Chapter 734: Silver Armor, Ten Thousand Spirits Puppet Array (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Bai Yuxian’s closed-door cultivation to break through to the Nascent Soul realm had always been the most secret matter in the "Xiaoyao Sect." For all these years, the Xiaoyao Sect had been blocking the news and keeping it strictly confidential.

Even Song Qingming knew about this because Xu Ziyan had a good relationship with him and indirectly revealed a little to him.

However, the time required for closed-door cultivation to break through to the Nascent Soul realm was at least more than ten years. Bai Yuxian had not appeared in front of people for all these years, and it was impossible to keep it completely hidden for a long time.

After Song Qingyu returned, she went to the sect several times and did not see the Sect Master, Bai Yuxian. Naturally, she also heard some rumors about her closed-door cultivation to form the Nascent Soul.

However, she had always had a skeptical attitude toward this matter. It was not until Song Qingming said it directly to her face just now that Song Qingyu confirmed her previous guess.

Song Qingming nodded and confirmed: "Senior Sister Bai has been in closed-door cultivation for more than ten years. According to the time required for ordinary cultivators to condense the Nascent Soul, she should be leaving her closed-door cultivation in these few years."

"Seventh Brother, do you think Senior Sister Bai has a high chance of successfully breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm this time?"

Song Qingming saw this and shook his head with a smile at Song Qingyu: "Haha! Your Seventh Brother has no experience in breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm. How can I talk nonsense about such things?"

"Senior Sister Bai has the aptitude of a Heavenly Spiritual Root and already has the experience of breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm once. Logically speaking, her chance of success this time should not be low."

"It’s just that breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm is far more difficult than forming the Core. How many genius cultivators in the cultivation world have been blocked at this step? I really can't say for sure whether Senior Sister Bai can succeed this time."

"No matter what changes the sect will have next, we all need to take precautions and make some preparations in advance."

"Hmm! Seventh Brother, you always think further than I do. With you in the family, it will definitely get better and better in the future."

Hearing Song Qingyu’s flattery to his face, Song Qingming couldn't help but shake his head slightly: "The development of the family is not just my business. You and Yuanfang and the others are also very important to the family."

"No matter if I am here in the future or not, I hope the family can be carried forward in your hands."

"There were only a dozen people on the mountain back then, and we have all walked to where we are now. What else can the family be worse than back then?"

"Seventh Brother, don't worry. Even if we are all gone, I believe Yuanfang and the others can take good care of the family." After Song Qingyu finished speaking, a confident smile appeared on her face.

Seeing this, Song Qingming nodded slightly: "What you said is right. One generation has the mission of one generation. No matter what happens in the future, the family will always have to be handed over to these younger generations."

"All we can do is try our best to pave the way for them!"

"Hmm! Anyway, no matter what happens, I will definitely listen to you."

"Seventh Brother, I can take care of Sister-in-law here. You have just come out of closed-door cultivation and must have a lot of things to do. You should go back and busy yourself with your own affairs these few days! When Sister-in-law leaves her closed-door cultivation, I will notify you as soon as possible."

Seeing that Song Qingyu wanted to take the initiative to stay and protect Huang Siyuan during her closed-door cultivation, Song Qingming didn't say much and nodded in agreement. Then, he turned and walked toward his cave dwelling.

For the past few years, Song Qingming had been concentrating on closed-door cultivation to attempt to break through his cultivation. Although he had not succeeded, however...

If it weren't for the celestial phenomenon triggered by Huang Siyuan breaking through her realm today, which made Song Qingming, who was in closed-door cultivation in the cave dwelling, suddenly feel the change in the surrounding spiritual energy, I am afraid he would not have left his closed-door cultivation so early.

Song Qingming, who had just returned to the cave dwelling, took two bottles of pills from the wooden shelf in the hall outside and came to a newly opened stone room inside the cave dwelling.

Although the area of this stone room was not small, five or six zhang long and wide, it was very empty and almost had nothing in it. Only a small spiritual gathering array was arranged in the middle of the stone room, emitting bursts of dazzling spiritual light.

Song Qingming walked directly to the "Spiritual Gathering Array," waved his hand to open a layer of restriction outside, and then walked directly into the array.

