Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 254 Kneel down
After experiencing a small setback on the first day, Kang Dabao realized that the Mi Family Village had elite wizard soldiers, the Mi Family leader was well-trained, and there were also foundation-building troops in the village to help, so it would not be easy to defeat them.

Speaking of which, the head of the Mi family, who is practicing Qi, has the ability and courage to invite three foundation-building cultivators to help him. He is truly a character.

This is not a business that can be concluded with just some spirit stones. It is difficult to control the strong with the weak. If you give too many spirit stones, people may have bad intentions; if you give too few, you may not be able to hire anyone.

Even if the price is right, we are still worried that these hired seniors will not work hard.

But the head of the Mi family managed to make this happen. The fact that Feng risked his life on the first day of building his foundation was enough to show how good he was at judging people.

To be fair, if the head of Kangda were in the same position, he might not be able to do better than the head of Mijia. He is really worthy of being the leader among his peers like He Dezong, who praised him highly in those days.

If the two families had always lived in peace, even if Sect Leader Kang had achieved foundation building, there would still be many trivial matters to deal with within the Chongming Sect, and he would not be free enough to come and help the Changyun Ma family to clear up their discontent.

However, the old bandit, the eldest son of the Mi family, failed to clear the lineage of Kang Dabao. He did not expect that from the moment he set his sights on the disciple of the head of Kang Da, the two sides were destined to fight and could not escape.

The two sides still did not fight the next day. After all, the Ma family practitioners had worked hard and needed to recuperate before they could regroup.

To be honest, Ma Wenhan's ability to manage the household is really average.

You must know that no matter how well-trained the Mi family's wizard soldiers are, the more than 200 Ma family monks who have taken to the battlefield are actually the children of the foundation-building clans.

Even though the Ma family had declined a bit, the skills, magic tools, and resources they used were still much stronger than those of this group of wizards who relied on exploiting merchants and robbing houses to get their supplies.

However, this young man from a prominent family was dispersed by a group of wizard soldiers who were completely confused about the art of qigong. If this were to get out, the Changyun Ma family would probably be ridiculed by outsiders again.

I don’t know if it’s because of this, but Ma Wenhan’s face has been frighteningly gloomy these past two days.

Master Kang was well aware that the city, which he had originally thought he could take in one fell swoop, was now in a stalemate.

This was somewhat inconsistent with Chong Mingzong's original intention of establishing his authority by pacifying Mijiazhai, but the matter was already settled and there was no need to rush.

However, in this case, both sides will have to fight hard for some time, and it would be too much to ask the Ma family to send another man.

In the final analysis, they were just trying to recover their own sacred land while making friends with the Chongming Sect. The cooperation between the two families was originally a collaboration based on interests, rather than vassalage.

If the Ma family loses more monks, Ma Wenhan will be very distressed and may quit his job. If his family leaves, Chongming Sect will be in a difficult situation.

So, Master Kang thought about transferring most of the patrolmen from Chongming Market over here, and Deng Baichuan would agree.

This is because as the relationship between Qinghanyuan and Chongmingzong improved, Fangshi Mayor Deng Baichuan's attitude towards Chongmingzong also became much more enthusiastic.

After all, Pingrong County Lord may not be taken seriously by Deng Shiwei, but the legitimate son-in-law of the Fei family is a true family member, even though he is a disciple of the fake Sima.

There are differences in closeness and distance, and this applies to everyone.

This recruitment of patrol officers is only the first step. Now the title of the Pingrong County Master, Kang Da, is much more valuable than when Xie Fu, Luo Heng and others were in office.

If Kang Dabao wanted to mobilize soldiers and suppress the rebellion, he could do it by simply issuing a few decrees.

As for whether or not to recruit more disciples from the sect, Master Kang did not think about it.

Originally, he even transferred Duan Anle and others to the battle because he was afraid that the old cultivator Ma Wenhan would be dissatisfied. Kang Dabao would be heartbroken if any of them were injured.

After all, before Chongming Sect established its foundation and took charge, the head of the sect, Kang Da, had to lead his disciples to charge forward;
But now there are already two Bingyes alive in the Chongming Sect. If the disciples still cannot escape the treatment of being pawns, then the foundation that Jiang Qing and Kang Dabao have built through countless difficulties and dangers with their Taoist faith and chance will be too worthless.

