Longevity starts with dual cultivation

Chapter 28 Layout
The dark seabed.

Ling Changqing lightly crossed a giant reef and quietly followed behind a blue-scaled swordfish, slowly approaching. The talisman on his chest emitted a faint golden light.

This giant fish, which is about ten feet long, has not yet realized that the danger is approaching. It is still shaking its colorful body and leisurely chasing the small fish and shrimps around it.

When the distance was close enough, Ling Changqing reached out and grabbed its broad fin. The short sword in his hand drew an arc and stabbed it hard into its flat abdomen, then twisted it with force.

"Pfft!"

Under the pressure of the sea water, large amounts of blood gushed out, instantly dyeing the surrounding sea water red.

The attacked blue-scaled swordfish struggled hard for more than ten breaths, but as the vitality in its body quickly faded, it gradually lost its strength. It was frozen by Ling Changqing with the black ice talisman, and then put into the storage bag.

Another harvest...

Ling Changqing pondered silently, his eyes sweeping over the several storage bags hanging around his waist.

The meat of first-level monsters like the blue-scaled swordfish tastes quite good. If you catch a few and give them back to Ling Zifeng, you can get a good price and family merit in exchange.

Continuing to look for a suitable target, Ling Changqing now has no shortage of storage bags. He has to fill them up before going to the sea, so that the trip will be worthwhile.

More than ten feet away, a velvet crab the size of a human head with a dark red shell stealthily stretched out its claws. Before it could make any move, the sharp sword blade stabbed at it, ending its life in one blow, and it was immediately put into the storage bag.

There were several velvet-clawed crabs at the bottom of the reef. Ling Changqing took a look around and found that almost none of them had escaped. All of them became his trophies.

Suddenly, Ling Changqing stopped without any warning, restrained his breath, and leaned down to hide in the depths of a sea of ​​flowers not far away.

A few breaths later, the sea water surged violently, and a huge black shadow fluttered by. A sea monkey that was eating was unable to dodge and was directly swallowed by the behemoth.

The tiger-striped Rakshasa whale is the best among the second-level monsters. It is almost invincible in the sea area within a depth of two hundred feet.

Looking at the big guy going away, Ling Changqing sighed with some regret. If he had Tang Qiuyao's cultivation level now, he would definitely be able to keep it today.

After looking around, Ling Changqing concentrated and sensed it, and decided to change the place to continue searching for resources.

With so many pearl divers working in the sea every day, even though this sea area is quite vast, the quantity of some types of resources that are easier to collect is continuing to decrease.

For example, the Jade Crystal Donghua Pearls. It is said that more than 20 years ago, they were everywhere on the seabed, and anyone could find a few sand-bathing sea clams hiding pearls.

However, up to now, except for Ling Changqing who can still find some every time he goes out to sea, it is difficult for other pearl divers to gain much. It is lucky for each person to find one or two pearls a day.

Fortunately, every one or two months, the Ling family's fleet would move to a new sea area, so the pearl divers would not return empty-handed.

……

Zen Heart Island, the headquarters of the Ling family.

In the owner's boudoir, Tang Qiuyao, wearing a bright yellow dress and with slightly furrowed brows, was flipping through the jade book on the table with a serious look in her eyes.

Ling Qiyue, whose skirt was as white as snow and whose appearance was graceful and elegant, stood in front of the carved window, her chin resting on her delicate hand, gazing at the ever-changing clouds in the sky in silence.

"...The resource gap is quite large. Even if we mobilize all the family stocks, it will not be enough. This is very disadvantageous for our subsequent layout!"

After a long time, Tang Qiuyao's soft and graceful voice was heard.

Ling Qiyue turned her head and said calmly, "The Ling family's business is still a little small. After hundreds of years of hard work, it has only grown to its current size. It is indeed a little difficult to manage."

Tang Qiuyao sighed: "There has never been a Jindan master in the family. If the family business is too big, it will be impossible to keep it, right?"

Although there are no clear regulations on the size of territory and the number of industries a force can control, certain invisible unspoken rules still exist.