In this "Spiritual Gathering Array" that was running, two people wearing mysterious iron masks were sitting cross-legged, absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy to cultivate.

Song Qingming came to the side of the two, handed over the two porcelain bottles he had just brought, and the two masked men saw this and immediately reached out to take one of the porcelain bottles.

Afterward, the two opened the porcelain bottles in a unified action, poured out a pill from inside, threw it into their mouths, and continued to sit cross-legged to cultivate.

Throughout the process, the two masked men didn't say a word, as if they were being manipulated, and completed the action just now.

After giving the pills to the other party, Song Qingming released his spiritual sense to scan the two sitting on the ground, and then a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.

"Although it cost a lot of pills, the cultivation speed now is indeed not slow. As long as there is a sufficient supply of pills, you will sooner or later be able to catch up with me."

These two masked men were not normal cultivators, but corpse puppets that Song Qingming had refined himself.

One of them was "Jinfeng," who had followed Song Qingming for many years, and his cultivation had now broken through to the fifth level of Core Formation.

The other was another corpse puppet "Silver Armor" that Song Qingming had spent time refining over the years. His cultivation was lower, and he had just broken through to the third level of Core Formation not long ago.

When Song Qingming was wandering in the "Donghuang Kingdom" cultivation world for more than half a year, although he did not find the high-grade fire-attribute materials he wanted most to repair the array, he also purchased many good things.

In a large market in Liangzhou, Song Qingming happened to see someone selling a "Ghost Pill" of good quality in a shop, so he spent many spirit stones to buy it.

After returning to the Wei Kingdom, in addition to daily cultivation, Song Qingming spent most of his time refining corpse puppets. After spending more than a year, he finally used this "Ghost Pill" to refine his second corpse puppet, "Silver Armor."

Because he happened to have a bottle of "Flame Spirit Water" obtained from Duan Longshan’s storage bag back then, after refining it with the secret technique given by Li Xuanyi, Song Qingming didn't spend much time raising the cultivation of "Silver Armor" to the third level of Core Formation.

The main reason why Song Qingming spent so much resources and energy to cultivate a second Core Formation corpse puppet was to arrange the "Heavenly Corpse Puppet Array" he obtained from Daoist Heavenly Corpse back then.

After many years of research, Song Qingming found that this "Heavenly Corpse Puppet Array" was not a technique created by Daoist Heavenly Corpse, but was imitated from an ancient array map he obtained by chance.

After obtaining the many cultivation techniques and secret manuals left by Daoist Heavenly Corpse, Song Qingming soon found the original ancient array map in them and discovered that the original power of this array was even better.

It was just that this array map was already somewhat incomplete, and Song Qingming tried it but failed to restore it completely.

In the end, he had to give up helplessly and settle for the second best, transforming the original "Heavenly Corpse Puppet Array" through his own understanding, and obtained a brand-new array, the "Ten Thousand Spirits Puppet Array."

The power of this array was not much different from the original "Heavenly Corpse Puppet Array," but the requirements for arrangement were much simpler. As long as there were three corpse puppets or puppet beasts of the same level, one could try to arrange a relatively simple array.

And as the number of puppet beasts and corpse puppets increased, the power of the "Ten Thousand Spirits Puppet Array" would become stronger and stronger. If more than a dozen Core Formation corpse puppets of the same level formed an array, even if a Nascent Soul cultivator came, they could fight with it.

It was just that this situation was only something Song Qingming could think about in his heart for now, and it was very difficult to truly realize it.

Corpse puppets, because the cultivator’s spiritual sense was limited, generally could only control one corpse puppet of the same level. Even if Song Qingming’s spiritual sense was much stronger than ordinary cultivators of the same level after cultivating the "Soul-Devouring Technique," he could only control two at most at the same time now.

If he replaced them with puppet beasts with weaker strength, Song Qingming could control many at the same time, but the strength of the puppet beasts controlling the array would be weakened, and the power of the array would also be weakened significantly.

Moreover, puppet beasts above the third grade were basically treasures collected by large sects and were very rare in the market.

