Chapter 66: Lei Hu Puppet Beast

In the Merit Pavilion of Guiyunfang, Song Qingming was holding several cultivation classics in his hands with a focused expression, reading with great interest and without fatigue.

During the two months of this mission, Song Qingming learned quite a bit of information he didn't know before from Xu Cheng Ziyan. Only now did he know that the merits obtained by them, the Flying Cloud Guards, for performing missions could not only be directly exchanged for spirit stones in the Merit Pavilion but could also be exchanged for various spirit items on the second floor of the Merit Pavilion.

In the Guiyunfang Merit Pavilion, quite a few spirit items and various classics had been accumulated over hundreds of years. These spirit items were the accumulation of a thousand years of Guiyunfang. Some information, such as introductions to various demonic beasts and spirit medicines in the Fuyun Mountain Range, was information continuously explored, summarized, and recorded into the Merit Pavilion by generations of Flying Cloud Guards.

Some cultivation techniques, classics, and magic treasures came from the seized items of external enemies and wanted bandit cultivators killed by the garrison cultivators of Guiyunfang. Other supplies such as elixirs, spirit talismans, and spirit medicines were specifically placed in the Merit Pavilion by Guiyunfang to reward those meritorious people who had made contributions to the marketplace.

However, items involving the core cultivation inheritance of the Xiaoyao Sect would not appear in the Guiyunfang Merit Pavilion. Song Qingming and these Flying Cloud Guards could only enter the second floor of the Merit Pavilion to exchange for some first-grade spirit items that were not particularly precious.

As for the third floor of the Merit Pavilion, which contained more precious spirit items, only inner disciples of the Xiaoyao Sect could enter. It was said that there were quite a few second-grade spirit items needed by Foundation Establishment cultivators above.

It was also thanks to Xu Cheng Ziyan, who took great care of the people under her, that Song Qingming learned quite a bit of useful information these past two months, avoiding many detours.

Now that he had left Qinghe County for half a year and had gone deep into the Fuyun Mountain Range twice after joining the Flying Cloud Guard, he had also accumulated quite a bit of experience in dealing with various demonic beasts.

With sufficient preparations, he also made quite a few spirit talismans using his free time in the camp while performing missions this time. Now Song Qingming was not in urgent need of spirit stones.

So he simply used his merits to exchange for various classics of the hundred arts of cultivation on the second floor of the Merit Pavilion.

After flipping through a formation classic in his hand, Song Qingming put the other classics in his hand back on the bookshelf, picked up this formation classic, and walked to the management cultivator at the entrance of the second floor of the Merit Pavilion.

The person managing the second floor of the Merit Pavilion was an old man with a relatively simple appearance. Looking at the formation classic Song Qingming placed on the table, the old man narrowed his eyes and asked Song Qingming with a smile, "Little Friend Song, do you want to copy this classic or just borrow it?"

"No need to copy, just borrow it for two days. Directly mortgage it with merits and return it after two days."

During the more than half a month of returning to recuperate, Song Qingming basically indulged in the second floor of the Merit Pavilion, and even the Xiaoyao Sect cultivators managing this place were already very familiar with him.

Although there were many classics and cultivation techniques here, none of them were precious items. Most of them could be found in the marketplace as long as one was willing to spend some effort.

The cultivation classics placed on the second floor of the Merit Pavilion were also allowed to be copied and taken away by these Flying Cloud Guards. However, the number of merits required for copying and borrowing differed by several times. Although Song Qingming also wanted to copy these classics to take back to the family in the future, he was really powerless at the moment.

Song Qingming could only earn twenty or so merits for performing a mission at present. Borrowing five or six classics in the Merit Pavilion during this half month had already used up quite a few, and he really did not have too many merits to copy and take away.

With these classics for company, the studious Song Qingming soon indulged in them, and even his plan to go to the Mount Bai Long marketplace was temporarily shelved by him. Time flew by, and soon more than two years passed again.

Over the past two years, besides following the Flying Cloud Guard to the Fuyun Mountain Range to perform missions, Song Qingming was hiding in the Merit Pavilion of Guiyunfang studying various classics of cultivation techniques.

After Song Qingming had the mysterious cultivation technique Yuxuan Sutra, he naturally looked down on those relatively ordinary cultivation techniques in the Merit Pavilion, but the various technical classics in the Merit Pavilion were of no small help to him now.

