Chapter 493 Soul Devouring Technique Breakthrough
After two years of fighting with the monsters, the nearly 1,000 cultivators that Song Qingming brought from Jianglingfang to support also suffered many casualties. Among the returning team, only a small number of cultivators were not seriously injured.
Although the cultivation world of Weiguo paid a lot of price, it finally repelled the monster army and did not allow the monsters to occupy much territory in this turmoil. As long as they can develop steadily for hundreds of years, they can still recover slowly.
Compared with the monster turmoil a hundred years ago, the cultivators of Jiangling County repelled the monster army early because they defended Jinshanfang and killed the biggest threat, the White Lion Monster King, and the overall losses were not great.
However, the situation in other places of Weiguo was not so good, especially Gaoyun County and Tiexianbao, south of Guiyunfang, which suffered extremely heavy losses in this monster turmoil.
Gaoyun County is a county in Wei State that is larger than Jiangling County. Whether it is the fairy mountain spiritual veins, the number of immortal cultivation families or the population of mortals in the territory, it is much larger than that of Jiangling County.
This time, after the several demon kings and demon beasts came south and broke through Zixingfang, the three counties in the north of Gaoyun County fell into the hands of the demon beasts.
In just a few months, Gaoyun County lost millions of mortals and cultivators. After countless fairy mountain spiritual veins were swept by the demon beasts, they turned into a devastated battlefield, and the territory was full of desolate scenes.
The situation in Tiexianbao was not much better. Not only did the Ma family lose a lot of their outer territories, but most of the many immortal cultivation families attached to Tiexianbao lost their spiritual mountains.
This is because the Ma family has been fighting against the demons for many years on the front line, and has a little more experience in dealing with sudden situations of demon beast riots. They made some preparations in advance. Not long after the demon beasts went south, they had already moved some mortals in the territory to Tiexianbao in advance, avoiding greater losses.
Even with some preparation, Tiexian Fort still suffered unprecedented huge losses in this monster beast turmoil. Not only did it lose almost all the outer spiritual lands, but at least half of the mortals and cultivators in the entire Tiexian Fort Ma family territory were lost.
Of the 19 foundation-building cultivators of the Ma family, only nine remained intact after the war, and the combat power of the immortal cultivation families under its command was basically lost by more than half. After the monster beast turmoil, the strength of Tiexian Fort was reduced by 40% to 50% compared to before, which can be said to have been seriously injured.
Tuoyun Mountain is located near the Floating Cloud Mountain Range, and most of the people on the mountain are solitary cultivators. There are no mortals around the territory. The overall loss in the turmoil is very limited, and Tuoyun Mountain’s strength after the war was not greatly affected.
On the Jinshanfang side, including the battle to reinforce Guiyunfang later, the cultivators who died in several counties in Jiangling County during the three years of monster beast turmoil added up to only a few hundred people, which was not as much as the loss suffered by Xiaoyao Sect in the early battle of Guiyunfang.
However, in addition to the loss of cultivators fighting against monsters, when the monster army attacking Jinshanfang split up and went south, some of the spiritual mountains of the cultivation families in the north of Pingyang County were also breached by monsters, and nearly 200,000 mortals who did not have time to evacuate were also lost. These also need some time to slowly recover.
After returning to Qinghe County, because of the lack of spiritual energy in the spiritual veins of Funiushan Mountain, Song Qingming and Huang Siyuan did not stay on the mountain for a long time, but directly moved into Qinghefang, where the spiritual energy was slightly better.
Before Huang Siyuan moved to Funiushan, she already had a cave in Qinghefang where she lived for a long time. After Song Qingming and the others tidied it up a little, they moved in directly.
Although Qinghefang was also attacked by a small group of monsters from Yunwu Mountain in the east during the monster turmoil in the past few years, it was quickly repelled by the cultivators guarding the market and was not greatly affected.
A few months after the end of the monster turmoil in the northern border, many of the scattered cultivators in Qinghefang who had fled to the south of Weiguo have returned here. As the number of cultivators in Qinghefang gradually recovered, the entire market soon returned to its former prosperity.
The monster turmoil brought not only disasters and crises, but also countless monster materials and various cultivation resources to the cultivators around the Floating Cloud Mountains. These spiritual objects also brought a rare prosperity to all the markets in the north of Weiguo.
Including the Song family, the shops of the major immortal cultivation families in Qinghefang are now booming, sweeping away the previous decadence. In just a few months, these immortal cultivation families have made a lot of money.
One day, Feng De, a foundation-building disciple stationed in Qinghefang, had just returned to his residence after a tour of the market. Not long after, a young cultivator wearing the Song family's green Taoist robe came directly to the door.
"Senior Feng, the ancestor wants to see you. Please come with me to the mountain."
Facing a young Qi-refining cultivator who was not very old and had a low level of cultivation, Feng De, the foundation-building senior, smiled and asked, "May I ask what the ancestor Song wants to tell me? Do you know?"