Song Qingming wandered in the "Donghuang Kingdom" for several years and only saw one third-grade low-tier puppet beast, and had no opportunity to purchase more high-grade puppet beasts.

Even the "Donghuang Kingdom" cultivation world, which was rich in materials, was like this, let alone a remote place like the Floating Cloud Mountain Range.

Wanting to collect enough puppet beasts to form an array to fight against enemies across levels was not something that could be done overnight. Song Qingming could only do his best and could not ensure that he would definitely be able to do it.

But fortunately, from the moment Song Qingming obtained the "Ten Thousand Spirits Puppet Array," he understood the difficulties and did not force it too much. He was already very satisfied that he had a way to arrange the simplest set.

After letting "Jinfeng" and "Silver Armor" stay in the inner room to cultivate alone, Song Qingming soon walked out and walked into another stone room next to it where his spiritual insects and demonic beasts were kept.

As soon as he entered the door, the "Golden Illusion Butterflies" that sensed Song Qingming’s appearance surrounded him, and the "Ice-Fire Flood Dragon" that was entrenched in the corner of the stone room also smelled the familiar taste and immediately leaped toward Song Qingming.

Seeing this, Song Qingming hurriedly took out the pills he had prepared early and a bottle of white spiritual water brought from the "Heaven Source Sect" secret realm, and poured them together into the water trough placed on the side.

Seeing Song Qingming’s action, the greedy "Ice-Fire Flood Dragon" soon led a group of "Golden Illusion Butterflies" and rushed toward the water trough. Not long after, they swallowed the spiritual items brought by Song Qingming clean.

Ten years had passed, and the spiritual beasts and spiritual insects following Song Qingming had also changed significantly. Under the feeding of the white spiritual water used by Song Qingming, the cultivation of the "Ice-Fire Flood Dragon" and "Golden Illusion Butterflies" had improved rapidly and was already close to the peak of Foundation Establishment.

Even the "Heavenly Fire Roc," which cultivated more slowly, successfully broke through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment a few years ago with the help of a spiritual fruit that Huang Siyuan exchanged from the "Heaven Pill Alliance." If these spiritual beasts relied only on their own cultivation in the wild, I am afraid they would at most be just Foundation Establishment. Following Song Qingming all these years, they had good food and drink, and there was no shortage of pills and spiritual items, so their cultivation speed had increased by at least double.

However, they had also contributed a lot to Song Qingming over the years. In particular, the "Golden Illusion Butterflies" could help explore the way and alert silently, and attacking in groups could also contain a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator, so their strength was also not weak.

Spiritual beasts, although the early investment was a bit large and it was difficult to see returns in a short time, their potential was far greater than dead things like corpse puppets if cultivated properly.

Song Qingming spent so much effort to cultivate them now, also hoping that they could help him a lot in the future.

After taking care of his spiritual beasts, Song Qingming turned and came to the hall outside the cave dwelling, and collected some cultivation classics that were scattered around the cave dwelling before.

After tidying up his cave dwelling, Song Qingming did not choose to continue sitting down to cultivate, but came to the stone table on the side and took out a high-grade spiritual talisman atlas to savor it carefully.

Since returning from the "Donghuang Kingdom," the strength of the spiritual beasts and corpse puppets around Song Qingming had increased significantly over the years, but only his own cultivation had not changed much until now, and he was still stuck at the seventh level of Core Formation.

Although Song Qingming, who returned to "Mount Funiu," brought back many pills and spiritual items from the "Donghuang Kingdom" cultivation world, he had already cultivated to the peak of the seventh level of Core Formation three years ago.

However, in the past few years, Song Qingming tried to break through the realm several times, but found that he encountered a bottleneck that was difficult to touch, and several attempts ended in failure.

The bottleneck of the late stage of Core Formation was far more difficult than Song Qingming had imagined before. No wonder most of the Core Formation cultivators Song Qingming knew would be stuck at the sixth or seventh level of Core Formation for a long time, and very few people could quickly cultivate to the ninth level of Core Formation.

After cultivating for so many years, Song Qingming also knew that when the cultivation realm reached a certain point, one could not blindly and forcibly cultivate hard to seek to break through the realm. Many times, one still needed to wait for an opportunity or a turning point to successfully break through the bottleneck and go further.