Moreover, compared with the number of disciples in most foundation-building forces in Yunjiao Province, the number of disciples in Chongming Sect is extremely small.

It seems that declining clans like the Changyun Ma family and the Feiyue Shan family, although they only have one head who has established a foundation, have accumulated quite a few Qi-cultivating cultivators over the years, at least three or four hundred.

This is because the step from Qi training to foundation building is a chasm for ordinary cultivators; and in comparison, the difficulty of the ignorant immortal seedling to pass the stage of guiding the soul into the body can only be said to be a piece of cake.

Therefore, the foundation-building process has never been something that any Qi-training cultivator could dream of since ancient times. Even if an ordinary cultivator with five spiritual roots is diligent, it is difficult for him to reach the ninth level of Qi-training in his entire life.

If a cultivator with four spiritual roots cannot obtain relatively abundant resources, it will not be easy for him to meet the conditions for breaking through and building the foundation before the age of ninety.

A cultivator with three spiritual roots can be regarded as a rare talent in a small family. As long as he practices diligently, it will not be difficult for him to pass the foundation-building stage.

Not to mention the cultivators with second spiritual roots, the probability of building a foundation will naturally increase greatly.

Immortal orchids such as single spiritual roots and heavenly spiritual roots, especially the latter, are rare even in the history of a large golden elixir sect like the Liangyi Sect that dominates several states.

Even if some small families were lucky enough to have one or two children survive thanks to magma bubbling from their ancestral tombs, most of them would have to be offered as tribute to the larger families.

It can be seen from the spiritual root qualifications of most of the foundation-building cultivators in Yunjiao State that most of them have three spiritual roots or above, and those with four spiritual roots are rare. As for those with five spiritual roots, it may take decades to produce one.

However, although cultivators with three spiritual roots are relatively rare, the Changyun Ma family, the Feiyue Shan family and other large foundation-building families have been established for hundreds of years, and they each have nearly two dozen children who are qualified to meet this condition.

We can exclude those who died halfway, those who were lazy, those who were not sincere in their Taoism, and those who were wasted their efforts in practicing the various arts.
Among the remaining people, how many of them can be called foundation-building seeds? It is hard to say.

Another thing is, if the clan’s public treasury is tight, then where do these foundation-building spiritual objects for the foundation-building seeds come from?

Can one successfully build the foundation by obtaining the foundation-building seeds from spiritual objects?

Do the foundation-building seeds that have not obtained spiritual objects have the courage to break through and build the foundation on their own without relying on spiritual objects?

All these are problems. It is no exaggeration to say that it is difficult to lay a solid foundation.

Like the Feiyue Shan family, after losing a foundation-building cultivator in the battle at Xiaowu Mountain, they all got two foundation-building pills, but their two foundation-building seeds all failed. (Please don't complain in a hurry, 0.65*0.65≈0.42, although it's a bit unlucky, but it's not exaggerated. I will strictly control the number of words in the brackets, and I will definitely not count them)

Shan Shengyang doesn't have much time left. The Shan family recently employed a foundation-building cultivator, and as the head of the family, it is difficult for him to support the family alone. It is already difficult for him to keep the many resources that the Shan family has acquired over the years from the New Cloud Alliance.

Shan Sheng had previously thought of relying on his fellow alliance members to overcome this difficulty.

But after saying these humble words, Shan Sheng felt a little unsure when he saw that the other heads of the families had only indifferent reactions.

In this way, it is hard to say whether the Feiyue Shan family will be their allies or the spoils waiting to be shared after Shan Sheng dies.

If his family had not suffered such a disaster, Shan Sheng would be the head of a large family after all. Why would he come to Mijiazhai to help Chongmingzong? In order to earn a friendship for future generations?
Because of this sense of urgency, even in the eyes of the head of the Kang family, who always likes to take advantage, the head of the Shan family was a little too enthusiastic.

This time Kang Dabao did not ask any questions. He sent a message the next day, asking the person in charge of Feiyuedan's family to transfer a hundred clansmen to serve.

With this two-pronged approach, they could mobilize more than a hundred high-quality Qigong practitioners to come to help. In terms of quality, they were better than those that the head of Kang had signed an order to recruit.

