Qinghe Immortal Clan.

Half a year ago, not long after Song Qingming emerged from seclusion, he had already learned from Li Xuanyi about Xu Ziyan's failure to form her nascent soul.

However, he had been so busy exploring the "Qinghe Cave" that he hadn't had time to visit the other party.

Upon seeing Bai Yuxian arrive, Song Qingming suddenly remembered this matter and asked her a question.

Upon hearing this, Bai Yuxian remained silent for a moment before nodding slightly in response:

"Don't worry, Junior Brother Song, Ziyan's injuries have improved, and she came out of seclusion a few days ago."

However, she injured her dantian, and it will probably take her more than ten years to fully recover. It seems unlikely that she will be able to advance any further on her path of cultivation in this lifetime.

Xu Ziyan was a cultivator of roughly the same generation as Song Qingming, and her lifespan had long exceeded five hundred years.

Now that the attempt to establish a nascent soul has failed, and with over a decade of recovery needed, the patient will be in serious condition.

By the time his injuries have fully healed, he will be nearing the point where his lifespan is insufficient and his vital energy is declining, which will greatly reduce his chances of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.

Just as Bai Yuxian said, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Xu Ziyan's path in this life will likely end here, with little hope of taking another step forward.

In the last hundred years or so, the older generation of Golden Core cultivators in the "Free and Unfettered Sect," such as Chen Xuanxin, Chu Fengping, and Zhang Tieyang, have all passed away one after another.

Of the Golden Core elders who were Song Qingming's peers back then, only Xu Ziyan remains.

Song Qingming and Xu Ziyan had already become acquainted during the Qi Refining stage. They also supported each other during the Foundation Establishment and Core Formation stages, so their relationship was naturally much closer than that of the other elders.

When Song Qingming learned that Xu Ziyan had failed to form her Nascent Soul twice, he felt a little sorry for her.

Over the years, the "Free and Unfettered Sect" has cultivated many Nascent Soul seeds, but few have succeeded.

From the former sect leaders Yao Qianshu and Chen Xuanxin to Xu Ziyan and others, all of them have received the full support of their sects in their attempts to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.

However, the path to the Nascent Soul stage ultimately requires some fortuitous opportunities and good fortune, which is beyond human control.

Although Song Qingming and Bai Yuxian were filled with regret, they could only accept the outcome.

"When I was building my foundation, Junior Sister Xu helped me out. I still remember this kindness vividly and can hardly forget it."

Senior Sister Bai, if Junior Sister Xu needs any help, please let me know. I'll do my part to help.

"Don't worry, junior brother. Ziyan has served as the sect leader for many years and has done her best for the sect. We would never let her down."

I've already arranged everything for her treatment, so there won't be any problems.

As for other things, it will probably take some time for her to gradually recover. There's no use in rushing things now; she needs to figure them out on her own.

".."

After exchanging a few words, Song Qingming called Bai Yuxian to return to the "Meeting Immortals Pavilion" together.

Li Xuanyi had already prepared tea and spiritual fruits, and the three of them chatted over tea, mentioning the events that had happened in the sect over the years.

Since Song Qingming advanced to the late Nascent Soul stage, the "Free and Unfettered Sect" has developed very rapidly in recent decades.

They marched north to conquer "Golden Feather Mountain," expanding their territory by thousands of miles. To the east, they also took control of half of the original Yue Kingdom's territory, and to the west, "Red Cloud Mountain" was also under Song Qingming's control.

Just by adding all these places together, the territory controlled by the "Xiaoyao Sect" is already more than three times the size of the original Wei Kingdom.

It surpassed the Qin Kingdom, which was controlled by the "Ten Thousand Spirits Sect," and became the number one country in the cultivation world of the Floating Cloud Mountains.

In addition to its large-scale territorial expansion, the number of disciples in the "Xiaoyao Sect" has also grown rapidly in the past two decades.

The sect now has over 50,000 disciples in the Qi Refining stage and nearly 2,000 cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage, a number that has increased several times over compared to before.

Even excluding its vassal forces and cultivation families, the total number of Qi Refining stage disciples in the sect has now exceeded 50,000.

Among them, there are nearly two thousand cultivators who have reached the Foundation Establishment stage, and the number of elders at the Golden Core stage, including the sect's guest elders, is currently thirty-seven.

In terms of the sect's overall strength as it currently appears.

Even excluding Nascent Soul elders like Song Qingming, the "Free and Unfettered Sect" is already not much worse than the "Ten Thousand Spirits Sect," which was once the number one sect in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range.

