Chapter 66: Thunder Tiger Puppet Beast

In the Merit Pavilion of Guiyun Market, Song Qingming was holding several immortal cultivation classics in his hands with a focused expression, reading with great interest and tireless energy.

During the two months of this mission, Song Qingming had obtained a lot of information he didn't know before from Xu Ziyan. Only now did he know that the merits they, the Flying Cloud Guards, obtained from performing missions could not only be directly exchanged for spirit stones in the Merit Pavilion but could also be used to exchange for various spiritual items on the second floor of the Merit Pavilion.

The Merit Pavilion of Guiyun Market had accumulated many spiritual items and various classics over hundreds of years. These spiritual items were the accumulation of a millennium of Guiyun Market. Some information, such as introductions to various demonic beasts and spiritual herbs in the Fuyun Mountain Range, were summarized and recorded into the Merit Pavilion by generations of Flying Cloud Guards through continuous exploration.

Some cultivation techniques, classics, and magic treasures were obtained by Guiyun Market garrison cultivators from killing foreign enemies and wanted bandit cultivators. Other materials such as elixirs, talismans, and spiritual herbs were specifically placed in the Merit Pavilion by Guiyun Market to reward those who had made contributions to the market.

However, items involving the core cultivation inheritance of the Carefree Sect would not appear in the Guiyun Market Merit Pavilion. Song Qingming and the other Flying Cloud Guards could only enter the second floor of the Merit Pavilion to exchange for some first-tier spiritual items that were not particularly precious.

As for the third floor of the Merit Pavilion, which contained more precious spiritual items, only Carefree Sect disciples could enter. It was said that there were many second-tier spiritual items needed by Foundation Establishment cultivators above.

It was also thanks to Xu Ziyan's care for her subordinates that Song Qingming had learned a lot of useful information over the past two months, avoiding many detours.

Now he had been away from Qinghe County for half a year, and after joining the Flying Cloud Guard and venturing deep into the Fuyun Mountain Range twice, he had also accumulated a lot of experience in dealing with various demonic beasts.

With sufficient preparation, he had also made many talismans using his spare time in the camp during this mission. Now Song Qingming was not in urgent need of spirit stones.

So he simply used his merits to exchange for various classics of the hundred arts of immortal cultivation on the second floor of the Merit Pavilion.

After flipping through a formation classic in his hand, Song Qingming put the other classics back on the bookshelf, took the formation classic, and walked to the management cultivator at the stairs of the second floor of the Merit Pavilion.

The person managing the second floor of the Merit Pavilion was an old man with a relatively simple appearance. Looking at the formation classic Song Qingming placed on the table, the old man squinted his eyes and asked Song Qingming with a smile: "Little Friend Song, do you want to copy this classic or just borrow it?"

"No need to copy, just borrow it for two days. Directly mortgage it with merits and return it after two days."

During the half a month of rest, Song Qingming had basically been addicted to the second floor of the Merit Pavilion, and even the Carefree Sect cultivators who managed this place were very familiar with him.

Although there were many classics and cultivation techniques here, none of them were precious items. Most of them could be found in the market if one was willing to spend some effort.

The cultivation classics placed on the second floor of the Merit Pavilion also allowed these Flying Cloud Guards to copy and take them away, but the number of merits required for copying and borrowing differed by several times. Although Song Qingming also wanted to copy these classics and take them back to the family in the future, he was really powerless at the moment.

Song Qingming could only earn twenty-plus merits for performing a mission at present. He had borrowed five or six classics in the Merit Pavilion during this half month, which had already used up a lot, so he really didn't have too many merits to use for copying and taking them away.

With the company of these classics, the studious Song Qingming soon became addicted to them, and even his plan to go to the Mount Bai Long market was temporarily shelved. Time flew by, and soon more than two years passed.

Over the past two years, besides following the Flying Cloud Guard to the Fuyun Mountain Range for missions, Song Qingming had been hiding in the Merit Pavilion of Guiyun Market studying various classics of immortal cultivation techniques.

After Song Qingming had the mysterious cultivation technique, the Jade Profound Scripture, he naturally looked down on the relatively ordinary cultivation techniques in the Merit Pavilion, but the various technique classics in the Merit Pavilion were of no small help to him now.

