Chapter 365: Seizing the Body and Rebirth

Inside a secret chamber in the backyard of the Willow Wind Hall, a middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance was focusing on crafting a palm-sized mechanical puppet beast.

Seeing Song Qingming suddenly push the door and enter, the middle-aged man glanced at him, then tossed the unfinished puppet beast in his hand to the side.

"Hehe! Little Friend Song, it's been a while!"

Song Qingming looked at the man before him, who bore a seven or eight-part resemblance to Wang Sihai, nodded with a smile, and removed the bamboo hat that had been covering his face.

"Senior! It seems you have already grown accustomed to this place. Everything you requested is inside this. In the future, if you need anything else, there is no need to send me a sound transmission directly; just send someone to the Immortal Phoenix Tower to order a portion of spirit food, and the shopkeeper there will inform me in time!" After saying this, Song Qingming tossed a yellow storage bag toward the middle-aged man.

This person who looked somewhat like Wang Sihai was none other than the Senior Feng He who had been by Song Qingming's side for over a decade. However, having successfully seized Wang Sihai's physical body, he had transformed from a high-and-mighty Nascent Soul old monster into an ordinary rogue cultivator with a cultivation base of only the ninth level of Qi Refining.

A year ago, after Song Qingming brought Wang Sihai's body back to Mount Funiu, Feng He soon used his methods to purge the restrictions left behind by the demonic cultivators on the body and obtained this vessel.

The original owner of this body, Wang Sihai, was a bandit cultivator who roamed the Floating Cloud Mountain Range. Aside from the group in the Four Seas Gang, no one else would care about his disappearance, which was the reason Song Qingming had chosen him in the first place.

After Feng He seized Wang Sihai's body, although he used a secret technique to slightly alter his original appearance, he remained a Qi Refining cultivator with a relatively unfamiliar face. Since Mount Funiu had many eyes and ears, Song Qingming could not keep him hidden on the mountain forever, so he devised a plan to send him to the Qinghe Market.

It just so happened that the few rogue cultivators who originally operated this shop in the market were looking to transfer the business due to poor sales. To avoid attracting attention, Song Qingming had Shi Chun come forward to introduce the shop and help Feng He, this "good friend," take it over, making him the owner of the shop named Willow Wind Hall.

Shi Chun was originally a rogue cultivator from the Guiyun Market, and after joining the Song family, many in the Qinghe Market were aware of his background. Having Feng He pose as his former friend from Guiyun Market meant that no one would suspect anything in the short term.

After the body seizure, Feng He's current cultivation was still relatively low. For his safety, and for Song Qingming's own safety, keeping him here in the Qinghe Market until he reached Foundation Establishment was the most stable method for now.

After Feng He took the storage bag tossed by Song Qingming, he opened it to look inside, then nodded at him with a satisfied smile.

"Not bad! To have gathered these items so quickly, you have certainly put in the effort. Once I refine the Wind Spirit Pill, I should have a thirty to forty percent chance of reaching Foundation Establishment, which will save you the trouble of looking for a Foundation Establishment Pill."

"A thirty to forty percent chance? Senior, does this Wind Spirit Pill really help a cultivator reach Foundation Establishment that much? Why have I never heard of this pill before?"

Hearing what Feng He said, Song Qingming was quite surprised. He found it hard to believe that in the world of immortal cultivation, besides the Foundation Establishment Pill, there were other pills that could assist with Foundation Establishment to such a degree.

Feng He naturally knew why Song Qingming would ask this. He shook his head decisively and said, "Although the Wind Spirit Pill has some benefits for Foundation Establishment, this pill mainly works in conjunction with the cultivation technique I practice and other pills to achieve such a high success rate. If given to others, it would likely only increase the success rate of Foundation Establishment by at most ten or twenty percent; it is not some miraculous medicine."

"I was, after all, a Nascent Soul cultivator once. Having cultivated for so many years, I naturally possess some shortcuts for Foundation Establishment, but this is not something that can be directly taught to others, so don't get any crooked ideas."

Seeing Feng He pierce through his thoughts, Song Qingming smiled awkwardly and continued, "I didn't expect that Senior is not only proficient in puppet secret techniques but also quite accomplished in the way of alchemy. It seems I will have to ask for Senior's help quite often in the future."

"Hehe! Since you and I are now in a cooperative relationship, helping you refine a few pills is naturally not a problem. In my previous life, I primarily practiced the art of alchemy, and my level of alchemy had already reached the third-tier high-grade. Although my cultivation is not what it used to be, refining ordinary second-tier pills is still no problem."

Hearing that Feng He's alchemy skills were unexpectedly so profound, Song Qingming's eyes lit up. It seemed that in the future, when he needed rare pills, he wouldn't have to search everywhere; he only needed to collect the necessary materials and ask Feng He to help refine them.

It was just a pity that because Feng He's identity could not be known to others, Song Qingming could not let the younger generation of the Song family follow him to learn the way of alchemy. Otherwise, with Feng He's alchemy skills, he could certainly help the Song family cultivate one or two more alchemists if given time.

To be honest, having known Feng He for so many years, Song Qingming didn't actually know much about him. When he met him in the State of Lu back then, Song Qingming had only chosen to cooperate with him to escape.

Aside from knowing that he was once a Nascent Soul cultivator proficient in puppet secret techniques, Song Qingming knew absolutely nothing else about this former high-level cultivator. He even suspected that the name "Feng He" was likely just something the other party used casually to deal with him.

One must know that the total number of Nascent Soul cultivators across the dozens of countries in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range was only a dozen or so. These people were basically big figures who had been famous for a long time. Although Song Qingming had never met them, it was easy to inquire about the names of these big figures.

Among these Nascent Soul old monsters, there was not only no one named Feng He, but there was also no high-level expert who had disappeared for hundreds of years like him. Therefore, Song Qingming guessed that Feng He was likely not a Nascent Soul cultivator from near the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, but most likely came from the Heavenly Sea Alliance in the south or the sects on the islands in the east.

A Nascent Soul cultivator's normal lifespan is at least twelve hundred years. In his previous life, Feng He must have practiced for at least four or five hundred years to break through to Nascent Soul. After losing his body in the State of Lu and hiding for several hundred years, it stood to reason that his remaining lifespan was not very long.

Although Feng He had successfully seized a body and was reborn, whether he could return to his former cultivation level was truly hard to say.

After leaving Willow Wind Hall, Song Qingming did not linger in the Qinghe Market and returned directly to Mount Funiu.

Just as he returned to the mountain, Song Qingming saw from afar a twelve or thirteen-year-old youth sitting on the bluestone in front of his cave dwelling, eyes closed in meditation.

"Yuanli, you are waiting for me here—have you encountered any difficulties in your cultivation again?"

Hearing Song Qingming's voice, Song Yuanli immediately opened his eyes, stepped forward, and bowed, saying, "Patriarch, the Great Elder has an urgent matter to discuss with you, which is why he asked me to wait for you here."