Chapter 302

Although Gao Jinhe's lifespan is not long, the Gao family has Gao Yuyao and Gao Yubai—one in the sect and one in the family, supporting each other. Once both of them reach the late stage of Foundation Establishment, it will not be difficult to cultivate one or two more Foundation Establishment cultivators in the future. The Gao family's future looks very bright.

Compared to the Gao family, the current situation of the Huang family at Mount Taiyuan is somewhat awkward. Although Huang Shengxin has failed to form his Core twice, he has not completely given up the idea of Core Formation and is still consuming the Huang family's resources to prepare for his final attempt.

Huang Shengyue, who was sitting at the head of the table reviewing the accounts for the past year, suddenly frowned and asked a Qi Refining cultivator standing below: "Hasn't Qinghe Market recovered recently? Why is there still such a large deficit in the accounts?"

"There was no deficit in Qinghe Market at the beginning. Last month, the Patriarch suddenly sent a sound transmission and withdrew one thousand spirit stones from the market. Because the Patriarch didn't state the purpose, it wasn't recorded." The Qi Refining cultivator said while carefully observing the expressions of the two Foundation Establishment cultivators at the head of the table, fearing that his words would provoke the displeasure of these two family ancestors.

After listening, Huang Shengyue was silent for a moment, then nodded and turned the page.

Knowing that Huang Shengxin was still consuming a large amount of the Huang family's resources for a final, ethereal hope of Core Formation, Huang Shengyue felt somewhat anxious in her heart, yet she had no good way to stop it. She felt deeply helpless about this.

Since Huang Shengxin began preparing for Core Formation, Huang Shengyue's cultivation had only broken through one level in twenty years. Her own cultivation had also been delayed quite a bit, and now she had been caught up to by the two latecomers, Gao Yubai and Song Qingming.

Although she was a cultivator of the same generation as Huang Shengxin and her words carried some weight in front of him, Huang Shengxin was, after all, the Patriarch of the Huang family. She had already done her best to get Huang Shengxin to agree to support Huang Sipo's Foundation Establishment first.

Faced with the temptation of Core Formation, in reality, most people sitting in Huang Shengxin's position would be unable to completely control their desire to advance further.

Having cultivated to Huang Shengxin's realm, his remaining lifespan is not long. If he cannot form his Core, he can only watch his lifespan run out while sitting in his cave dwelling waiting for death.

After all, immortal cultivation seeks the path of longevity. For Huang Shengxin, as long as he can successfully form his Core, it is not just an increase of three hundred years of lifespan; it is possible that if he obtains opportunities in the future, he could advance further, and even ascension is not impossible.

Besides the point of lifespan, the glory that a Golden Core cultivator can bring to himself and his family is far beyond what a Foundation Establishment cultivator can compare to. In the entire Qinghe County, no one has successfully formed a Core in over a thousand years. This is not because no one has pursued this path, but simply because they all failed.

On one hand, there is the fear of death; on the other, the desire for greater power and authority. Both points are enough to make any person become more selfish.

After checking the accounts, Huang Shengyue waved her hand at the few Qi Refining cultivators below, letting them withdraw first.

After those people had all gone out, Huang Shengyue turned her head and asked Huang Sipo, who was to the side: "I heard that the Song family held a Grace and Honor Ceremony at Mount Funiu these past few days. Did they invite anyone else?"

"No outsiders went to Mount Funiu. The Song family has been very honest all these years. Isn't Great-Aunt being a bit too worried about them?" Huang Sipo replied with a chuckle.

Huang Shengyue shook her head at him and said: "When Song Qingming first achieved Foundation Establishment, I thought the Song family would not last long, just like the Qian family back then. Now it seems I underestimated that brat Song Qingming too much. From now on, we must keep a closer watch on the Song family to prevent Song Qingming from secretly leaning toward that old thing Gao Jinhe and stabbing us in the back.

Sipo, you are still a bit too young. In the future, when you are in charge, remember that no matter when, you must secretly guard against allies. The Song family and other families are the same. Our Huang family controls so many resources in Qinghe County that anyone would be secretly jealous, it's just that they usually don't show it."

Hearing Huang Shengyue say this, Huang Sipo nodded thoughtfully and did not reply further.

Lu Xingde of the Lu family is somewhat similar to Huang Shengxin. He also controls the resources of the entire Lu family, single-mindedly striving only for methods to improve his own cultivation faster, and does not care much about the affairs of other families.

In his eyes, all the resources of the Lu family should belong to him alone to enjoy, and no one else should try to get a share. Even though there are currently two good seeds for Foundation Establishment within the Lu family, Lu Xingde still ignores them. However, the Lu family has not been doing well recently; after the last Qinghe Market incident, the Lu family lost the ownership of two shops in the market at once, and it is far from what it used to be.

The Lu family has had no changes or development in these years, and its strength has been slowly surpassed by the Song family. Lu Xingde does not care about this at all in his heart; he has always focused only on his own personal cultivation, wanting to try his best to raise his cultivation to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

However, this is not an easy task. Although Lu Xingde's lifespan is still sufficient, his cultivation speed has slowed down since he reached the sixth level of Foundation Establishment. Even though he has worked very hard to cultivate and consumed many resources, there has been no significant progress so far, and it is unknown if he will be able to cultivate to the late stage of Foundation Establishment in this lifetime.

After the Grace and Honor Ceremony ended, Song Qingming also entered closed-door cultivation. His current cultivation is already approaching the bottleneck of the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, and this closed-door session is an attempt to see if he can break through his cultivation.

After cultivating in fits and starts for a year, Song Qingming tried several times, but in the end, he still failed to break through. It seems he needs to think of other ways.

Just as Song Qingming was planning to take a trip to Yangshan Market to see if he could find any spiritual objects to assist in his breakthrough, a sound transmission suddenly came from Qinghe Market, inviting Song Qingming over again.

After arriving at Qinghe Market, Song Qingming learned that the war on the front lines of Lu Guo against the Heaven Sea Alliance had suddenly suffered a setback. Faced with such a poor situation in the war, the Grand Void Gate planned to conscript a second batch of reinforcements to rush over and provide support.

This time, the Grand Void Gate was not only going to mobilize its own cultivators, but all Foundation Establishment families in Wei Guo were also going to start accepting conscription.

Hearing this news, Song Qingming felt a sense of helplessness. The war in Qinghe Market had ended less than three years ago; he hadn't expected to face even more cruel battles now.

After Song Qingyu inquired in front of Feng De, she learned that this second wave of conscription only called for Foundation Establishment cultivators from each family, and this conscription was relatively broad; all Foundation Establishment families in Wei Guo would likely have to take turns spending time on the front lines.