Yunmeng Immortal Clan

Pills are divided into nine grades. When refining a grade one pill, the most valuable ingredient is the main ingredient. The auxiliary ingredients are not valuable. A single main ingredient costs three to five low-grade spirit stones depending on its quality and age.

However, my cultivation level is currently too low to refine pills, so improving my cultivation level is still the priority.

Time flies, and three years later, Song Daoxuan turned nineteen. He had accumulated a dozen drops of Purple Dew using the Qi Gourd.

As for his cultivation level, two years ago, when the spiritual energy in his dantian reached its peak, he could no longer make any progress, and this has been troubling Song Daoxuan for a year now.

However, one day, a dark-skinned man and a woman dressed in plain clothes arrived at his cave.

"Dao Xuan, your mother and I have sold everything we own to finally save up a Qi Gathering Pill for you. If you swallow it, you will successfully break through to the third level of Qi Refining!"

Song Honghu and Jiang Ruyi took out a small porcelain bottle and handed it to Song Daoxuan, saying with kind faces.

"Although I really want to use the Qi Gathering Gourd to produce the main ingredient and then sell it in the market or to an elder in the clan to earn some spirit stones, it is obviously not worthwhile. Right now, this Qi Gathering Pill is exactly what I urgently need..." Song Daoxuan muttered to himself.

"Thank you, Father and Mother. I will accept this Qi Gathering Pill, and I will accept your kindness!"

"Stop talking nonsense, Xiao Daoxuan, you're your parents' son! Just come back and visit us more often as we get old!"

Whenever he heard these words, Song Daoxuan's eyes would well up with tears. Even though cultivators are supposed to be detached from worldly desires, it was difficult for someone in a family to truly achieve a state of detachment from emotions.

After his parents left, Song Daoxuan busied himself with breaking through his bottleneck. He activated the cultivation technique "Five Elements Revolving Technique," which Song Daoxuan had selected from the family's library. It was the only technique suitable only for cultivators with five spiritual roots, and it was obtained by the family elders after they killed a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator from outside the realm.

The grade of this technique was not clear, so he simply assumed it was a Yellow-grade technique and began to cultivate it.

The cultivation techniques are divided into four grades: Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow. Each grade is further divided into three qualities: upper, middle, and lower.

Even the Xuan-level cultivation techniques are the most prized treasures of major cultivation sects, let alone those above the Xuan level.

As soon as the Gathering Breath Pill entered his stomach, he felt a powerful medicinal force surge through his limbs and bones. He sat cross-legged on the futon, his forehead covered in fine sweat, as the surrounding spiritual energy surged into his meridians and acupoints.

A few days later, he felt that his magical power had reached a new level. Song Daoxuan was overjoyed. After breaking through the bottleneck, he estimated that as long as he meditated and cultivated, it would be a natural thing to reach the fifth level of Qi Refining. However, with his five spiritual roots, it would probably take more than ten years to reach that level. Without enough spiritual stones, it would take even longer.

Cultivators need more than just absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth; they also require enough spirit stones to aid their cultivation. The worse their aptitude, the more spirit stones they need to consume.

In autumn, on Qingsui Peak, golden plants are laden with golden ears of rice, and a fragrant aroma of harvest fills the air.

White Jade Spirit Rice takes five years to mature, and now it's in the final crucial few months before it can be truly harvested.

Ten acres of spirit rice, with a yield of 100 catties per acre. According to market prices, the family can earn 100 spirit stones, while Song Daoxuan will receive 5 low-grade spirit stones.

However, spirit rice can only be grown on spirit fields, which are considered a basic resource for cultivation families. The entire family only has a hundred acres of spirit fields.

Besides the hundred acres of spirit fields, the clan also has a first-grade high-quality Qingwu gold mine in the Yunling Mountains, a spirit fish pond on Qingfeng Lake, and a spirit medicine shop in Yunmeng Market.

The path of cultivation for a family cultivator is fraught with difficulties. Song Daoxuan only has about twenty spirit stones on him, not even enough to buy a single Qi Gathering Pill. He is truly penniless.

Even clan cultivators receive meager stipends; one can only imagine the lives of those wandering, unaffiliated cultivators.

As for auxiliary items, such as magical artifacts and talismans, they were simply beyond his reach.

However, family cultivators also have benefits. As long as a family cultivator's cultivation reaches the sixth level of Qi Refining, they can receive a mid-grade magic weapon from the family.

"Brother Xuan, it's been so long! I never expected you to have broken through to the third level of Qi Refining."

Song Daoxuan ranked fourteenth among the Dao generation, while Song Daoxu ranked fifteenth.

"May our ancestors live on forever, may their legacy continue to flourish, may they stand tall amidst the abyss for ten thousand generations, and may they ascend to immortality..."

This Song Daoxu was more talented than Song Daoxuan, and was three years younger than Song Daoxuan. He was at the fourth level of Qi Refining. He was dull-witted. The two encouraged each other and were obsessed with breaking through their cultivation levels and achieving immortality. After all, who doesn't dream of immortality?

"It was only a barely broken through..." Song Daoxuan said somewhat self-deprecatingly, but his expression showed no sign of discouragement.

"I heard from the elders in the clan that people like us with four or five spiritual roots are basically destined to never reach the Foundation Establishment stage in our entire lives. Do you know how devastated I was when I heard that..." Song Daoxu said loudly, with a hint of displeasure on his face.

"It should be..." Although he didn't want to discourage Song Daoxu, the fact was the fact. Song Daoxuan was precocious from a young age, and his spiritual sense was slightly higher than that of his peers. He had read many books about strange tales, customs and anecdotes in the cultivation world.

