Volume 1, Chapter 47: Foundation Establishment

On the day following the conclusion of the grand sect tournament, Gu Mingxi was summoned by Yuchen.

Ever since she had accidentally walked in on Yuchen weeping, Gu Mingxi had felt rather awkward about approaching him over the past couple of days.

However, since her Master had taken the initiative to call for her, she naturally had to go.

Upon meeting Yuchen, Gu Mingxi's first instinct was to observe his expression, genuinely dreading a repeat of that previous heartbreaking scene.

Seeing that Yuchen's expression was completely normal, she let out a sigh of relief.

There was simply no helping it; as a disciple, she could not possibly pry into such matters, as it was clearly her Master's privacy.

"Master, I'm here!"

"You've arrived. Come and sit."

Recently, Gu Mingxi's mind had been entirely occupied by the grand sect tournament, leaving her no bandwidth to ponder other affairs, which was why she had no inkling of why Yuchen had summoned her this time.

When Yuchen saw Gu Mingxi today, he was entirely as usual, as if that accidental encounter between them had never happened.

"Now that the grand sect tournament has concluded, the next phase will be the Foundation Establishment tournament for disciples in that realm. During this period, what do you plan to do?"

"I..."

Gu Mingxi thought carefully, only to realize that aside from cultivation, there was nothing else.

Hm?

Cultivation?

Wait, what was her current realm again?

Her current cultivation had already reached the Great Completion of the Qi Condensation stage!

She was about to break through to Foundation Establishment; she was finally going to establish her foundation!

"Master, I am going into seclusion to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage!"

Yuchen handed Gu Mingxi a storage bag and nodded at her.

"Go on. The supplies in this storage bag are prepared by your Master for your breakthrough. Go into seclusion with peace of mind!"

The higher a person's innate talent, the less time they required for secluded breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, while lower talent meant a longer duration.

Given Gu Mingxi's prodigious talent, she was bound to succeed within half a month of entering seclusion.

Returning to her room, Gu Mingxi opened the storage bag Yuchen had given her and discovered that the majority of its contents were spirit stones.

Given that breaking through to Foundation Establishment demanded a massive amount of spiritual energy, and Gu Mingxi's talent was so extraordinary, her spiritual energy consumption would undoubtedly be immense. It was uncertain whether the ambient spiritual energy of Xiaoyao Peak alone would suffice for her needs, so preparing a supply of spirit stones was undoubtedly necessary.

Aside from those, there was also a spirit-gathering array disc, a bottle of Lesser Restoration Pills, and a bottle of Foundation Establishment Pills.

"Foundation Establishment Pills? Master has certainly prepared thoroughly, but for this breakthrough, I surely won't need them!"

Everyone knew that consuming too many medicinal pills would cause medicinal toxins to accumulate within the body.

Therefore, as long as one's cultivation talent was still decent, it was best to avoid taking pills during the cultivation process whenever possible.

After all, once too much medicinal toxin built up inside the body, there was no other remedy to remove it except for a Marrow Cleansing Pill.

However, did one even know what grade of pill a Marrow Cleansing Pill was?

A Marrow Cleansing Pill was a Grade Seven medicinal pill!

Why did people take medicinal pills? Because those with poor talent relied on them to assist in elevating their cultivation.

What kind of pills, when consumed in excess, would lead to an irreversible accumulation of medicinal toxins in the body?

Naturally, they were low-grade or mid-grade pills!

Top-grade pills contained the least amount of medicinal toxins among all pills; if the alchemist's technique was refined enough, top-grade pills could even be entirely free of medicinal toxins.

Could those who couldn't afford high-grade or top-grade pills possibly afford a Grade Seven Marrow Cleansing Pill?

They certainly could not!

The future of a cultivator who relied on Foundation Establishment Pills to break through differed vastly from one who achieved it unaided.

There was once a saying that cultivators who took Foundation Establishment Pills found it extremely difficult to achieve ascension.

No one had ever verified this claim, but what everyone did know was that none of those predecessors who had successfully ascended had ever consumed Foundation Establishment Pills.

