txolops Chapter 1, Section 4: Foundation Building
Chapter 1, Section 4: Foundation Building
Fenglan Immortal City is a sacred place of cultivation in the hearts of all independent cultivators in the Western Wilderness.
This immortal city was built by the Core Formation cultivator "Fenglan Zhenren" from the Western Wilderness, who went deep into the Cloud Mist Mountains, killed a third-tier demon wolf, wiped out its clan, and then built it on the third-tier spiritual vein that the demon wolf clan originally occupied.
The immortal city, spanning a radius of a hundred miles, is entirely enveloped by a third-order grand formation.
Apart from the Azure Dragon Mountain at the very center of the Immortal City, which possesses a third-tier spiritual vein.
Surrounding Qinglong Mountain, from the inside out, are the inner city, where the spiritual veins have reached the second tier of quality.
And the outer city, which has the widest area and the largest land area, but whose spiritual veins are only of the first rank.
The city is divided into three distinct areas: the outer city, the inner city, and Qinglong Mountain.
Qinglong Mountain is the Daoist temple of the Fenglan Zhenren lineage, and outsiders are prohibited from entering except for cultivators of their lineage.
The inner city mainly consists of markets that support the economy of the immortal city, as well as a small number of cave dwellings rented out to high-level independent cultivators.
As for the outer city, it is the residence of the vast majority of low-level independent cultivators, and there are also a large number of general stores that provide services to them, such as selling low-level talismans and recycling various low-level materials.
……
On this day, the sky was a clear blue, and the sunlight shone on the cyan light shield of the third-order array that enveloped the immortal city, causing it to shimmer with light.
Occasionally, a few wisps of snow-white clouds drift by, changing into various shapes.
The inner city market of Fenglan Immortal City is the most prosperous area in the entire immortal city. Various merchant guilds and cultivation families rent shops here to buy, sell, or both. They sell all kinds of cultivator supplies and also buy back spiritual herbs, ores, and monster materials collected by cultivators from the Cloud Mist Mountain Range.
Inside the market area.
On the wide street, the monks came and went, sometimes entering a shop and sometimes leaving. Some looked delighted, as if they had made a satisfactory deal; some were frustrated, as if they had not achieved their goal; some were angry, as if they had been bullied by the big shop; some were excited... all sorts of emotions were expressed.
On the northwest slope of the vast market town, there are hundreds of small courtyards, each about an acre in size. Some of these courtyards are shrouded in a faint blue light, indicating that they are inhabited by cultivators, while others are silent and seem to be unclaimed.
Suddenly, the spiritual energy in this area fluctuated, and then the spiritual energy of heaven and earth rapidly converged above one of the small courtyards, forming a spiritual energy vortex with a diameter of tens of feet.
This immediately attracted the attention of nearby cultivators, who stopped to watch, their eyes filled with undisguised envy.
Because they could clearly see that this scene clearly showed a cultivator attempting to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and judging from the way he was drawing upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he had already reached a crucial stage.
At this stage, the success rate can be said to be 50%. If successful, the Immortal City will have one more Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The area ruled by Fenglan Immortal City has tens of thousands of cultivators, but most of them are low-level Qi Refining cultivators, with no more than a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Every Foundation Establishment cultivator holds a very high status in Fenglan Immortal City, and even the Azure Dragon Mountain lineage would not ignore a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Right now, under their watchful eyes, a Foundation Establishment cultivator may be born. How could this not make passing cultivators envious?
"I wonder which senior is currently attempting to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage."
"Can he succeed?"
……
Under the curious and envious gazes of the passing cultivators.
Several days later, the vortex of spiritual energy above the courtyard suddenly contracted, as if a dragon were sucking water, and all of it was drawn into the courtyard below.
The spiritual energy that had been continuously gathering around the vortex completely dissipated after the vortex contracted. Within the dissipated spiritual energy, five-colored rays of light faintly shimmered, making it appear extremely magnificent.
The many cultivators watching all knew what this scene represented.
"It's done."
"The Immortal City has gained another Foundation Establishment cultivator."
……
Within that small courtyard, about an acre in size and surrounded by a magic array, a spiritual pressure belonging to a Foundation Establishment cultivator suddenly surged out, causing ripples to appear on the pale blue light barrier.
Inside the room, a young man with an ordinary-looking face, wearing a blue Taoist robe, sat cross-legged. His long black hair was simply tied into a bun. He closed his eyes, but a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.
Opening his eyes, the young man's gaze was filled with barely suppressed joy: "Twenty-seven years after transmigrating to this world, now over forty, through countless hardships and schemes, I've finally succeeded in establishing my foundation!"
The young man's name was Li Ping, but he was actually a time traveler.
He was originally an ordinary office worker on Earth, but after a car accident, he came to this vast world of cultivation.
The soul transmigrates into the body of a homeless beggar who froze to death on the street in this mortal world, merging with the beggar's remaining soul and memories.
He knew from the memories of the beggar's remnant soul.
This homeless beggar was born into a wealthy family, but his parents died when he was young. The inheritance left by his parents was all squandered by their "relatives and friends," leaving him to wander the streets and beg for a living.
That day, the weather was freezing cold, and snow fell three feet deep. He was driven out of the dilapidated temple where he was seeking shelter from the cold by a group of elderly beggars, and froze to death on the street, whereupon Li Ping's soul took over his body.
When Li Ping woke up, he was in an unfamiliar place with nowhere to escape the cold. He cried for help, but no one paid any attention. He was about to freeze to death a second time.
Fortunately, at that moment, Yan Guike, the renowned master of the Sword Casting Manor, happened to pass by. He couldn't bear Li Ping's cries for help and took pity on him.
