Chapter 294: Merit Hall

However, excluding the spiritual items consumed during the encirclement of the mountain, the remaining spirit stones obtained were just enough to barely recover the losses of the market last time. The major Foundation Establishment families like the Song family did not earn any spirit stones from a big battle on the surface, but instead had to subsidize some relatives and clansmen of the cultivators who died in battle.

Their greatest harvest was the bounty rewards obtained from beheading these bandit cultivators.

Among the Qi Refining bandit cultivators, some were heinous and wanted by major markets. These heads were all sent by Lu Yuanfeng to the places where they were wanted to exchange for rewards, used to reward those who performed outstandingly in this battle and to comfort the dead and injured cultivators.

The three leaders, Cheng Yilong and the others, were all bandit cultivators on the Xiaoyao Sect's list. After their heads were taken to the Xiaoyao Sect, each family participating in this battle received some merit bestowed by the Xiaoyao Sect. Of course, the bulk was taken by the Huang and Gao families, who contributed the most. These hard-won merits could be directly exchanged for spiritual items at the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Hall.

Besides being open to disciples within the sect, the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Hall was also accessible to vassal families who had made great contributions to the sect.

It's just that the ways for disciples within the Xiaoyao Sect to earn merit were more numerous and easier, while the vassal families below could only obtain some merit when the sect conscripted them to deal with demonic beast turmoil or when they carried out relatively dangerous tasks like beheading bandit cultivators wanted by the Law Enforcement Hall. Back then, when Song Qingming killed the demonic cultivator Han Tongshan, besides sharing the spirit stone reward, he also obtained two hundred points of merit for the Song family. After these merits accumulated to a certain standard, they could exchange for the spiritual items they wanted.

The Merit Hall of a Nascent Soul sect was not comparable to an ordinary market. As long as you had enough merit, let alone Foundation Establishment Pills, even the spiritual items needed for Core Formation were there. It's just that the required merit was also very exaggerated, and a Foundation Establishment family couldn't exchange for it even if they accumulated it for hundreds of years.

Regarding this, the Xiaoyao Sect also provided some convenience for the vassal families under its sect. As long as these immortal cultivation families accumulated merit to a certain proportion, they could, on the basis of deducting merit, hand over spiritual items of equal value to the Merit Hall to exchange for the spiritual items they wanted.

That is to say, a Foundation Establishment Pill required ten thousand merits, equivalent to ten thousand spirit stones. Immortal cultivation families like this, as long as they could accumulate the required two thousand merits and then hand over eight thousand spirit stones, could also go to the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Hall to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill. Old-school Foundation Establishment families like the Huang family and the Gao family obtained Foundation Establishment Pills to cultivate Foundation Establishment cultivators mostly in this way.

Besides this method, there was another one that was more direct. As long as you could find the rare spiritual items the Xiaoyao Sect wanted, just like the Water Spirit Fruit Song Qingming obtained back then, with this kind of spiritual item, you could also directly go to the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Hall to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill. It's just that you had to explain the origin of these spiritual items clearly. After all, the Xiaoyao Sect was also a famous sect and would not randomly accept some stolen goods of unknown origin.

Situations like this rarely occurred. Wanting to obtain these spiritual items that the Xiaoyao Sect's Merit Hall could look upon was not a simple matter. Besides looking at each person's opportunity, it also depended on their own family's strength.

Back then, although the Liu family could find the Water Spirit Fruit tree, because their strength was insufficient, it ended in nothing. In the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, in order to obtain that third-tier spiritual medicine, the Huang family not only lost the Foundation Establishment cultivator Huang Chengliang but also almost lost Song Qingming's life. If strength was insufficient, not only might one not get the spiritual items one wanted, but one might also lose the fate of the entire family.

Fortunately, Song Qingming didn't work in vain this time. He not only obtained a mid-grade magic tool from Cheng Yilong's hand but also pocketed the over three thousand spirit stones and over a dozen second-tier spiritual items Cheng Yilong took out when he was deceiving Song Qingming in the battle.

Fortunately, these things were taken out by Cheng Yilong himself. If they were still in his storage bag, Song Qingming wouldn't have been able to forcibly open his storage bag in such a short time, and in the end, he would still have had to hand it over to Lu Yuanfeng.

Speaking of that life-and-death duel with Cheng Yilong at that time, Song Qingming and he were actually calculating each other. In the end, Cheng Yilong, this old fox, capsized first.

Cheng Yilong initially wanted to escape secretly, but Song Qingming had already exposed his hiding place. He had no choice but to choose to decisively attack and kill Song Qingming. Unexpectedly, he couldn't break the defense of the Azure Water Bell in a short time, and finally had to be forced to use a sinister trick.

The jade box Cheng Yilong threw out first contained the magic tool he had secretly hidden to sneak attack. Seeing that Song Qingming didn't fall for it, he took out a pile of spiritual items to lure him, pretending that he only wanted to escape. As long as Song Qingming took the initiative to remove the protection of the Azure Water Bell, he could use the previously ambushed magic tool to launch a sneak attack and then kill Song Qingming.

But he didn't know that Song Qingming removing the Azure Water Bell was also calculating him. While playing the verbal game with Cheng Yilong, Song Qingming had already prepared a killing move for him, using the invisible Jade Light Needle he had secretly condensed to kill him with one blow when he came close to sneak attack.

Cheng Yilong didn't know until he died that the last knife was actually blocked by the remnant map Song Qingming had sewn on his body. Without this last defense, the one who should have lost this battle was actually Song Qingming.

Over the years, Song Qingming had constantly studied the remnant map and had long known that this thing was far tougher than ordinary refining materials. Whether it was back in the Qi Refining stage or now in the Foundation Establishment stage, Song Qingming had used many magic tools to attack the remnant map with all his might, but without exception, he couldn't leave a trace on it. It can be seen that ordinary magic tools could not break this defense.

Therefore, in order to have one more life-saving method for himself, Song Qingming had basically sewn it on his chest position over the years. This time, he just happened to use Cheng Yilong's contempt for himself, deliberately revealing a flaw in his chest when he attacked at the end, successfully calculating him.

After obtaining these spiritual items on Cheng Yilong, Song Qingming also found that many of them were the spiritual items he had robbed from Qinghe Market this time. On the way back, he was still a bit worried that Lu Yuanfeng and the others would investigate the whereabouts of these spiritual items.

Fortunately, he was still a bit over-worried. On one hand, the Cheng Yilong storage bag he took the initiative to hand over had also been checked by Lu Yuanfeng on the spot, and indeed there were no traces of being forcibly opened. On the other hand, it was not just the spiritual items on him, but many spiritual items in the market had also disappeared. It can be seen that there was more than one person who had small thoughts, and Lu Yuanfeng, as expected, did not pursue these matters in the end. For him, winning this battle was the key. As for these small thoughts, as long as they were not too excessive, he could also turn a blind eye.

After sharing the portion of spiritual items belonging to his own family, Song Qingming first comforted the cultivators who died and were injured in this battle. After all, they went out this time to sell their lives for the Song family. If the Song family didn't perform well afterward, it would definitely chill the hearts of these vassal families.

The Song family only obtained five hundred points of merit this time. For this reason, Song Qingming specially made a trip to Mount Guyang, wanting to see if he could add other spiritual items to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill. Unexpectedly, he found that the merit in his hand was far from the required two thousand merits, so he could only embarrassingly dispel this thought.

After turning around in the Merit Hall, he didn't find any useful spiritual items he could exchange for, so he could only return disappointed.