Therefore, even though this theory remained unproven, cultivators still preferred to avoid taking Foundation Establishment Pills during their realm breakthroughs whenever possible.

When choosing a location for her seclusion to break through, Gu Mingxi selected the depths of the Purple Bamboo Forest.

The area within the entire Xiaoyao Peak with the densest concentration of lightning spiritual energy was precisely the Purple Bamboo Forest. By entering seclusion there, she could better absorb the lightning spiritual energy, while the spiritual energy radiating outward during her breakthrough would in turn nourish the Purple Bamboo Forest, achieving a mutually beneficial result.

What Gu Mingxi did not know was that the moment she stepped into the Purple Bamboo Forest for seclusion, Yuchen's figure promptly materialized outside it, clearly intending to stand guard for her.

Gu Mingxi took out her white tiger egg. Little White had been continuously absorbing spiritual energy within her spatial realm, and the exceptionally pure lightning spiritual energy radiating around her during the Foundation Establishment process would also assist the little creature in breaking out of its shell more effectively.

After properly placing Little White, Gu Mingxi also took out the Lightning Spirit Bead. With everything fully prepared, she crossed her legs, turned her palms upward toward the heavens, closed her eyes, and began absorbing the spiritual energy.

Gu Mingxi gradually calmed her mind and initiated her cultivation technique.

Foundation Establishment was widely regarded as a watershed moment in cultivation. Prior to Foundation Establishment, one still possessed a mortal vessel; only after Foundation Establishment could one truly embark upon the formal journey of immortality.

Following Foundation Establishment, she would be able to soar through the skies and burrow into the earth just as she had always imagined, no longer a mere mortal destined to survive for only a hundred years.

Her path of immortality was about to truly begin.

Spiritual energy gradually surged into her spiritual meridians, and Gu Mingxi continuously circulated her technique, guiding the spiritual energy along its designated pathways.

Slowly, the absorbed spiritual energy grew denser, beginning to compress, compress, and compress further within her meridians.

Until the spiritual energy was condensed into spiritual liquid, slowly settling at the position of her lower dantian.

Gu Mingxi continued to endlessly absorb spiritual energy, forcing it to compress into liquid form and converge into her dantian. The pool of spiritual liquid within her dantian accumulated more and more, growing increasingly vast.

Until the spiritual liquid entirely filled her dantian to the brim.

Sensing that she could no longer condense any more spiritual liquid, Gu Mingxi began to assault her bottleneck.

Once, twice, thrice...

In a hazy flash, Gu Mingxi seemed to hear a crisp cracking sound, and she knew instantly that the barrier had been shattered.

Simultaneously, a massive influx of external spiritual energy rushed toward Gu Mingxi, enveloping her surroundings in a haze of purple mist.

Upon closer inspection, one could even spot tiny electric arcs flickering amidst that vast expanse of purple mist.

When Gu Mingxi utilized her divine sense for internal introspection, she discovered that her dantian had turned purple, brimming completely with purple spiritual liquid.

When her divine sense gently brushed against the purple liquid within her dantian, a tingling sensation washed over her.

After indulging in this momentary playfulness, Gu Mingxi refocused her mind and continued to sit in meditation to stabilize her realm.

She could feel her internal spiritual energy surging and overflowing with abundance—a stark, heaven-defying contrast to her Qi Condensation days. She felt immensely powerful right now.

Gu Mingxi felt that she could currently take on ten of her former Qi Condensation self. While that might be a slight exaggeration, it vividly highlighted the vast difference in strength between the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment stages.

Concurrently, her divine sense had also advanced to the early stage of Core Formation. This came as somewhat of a surprise to Gu Mingxi; although she knew her divine sense had always surpassed her actual cultivation realm, she had not anticipated that breaking through to Foundation Establishment would propel her divine sense straight into the early Core Formation realm in one go.

As her divine sense broke through to the early Core Formation stage, she clearly perceived the entire expanse of Xiaoyao Peak, as well as her Master standing guard outside the Purple Bamboo Forest.

Sensing Gu Mingxi's divine sense, Yuchen finally relaxed his mind slightly.

It appeared her Foundation Establishment breakthrough had been a success!