The visitor's pretty face pondered for a moment, and then shook his head gently.
"The ancestor didn't say what it was, and I'm not sure. Seeing that he was in a good mood, I think it shouldn't be a bad thing. You will know when you go there, senior."
"Well! Then I'll trouble you to lead the way." After hearing what the young cultivator said, Feng De was relieved and the smile on his face became more intense.
A Jindan ancestor suddenly moved into the market he managed, which made Feng De, the foundation-building cultivator who had been responsible for the management of Qinghefang, feel a lot of pressure.
Since Song Qingming moved to Qinghefang, Feng De has been living in fear for the past few months. He hurriedly strengthened the management of the market, and even he often went out to patrol the market, fearing that something would suddenly happen in the market and alarm the Jindan ancestor on the mountain.
In a cave on the top of the mountain behind Qinghefang, Song Qingming closed his eyes and sat cross-legged on a cushion, controlling his consciousness to scan every corner of the mountain.
After returning from Guiyunfang, Song Qingming, who had refined the spirits of two demon kings, finally successfully broke through the bottleneck of the "Soul Devouring Jue" technique not long ago, and successfully practiced this set of consciousness-enhancing techniques to the third level.
After the Soul Devouring Art broke through to the third level, Song Qingming's spiritual consciousness can now spread to a radius of more than ten miles around, which is comparable to that of ordinary late Jindan cultivators.
At this time, if he had encountered the illusion that the Nine-Patterned Dragon used on him before, he would have been sure to see through its tricks in advance and would not give it the opportunity to sneak attack him.
Song Qingming, who was closing his eyes to control his spiritual consciousness, suddenly found two figures walking slowly towards the top of the mountain halfway up the mountain. After confirming their identities, Song Qingming put away his spiritual consciousness and sat down at the stone table on one side of the cave.
A moment later, Feng De followed the young cultivator and walked respectfully into a cave filled with spiritual energy. Seeing Song Qingming sitting aside and drinking tea, he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed.
"Disciple greets Uncle Song!"
"Changze, go down first, I have something to talk to Fellow Daoist Feng!" Song Qingming looked back at Feng De and quickly waved his hand to let the young cultivator on the side retreat.
After Song Changze left, Song Qingming poured a cup of spiritual tea and waved to Feng De to come over and sit opposite him.
"I heard recently that a group of law enforcement monks have been recruited in the market, and many people have been arranged to patrol the market at night. Even you, a foundation-building monk, rarely practice in seclusion and often wander around the market. It can't be because of me living here!
I am actually staying in the market for a while. I will leave when the spiritual veins in Funiu Mountain are improved. You don't have to be too stressed. If you delay your own practice because of this, it will be more than worth the loss."
"Master Song is right. Disciple will pay attention. Recently, because the monster riots have just ended, it is not very peaceful everywhere. There are many unfamiliar faces in the market all of a sudden. We have to take more precautions to avoid any trouble.
The sect sent me to manage the market. These are our responsibilities and there is nothing we can do about it. It has nothing to do with Master's being here. Please don't misunderstand us." Feng De replied slowly with a cautious look on his face.
In the past few months, because the business of the shops in Qinghefang was very hot, there were many foreign and stranger cultivators in the market. It was normal for Feng De, the Xiaoyao Sect foundation-building cultivator who was in charge of the market, to feel a little worried at this time.
Song Qingming nodded slightly, and then said: "Today I asked you to come here, in fact, because of the Lu family's affairs. At the beginning, I promised to reconcile them with the Li family after the monster turmoil. After I came back, I was busy practicing and forgot about it.
A few days ago, I received a message from Qingyu that the people of the Lu family were also a little anxious and had found Funiushan. This matter has been delayed for so long. Let's discuss it as soon as possible and give them a proper arrangement, so that they don't have to worry all the time."
Since Lu Xingde died in Jinshanfang a few years ago, the only foundation-building patriarch of the clan was lost, and the Lu family cultivators suddenly fell into panic. However, Song Qingming and everyone were busy dealing with the monster war at that time, and no one had the heart to take care of them.
Fortunately, during the monster turmoil, Xiaoyao Sect did not allow its subordinate families to start a war privately. After the Lu family sent Lu Xingde back to Qinghe County for burial, no one, including the Li family, dared to cause trouble for them at this time.
After the monster turmoil ended, Song Qingming returned to Qinghe County and has been busy practicing the "Soul Devouring Art" in Qinghefang for the past few months. The Lu family cultivators also thought that Song Qingming, the ancestor, had forgotten what he said at the beginning and didn't want to care about them, so they had no choice but to ask the Song family to protect the Lu family.
Song Qingming was not on the mountain, and Song Yuanli and others on the Funiushan Mountain could not answer them directly, so they could only help them pass on the matter to Song Qingming.