Qinghe Immortal Clan.

Song Xuande is a Qi Refining cultivator from the "Xuan" generation of the Song family. He has an ordinary aptitude for cultivation and is only a cultivator with four spiritual roots, just like Song Qingming.

However, Song Xuande has a very rare "spirit-hunting skill" and is currently the only top-grade "spirit-hunter" in the Song family. It was he who discovered the spirit stone vein of the Song family in "Shuangfeng Mountain".

When Song Qingming learned that Song Xuande had found a spiritual stone vein, he was very happy. After returning, he immediately arranged to reward Song Xuande for his great contribution to the family.

He also made a statement at the family meeting that after he reaches the ninth level of Qi training, the family will reward him with a foundation-building pill and support him in reaching the foundation-building realm in the future, so as to set an example and encourage other family members to make more contributions to the family.

Song Xuande, who received a large amount of rewards from his family, used this spiritual stone resource and, as expected, successfully cultivated to the ninth level of Qi Refining five years ago. He also received the Foundation Establishment Pill from his family.

It's just a pity that although Song Xuande obtained the Foundation Establishment Pill a few years ago and went into seclusion to reach the Foundation Establishment stage, due to his poor aptitude, he ultimately failed to succeed in establishing the foundation.

After failing in foundation building, Song Xuande did not give up on foundation building after recovering from his injuries. He still practiced diligently every day to hone his skills, hoping to reach the foundation building realm again.

Recently, a "Jadeite Golden Branch" happened to mature in the spiritual medicine garden on the back mountain of the family. Huang Siyuan used this medicine and a five-element spiritual fruit from the sect to refine five "Foundation Building Pills", and the Song family finally got two of them.

Upon learning that his family had a new foundation-building pill, Song Xuande took the initiative to find the family's treasury, wanting to exchange the family's merits and some spiritual objects for a "foundation-building pill".

Since Song Qingming established his foundation, the family has developed for more than two hundred years. Those who were chosen in the past to support him in building his foundation, as long as they failed, basically had no chance to build their foundation a second time because they had consumed all their family merits in exchanging for the "Foundation Establishment Pill".

The first "Foundation Building Pill" that Song Xuande received before was a direct reward from his family and did not require the merits he had accumulated over the years. Therefore, this time he had the confidence to exchange it for the "Foundation Building Pill" from his family.

Although Song Xuande had enough family merit to exchange for the "Foundation Building Pill", his previous failure in building the foundation had caused dissatisfaction among some people in the clan.

Many family elders were not very optimistic about Song Xuande's participation in the competition for the "Foundation Building Pill" this time, fearing that he would waste another Foundation Building Pill for the family. His chances of getting the "Foundation Building Pill" were obviously not as good as other family members of the same level.

However, because Song Xuande, as a "Spirit Explorer", had made many great contributions to the family, and it was Song Qingming who had said that he would support him in building his foundation, Song Yuanfang was unable to make a decision on this matter for a while, so he took this opportunity to ask Song Qingming for the decision.

When Song Qingming heard Song Yuanfang mention Song Xuande's foundation building, he didn't think too much about it and nodded to him directly.

"Xuan De is a man who has made great contributions to the family. Not to mention the other mineral veins he has found over the years, the Shuangfeng Mountain Spiritual Mine he discovered that year alone has brought so much profit to the family. How can these be compared with a foundation-building pill?

First, leave him a foundation-building pill so that Xuande can retreat and build his foundation as soon as possible. Other spiritual objects necessary for building the foundation should also be arranged for him. If his merits are not enough, give him some from my side.

Tell Xuande that the family said they would support him in building his foundation and they will do their best to do it. Let him prepare for building his foundation without worrying too much. Even if he fails this time, I will find a way to arrange another foundation-building pill for him.

I agree with the family's support for Xuande to build his foundation. Regardless of whether he can succeed in building his foundation in the future, if anyone has any opinions or ideas about this matter, you can ask him to come to the top of the mountain to find me."

