on Mount Tuoyun, which had better spiritual energy, was more beneficial to his own cultivation.

Mount Funiu family council hall,

Seeing Song Qingming sitting at the head of the council hall, intently flipping through the accounts of the family's industries over the past few years, Song Yuanfang and Song Yuanxue, standing below, also had expressions of nervousness.

In terms of learning beast-taming techniques, the Song family also had relatively thin talent. There were only five or six cultivators in the family's Beast-Taming Hall who specialized in this, and the one with the highest level was only a first-tier top-quality beast-tamer. Their main task was to be responsible for taking care of the "Heavenly Fire Roc" and taming some low-tier spirit beasts with relatively gentle temperaments in the back mountain.

Song Yuanxue nodded and said: "Sixteenth Brother is right. Last year, Yuanxi found a black iron mine with good output next to Mount Bai Yang. If it can be mined smoothly, the family can gather enough spirit stones to upgrade the spiritual vein sooner. However, the family currently lacks manpower, and mining this vein requires the investment of quite a few cultivators in the early stages, so we can only temporarily shelve this matter for now."

The demonic king nearest to Mount Tuoyun is their old rival, the Cloud Crane Demonic King. This demonic king's cultivation is only at the early Jin Dan stage, and it is impossible for it to break through the current protective formation of Mount Tuoyun in a short time. As long as there is no special situation where multiple demonic kings appear to attack the spiritual mountain, Lin Yutang and the others are absolutely confident that they can hold the formation and wait for support from Song Qingming or the Xiaoyao Sect.

Because several family elders like Song Qingyu had focused their main energy on cultivation in recent years, the people managing family affairs for the past ten years were mainly Song Yuanfang and Song Yuanxue, who were more interested in family management.

The demonic beasts around Mount Tuoyun had been cleared by the cultivators on the mountain in recent years, and the protective formation on the mountain had been greatly enhanced in power after Song Qingming's improvements. Coupled with the defense of dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators, even if Song Qingming was not on the mountain, Lin Yutang and the others were enough to handle it if ordinary low-tier demonic beasts dared to invade.

During the ten years he sat in charge of Mount Tuoyun, Song Qingming basically had not stayed in the clan for a long time. After returning to Mount Funiu this time, Song Qingming also took the opportunity to carefully check the situation of the family everywhere.

Although they failed to extend the agreement as they wished, having received Song Qingming's promise to continue protecting Mount Tuoyun, Lin Yutang and the others were immediately satisfied and nodded in agreement.

Secondly, the Song family still had a 20% share in the Mount Tuoyun market, which was also a significant income for the family. Plus, Lin Yutang and the others would need to pay an extra tribute of spirit stones to Song Qingming every year, which also made Song Qingming change his mind and not plan to let go of Mount Tuoyun's affairs so quickly.

Over the years, Lin Yutang and the others had not considered looking for other Jin Dan loose cultivators to sit in charge of Mount Tuoyun after the ten-year agreement with Song Qingming ended. However, it is easy to invite a god but hard to send one away. Once an outside Jin Dan loose cultivator took charge of Mount Tuoyun, it would certainly be impossible for the "Jin Yunge" to control the entire Mount Tuoyun like this in the future.

In the cultivation world, learning the way of beast-taming is no easier than other cultivation skills; it also requires personal effort and talent, especially when taming those demonic beasts that are of a higher tier and have a violent temper.

The Mount Tuoyun market is currently quite prosperous, and it can bring a lot of income to the "Jin Yunge" every year. Zhang Rong also still has hope for core formation. Unless it is a last resort, Lin Yutang and the others would certainly not be willing to take this path and voluntarily concede the control of the Mount Tuoyun spiritual vein to others.

Within the entire cultivation world of the State of Wei, there is no high-level beast-taming inheritance. Even in an Nascent Soul sect like the Xiaoyao Sect, there are only some second-tier beast-tamers, and no beast-tamers above the third tier exist.

It is a pity that a few years ago, Lin Yutang and the others spent a lot of spirit stones to pull strings and traded for a "Jade Dust Pill" from the Xiaoyao Sect, wanting to support Zhang Rong's core formation. As a result, Zhang Rong closed off for several years, but still fell short and failed to form a core.

The Mount Tuoyun spiritual vein is located on the front line of the Floating Yunshan Range, surrounded by demonic beasts. Without a Jin Dan cultivator to sit in charge, it certainly wouldn't work for long. Since Zhang Rong failed to form a core this time, Lin Yutang and the others must also consider other retreats for Mount Tuoyun.

After the ten-year agreement with Song Qingming expired, Lin Yutang and the others thought repeatedly and finally begged Song Qingming, deciding to adopt the method of mutual employment to extend the agreement between Mount Tuoyun and Song Qingming.

After watching for a long time, Song Qingming, who slowly put away the account book in his hand, revealed a hint of a smile and slowly said to the two people below: "You have done well over these years. I have looked at the family's various places these past few days, and there are basically no major problems. You have worked hard in this regard."

Seeing that Song Qingming wanted to hear his suggestions directly, Song Yuanfang thought for a moment and replied: "Now that the family has too many industries and we are too busy to handle them, we can actually consider contracting out some less important industries outside to other subordinate cultivation families nearby."

"This way, we can free up quite a few family cultivators to help manage other core industries of the family, and we can also directly convert these industries with low value into spirit stones, solving the family's urgent need for spirit stones."

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(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 536 =====