Chapter 1: Foundation Establishment at Forty
Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Foundation Establishment at Forty
To all the Loose Cultivators of the Western Wilderness, Fenglan Immortal City was a sacred land of cultivation.
The city was founded by Fenglan Master, a Core Formation Cultivator from among the Western Wilderness’s Loose Cultivators. He had ventured deep into the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, slain a Tier Three demon wolf, and annihilated its pack. He then established the Immortal City upon the Tier Three Spirit Vein the Demon Wolf Race had once occupied.
The Immortal City was dozens of miles across, entirely enveloped by a Tier Three Grand Array.
At the city’s very heart lay Cyan Dragon Mountain, home to the Tier Three Spirit Vein.
Surrounding Cyan Dragon Mountain was the Inner City, where the Spirit Vein was of Tier Two quality.
Beyond that was the vast Outer City, the largest of the three areas, where the Spirit Vein was only Tier One.
The Outer City, the Inner City, and Cyan Dragon Mountain—these three major areas were clearly distinct.
Cyan Dragon Mountain served as the sanctuary for Fenglan Master’s lineage; no outsiders were permitted entry, only the Cultivators of his line.
The Inner City primarily consisted of the market district that supported the Immortal City’s economy, as well as a small number of cultivation abodes for rent to High-tier Loose Cultivators.
As for the Outer City, it was home to the vast majority of Low-Tier Loose Cultivators, along with numerous general stores that served them, selling things like Low-Tier Talismans and buying back various Low-Tier materials.
...
On this day, the sky was a clear, brilliant blue. Sunlight glinted off the cyan light shield of the Tier Three Array that enveloped the Immortal City, creating countless tiny sparkles.
Occasionally, a few wisps of snow-white clouds would drift lazily by, shifting into all sorts of shapes.
The market district in Fenglan Immortal City’s Inner City was the most prosperous area in the entire city. Major merchant guilds and Cultivation Clans rented shops here. Some specialized in buying, others in selling, and many did both, dealing in all kinds of cultivator supplies while also purchasing Spirit Grass, ores, and Demon Beast materials that Cultivators gathered from the Cloud Mist Mountain Range.
On the wide streets of the market district, Cultivators bustled back and forth, ducking into shops and reemerging moments later. Some wore expressions of pleasant surprise, having clearly made a satisfying trade. Others looked dejected, their hopes unfulfilled. A few were furious, likely having been cheated by a powerful merchant, while others were simply excited... a whole spectrum of emotions was on display.
Meanwhile, on a slope in the northwest corner of the sprawling market district sat several hundred small courtyards. Some were shrouded in a faint cyan glow, a clear sign of a resident Cultivator, while others were still and silent, appearing unoccupied.
Suddenly, the Spiritual Qi in the area fluctuated. A moment later, directly above one of the courtyards, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi began to converge rapidly, forming a vortex several dozen yards in diameter.
This immediately drew the attention of nearby Cultivators. They all stopped to watch, their eyes filled with irrepressible envy.
They could see clearly what was happening: a Cultivator was attempting to break through to Foundation Establishment. Judging by the way the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was being drawn in, the process had already reached a critical stage.
At this point, the success rate was already fifty percent. If they succeeded, the Immortal City would have one more Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
In the territories ruled by Fenglan Immortal City, there were tens of thousands of Cultivators, but the vast majority of them were Low-Tier Qi Refining Cultivators. There were no more than a hundred Foundation Establishment Cultivators.
Every single Foundation Establishment Cultivator held a high status in Fenglan Immortal City. Even the lineage of Cyan Dragon Mountain would not ignore a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
And now, right before their eyes, a new Foundation Establishment Cultivator might be born. How could the onlookers not feel envious?
"I wonder which senior is attempting the breakthrough."
"Will they succeed?"
...
Several days passed under the curious and envious gazes of the gathered Cultivators. Then, the Spiritual Qi vortex above the courtyard suddenly contracted, getting sucked down into the small residence below like a waterspout.
