Chapter 426: Support

Seeing Song Qingming cast his gaze toward him, Song Qingshi, whose beard and hair were already white, slowly stood up and nodded, acknowledging that he knew about this matter, without saying much else.

Song Qingming held the blue long sword in his hand and observed it carefully for a while, then spoke with a serious expression:

"Although my artifact refining level is not very good, I can see that the refining level of this magic tool is already very close to a second-tier magic tool. Since Xinde's artifact refining level has reached this standard, why didn't Big Brother arrange for the family to support him further?"

Song Qingshi nodded indifferently, "Xinde is indeed not easy. Although his own spiritual root is not very good and his cultivation talent is average, he does have some talent for the Dao of artifact refining and has put in a lot of effort to study it."

"Over the years, he has helped many cultivators in the family refine magic tools, and his artifact refining level can now be considered the best in the family. Logically speaking, the family should indeed support him. It was my negligence as an elder. Since you already know about this, Qingming, just make the decision on how to handle it!"

"Clan Leader, upgrading the family spirit vein a few years ago almost emptied the entire Hidden Gold Pavilion and owed many spirit stones to the cultivators in the clan. Big Brother had no choice but to choose to wrong Xinde at that time. Please don't blame him." Song Qingsi stood up and explained anxiously for Song Qingshi.

Over the years, Song Qingming, as the Clan Leader, had been in seclusion for cultivation all year round, and most of the family affairs were handed over to several elders, among whom Big Brother Song Qingshi was the most helpful to him and was Song Qingming's right-hand man in managing the family.

Ever since Song Qingshi took over from his Sixth Uncle, Song Changfeng, to become the general manager of family affairs, the burden on his shoulders had always been the heaviest among all the cultivators in the Song family. Song Qingming was naturally very clear about this in his heart.

This time, it was also because Song Qingming happened to hear the news that Song Xinde was borrowing spirit stones from other clan members everywhere on the mountain after returning, and only after asking in detail did he understand his deeds over the years.

Song Xinde was the fifth cultivator of the Song family's 'Xin' generation, an ordinary four-spiritual-root cultivator. He was nearly seventy years old, and his cultivation had only just reached the seventh level of Qi Refining. A cultivator with such average cultivation talent almost had no hope of Foundation Establishment in the Song family.

Because he knew early on that his cultivation talent was poor, after Song Xinde broke through to the middle stage of Qi Refining, he began to slack off in his own cultivation, and most of his energy was spent on the Dao of artifact refining, which he had liked since he was a child.

Although his own cultivation talent was average, Song Xinde had some talent for the Dao of artifact refining. Under Song Qingming's policy of encouraging everyone to cultivate immortal skills, his artifact refining level had already reached the first-tier high-grade level more than twenty years ago.

However, because his own cultivation was too low, Song Xinde's artifact refining level could only reach the first-tier high-grade, and it would be difficult to improve further to a second-tier low-grade artifact refiner.

If Song Xinde had just focused on refining first-tier magic tools for the rest of his life, as the best artifact refiner in the Song family, not to mention that he could be rich, it would be absolutely impossible for him to be so down-and-out that he needed to borrow spirit stones from clan members everywhere.

The reason it became like this was because Song Xinde was not reconciled to only being able to refine first-tier magic tools for the rest of his life and wanted to break through to become a second-tier artifact refiner. Most of the spirit stones in his hands over the years had been spent on this.

At first, in order to promote Song Qingming's policy of attaching importance to family cultivators improving their immortal skills, Song Qingshi did indeed support Song Xinde with some materials and spiritual items. However, after he failed several times in a row, other cultivators in the family began to have many opinions about wasting those precious spiritual items on Song Xinde in vain.

Just shortly after, Song Qingming announced that he wanted to upgrade the family spirit vein, and the spirit stones in the family's Hidden Gold Pavilion became very tight, so Song Qingshi could only decide to stop supporting Song Xinde with spiritual items and materials.

But Song Xinde himself was not reconciled to failure. After the family stopped supporting him, Song Xinde relied on his own savings and borrowed spirit stones from brothers and friends around him. After trying to refine second-tier magic tools several more times, a few years ago, he really refined a somewhat incomplete second-tier flying sword.

However, although this second-tier flying sword was barely refined by him, it was only a defective product, and taking it to the market might not even exchange for the spirit stones for the materials. Afterward, although Song Qingshi heard about this, he didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

Although the Song family itself did not have a second-tier artifact refiner, both the Huang family and the Gao family in Qinghe County had second-tier artifact refiners, and the Song family now had a good relationship with them. If they wanted to refine a second-tier magic tool, they just needed to spend some spirit stones to invite them to help, which was not a troublesome matter.

However, although Song Qingshi's handling of this matter was not wrong, Song Qingming did not think so in his heart. Although the family is now developing very rapidly, in fact, its foundation in all aspects is still far behind those old-fashioned immortal cultivation families.

Immortal cultivation families that have been passed down for thousands of years like the Huang family have complete inheritances of second-tier or higher in common immortal cultivation skills such as alchemy, talisman making, formations, and artifact refining.

Therefore, even if the older generation of cultivators in their family who mastered second-tier immortal cultivation skills pass away, the new generation of cultivators can rely on the inheritance left by the family to relatively easily cultivate new talents in this area, and will not easily have a gap.

Everything is difficult at the beginning. Nowadays, the Song family has Song Qingming, a second-tier talisman maker and formation master. Through Song Qingming's compilation over the years, the family's Hidden Gold Pavilion already has a relatively complete second-tier inheritance for talisman making and formations, and many young-generation cultivators will develop more smoothly in this direction.

The clan has never had a cultivator who could break through to the second tier or higher in alchemy and artifact refining. These two items have always been what Song Qingming very much wants to cultivate in his heart. As long as he can cultivate a second-tier artifact refiner to leave behind an inheritance, even if it requires paying more, Song Qingming is willing.

"Big Brother, I see that since Xinde has been able to refine this kind of magic tool, it seems that this kid is indeed confident about breaking through to become a second-tier artifact refiner. Then give him a few more opportunities. If anyone gossips, let them come directly to the mountain top to find me, the Clan Leader."

"Although the family now has more cultivators, the inheritance of immortal cultivation skills in all aspects is still relatively weak. No matter how good others have it, it is not as convenient as having it in one's own family. As long as a second-tier artifact refiner can be cultivated, the family should try its best to support it."

Hearing Song Qingming say this, Song Qingshi immediately nodded and said:

"The Clan Leader is right. It was my negligence in this regard. Most of the affairs in my hands have now been handed over to Qingsi. Let me handle Xinde's breakthrough to a second-tier artifact refiner next. It just so happens that I can also have a good rest."

"Although my energy is not as good as before, I am still confident that I can do this little thing. Don't worry, Qingming."