Conclusion (Please Bookmark, Please Vote)

Outside, a pound of Mystic Water Iron fetched five Spirit Stones. But if that pound of Mystic Water Iron was combined with several supplementary materials and handed to a Weapon Refiner to be forged into a magic artifact, its value would multiply severalfold.

Unfortunately, the Ling Clan had no blueprint for using Mystic Water Iron to forge magic artifacts.

Among the outside world, the various arts inheritances that circulated—weapon refinement, alchemy, and the like—were at most First Rank Low or Middle Grade.

Even if First Rank High Grade or even Second Rank inheritances appeared in the various marketplaces, major powers would purchase them first. They would not easily let them circulate beyond their grasp, and even if outsiders offered Spirit Stones, those powers would not readily sell.

This left the Ling Clan, which had only recently become a great Foundation Establishment clan, with an exceedingly weak foundation.

Within the Ling Clan, only its spirit plant inheritance had reached the Second Rank. The inheritances of all other hundred arts were merely First Rank Low or Middle Grade, hardly fit to grace the stage.

At the beginning of this year, everyone had discussed turning the clan into an Alchemy Family. They had spent heavily in an attempt to purchase a Second Rank alchemy inheritance from the Pingyun Yang Family, an alchemy family of Cloudwater County that had close ties with the Ling Clan, but it had ended in failure.

Even Ling Yunhong, a Foundation Establishment Third Layer powerhouse, had personally brought ten thousand Spirit Stones to the Yang Family residence on Pingyun Mountain, yet he had failed to purchase the Yang Family's Second Rank alchemy inheritance—the foundation upon which their family stood.

This only highlighted how difficult it was to find high-rank inheritances of the hundred arts.

Foundation Establishment cultivation techniques, whose value matched that of Second Rank hundred arts inheritances, were naturally just as difficult to find.

The Ling Clan currently possessed only one Foundation Establishment cultivation technique, capable of cultivation up to Foundation Establishment Completion. It had been obtained by their founding ancestor when he had accidentally stumbled into a cave dwelling during a fortuitous encounter in his lifetime. Its name was the "Azure Water True Scripture."

Yet the hundred arts inheritances, Foundation Establishment cultivation techniques, and vast quantities of spirit iron that ordinary Foundation Establishment Families, Qi Refining families, and other forces refused to sell had been openly priced and offered for sale by the wealthy and powerful Hundred Spirits Sect as early as several centuries ago.

The Hundred Spirits Sect was a major sect that gathered countless practitioners of the hundred arts. It had several thousand such practitioners, and it was said that the sect possessed nearly fifty different hundred arts inheritances. It even had inheritances in rare fields such as spirit cooking, brewing, and pastry-making.

The Hundred Spirits Sect's most flourishing art was weapon refinement. The sect had many Weapon Refiners, which was why it had such a great demand for spirit iron, even offering sky-high prices and seeking purchases with hundred arts inheritances and Foundation Establishment cultivation techniques.

Of course, the amount of spirit iron required to exchange for these inheritances and cultivation techniques was no small sum.

This also foretold that most of the Mystic Water Iron Mine, which belonged entirely to the Ling Clan, would be gone.

After hesitating for a long while, Grand Elder Ling Ruda was the first to agree. "I agree! Rather than take risks merely to earn Spirit Stones from selling iron ore, we might as well exchange it for hundred arts inheritances that Spirit Stones cannot buy and strengthen our foundation. Only with these hundred arts inheritances can our Ling Clan gradually grow prosperous and become ever stronger!"

"We truly must also purchase a Foundation Establishment cultivation technique. Judging by Peng Xing's cultivation progress, he may be like Yun Hong and reach Qi Training Completion at just over forty years old. At that age, he would still have more than ten years before the best time to break through to Foundation Establishment, enough for him to attempt the breakthrough twice! So long as no sudden mishap befalls him, this child will surely become the second Foundation Establishment cultivator of our Ling Clan!"

"Peng Xing possesses a Gold Wood Dual Spirit Root, while the clan only has the water-aspected Azure Sea True Scripture. If he cultivates that technique after breaking through to Foundation Establishment, it will surely delay his Dao Path!"

