Chapter 253: Weighing Options

"Not bad! To be able to see that so quickly, it seems you truly haven't neglected your cultivation these past few years, and you've made quite a bit of progress."

Just as Song Qingyu had said, Song Qingming had spent a full three months in seclusion this time, finally breaking through his cultivation base to the fourth level of Foundation Establishment.

"Seventh Brother, please don't flatter me too much. If it weren't for you constantly guiding me by my side all these years, my cultivation would likely be far behind where it is now." Hearing Song Qingming's praise, Song Qingyu hurriedly smiled and spoke modestly.

After four years, although Song Qingyu's cultivation had not yet broken through, she was not too far from the second level of Foundation Establishment. As long as she had another year or two, her breakthrough would be a natural progression.

"The help I can give you is actually limited to this much. You will have to rely more on yourself for your future path. In terms of spiritual root talent, you are stronger than me; perhaps you will be able to go further than I can in the future. Do not let down your own Dao heart."

"Qingyu will certainly keep Seventh Brother's teachings in mind."

Song Qingming nodded at her and continued, "Has Sixth Uncle been here recently? Has anything happened in the clan?"

"Sixth Uncle came once half a month ago. This year, the output of the mineral vein at Spirit Source Mountain has decreased by another twenty percent compared to last year. Some of the miners living there have no work to do. Sixth Uncle wants to discuss with you whether we should migrate a portion of the mortals back."

"You also grew up living at Spirit Source Mountain; how do you think this should be handled?" Song Qingming did not answer directly, instead asking Song Qingyu, wanting to hear her opinion.

Seeing that this Seventh Brother seemed to want to test her, Song Qingyu hurriedly said, "There are already over three thousand mortals at Spirit Source Mountain, but the place is located deep in the mountains, and the arable land that can be cultivated is very limited. The food supply still requires relief from Funiu Mountain every year, so the burden is indeed too heavy."

"Now that the black iron mineral vein is nearing exhaustion, the family has no other industries there besides this mine. If things continue like this, migrating a portion of the mortals back is only a matter of time."

"It's just that the family's two existing mortal towns, Wood Dragon Town and Wood Ancient Town, are already saturated with population. Migrating so many mortals back all at once will likely be difficult to settle properly. Our top priority should be to quickly build another mortal town to expand the living space for mortals under Funiu Mountain."

"You are right. The family has developed too quickly over these twenty years; we really should have made preparations in advance. Let's do as you said: hurry to select a suitable location to build a town and let Sixth Uncle and the others handle it first!" Seeing that Song Qingyu still had some insights of her own, Song Qingming nodded with satisfaction.

After Song Qingyu left, Song Qingming walked alone to the edge of the cliff not far from his cave dwelling, sat down quietly, and enjoyed the scenery below the mountain while the cool breeze blew.

After more than two hundred years of change, Funiu Mountain had transformed from a dangerous place rampant with demonic beasts into a place where smoke from cooking fires rose and ten thousand families lived in joy. This change was the result of the painstaking efforts of five generations of cultivators from the Song family.

This time, Song Qingming's breakthrough to the fourth level of Foundation Establishment was actually not very smooth. If he hadn't made up his mind to directly consume the Earth Spirit Dew given to him by Fire Phoenix, he would not have succeeded in this breakthrough.

The Earth Spirit Dew was a spiritual object Song Qingming had seen in ancient texts. This kind of natural spiritual object was only produced when a demonic beast underwent a Golden Core lightning tribulation. It was an extremely precious spiritual object and rarely fell into the hands of the human race.

The effect of this item was similar to what Fire Phoenix had said. Generally, if a Foundation Establishment cultivator consumed it directly, it could help them improve their cultivation by about one level. Song Qingming had originally intended to save it until he broke through to the ninth level of Foundation Establishment.

The reason he was in such a hurry to consume this item was that Song Qingming had discovered he had fallen into a significant bottleneck while breaking through the small realm of the fourth level of Foundation Establishment. If he didn't use the Earth Spirit Dew to help, he didn't know when he would be able to break through this bottleneck normally; he estimated it might not even succeed in ten years.

There wouldn't be a major bottleneck in the first three levels of the Foundation Establishment realm. Generally, a cultivator could cultivate to the third level of Foundation Establishment in about twenty years.

But when it came to breaking through to the fourth level, the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, the difficulty began to change. Almost every level would increase in difficulty significantly. In the cultivation world, more than half of Foundation Establishment cultivators have their cultivation stuck here for a long time.

By the time they slowly break through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, their lifespan is already insufficient, and these cultivators completely lose the opportunity to form a Golden Core.

Among the Foundation Establishment cultivators Song Qingming was more familiar with, Lu Yuanfeng of Qinghe Market, Gao Jinhe of the Gao family, and Wang Chengliang of the Wang family back then were all roughly like this, including Huang Shengyue and Lu Xingde, who would likely face the same fate in the future.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator has no more than two hundred and fifty years of lifespan. Without massive resources or special opportunities, very few people can raise their cultivation to the ninth level of Foundation Establishment within a hundred years of establishing their foundation.

In the entire Qinghe County, only Huang Shengxin was a genius who cultivated to the ninth level of Foundation Establishment before the age of one hundred and sixty, thus having one chance to form a Golden Core. Unfortunately, he was not well-prepared when he tried to form the core back then and did not succeed.

To form a Golden Core, Song Qingming had to speed up his cultivation and raise his cultivation base to the ninth level of Foundation Establishment as soon as possible, so he could give himself more chances to form a Golden Core.

After discovering that his cultivation had encountered a bottleneck, Song Qingming faced only two choices: either wait for time to slowly grind it away and save the Earth Spirit Dew for use in the late stage of Foundation Establishment—which, while maximizing the effect of this spiritual object, had the downside that his cultivation could not improve now, and his own strength would have to stay at this level for the time being.

Or, he could decisively use the Earth Spirit Dew to break through, which would allow him to enter the middle stage of Foundation Establishment sooner, immediately increasing his strength significantly, but he would have to find other spiritual objects on his own for future cultivation breakthroughs.

After weighing the pros and cons repeatedly, Song Qingming decided to consume the Earth Spirit Dew immediately to help break through his cultivation, prioritizing the improvement of his own strength. Although he also wanted to make better use of this spiritual object, he was not particularly outstanding among Foundation Establishment cultivators, and he had to consider his own survival strength before the future.

However, this Earth Spirit Dew did not just help him break through the bottleneck of the fourth level of Foundation Establishment; the excess spiritual power inside helped him shorten his hard cultivation time by at least five years. His current cultivation was actually not too far from breaking through to the fifth level of Foundation Establishment.

The sky had gradually darkened, and various lights slowly lit up at the foot of the mountain, adding quite a bit of vivid scenery to the entire Funiu Mountain. Song Qingming, who had been sitting for a long time, slowly stood up and returned to his cave dwelling.