Chapter Eleven: Building Foundations in One Hundred Days

  Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

  "Alright, stop pretending." Daquan Zhenren could naturally see that Xiao Tian was faking it. "This initial stage is still fast, I spent 500 years from Jindan to Yuanying!"

  "Five hundred years!" Little Tian was a bit dizzy after just standing up.

  "Here, take this first." Daquan Zhenren handed a ring with an ancient style to Xiao Tian.

  "Ring? What's this for?" Xiaotian took it over and turned the ring over and over, but couldn't see anything special about it.

  "Oh, right, I'll teach you the method of cultivating your divine consciousness first." As he spoke, Quan Zhēn True Person raised his right hand and pointed at Xiao Tian's forehead with his middle finger.

  "Ah?" Xiaotian felt a stream of clear water entering his brain from his forehead, and suddenly there was a lot more information in his mind.

  "The spirit is the conscious mind of man, with functions such as seeing, hearing, and knowing, able to distinguish and understand all external phenomena and even one's own heart... This is what is called the spirit." Little Tian recited it involuntarily.

  "Yes, divine sense is a kind of signal emitted from our minds, just like the eyes can see, ears can hear, nose can smell, tongue can taste, and body can touch. In simple terms, divine sense is like an antenna that can replace parts of our body to execute our thoughts, it can see, grab, and even attack! Of course, your first step is to learn how to emit and retrieve your divine sense. The method for retrieving divine sense will be taught later. First, focus on cultivating your mind, if you can sense my presence with your eyes closed, then further 'see' my appearance, that's considered the initial success." Daquan Zhenren now knew that Xiaotian was a complete beginner in terms of cultivation, so he explained it in detail.

  "Uh, I'll cultivate immediately! But I'm hungry, let me go get something to eat first." Little Tian said with some embarrassment.

  "Oh, it was my oversight, you haven't reached the Valley of Abstinence yet. Come, eat this." Daquan Zhenren flipped his hand, and a red dan bead emitting a fragrant medicinal scent appeared in his palm.

  "What's this thing again?" Little Tian was very curious.

  "This is a Bìgǔ Dān, the lowest level of dan medicine in the Xiūzhēn realm. It's useless for cultivators in the Bìgǔ period, but ordinary people can go without food or drink for a month after taking just one pill."

  "After eating this, I'm not hungry anymore, great stuff!" Little Tian didn't hesitate, picked it up and threw it into his mouth. All of a sudden, there was a rumbling sound in his stomach, and indeed the feeling of hunger disappeared.

  "Alright, let's cultivate!" With a determined look on his face, Xiao Tian sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes as instructed by Dangquan Zhenren, and cleared his mind of distractions. His spirit fully immersed itself in the cultivation method within his mind.

  "Haha, this kid is indeed eager, I reckon he wants to attain the initial spiritual awareness, at least three months or so," Looking at Xiao Tian's diligence, Dalian Zhenren was very satisfied.

  Three days passed, and suddenly, the little Tian who was sitting still on the stone bed, jumped up with his eyebrows, opened his eyes wide, and said with a bright gaze: "Lu old brother, I 'saw' you with my eyes closed!"

  "What?!" Upon hearing this, Dajian Zhenren was shocked, his thousand-year-old Dao heart almost lost its guard. This was too abnormal! It took him half a year to reach this step himself.

  "I can see you with my divine sense now, haha! How long did it take me?" Little Tian asked excitedly.

  "Three days!" Daquan said with a scowl, his voice like a resentful wife.

  "Does it take three days?" Little Tian still felt it was too long.

  "You——" Daquan Zhenren felt himself about to faint, "Little Tian brother, I just told you earlier that this cultivation is fraught with danger at every turn. You absolutely cannot be impatient, or else you'll suffer from internal fire and full-body paralysis at best, or die and have your soul destroyed at worst!"

  "Oh, haha, I've learned something from you, little brother!"

  "Come, give you, now you can also see, try to use your divine consciousness to observe this ring." The Great Truth True Person handed the ring to Little Heaven again.

  "Ah! So many things!" Little Tian scanned the space with his divine sense and found that the ring's space was very large, about five or six rooms in size. Inside, jade slips, jade vases, flying swords and other items were neatly arranged and categorized.

  "Hmph! You little brat, let me give you a surprise too!" Daquan was secretly pleased with himself, still holding a grudge against Xiao Tian for startling him earlier.

  "Try thinking of one of them," said Daquan Zhenren.

