Chapter 109 Incident
The Jinshan Market in the north of Pingyang County is similar to the Qinghe Market in Qinghe County. It is also a market established by the seven foundation-building families in Pingyang County and the Xiaoyao Sect above.
Song Qingming, who was stationed in Lingyuan Mountain more than ten years ago, was assigned by his family to participate in the Liu family's employment mission. He passed by this place when he went to Fuyun Mountain Range, but their goal at that time was Fuyun Mountain Range, and they did not enter Jinshan Market.
The area controlled by Pingyang County is slightly larger than that of Qinghe County in the south. The geographical location is close to Fuyun Mountain Range, and the cultivation resources are much richer than Qinghe County. Therefore, there are more cultivators active in their territory, almost twice as many as Qinghe County. Even if some cultivators temporarily left because of the impending monster riot, the number of cultivators is still much greater than that of Qinghe County.
The seven foundation-building families headed by the Cao family controlled the entire Pingyang County, with a total of 16 foundation-building cultivators. At this time, because of the monster attack, most of the cultivators in Pingyang County have gathered in Jinshanfang. In addition, there are some cultivators sent by Xiaoyao Sect to assist in the defense of Jinshanfang, including three foundation-building cultivators and more than 100 Qi-refining cultivators.
In the past, every time the monsters in the northern border rioted, the first to bear the brunt was Guiyunfang, which was closer to the Fuyun Mountains. The terrain there was flat and it was also the largest battlefield of the entire monster riot. 70% of the monsters that went south to defend the country would go there.
Although smaller towns like Jinshanfang would also be attacked by some monsters that bypassed Guiyunfang, they were generally first- and second-level monsters with low intelligence. In the past few hundred years, there have been no monsters above level three, so Xiaoyao Sect is not so concerned about the defense here now, and let it go directly to several county cultivators in the nearby Jiangling County.
There are five counties in the entire Wei State, among which Jiangling County is located in the northeast, including Qinghe, Pingyang, Liuyang, and Jiangling counties, with a total of several thousand cultivators.
Among the four counties, Pingyang County has the strongest overall strength of cultivators, with seven foundation-building families and sixteen foundation-building cultivators. Jiangling County is second, with five major foundation-building families and nine foundation-building cultivators. The remaining Qinghe County and Liuyang County are not much different in strength, with only five or six foundation-building cultivators in the territory.
Jinshanfang is not only the barrier of Pingyang County, but also the first line of defense of the entire Jiangling County. It is their main battlefield for defending against the monster turmoil. After receiving the order from Xiaoyao Sect, the foundation-building families in the other three counties of Jiangling County have organized cultivators to rush to Jinshanfang for support.
More than 300 cultivators from Qinghe County, led by several foundation-building cultivators, walked north for several days and entered the scope of Pingyang County.
The Gao family and the Huang family often have frictions in Qinghe County in order to compete for various cultivation resources. Many of the cultivators below have bad relations with the affiliated Qi-refining families. When the two cultivators just met, Song Qingming also saw several cultivators from the Gao family staring at the Huang family with red eyes.
However, now that they are facing the major event of resisting the invasion of monsters, the Huang and Gao families have tacitly issued strict orders to the cultivators below early, and no one is allowed to find opportunities to cause trouble during the monster turmoil. In the past few days, the two cultivators seem to be quite harmonious on the surface.
Although the Gao family only has one foundation-building cultivator, Gao Jinhe, their family still has some good relations in Xiaoyao Sect. Although they have been suppressed by the Huang family in Qinghe County over the years, they are still the second largest cultivation family in Qinghe County.
Song Qingming had some connections with the Gao family. Gao Yuyao, who exchanged pills with him, was a direct descendant of the Gao family. She would occasionally come back to the Gao family in Qinghe County. Song Qingming had met Gao Yuyao once in Qinghefang a few years ago.