After the vortex collapsed, the surrounding Spiritual Qi that had been continuously gathering completely dispersed. Within the dissipating energy, faint five-colored rays of light shimmered, creating a brilliant spectacle.
The crowd of observing Cultivators knew exactly what this sight meant.
"Success."
"The Immortal City has another Foundation Establishment Cultivator."
...
Inside the small courtyard, which was protected by an Array, a surge of Spiritual Pressure unique to a Foundation Establishment Cultivator erupted, causing the faint cyan light shield to ripple violently.
Inside a room, a young man with an unremarkable face, dressed in a blue Daoist robe, sat cross-legged. His long black hair was tied simply in a topknot. His eyes were closed, but a smile couldn’t help but spread across his face.
Opening his eyes, the young man’s gaze was filled with irrepressible joy. "Twenty-seven years since I transmigrated to this world! I’m over forty, and after countless hardships and endless scheming, I’ve finally reached Foundation Establishment!"
The young man’s name was Li Ping, and he was, in fact, a Transmigrator.
He had originally been an ordinary corporate drone on Earth. After a car accident, he found himself transported from Earth to this vast Cultivation Realm.
His soul had transmigrated into the body of a young beggar who had frozen to death on a street corner in this world’s mortal realm. He had then merged with the beggar’s remnant soul and memories.
From the remnant memories of the beggar’s soul, he learned the boy’s story.
The young beggar had been born into a wealthy family, but his parents died when he was young. The large inheritance they left behind was completely devoured by their so-called ’friends and relatives,’ who picked the family fortune clean. He was left with nothing and forced to wander the streets, begging to survive.
On one bitterly cold day, with three feet of snow on the ground, he was driven out of a dilapidated temple where he had sought shelter by a group of older beggars. He froze to death on the street, allowing Li Ping’s soul to take over his body.
When Li Ping awoke, he was in an unfamiliar place with nowhere to escape the cold. His cries for help went unanswered, and it seemed he was about to freeze to death a second time.
Fortunately, at that very moment, Yan Guikai, the renowned Manor Master of Sword Casting Manor, happened to be passing by. Moved to pity by Li Ping’s desperate cries, he intervened.
He saved Li Ping and brought him back to Sword Casting Manor. Li Ping thus became a disciple of the manor, learning the sword from its instructors.
But once he began learning the sword, something incredible happened: Li Ping displayed an utterly terrifying talent for the Sword Dao.
He first held a sword at thirteen.
After one month of practice, he defeated all the other disciples his age, startling Manor Master Yan Guikai, who then took him on as a Direct Disciple.
After three months, even the manor’s instructors were defeated by his blade.
After one year, he defeated Manor Master Yan Guikai, a grandmaster of the martial world, becoming the strongest in Sword Casting Manor.
That same year, he descended the mountain, sword in hand, and slaughtered all the so-called friends and relatives who had wronged the beggar boy’s parents.
He then tested his sword against the heroes of the realm and found it impossible to be defeated. Because his strikes were ruthless and he showed no mercy to his enemies, the people of the martial world came to call him ’Blood Sword’!
Blood Sword, Li Ping!
At fourteen, he was already unrivaled in the world!
But not long after, while hunting the ’Eighteen Bandits of Black Mountain’ who were terrorizing the people of Yizhou State, he passed through a hidden mountain village and was effortlessly defeated by an ordinary-looking, white-haired old man.
With a wave of his hand, the white-haired old man formed a golden light shield around his body. No matter how Li Ping slashed or stabbed, he couldn’t even make a scratch.
After muttering an incantation, the old man’s hands became as hard as metal. He caught Li Ping’s sword with his bare hands, and even the divine blade couldn’t harm him.
Then, the old man chanted another incantation, and a blazing fire erupted in his palm, melting Li Ping’s divine sword into molten iron!
Only then did the old man smile and explain. It turned out he was a legendary Cultivator. The golden light shield, the hands as hard as metal, and the conjured flames hot enough to melt steel—all of it was the Magic of Cultivators!