After getting Song Qingming's support, Song Yuanfang felt slightly relieved and immediately nodded in agreement:
“Seventh Uncle is right. Although Xuande’s talent and aptitude are average, he has found so many mineral veins for the family in recent years. His contribution is not much less than that of us foundation-building cultivators. The family cannot treat him unfairly.

Don't worry, before Xuande goes into seclusion this time, Yueqing and I will definitely take the time to give him some guidance, so that he can succeed in building his foundation as soon as possible and live up to the cultivation of his seventh uncle."

"Well! It's okay if you understand these. The family is developing so fast now. With so many people, there will always be different opinions. These are inevitable in the future.

But no matter what, those of us who are in charge of the family must take a long-term view, and people like Xuande who will be of great use to the family in the future should be supported as much as possible.

Regardless of whether I am here or not, you must understand this and never bury the talents of the family for these petty gains."

"Seventh Uncle is right. Yuan Fang understands!"

Seeing Song Yuanfang listening attentively to his teachings, Song Qingming nodded slightly and continued, "There have been a lot of things going on at home recently, and you guys have worked hard.

Now that Xuanyu and the others are back, if you are too busy, you can share more of the work with others and don't let it delay your personal cultivation.

This spiritual fruit was found by Yuan Hao and his companions at Red Moon Ridge. It should be of some help to your breakthrough. Keep it for now and strive to break through to the late stage of foundation building as soon as possible."

After saying that, Song Qingming's hand flashed, and he took out a black wooden box from the storage magic tool and handed it to Song Yuanfang.

After opening the wooden box and seeing that it contained a second-grade top-quality spiritual fruit, Song Yuanfang's face immediately showed a look of surprise, and he looked at Song Qingming with a little excitement.

Although Song Yuanfang had been in the rear of "Funiu Mountain", the cultivators on the front line of "White Lion Ridge" would report back to the family on time every day how many monsters they killed and how many spiritual objects they obtained. Naturally, he had heard about the spiritual fruit that Song Yuanhao and his friends found a long time ago.

Song Yuanfang's cultivation has now reached the peak of the sixth level of foundation building. He needs to find a spiritual object to break through to the late stage of foundation building. The second-level top-grade spiritual fruit in front of him is just what he needs to help him break through his cultivation.

Originally, Song Yuanfang wanted to wait for Song Qingming to return to the family before finding an opportunity to ask him for this item. However, Song Qingming had been thinking about this matter in his mind and took it out without waiting for him to open his mouth.

Seeing the spiritual fruit in his hand, Song Yuanfang was extremely excited. He hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to Song Qingming to express his gratitude.

Seeing this, Song Qingming immediately waved his hand and said, "We are all family, why are we so polite?

Although you guys didn't go to the front line to make contributions this time, you stayed behind to guard the family and ensure that we were safe in the rear, which is also a meritorious service. This time the family successfully captured Baishiling, so naturally we cannot treat you unfairly.

Tell Yuan Qian and the others that all the cultivators who did not go to the front line and stayed behind to guard the family, as long as they did not make mistakes in the past six months, should go to the Gold Storage Pavilion to receive 20 points of family merit, and each of you foundation-building cultivators will receive 200 points. "

"Thank you for your cultivation, clan leader!" Song Yuanfang immediately responded with a smile upon hearing that.

After seeing Song Yuanfang off, Song Qingming went to the family alchemy pavilion and found Huang Siyuan, who was in seclusion making medicine. He gave her all the level 2 and above spiritual medicines that the family monks had collected near "White Lion Ridge" in recent times.

Ever since Huang Siyuan became a third-level alchemist, almost all high-level spiritual medicines above level two in the entire family were kept by her for alchemy.

If the many immortal cultivation families under the Song family find valuable and precious high-level elixirs that they cannot use, they will also take them to "Funiu Mountain" to pay tribute to the Golden Elixir Ancestor in exchange for some useful elixirs.

However, even so, Weiguo is a place with relatively scarce cultivation resources after all, and it is still difficult to meet the needs of Huang Siyuan, a high-level alchemist.

