Chapter 6

After leaving Muqiao Town, he cast a Light Body Technique and galloped eastward all the way. Being in the mid-stage of Qi Refining, he is now much faster using the Light Body Technique to travel than when he was in the early stage of Qi Refining. However, in less than an hour, he arrived at the foot of Mount Lingyuan.

Mount Lingyuan is only a little over a hundred zhang high, which does not look so conspicuous compared to the six-hundred-zhang-high Mount Funiu. Song Qingming arrived at a place on the mountain shrouded in dense fog and handed a token to the formation in the fog. Not long after, a wave of magic power came from the formation, and immediately after, the fog in the formation gradually dissipated, and a figure greeted him.

"Second Sister, the Fourth Elder arranged for me to come here to garrison for you."

"Little Seven, I didn't expect it to really be you who came. Yesterday, Ninth Uncle said you were coming, and I didn't believe it."

Standing in front was a woman in white, with her hair tied up in a bun. She was precisely Song Qingwan, who ranked second in the Qing generation of the Song family, and she also had a cultivation base of the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

There are currently nine people in the Qing generation of the Song family. Except for the third, Song Qingze, whose cultivation is outstanding, the talent of the other eight is about the same, all being four or five spiritual root cultivators, so the cultivation realm of the Qing generation cultivators is also not much different until now.

With the same spiritual root aptitude, the gap in early cultivation is generally not too large. Only those geniuses with outstanding spiritual roots can quickly widen the gap in cultivation with cultivators of ordinary aptitude like them.

Third Brother Song Qingze is the one with the highest cultivation talent among the cultivators of Song Qingming's generation. Such a three-spiritual-root cultivator is also called a true spiritual root cultivator.

This type of cultivator not only cultivates faster, but also breaks through the bottleneck of the Qi Refining stage more easily. Compared to Song Qingming and their four or five spiritual root cultivators, it will be easier to cultivate to the late stage of Qi Refining.

In the cultivation world, among ten ordinary cultivators, only one or two such true spiritual root cultivators can appear. As long as they do not fall in the middle, this type of cultivator can basically successfully cultivate to the late stage of Qi Refining. This type of cultivator is also the backbone force mainly cultivated by major sects and families. If they can have resources supplied, there will still be hope for Foundation Establishment.

Among the more than twenty cultivators in the entire Song family, the best spiritual root aptitude is the three-spiritual-root cultivator.

As for the better dual-attribute spiritual root, also known as earth spiritual root cultivators, this type of cultivator has no bottlenecks before Foundation Establishment, and their cultivation speed is faster. They are basically the seeds of Foundation Establishment within major sects and cultivation families.

In the cultivation world, there is also a type of exotic spiritual root cultivator, which is formed by the mutation of the spiritual root attributes in the body of a dual-attribute spiritual root cultivator. Their cultivation speed is about the same as that of a dual-spiritual-root cultivator, but the latter is more powerful in fighting than the former, and they are also more rare.

And the top-tier heaven spiritual root cultivators in the cultivation world can be said to be one in ten thousand. In the nearly thousand-year history of the entire Qinghe County, they have never appeared. It is rumored that this type of heaven spiritual root cultivator has no cultivation bottleneck before Core Formation.

As long as this type of cultivator appears, they are often the objects of contention for those top forces in the cultivation world. After all, as long as one can possess a heaven spiritual root cultivator, that is possessing a potential powerhouse who can reach at least the Core Formation stage.

Although Song Qingwan's cultivation is not high, she has learned the alchemy skill, which is the most difficult to inherit among the hundred arts of cultivation, and she is already a low-grade alchemist. This point is also the place where she makes Song Qingming and others the most envious.

In the cultivation world, various cultivators will learn a few cultivation skills to earn spirit stones and resources, such as alchemy, talisman making, weapon refining, formations, spiritual planting, beast taming, puppet making, etc. These are also called the hundred arts of cultivation, among which the most noble is the alchemist.

Alchemists are not only noble but also very rare. The reason for this is that compared to other skills, the cost required for the early cultivation of alchemists is really too high. Every alchemist is basically piled up with a large pile of spiritual herbs and immortal medicines.

Song Qingming is now also considered a primary formation master. Choosing to become a formation master at the beginning was also because although formation masters consume more time to learn.

Compared to other skills, it saves the most spirit stone investment. Formation masters are also relatively useful in hunting demonic beasts. It is also because of this that even though his cultivation is not high, every time Thirteenth Uncle and the others go down the mountain to hunt demonic beasts, they like to bring him along to help set up formations to hunt demons.

"I didn't expect Little Seven, you cultivate so diligently and caught up with me so quickly. When Second Sister was your age, I hadn't even cultivated to the fourth layer of Qi Refining."

"Second Sister is joking. If you hadn't spent too much time inheriting the family's alchemy path, I'm afraid you wouldn't be far from Third Brother. Fourth Elder also said yesterday that you should be in seclusion to break through your cultivation when you go back this time. We brothers will have to rely on you, the alchemist, to take care of us in the future."

"It's not as fast as he said. I'm still far from breaking through. Let's not talk about this first. I'll take you to see Ninth Uncle first."

The two passed through the fog and walked forward for a while, arriving in a village. Song Qingming saw some family mortals living and working here. Most of them were the families of those miners mining the ore veins.

These people basically have no big worries under the protection of family cultivators, and most of them have happy smiles on their faces. Seeing Song Qingming and the other two passing by, they all stopped to salute one after another.

