Spring passed and autumn came, and in the blink of an eye, Song Qingming had been in Lingyuan Mountain for two years.
Relying on the special function of the incomplete map, Song Qingming's ability to make talismans has rapidly improved. Now the success rate of talisman making has reached 50% to 60%. By selling talismans, he has saved hundreds of spirit stones and has already repaid the spirit stones borrowed from his uncle Thirteen and others.
With the spirit stones, Song Qingming naturally started to upgrade his weapons and arm himself. Not only did he exchange some mid-grade talismans in the family's treasury, he also bought a mid-grade defensive magic weapon in Caolu Mountain. Now he is no longer the poor boy he was two years ago.
Gao Yuyao didn't go to Caolu Mountain often, sometimes only coming once every few months. Fortunately, the several elixir transactions between them went very smoothly.
Thanks to the elixirs he exchanged from Gao Yuyao, Song Qingming's cultivation has now reached the peak of the fourth level of Qi Refining. It won't be long before he will be able to break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining.
In the past two years, a major event has occurred in Qinghe County. The head of the Qian family, Qian Guangyao, successfully established his foundation half a year ago and became the sixth foundation-building cultivator in Qinghe County. As a result, the Qian family rose to prominence overnight and was promoted to a foundation-building family.
After a cultivator builds his foundation, his lifespan will be greatly increased. After Qian Guangyao built his foundation, the Qian family had at least two hundred years of prosperous days.
Originally, there were only three foundation-building families in Qinghe County. Now that Qian Guangyao has successfully built his foundation, the Qian family has successfully grown into the fourth foundation-building family in Qinghe County and has been given the opportunity to directly pay tribute to the Xiaoyao Sect.
There are dozens of other Qi-refining families, large and small, like the Song family. On the surface, they are all vassal families of the four major foundation-building families. They need to hand over a large amount of spiritual rice every year in exchange for the protection of these foundation-building families. The Song family where Song Qingming is located is a vassal Qi-refining family under the foundation-building family, the Huang family.
Among the four major foundation-building families today, the Huang family is the strongest, with a total of three foundation-building cultivators. The clan leader, Huang Shengxin, has reached the seventh level of foundation-building cultivation and is the only late-stage foundation-building cultivator in the entire Qinghe County. The Huang family is also an old-fashioned foundation-building family in Qinghe County. There has been a continuous stream of foundation-building cultivators in the clan for nearly a thousand years, making it the undisputed overlord of Qinghe County.
The Gao family originally had a similar strength to the Huang family, but more than 20 years ago, the former patriarch of the Gao family, who was in the late foundation building stage, was invited to go out and visit an ancient cave dwelling and died unexpectedly, causing the Gao family to suffer a great loss of strength. Now there is only one cultivator in the middle stage of foundation building left in the family.
The Lu family is in a similar situation to the Qian family, which has just established its foundation. Both are foundation-building families that have only been promoted in recent decades. In terms of family foundation, they are quite different from the Huang and Gao families.
There are a total of six foundation-building cultivators in the four major foundation-building families, plus a foundation-building cultivator assigned by the Xiaoyao Sect to guard and manage Qinghefang. There are a total of seven foundation-building cultivators living in Qinghe County.
When Song Qingming heard that Qian Guangyao had successfully established his foundation, his heart was moved. Becoming a foundation-building cultivator not only has the ability to fly and hide in the ground, but also can double the lifespan. This is what many cultivators dream of, naturally including him now.
The Song family has also added a cultivator in the past two years. He is the eleventh in the Qing generation, Song Qingwen, has five spiritual roots and comes from a small village under Mujiao Town.
With the addition of two cultivators in two years, the Song family has had a lot of good news. The fourth elder who manages the family affairs even specially distributed some supplies to allow the two villages to celebrate.
For this reason, the Lingyuan Mountain mine was shut down for two days, and hundreds of working villagers living there took turns to celebrate with Xiaoyu's parents.
Today, Song Qingyu's family is just like Song Qingming's family in the past. When one person succeeds, the whole family will benefit. Xiaoyu's father became a miner leader in the mine last year, responsible for managing dozens of miners. He no longer needs to go to the mine himself. The family has long lived in a large house given by the clan.
One morning, Song Qingming, who was in seclusion practicing, suddenly received a message from the second elder of the clan, asking him to return to Funiu Mountain that day.
Song Qingming did not dare to delay. After saying hello to his ninth uncle Song Changxin, he returned to Funiu Mountain alone.
Not long after going up the mountain, I happened to meet my thirteenth uncle Song Changxiong who was also heading to the family meeting room.
