Chapter 17 Liu Family's Employment

In a dense forest several dozen miles west of Qinghefang, more than 20 cultivators gathered. The leader was an old cultivator in his 90s, wearing a black and white Taoist robe, with a weathered face and white eyebrows and beard.

This old man was the current patriarch of the Liu family in Jingyuan Mountain, Qinghe County, Liu Tianlong. He was at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining. In his early years, he was also a well-known genius cultivator in Qinghe County. He cultivated to the ninth level of Qi Refining before he was fifty years old. Unfortunately, when he cultivated to the ninth level of Qi Refining, his family had begun to decline and he failed to successfully build a foundation.

The best age for Qi Refining cultivators to build a foundation is before the age of 60 when their Qi and blood decline. After the age of 80, they have basically lost the hope of building a foundation. At Liu Tianlong's age, unless there is a chance against the sky, there is no chance to successfully build a foundation.

For veteran cultivators like Liu Tianlong who have broken through the late stage of Qi Refining for many years, their fighting ability is still beyond doubt. In Qinghe County, except for those foundation-building cultivators, they are the absolute top combat power.

As long as he doesn't get hurt badly, Liu Tianlong can still maintain his peak combat power for at least a dozen years. After he reaches the age of 110, his body will gradually lose its blood and qi and lose the ability to absorb spiritual energy. At that time, he can no longer attack at will. If he forces himself to attack and consumes too much spiritual energy, he will drop his original cultivation realm at the least, and in serious cases, it will affect the last ten years of his life and he will die early.

"Patriarch, there is news from the Song family. They have arrived." A middle-aged man next to Liu Tianlong was reporting to him the news he had just received.

Liu Tianlong stroked his beard and said in a deep voice: "Notify the Wu and Du family cultivators to prepare to set off."

The Liu family also had a foundation-building cultivator in their ancestor. A hundred years ago, they were also a foundation-building family in Qinghe County. However, the Liu family was unlucky. In the monster rebellion a hundred years ago, they lost the only foundation-building cultivator in the family.

Although Xiaoyao Sect compensated a foundation-building pill after the war, it was a pity that the person selected by the Liu family to build the foundation did not succeed in building the foundation. The Liu family has since become a Qi-refining family, and can only give up part of the family's industry in exchange for the protection of other foundation-building families, and has become a vassal family of the Huang family.

The Liu family has been planning this trip to the Floating Cloud Mountains for many years. As long as it goes smoothly, they will get a chance to go to Xiaoyao Sect to exchange for foundation-building pills. As long as someone in the Liu family succeeds in building a foundation, they will also restore the glory of the foundation-building family in the past in his hands, and then everything in the family will change! Thinking of this, Liu Tianlong was also very excited.

Following the two elders, they flew west for hundreds of miles in one breath, and the eight people of the Song family came to this dense forest. At this time, dozens of cultivators have gathered in this dense forest, and there are seven or eight cultivators in the late stage of Qi refining. I didn't expect that the Liu family would attach so much importance to this trip to the Floating Cloud Mountains.

After meeting Liu Tianlong, the second elder Song Changfeng greeted him and led the people of the Song family to join the team of cultivators headed by the Liu family. After everyone gathered, they left Qinghe County and went north.

This time, the Liu family invited three nearby families to participate. In addition to the Song family, there are also the Longtan Mountain Wu family and the Baoshi Peak Du family. The Wu family and the Song family are about the same in strength, led by the head of the Wu family, Wu Xiyun. The Du family is slightly stronger, with more than 30 cultivators in the family. This time, the second elder of the Du family, Du Shaokang, led the team.

Pingyang County is adjacent to Qinghe County in the north. This is the largest county among the four counties in Jiangling County. There are seven foundation-building families in the county, and the territory and number of cultivators controlled are more than twice that of Qinghe County. A hundred miles north of Pingyang County is the Floating Cloud Mountains that stretch for thousands of miles.

Monsters are rampant in the Floating Cloud Mountains, which is not suitable for ordinary mortals to live here, but this is the gathering place for many casual cultivators in Weiguo. Many casual cultivators in the four counties of Jiangling County like to come to the Floating Cloud Mountains to hunt monsters.

There are also many foundation-building casual cultivators who occupy the spiritual veins and open caves here. The Wulong River in the north of Pingyang County is also the junction between humans and the monster forces in the northern border.

The huge Floating Cloud Mountains attract many cultivators to hunt monsters every year. It is also a buffer zone for monsters in the northern border every time they riot.

Therefore, Xiaoyao Sect attaches great importance to this place. Not only did they build several markets near the Floating Cloud Mountains to collect various resources and earn spiritual stones from the hands of casual cultivators, but they also appointed the elders of the Jindan stage to guard this place all year round.