Seeing that Ling Ruda had arrived at the same thoughts as him, Ling Yunhong's smile deepened. He said with a smile, "Eleventh Uncle speaks rightly. That was precisely my plan. Through this mine, I intend to exchange with the Hundred Spirits Sect for a Foundation Establishment cultivation technique primarily of the gold attribute. First, it will serve Peng Xing's future Dao Path. Second, it will strengthen our foundation and offer a better Dao Path to Ling Clan descendants with Gold Spirit Roots who break through to Foundation Establishment in the future. Third, this gold-aspected technique can happen to complement the Sword Formation that Thirteenth Uncle handed over to the clan, producing remarkable effects!"

After careful consideration, Ling Ruxian and Ling Yunxi also agreed to hand over a portion of the mine to the Hundred Spirits Sect, so as to bring a better future to the clan.

"Third Brother, Azure Stone Mountain, where the mine is located, lies very close to Peaceful An County of the Cloud Mist Wen Clan. Shall I go there and set up a formation?" Ling Yunxi asked, her expression somewhat worried.

"There is no need for such trouble. Have Thirteenth Uncle make a trip and guard it for a time. Since we have brought in the Hundred Spirits Sect, there is no longer any need to fear the Cloud Mist Wen Clan!" Ling Yunhong said, waving his hand.

Having discussed how the mine would be used, the meeting came to an end, and everyone departed one after another.

Ling Yunhong, Clan Head of the Ling Clan, and Ling Ruxian, Second Elder of the Ling Clan, each mounted an Immortal Spirit Crane and flew away from Lingxiao Mountain. However, they flew in different directions.

One day later, Azure Stone Mountain.

Ling Pengyun was halfway up the mountain, inside a cave, circulating his cultivation technique and refining the Demon Serpent flesh and blood he had swallowed. Upon hearing an exceptionally familiar crane cry from outside, he immediately stopped cultivating, dispersed the great mass of spiritual energy that had traveled halfway through a circulation in his meridians, hurried out of the cave, and looked toward the source of the cry.

"Why is it Thirteenth Grandfather? Didn't the Clan Head say he would come?" Ling Pengyun saw that the person riding an Immortal Spirit Crane through the sky was not Ling Yunhong, who had promised to return within two days, but Ling Ruxian. He was both confused and worried.

Even though Ling Yunhong had not come, Ling Pengyun did not dare show any disrespect. Ling Ruxian was not only among the highest-ranking generation of the clan, but also a clan elder. There were even rumors that he was the foremost among the Ling Clan's Qi Training Stage cultivators, with incomparably formidable combat power.

Ling Pengyun quickly climbed to the summit of Azure Stone Mountain and quietly waited for Ling Ruxian, who was approaching atop his Immortal Spirit Crane.

After a while, when Ling Ruxian landed his Immortal Spirit Crane on the summit of Azure Stone Mountain and leaped down from the crane, Ling Pengyun hurried forward and voiced the worry in his heart.

"Thirteenth Grandfather, Third Grandfather had an agreement with me. Why have you come this time? Did something happen?"

Ling Ruxian looked at Ling Pengyun, who had discovered the mine yet had not kept it for himself and had instead informed the clan. He was exceedingly satisfied. In response to Ling Pengyun's question, he unusually spoke dozens of words in one breath, his tone gentle and entirely devoid of his usual coldness.

"The Clan Head has not encountered any trouble. A day ago, the Clan Head and the rest of us discussed how to handle the mine you discovered. In the end, the arrangement for this mine was to hand over a portion of its ore to the Hundred Spirits Sect in exchange for some hundred arts inheritances and cultivation techniques! The Clan Head is now already on the way to the Hundred Spirits Sect! Thus, I have come to guard the mine!"

"Ah! Part of the mine is being handed over to the Hundred Spirits Sect?" Ling Pengyun said in surprise.

"A mine will one day be exhausted, but hundred arts inheritances are the means that can truly keep a clan prosperous forever! One must broaden one's horizons and not be confined to a single place!" Ling Ruxian lectured.

Ling Pengyun was no fool. Upon hearing this guidance, he immediately understood. He cupped his hands and respectfully thanked him. "This great-grandson has received your instruction!"

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