Li Ping immediately cast aside his sword and asked the old man to teach him the Immortal Dao.
Upon hearing this, the old man burst into laughter.
As it turned out, he had specifically sought out a contest with Li Ping because he had seen that the boy possessed a Spiritual Root. He wanted to guide him onto the Immortal Dao.
After a careful examination, the old man informed Li Ping that he possessed Three Spirit Roots—Metal, Earth, and Water—which was considered a decent aptitude among Cultivators.
The old man also admitted that he himself had the worst aptitude, Five Spirit Roots. He had stumbled upon the path of cultivation by chance, but in his entire life, he had only managed to reach the Qi Refining Fourth Level. Seeing no hope of advancing further on the Immortal Dao, he had retired to this small mountain village to raise a family.
He explained that he wanted to be Li Ping’s guide to the Immortal Dao for two reasons. First, he couldn’t bear to see someone with a Spiritual Root waste their life in the mortal world. Second, he hoped to form a good karmic bond with him.
In the end, the old man not only taught Li Ping everything he knew about his own metal-element Qi Refining Technique, the >, but also allowed Li Ping to practice Qi Refining on his family’s unranked Spiritual Land.
A year later, Li Ping refined his first wisp of Magical Power, officially becoming a Qi Refining First Level Cultivator.
Through his conversations with the old man, he also learned that the land he stood upon was a vast region that Cultivators called the ’Western Wilderness’.
The Western Wilderness was composed of several dozen mortal kingdoms of various sizes, each secretly controlled by a Cultivator clan or sect. The Jiang Kingdom, which he had once thought of as ’the world,’ was no exception.
The force controlling the Jiang Kingdom from behind the scenes was the ’Jiang family,’ a Cultivation Clan. Besides the Jiang family, there were dozens of other powers, large and small, that occupied all the ranked Spiritual Lands within the kingdom.
For Cultivators, ranked Spiritual Lands were an indispensable resource for cultivation.
A Loose Cultivator like the old man who wished to practice on a ranked Spiritual Land had no choice but to join one of the major powers and be at their beck and call in exchange for the right to use the land.
As for the unranked Spiritual Land where Li Ping was cultivating, the old man had only discovered it by chance. Moreover, such a place could at most support his cultivation to the Qi Refining First Level.
Later, in order to advance further on the path of immortality, Li Ping, with a recommendation from the old man, traveled to a market district somewhere in the Jiang Kingdom and took up residence as a Loose Cultivator.
He spent seven years in that market district cultivating to the Qi Refining Fourth Level. Then, for a chance to go even further on the path and become a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, he unhesitatingly joined a merchant caravan heading to Fenglan Immortal City.
After decades of struggle, now over the age of forty, he had finally become a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
...
Sitting cross-legged, Li Ping quietly took stock of the changes within himself.
First was his Magical Power. The misty Magical Power that had once filled his entire Dantian had been compressed into a single liquid droplet the size of a grain of rice.
The quantity of his Magical Power had decreased, but its quality had increased dramatically.
Though the liquid Magical Power was only the size of a rice grain, its potency was more than ten times greater than before his breakthrough.
Second was his Divine Sense. Before the breakthrough, his Divine Sense could only scan an area with a radius of a hundred yards.
In truth, a normal cultivator at the Peak of Qi Refining could only scan a radius of about seventy yards. But because Li Ping had merged with the original body’s remnant soul, his Divine Sense was about fifty percent stronger than that of an ordinary cultivator.
Now that he had broken through to Foundation Establishment, his soul had strengthened, and his Divine Sense had undergone a qualitative transformation. Its maximum range had expanded to five hundred yards, still fifty percent stronger than that of an ordinary Early-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
Finally, there was his lifespan. A Qi Refining Cultivator could live to be 120 at most, but a Foundation Establishment Cultivator could enjoy a lifespan of over two hundred and forty years. In the mortal world, that was long enough to watch an entire dynasty rise and fall.
...