Chapter 355: Chapter 237: Great Gains, Foundation Establishment Pills Complete
On the third day after Song Changsheng returned to the clan, Song Luzhou, who had been in seclusion for a month, finally dragged his exhausted body out of the Alchemy Room.
A month of refining wasn’t a long time for him. He had previously spent a full three months just to concoct a single furnace of Tier Two Top-Grade Pills.
In comparison, the time spent refining the Foundation Establishment Pills this time was relatively short.
However, the psychological pressure had left Song Luzhou utterly drained.
He was well aware of how desperately the clan needed this batch of Foundation Establishment Pills. It was for this very reason that he had pushed himself to do everything perfectly.
With such a mindset, his standards for this Alchemy session were incredibly demanding; he had perfected every single detail.
But despite all his efforts, because it was his first time refining them, the batch of Pills into which he had poured countless hours of painstaking work yielded only five Pills in the end.
Although the Foundation Establishment Pill was only a Tier Two High-grade Pill, its refining difficulty was extremely high. In addition to the priceless main ingredients, it also required twenty-one types of rare Tier Two supplementary herbs. Thus, the cost of every batch was exorbitant.
According to market prices, a yield of three Pills would barely cover the costs.
That was why, among the major powers, it was not uncommon for Tier Three Alchemists to personally refine Foundation Establishment Pills in order to maximize the Pill Success Rate.
As a Tier Two Top-Grade Alchemist, for Song Luzhou to succeed in creating five Pills on his first attempt was actually an excellent result. Not only had he covered the costs, but he had also turned a profit.
Yet, Song Luzhou felt deeply ashamed. ’I could have done better,’ he thought.
But when Song Changsheng and Song Xianyun learned that he had produced five Pills, they were overjoyed and showered him with praise.
Song Changsheng’s initial expectation was a yield of three Pills, which would have been enough to break even.
After all, even Alchemists from a Golden Core Family like the main branch sometimes failed when refining Foundation Establishment Pills, let alone Song Luzhou on his first attempt.
He never expected Song Luzhou to give everyone such a wonderful surprise.
Looking at the five Jade Bottles before him, Song Changsheng grinned from ear to ear. It had been a long time since the Song Clan had acquired so many Foundation Establishment Pills at once.
Moreover, these had been refined by the Song Clan itself, which carried an even deeper significance.
After all, the three types of main ingredients the clan had collected through various means had all matured. As soon as the seeds were harvested and planted, they could begin another round of Alchemy.
When that time came, the Song Clan could truly become self-sufficient, no longer beholden to others for their supply.
For the Song Clan, which had stood for five hundred years, this was a qualitative leap.
In this world, the ability to consistently produce Foundation Establishment Cultivators was one of the key indicators of whether a power could endure for generations.
Across the entire Daqi Cultivation World, aside from the two sects, the Seven Eminent Clans, and those hidden in the shadows, you could count the number of powers that had achieved this on one hand!
Song Changsheng looked at the frost of white in Song Luzhou’s sideburns and said sincerely, "Fifth Uncle, you have poured your heart and soul into this for the clan. The clan will never forget your contribution."
"It’s all for the clan. This is what I ought to do." Song Luzhou shook his head gently. ’If I weren’t the only one in the clan who could refine Foundation Establishment Pills, the one who traded his life that day would have been me, not Song Luhuai.’
In his eyes, his life had long since ceased to be his own.
Hearing this, Song Changsheng was filled with emotion. In a clan, everyone’s talents and focuses were different. Some were strong, others were weak.
But whether strong or weak, they all contributed their strength to the clan’s development, willing to pay any price to do so. That had never changed.
In any community, no matter how small, there will always be those who are loyal and true.
In times of crisis, a clan will also see the emergence of countless loyal members.
This was true for the many Song Clan disciples who fell at the hands of the Lieyang Sect twenty years ago, and it was true for Song Luyao and Song Luhuai, who died in battle outside Vast Mist Peak.
And Song Changsheng, Song Luzhou, and even the most ordinary mortal of the Song Clan were all contributing their own strength to the clan’s rise and fall, its honor and disgrace.
With everyone, from the highest to the lowest, working together with one heart, how could the Song Clan possibly fail to rise?
"These Foundation Establishment Pills have come at the perfect time. We should select suitable clan members to use them as soon as possible," the Grand Elder said in a deep voice, stroking his snow-white beard.