Most of the time, in order to refine the auxiliary spiritual medicines needed for high-level elixirs, Huang Siyuan still had to go to "Guyang Mountain" or "Tiandan City" to find a way to get them.

In response to this, the Song family has also been stepping up efforts in recent years to cultivate medicinal fields, expand the planting of the "spiritual medicine garden" in the family's back mountain, and train more "spiritual plant masters."

However, due to the fact that the family does not have a spiritual plant master above level three, the Song family's family foundation in the area of ​​spiritual plants is far inferior to those large sects that have been established for more than a thousand years. If they want to achieve self-sufficiency in spiritual medicines, they still have a long way to go.

After returning home and staying there for a few days, Song Qingming boarded the large flying boat that he had rented from the sect in order to attack "White Lion Ridge" and planned to go to "Guyang Mountain" to return the flying boat to the sect's Good Deeds Pavilion in person.

After all, this item was borrowed by Song Qingming himself, so he was not comfortable asking others to return it. He decided to go there himself as it would only take a few days.

In order to help deliver some goods along the way, Song Qingming specially asked the flying boat to make a detour to "Yinfeng Ridge". After loading all the ore collected in the past year onto the flying boat, he turned to "Guyang Mountain" in a mighty manner.

Just as the flying boat was moving slowly, Song Qingming, who was flipping through a book on formations in the warehouse, suddenly felt the light inside the flying boat suddenly dimmed, and felt a little strange.

I stood up and walked to the window to open it, only to find that a strange black cloud had suddenly appeared above the originally clear sky, covering the entire flying boat. The surroundings were dim and dark as if we had suddenly entered the night.

"Hey! What's going on?"

Seeing this somewhat strange scene outside, Song Qingming suddenly looked confused. He was about to go out to check the situation, but he heard a knock on the door from behind.

Song Qingming hurried to the door, opened it and found that the person who came in was a middle-aged man with the fifth level of Foundation Establishment. He was one of the Xiaoyao Sect disciples who was hired by him from "Guyang Mountain" half a year ago to help control the flying boat.

This person looked a little panicked. Seeing Song Qingming, he quickly said, "Uncle Song! There seems to be something following us in the sky. It looks like a golden elixir demon king."

"Golden Core Monster King! This place is not far from "Guyang Mountain". How could a Golden Core Monster King dare to come here? Did you see it wrong?"

After hearing what the visitor said, Song Qingming asked with a puzzled look on his face, obviously not quite believing what he said.

Seeing Song Qingming say this,
"Reporting to Uncle Song, we didn't see it clearly, but Junior Brother Chen just said that he saw the shadow of a large white bird in the black cloud. It really looked like some powerful monster.

This place is less than a thousand miles away from Guyang Mountain. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be such a powerful monster appearing. This is the first time I have encountered such a situation in this area in all the years I have been controlling the flying boat. Ah! "

Before the Xiaoyao Sect disciple could finish his words, the flying boat suddenly seemed to be hit by something, and it shook violently, interrupting his words. "You stay on the flying boat, activate the formation and continue moving forward. I'll go see what the hell is causing trouble on it."

Seeing this, Song Qingming's face suddenly changed. He became a little annoyed and said something to the "Xiaoyao Sect" disciple who had just stood up, then immediately turned around and walked out of the warehouse.

When Song Qingming arrived in front of the flying boat, a loud thunder suddenly appeared in the sky and struck the location of the flying boat. However, at this time, several disciples of the Xiaoyao Sect had already activated the large formation on the flying boat.

The lightning fell on the formation, immediately sparking a spark that illuminated the surrounding darkness, and the entire flying boat shook violently again.

Fortunately, although this lightning that fell from the sky looked fierce, its power was actually not as strong as imagined. Apart from causing the flying boat to shake a few times, it did not cause any other damage.

"Hmph! You are such a coward! Let me test how capable you are."

With the help of the lightning just now, Song Qingming also clearly saw the shadow of a giant bird several feet tall appear in the black cloud. Just as the foundation-building disciple just said, it looked very much like a demon king with a high level of cultivation.