Spending more than two years, Song Qingming used the special ability of the remnant map to continuously study classics and refine them. Not only did he raise his formation level to mid-grade, but he also successfully refined several low-grade magic treasures, becoming an ordinary low-grade refiner.

Over the past two years, Song Qingming's cultivation had also been steadily advancing. Relying on his fast talisman-making means, he was not short of elixirs and spirit stones for cultivation, and now he was not far from the late stage of Qi Refining.

On this day, after leaving the Flying Cloud Guard station, Song Qingming hurriedly came to Guiyun Mountain behind Guiyun Market. The spiritual energy on Guiyun Mountain was much better than the Guiyun Market at the foot of the mountain.

Guiyun Mountain was a third-tier spiritual mountain, and many cave dwellings had already been opened on the mountain for cultivators living in the market to use for cultivation. However, in order to save some spirit stones over the past two years, Song Qingming had lived in the Flying Cloud Guard station when returning to Guiyun Market to rest and had not rented a cave dwelling here.

After arriving outside a cave dwelling on the mountainside, Song Qingming released a sound-transmission talisman from outside the cave dwelling. Soon, the talisman passed through the restriction at the entrance of the cave dwelling and flew into the cave dwelling.

"Fellow Daoist Song, please come in quickly." Not long after, a voice familiar to Song Qingming came from the cave dwelling.

After walking into the cave dwelling and seeing Xu Ziyan meditating inside, Song Qingming hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed.

"Disturbing Captain Xu's cultivation, I am really sorry. I hope you will forgive my abruptness."

Xu Ziyan smiled and waved her hand: "You don't have to think too much. I am not in seclusion, just practicing daily. Is there anything you need by coming to find me today?"

"I do have a matter I would like to ask Captain Xu for help with. If this matter can be accomplished, I will naturally have a generous gift to thank you."

The reason Song Qingming came to find Xu Ziyan for help was that he had accidentally learned a piece of news that made him very excited from the old man guarding the Merit Pavilion when he was borrowing classics in the Merit Pavilion of Guiyun Market just now.

That old man was a veteran Qi Refining cultivator of the Carefree Sect and had been on duty in the Merit Pavilion for more than ten years, and he was relatively clear about the size of things that happened in the Merit Pavilion on weekdays.

From the old man, Song Qingming accidentally learned that a precious mid-grade puppet beast had recently appeared on the third floor of the Merit Pavilion. After spending a spirit stone to inquire about it in detail, he learned that this puppet beast was the Thunder Tiger puppet beast that had been on Feng Laogui, who had dealt with him back then.

A few years ago, after the battle with the demonic cultivators in the Fuyun Mountain Range, Feng Laogui unfortunately fell at the hands of the demonic cultivators. Later, Liu Xingfeng came to support and beat back the demonic cultivators. Afterward, Feng Laogui's storage bag also fell into the hands of the Flying Cloud Guard.

Originally, if a Flying Cloud Guard cultivator fell on the way to perform a mission, the Flying Cloud Guard would look for the descendants of this cultivator to provide consolation and exchange the storage bag.

It was just a pity that Feng Laogui did not have any relatives or descendants in Guiyun Market. Guiyun Market sent cultivators to explore for several years and finally only found a few of his mortal relatives.

Facing these mortals, Guiyun Market naturally could not return these spiritual items to them and could only temporarily provide consolation with some worldly gold and silver.

After all, the spiritual items used by cultivators were useless to mortals without spiritual power and would also cause trouble for them for no reason. However, Guiyun Market also made a promise to Feng Laogui's relatives that if any of their descendants possessed spiritual roots and successfully ascended to immortality within a hundred years, they could come to the Merit Pavilion of Guiyun Market to exchange for a sum of spiritual item consolation.

After tossing and turning for several years, Feng Laogui's storage bag finally fell into the Merit Pavilion of Guiyun Market, including the Thunder Tiger puppet beast in his storage bag.

This Thunder Tiger puppet beast was also the best treasure on Feng Laogui, and its value was not inferior to the high-grade flying sword he used.

After listening to Song Qingming slowly explain this matter, Xu Ziyan finally understood Song Qingming's intention.

"Fellow Daoist Song came here this time because you want me to go to the third floor of the Merit Pavilion to help you exchange for that Thunder Tiger puppet beast, right?"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 67 =====