The Song Clan’s current manpower was already stretched thin, a fact that became even more apparent after the Marketplace was established. Replenishing their numbers had therefore become the most urgent priority.
And within that, the number of Foundation Establishment Cultivators was of paramount importance.
Song Changsheng nodded. "Indeed. Regarding the distribution of the Foundation Establishment Pills, what are your thoughts, Fifth Uncle and Grand Elder?"
"While selecting candidates through a clan competition last time was relatively fair, it wasn’t the most beneficial for the clan’s development. The Hundred Arts Hall is already facing a talent gap.
"We need not speak of Arrays and Artifact Refining. The Clan Leader is a prodigy in those, and we have other exceptionally gifted people like Qinghong and Song Changrong.
"In the path of Alchemy, Luzhou can still shoulder the burden, but to this day, we have not found anyone who can take his place.
"The path of Talismans is even worse. Ever since Luhuai fell, the clan has had no one to take up the mantle. The line of succession has been broken.
"As for the path of Brewing, aside from your mother, the clan has no other Brewer.
"The path of Music is worse still. We only have Changxue, a single Tier One Music Master, and her attempt to break through to Foundation Establishment failed.
"As for the other arts—Earth Master, puppets, Beast Taming, Celestial Craftsmanship, and so on—we don’t have a single person."
At this, Song Xianyun sighed deeply. An insufficient reserve of talent was a fatal weakness for any power.
The clan competition could only select members who excelled at Magical Combat, which meant it overlooked many talented individuals in the Hundred Arts or other fields—Song Luyun, for instance, who hosted the auction a while ago.
Although she isn’t skilled in Magical Combat and has no specialty in the Hundred Arts, she performed excellently at the auction. That is also a form of talent, an indispensable part of the clan’s development.
It wasn’t that the clan didn’t value these talents; it was simply that the will was there, but not the means.
But now, these five Foundation Establishment Pills gave Song Xianyun a glimmer of hope.
After listening, Song Changsheng’s face showed his agreement. This was indeed a problem that deserved serious attention.
Song Luhuai’s death had been a massive blow to the clan. It directly cost them the ability to produce Tier Two Talismans, leaving them completely unable to compete with the Martial Spirit Sect in the Talisman market.
"Grand Elder speaks the truth. Let’s do this: we’ll offer two of the five Foundation Establishment Pills as prizes for the clan competition.
"As for the remaining three, we will select outstanding talents from within the clan, such as those in Talismans and Alchemy, and then the Elder Council will make the final decision by vote. How does that sound?"
Song Xianyun and Song Luzhou looked at each other and nodded in agreement. "Excellent."
And so, another small-scale clan competition began to take shape. This time, it was only open to clan members under the age of sixty who had already condensed their Dao Foundation.
Therefore, the number of participants was small, fewer than thirty people in total.
After a fierce contest, Song Changjing and Song Changxiu ultimately took the top two spots, earning the right to use the Foundation Establishment Pills.
After the competition, several candidates were also selected from among the Hundred Arts talents after a thorough evaluation process.
Among them were Song Changrong and Song Luyun, who were already showing promise, as well as lesser-known members like Song Changqi and Song Changjun.
In the end, after a heated discussion and a vote by the Elder Council, three people were chosen: Song Changrong, Song Luyun, and Song Changqi.
Of the three, Song Changrong excelled at Artifact Refining.
Song Luyun was chosen because Song Changsheng had already promised her a chance.
The first two were not old, but Song Changqi was already over fifty. He was chosen because he was the Song Clan’s only Tier One Top-Grade Talisman Master, and Song Changsheng and the others had extremely high hopes for him.
They hoped he could break through to Foundation Establishment and revitalize the clan’s path of Talismans.
Originally, Song Changrong wouldn’t have been selected. After all, the clan currently had no shortage of talent in Artifact Refining. The initial intention of Song Xianyun and the others was to find a promising Alchemy apprentice.
Unfortunately, after much searching, they couldn’t find a suitable candidate, so they settled for the next best choice, Song Changrong.
Song Changxue would have been a good candidate, but she had already lost her chance. Every single Foundation Establishment Pill was incredibly precious, and no one could receive one twice.
Once the candidates were decided, Song Changsheng immediately arranged for them to enter seclusion.
As for himself, he took a huge sum of money and prepared to set off for Yuan Province.
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