Chapter 188: Spirit Copper Mountain Range
After arranging for Shen Yue and Xue Jin to go deal with the Lingtian Sect, Li Qingqiu no longer worried about this matter.
Even if the Lingtian Sect had a successor of a Martial Legend, before this, the Lingtian Sect had already not dared to contend with the Clear Sky Sect.
What was more, Li Qingqiu had now reached the Spirit Perception Realm, and the Lingtian Sect could no longer pose a threat to the Clear Sky Sect.
Li Qingqiu spent three days strolling around the sect, going to each hall for inspection.
After settling all matters, he finally placed his attention on the Dao Lineage panel.
Two Fortuitous Fate Chances could be opened!
That night, Li Qingqiu sat cross-legged inside his cave dwelling and activated the fortuitous fate.
【Receive Fortuitous Fate Reward】
【Open Fortuitous Fate】
【Begin Detecting Fortuitous Fate】
【Fortuitous fate captured, discovered a Spirit Copper Mountain Range, accept fortuitous fate guidance?】
Not bad—another cultivation resource.
Although he did not know what Spirit Copper was used for, the prompt stated it was a mountain range, which proved that the reserves were massive.
Li Qingqiu immediately chose to accept, and then his consciousness was dragged into an illusory dream.
A full half an hour passed before Li Qingqiu opened his eyes, his face filled with joy.
That Spirit Copper Mountain Range was far larger than he had expected, stretching for hundreds of li, with the entire mountain body filled with Spirit Copper.
Worthy of a fortuitous fate unlocked at the Spirit Perception Realm—truly impressive.
Li Qingqiu had a premonition that this Spirit Copper was suitable for forging magic implements and arrays.
In high spirits, he decided to bring people to the Spirit Copper Mountain Range the next day, then open the second fortuitous fate.
The moon set and the sun rose.
Early the next morning, Li Qingqiu began selecting troops and assigning generals, having Yuan Qi take a list to summon a batch of disciples.
These disciples came from various halls, all with very high loyalty.
The reason for dispersing the selection was to create restraint and balance.
Disciples being loyal to him did not mean there would be no internal strife.
The Spirit Copper Mountain Range was enormous; it could not be allowed for any single hall to privately swallow it.
Thus, he directly selected two hundred disciples.
When they went down the mountain, the procession was mighty and eye-catching, drawing attention.
Even the hall masters came to ask where he was going.
Li Qingqiu only said that they would know in the future.
The Spirit Copper Mountain Range was located in Southern Chu Province.
This journey would be over a thousand li.
This was only the first batch of disciples; afterward, he would also dispatch a large number of menial disciples and registered disciples to mine.
The current Clear Sky Sect could already act openly and boldly, completely unafraid of other forces discovering them.
Among this first batch of disciples, Li Qingqiu had placed two at the fifth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm and ten at the fourth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm—enough to handle worldly troubles.
The one leading the team was precisely Clear Sky Daoist.
Clear Sky Daoist was currently only at the second layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm, but his status alone was enough to stabilize the situation.
After seven days, Li Qingqiu and the others finally arrived at the Spirit Copper Mountain Range.
Southern Chu Province had continuous great mountains and lush forests, like a boundless green ocean.
The Spirit Copper Mountain Range was merely one among countless mountain ranges and looked no different from the others.
However, as Li Qingqiu dug Spirit Copper out of the soil, once it saw the light of day, it emitted spiritual energy, shocking the disciples.
“There really is a treasure!”
“As expected of the sect master, truly an immortal appearing in dreams.”
“That’s a lie. Is it possible that the sect master’s cultivation is high and he sensed that this place hid a spiritual treasure?”
“Eh? That actually makes a lot of sense.”
The disciples stood in the mountain forest, discussing animatedly.
Li Qingqiu pulled Clear Sky Daoist, Wu Man’er, and Li Yang aside and instructed them on the importance of the Spirit Copper Mountain Range.
Wu Man’er and Li Yang were both at the fifth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm.