"Qingming, why are you back? Are you going to the meeting room too?" Song Changxiong asked with some surprise when he saw Song Qingming.
"It was the Second Elder who called me back to the mountain, but I don't know why," Song Qingming answered truthfully.
"Sixth brother called you back. Could it be that you are also involved in this mission?" Song Changxiong looked strange.
"Mission? Nephew, I don't know. The Second Elder didn't mention it in the letter. But does Uncle Thirteen know what the mission is?"
"Oh, the clan leader accepted a mercenary mission from the Liu family yesterday. Maybe you will also participate. Sixth Brother may also have other arrangements with you. You will know when you get to the meeting room."
Seeing Song Qingming's face full of confusion, Song Changxiong did not say anything else, but urged him to go to the conference room together.
On the top of Funiu Mountain, in the Song family meeting hall, more than a dozen Song family cultivators including Song Qingming were sitting in the middle, discussing the mercenary mission from the Liu family. In addition to Song Qingming, there was another person from the Qing generation among them, the third brother Song Qingze.
When I came to Funiu Mountain half a year ago, my third brother was only at the fifth level of Qi Refining. I didn't expect that after not seeing him for half a year, he had broken through to the sixth level of Qi Refining. He truly deserves to be the most talented cultivator of the next generation of the Song family.
Like the clan leader, Song Qingze practiced the family's only foundation-building technique, the "Red Flame Art". This foundation-building technique was much more powerful than the common Qi-refining techniques they practiced. Now Song Qingze's fighting skills were no less than those of the elders present. His appearance here was not unexpected by Song Qingming.
However, Song Qingze was a little surprised to see Song Qingming coming here, and greeted Song Qingming with some confusion.
The clan leader Song Gushan, who was standing in front of the crowd, saw that everyone was present. He waved his hand to calm the discussion, looked at everyone in the hall, and loudly stated the purpose of gathering everyone.
It turned out that another Qi-refining family in Qinghe County, the Jingyuan Mountain Liu family, had issued a mercenary mission in Qinghefang a few days ago, secretly inviting several nearby Qi-refining families to go to the Floating Cloud Mountains to hunt a second-level low-grade monster.
Like the Song family, the Liu family is a vassal family of the Huang family, which has been established for nearly four hundred years. They are considered to be older immortal cultivation families in Qinghe County, with a history of nearly four hundred years. There are more than forty cultivators in the family, and their strength is much stronger than that of the Song family, which has only been established for two hundred years. It is for this reason that they have the confidence to attack the second-level monster.
The level classification of monsters is the same as that of human cultivators. A second-level low-grade monster is equivalent to a human cultivator in the early stage of foundation building, but the monsters' spiritual intelligence is obviously slower to develop than humans.
Level one monsters basically rely on their nature to fight, and level two monsters are equivalent to the intelligence of a ten-year-old human child. When fighting against human cultivators, they are often easily suppressed by various techniques, traps, and formations. Qi Refining cultivators can rely on numbers to activate level two formations and defeat level two monsters in the Foundation Establishment stage.
On the other hand, a third-level demon beast that has reached the Jindan stage has greatly increased its intelligence and can speak human language. Its intelligence is basically the same as that of an ordinary person. It will no longer be easily trapped by low-level human cultivators using formations. Relying on its own powerful body, it has an advantage over human cultivators of the same level.
Hiring cultivators from other nearby Qi-refining families to hunt monsters together, although this type of hiring task is relatively rare, it is not a strange thing. For employers, compared to the wandering cultivators, the cultivators from families with families and businesses are definitely more trustworthy.
Many Qi-refining families and factions in Qinghe County had issued similar missions before. Because the Liu family offered a hefty price for this mission, the clan leader and several elders discussed it and decided to take on the job.
Such a difficult task would have high risks as well. Song Qingming's cultivation was not high, so the family should not have allowed him to participate. However, the Liu family required that the families participating in this task must send at least three formation masters, and the Song family only had a few formation masters, so they summoned Song Qingming, who was at the fourth level of Qi Refining, to make up the number.
In the conference hall, after some discussion, the final candidates for this mission were quickly decided. The clan leader stayed in Funiu Mountain, while the first elder and the second elder led the team to participate in this mission.
In addition to the Great Elder Song Gubai and the Second Elder Song Changfeng, there are four cultivators of the Chang generation including the Thirteenth Uncle Song Changxiong, as well as Song Qingze and Song Qingming of the Qing generation. Half of the Song family's elite were dispatched for this mission, which is considered the largest operation of the Song family in the past ten years.
Half a day later, a group of eight people from the Song family, led by the great elder Song Gushan, quietly left Funiu Mountain and headed west to Qinghefang.