Chapter 128

After selling off most of the spiritual items on his person, the remaining gap of two thousand spirit stones could only be filled by his own efforts in talisman making.

Fortunately, the market here at Yangshan Market was large enough; there was no shortage of talisman-making materials or shops that purchased spiritual talismans. Relying on the ability of the remnant map, Song Qingming continuously made talismans, earning over four hundred spirit stones in half a year.

If everything went smoothly from here on, he should be able to save over a thousand more spirit stones in a year and a half. By then, if he was still short, he could sell the last second-tier magic tool he had, and it should be just about enough.

Just as Song Qingming was moving forward step by step according to his plan, his third brother, Song Qingze, suddenly found him at Yangshan Market, wanting to invite him to help execute a sect mission.

Every disciple within the Carefree Sect relied on sect contribution points to exchange for various spiritual items in the sect’s treasury, and the Foundation Establishment Pill was no exception.

During the beast chaos two years ago, the Carefree Sect had killed a total of three beast kings. After spending two years gathering the other auxiliary spiritual herbs, they had refined over forty extra Foundation Establishment Pills. Besides a portion taken out to compensate the descendants of those Foundation Establishment cultivators who died in battle, quite a few Foundation Establishment Pills flowed into the sect’s treasury.

To speed up the cultivation of new Foundation Establishment cultivators to replenish the sect’s blood, the elders of the Carefree Sect’s Contribution Hall specifically lowered the exchange price of the Foundation Establishment Pill. For a time, it stirred up a wave within the Carefree Sect, and many ninth-level Qi Refining disciples began to run around everywhere to earn contribution points, just to gather the contribution points needed for Foundation Establishment as soon as possible.

The Carefree Sect’s Miscellaneous Affairs Hall set up many types of sect missions, but the mission that could earn a large amount of contribution points the fastest was hunting various beasts within the sect’s territory. Although missions like hunting second-tier or higher beasts earned contribution points quickly, Qi Refining cultivators had no way to complete them alone, so everyone could only spontaneously form teams to have a chance. A single second-tier beast was worth two or three thousand contribution points, and even if split among several people, it was still much more than other missions.

Song Qingze came to find Song Qingming this time because, not long ago, he and several fellow disciples had accepted a mission from the Contribution Hall to hunt a second-tier low-grade beast near Guyang County.

After accepting the mission, Song Qingze had found six people willing to act together, but facing a second-tier beast, several people in the team still felt there were too few people. Only then did Song Qingze helplessly come to Yangshan Market to ask Song Qingming for help.

Although sect missions forbade everyone from inviting outsiders to help, the places they went to for such missions were desolate mountains and wild ridges thousands of miles away. If you don’t say anything, who would know if there was outside help? It was impossible for high-level sect members to specifically come to investigate such matters.

"Qingming, as long as you are willing to act this time, after completing the mission, each of us will compensate you with fifty spirit stones, adding up to three hundred spirit stones. This should be worth your effort, right!"

Upon seeing Song Qingming, Song Qingze got straight to the point about the matter. Coming to Yangshan Market to invite Song Qingming this time, Song Qingze had shown enough sincerity.

To be honest, Song Qingming’s original intention was not to go out and take risks at this time. However, his third brother, Song Qingze, had helped him quite a bit in obtaining the chance to exchange for the Foundation Establishment Pill this time, so it was really hard to refuse. Plus, he happened to be short of spirit stones, and here was an opportunity to earn them quickly. After thinking about it slightly, he agreed to Song Qingze.

After packing up, Song Qingming and Song Qingze quickly left Yangshan Market together. After walking south for half a day, they met the other cultivators participating in the mission in a roadside pavilion.

These people were all disciples within the Carefree Sect, and their cultivation was uniformly at the ninth level of Qi Refining. A pair of man and woman stood together, appearing to be a cultivation couple. The remaining three were all men, of varying heights, and their ages were about the same as Song Qingze’s.

Among them, there was one person Song Qingming felt looked somewhat familiar. After looking carefully for a few moments, he finally remembered that this person was the Du family cultivator, Du Yuchen, who had participated in that mission with him at the Liu family over a decade ago.

After Song Qingming returned from the Fuyun Mountain Range back then, he had heard about Du Yuchen’s matter, but the news from the Du family had always been that Du Yuchen had gone missing after that mission. Song Qingming had not expected him to appear here.

Du Yuchen here seemed not to have recognized Song Qingming, just glanced at him casually and then turned his gaze away. His appearance was the same as it had been over a decade ago—still just as taciturn.

After Song Qingze greeted the group and briefly introduced Song Qingming to everyone, he then introduced the others to Song Qingming.

That cultivation couple, the man was named Liu Qiting and the woman was named Meng Ran; both were cultivators from Guyang County and had joined the Carefree Sect at a very young age.

Of the other two, one was a tall man named Gu Feng, born in Huaishan County in the south of the Wei Kingdom. The shorter Daoist also came from Guyang County and was Song Qingze’s close friend in the Carefree Sect, Wei Wuyang; this person was also a high-grade formation master.

The rest was that silent Du Yuchen. Song Qingze had also recognized him when forming the team, but they had had no interaction when they were in Qinghe County. Song Qingze had only learned that Du Yuchen had suddenly joined the Carefree Sect after going missing not long ago when forming the team.

Although both of them came from Qinghe County, they had had no interaction after joining the Carefree Sect. It was not until this team formation that the two had gotten to know each other again.

Hearing Song Qingze’s introduction, Du Yuchen then pretended to react, smiling and greeting Song Qingming. Song Qingming also hurriedly replied to him with a calm expression.

Upon seeing Du Yuchen, a sense of unease suddenly welled up in Song Qingming’s heart.

Back then, when fighting the Silver-Armored Crab Beast in the Fuyun Mountain Range, Song Qingming knew that Du Yuchen, like him, had gone missing after being swept into the water pool. Whether Du Yuchen knew about him picking up Liu Tianlong’s storage bag in the water pool, he really had no bottom in his heart.

The group of six Carefree Sect cultivators, plus Song Qingming, making exactly seven people, walked south for six days before finally arriving at the side of a large river. Following the river upstream for another few dozen miles, a high mountain appeared before everyone’s eyes.

The mission they had accepted this time was to deal with a second-tier low-grade Flowing Flower Leopard that had been entrenched here for years.

This Flowing Flower Leopard had already occupied a second-tier spiritual vein south of the Liu River, taking this piece of land that originally belonged to the human race under its feet.

Beasts like the Flowing Flower Leopard liked to be alone and did not like to drive a group of low-tier beasts like ordinary second-tier beasts. This was also the reason why the few of them dared to fight this second-tier beast.

Their team consisted of the top cultivators in the Qi Refining realm. Among the seven, the lowest was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, and several had already broken through the ninth level of Qi Refining for many years. Liu Qiting even had a second-tier magic tool on him, and coupled with the second-tier formation borrowed from Wei Wuyang, they had a high chance of hunting this beast.