Chapter 40: Yuehu Village

Song Qingming returned to Lingyuan Mountain with a heavy heart. Seeing his preoccupied expression, Song Changxin thought something might have happened to him on the way back and asked a few concerned questions.

Song Qingming then realized he was indeed worrying too much. Even if the Liu family suspected him, the worst that could happen was that he would simply return the items to them. Now that he had a stable source of spirit stones, as long as he was willing to spend time crafting talismans, he would certainly not lack cultivation resources in the future.

With this thought, Song Qingming calmed his mind and began joking around lightheartedly with Song Changxin. Ever since his incident two years ago, Ninth Uncle's care for him had increased significantly; every time he had to travel far, Song Changxin would give him a long lecture of advice, which Song Qingming found deeply touching.

To adjust his mindset, Song Qingming began working day and night crafting talismans again. Busy with his work, he finally stopped thinking about the Liu family.

However, to his surprise, a few days after his return, Thirteenth Uncle Song Changxiong, who came to Lingyuan Mountain to deliver supplies as usual, brought shocking news.

Two days ago, for reasons unknown, the Liu family of Jingyuan Mountain was suddenly struck from the roster of the Xiaoyao Sect overnight. Aside from a few Liu family cultivators who were away, all thirty-odd members of the clan were sent by the Xiaoyao Sect to serve in the mines. The clan leader, Liu Tianlong, committed suicide on the spot. From that moment on, the Liu family of Jingyuan Mountain ceased to exist in Qinghe County.

Upon hearing the news of Liu Tianlong's death, Song Qingming was stunned for a long time. He truly hadn't expected that just as he had let the matter go, the Liu family—which had caused him such anxiety only days ago—would vanish overnight.

Despite the news being something he should have been happy about, Song Qingming's face remained solemn without a trace of a smile. Sects were lofty and untouchable; for a small family like the Song family, survival was truly difficult. One wrong move could lead to a fate just like the Liu family's in the blink of an eye.

Song Qingming thought to himself that the Liu family's annihilation by the Xiaoyao Sect was likely related to the Water Spirit Fruit in Liu Tianlong's storage bag. Now that the spirit fruit was in his possession, it could just as easily bring a similar catastrophe upon the Song family.

Since obtaining Liu Tianlong's storage bag, he had pondered this question more than once. That Water Spirit Fruit looked like a spiritual item that had been freshly picked; could it be that the Liu family's expedition to the Floating Cloud Mountain Range was truly aimed at that fruit? The sudden downfall of the Liu family was highly likely connected to it.

Of the fifty thousand mortals under the jurisdiction of Jingyuan Mountain, most were divided among nearby families, except for a small portion being migrated to Qinghe Market. The majority were taken over by the Huang family, but even the Song family was allocated over two thousand people. To manage these two thousand people, the Fourth Elder had racked his brains and was forced to prepare to send two hundred of them to Lingyuan Mountain for settlement via family cultivators.

Song Changxiong's visit also included an advance notice to Song Changxin and Song Qingming that they needed to quickly arrange for the construction of new mortal dwellings to be ready to receive these two hundred mortals from the Liu family.

Song Changxin seemed to have grown accustomed to the rise and fall of families in the cultivation world. Upon hearing the news, he merely nodded, feeling somewhat troubled about how to arrange these mortals.

Lingyuan Mountain was in a remote location, and the amount of cultivated land was already limited. The annual grain supply originally required some assistance from Funiu Mountain; with two hundred more people arriving at once, the existing food supply would certainly be insufficient.

After discussing it with Song Qingming, Song Changxin decided to cultivate more new land at Lingyuan Mountain. Relying entirely on Funiu Mountain for food in the future was not a sustainable plan, especially since Mujiao Town had also gained two thousand people, meaning Funiu Mountain would likely be under pressure as well.

If they could solve this problem themselves at Lingyuan Mountain, it would make things much easier in the future, and they wouldn't have to rely on Funiu Mountain to send grain every time.

