Perhaps Xu Ziqing’s warning had some effect. During the days that followed, he never saw the remaining Boundless Sect disciple again.
Over the next month, perhaps because Yan Boshang’s successful Foundation Establishment had given everyone greater confidence, another three to five people attempted Foundation Establishment in succession, and all of them succeeded smoothly. It seemed that effort truly mattered. For cultivators who had devoted themselves to cultivation until reaching this point, so long as they proceeded cautiously, failure was actually uncommon.
Xu Ziqing often went to observe. Each time, he gained something.
Every night, he repeatedly tempered the true essence within his body. It surged like tides and roared like thunder. At first he found it far more difficult to control than spiritual power and frequently encountered slight obstructions. But once he smoothed it into complete obedience, it moved entirely according to his will. The power within him increased explosively, becoming nearly hundreds of times greater than before.
With such a vast difference in strength, it was no wonder Foundation Establishment cultivators regarded those below them as ants.
His emotions surged for a moment, and suddenly a realization arose in Xu Ziqing’s mind.
The cultivation method he practiced, The Great Art of Myriad Woods Heart-Planting, took one type of wood as its foundation, commanded all the myriad woods beneath heaven, and transformed them for his own use. His life-bound wood was the bloodthirsty demon vine. The vine’s nature was Yin and belonged to Yi Wood. Xu Ziqing had also absorbed the Essence of Yi Wood, causing Yi-Wood qi within his body to flourish and further stimulate the vine. The two therefore complemented one another perfectly.
Now that he was about to establish his foundation, the Dao most compatible with him should naturally be the Dao of Yi Wood.
Yi Wood encompassed vines, flowers, and grasses. It was resilient in life, skilled at endurance, stubborn in nature, and possessed vitality that continued without end and was exceedingly difficult to extinguish.
Xu Ziqing sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, saying nothing.
Green light flourished around him. Illusory images of countless strange spiritual grasses manifested and floated on every side of his body.
A vine split into two branches and climbed upward. Jade-white in color, it hung upside down from the cave ceiling, faintly shielding Xu Ziqing within its center.
Inside the cave, green grass spread outward like a soft carpet.
The green-robed youth sat within it, vitality surging at the crown of his head as his qi sought to connect with the will of heaven.
This was precisely the moment to establish his foundation. True essence boiled within Xu Ziqing’s inner world and gathered into an incomparably powerful force. It transformed into a dragon of true essence and surged upward along the Conception Vessel, charging straight toward the Baihui acupoint and the upper dantian beyond it.
Within the human inner world, there were lower and upper dantians.
The lower dantian stored essence and qi. It nurtured true essence, allowing one’s vital essence and blood qi to merge. One day, the cultivator would embrace a core within, then break the core to form an infant and gain a lifespan measured in thousands of years.
The upper dantian, however, was the place where the spirit was stored.
Before Foundation Establishment, all the meridians throughout the body were open and the physical body had no remaining internal obstruction. Yet the place where the spirit resided was still chaotic and sealed. A cultivator needed to gather the essence of their vital energy, strike the crown with true essence, force open the Baihui acupoint, open the upper dantian, and establish the Purple Palace.
If the Purple Palace did not appear, the soul would have nowhere to rest in the future and the primordial spirit could never be nurtured.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Baihui acupoint sealed the upper dantian like a guarded pass, or like an enormous drum. Every impact produced thunderous reverberations that continued without end.
True essence surged upward again and again, striking repeatedly as it attempted to break open Baihui and split open the Purple Palace.
The Baihui acupoint began to shake. Slowly, a gap opened within it. Purple qi gathered inside and gradually escaped from the crown of Xu Ziqing’s head.
The upper dantian opened little by little. Purple qi spilled outward, flowed beyond the cave, and formed a Purple Palace smoke dragon.
Under the unending assault of true essence, more than half of Xu Ziqing’s reserves were consumed, and his dantian gradually emptied.
Ordinarily, this was the moment to take a Foundation Establishment Pill. A cultivator with a single spiritual root, however, did not need one. The third-grade spiritual vein naturally sent an endless stream of spiritual energy rushing through his spiritual root. It transformed into true essence as quickly as possible and continuously replaced what he consumed.
True essence was being spent rapidly, but it was also replenished rapidly. Before long, Xu Ziqing heard a tremendous roar within his mind. Dizziness and stabbing pain exploded through his head.