After passing through the village, a small crescent-shaped lake appeared in front. On one side of the lake, there was a relatively tall two-story building. Song Qingwan led Song Qingming into the building one after another.

In the middle of the room, a square Eight Immortals table was placed. Behind the table sat a middle-aged man with his head down reading a book. It was precisely Ninth Uncle Song Zhangxin.

"Ninth Uncle, Qingming is here."

"Nephew pays respects to Ninth Uncle."

Song Zhangxin put down the book in his hand, raised his head, waved his hand, and said, "Since Qingming has already arrived here, Qingwan, you go back and pack up, and go back earlier, so as not to let the clan leader and the others worry."

After hearing this, Song Qingwan responded, nodded towards Song Qingming beside her, and walked out.

"Patrol the mine twice a day. If there is nothing to do, you can cultivate in the mountain. Without my permission, you are not allowed to go down the mountain privately."

"Nephew understands."

Ninth Uncle Song Zhangxin usually does not like to talk much. Although he is only of four-spiritual-root aptitude like Song Qingming, he is a famous bitter cultivator in the clan. He is only in his sixties and is already at the seventh layer of Qi Refining. He is also one of the only four late-stage Qi Refining cultivators in the family. If there are no accidents, he will definitely be able to cultivate to the peak of Qi Refining.

Half a day later, after simply handing over with Second Sister Song Qingwan, Song Qingming did not choose to live in the residence that Second Sister moved out of, but cleaned up another older courtyard nearby and settled down, starting his daily life of patrolling and cultivating.

Unknowingly, half a year passed. Now, Song Qingming has completely understood the locations of Mount Lingyuan and has also become familiar with the family mortals here.

Usually, besides patrolling the ore veins daily, supervising the mining progress, occasionally dealing with some small disputes between mortals here, and coping with and driving away low-tier demonic beasts that accidentally broke into the mountain's outer formation.

It is somewhat busy but also carefree.

Over the past half year, Song Qingming felt that his Ninth Uncle was quite at ease with him. Once he taught him how to handle daily affairs, he began to often close the door for ten days or half a month without coming out of the small building. The affairs of Mount Lingyuan, big and small, were basically left to Song Qingming to handle. Only when there were two high-tier demonic beast harassments, Song Qingming alone found it difficult to cope, so he had to ask Song Zhangxin to help deal with them.

Ten years ago, when Song Qingming first arrived at Mount Funiu, Song Zhangxin happened to be traveling abroad. Song Qingming had not had much contact with this Ninth Uncle in the past, only knowing that he had once cultivated alone for many years on Mount Ziyun near the dangerous Mount Fuyun, and his cultivation and knowledge far exceeded most of his peers in the family.

After Song Qingming arrived at Mount Lingyuan, when he encountered some problems in cultivation at the beginning, he took the initiative to ask him for advice. At first, Song Qingming was still a bit cautious, but he didn't expect this Ninth Uncle to be a person who is cold on the outside but warm on the inside, and he was very keen on discussing the path of cultivation.

For the past half year, he has patiently pointed out many of Song Qingming's doubts in cultivation, and even passed on some of his knowledge and experience in hunting demons and fighting on Mount Ziyun to Song Qingming without reservation.

It must be said that Song Zhangxin still has some unique insights in cultivation, which also made Song Qingming benefit a lot during this period, and many of his previous doubts in cultivation have now become much clearer.

This day, Song Qingming had just returned from patrolling the mine in the morning when he saw from afar a martial artist who usually guarded the formation running towards him in a hurry.

It looks like demonic beasts have come to harass again.

Qinghe County has been occupied by human cultivators for thousands of years. After countless clean-ups by generations of cultivators, although there are no second-tier demonic beasts in the territory, there are still many first-tier demonic beasts, and many deep mountains where human footprints are rare are still the territory of demonic beasts.

Mount Lingyuan is not as quiet as Mount Funiu and Muqiao Town. Because this place is close to Mount Yunwu, where demonic beasts are entrenched, although there are no high-tier demonic beasts in the surrounding area, there are still many low and mid-tier demonic beasts.

Every half a month or so, demonic beasts will accidentally break in and harass here. This is also why the family originally did not have many cultivators, but still must have two cultivators stationed here.

After receiving the news reported by the visitor, Song Qingming hurriedly cast a spell and rushed towards the village entrance.

Not long after, he arrived at the formation control point at the village entrance. Several martial artists guarding the formation were nervously looking at a huge figure in the formation, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Song Qingming arrive.

Song Qingming took a look, and after seeing the huge figure in the formation, he opened his mouth and said: "You just stay here and guard the formation disk. This is a mid-tier demonic beast, you can't hurt it."

These martial artists are all people among the family mortals who have practiced secular martial arts. This type of person is also called a postnatal martial artist. They hold weapons made of black iron, and can also cause some damage to early-stage Qi Refining demonic beasts.

Mount Lingyuan has more than a dozen such martial artists. They are more than enough to deal with ordinary wild beasts, and by joining forces, they can also have the strength to fight against early-stage Qi Refining low-tier demonic beasts.

But facing this mid-tier demonic beast, it seems not enough. Pig-type demonic beasts are inherently thick-skinned and hard as iron. After advancing to the mid-tier, some demonic beasts will instinctively awaken some spells. These martial artists simply cannot help at all when facing mid-tier demonic beasts, and if they are not careful, they will lose their lives in vain.

(End of chapter)