In addition, their combat talent was extremely high, so their true strength could rival the sixth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm.
Li Yang had only recently broken through to the fifth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm.
It was rare for Li Qingqiu to send him out to execute a mission, and he was extremely excited, patting his chest and repeatedly assuring that he would absolutely not disappoint Li Qingqiu.
When Li Qingqiu said that the entire mountain range was filled with Spirit Copper, Clear Sky Daoist and Li Yang stopped joking around, their expressions turning solemn.
“This number of people might not be enough,” Clear Sky Daoist frowned and said.
“Don’t worry. Aside from us, no other force knows about the Spirit Copper Mountain Range. You only need to start mining from one location, then dispatch a batch of disciples to patrol. Later on, I will send more disciples,” Li Qingqiu comforted them.
Hearing this, Clear Sky Daoist and Li Yang were reassured.
Relying on just two hundred people to dig out the entire mountain range—how many years would that take?
Li Qingqiu did not stay long.
After handing over full authority to Clear Sky Daoist, he left with peace of mind.
He returned alone to the Clear Sky Sect, taking only one hour.
He summoned the hall masters to gather at Lingxiao Courtyard and revealed the existence of the Spirit Copper Mountain Range, causing all the hall masters’ eyes to light up.
As the Clear Sky Sect developed better and better, their focus had shifted from the mundane world to immortal cultivation matters.
Compared to ordinary gold and silver treasures, they cared more about spirit stones and forging materials and other cultivation resources.
“This mountain range is very long. To hollow it out will take many years, so I need a transportation route. Who will be responsible for this matter?” Li Qingqiu swept his gaze around and asked.
Zhang Yuchun, Yang Jueding, Zhu Yan, and Cheng Canghai all expressed that they could take on the responsibility.
Li Dongyue, Li Sijin, and Chai Yunshang were not particularly concerned.
After some thought, Li Qingqiu decided to give Yang Jueding a chance, which greatly excited Yang Jueding.
Although Zhang Yuchun, Zhu Yan, and Cheng Canghai were disappointed, they did not show it, instead congratulating Yang Jueding and promising that if he needed help, he could look for them at any time.
Each hall master had cultivated their own faction, with many capable people under them, all waiting for a chance to show themselves.
After settling this matter, Li Qingqiu announced the end of the meeting and returned to his cave dwelling to continue cultivating.
He had just discovered the Spirit Copper Mountain Range, and then immediately discovered another blessed land.
Li Qingqiu felt this was not quite appropriate, and the transportation route and mining roster for the Spirit Copper Mountain Range also needed time to be finalized, so he did not continue opening fortuitous fate.
……
Autumn passed and winter arrived, and the once-a-year flying snow descended again.
In the early morning, Li Qingqiu stood atop the mountain, looking down below.
Although snow flew across the sky, his eyesight could see very far.
After half a month of deliberation, the sect decided to dispatch five hundred registered disciples and two thousand menial disciples to the Spirit Copper Mountain Range.
This was no small number, but even after drawing so many disciples down the mountain, Clear Sky Mountain and Ziyang Peak remained lively.
Last night, Zhang Yuchun reported to him that the number of registered disciples in the sect had already exceeded eight thousand, with menial disciples surpassing ten thousand.
Among them, the number of inner sect disciples who had reached the first layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm exceeded two thousand.
This number greatly satisfied Li Qingqiu, indicating that the Clear Sky Sect already had two thousand immortal cultivators.
This was still under the condition that the Clear Sky Sect had not fully opened recruitment.
Zhang Yuchun had previously suggested that they could accept more menial disciples, but the number of registered disciples still needed to be controlled.
After all, the sect distributed spirit stone resources.
If they expanded recklessly and depleted the spirit stones, chaos would inevitably arise.
After careful consideration, Li Qingqiu agreed with his opinion.
While Li Qingqiu was thinking, he suddenly sensed two auras of the fourth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm coming from the mountainside, sparring and exchanging techniques.
One of them was someone he was familiar with—the 【Mortal Dao Ancestor】Yang Xuan.