However, Gao Yuyao was followed by several Gao family monks at that time. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, he only greeted her from a distance and did not meet her.
Later, Song Qingming also inquired about Gao Yuyao in the market. He only knew that this woman had returned to Xiaoyao Sect to retreat and break through the foundation-building stage, and he didn't know whether she succeeded.
When Song Qingming first dealt with Gao Yuyao in Pinglu Mountain, the pills that Gao Yuyao traded with him saved him a lot of trouble. Although the two of them were mutually beneficial, Song Qingming always had some good feelings for her.
It was not until he met her again in Fuyun Mountain that Song Qingming realized the difference in status between the two. At Gao Yuyao's initiative, the two became friends and did not have much communication afterwards.
Less than a day after entering Pingyang County, the group discovered something strange. Along the way, they saw many cultivators running towards Qinghe County in the rear.
After a Huang family cultivator received the order, he stopped an elderly cultivator and asked him about it. Then the group learned a shocking news. The destination they were going to support, Jinshan Market, had been breached by monsters a day ago.
After hearing this news, the cultivators in Qinghe County suddenly fell into panic and dared not move forward. Many cultivators suggested returning to Qinghe County immediately.
Finally, out of desperation, Huang Shengxin and Gao Jinhe, two foundation-building cultivators, went out in person and went to several foundation-building families in nearby Pingyang County in two directions to inquire about the specific situation in Pingyang County. Only then did they know the specific situation in Pingyang County.
Yesterday, just as the cultivators from Qinghe County reached the border with Pingyang County, a major incident unexpectedly occurred in Jinshanfang. Three foundation-building cultivators guarding Jinshanfang were trapped in a valley a hundred miles away from Jinshanfang along with more than a dozen Qi-refining cultivators because they were out chasing a foundation-building monster.
It has been more than ten days since the monster riot began. It has been four or five days since the monsters that attacked Jinshanfang appeared. Only some weaker first-level monsters appeared, and the scale of the monsters was not large, with only dozens at a time, and no more than a hundred at most.
In their opponent Jinshanfang, there were seven or eight hundred Qi-refining cultivators alone, including more than a dozen foundation-building cultivators. Without the foundation-building cultivators taking action, the cultivators of Jinshanfang easily repelled four or five attacks by the monsters and obtained a lot of monster materials. This also made the Pingyang County cultivators guarding this place gradually despise it, and felt that this monster riot was not as terrible as rumored.
Unexpectedly, in the early morning of this day, among the dozens of first-level monsters that came to attack the market, a second-level low-grade one-eyed eagle accidentally mixed in. Several foundation-building monks on duty took action and quickly defeated the monster. Just when they wanted to kill the monster, they didn't expect that although the one-eyed eagle was not strong, it was born with a very fast escape speed, and it escaped by chance.
Seeing that the duck that had just been in their mouths was about to fly away, the three people headed by Zhao Mengzhen in Jinshanfang were naturally a little unhappy. After discussing with each other, they took the Qi-refining monks below to chase after it.
Unexpectedly, when they just chased to a place called Huangling Valley a hundred miles away, several second-level monsters suddenly appeared behind them, blocking their way back to Jinshanfang. Only some Qi-refining monks who were running behind were not entangled by the monsters and fled back to Jinshanfang in time to report the news.
After knowing the news, the dozen foundation-building monks guarding Jinshanfang discussed it and immediately mobilized a large army of monks to rescue.
What they didn't expect was that just as the main force of the defense arrived at Huangling Valley and rescued the trapped Zhao Mengzhen and others, they suddenly received an extremely urgent message from Jinshanfang, saying that the market was suddenly attacked by a large number of monsters, and asked them to return to defend quickly.
When they returned to the outside of Jinshanfang, they found that the market formation had been broken by monsters. Except for a few cultivators who escaped, the few foundation-building cultivators and two hundred Qi-refining cultivators who stayed in the market to defend were almost wiped out.