Half a month later, in a small shop in Guiyunfang, a fat shopkeeper with a smiling face was eagerly recommending a white mid-grade flying sword from his shop to Song Qingming, who came to buy a magic weapon.
"Fellow Daoist, this Cloud Dragon Sword is the best mid-grade flying sword in my shop. If you are still not satisfied, I can only take you to see other high-grade flying swords."
"Alas, I don't have many spirit stones on me this time, so I can only buy a mid-grade magic weapon. But this flying sword costs thirty-five spirit stones, which is still a bit too expensive. Can you give me a lower price, boss?" Song Qingming sat on a wooden chair in the store and bargained with the store owner slowly, hoping to save a few spirit stones.
Although he had saved up hundreds of spirit stones in the past few years and had no shortage of these two or three, Song Qingming, who had been used to being poor since childhood, was accustomed to saving every spirit stone. When he went out to buy various supplies, he often lost face and bargained with others for one or two spirit stones.
In all these years of practicing Taoism, the only time he was relatively generous was when he first came to Guiyunfang. In order to buy the top-grade magic weapon Taixu Sword, he spent all his 150 spirit stones at once.
Although he acted generously on the spot and gained some face, he still felt a little regretful afterwards that he did not bargain with the two men at that time. Maybe he could have saved ten or twenty spirit stones.
This was the only time in his many years of cultivation that he didn't take the spirit stones seriously for the sake of something he wanted. Whenever he thought of this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.
"I say, fellow Taoist, the thirty-five spirit stones I mentioned are already a lot less for you. You have also seen the quality of this flying sword. A lot of high-quality white jade crystals were used to refine this magic weapon. Originally, it was sold for forty spirit stones in the store. You can't let me do business at a loss." The fat boss shook his fat body and continued to explain to Song Qingming with an embarrassed look on his face.
Finally, after paying the fat boss thirty-two spirit stones, Song Qingming bought this mid-grade magic weapon and walked out of the shop with the boss's smiling farewell.
After returning to the Feiyun Guard's base in Guiyunfang, Song Qingming's team of Feiyun Guards were given a vacation because they could not go out to perform missions in the short term. Song Qingming also began a relatively leisurely time.
In the past half month, Song Qingming, who lived in the market town, once again ran around all the shops, big and small, in Guiyunfang, inquiring about the news of Bailong Mountain while purchasing all kinds of supplies to be ready to deal with the next task at any time.
However, even though he had run almost all over Guiyunfang, Song Qingming still didn't get any useful information. No matter whether it was the boss or the waiters, when they heard the three words "Bailong Mountain", they all dodged and shook their heads.
Fortunately, he successfully purchased a lot of useful supplies this time, and also bought a lot of materials for making talismans. Next time he goes out on missions, he can also make talismans in exchange for some spirit stones when he has free time.
Now as his cultivation level is getting higher and higher, there are more and more places where he needs to spend spirit stones. Now when he goes out, he needs to use spirit stones to purchase spiritual rice, pills, magic tools and other things.
Even if you don't eat or drink and live in Guiyunfang, you still have to hand over two spirit stones to the market manager every month.
Fortunately, when Song Qingming returned from this mission, he received the reward for completing the mission, plus the compensation merits promised by Liu Xingfeng, so Song Qingming received a total of more than 40 spirit stones.
In addition to the nearly twenty spirit stones he and Feng Laogui received when they went hunting a high-level monster, Song Qingming earned a total of nearly seventy spirit stones during this three-month trip.
After deducting his damaged Lieyang Sword and the dozen or so talismans he had used, he still had a net income of thirty spirit stones, which was much more than his income from a year of stationing in Lingyuan Mountain. Seeing piles of spirit stones entering the storage bag, Song Qingming felt much happier.
Although it seems that Song Qingming has earned a lot of spirit stones this time, it is also because the missions carried out by Feiyunwei are indeed more dangerous. Higher income also comes with greater risks.
