Incomplete Map

Five or six days passed in the blink of an eye. The Song Family searched the surrounding area several times for those bandits but found nothing, so they could only report the matter to the nearby Huang Family, one of the Great Foundation Establishment Clans. Unexpectedly, the Huang Family paid little attention to it and merely offered the Song Family some verbal reassurance.

Yet half a month later, another major incident occurred in Qinghe County. A Huang Family Qi Refining Cultivator was ambushed and killed by bandits from Eagle Nest Ridge outside Qinghe Market.

That was like poking a hornet's nest. The Huang Family was an old-established Foundation Establishment Family of Qinghe County, with three Foundation Establishment Cultivators still in the clan. For the past century, they had been the largest cultivation family in Qinghe County.

Over the following days, several major Foundation Establishment Families of Qinghe County, led by the Huang Family, gathered dozens of Enforcement Cultivators in a great show of force and began a large-scale investigation of unfamiliar cultivators from outside the county. Seeing that their deeds had been exposed, the bandits of Eagle Nest Ridge scattered and fled in panic.

Outside forces killing people and stealing treasures beyond Qinghe Market would severely damage the market's reputation. Qinghe Market was the foundation upon which Qinghe County's many cultivation forces stood, and cultivation families great and small all had businesses within it.

Faced with their common interests, the major cultivation families displayed unusual unity. This operation not only captured or killed more than a dozen notorious bandits from far and near, but also unexpectedly uncovered a shop in Qinghe Market that had colluded with the Eagle Nest Ridge bandits for years.

The shop had originally been run jointly by several veteran Rogue Cultivators of Qinghe County. Driven by profit, they had been selling customer information to the Eagle Nest Ridge bandits for over a year.

This enraged the major Foundation Establishment Families. They once again joined forces with the Carefree Sect cultivators stationed there and thoroughly investigated every major shop in the Marketplace. Qinghe Market was thrown into such chaos that chickens flew and dogs leapt for half a month before it slowly regained its former prosperity.

Back on Lingyuan Mountain, the fully recovered Song Qingming knew nothing of what had happened outside. After spending more than ten days recuperating at home, spared from his usual patrols of the mine veins, he had rare leisure time on his hands.

At that moment, he sat in the small room where he usually cultivated, staring thoughtfully at a gray, ancient-looking piece of beast hide in his hand. Not far beside him lay an exquisite green jade box.

The beast hide was only four or five inches across. Its front bore drawings of mountains and rivers, though much of it was missing, making it impossible to discern anything. Its back depicted several floating clouds with an immortal air and bore a few lines of the Nameless Technique, but those too were incomplete.

Speaking of the origins of this Incomplete Map, one had to return to the cave where Song Qingming had nearly died several days earlier.

That day, in order to deceive Zhu Wu, Song Qingming had hidden himself in the cave's loose earth. His body had happened to press directly onto this jade box. After Zhu Wu left, Song Qingming crawled out of the dirt pile and dug out the little thing that had been digging into him for half the day. Seeing how exquisite the jade box looked, he casually tossed it into his Storage Bag and brought it back.

It was not until more than ten days later, when boredom got the better of him, that Song Qingming remembered it. He had thought the jade box might contain some treasure, but it turned out to be a broken picture he could not understand at all, leaving him rather disappointed.

"This jade box is quite pretty. I could trade it to Second Sister for a few packets of Qi Refining Powder, or keep it to store things in. That would be nice too."

"As for this broken map..."

Song Qingming raised his hand and tossed the map into the air, then released a Fireball Technique from his left hand.

After a burst of blazing flames, what surprised him was that the beast-hide Incomplete Map remained perfectly intact, without the slightest change.

Could this map be no ordinary object, but some spiritual item? Even a spiritual item should not remain completely unchanged in such flames. Could it be a high-grade Dharma artifact?

"Forget it. I'll take it to Ninth Uncle tomorrow and ask him."

With a face full of amazement, Song Qingming carefully put away the Incomplete Map and placed it back into the jade box.

Next Morning, after making an early patrol through the mine tunnels, Song Qingming went to Song Changxin's small building.

Song Changxin stared at the gray Incomplete Map for a long time before finally speaking.

"Judging from this, it should be an incomplete Treasure Fragment. When I was on a Training Journey at Purple Cloud Mountain, I saw similar things in nearby Marketplaces. Treasures are powerful Dharma artifacts that only Core Formation cultivators can forge. Even a fragment is far tougher than an ordinary Dharma artifact."

"Such incomplete items can still be exchanged for a few Spirit Stones. They can be treated as high-grade materials and forged into new Dharma artifacts. As for these patterns, I think someone deliberately drew them on to disguise it as a place where some senior cultivator hid treasure. People in the Marketplace often use things like this to fool tender youngsters like you who have just entered the world."

After leaving Song Changxin's residence, Song Qingming remained fairly calm. He had picked the thing up by accident in the first place. Even if it was not a high-grade Dharma artifact, being worth a few Spirit Stones was already very good.

He had no plans to sell it in the Marketplace. After experiencing a brush with death, Song Qingming felt an even greater urgency to arm himself properly.

This Incomplete Map may have no other use, but it is extremely tough. If I find a Dharma Robe and sew it over a vital spot, it might save my life at a critical moment. In these times, when cultivating, Life-saving Measures are what matter most.

After returning to his residence, Song Qingming dug out an old, somewhat worn Dharma Robe he had worn before. He sewed the Incomplete Map over his chest and wore it as an undershirt beneath his Dharma Robe.

