Chapter 24 Breakthrough

After dealing with the items in Liu Tianlong's storage bag, Song Qingming continued to walk south for a few days and entered a somewhat desolate hill. Seeing the sun setting in the west and the sky gradually getting dark, Song Qingming stopped.

After observing the surroundings, he found a mountain wall and released the Lieyang Sword to hit the mountain wall for a while. After spending some time, he finally dug out a small cave. Then he arranged a simple five-element maze formation outside the cave, put a spiritual stone on it to activate the formation, and then walked into the cave with satisfaction.

Since the last time he encountered a high-level demon crocodile chasing him, he would rather choose to take more detours these days, try to walk on the barren mountains and flat land, avoid the deep mountain swamps where the demon beasts appear, and find a cave at night and arrange the formation outside before going to sleep.

After lighting a bonfire, Song Qingming took some spiritual rice from his storage bag and cooked it. A cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage cannot practice fasting yet, and needs to eat every few days. Fortunately, he still has a lot of spiritual rice on him, so he doesn't have to worry about food for the time being.

After dinner, Song Qingming rested for a while, then took out a Qi-nourishing Pill and swallowed it, and then ran the Kunyuan Jue to slowly dissolve the medicinal power of the spiritual pill.

It has been almost a month since this trip. There has been no spiritual veins to practice in this deep mountain. I can only rely on the spiritual rice I brought with me to absorb a little spiritual energy. My cultivation has not improved much. Fortunately, today is finally the time to take the spiritual pill regularly every month.

After practicing for half a week, Song Qingming suddenly felt that the bottleneck of the fifth level of Qi Refining in his body seemed to be loosened a little. He thought that this might be his cultivation, and it was time to break through.

Originally, according to the normal practice speed, Song Qingming would have to break through the fifth level of Qi Refining at least two or three years.

However, since he got the incomplete map, he has saved a lot of spiritual stones by making talismans in the past two years. He has exchanged five or six bottles of elixirs for improving his cultivation from Gao Yuyao. Except for taking two bottles of Yangqi Dan to the family's gold pavilion to exchange for some talisman making materials, most of the elixirs are kept in his own hands. In the past two years, by taking elixirs continuously, his cultivation has been improved to the peak of the fourth level of Qi Refining.

Taking out a Qingxin Talisman and sticking it on himself, Song Qingming then crushed more than a dozen low-level spiritual stones in his hands, and a large amount of spiritual power instantly filled the narrow cave.

When a cultivator breaks through his cultivation, he needs to absorb a lot of spiritual energy. The best place to break through is in a spiritual vein with abundant spiritual energy. Unfortunately, Song Qingming couldn't find a spiritual vein in this desolate mountain and wilderness, so he could only use the spiritual stones in his hand to provide spiritual energy. Although he now has a lot of spiritual stones in his hands, such extravagant behavior still made him frown.

With this spiritual power, Song Qingming increased the speed of his internal exercises, and felt that the fifth spiritual point in his body gradually began to vibrate.

Seeing this, Song Qingming was secretly happy, and continued to absorb the spiritual power into his dantian patiently. Finally, after an hour, the spiritual energy in his meridians was like a bend of clear water flowing into a river, and successfully opened the fifth spiritual point. His cultivation level was raised to the fifth level of Qi Refining, and the mana in his dantian also increased a lot.

Unexpectedly, he broke through the fifth level of Qi Refining so smoothly this time. Song Qingming was delighted. After twelve years of cultivation, he was now twenty-two years old, and his cultivation level finally caught up with most of the cultivators in the clan.

For Song Qingming, who has been practicing for more than ten years, nothing can make him happier than a breakthrough in cultivation. Without a strong enough cultivation level, no matter how many precious spiritual stones he has, he can't protect them. Instead, he will make wedding clothes for others. This point has always been clear in his heart.

At the age of 22, Song Qingming had cultivated to the fifth level of Qi Refining. He was considered a cultivator with a very fast cultivation speed in Qinghe County. If the items in Liu Tianlong's storage bag could be successfully exchanged for cultivation resources, Song Qingming already had a glimmer of confidence that he could cultivate to the ninth level of Qi Refining before the age of 60. With the water spirit fruit in the storage bag, he could then take it to Xiaoyao Sect to exchange for a foundation-building pill. His path now suddenly became very bright.

After his cultivation breakthrough, Song Qingming did not rush to come out of retreat. He slowly circulated the spiritual energy dozens of times again, warming up the newly opened spiritual cave. It was not until five days later that he completely stabilized his cultivation that Song Qingming walked out of the cave.

After putting away the magic circle, Song Qingming continued on his way, using the light body technique, and felt that his magic power was much stronger than before.