Seeing that his own cultivation could not break through quickly, Song Qingming changed his mind and gave up continuing closed-door cultivation, intending to shift his energy to other things first and talk about it later.

This high-grade spiritual talisman atlas was also brought back by Song Qingming from the "Donghuang Kingdom" cultivation world. It recorded many high-grade spiritual talismans above the third grade, and even several types of fourth-grade spiritual talismans were recorded.

Since his talisman-making technique broke through to the third-grade mid-tier, Song Qingming had been suffering from not having many high-grade spiritual talisman atlases over the years, and rarely had the opportunity to improve his talisman-making skills.

Last time in the "Donghuang Kingdom" cultivation world, he happened to find a high-grade spiritual talisman atlas, which finally gave him the opportunity to make progress in this talisman-making aspect.

Over the years, Song Qingming not only drew many third-grade mid-tier spiritual talismans but also tried to start making third-grade high-tier spiritual talismans.

However, so far, after spending several copies of materials, he had only successfully drawn one substandard product with slight flaws, and had not really improved his talisman-making skills to the third-grade high-tier.

Although he had not successfully improved his talisman-making skills, Song Qingming already had great confidence in improving his talisman-making skills after having this high-grade spiritual talisman atlas.

After cultivating the Dao for so many years, Song Qingming had always liked spiritual talismans, and he would always prepare a few good spiritual talismans of high grade on his body for emergencies.

However, with the improvement of his own cultivation, Song Qingming had found it difficult to purchase third-grade high-tier spiritual talismans that were equal to his cultivation in the market over the years.

In the "Xiaoyao Sect," the person with the highest talisman-making skills was Law Enforcement Elder Li Wutong. Although he was already a third-grade high-tier talisman maker, because of the lack of talisman-making materials in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, Li Wutong rarely made third-grade high-tier spiritual talismans.

Therefore, among the many Core Formation elders of the entire "Xiaoyao Sect," few people held high-grade spiritual talismans of the third-grade high-tier. Song Qingming had always wanted to exchange one from the sect but never succeeded.

Since it was difficult to get them outside, Song Qingming thought that it was better to rely on himself than on others, so he simply found a way to improve his talisman-making skills, so that he could easily draw whatever spiritual talismans he wanted in the future as long as he could find the materials.

Improving talisman-making skills would not only satisfy his own needs in the future, but he could also take the extra spiritual talismans to the outside to exchange for other spiritual items he needed. These were also very critical for Song Qingming.

After studying the spiritual talisman atlas in his hand for a long time, Song Qingming suddenly got up and took out a high-grade talisman paper and spread it on the table, then picked up the talisman pen on the table and dipped it in some cinnabar placed on the side, and his gaze shifted to the blank talisman paper in front of him.

Then he adjusted his breath, recalled the steps he had just thought of in his mind again, and his gaze gradually became very focused.

With the movement of spiritual light on his body, the magic power in Song Qingming’s body poured into the talisman pen in his hand along the meridians, and he began to control the talisman pen to move slowly on the talisman paper.

In the blink of an eye, three days and three nights passed. With the last stroke of the talisman pen in Song Qingming’s hand, the connected talisman runes instantly began to emit a flash of spiritual light.

Seeing this, Song Qingming immediately put down the talisman pen and pinched the seal with both hands, and soon cast a restriction on the talisman paper, sealing all the spiritual light on it.

High-grade spiritual talismans above the third grade, because the spiritual power contained in the talisman runes was very powerful, even if they were stored in the storage bag, they could easily be sensed by others.

Therefore, when a talisman maker draws a spiritual talisman, they will finally arrange a small restriction on it to cover its aura, which helps the cultivator achieve unexpected results when using it.

After doing this step, Song Qingming picked up the spiritual talisman in his hand and observed it carefully. Seeing that there were no flaws in the talisman runes on it, he revealed a satisfied smile.

"After spending so many high-grade materials, it finally succeeded this time!"

Although he had been in closed-door cultivation for so long and his cultivation had not broken through successfully, Song Qingming was still very happy to successfully advance to a third-grade high-tier talisman maker.