Spending more than two years, Song Qingming used the special ability of the remnant map to continuously study classics and refine them. Not only did he raise his formation level to mid-grade, but he also successfully refined several low-tier magic treasures, becoming an ordinary low-grade weapon refiner.

Over the past two years, Song Qingming's cultivation had also been steadily advancing. Relying on his fast talisman-making means, he was not short of elixirs and spirit stones for cultivation, and now he was not far from the late stage of Qi Refining.

On this day, after Song Qingming left the Flying Cloud Guard station, he hurriedly came to Mount Guiyun behind Guiyunfang. The spiritual energy on Mount Guiyun was much better than in Guiyunfang at the foot of the mountain.

Mount Guiyun was a third-tier spirit mountain, and quite a few cave dwellings had already been opened on the mountain for cultivators living in the marketplace to use for cultivation. However, in order to save some spirit stones over the past two years, Song Qingming lived in the Flying Cloud Guard station when returning to Guiyunfang to recuperate and did not rent a cave dwelling here.

After arriving outside a cave dwelling on the mountainside, Song Qingming released a sound-transmission spirit talisman from outside the cave dwelling. Soon, the spirit talisman passed through the restrictions at the entrance of the cave dwelling and flew into the cave dwelling.

"Fellow Daoist Song, please come in quickly." Not long after, a familiar voice of Song Qingming came from the cave dwelling.

After walking into the cave dwelling and seeing Xu Cheng Ziyan meditating inside, Song Qingming hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed.

"Disturbing Captain Xu's cultivation is really embarrassing. I hope you will forgive me for my abruptness, Fellow Daoist."

Xu Cheng Ziyan waved her hand with a smile and said, "You don't have to think too much. I am not in seclusion, just practicing daily. Is there anything you need from me by coming to find me today?"

"I do have a matter I would like to ask Captain Xu for a favor. If this matter can be accomplished, I will naturally have a generous gift to thank you."

The reason Song Qingming came here to ask Xu Cheng Ziyan for help was because he had accidentally learned a piece of news that made him very tempted from the mouth of the old man guarding the Merit Pavilion when he was borrowing classics in the Guiyunfang Merit Pavilion just now.

That old man was a veteran Qi Refining cultivator of the Xiaoyao Sect and had been on duty in the Merit Pavilion for more than ten years, and was relatively clear about the size of things that happened in the Merit Pavilion on weekdays.

From the old man's mouth, Song Qingming accidentally learned that a precious mid-grade puppet beast had recently appeared on the third floor of the Merit Pavilion. After spending a spirit stone to inquire about it in detail, he learned that this puppet beast was precisely the Lei Hu puppet beast that Feng Laogui, who had dealt with him back then, had on him.

A few years ago, after the great battle with the demonic cultivators in the Fuyun Mountain Range, Old Ghost Feng unfortunately fell at the hands of the demonic cultivators. Subsequently, Liu Xingfeng came to support and beat back the demonic cultivators. Afterwards, Old Ghost Feng's storage bag also fell into the hands of the Flying Cloud Guard.

Originally, if a Flying Cloud Guard cultivator fell while performing a mission, the Flying Cloud Guard would look for the cultivator's descendants to provide consolation and exchange for the storage bag.

It was a pity that this person Feng Laogui had no relatives or descendants in Guiyunfang. Guiyunfang sent cultivators to explore for several years and finally only found a few of his mortal relatives.

Facing these mortals, Guiyunfang naturally could not hand over these spirit items to them, and for the time being, could only provide consolation with some worldly gold and silver.

After all, the spirit items used by cultivators were useless to mortals without spiritual power and would also cause trouble for them for no reason. However, Guiyunfang also made a promise to Feng Laogui's relatives that if any of their descendants possessed spirit roots and successfully ascended to immortality within a hundred years, they could come to the Guiyunfang Merit Pavilion to exchange for a sum of spirit item consolation.

After tossing and turning for several years, Feng Laogui's storage bag finally fell into the Guiyunfang Merit Pavilion, including the Lei Hu puppet beast in his storage bag.

This Lei Hu puppet beast was also the best treasure on Feng Laogui, and its value was not weaker than the top-grade flying sword he used.

After listening to Song Qingming slowly explain this matter, Xu Cheng Ziyan finally understood Song Qingming's intention.

"Fellow Daoist Song came here this time to ask me to go to the third floor of the Merit Pavilion to help you exchange for that Lei Hu puppet beast, right?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 67 =====