The Purple Palace had opened.
More purple qi poured out in an instant, becoming a roaring dragon that surged from the cave.
The true essence within his body was suddenly drained almost completely. Xu Ziqing’s face turned pale and his body trembled slightly. Yet he endured the piercing pain, steadied his mind, and rapidly circulated his cultivation method to replenish his true essence again and again.
Then he released his consciousness outward, merged it into the smoke dragon, and charged directly toward the Heavenly Dao consciousness descending from above.
Outside the cave, a massive purple dragon rose upward and met the Heavenly Dao consciousness head-on.
It entered with a single strike.
The cultivators watching the Foundation Establishment were all shocked and cried out one after another.
“So fast!”
“He actually merged with the Heavenly Dao consciousness in a single attempt!”
“His constitution is this compatible with the Dao of Wood?”
“Could a single spiritual root really make merging with the Dao so easy? We are far inferior…”
Su Xin’s emotions surged even more strongly than those of the others.
Wood generated Fire. Watching Xu Ziqing establish his foundation today benefited him enormously.
The smoke dragon merged with the Dao of Wood in a single strike. Its jaws opened wide and drew the Heavenly Dao consciousness inside.
Then it turned and plunged back toward the cave. The entire process had taken only a few breaths.
Xu Ziqing sat quietly inside the cave, and his complexion had already begun to recover.
The Purple Palace smoke dragon descended. Just as Xu Ziqing opened his eyes, his gaze suddenly sharpened.
The purple smoke dragon rapidly transformed into a long streak of violet light and shot directly into the space between his brows. In the blink of an eye, it merged into his Purple Palace.
Xu Ziqing felt a cool sensation flow downward from the Purple Palace. His entire body immediately became clear and refreshed. At the same time, countless profound principles of the Dao of Wood circled endlessly within the Purple Palace before merging with his consciousness. In an instant, they transformed into a vast sea of consciousness beneath the Purple Palace, filled with points of starlight and extending without boundary.
The Purple Palace opened. The sea of consciousness formed. Consciousness and flesh answered one another from afar and became fully connected.
Xu Ziqing swept his gaze through the cave and found that every tiny detail in every corner was perfectly visible. He then looked outside. Within ten li, people, animals, flowers, and birds all appeared within his awareness as though they stood directly before him.
This was spiritual sense.
After examining it, a streak of violet light shot from the crown of Xu Ziqing’s head and sped toward the Heavenly Dao.
From this moment onward, Xu Ziqing was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. The Dao with which he had aligned was now under the observation of the Heavenly Dao.
His five senses and six perceptions were incomparably clear, hundreds of times stronger than during Qi Refinement. His essence, qi, and spirit had all risen far beyond those of a Qi Refinement cultivator, and even his physical body seemed several degrees lighter, almost giving him the sensation of floating toward immortality.
Xu Ziqing understood that this was because the Heavenly Dao consciousness had washed away part of the mortal qi within his body during Foundation Establishment. He was certainly not yet an imperishable body, but he could now be said to possess a Dao body. From now on, drawing spiritual energy into himself would be far easier, and expelling the various impurities that entered his body would also become much easier.
Foundation Establishment had succeeded, but his realm was not yet completely stable.
After briefly experiencing the differences in his body, Xu Ziqing began circulating The Great Art of Myriad Woods Heart-Planting once more.
He had now completed the ten chapters of its Qi Refinement volume. It was time to begin practicing the content recorded in the Foundation Establishment volume.
The first step was to calm the mind and stabilize the realm.
He gathered every remaining fragment of Heavenly Dao consciousness still scattered inside the cave, drew them into himself, and merged them into the sea of consciousness without leaving the slightest trace outside.
Xu Ziqing closed his eyes and entered meditation, following the cultivation method’s instructions.
Stabilizing this realm took three full days and nights.
When Xu Ziqing finally opened his eyes again, spiritual light shone brilliantly within them. Anyone meeting his gaze might feel as though their internal organs had become completely transparent beneath those clear eyes.
After a long while, Xu Ziqing exhaled deeply and blinked. The radiance gradually withdrew, and his presence became restrained once more, no longer displaying so many obvious differences.
After years of bitter cultivation, he had finally succeeded in Foundation Establishment. Even though Xu Ziqing had already calmed his mind, a smile still escaped onto his face.