Going deep into the Floating Cloud Mountains and exploring the unknown territories of monsters and beasts often leads to encountering some unimaginable dangers. Just like this time, out of the total of sixteen cultivators in their eleven guards, only half finally returned to Guiyunfang safely.
After experiencing this dangerous mission, on the way back to Guiyunfang, Song Qingming once thought of quitting Feiyunwei. However, after returning to Guiyunfang and receiving the spirit stones for this mission at the Feiyunwei base, he quickly gave up this idea.
Song Qingming also knew in his heart that it was an unexpected thing for the Eleven Guards to encounter demonic cultivators during this mission. Even if he had chosen not to join the Feiyun Guard and entered the Floating Cloud Mountains alone to hunt monsters, if he had bad luck, there was a great possibility that he would encounter demonic cultivators like Gu Liangshan who were capturing fellow cultivators.
Even if Song Qingming had several high-quality talismans to save his life, if he encountered a demon cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining like Gu Liangshan, his chances of escape would not be very high. He would most likely end up like Hu Daozhen and the others, being captured by the demon cultivators while in a daze, having his magic weapons refined, and then dying in the vast Floating Cloud Mountains.
Since he came out to gain experience, if he turned around and left immediately when he encountered any danger, it would be better for him to return to Funiu Mountain as soon as possible.
Thinking of this, he slowly accepted the fact that the pursuit of truth for a cultivator is a matter of both opportunity and danger. If he had not encountered the bandit cultivator who robbed him, he would not have had the opportunity to obtain the incomplete map, a treasure that helped him turn his life around.
Seeing several foundation-building cultivators from the Xiaoyao Sect appear in the camp, Song Qingming and the others gradually learned some news.
The whereabouts of this group of evil cultivators have now been exposed, and the Xiaoyao Sect has sent a large number of cultivators to search for them. If they were smart enough, they would have definitely escaped from the Floating Cloud Mountains.
Otherwise, if his whereabouts were discovered by so many foundation-building cultivators, even if Yang Wuqi had refined a magic sword or magic weapon, he would definitely be doomed.
Just yesterday, Song Qingming received news from Feiyun Guard that they would be heading to Fuyun Mountains again in three days.
After receiving this news, Song Qingming hurried to the market to buy all the magic tools he was missing. This time, he had plenty of time and was finally fully prepared.
After coming out of the shop, Song Qingming wandered around the market for a long time before slowly returning to Guiyunfang headquarters in the east of the market.
Unexpectedly, just as he walked to the gate of the base, he heard the monk guarding the base informing him that their eleven guards were gathering. Song Qingming hurried to the gathering place in the backyard of the Feiyun Guard base.
When he arrived at the backyard, Song Qingming saw that more than a dozen cultivators had gathered in the yard. They were gathered in groups of three or four, discussing something.
Song Qingming looked at the scene. In addition to the original six monks of the Eleven Guards including Jia Sixing, there were also several monks wearing Taoist robes of the Xiaoyao Sect. These monks looked relatively young, and there was a hint of obvious arrogance in their eyes when they looked at Song Qingming and other monks.
After approaching and chatting with several familiar cultivators, I learned that these cultivators were also disciples of the Xiaoyao Sect who came to Guiyunfang for training, and they were probably going to go to the Floating Cloud Mountains with them this time.
More than half an hour later, fifteen or sixteen monks had gathered in the courtyard, and a woman in red came out of the courtyard.
When everyone saw the person coming, including Song Qingming, there was a hint of surprise on their faces.
The woman in red was none other than Xu Ziyan, Gao Yuyao's fellow senior sister who had dealt with them in the Floating Cloud Mountains a month ago.
During the battle with the demon cultivators that day, it was the two of them and Liu Xingfeng who arrived in time and saved the lives of Song Qingming and his gang. In a sense, she was indebted to Song Qingming and his gang for saving their lives.
After Xu Ziyan walked in, she looked at everyone and said softly, "Fellow Daoists, since Senior Brother Lu, the captain of the Eleventh Guard, has returned to the sect to recuperate, Master and several senior brothers have discussed and decided that I will temporarily take over the position of captain of the Eleventh Guard."