He rescued Li Ping and brought him back to the Sword Forging Manor, where Li Ping became a disciple and practiced swordsmanship under the guidance of the manor's instructors.
But once he started learning swordsmanship, things took an extraordinary turn. Li Ping displayed an incredibly terrifying talent for swordsmanship.
He wielded a sword at the age of thirteen.
After practicing swordsmanship for a month, he defeated all the disciples of the same age in the manor, which alarmed the manor lord Yan Guike, who then took him in as a personal disciple.
After three months of sword practice, even the instructors at the mountain villa were defeated by his sword.
After a year of sword training, he defeated Yan Guike, the master of the manor and a grandmaster of martial arts, becoming the strongest in the Sword Forging Manor.
That same year, he descended the mountain with a sword and killed many of the beggar's parents' friends and relatives.
He then tested his sword against heroes from all over the world, and it was difficult to find a single one who could defeat him. Because of his ruthless moves and his absolute refusal to hold back against his enemies, people in the martial arts world called him "The Blood-Dripping Sword"!
The Blood-Dripping Sword, Li Ping!
At fourteen, he was already invincible!
Not long after, while chasing the "Eighteen Black Mountain Bandits" who were ravaging the people of Yizhou, he was easily defeated by an ordinary old man with white hair and beard when he passed through a secluded mountain village.
The old man, with his white hair and beard, waved his hand and formed a golden shield around his body, which could not be shaken in the slightest no matter how much the old man slashed or stabbed.
After muttering incantations, his hands became as hard as metal, allowing him to disarm opponents with his bare hands, and even his divine sword could not harm him.
Then, the old man chanted an incantation, and flames rose from his palm, melting his divine sword into molten iron!
At this point, the old man smiled and explained the whole story. It turned out that he was actually a legendary cultivator. Whether it was the golden light shield, the palm as hard as iron, or the high-temperature flames that could melt metal out of thin air, they were all the magic of a cultivator!
Li Ping immediately abandoned his sword and asked the old man for guidance on the path to immortality.
Upon hearing this, the old man burst into laughter.
It turned out that he had seen that Li Ping possessed spiritual roots, so he specially stepped forward to compete with Li Ping and guide him into the path of immortality.
After careful examination, the old man told Li Ping that he had the three spiritual roots of "metal, earth, and water," which was considered a fairly good aptitude among cultivators.
Moreover, the old man frankly admitted that he himself had the worst five spiritual roots. By chance, he embarked on the path of cultivation, but he only managed to reach the fourth level of Qi Refining in his entire life. Seeing no hope for immortality, he went into seclusion in this small mountain village to raise his family.
His reasons for becoming Li Ping's guide to immortality were twofold: first, he couldn't bear to see Li Ping, who possessed spiritual roots, waste his life in the mortal realm; and second, he wanted to forge a positive connection with Li Ping.
In the end, the old man not only imparted his entire metal-based qi-refining technique, the "Golden Sword Manual," to Li Ping, but also allowed Li Ping to refine his qi in his own unranked spiritual land.
A year later, Li Ping refined his first trace of magical power and became a cultivator at the first level of the Qi Refining stage.
During his conversation with the old man, he learned that what he was standing on was a vast area that cultivators called the "Western Wilderness".
The Western Wilderness is composed of dozens of mortal kingdoms of varying sizes, each controlled by a family or sect of cultivators. The Jiang Kingdom, which he previously thought was the "world," is no exception.
Behind the scenes, the Jiang family, a family of cultivators, controls the Jiang Kingdom. In addition to the Jiang family, there are dozens of other forces of varying sizes in the Jiang Kingdom, which occupy all the advanced spiritual lands within the kingdom.
For cultivators, entering a spiritual land is an indispensable resource for cultivation.
For rogue cultivators like the old man, if they want to cultivate in a high-level spiritual land, they can only join various major forces and be driven by them in exchange for the right to use the spiritual land.
As for the non-ranking spiritual land where Li Ping cultivated, it was only discovered by chance by the old man, and the non-ranking spiritual land could only allow him to cultivate up to the first level of Qi Refining at most.
Subsequently, in order to make further progress on the path to immortality, Li Ping was introduced by the old man to a market town in the Jiang Kingdom, where he lived as a rogue cultivator.
He spent seven years cultivating in the market to reach the fourth level of Qi Refining. In order to go further on the path to immortality and have the opportunity to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he followed the caravan to 'Fenglan Immortal City' without hesitation.
After decades of hard work, now over forty years old, I have finally become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
……
Sitting cross-legged, Li Ping silently sensed the changes within himself.
First, there's the magic power. The misty magic power that originally filled the entire dantian has been compressed into liquid droplets the size of rice grains.
The quantity of magic power has decreased, but its quality has increased significantly.
The liquid magic was only the size of a grain of rice, yet its power was more than ten times that before the breakthrough.
Secondly, there's his divine sense. Before his breakthrough, his divine sense could only detect an area of 30 zhang in radius.
In fact, a normal cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining can only detect a radius of 20 zhang with their divine sense. However, because Li Ping has merged with the remnant soul of the original body, his divine sense is about 50% stronger than that of an ordinary cultivator.
Now that he has broken through to become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his soul has grown stronger and his divine sense has undergone a qualitative change. His detection range can reach up to 150 zhang, which is still 50% stronger than that of an ordinary early Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Finally, there's lifespan. Qi Refining cultivators can only live up to 120 years old, but Foundation Establishment cultivators can live for over 240 years. In the mortal world, that's enough to witness the rise and fall of a dynasty.
……