Moreover, the "Xiaoyao Sect" became one of the top ten sects in Donghuang Immortal Continent a few years ago, and took over the jurisdiction of the southern part of Donghuang Kingdom for two hundred years, earning tens of thousands of spirit stones in extra income every year.

The large "spirit stone vein" discovered in the East China Sea could be mined for at least a thousand years.

With these two additional sources of income, the "Xiaoyao Sect" will no longer have to worry about spirit stones in the future, and its future potential will inevitably surpass that of the Qin Kingdom's "Wanling Sect".

For at least a thousand years, no other sect in the entire cultivation world of the "Floating Cloud Mountains" should be able to shake their position.

Back when Song Qingming had just formed his core and joined the sect, the total number of disciples in the "Xiaoyao Sect" was only a little over ten thousand.

In just a few hundred years, the sect has undergone such earth-shattering changes.

As two Nascent Soul elders who had personally experienced this, Bai Yuxian and Song Qingming spoke of this matter with great pride.

The only regret is that in recent years, many people in the sect have failed to successfully form their Nascent Soul.

They had wasted a lot of sect resources but had not been able to cultivate any new Nascent Soul cultivators, which was truly regrettable for them.

Fortunately, now that they know Song Yuanhao has a good chance of achieving Nascent Soul, the two of them feel a little more relieved.

Besides the "Free and Unfettered Sect" itself, the major sects surrounding the Floating Cloud Mountains have also undergone considerable changes in the past two decades.

One of the biggest events was that a new Nascent Soul cultivator was born in the western part of the Floating Cloud Mountains more than a decade ago.

This person is named Luo Qianshan, and comes from the "Thundercloud Sect" of Liang Kingdom, located in the western part of the cultivation world of the Floating Cloud Mountains.

Although the Thundercloud Sect was originally a Golden Core sect, its ancestors also produced Nascent Soul cultivators, and it was also a top Nascent Soul sect in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range for two thousand years.

However, after the sect's Nascent Soul ancestor passed away, the Thundercloud Sect failed to cultivate any new Nascent Soul cultivators, and thus fell to become a Golden Core sect.

When the Thundercloud Sect declined, the Myriad Spirits Sect rose to power and took control of the entire western part of the Floating Cloud Mountains.

In order to prevent the sect from being targeted by those with ulterior motives, the Grand Elder of the Thundercloud Sect acted decisively at the time, offering a level-four magic treasure of the sect to curry favor with the Myriad Spirits Sect, and thus obtained their protection in time.

Although the Thundercloud Sect became a vassal of the Qin Kingdom's Myriad Spirits Sect, it managed to preserve its spiritual mountain and most of the industries within the Liang Kingdom under its protection, leaving a considerable legacy for future generations.

It is precisely because of the profound heritage left by their ancestors that the cultivators of the Thundercloud Sect have always lived a good life compared to other Golden Core sects.

In the last two thousand years, each generation of the sect has produced at least five or six Golden Core cultivators.

At its peak, it even had eight or nine Golden Core elders, which was comparable to Nascent Soul sects like the Cloud Soaring Sect, which was ranked at the bottom.

Luo Qianshan, who successfully formed his Nascent Soul this time, is a Golden Core elder in the Thundercloud Sect.

It is said that this person was exceptionally talented and, like Bai Yuxian, was a rare cultivator with a Heavenly Spiritual Root. He successfully formed his Golden Core before he was even a hundred years old.

Before Luo Qianshan formed his Nascent Soul, the Thundercloud Sect protected him very well, and very few people in the entire Liang Kingdom's cultivation world even knew his name.

It wasn't until ten years ago, when Luo Qianshan suddenly succeeded in forming his Nascent Soul in the "Eastern Phoenix Kingdom" and returned to the Liang Kingdom, that the entire Floating Cloud Mountain Range was shaken.

Even its superior, the "Wanling Sect," was shocked when they learned of this. They never expected that the "Leiyun Sect" had secretly cultivated a Nascent Soul cultivator right under their noses.

Although the "Wanling Sect" was very dissatisfied with this, they quickly sent a message to the Liang Kingdom to question the "Leiyun Sect" about the matter.

But what's done is done; Luo Qianshan's Nascent Soul formation is a fact, and even though the "Ten Thousand Spirits Sect" is displeased, it doesn't dare to openly suppress the other party.

After all, the other side also has Nascent Soul cultivators. If a fight breaks out because of this, even if the "Ten Thousand Spirits Sect" can destroy the "Thundercloud Sect", it will still have to pay a considerable price.

Such an approach would be a lose-lose situation.