After Song Qingming climbed over a high mountain, he suddenly found several figures in the valley below the mountain in the distance, and from time to time there was a roar of monsters, and a surprised smile instantly appeared on his face. Since Song Qingming was dragged into the pool by the black-feathered python, he has been walking alone in this dangerous mountain range for almost ten days. Finally, he saw someone appear in front of him. He was a little excited and went down the mountain quickly.

When he got closer, he found that several cultivators were besieging a giant bear. The leader was a burly man with a high cultivation level. He was already in the late stage of Qi Refining and had always been the main force on the battlefield. The other three who assisted in the attack were all cultivators in the middle stage of Qi Refining. There was also a woman who was only in the third level of Qi Refining and did not participate in the battle. She stood not far away and watched the battlefield.

Seeing this situation, Song Qingming did not show up immediately. He stopped on a tree nearby and watched from a distance. It was not until the high-level giant bear was knocked down by these people that he jumped off the tree trunk and walked towards them.

"Stop, who are you, sir?"

Just as Song Qingming walked to a distance of more than ten feet, the burly man with the highest cultivation level spotted him first and shouted loudly, with some ill intentions in his tone.

Several people nearby were still collecting materials from the giant bear. When they heard someone coming, they quickly released their magic weapons to warn the surroundings, fearing that Song Qingming had bad intentions and had other accomplices.

Seeing that these people were very wary of him, Song Qingming stopped and spread his hands to explain:

"Don't misunderstand, fellow Taoists. I am a casual cultivator from Qinghe County. I am also here to hunt monsters. A few days ago, we had bad luck. Our monster hunting team encountered a level 2 monster. When we were escaping, we accidentally got separated from our teammates. I didn't bring a map with me. I walked in this mountain for several days without finding my companions. I just happened to meet you today. May I ask which direction Pingyang County is in and how far it is from here?"

"It turned out to be a fellow casual cultivator. I was shocked. Don't blame me, fellow Taoists. I thought you were the bastards from the Fire Wolf Gang." The leading man saw that Song Qingming was the only one around, so he let down his guard and asked his companions to put away their magic weapons.

This burly man was a straightforward person at first glance. Song Qingming had been in Caolu Mountain for two years and liked to deal with this type of people.

"This place is a little far from Pingyang County. It's about five or six days' walk to the southeast. If you don't have a map, it might be difficult to walk. I think you might as well wait for us at the mountain pass behind for a day. We will also return to Guiyunfang tomorrow, so we can take you along the way."

The speaker was a middle-aged Confucian scholar. He was wearing a fluttering Confucian robe and holding a green sword in his hand. He was at the fifth level of Qi Refining, with a bookish look on his face. He spoke slowly and at first glance, he was a man with a lot of knowledge.

"Okay, I'd like to thank all the fellow Taoists first." Song Qingming nodded. As long as he could get out of the dangerous Fuyun Mountains faster, it didn't matter to him to wait one more day.

The other people, including the big man with the highest cultivation, heard that the middle-aged Confucian scholar wanted to take Song Qingming with him, and no one objected. It was obvious that although the Confucian scholar's cultivation was not high, he was the one who kept his word among the five.

After parting with the others, Song Qingming walked eastward out of the valley for a meal and saw a red tree more than ten feet high in front of him. It was the meeting place he had just agreed with the scholar to meet tomorrow.

Song Qingming found a few dead trees nearby, borrowed some branches and leaves from the tree, and built a simple hut under the tree.

On the morning of the second day, Song Qingming was meditating in the hut and suddenly heard a wave of spiritual power coming from the formation outside the hut. Song Qingming went out and saw a girl in green in front of him, holding a flying sword in her hand and slashing in the mist of the formation, and occasionally releasing a few low-level spells.

The woman was about twenty years old, with a green jade hairpin in her head, combed into two black braids and placed behind her, and wearing a green skirt. She was the girl of the third level of Qi Refining who met the group of casual practitioners in the valley yesterday.

But at this time, the woman seemed to be trapped in the formation and looked a little panicked. Her companions were standing not far outside the formation, and seemed to be discussing how to rescue her.

Seeing this, Song Qingming also smiled bitterly. He had set up this formation to prevent the monsters in the mountains from attacking him, but he had never thought that this woman would be so careless and plunge into the formation and be trapped by it. It would be difficult for her, who was not familiar with the formation, to get out of the formation in two or three hours.

Song Qingming quickly made a few gestures and put away the formation. The fog that surrounded the tree for several feet in radius instantly dissipated between heaven and earth, revealing the red tree in the formation and Song Qingming under the tree.