However, although the magical powers displayed by the opponent seemed scary, Song Qingming did not take it seriously. Now his cultivation had reached the late Jindan stage, and ordinary Jindan demon kings were no match for him at all.

Besides, this place is not far from "Guyang Mountain", and we can send a message to the sect for help at any time.

As long as the opponent is not the Nascent Soul Demon King, even if he encounters a Great Demon King at the peak of the Golden Core stage, Song Qingming, who has a powerful set of magic weapons and supernatural powers, does not need to be afraid of the opponent.

After Song Qingming snorted coldly, he used the magic power in his hand to directly summon out his life-saving magic weapon, the "Five Elements Divine Light Mirror", and then escaped from the flying boat formation and headed straight for the black clouds in the sky.

When encountering obstacles near "Guyang Mountain", Song Qingming was very curious in his heart. Who was so blind and bold as to be so presumptuous here?

Just as Song Qingming was about to sink into the black cloud, there was a sudden flash of lightning and thunder above his head. Then a white lightning of the same color as before suddenly flashed and quickly headed straight for Song Qingming's location.

Seeing this, Song Qingming immediately cast a spell to control the "Five Elements Divine Light Mirror" to transform into a huge bronze mirror blocking above his head, trying to directly take on the attack.

As soon as the lightning fell on the "Five Elements Divine Light Mirror", a burst of fire immediately lit up, illuminating the surroundings as if it were daytime.

What surprised Song Qingming was that, although this bolt of lightning was obviously cast by the same person, its power was much stronger than the one that the flying boat below had just experienced.

As soon as the two sides came into contact, Song Qingming felt a very powerful thunder wave coming from the "Five Elements Divine Light Mirror", which made his hands that were controlling the magic weapon suddenly feel numb, and he almost couldn't control his own magic weapon.

The power of this lightning is no longer at the level of an ordinary Jindan demon king. If the opponent is not a special demon beast that is naturally good at thunder magic, then at least his cultivation is not weaker than his own.

Feeling that he seemed to have underestimated his opponent, Song Qingming became even more curious. He just blocked the attack in front of him, and immediately flashed into the black cloud, heading straight up to where his opponent was.

However, just as he moved, another white lightning fell towards him from above his head, and the pressure of this lightning seemed to be stronger than before.

"It's coming again, it's really not over yet!"

Seeing that the other party was decisive in his attack, with powerful lightning wave after wave, as if he didn't want to get close to him, Song Qingming's face suddenly changed and became a little solemn.

After uttering a few words with some displeasure, Song Qingming waved his hand and quickly took out another golden ball and placed it directly above his head.

After the golden sphere appeared, it immediately turned into a protective shield to block Song Qingming. With this layer of protection, Song Qingming's face immediately felt much more relaxed.

This time he did not choose to stay where he was and fight hard, but instead he flew upwards and faced the fierce lightning head-on.

Soon, Song Qingming's figure collided with the white lightning falling from above.

However, this time, the two sides did not produce as intense sparks as before.

As soon as the white lightning landed on the shield formed by the golden sphere, it was immediately firmly absorbed by the golden sphere. Its power was instantly weakened by 80% to 90%. Only a few small sparks appeared before it completely disappeared.

This golden round bead is exactly the treasure that Song Qingming had obtained from the Fire Phoenix that year. It is the "Thunder Gathering Bead", a spiritual object that can specifically restrain thunder magic.

Although this item is not a powerful high-level magic weapon, it is very effective against various thunder methods in the world of immortal cultivation. Even the powerful thunder methods that Jindan cultivators find difficult to resist will be greatly reduced in front of the "Thunder Gathering Pearl".

Over the years, Song Qingming has relied on this item to overcome several crises, so he always carries it with him and has never been separated from it.

Seeing that the "Thunder Bead" easily blocked the lightning as he expected, Song Qingming took this opportunity to immediately perform the "Nine Palaces Meteor Escape", quickly breaking through the barrier of dark clouds and arriving at the location of the opponent above.

"What is this?"

Song Qingming, who had just rushed into the sky, saw the big white bird that had just launched lightning to attack him not far away, and a look of shock appeared on his face.