After all, Pingrong County had experienced the scourge of two bastard county magistrates, and it had already lost a lot of vitality. If County Lord Kang continued to ignore public opinion and act arbitrarily, it would be a bit of a disturbance to his hometown.

You know, the reputation of the head of Kangda is not good now.

Even though he has already established his foundation, he still hasn't been able to get rid of the label of "bullying women", and he will most likely have to add the title of "brutal and oppressive towards the people".

If someone with a dissatisfied heart adds some color to this, his reputation will most likely go towards the direction of "sex-hungry ghost" and will deteriorate by leaps and bounds.

Although Kang Dabao has now become a Bingye Foundation Establisher, there must be fewer people who dare to gossip about him. But in the blueprint of Kang Dazhang, Chongming Sect wants to recruit all the Pingrong monks for their own use in the future. This reputation is bad, and it is a bad thing in the end.

Therefore, the move of recruiting soldiers was just a backup plan made by Kang Dabao. Only after the Ma family monks joined forces with the two reinforcements and still failed to capture the Mijia Village, would the head of Kang Da consider whether to act accordingly.

After arranging this matter, the two sides fought another battle on the third day. Kang Dabao, Jiang Qing and Ma Wenhan were in the front line, leaving only Shan Sheng to guard the Star-Shooting Crossbow operated by the disciples of Chongming Sect.

The morale of the Ma family monks has not recovered and they are in poor condition; the wizard soldiers in the formation have also lost their fighting spirit due to heavy casualties.

Among the three foundation-building cultivators who came to help from Mijiazhai, except for the one named Feng who was still energetic and working quite hard, the toothless old man and the foundation-building old woman were a bit perfunctory.

Although Mr. Feng was very good at building his foundation, he knew that he was no match for Kang Dabao and the other two, so he was unable to display his prowess like he did on the first day.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that, although the head of the Mi family fought hard, they could not hold on to the Mi village for long.

Therefore, during the attack that day, except for the fact that the witch fire in the Mi Family's formation was so strange and difficult to defend against, which also resulted in some casualties, the overall loss of the Ma Family's monks was not great.

Moreover, under the leadership of Master Kang, who seemed to be taking over the reins of power, the second-order formation in Mijiazhai had a crack in its foundation, relying on steady progress, which was difficult to repair.

The losses were not great and the gains were plentiful. At the end of the day, except for Ma family ancestor Ma Wenhan who was in a slightly complicated mood, all the monks who attacked the formation were happy.

Master Kang could feel that the morale of the wizard soldiers in the formation had been lost, and he also noticed that the face of the head of the Mi family was as gloomy as water.

Kang Dabao didn't pay too much attention to these two changes. What he cared about most at this moment was that the mentality of the three foundation-building practitioners who were assisting in the formation had not changed.

————"You want me to surrender?! With my bare hands and carrying thorns on my back! Don't even think about it!!" The eyes of the Mi family's leader were full of bloodshot. When he heard the proposal of surrender, even though there were three foundation-building bodies standing in front of him, he couldn't help but growl in anger.

"It's obvious that this formation can't be defended! If you surrender, the three of us can go out and say something good on your behalf. I can guarantee that you will be spared."

Seeing that the head of the Mi family rejected his proposal, the toothless old man suppressed his displeasure and explained. However, the contempt on his face and the dissatisfaction in his words were not concealed at all.

The head of the Mi family would not listen to these words, and made up some excuses to argue: "Spare my life. Even if Kang Dabao, the ungrateful villain, agrees, how can Ma Wenhan of the Ma family let me live?! It is better to hold on for a while. His Chongming Sect has always been hated by Liangyi Sect and Hongyi Sect.

Our Changyun County is adjacent to Dingzhou. If we do a good job in this battle formation, we may even be favored by the sect! Send people to help! This junior is also for the sake of the three seniors!"

After the Mi family leader yelled, the three foundation-building masters present did not know why, but remained silent.

There was a moment of silence in the field. The head of the Mi family was stunned, as if he just realized what he had said before.

