Lingyuan Mountain

After leaving Mujiao Town, he cast a Light Body Technique and sped east all the way. Now that he was in the Mid Qi Refining Stage, his travel speed with the Light Body Technique was much faster than it had been in the Early Qi Refining Stage. In less than half an hour, he arrived at the foot of Lingyuan Mountain.

Lingyuan Mountain was only a little over a hundred zhang tall, making it far less conspicuous than the six-hundred-zhang Funiu Mountain. Song Qingming came to a place on the mountain shrouded in dense mist and presented a token to the array concealed within it. Before long, a ripple of spiritual power came from the array. The mist within the formation gradually dispersed, and a figure came out to greet him.

"Second Sister, Fourth Elder sent me here to take over the guard duty for you."

"Little Seven, I never thought it would really be you. Ninth Uncle said yesterday that you were coming, but I didn't believe him."

A White-clothed Woman stood before him, her hair tied up and coiled. She was Song Qingwan, second among the Song Family's Qing Generation, and she was also at the Fourth Level of Qi Refining.

There were currently nine members of the Song Family's Qing Generation. Aside from Third Brother Song Qingze, whose cultivation was outstanding, the other eight had much the same talent. They were all cultivators with Four Spiritual Roots or Five Spiritual Roots, so their cultivation realms remained fairly close even now.

Among people with the same Spiritual Root Aptitude, the gap in cultivation during the early stages was generally not very large. Only those gifted geniuses with exceptionally outstanding Spirit Roots could rapidly pull ahead of ordinary cultivators like them in cultivation.

Third Brother Song Qingze possessed the highest cultivation talent among cultivators of Song Qingming's generation. A cultivator like him with Three Spirit Roots was also known as a True Spiritual Root Cultivator.

Not only did such cultivators cultivate faster, they also found it easier to break through the bottlenecks of the Qi Refining Stage. Compared to cultivators with Four Spiritual Roots or Five Spiritual Roots like Song Qingming and the others, they had a far easier time reaching the Late Qi Refining Stage.

Among ten ordinary cultivators in the Cultivation World, only one or two would have True Spiritual Roots. So long as cultivators of this kind did not perish midway, they could basically cultivate smoothly to the Late Qi Refining Stage. They were also the backbone that major sects and families focused on nurturing. With sufficient resources, they might even have hope of Foundation Establishment.

Among the Song Family's more than twenty cultivators, the best Spiritual Root Aptitude belonged only to Three Spirit Roots cultivators.

As for the higher-quality Dual-Attribute Spiritual Roots, they were also called Earth Spiritual Root Cultivators. Such cultivators faced virtually no bottlenecks before Foundation Establishment and cultivated even faster. They were basically Foundation Establishment seeds within major sects and cultivation families.

There was also a kind of Variant Spiritual Root Cultivator in the Cultivation World. Their Spirit Root attributes arose from mutations within Dual-Attribute Spiritual Roots cultivators. Their cultivation speed was roughly equal to that of Dual Spiritual Root Cultivators, but the former were more formidable in magical combat than the latter, and were equally rarer.

As for the most exceptional Heavenly Spiritual Root Cultivators in the Cultivation World, they could truly be called one in ten thousand. None had ever appeared in Qinghe County's nearly thousand-year history. Legend had it that such Heavenly Spiritual Root Cultivators encountered no Cultivation Bottlenecks before Core Formation.

Whenever such cultivators appeared, they were often fought over by the top powers of the Cultivation World. After all, possessing a Heavenly Spiritual Root Cultivator meant possessing a potential powerhouse capable of reaching at least the Core Formation Stage.

Though Song Qingwan's cultivation was not high, she had learned alchemy, the most difficult art to inherit among the Hundred Cultivation Arts, and had already become a Low-grade Alchemist. This was also what Song Qingming and the others envied her most for.

Cultivators in the Cultivation World generally learned several cultivation skills to earn Spirit Stone resources—alchemy, Talisman Making, Artifact Refining, arrays, Spirit Planting, beast taming, Puppet Crafting, and more. These were collectively known as the Hundred Cultivation Arts, and among them, Alchemists were the most esteemed.

Alchemists were not only esteemed, but exceedingly rare. The reason was that compared to other skills, the cost of training an Alchemist in the early stages was simply too high. Every Alchemist was practically piled up from heaps of spirit herbs and immortal medicines.

Song Qingming could now be considered a Beginner Array Master. He had chosen to become a Formation Master because although learning arrays consumed a great deal of time, it required the least investment in Spirit Stones compared to the other skills. Formation Masters were also quite useful when hunting demonic beasts. That was why, despite his low cultivation, Thirteenth Uncle and the others liked to take him along whenever they went down the mountain to hunt demonic beasts, so that he could help set up arrays for demon hunting.

"I never expected you to cultivate so diligently, Little Seven. You caught up to me so quickly. When Second Sister was your age, I hadn't even reached the Fourth Level of Qi Refining yet."

"You flatter me, Second Sister. If you had not spent so much time inheriting the family's alchemy arts, you would probably not be far behind Third Brother. Fourth Elder said yesterday that when you return this time, you should be entering seclusion to break through your cultivation as well. We brothers will surely have to rely on you, our Alchemist, to look after us in the future."

"It is not nearly as fast as he says. I am still far from breaking through. Let's not talk about that. I'll take you to see Ninth Uncle first."

The two passed through the mist and walked forward for a while before arriving at a village. Song Qingming saw some of the family's mortals living and working here. Most were relatives of the miners excavating the ore vein.

