Chapter 254 Family Meeting
Song Qingming, who was practicing in the cave, suddenly had a puff of green smoke coming out of his body.
As the green smoke on his body became more and more, Song Qingming finally put away his skills. After his body recovered, he opened his eyes and muttered to himself.
"I didn't expect that this spell was so exquisite. No wonder it can help to form a pill after practicing it."
After breaking through to the fourth level of foundation building, Song Qingming used the spell again to try out the various spells he had practiced before, wanting to see how much his strength had improved. Unexpectedly, this time he had an unexpected gain.
Since I built my foundation, I have been practicing for many years but have never been able to get started with the hidden essence technique. This time, I finally succeeded in getting started. I didn't expect that this spell required such a high level of mana in my body, and I couldn't get started before I practiced to the middle stage of foundation building.
He had been practicing this spell to no avail, and he was about to give up. Unexpectedly, this time he actually found some tricks, which really gave him a big surprise. According to the description in the Yuxuan Sutra, this technique can help cultivators condense golden elixir. If it can be cultivated to perfection, it is much more useful than ordinary elixir-forming spiritual objects. When thinking of this, Song Qingming gradually showed a happy smile on his face.
When practicing the Cangyuan Technique, one can refine the spells that he usually practices into his own body and hide them. Although these spells cannot be used at ordinary times, they can strengthen his body after practicing, and can also be used at critical moments to protect his weak points for a moment, which is considered to be some defensive magical power, and it is still useful.
In this way, Song Qingming fell into seclusion for a long time again, until half a month later, his sixth uncle Song Changfeng sent a voice transmission to inform him to attend the family's annual meeting, and then invited him out of this cave.
Song Qingming came to the meeting hall in front of the mountain and saw that many Song family cultivators, including Song Qingyu, had been waiting here for a long time. After smiling and greeting everyone, he sat next to Song Changfeng at the top.
After Song Qingyu established his foundation, although Song Qingming ordered the clan to keep the matter secret, it was difficult to conceal such a thing for a long time. In the past few years, most of the cultivators in the Song family had already known about it. As a foundation-building cultivator, Song Qingyu must also participate in important family meetings like this.
Since Song Qingming established his foundation, he has basically not missed the family's annual meeting. This time, Song Changfeng arranged this time, and he had already discussed it with him. Until today, all the elders gathered on the mountain, and then he was invited out by voice transmission.
"Everyone is here, so let's start the meeting. It's still the old rules. First, each of us will report the accounts we manage. Let's start with Qingwan!" Seeing that everyone was here, Song Changfeng was the first to announce the start of the meeting.
The first to speak was the second sister Song Qingwan, who was in charge of the family's Qinghefang business. She took out the accounts that had been prepared and said to everyone:
"This year, the four shops run by our family in the market have earned a total of 4,612 spirit stones. After deducting the cost of the shops and the expenses of the staff, the total surplus this year is 861 spirit stones.
Among them, the elixir shop, the grocery store and the restaurant are all okay. The business of the shop selling magic tools and talismans is really bad this year, and the accounts can just cover the expenses."
In Qinghefang, the Song family only has the alchemy skills of the second sister Song Qingwan. Other skills such as refining tools and making talismans cannot compete with the Huang and Gao families at all. In previous years, they could only eat what others left. Unexpectedly, they couldn't earn a single spirit stone this year. Although this result was expected by Song Qingming, it was still difficult for him to accept it after hearing it now. He silently remembered this matter in his heart and had to find a way to improve this problem in the future.
"After deducting expenses from the family's several mines, the total income this year is 600 spirit stones, which is relatively normal. However, the black iron ore in Lingyuan Mountain is almost exhausted, and this income will begin to decrease year by year."
Ninth uncle Song Changxin has been responsible for managing several mines outside in recent years. He spends most of his time in Duanliu Mountain and it is a rare opportunity to return to Funiushan.
The next person to speak is the sixth brother Song Qinghe, who has just become the elder of the family. His cultivation talent is not high. He has just broken through the seventh level of Qi Refining. But with this skill of spiritual planting, he is now a top-grade spiritual planting master and has completely taken over the affairs of the family's spiritual fields.
"There are twelve acres of spiritual fields in Funiu Mountain. The spiritual rice, medicinal herbs and other spiritual objects planted there have harvested a total of 1,450 spiritual stones this year. The spiritual rice offered by the following vassal families totals 120 spiritual stones. After deducting the expenses, there is a surplus of 840 spiritual stones.
Since the Supreme Elder established his foundation, the family has increased the planting of many spiritual herbs. Now some spiritual herbs have begun to mature. The income from this aspect will increase every year in the future."
The spiritual fields are actually the most stable source of income for the Song family over the years. This is also the most important place for the large and small immortal families in the immortal world.
In the past, when the Song family was still a small Qi-refining family, they were afraid of bringing disaster, so they didn't plant many spiritual medicines and didn't dare to cultivate spiritual fields on a large scale. It wasn't until Song Qingming built his foundation, the family's spiritual veins were upgraded, and there was a second-level mountain protection formation to protect them. Then everyone slowly let go and began to increase their investment in this area.
In addition to the three items mentioned above, the remaining demon hunting team managed by the thirteenth uncle and the general affairs managed by the eldest brother did not have any spiritual stone income, so they didn't speak.
Finally, Song Changfeng, the clan leader who was in charge of the Tibetan Gold Pavilion, combined everyone's accounts and gave a summary to everyone on the scene.
"This year, including the Treasury Pavilion that I manage, the family has earned a total of 2,733 spirit stones.
Next, I want to talk about the expenditure.
Now, excluding those hired from outside, the family has a total of 53 cultivators, including 2 foundation-building cultivators, 10 late-stage Qi-refining cultivators, 29 mid-stage Qi-refining cultivators, and 12 early-stage Qi-refining cultivators.
All the cultivators in the family, according to the specifications, spend a total of 1,400 spirit stones each year. The spirit stones needed to maintain several spiritual vein formations are about 500 spirit stones a year. In addition to these two big heads, there are some miscellaneous expenses that add up to about 200 spirit stones. The total expenditure this year is about 2,100 spirit stones."
"That is to say, this year's surplus is only more than 600 spirit stones."
Hearing the news of this year's accounts, Song Qingming was also a little surprised. The accounts of previous years were not so ugly. Unexpectedly, the number of family cultivators has increased in recent years, and the burden has also increased.
If it weren't for the Fengtou Mountain Mine shares, which gave them 500 spiritual stones every year, the Song family would only have 100 spiritual stones in their accounts. If they encountered a disaster year, they would probably lose a lot, not to mention the spiritual stones they wanted to use to cultivate new spiritual veins.
The Song family's foundation was still too weak. Whether it was doing business in Qinghefang or mining their own veins, they were still far behind other old-fashioned foundation-building families.