He took a deep breath, his expression changed, and even the crisscrossed scars on his face looked obedient and submissive: "I am a junior who lost my composure, please forgive me, seniors. I will go downstairs to prepare the spiritual food, and will come back later to have a drink with you seniors."

The three of them remained silent as usual, waiting for the head of the Mi family to leave the hall with his back bent. The toothless old man scanned him with his spiritual sense and then whispered:
"He is a dreamer. Liangyi Sect and Hongyi Sect would be interested in a piece of dirt like him? He deserves to have earned such a huge fortune. He is a person who always promises people something. He deserves to be rich."

The toothless old man paused for a moment, then tilted his head to look at the other two foundation-building monks beside him, and added a hint of respect in his tone: "May I ask what do you two fellow Taoists think?"

The old woman who was building the foundation was straightforward and answered in a deep voice: "She came here to be hired, but she left to harm her master. This action is bad for our reputation. If we want to earn some resources in the future, I'm afraid we will have to do the business of living by the weather."

The toothless old man and the foundation-building old woman both make a living by the same trade, so naturally they could understand the meaning of the foundation-building old woman's words.

The reason why these foundation-building casual cultivators can make the Mi family's big men and small Qi-cultivating cultivators dare to invite them is that their reputation is not bad. Although they can't be called harmonious and respectful, at least they can be said to be honest and fair.

Therefore, generally speaking, the business they can do is difficult for their ordinary peers to do.

Rather than being asked by their fellow Foundation Building practitioners to help fight for their lives, they would rather do something for the younger Qi Training practitioners.

After all, generally speaking, the latter hire them to do small things like upholding justice and acting as middlemen.

Although the rewards for this kind of business are less, the owner is respectful and there is no worry of defaulting on the spirit stones, so it is extremely easy to do. It is much easier to do than those businesses that require people to pay at the risk of a knife.

But if this reputation is ruined, then these easy jobs will no longer be available to people like me. Raising a reputation is difficult and the gains do not outweigh the losses.

There are not many ways for these independent cultivators who have no special skills to earn resources for building their foundation. They can either go to a family or sect to serve as a worshiper, and then be suspected and controlled by others;

Or they could occupy the mountain and become a bandit, exploiting merchants and travelers, and depend on the weather for their livelihood;

The next level is to become a robbery cultivator who flees to the ends of the earth and massacres clans and families. Although the risk is high, if you can make a deal and use it alone, it can last for ten to eight years.

As for managing and developing power, just looking at how Ma Wenhan, an old cultivator who has been in office for nearly a hundred years, couldn't do it well, we can understand that it is not an easy task for rootless and independent cultivators like the Toothless Old Man and the Foundation Building Old Woman.

"Oh, he has already pushed the calf up, and he wants to tie up the three of us so that we can't get off the boat! Two fellow Taoists, what should we do? We are great foundation-building cultivators, we can't let this young man get what he wants, right?"

The toothless old man spoke in a dissatisfied tone. If he had known that the spirit stones were so hard to get, he should not have taken this job.

The Mi family boss is not his own son or grandson. It would be fine if the ones on the opposite side who have established their foundation are as weak and old as Ma Wenhan, but the other three are obviously not paper tigers that can be broken with one blow.

It is impossible for a selfish person like Wu Ya Old Man to fight for the Mi family.

Feng, who was building his foundation, held his breath and did not speak. However, the old woman spoke up again, "No matter what, we cannot let the blood of this master stain our hands."

Upon hearing this, the toothless old man knocked lightly, his eyes revealing a hint of understanding. Looking at the direction where the Mi family's boss left, he immediately had an idea in his mind.

The foundation-building master surnamed Feng could see clearly the plans of the toothless old man and the foundation-building old woman. They clearly wanted to harm others, but they were concerned about their reputations and tried to cover up their own intentions.

Feng was not happy about this, but he did not say anything. If you cut off someone's path, you will make a deadly enemy. Feng was just building his foundation and just needed to do what he should do, and he didn't care about how others acted.

In the end, the weight of the Mi family stall is still too small. Since he dared to gamble, he must admit defeat!
----

On the morning of the next day, after the head of the Mi family had discussed with the three independent cultivators about building their foundation, the head of the Kang family, who had gone out to gather energy early in the morning, saw the Mi family village with blazing flames and shouts of killing.