Night fell, bringing another tedious session of cultivation. As usual, Song Qingming sat cross-legged and began cultivating the Earth Origin Art.

Song Qingming had broken through to the Fourth Level of Qi Refining only a little over half a year ago. With his aptitude of Four Spiritual Roots, he was still far from naturally reaching the Fifth Level of Qi Refining. As for taking pills to save cultivation time, he only had a dozen or so Spirit Stones to his name and still owed Thirteenth Uncle and the others more than twenty Spirit Stones, so that was even less possible.

Yet halfway through his cultivation, he suddenly felt Spiritual Energy overflowing within his body, leaving him utterly puzzled.

Normally, I need to meditate and cultivate for three or four hours before my Spiritual Energy fully recovers. Today, it has only been one hour. Why is the Spiritual Energy in my Dantian already about to overflow?

Sensing that something was wrong, Song Qingming hurriedly entered meditation and used his divine sense to inspect the abnormality within his body.

I haven't broken through in cultivation, so why has the speed at which I absorb Spiritual Energy increased so much? What is going on?

Could it be...

Song Qingming removed his outer Dharma Robe and operated the Earth Origin Art to draw in the surrounding Spiritual Energy. At that moment, his chest suddenly emitted a faint white glow, and the circulation of Spiritual Energy within his body became several times faster than usual.

After repeatedly testing it, Song Qingming finally confirmed that the cause of the strange change in his cultivation was the Incomplete Map he had sewn over his chest that day.

"This Incomplete Map can actually affect the speed at which I absorb Spiritual Energy. That is far too astonishing."

It seemed this thing was not a Treasure Fragment as Ninth Uncle had said. He had no idea what it truly was.

A month later, Song Qingming, who had been cooped up in his room, was gazing with satisfaction at the two complete sets of Low-grade Array Formation in his hands.

The inexplicable increase in his Spiritual Energy recovery speed meant that injuries which should have taken a month to heal had basically recovered in less than half a month. This greatly exceeded Song Qingming's expectations.

In particular, his divine sense had been injured from excessive Spiritual Energy consumption. Previously, stabbing pains would occasionally appear in his mind, and Song Changxin had said it would take half a year to gradually recover.

Yet over the past few days, he had already felt that his divine sense had recovered by more than half. He tried using several spells that consumed considerable spiritual power and no longer felt the previous stabbing pain.

Only then did Song Qingming slowly begin to feel afraid. This Incomplete Map was likely no simple treasure. Apart from several kinds of medicinal pills that helped restore Spiritual Energy, Song Qingming had never heard of any spiritual item that could accelerate the recovery of Spiritual Energy.

If other cultivators discovered its use, the Song Family would certainly be unable to protect him. Even those lofty Foundation Establishment Cultivators would probably covet this item.

Although Song Qingming stayed in his room all day, he did not dare use the Incomplete Map too often for cultivation. Fortunately, when it was in use, it did not create much of a disturbance, only emitting the faint white glow that ordinary Dharma artifacts could also produce. Sewn onto his undershirt, it showed no abnormalities when he wore a Dharma Robe over it while cultivating, so it was unlikely to attract anyone's attention.

With his Spiritual Energy recovering several times faster, Song Qingming, who had once needed three months to produce one Array Formation, could now complete one in a month. If he had enough materials, he could repay the Spirit Stones he owed Thirteenth Uncle and the others this year at this rate.

After pondering it for more than a month, Song Qingming gradually saw a business opportunity. Though the Incomplete Map on his body did not greatly improve his usual cultivation speed, it could save him a great deal of time spent meditating to restore Spiritual Energy, giving him several times more time to focus on making Array Formations.

Ordinary cultivators needed to spend four or five hours each day meditating and cultivating to restore Spiritual Energy. He could now more or less finish in one hour. The spiritual power consumed by making Array Formations recovered several times faster than normal.

The key was that he no longer had any materials on hand. The seven or eight Spirit Stones he had left were barely enough for his usual cultivation needs. Other than the mid-grade flying sword he had purchased last time, the only things in his Storage Bag worth anything were these two sets of Array Formation. He needed to find a way to make another trip to the Marketplace, trade these two Array Formations for Spirit Stones, and buy new talisman-making materials.

Song Qingming understood that the greatest disadvantage of Formation Masters was that making Array Formations consumed too much time. To make one low-grade Array Formation without delaying cultivation, it generally took around three months.

After material costs, one low-grade Array Formation could only earn four or five Spirit Stones. Fortunately, making Array Formations generally did not waste materials. Compared with the riskier professions of talisman making, alchemy, and Qi refining, the income was relatively stable.

However, after the previous ambush, the clan elders had instructed that Song Qingming was not to travel far alone for a year. This posed a major obstacle to his plan to amass wealth. The materials used for the Array Formation in Song Qingming's hands had been purchased by Song Changxin on his behalf when he went to the Marketplace.

Following his last injury, the clan elders were also worried that his divine sense injuries had not fully recovered and that something might happen if he went out alone. For a weak cultivation family like the Song Family, every cultivator was important to the family. They could not let low-level cultivators take too many risks. Only by doing their best to ensure that the younger cultivators of the clan grew up could they contribute more to the family.

They did not know that Song Qingming's divine sense had long since mostly recovered. Nor did Song Qingming dare reveal the special ability of the Incomplete Map or explain his injuries to them. He could only wait patiently for another opportunity to travel to the Marketplace.