This generation of disciples reached the third layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm faster than the disciples of the sect’s early days, but the leap from the third to the fourth layer was a threshold, very difficult to cross.
It was a bottleneck that was hard to break through even by pouring in resources and required a certain level of talent.
From Li Qingqiu’s observation, as long as one’s cultivation aptitude was not extremely low, they could be considered to have some talent for immortal cultivation.
Many disciples were martial arts geniuses before ascending the mountain, yet became mediocre after entering cultivation.
There were also many disciples who were weak and sickly before ascending the mountain, but displayed extraordinary talent after cultivating.
“There are many geniuses, but top-tier combat power like Ning’er, Third Junior Brother, and Shen Yue is still far too little,” Li Qingqiu silently thought.
Ten years ago, the fourth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm could have supported the Clear Sky Sect, but now, the fourth layer was no longer in Li Qingqiu’s eyes.
He needed someone to reach the seventh layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm.
After Xue Jin stepped into the fifth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm, he had been unable to step into the sixth layer for a long time, which made Li Qingqiu feel regretful.
At present, the sect lacked strength at the sixth layer of the Nourishing Vital Energy Realm—this layer alone was completely empty.
While admiring the magnificent scenery of the great rivers and mountains, Li Qingqiu pondered the situation of the sect’s disciples.
He planned to select one disciple from among the non–sect master factions and cultivate him into a figure comparable to Xue Jin.
After much consideration, Li Qingqiu decided to cultivate Lu Qing from the Enforcement Hall.
Lu Qing possessed good aptitude and excellent comprehension.
He had once taken fifth place in the Grand Dao Tournament and could be considered an early disciple who became famous early.
Li Qingqiu had met Lu Qing.
He was steady in conduct and looked very reliable.
Chai Yunshang had also said that Lu Qing was a moldable talent and had not committed any mistakes so far.
Although the sect already had a special cultivation plan that removed restrictions on blessed land cultivation time for designated disciples, the effect was not very obvious, because this batch of disciples had already grown.
Therefore, Li Qingqiu planned to give Lu Qing another push.
He prepared to request a batch of spiritual energy pills from the Cultivation Hall and bestow them upon Lu Qing.
Once he thought of it, he did it.
Li Qingqiu turned and went down the mountain.
Time passed quickly.
The sun set in the west, and evening arrived.
Chai Yunshang led a male disciple out of Lingxiao Courtyard.
This male disciple was Lu Qing.
He stood tall with handsome features and an elegant temperament.
Although he did not have Xue Jin’s killing intent, he gave off a very steady and reliable impression.
At this moment, Lu Qing felt somewhat dazed.
When he thought of the sect master’s expectations of him and the tilt of resources, his heart found it hard to remain calm.
The two walked to the stone steps.
Chai Yunshang suddenly stopped, turned to look at Lu Qing, and said, “Actually, I’m very resistant to this matter and feel that it goes against fairness. But the sect master is right—the sect needs someone to grow strong. Remember, your future responsibility will not only be as an Enforcement Hall disciple, but also to place the sect’s overall situation above all else.”
Lu Qing snapped back to his senses, took a deep breath, and said, “Hall Master, rest assured. I will absolutely not let down the sect master and your expectations.”
Chai Yunshang nodded, then continued forward.
Lu Qing followed closely behind.
Behind them, Yuan Qi walked out of Lingxiao Courtyard.
He had just witnessed Li Qingqiu’s promise to Lu Qing, which left him with complicated emotions.
He was not jealous of Lu Qing, but felt that as Lu Qing rose, it would squeeze the resources of his younger brother, Yuan Li.
He felt regretful in his heart.
Yuan Li was still too young and would need at least six more years of growth before being entrusted with heavy responsibilities.
He shook his head, no longer thinking about it.
Perhaps six years later, Yuan Li would obtain even better cultivation resources, and he did not need to worry about the future.
He quickened his pace down the mountain, preparing to go find that fair lady.
Recently, he had been considering one matter—whether he should live separately from Yuan Li.