If they really force Luo Qianshan to abandon his sect and become a rogue cultivator, thus creating such a life-or-death feud, their future days will probably not be easy.

Moreover, the "Wanling Sect" has now lost its dominant position in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, and due to the alliance between the various sects, they cannot easily launch attacks on other Nascent Soul forces.

Ultimately, with the mediation of other sects such as the "Free and Unfettered Sect", and the relatively good attitude of the "Thunder Cloud Sect", which took the initiative to apologize and expressed that it would continue to obey their orders in the future.

The "Wanling Sect" then readily accepted the other party's advancement to the Nascent Soul stage.

Not long after, the Thundercloud Sect held a Nascent Soul Ceremony for Luo Qianshan, and representatives from various sects in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range attended the ceremony.

At the time, Song Qingming was still in seclusion and unaware of the matter, so Bai Yuxian, the Nascent Soul Ancestor, represented the "Xiaoyao Sect".

From this point on, the "Thundercloud Sect" was officially promoted to a Nascent Soul sect, becoming the eighth Nascent Soul force in the "Floating Cloud Mountain Range".

Upon hearing the news that Luo Qianshan had broken through to the Nascent Soul realm, Song Qingming was somewhat surprised, but not overly astonished.

As a former Nascent Soul sect, the Thundercloud Sect has accumulated thousands of years of experience that are incomparable to ordinary Golden Core sects. Naturally, they have a greater chance of cultivating Nascent Soul cultivators.

Just like the "Hun Yuan Zong" of the Song Dynasty west of Taiyue Lake back then.

Even though, due to some unforeseen circumstances, the sect temporarily lost its Nascent Soul Ancestor.

However, given a chance to recover, it is not impossible to cultivate a Nascent Soul cultivator again in a short period of time.

Looking at it this way, it's not so surprising that the Thundercloud Sect, having spent two thousand years in seclusion, exhausted its resources to help Luo Qianshan achieve Nascent Soul.

After Luo Qianshan achieved Nascent Soul cultivation, the cultivation world of the "Floating Cloud Mountains" also gained another Nascent Soul cultivator.

Excluding the "Wind Ape," a Nascent Soul ancestor who originated from a spirit beast, there are now as many as seventeen Nascent Soul cultivators in the entire "Floating Cloud Mountain Range" cultivation world.

Not only did it fill the void left by the passing of Zhao Wuling, He Wuyou, and others, but the number of Nascent Soul cultivators actually increased by a few.

The strength of human cultivators in the entire "Floating Cloud Mountain Range" has improved somewhat.

This is also a good thing for Song Qingming and his group.

In the future, whether facing the northern demon race or the southern "Tianhai Alliance," they will be a force that can be used. In addition to the "Thundercloud Sect" being promoted to a Nascent Soul sect, the cultivation levels of other Nascent Soul cultivators in the "Floating Cloud Mountains" have also changed.

Ye Linyuan of the "Star Gate" made further progress in his cultivation a few years ago, reaching the fifth level of the Nascent Soul realm. His cultivation speed was no slower than Bai Yuxian's.

In terms of personal talent, Ye Linyuan is one of the few people besides Bai Yuxian who may eventually advance to the late Nascent Soul stage.

Chen Yunxiao of the Yunxiao Sect recently broke through to the fourth level of the Nascent Soul stage.

In recent years, Chen Yunxiao has not only improved his cultivation to the mid-Nascent Soul stage, but also spent hundreds of thousands of spirit stones to purchase a high-level magic weapon from "Red Cloud Mountain".

Clearly, he had accumulated a considerable amount of spirit stones. It was unknown whether he had encountered some fortuitous opportunity or whether the "Cloud Soaring Sect" had secretly discovered some mineral vein.

Liu Qingyin of the Hunyuan Sect has also broken through the third level of the Nascent Soul realm.

Her cultivation speed was steady and not particularly outstanding, and she did not encounter any major obstacles. It is likely that she will be able to cultivate to the peak of the sixth level of the Nascent Soul stage in the future.

As for whether she has the potential to break through to the late Nascent Soul stage, it is not yet clear whether she has that potential.

In the past twenty years, Wang Yan of the "Wanling Sect" and Zheng Zitong of the "Star Gate" have both gone into seclusion to break through to the late Nascent Soul stage.

Unfortunately, they lacked sufficient resources and did not possess any high-level spiritual items to aid their breakthrough.

After several attempts, no one succeeded in breaking through the cultivation level, and they could only leave the secluded cave with a sense of helplessness.