After a few days of inspection, the two decided to locate the new mortal residential area on the west side of Crescent Lake. This area was originally where Song Qingming lived, and there were four or five small buildings nearby that had remained unoccupied.

Song Qingming had previously arranged for the mortals at the mine to build a small hut even further west near the Black Iron Mine, allowing him to live right by the mine for easier inspections.

Under the leadership of over a dozen Martial Masters, the villagers of Lingyuan Mountain began felling trees and constructing new houses. Song Changxin even specially arranged for the miners to stop work for a few days to help with the construction.

Under Song Qingming's direction, the villagers of Lingyuan Mountain worked for half a month and finally completed over twenty new houses. Combined with the existing vacant rooms, they could now barely accommodate two hundred people.

After the new houses were built, for the sake of easier management, Song Changxin moved a portion of the original mortal miners from Lingyuan Mountain into these new houses on the west side of Crescent Lake. Once the Liu family mortals arrived, they would be distributed and integrated among the original residents of Lingyuan Mountain.

This was a common method used by major cultivation families when receiving mortals from other families; first, it helped them integrate into the new environment more quickly, and second, it prevented them from clustering together and causing trouble.

Only a few days after the houses were completed, Song Changxiong and the fourth brother, Song Qingrui, arrived at Lingyuan Mountain escorting the two hundred-plus mortals. Under the arrangement of the original village head of Lingyuan Mountain, these mortals were quickly assigned their respective houses. After a census, Lingyuan Mountain now had over five hundred mortals.

Currently, there was no shortage of mining workers at the Black Iron vein. After some thought, Song Qingming decided to temporarily divide the five hundred mortals into two groups: those living on the original east side of Crescent Lake would continue to work in the mines, while those living on the west side would be assigned to cultivate some land near the village.

Because Lingyuan Mountain was located deep in the mountains, there were few areas of fertile land available. Song Qingming could only lead these people to use magical tools to carve through mountains and rocks, and divert water to create canals, newly cultivating dozens of acres of farmland to grow grain.

He even made a special trip to Mujiao Town to get a batch of fish fry to release into Crescent Lake, assigning several families to specifically guard and raise them. It took nearly two months to finally resolve this thorny food problem.

Fortunately, he possessed a remnant map that allowed him to recover mana quickly. During this period, aside from the time spent crafting talismans, his cultivation was not neglected. However, Ninth Uncle Song Changxin was unaware of this and feared that he was working too hard and neglecting his cultivation, so he specially sent him some spirit rice to help supplement his cultivation progress.

Song Qingming found it difficult to refuse, lest he cause Song Changxin constant worry.

Another three months passed in a flurry of activity, and the Liu family mortals finally settled down. Fortunately, these people were relatively easy to manage; because their original clan had suffered misfortune, they could be considered quite lucky to have come to the Song family compared to those who had to migrate hundreds of miles away to Qinghe Market.

Unlike cultivators, mortals are not immune to disease. During large-scale long-distance migrations, those with weaker constitutions often collapsed along the way. Furthermore, the lofty cultivators of the Xiaoyao Sect would not care much about the lives of these mortals; unless there were mass deaths, they would not intervene to provide medical aid.

To facilitate their care, many of the Liu family mortals assigned to Lingyuan Mountain by the Fourth Elder did not actually carry the Liu surname. Once they were dispersed, they quickly integrated into the existing Song family mortals.

For ease of management, the original single village of Lingyuan Mountain was split into two by Song Qingming. The east side of Crescent Lake was still called Lingyuan Village, while the western half was given a new name, "Yuehu Village." Song Qingyu's father was appointed as the village head of Yuehu Village.

After the establishment of Yuehu Village, Song Qingming selected several capable individuals from the new Liu family mortals to bolster the defensive martial masters and mine guards of Lingyuan Mountain.

Song Qingming increased their daily training intensity, planning to take them into the mountains to hunt wild animals after a period of time to help supplement the mountain's food supplies.