After walking north for a few days, they entered the territory of Pingyang County. It took them nearly ten days to pass through Pingyang County and enter the Floating Cloud Mountains.

This was also the first time that Song Qingming left Qinghe County to perform a mission. The cultivators he saw along the way, whether they were traveling in groups like them or acting alone in groups of three or two, all had the same destination, the Floating Cloud Mountains, which was full of dangers and opportunities.

When Song Qingming was in Lingyuan Mountain, he often heard his ninth uncle Song Changxin talk about the various strange things he encountered when he was practicing in Ziyu Mountain in the Floating Cloud Mountains. He was also very curious about this place. However, since he set out with everyone this time, he has been rushing on the road and has no chance to pay attention to the various scenery along the way.

Half a month after entering the Floating Cloud Mountains, everyone came to a dense forest in a mountain bay. Liu Tianlong announced that everyone would rest there for one night. The target of this hunt was in a pool not far ahead. It was a second-level low-grade silver-armored crab monster.

According to the Liu family cultivator, this silver-armored crab advanced to the second-level monster beast only a few decades ago, and it was not difficult to deal with it with magical powers.

After a long journey, the group had a rare night's rest. At night, they lit bonfires and formed several circles, laughing and talking. The excitement lasted until midnight before they slowly stopped.

The next morning, under the leadership of the Liu family, they came to a pond. The pond was only a few dozen feet in radius. Near the center, there was a huge black reef protruding above the water surface. On it, there were several low-level monsters, leisurely basking in the rising sun.

Under the command of several elders of the Liu family, they began to set up the "Golden Net Demon Subduing Formation" in a grassland beside the pond. This second-level low-grade formation was purchased by the Liu family from the market in Jiangling County many years ago. As long as sixteen Qi Refining cultivators work together to activate it, ordinary second-level low-grade monsters can be trapped in a short time. This is also the biggest confidence of the Liu family to dare to attack the second-level monsters on this trip.

The second-level formation is more complicated. The Liu family was well prepared for this operation. The Liu family alone had two top-level formation masters, plus two top-level formation masters from the Wu and Song families. The four of them led Song Qingming and more than a dozen low- and middle-level formation masters to set up this second-level formation for nearly an hour.

This was also the first time that Song Qingming participated in setting up a second-level formation. Originally, his formation level as a low-level formation master was only at the entry level. This time, following the four top-level formation masters to jointly set up the formation, he benefited a lot.

Although he was just a helper in this formation operation, he had a lot of insights into the formation and inspired a lot of inspiration.

There were more than 40 cultivators participating in this mission, including nine cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining and the rest were all cultivators in the middle stage of Qi Refining. There was not only this second-level silver-armored crab monster in the pool, but also many first-level monsters.

According to the Liu family's on-site allocation, some of the formation masters brought were responsible for activating the formation at any time, and the other cultivators, led by several late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, first strangled the first-level monsters in the pool.

Before the battle, everyone must first try to kill the first-level monsters, otherwise when the second-level monsters come out, too many first-level monsters will hold the formation back, and it will be difficult to trap the second-level monsters with all their strength when the formation is deployed.

"Qingming and Changyun will stay to cooperate with us to activate the formation, and the others will follow Changfeng." Seeing that the Liu family cultivators had already organized people to attack the pool, the elder Song Gubai quickly made proper arrangements.

Twelve Aunt Song Changyun is also a low-grade formation master like Song Qingming. Although she has the sixth-level Qi Refining cultivation, she practices wood-attributed skills, and her fighting skills are average, and she rarely participates in such dangerous tasks.

The elder Song Gubai is the only high-grade formation master in the family, so naturally he has to stay to help activate the formation.

The other five people have rich experience in hunting monsters and enemies, and they quickly gathered at the edge of the pool under the leadership of Song Changfeng.

"Kill!" At Liu Tianlong's command, everyone rushed to the edge of the pond.

A black-clothed monk took the lead in attacking a low-level fish monster that was resting by the pond. This person was a veteran late-stage Qi Refining monk of the Du family, and his cultivation had reached the peak of the seventh level of Qi Refining.

He took a few quick steps and carefully touched the back of the squinting fish monster. Taking advantage of the fish monster's unpreparedness, he quickly offered a black ring magic weapon in his hand and put it on the fish monster's neck.

The black ring suddenly became several times larger in the air and stuck on the fish monster's neck. The fish monster felt the abnormality on its neck and was about to get up, but suddenly it was motionless the next moment. A burst of blood rain floated out, and the huge fish head fell off its neck.

Song Qingming was shocked after watching it. It was really a powerful method.