If someone crosses the bottom line and his own strength cannot match it, other forces will soon come to help you "learn a lesson".

The current industrial scale and sphere of influence of the Ling family are basically in line with their own strength. If they want to make further progress, they can only wait for a new foundation-building master to emerge in the family.

If you want to annex these surrounding families, you must have a genuine Jindan master to do it. Looking up at Ling Qiyue's graceful figure, Tang Qiuyao asked softly: "How long will it take before you can..."

Ling Qiyue was silent for a while, then said, "If nothing unexpected happens, twenty years should be enough, right?"

These twenty years, of course, refer to the time it takes Ling Qiyue to reach the Golden Core realm. As long as she succeeds, the external situation faced by the Ling family will undergo a subversive change.

"Twenty years..."

Tang Qiuyao murmured, "It's been a long time. It's unlikely that there won't be any changes. Those bastards outside will definitely join hands to cause trouble."

Ling Qiyue said: "It's not impossible to do it earlier, but the key is that the resources needed for Dan formation have not been fully prepared. This problem can't be solved by just having spirit stones."

Tang Qiuyao nodded: "We can take a long-term view on this matter. If one or two new foundation-building masters can be born in the family in the next few years, it can also effectively enhance the family's high-end combat power, right?"

The two foundation-building masters of the Ling family are already very old and their days are numbered. If no new foundation-building masters are born in time to fill the gap in the family's combat power, the family can't rely on the head of the family, Ling Qiyue, to support the family alone.

Ling Qiyue was silent for a while, her voice became a little colder: "I have the Foundation Establishment Pills here, the key is to see if those guys are motivated enough. They have consumed so many resources of the family, and they should break through as soon as possible."

With the female head of the family's level of cultivation and attainments in alchemy, she can already refine a genuine foundation-building pill, but her success rate is not very low.

Of course, this is also normal. The reason why Foundation Establishment Pills are so rare is because the market demand is huge and the probability of refining failure is too high, so that alchemists waste a lot of raw materials.

Tang Qiuyao whispered, "Just yesterday, the envoys from the Mo Family and the Zhu Family secretly visited me and said that they were willing to form an alliance with our Ling Family, but the prerequisite was to sell them each a Foundation Establishment Pill."

"What a beautiful thought!"

Ling Qiyue couldn't help but sneer: "If they really get what they want, I'm afraid these two families will be the first to turn against each other in the future, right?"

"really."

Tang Qiuyao nodded in agreement.

The transaction of strategic resources has always been a very sensitive matter. Even strategic allies with close relations and high mutual trust are very cautious when facing such issues.

Both the Mohist and Zhu families have only one great foundation-building cultivator in charge. If another one is added in the near future, the impact on their strength and status will be completely different.

"That's it for now. Urge those guys who have the potential to make a breakthrough to work harder and not to delay the family's plans."

Ling Qiyue said that if the Ling family could have two more foundation-building masters now, some things would actually be much easier to handle.

Tang Qiuyao hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help but say, "Ling Changqing's performance is good. He has good luck and talent potential. I think we should... list him as a core seed for cultivation?"

Ling Qiyue shook her head: "He is still a long way from the late stage of Qi training. I am afraid he will not be able to catch up. Even if you can consider it, you have to wait until he is close to your cultivation level."

The family’s resources are limited, and there are only a few core seeds that can be cultivated at the same time. It would be difficult to afford more.

"Well, so be it!"

Tang Qiuyao thought about it and realized that this was the truth, so she stopped insisting.

Ling Qiyue immediately smiled and said, "A new batch of foundation-building pills will be refined soon. I think there should be three of them. You are about to reach the ninth level of Qi training, right? I will give you one first."

"Thank you very much, Senior Sister!"

Tang Qiuyao looked pleased.

"Why do we need to be polite to each other?"

Ling Qiyue smiled and said, "If Ling Changqing performs well enough and can bring back enough resources from the bottom of the sea, maybe I can try to refine a furnace of Qingyang Yisui Pills."

(End of this chapter)