Besides the two of them, Yang Fengyu of the "Tianji Sect" and Fu Yungui of the "Huoyang Sect" have also started to frequently engage in long periods of seclusion for cultivation in recent years, and they have not given up their hope of advancing to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

However, compared to Wang Yan and Zheng Zitong, Yang Fengyu's foundation was clearly weaker, and his hope of advancing to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm was even more remote.

Even so, the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm is what they pursue in this life, and they would never give up easily.

Even Li Mufeng of the "Free and Unfettered Sect" was on the other side.

Having previously become indifferent to his own path of cultivation, he has recently begun searching for elixirs and spiritual items to aid his practice.

However, Li Mufeng's lifespan is less than two hundred years. By the time he reaches the peak of the sixth level of the Nascent Soul stage, he will probably be entering a period of decline in his vital energy.

His chances of breaking through to a higher realm are much lower than those of the previous few.

Without an extraordinary stroke of luck, it would be impossible to cultivate to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

In comparison, Bai Yuxian and Ye Linyuan are both less than six hundred years old, and they still have plenty of time to cultivate.

Their chances of breaking through to the late Nascent Soul stage are far higher than those of the previous five.

".."

After discussing the changes in the various sects of the "Floating Cloud Mountain Range" for a while, Bai Yuxian inevitably turned her attention back to her own cultivation.

He began to consult with Song Qingming about some questions related to advancing to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

Bai Yuxian's cultivation level is now close to the peak of the sixth level of the Nascent Soul stage. The next step is to prepare to break through the bottleneck of the late Nascent Soul stage.

The purpose of this trip to "Red Cloud Mountain" was not only to confirm Song Yuanhao's infant formation.

Bai Yuxian also wanted to seek advice from Song Qingming in order to prepare for her upcoming breakthrough in cultivation level.

Song Qingming naturally did not hold back in response to Bai Yuxian's sincere request for advice.

Not only did he personally provide detailed instructions, but he also took out the bamboo slips that Xia Mo had given him years ago, made a copy, and handed it to Bai Yuxian.

This bamboo slip was of great help to me when I broke through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

After breaking through his cultivation level, Song Qingming added a lot of content based on his own experience.

This collection of experiences and insights from two late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators will undoubtedly be helpful for Bai Yuxian's future breakthrough.

Upon learning that this item was compiled by Song Qingming and Xia Mo, and knowing the precious white jade immortal within, they were extremely grateful and immediately wanted to offer a spiritual object as a token of their thanks.

However, Song Qingming quickly declined the items that Bai Yuxian had taken out.

After all, he genuinely wanted to support the other party, not for the sake of these spiritual objects.

In addition to giving Bai Yuxian some pointers on breaking through to the late Nascent Soul stage, Song Qingming also took the opportunity to discuss the cultivation of the "Purple Sun Divine Light Technique" with her.

Although Song Qingming did not specialize in this technique, he still spent some time practicing the "Purple Sun Divine Light Technique" in his spare time.

Besides wanting to master the Purple Sun Divine Light supernatural power within, studying this technique would also be of great help to Song Qingming in deduce the subsequent techniques of the "Azure Jade Refining Treasure Technique" in the future.

Now that Song Qingming's cultivation has reached the eighth level of the Nascent Soul stage, the "Azure Jade Refining Treasure Technique" has only been deduced to the ninth level of the Nascent Soul stage. He is also eager to deduce the subsequent techniques.

After cultivating the "Purple Sun Divine Light Technique" to the late Golden Core stage, Song Qingming encountered a bottleneck and has been unable to break through to the Nascent Soul stage for many years.

Now that he has learned that Bai Yuxian has successfully advanced her cultivation to the Nascent Soul stage, Song Qingming took the opportunity to ask her about some things he didn't understand.

Upon learning that Song Qingming also practiced this technique, Bai Yuxian was not surprised at all.

After all, the "Purple Sun Divine Light Technique" is an extremely rare Nascent Soul stage cultivation technique, so it is perfectly normal for Song Qingming to want to use this technique to deduce his own main cultivation technique.

Compared to Song Qingming's occasional cultivation, Bai Yuxian has been conducting in-depth research over the years, and her understanding of the "Purple Sun Divine Light Technique" is naturally superior to his.

After a discussion, Song Qingming also gained a lot, and felt much more confident in cultivating the technique to the Nascent Soul stage.

After staying at "Red Cloud Mountain" for nearly half a month, Bai Yuxian reluctantly bid farewell to Song Qingming and the other person and returned to "Ancient Yang Mountain" in Wei State.

Meanwhile, after exchanging ideas with Bai Yuxian, Song Qingming's understanding of the "Purple Sun Divine Light Technique" improved significantly.