Protected by the family cultivators, these people had little to worry about. Happy smiles filled most of their faces, and when they saw Song Qingming and Song Qingwan pass by, they all stopped what they were doing and bowed in greeting.

After passing through the village, they found a crescent-shaped lake ahead. On one side of the lake stood a relatively tall two-story building. Song Qingwan led Song Qingming into it, one after the other.

In the center of the room sat a square Eight Immortals table. Behind it sat a middle-aged man with his head lowered over a book. He was Ninth Uncle, Song Changxin.

"Ninth Uncle, Qingming has arrived."

"This nephew pays respects to Ninth Uncle."

Song Changxin set down his book, raised his head, and waved his hand. "Since Qingming has arrived, Qingwan, go back and pack up. Return early, lest the Patriarch and the others worry."

Song Qingwan acknowledged him, nodded to Song Qingming beside her, and walked out.

"Inspect the mine twice every day. If there is nothing to do, you may cultivate within the mountain. Do not go down the mountain without my permission."

"This nephew understands."

Ninth Uncle Song Changxin was usually a man of few words. Although he possessed only Four Spiritual Roots like Song Qingming, he was a renowned Arduous Cultivation practitioner in the family. At barely over sixty years old, he had already reached the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining and was one of the family's only four Late Qi Refining Stage Cultivators. Barring mishap, he would certainly be able to cultivate to Peak Qi Refining.

Half a day later, after briefly completing the handover with Second Sister Song Qingwan, Song Qingming did not choose to live in the residence she had vacated. Instead, he tidied up an older courtyard beside it and moved in, beginning his daily life of patrols and cultivation.

Before he knew it, half a year had passed. By now, Song Qingming had become completely familiar with every part of Lingyuan Mountain and had also grown acquainted with the family mortals living there.

Aside from his daily mine inspections and supervising the mining progress, he would occasionally settle minor disputes among the mortals here and deal with or drive away Low-grade Demonic Beasts that had accidentally wandered into the outer array.

He was somewhat busy, yet carefree and at ease.

Over the past half year, Song Qingming felt that Ninth Uncle trusted him quite a bit. Once he had taught Song Qingming how to handle the daily affairs, he began frequently shutting himself in the small building for ten days or half a month at a time, leaving nearly all matters large and small on Lingyuan Mountain in Song Qingming's hands. Only when High-grade Demonic Beasts caused trouble twice, and Song Qingming found them difficult to handle alone, did he have no choice but to ask Song Changxin to step in.

When Song Qingming had first arrived at Funiu Mountain ten years ago, Song Changxin had happened to be traveling abroad. Song Qingming had not had much contact with this Ninth Uncle and only knew that he had cultivated alone for many years on Purple Cloud Mountain near the dangerous Floating Cloud Mountain Range. Both his cultivation and experience far surpassed most cultivators of his generation in the family.

After Song Qingming arrived at Lingyuan Mountain, he encountered several problems in cultivation and took the initiative to seek Song Changxin's guidance. At first, Song Qingming was somewhat reserved, but he had not expected this Ninth Uncle to be cold-faced yet warm-hearted, and especially enthusiastic when discussing the path of cultivation.

Over the past half year, he had patiently clarified many of Song Qingming's doubts in cultivation. He had even imparted without reservation to Song Qingming some of the knowledge and experience he had gained from demon hunting and magical combat on Purple Cloud Mountain.

It had to be said that Song Changxin possessed quite a few unique insights into cultivation. Song Qingming had benefited greatly during this period, and many places that had once left him confused in cultivation now became much clearer.

One morning, Song Qingming had just returned from inspecting the mine when he saw from afar a Martial Master who usually guarded the array hurrying toward him.

It looked like another demonic beast had come to cause trouble.

Qinghe County had been occupied by Human Race Cultivators for more than a thousand years. After countless purges by generations of cultivators, there were no longer many Level 2 Demonic Beasts within its borders, but there were still plenty of Level 1 Demonic Beasts. Many deep mountains rarely visited by humans remained the territory of demonic beasts.

Lingyuan Mountain was not as peaceful as Funiu Mountain or Mujiao Town. Because it was close to Yunwu Mountain, where demonic beasts gathered, there were no High-grade Demonic Beasts nearby, but there were still many low- and Mid-grade Demonic Beasts.

Every half month or so, demonic beasts would accidentally intrude and cause trouble here. This was why, despite the family's shortage of cultivators, two cultivators still had to be stationed here.

After receiving the report, Song Qingming quickly cast a spell and rushed toward the village entrance.

Before long, he reached the array's control point at the village entrance. Several Martial Masters guarding the array were tensely watching a huge figure within the formation. Only upon seeing Song Qingming arrive did they finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After taking one look at the enormous figure in the array, Song Qingming said, "Just guard the array disk here. This is a Mid-grade Demonic Beast. You cannot hurt it."

These Martial Masters were family mortals who had trained in worldly martial arts. They were also known as Houtian Martial Artists. Armed with weapons forged with Black Iron mixed into them, they could inflict some damage even on demonic beasts of the Early Qi Refining Stage.

There were more than a dozen such Martial Masters on Lingyuan Mountain. They were more than capable of handling ordinary wild beasts, and by joining forces, they could even fight Low-grade Demonic Beasts of the Early Qi Refining Stage.

But against this Mid-grade Demonic Beast, they were clearly insufficient. Pig-type Demonic Beasts were already thick-skinned and tough as iron, and after advancing to the mid grade, some would instinctively awaken certain spells. These Martial Masters could not help at all against a Mid-grade Demonic Beast. One careless mistake, and they might throw away their lives for nothing.