After leaving Mujiao Town, he used a light body technique to rush eastward. He was already in the middle stage of Qi Refining, and now he could travel much faster using the light body technique than in the early stage of Qi Refining. In just half an hour, he arrived at the foot of Lingyuan Mountain.
Lingyuan Mountain is only over a hundred feet high, and is less conspicuous than the six hundred feet high Funiu Mountain. Song Qingming came to a place on the mountain covered with dense fog and handed a token to the formation in the fog. Soon, a spell fluctuation came from the formation, and then the fog in the formation gradually dissipated, and a figure came out.
"Second sister, the Fourth Elder arranged for me to come here to guard for you."
"Xiao Qi, I didn't expect you to come. Uncle Jiu said you were coming yesterday, but I didn't believe it."
Standing in front was a woman in white with her hair tied up in a bun. She was Song Qingwan, the second of the Qing generation in the Song family, and she was also at the fourth level of Qi Refining.
There are now nine people of the Qing generation in the Song family. Except for the third brother Song Qingze who has outstanding cultivation, the talents of the other eight are almost the same. They are all cultivators with four or five spiritual roots, so the cultivation levels of the cultivators of the Qing generation are not much different now.
For people with the same spiritual roots, the difference in cultivation in the early stages is generally not that big. Only geniuses with more outstanding spiritual roots can quickly widen the gap in cultivation with ordinary cultivators like them.
The third brother Song Qingze is the one with the highest cultivation talent among the cultivators of Song Qingming's generation. A cultivator with three spiritual roots like him is also called a true spiritual root cultivator.
This type of cultivator not only cultivates faster, but also finds it easier to break through the bottleneck of the Qi Refining period. It is easier for them to cultivate to the late stage of Qi Refining than cultivators with four or five spiritual roots like Song Qingming.
Among ten ordinary cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation, there can only be one or two cultivators with true spiritual roots. As long as these cultivators do not die in the middle, they can basically cultivate to the late stage of Qi Refining smoothly. This type of cultivator is also the backbone force cultivated by major sects and families. If there is a supply of resources, there will be hope of building a foundation.
Among the more than 20 cultivators in the Song family, the one with the best spiritual root qualifications is the cultivator with three spiritual roots.
As for the cultivators with better qualifications and dual-attribute spiritual roots, also known as earth spiritual root cultivators, this type of cultivator has no bottlenecks before building the foundation, and their cultivation speed is faster. They are basically the foundation-building seeds within the major sects and immortal cultivation families.
There is another kind of cultivator with special spiritual roots in the world of immortal cultivation. They are the result of the mutation of the spiritual root attributes in the bodies of cultivators with dual spiritual roots. Their cultivation speed is similar to that of cultivators with dual spiritual roots, but the latter are more powerful in fighting than the former and are also rarer.
The top cultivators with natural spiritual roots in the world of immortal cultivation can be said to be one in ten thousand. They have never appeared in the entire history of Qinghe County for nearly a thousand years. It is said that such cultivators with natural spiritual roots do not have any bottlenecks in cultivation before they form a pill.
Whenever this type of cultivator appears, they are often the target of competition among the top forces in the world of immortal cultivation. After all, as long as one can possess a cultivator with natural spiritual roots, it means that one has a potential strong man who can at least reach the Jindan stage.
Although Song Qingwan's cultivation level is not high, she has learned the alchemy skill, which is the most difficult to inherit among the hundreds of arts of cultivation, and has become a low-grade alchemist. This is also what makes Song Qingming and others envy her the most.
In the world of immortal cultivation, all kinds of cultivators will learn several immortal cultivation skills to earn spirit stone resources, such as alchemy, talisman making, weapon refining, formation, spiritual plants, beast taming, puppet making, etc. These are also called the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation, and the most honorable of them is the alchemist.
Alchemists are not only noble, but also very rare. The reason for this is that compared to other skills, the cost of initial training for an alchemist is too high. Every alchemist is basically made up of a large number of spiritual herbs and elixirs.
Song Qingming is now considered a beginner formation master. He chose to become a formation master because learning the formation master is time-consuming.
Compared with other skills, which save the most spirit stone investment, the formation master is also more useful in hunting monsters. That is why even though his cultivation is not high, Uncle Thirteen and his friends like to take him with them every time they go down the mountain to hunt monsters, so that he can help set up the formation to hunt monsters.
"I didn't expect that Xiao Qi was so diligent in his training and that he caught up with me so quickly. When my second sister was your age, she hadn't even reached the fourth level of Qi training yet."
"Second sister, you're joking. If you hadn't spent so much time inheriting the family's alchemy skills, you would probably be close to Third Brother. The Fourth Elder said yesterday that you would also go into seclusion to break through your cultivation this time. We brothers will definitely rely on you, the alchemist, to take care of us in the future."
"It's not as fast as he said. I'm still far from a breakthrough. Let's not talk about this for now. I'll take you to see Uncle Jiu first."
The two men walked through the fog and forward for a while, and came to a village. Song Qingming saw some family members living and working here. Most of them were relatives of those miners who mined the mines.