The riot lasted for quite a while, more than half an hour had passed, and the sound of fighting could still be heard.

Kang Dabao didn't know what was going on. Being a calm man, he didn't act rashly. He just lined up his troops outside the formation and watched for changes.

Now that victory is in our grasp, and since we have decided to ensure a safe victory, there is no need to take the risk due to some unexpected changes.

Just as he was wondering, the protective formation of Mijia Village was opened, and colorless mysterious light fell down.

The fighting in the village did not stop. Amid the noise and flames, a figure in golden armor instantly escaped from the formation into the distance.

The head of the Kang family recognized who it was, but did not take any action; Ma Wenhan was very angry and cursed for a while, but did not dare to stop him.

After a few breaths, the door opened and a monk who looked like a scholar limped out of the door with a sad face and knelt down to beg for surrender.

In his left hand, he tightly grasped a scarred and bloodstained head, while his right hand was covering his anus, which was still dark red.

"The leader of Mijia Village has disobeyed the master! This is against the will of heaven. Now the loyal and righteous people in our village have risen up to kill him. I hope the master will be merciful and spare our lives to show his kindness!"

The scholar spoke with gnashing teeth and every word he said was full of tears, and it didn't seem fake.

When he hit the ground with his head, he used too much force and made a deep hole in the ground. Yellow mud covered the wound on his forehead, and mud-red blood flowed down his cheeks to his neck and chest.

Even though they were so far away, Kang Dabao seemed to be dazzled by the complex emotions of sadness and joy in him.

It was at this time that Kang Dabao recognized that the scholar carrying the head of the Mi family was the one who had been brought to the archway of Emperor Chongming to apologize.

"Old Ghost Feng ran away! The other two foundation builders stirred up dissatisfaction among the rest of the people in the village and asked them to kill the head of the Mi family!"

Master Kang understood the pros and cons of the situation almost instantly. The ancestor of the Ma family was also not stupid. Upon seeing this situation, he actually led the Ma family monks into the village.

Shan Sheng was also a little excited. Without even saying a word to Kang Dabao, he rushed in alone.

Sect Leader Kang and Duan Anle first calmed down the somewhat restless disciples. They did not answer the scholar, but just hooked the head in his hand with their boots and took a look at it.

After building the foundation, Kang Dabao's Dharma eyesight became sharper. With just a quick glance, he could tell that the head of the Mi family's boss was not a fake.

Seeing an old friend again in this way made the head of Kang Da sigh and said with regret: "I can guarantee that you will not die here, as for the rest, you can only wish for the best."

After saying this, he returned the head to the scholar and walked into the village with his followers.

Duan Anle had been to Mijia Village several times when he was a merchant. Every time he came in, the honest boy sighed that the village was stable and wealthy, and it was ranked among the top three among the Qi training forces he had seen.

But the Mijiazhai seen at this time was full of broken eaves and walls. Even after cleaning it up, it would certainly not be able to restore its former splendor.

There were also witch soldiers belonging to two factions killing each other in the village. Without forming a battle formation, they looked extremely weak in the eyes of the Ma family's disciples.

Therefore, even the wizard soldiers who betrayed the Mi family were killed by the Ma family monks under various names in order to vent their anger and obtain storage bags.

Although Kang Dabao's decision to restrict his disciples was prudent, it also caused them to lose a large amount of income, and even Chu Huer seemed to feel resentful.

But Master Kang did not find anything unusual. People with a strong gambling nature may win a lot, but they may also worry about being overthrown at any time.

Kang Dabao would never do a thing like the boss of the Mi family. After this gamble, not only did he fail to keep his huge family business, but even his head was sold by a slave in exchange for his life.

However, although the disciples of Chongming could not get much from the storage bags hanging on the waists of the wizards, Sect Leader Kang still grabbed a wizard as his spokesman and led the disciples to the big warehouse in the village at a leisurely pace.

There is a big fight going on here right now.

(I arrived at the hotel at around 3:00 yesterday on a business trip. I thought I could continue coding when I got there, but I was too exhausted to do it, so I didn’t have time to ask for leave. Please forgive me! If I finish my work tonight and still have time, I will post another chapter. Thank you for your support!)
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(End of this chapter)