Song Qingming, who put away the spiritual talisman in his hand, was just about to go out for a walk, but he didn't want a voice transmission talisman to fly into his cave dwelling at this moment.

After opening the spiritual talisman and glancing at it, Song Qingming’s face revealed a trace of joy again, hurriedly tidied up the remaining talisman-making materials on the table, and then walked directly out of the cave dwelling and walked quickly to the "Hui Xian Pavilion" on the top of the mountain.

Song Qingming, who had just walked to the third floor, raised his eyes and saw Song Qingyu and Huang Siyuan, who had just left closed-door cultivation, tasting and chatting, and immediately stepped forward to congratulate Huang Siyuan.

"Haha! I was just about to go out and see, but I didn't expect you to have left closed-door cultivation in advance. It seems that your cultivation breakthrough this time is a bit different, much smoother than mine back then."

Huang Siyuan, who had just broken through her cultivation, was also very happy in her heart at this moment, nodded and smiled and replied: "My closed-door cultivation this time has indeed gained a lot. Not only did I successfully break through my cultivation, but I also felt that the path ahead of me became much clearer."

"However, speaking of which, experiencing mortal life in the world over the years has indeed improved my state of mind a lot, which helped me a lot when I was breaking through in closed-door cultivation."

"I also want to thank my husband for his guidance back then, otherwise, I am afraid that my breakthrough in cultivation this time would not have been so easy, and I would inevitably have wasted a lot of time."

Seeing Huang Siyuan suddenly bow to thank him, Song Qingming hurriedly stepped forward and waved his hand: "We have supported each other for many years, why be so polite?"

"Moreover, not everyone can have such a big harvest from cultivating in the world. How much you can realize from it depends entirely on your own opportunity. You don't need to count all the credit on me."

"Hmm! What Seventh Brother said is right. Sister-in-law, look, I have also been cultivating with you for many days, but I still can't calm down. Now it seems that I don't have this opportunity."

Since returning to the family after traveling, Song Qingyu, who often saw Huang Siyuan cultivating down the mountain, also curiously followed her a few times.

It was just that compared to Huang Siyuan, Song Qingyu’s experience in cultivating in the world was clearly much worse. She didn't have much patience in cultivation and persisted for less than a month before slowly slacking off on this matter.

At this moment, seeing Huang Siyuan cultivating in the world for many years and finally having a harvest, Song Qingyu’s face was both very envious and a bit helpless.

Seeing the expression on Song Qingyu’s face, Song Qingming immediately comforted her: "Qingyu, you cultivate the way of sword cultivation, which pays attention to decisiveness in killing. Cultivating in the world may not be useful to you, so you don't have to keep struggling with this matter."

"You have a complete sword cultivation inheritance on you, which can at least be cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage. This is your greatest opportunity in cultivation, so why envy these?"

"Yes! Qingyu, you cultivate the way of sword cultivation, and both fighting and cultivation are half a point stronger than us. In the future, you will definitely have a greater chance of condensing the Nascent Soul than us, so don't envy my little opportunity."

Song Qingyu heard this and immediately opened her heart and smiled: "Haha! I was just envious in my mouth. Since Sister-in-law has said it so nicely, how dare I not follow."

"Seventh Brother, come and sit here. Today is the spiritual tea I brewed myself. Taste it and see how it tastes!"

Seeing Song Qingyu putting a cup of freshly brewed spiritual tea in front of him, Song Qingming hurriedly took it and found an empty seat to sit down.

The three of them hadn't gathered together for a long time, and this time they encountered the happy event of Huang Siyuan breaking through her cultivation, so they celebrated it well.

After chatting for a while, Song Qingming opened his mouth to discuss with the two about the family’s development northward, wanting to hear the opinions of the two women.

For Song Qingming’s idea of developing northward, Huang Siyuan and Song Qingyu both supported this matter very much and gave many ideas. The three of them soon drew up a rough action plan together.

(Finally, insert a sentence, the Mid-Autumn Festival lottery event has reached the last day, and the lottery will be drawn tomorrow. Book friends who haven't joined the group should hurry up.)