These people had the protection of their family monks and basically had no major worries. Most of them had happy smiles on their faces. When they saw Song Qingming and the other two passing by, they all stopped and saluted.
After passing through the village, a crescent-shaped lake appeared in front of them. On one side of the lake was a tall two-story building. Song Qingwan and Song Qingming walked into the building one after another.
In the middle of the room sat a square eight-person table, behind which sat a middle-aged man, his head bowed, reading a book. It was none other than Uncle Nine, Song Changxin.
"Uncle Jiu, Qingming is here!"
"Nephew pays homage to Uncle Nine"
Song Changxin put down the book in his hand, looked up and said, "Since Qingming is here, Qingwan, you should go back and pack up. Go back early so that the clan leader and others won't worry."
After hearing this, Song Qingwan responded, nodded to Song Qingming next to him, and walked out.
"I'll inspect the mine twice a day. If you have nothing to do, you can practice in the mountains. You are not allowed to leave the mountain without my permission."
"Nephew understands"
Ninth Uncle Song Changxin is a quiet person. Although he has only four spiritual roots like Song Qingming, he is a well-known hardworking cultivator in the clan. He is only in his sixties but has already reached the seventh level of Qi Refining. He is also one of only four cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining in the family. If nothing unexpected happens, he will definitely be able to cultivate to the peak of Qi Refining.
Half a day later, Jiandan handed over the matter to his second sister Song Qingwan. Song Qingming did not choose to live in the house that his second sister moved out of, but instead cleaned up another older yard next to it and lived there, starting his daily life of patrolling and practicing.
Half a year had passed unknowingly. Now Song Qingming had completely understood the locations of all the places in Lingyuan Mountain and had become familiar with the family members and mortals here.
In addition to daily inspections of the mines and supervising the progress of mining, he occasionally handles minor disputes between the mortals here and deals with and drives away low-level monsters that accidentally enter the magic circle outside the mountain.
A bit busy but also free and easy.
After six months, Song Qingming felt that his uncle had a lot of confidence in him. Once he'd taught him how to handle daily affairs, he'd often stay indoors for ten days or even half a month, leaving Lingyuan Mountain's affairs largely to Song Qingming. Only during two high-level monster attacks did Song Qingming find it difficult to handle alone, and he had to call on Song Changxin for help.
When Song Qingming first arrived at Funiu Mountain ten years ago, Song Changxin happened to be traveling. Song Qingming had little contact with this uncle. He only knew that he had practiced alone in Ziyun Mountain near the dangerous Floating Cloud Mountains for many years, and his cultivation and knowledge far surpassed most of his peers in the family.
After Song Qingming arrived at Lingyuan Mountain, he encountered some problems in his practice at the beginning, so he took the initiative to ask him for advice. At first, Song Qingming was a little reserved, but he didn't expect that Uncle Jiu was a person with a cold appearance but a warm heart, and he was very keen on discussing the way of practice.
Over the past six months, he patiently guided Song Qingming on many of his doubts in cultivation, and even passed on to Song Qingming some of his previous knowledge and experience in hunting monsters and fighting in Ziyun Mountain without reservation.
It has to be said that Song Changxin has some unique insights in the aspect of cultivation, which has benefited Song Qingming a lot during this period. Many of the doubts he had in his previous cultivation have now become clearer.
On this day, Song Qingming had just returned from inspecting the mine early in the morning when he saw a martial artist who usually guarded the magic circle running towards him in a hurry from afar.
It looks like another monster is coming to invade.
Qinghe County has been occupied by human cultivators for thousands of years. After countless raids by successive generations of cultivators, although there are no second-level monsters in the territory, there are still many first-level monsters, and many remote mountains are still the territory of monsters.
Lingyuan Mountain is not as quiet as Funiu Mountain and Mujiao Town. Because it is close to Yunwu Mountain where monsters live, although there are no high-level monsters around, there are still many low- and medium-level monsters.
Every half a month or so, monsters would mistakenly invade and harass this place. This is why, although there are not many cultivators in the family, two cultivators must be stationed here.
After receiving the report from the visitor, Song Qingming quickly used magic to rush to the village entrance.
After a while, they arrived at the formation control point at the village entrance. Several martial artists guarding the formation were looking nervously at a huge figure in the formation. They only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Song Qingming arriving.
Song Qingming took a look at the huge figure in the formation and said, "Just guard the formation here. This is a mid-level monster. You can't hurt him."
These martial artists are some mortals in the family who have practiced secular martial arts. This type of people is also called acquired martial artists. They hold weapons made of black iron and can cause some damage to monsters in the early stage of Qi training.
There are more than a dozen such martial artists in Lingyuan Mountain. They are more than capable of dealing with ordinary wild beasts. They can also fight against low-level monsters in the early stage of Qi Refining by working together.
However, they are not enough when facing this mid-level monster. Pig-like monsters have thick skin and flesh that are as hard as iron. After advancing to the mid-level, some monsters will instinctively awaken some spells. These martial artists can't help at all when facing a mid-level monster, and they may lose their lives in vain if they are not careful.