Although this big white bird looked lifelike, it did not exude the aura of a monster. Its eyes were dull as it stared at Song Qingming in front of it like a dead object.

What shocked Song Qingming the most was that after seeing the other party up close, Song Qingming's spiritual sense had just been extended to probe into the other party, but was suddenly blocked back by a more powerful spiritual sense, making it impossible for him to see the other party's true cultivation level.

"Could this be a Yuanying puppet beast?"

Since advancing to the late Jindan stage, Song Qingming's spiritual sense is no worse than those of the peak Jindan cultivators. Over the years, he has hardly encountered any Jindan cultivator who is stronger than him in spiritual sense.

The fact that the other party was able to surpass himself by so much in spiritual awareness was obviously not something that a Jindan-level cultivator could display. If he did not possess some special treasure, it must be a Yuanying-level cultivator who could do this so easily.

In addition, there was no breath of life on the big bird, so Song Qingming quickly judged that the other party might be a fourth-level puppet beast at the Nascent Soul level. However, he did not know who controlled it and why it appeared here.

At this moment, Song Qingming was standing in the same place, looking at the big white bird in front of him with a very solemn expression.

Before coming up, he had always thought that he might encounter a blind Jindan demon king, and could never imagine that the one who attacked him would be a fourth-level "puppet beast" at the Yuanying level.

Spiritual objects above level four are extremely precious and rare in the entire world of immortal cultivation. Taking out any one of them can cause a sensation in a place like the Floating Cloud Mountains.

Although Song Qingming was a late Jindan cultivator who had practiced for more than two hundred years, he had only seen a few level four spiritual objects in all these years, not to mention the even rarer things like the level four "puppet beast".

Although the spiritual creature "Puppet Beast" is not as powerful as corpse puppets and spiritual beasts of the same level, it is relatively simple to control and does not require high standards from the user. It is still loved by many cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation.

However, because the production of "puppet beasts" is very complicated, except for a very small number of large sects that specialize in this art, there are very few cultivators in the entire world of immortal cultivation who can improve their puppetry skills to level three or above. Therefore, high-level "puppet beasts" have always been a relatively rare existence in the world of immortal cultivation.

Although the "Xiaoyao Sect" is a Nascent Soul Sect that has been established for thousands of years, because it is located deep in the Floating Cloud Mountains where resources are relatively scarce, there is only one third-level medium-quality "puppet beast" that has been passed down for a long time in the sect.

As far as Song Qingming knows, there are more than a hundred sects of all sizes above the Jindan level in the entire Floating Cloud Mountains' cultivation world, but even if all of them are added together, there are only a few that can produce a spiritual creature of the fourth-level "puppet beast".

"May I ask who you are and why you are here to attack the flying boat of Xiaoyao Sect?"

Seeing the big white bird in front of him, Song Qingming knew that he was no match for the bird. However, this place was not far from "Guyang Mountain", so he could try to see if he could use the name of the sect to make the other party afraid.

Moreover, a level 4 "puppet beast" is not a real Nascent Soul cultivator after all. It can only exert half of the strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator at most. If a real fight breaks out, he is not completely without a chance of escape.

Hearing Song Qingming's question, the big white bird suddenly let out a strange laugh, and then blurted out something that made Song Qingming a little confused.

"I have heard of your great name for a long time. I have come here today to seek your advice. I hope that Brother Song will be generous in giving me some advice!"

"I have been practicing in the mountains for a long time and have never offended anyone outside. Daoist friend, did you find the wrong person and misunderstand me?"

Since he started practicing Taoism, Song Qingming has always been relatively low-key in his dealings with others. Even when he goes out to gain experience and deal with people, he seldom uses his real name. He never likes to show off in public. It stands to reason that there shouldn't be such a mysterious master who would come to deal with him specifically.

Song Qingming had no impression of this big white bird, but after hearing what the bird said, the bird knew that his surname was Song and it was obviously coming for him.

This sudden situation made Song Qingming confused for a while, and he couldn't figure out what was going on. (End of this chapter)