Then he composed himself and, for the first time, sent his spiritual sense into the storage ring.
Under spiritual sense, everything within the ring became incomparably clear.
The inside of the storage ring was an endless darkness. Countless spiritual grasses, beast cores, and other miscellaneous objects floated within it, half-hidden in the void. With a single thought, however, Xu Ziqing could move them.
His spiritual sense passed beyond the storage space and continued toward the core. It moved with astonishing speed, and before long it discovered a point of light containing a stone platform.
A stern man in white robes and black hair sat cross-legged atop the platform. His spine was perfectly straight. His aura was cold, and his sharpness resembled a sword.
The instant Xu Ziqing’s spiritual sense arrived, the man’s eyes opened abruptly and two flashes of golden light appeared and vanished.
“Xu Ziqing?”
Xu Ziqing smiled and sent a gentle thought through his spiritual sense. “Fortunately I did not fail Brother Yun’s instruction. I have established my foundation. Did you see it?”
The white-robed man nodded slightly. “You cultivated diligently. Good.”
Xu Ziqing’s eyes carried a smile. Having shared his good news, he did not continue disturbing his friend. He immediately withdrew his spiritual sense, waved a hand to remove the restriction, and drew in a breath of fresh spiritual energy. His mind was clear, his spirit refreshed, and his mood excellent.
He stepped outside the cave abode. Looking at the scenery of Tenglong Peak, he felt a freedom entirely different from before.
What one could perceive during Qi Refinement and what one could perceive after Foundation Establishment were worlds apart.
Xu Ziqing watched for a while and was about to return inside when someone suddenly called to him.
“Fellow Daoist Xu, would you come speak for a while?”
Xu Ziqing lowered his head and saw someone walking out of a cave below on the wind.
The man wore a wide-sleeved robe with a violet base. He had narrow brows, thin lips, and was also a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Xu Ziqing recognized him as Diao Zimo of the Thunderfire Sect. He smiled gently. “So it is Fellow Daoist Diao. Since you’ve invited me, it would be rude to refuse.” His figure flickered slightly, and he appeared beside Diao Zimo before following him into the cave.
There was already another person inside Diao Zimo’s cave abode, someone equally familiar.
Xu Ziqing paused faintly when he saw him.
The man cupped his fists. “Fellow Daoist Xu, please sit.”
Xu Ziqing returned the salute. “Fellow Daoist Luo, please.”
This man was Luo Hou of the Heaven-Supporting Sect, a towering figure nearly nine chi tall, broad-shouldered and powerfully built, with an overwhelmingly forceful presence.
He and Diao Zimo had fought one another in the same martial-contest match and had been evenly matched in cultivation. It was only because Diao Zimo possessed thunder arts that Luo Hou had been defeated before he could display many of his methods.
Logically, even if Luo Hou had not formed a grudge after losing to Diao Zimo, he should at least have felt somewhat displeased. Yet unexpectedly, the two had established their foundations at around the same time and were now clearly on friendly terms.
It seemed both men were broad-minded enough not to judge heroes solely by victory or defeat. They were worth befriending.
Xu Ziqing sat opposite Luo Hou. After a slight pause, Diao Zimo took the seat to the side.
Although Diao Zimo’s face looked somewhat cold, his manner was refreshingly straightforward. The moment he sat down, he said, “Earlier, when we saw how smoothly Fellow Daoist Xu established his foundation, the two of us admired you greatly and wished to make your acquaintance. Seeing you leave seclusion today, I took the liberty of calling out. I hope Fellow Daoist Xu will not take offense.”
Luo Hou was equally direct. He lifted a wine jar, took out another cup, filled it for Xu Ziqing, and pushed it across. Then he and Diao Zimo raised their own cups together. “A cup of plain wine to show our sincerity.”
Seeing this, Xu Ziqing naturally could not refuse. He smiled, raised the cup, and drank. “You two are too courteous. There is no need for so much ceremony.”
Diao Zimo said, “Excellent!” Then he continued, “Since I invited Fellow Daoist Xu here, I won’t waste time with empty words. The three of us are now Foundation Establishment cultivators. Before long, we will cross the Dragon Ascension Gate and enter the great world. Does Fellow Daoist Xu already have any plans for what comes afterward?”