Chapter 381: A Harvest Delivered to the Doorstep

After handing over that somewhat troublesome jade pendant he had been carrying to Fire Phoenix, Song Qingming did not stay long in the cavern before withdrawing. He turned and, with the familiarity of one who had traveled the path before, made his way to a dark red stone chamber within the underground cave system.

This place was already somewhat familiar to him. When Song Qingming was first captured by the Azure Phoenix years ago, the place where he had been held upon his first awakening was this very stone chamber. Although decades had passed, it remained unchanged, just as it had been.

Song Qingming had once been imprisoned here for several months, and he had even modified the cavern slightly during his stay. While it could not compare to his cave dwelling at Mount Funiu, it was still quite suitable for resting and meditating compared to some of the makeshift spots he had carved out while traveling.

The massive cave system where Fire Phoenix and the others hid, located beneath the mountain, was so rich in spiritual energy that it did not lose out to the spiritual mountains of Mount Guyang, such as the Merit Pavilion or the Law Enforcement Hall. Song Qingming estimated that there must be a Tier 3 or higher spiritual vein beneath them; in fact, it was even more suitable for his daily cultivation than his own home at Mount Funiu.

The spiritual vein at Mount Funiu was only Tier 2 Low-grade. Ever since Song Qingming broke through to the seventh level of Qi Refining, he had begun to feel that the spiritual energy he absorbed during his usual cultivation was insufficient. However, the Song family currently did not have enough spirit stones to spare for upgrading the spiritual vein, so Song Qingming had no choice but to let the matter rest for the time being.

Once the family's Treasury Pavilion became more affluent in the future, the matter of upgrading the Mount Funiu spiritual vein would have to be put on the agenda. This was an important item in Song Qingming's future plans.

Upon arriving at his temporary resting place, Song Qingming did not choose to set up any restrictions at the entrance this time. After finding a cleaner spot, he took out several storage bags of different colors from his person.

These storage bags had all been obtained from the red-clothed man and his companions. As for why they had fallen into Song Qingming's hands, it was naturally because Long Feng had yielded them to him. For Song Qingming, it could be considered a harvest delivered right to his doorstep.

The items on these Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators were mostly tainted with demonic energy. As a Demon King, Long Feng naturally looked down on them, and it couldn't be bothered to spend time researching how to open these storage bags, so it simply tossed them directly to Song Qingming.

In any case, what it wanted most were the rare artifact-refining materials Song Qingming had given it. Even if there were any in these storage bags, Song Qingming would certainly take them out and hand them over to Long Feng voluntarily; after all, he was not a high-level artifact refiner, and he wouldn't have any use for them himself.

Song Qingming was now a Tier 2 formation master, and the restrictions on these few storage bags were not particularly formidable. Naturally, he opened them without much effort, and soon, a pile of messy, scattered items was gathered by Song Qingming into a small mound.

On the bodies of demonic cultivators, there was naturally no shortage of those harmful demonic cultivation techniques, as well as magic tools and talismans already tainted with demonic energy. If it were in the past, Song Qingming would usually destroy them directly upon obtaining them, to avoid them being found by greedy Qi Refining cultivators who would use them to harm others.

But ever since Feng He had given him some pointers on demonic cultivation techniques last time, Song Qingming had begun to take some interest in the items carried by these demonic cultivators. He packed them all into a box and sealed them away for the time being, intending to take them back to Qinghe County later to let that old fellow Feng He see if there was anything useful among them.

In particular, he carefully picked out the magic tools that were deeply tainted with demonic energy, while the few remaining Tier 2 magic tools that appeared relatively normal were placed into his own storage bag.

There were five such magic tools that had not yet been corrupted by demonic energy, all of which had reached Tier 2 quality. Among them, two low-grade flying swords with average attributes looked very ordinary; they were likely seized by these demonic cultivators from other cultivators.

The best magic tool was a small white shield, which had already reached Tier 2 Mid-grade quality. It was the most valuable-looking item among these magic tools, so Song Qingming set it aside, intending to refine and use it himself in the future; after all, high-quality defensive magic tools were not common on the market.

The remaining two items were a golden longbow and a jade-green round bead.

The golden longbow had decent attack power when used, but its quality was not high—only Tier 2 Low-grade—making it unsuitable for Song Qingming at his current level. He could only take it back to the family's Treasury Pavilion to see if any juniors in the family needed it, or he could sell it directly at a market shop.

As for the jade-green round bead, it appeared on the surface to be a defensive magic tool, but after Song Qingming tried injecting his magic power into it, he found it to be of little use. It could only form a defensive barrier that didn't look very impressive, not even as good as the Profound Light Armor he had cultivated for many years. Feeling it was of little use, Song Qingming didn't bother with it and tossed it into his storage bag.

Besides these, the rest consisted of several thousand spirit stones and some miscellaneous elixirs and spiritual items. Except for the spirit stones, which were fine, Song Qingming naturally dared not touch the elixirs consumed by demonic cultivators. As for the remaining items, Song Qingming could not figure out their uses in the short term.

After tidying these things up slightly, Song Qingming placed them all into a sealed wooden box, intending to take them to Feng He for study after he returned, to see if there was anything useful left.

The fact that the red-clothed man and his two companions had delivered so many good things to him at once truly surprised Song Qingming. He thought that when he returned, he must find some better high-level artifact-refining materials for Long Feng; after all, it was the greatest contributor to his ability to profit this time.

Early the next morning, just as Song Qingming finished his night of meditation, the always cold-looking Azure Phoenix came directly to his residence and brought him to Fire Phoenix once again.

Seeing that a pile of items had already accumulated on the ground beside Fire Phoenix, Song Qingming's eyes widened, and he asked with a look of surprise, "Your Highness! Have you already opened the restrictions on the jade pendant and taken out the items inside?"

"Not bad! The items you see here are what I just took out from inside. They are all here. Come forward and take a look together!" Fire Phoenix said, while carefully observing the pile of items on the ground one by one.

Song Qingming walked up and took a look, his eyes immediately dazzled.

"Good heavens, the quality of these items looks much better than the messy things obtained last night."

That Fire Phoenix could open this spatial magic tool so quickly was also somewhat beyond Song Qingming's expectations. When he begged her for help yesterday, she had looked completely reluctant at first, and Song Qingming had thought the matter might not be so easy. He hadn't expected that he had overthought it; opening the restrictions on the jade pendant was not a difficult task for Fire Phoenix at all.