After seeing Bai Yuxian off, he quickly entered his secluded cave and began to cultivate the "Purple Sun Divine Light Technique" while deducing the subsequent techniques he had created.

Just one month after Song Qingming went into seclusion, the strange phenomena in the sky above Song Yuanhao's cave finally changed and gradually disappeared.

Just as Song Qingming had predicted, after ten years of seclusion to break through to a higher realm, Song Yuanhao still failed to succeed and was unable to pass this test.

However, Song Qingming was quite satisfied with the result that his first attempt at breaking through to a higher realm had triggered a celestial phenomenon that lasted for half a year.

Given his performance, as long as his internal injuries aren't too serious, he should be fine.

If he recovers from his injuries and attempts to break through to the Nascent Soul realm again, the chances of success are not low.

The moment Song Yuanhao opened the cave, Song Qingming went straight in to check it out himself, and only then did he feel relieved of his worries.

Although Song Yuanhao's attempt to break through to a higher realm failed and he also injured his dantian, his condition was slightly better than Xu Ziyan's.

If a high-level healing pill can be found for him, he should be able to fully recover in about ten years at most, which will not delay his next Nascent Soul formation.

Although Song Yuanhao had already used up almost all of his merit points in order to exchange for the "Nuwa Pill" used for Nascent Soul formation from the sect.

However, Song Qingming still had a "Nurture Pill" in reserve. As long as he could recover from his injuries, the matter of seclusion to form his Nascent Soul would not be a problem.

In recent years, the sect has used a merit-based exchange system, which is very fair and gives everyone the opportunity to reach the Nascent Soul stage.

However, such fairness also leads to the dispersion of resources for infant regeneration.

For a Golden Core cultivator, 300,000 spirit stones of merit is almost half a lifetime's savings.

Some people, after attempting to break through to the Nascent Soul realm, have already squandered their entire fortune and are indebted to their friends and relatives around them for their merits.

Even if he recovers from his injuries, he will not be able to accumulate enough merit points to exchange for a second "Nurture Pill" in a short period of time, which will also delay the progress of Nascent Soul formation.

After discussing it with Bai Yuxian, Song Qingming also felt that this method needed to be changed.

After all, in the cultivation world, few people can form a nascent soul in one go. Even someone with a heavenly spiritual root like Bai Yuxian has to go through several attempts to form a nascent soul before they can succeed.

Compared to the "Free and Unfettered Sect" which disperses its resources, the "Thunder Cloud Sect" which devotes the entire sect's strength to supporting one person has a better chance of cultivating a Nascent Soul cultivator.

After a discussion between Song Qingming and Bai Yuxian, the "Xiaoyao Sect" quickly revised its policies and introduced two new policies for exchanging Nascent Soul Spiritual Items.

Firstly, all disciples of the sect who have successfully broken through to the Nascent Soul realm once and managed to trigger extraordinary phenomena in the heavens and earth will be eligible for this award.

You can prioritize exchanging for a second "Nurture Pill" and enjoy a 50% discount subsidy from the sect. You only need to accumulate 150,000 merit points to successfully exchange for the pill.

After successfully forming the Nascent Soul, the cultivator must also return the spirit stones to the sect.

If it fails again, no additional debt needs to be repaid.

In this way, cultivators who perform well in their attempts to break through to the Nascent Soul realm will receive more encouragement and assistance, and their pressure will also be reduced.

The second rule is that if two or more Golden Core disciples in a sect compete for a single "Nurture Pill", it will be considered a violation of the rules.

The decision on who gets priority in forming the Nascent Soul stage will be jointly made by the six Nascent Soul patriarchs and the sect leader.

Nowadays, with the increase in the number of cultivators in the "Free and Unfettered Sect", the number of people who can cultivate to the late stage of Golden Core and break through to the Nascent Soul realm is also rapidly increasing.

Currently, the sect does not have any alchemists of level four or above, so the spiritual items needed for Nascent Soul formation basically need to be purchased from outside, and there is no way to reliably provide them to the disciples.

To avoid future competition for the creation of spirit objects, this point needs to be clarified in advance.

The release of these two regulations quickly caused a powerful stir among the many Golden Core disciples of the "Free and Unfettered Sect".

Most of the Golden Core disciples were very excited upon seeing this news, feeling that the sect's move greatly reduced the pressure on them to reach the Nascent Soul stage in the future.

However, some people were rather indifferent and not very enthusiastic.

After all, most Golden Core cultivators might not even reach the late Golden Core stage in their entire lives, and not everyone has the hope of forming a Nascent Soul. (End of Chapter)