Even with a talent like three spiritual roots, which seems quite good to outsiders, the probability of successfully establishing one's foundation before the age of sixty is only 20% if one cultivates Qi to the tenth level of perfection and does not have Foundation Establishment Pills or Foundation Establishment Spiritual Objects to assist them.

Generally speaking, it's questionable whether their pseudo-spiritual roots and five spiritual roots can even break through to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining in their lifetime, let alone the dream of Foundation Establishment.

As the spirit rice neared maturity, the nineteen family cultivators on Qingsui Peak lingered near the spirit fields, wary of any demonic creatures that might pose a threat to the rice.

Throughout the history of cultivating Lingmi rice in Qingsuifeng, once the rice is nearing maturity, it will involuntarily emit an enticing aroma.

This fragrance is not only alluring to humans, but also irresistible to the monsters of the mountains and fields.

Therefore, the spirit rice was inevitably stolen and attacked by demons and insects, ultimately causing the family cultivators' five years of careful guarding to be wasted. This was undoubtedly a huge loss for a cultivation family that had risen from humble beginnings.

Originally, guarding the spirit rice in the spirit field was Song Daoxuan's sole responsibility. However, the other cultivators considered the spirit field to be clan property, not just one person's. Therefore, every time the spirit rice on Qingsui Peak ripened, all the Qi Refining cultivators on Qingsui Peak would help Song Daoxuan guard it continuously, for which Song Daoxuan was very grateful.

At noon, the sun was scorching hot.

Several Qi Refining stage cultivators leaned against a tree, drank several large bowls of iced tea, and immediately exhaled a long breath, feeling refreshed, clear-headed, and completely at ease.

However, not long after they sat down, the cloudless sky above them suddenly changed color. The once azure sky was now completely dark, accompanied by a buzzing sound.

The guarding monks stared wide-eyed, their faces filled with horror.

"Locust plague! Locust plague!"

"Don't panic, everyone. Notify the cultivators on the peak to gather in one place and fight off the locust plague!" Song Daoxu said calmly in the face of danger.

As he spoke, Song Daoxu lightly formed a hand seal and chanted incantations. A fireball the size of a fist crashed into the "dark clouds."

Upon hearing this, some of the family cultivators, like Song Daoxu, used their spells, while others employed their own methods to coordinate with the other cultivators on the peak to combat the locust plague.

The so-called locust plague is certainly not caused by ordinary locusts in the secular world.

The white corn plant is incredibly tough; ordinary locusts simply cannot penetrate its outer layer.

The locusts we see today are a type of spiritual locust—the Azure-Winged Locust—born from the spiritual energy of the cultivation world.

The Azure-Winged Locust was about half a zhang in length, its body was emerald green and crystal clear, its eyes were as bright and clear as amber, its wings were transparent with fine textures, and its body was filled with a wood-attribute spiritual energy.

The Azure-Winged Locust is a low-level demonic insect, not even reaching the first rank, but it has the advantage of being too numerous. They usually travel in groups of more than a hundred. Wherever the locusts pass, the spiritual energy withers and no grass grows.

There were no Foundation Establishment cultivators guarding Qing Sui Peak. The cultivators present did not notify the cultivators on the other peaks of the Qinglian Islands because the locust plague was too rapid. If they waited for the cultivators on the other peaks to arrive, there would probably not even be any spirit rice left.

"Brother Xuan, hurry up! My uncles and I can't hold on much longer!"

As soon as Song Daoxu finished speaking, he took out a large sword. This sword was a low-grade magic weapon. He poured his magic power into it, and the sword shone with golden light, forming a sword arc that instantly cut down several green locusts.

But the locust swarms came like a spring, seemingly inexhaustible, arriving in droves.

"They're here! They're here!" Song Daoxuan used his escape technique to its fullest extent. The escape technique he cultivated was a high-grade Yellow Rank technique passed down from his ancestors, the Dangqiu Technique.

After a Qi Refining cultivator practices this escape technique, they can see the terrain as nothing. However, due to Song Daoxuan's low cultivation level, the power he can unleash from this technique is extremely limited.

The other family cultivators on Qing Sui Peak also leaped out from the grass around the spirit field.

These cultivators each possessed a low-grade magic weapon. In the cultivation world, a low-grade magic weapon costs only three to five low-grade spirit stones; it is cheap and has the least power.

Mid-grade magic artifacts, which are slightly more expensive than low-grade magic artifacts, cost at least tens of low-grade spirit stones even for the most ordinary one. This price is not cheap, and they would rather use that money to buy a bottle of Qi Gathering Pills to help Qi Refining cultivators break through their bottlenecks.

Song Daoxuan caught sight of a green-winged locust about to devour a white jade spirit rice plant. He unleashed a sword arc and, with considerable effort, killed the locust.

Seeing this, Song Hongsheng frowned:

"Dao Xuan, these locust demons are terrified of fire and immune to wood-attribute spells. You should use fire-attribute spells as your main attack and ordinary attacks as a supplement to deal multiple times the damage to these locust demons!" Song Hongsheng was the eleventh in the Hong generation. He was ruthless and decisive. He had been on Qing Sui Peak for a long time and was more experienced in dealing with pests than young people like Song Dao Xuan. He had pseudo-spiritual root aptitude and was around the sixth level of Qi Refining.

The cultivators present nodded in agreement and increased their spell output.

However, after several rounds of attacks, a portion of the locusts were wiped out, and the robes of the cultivators were tattered.

The monks exchanged glances.

"The only way is to activate the large-scale locust eradication array at Qinghui Peak..."

Our ancestors once set up a top-tier first-order formation on Qing Sui Peak, called the Li Huo Nail Head Formation. This formation covered an extremely large area, encompassing the entire Qing Sui Peak.

Once activated, countless fiery spikes converge from all directions, which can be unleashed at will by the cultivator who controls the array's core, slaying enemies from outside the mountain.