  "Bang!" A jade bottle flew out, and Xiao Tian stretched out his hand but failed to catch it. It fell to the ground and shattered into pieces. Many yellow medicine pellets were seen rolling around on the ground.

  "Hehe, sorry about that, didn't catch it." Little Tian realized he had made a mistake.

  "It's okay, it's just a bottle of Yuanying Dan!" Daquan Zhen said calmly, but his mouth twitched violently for a few moments. He only had two bottles in total, and now one was shattered. This medicine could only be stored in jade bottles; if it came into contact with ordinary earth or stone, its efficacy would be lost.

  "Never mind, sit on the stone bed and I'll help you build your foundation." The Great Truthful Person stopped Little Heaven from picking up the medicinal grains.

  "Building a foundation?"

  "Uh, the first step of the Refining Truth stage is to lay the foundation, also known as '100-day foundation', which literally means laying the groundwork. The main goal is to refine and transform one's own essence and blood into true energy within the body. When the true energy in the body is full and overflowing, it has reached the later stage of foundation-building. When the true energy can circulate on its own and absorb energy from the air, then one no longer needs to eat worldly food and has entered the second stage of avoiding grains."

  "Oh!" Little Tian nodded as if he understood but didn't really understand.

  "Come, first take this foundation-building pill, sit well like just now, exclude miscellaneous thoughts, and concentrate on feeling my true energy running in your body. During this time, there may be some pain, you must endure it, otherwise all previous efforts will be wasted!" Daquan Zhenren said, his hands pressed on Xiao Tian's back, a stream of true energy slowly entering.

  The true person hasn't told you that there are several ways to build the foundation, and the most common one is natural foundation building. One can sit in meditation and gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to form it. In general, disciples with average aptitude in ordinary sects build their foundations this way, which takes time and effort but has a mediocre effect. There's also the Dan medicine foundation building method, where one takes foundation-building Dan medicine or heavenly treasures to build their foundation. Only disciples with above-average aptitude in the sect can enjoy this method of foundation building in the Cultivation world. The most effective method is the True Yuan foundation building method, which involves a senior cultivator helping to open up the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. However, this method is rarely used because when helping others build their foundations, the senior cultivator's own cultivation will also decline to some extent, as it consumes one's own True Yuan to build the foundation. Only direct disciples of the sect leader or close relatives have a chance to receive this kind of foundation building. This shows how much importance Daquan places on Xiaotian in his heart.

  As the Great True Man's true energy slowly and carefully poured in, it was only an instant before Little Heaven felt a strong electric current spreading throughout his body along his spine. Under the effect of the Great True Man's true energy and the medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill, his meridians were quickly opened up and expanded, with some of the smaller ones directly bursting open. Waves of intense stinging pain came from all parts of his body, and fine beads of sweat oozed out from Little Heaven's forehead.

  Three days passed, and just as Xiao Tian's spirit was about to collapse, a crisp sound was heard. The Eight Extraordinary Meridians were finally all opened up, and Xiao Tian's dantian was unlocked. The true yuan in the form of gas quickly filled it, then slowly flowed into each meridian, and finally returned to the dantian, circulating non-stop like this. Each cycle was faster than the last, with more true yuan each time. After dozens of cycles, Xiao Tian's skin gradually became somewhat transparent. The spiritual energy in the air within a radius of several dozen li poured into his body like white mist. Daquan Zhenren hastily withdrew his hand, but Xiao Tian's body was like an insatiable water bucket, still absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy at an incredible rate, as if the parched earth had suddenly encountered sweet rain. The visible spiritual energy around him wildly surged towards him, gradually forming a circle of gas that seemed to be on the verge of transforming into something else.

  "It's just a foundation, how can there be so many nearly substantial spiritual energies gathered?! If this continues, this kid will burst from it!" The Great Truth True Person panicked, the situation had already escaped his control, now he could only quietly observe the changes.

  Three months passed, and the spiritual energy in Xiao Tian's dantian grew more abundant, finally reaching its peak. Suddenly, a low hum was heard from within his dantian, and Xiao Tian's body seemed to suck in all the surrounding spiritual energy like a whale taking in water. Under high pressure, all the gaseous spiritual energy in his dantian transformed into liquid true yuan.

  Sitting cross-legged on the stone bed, Xiao Tian slowly opened his eyes, and a flash of divine light flickered in his pupils. Xiao Tian clearly felt that the world had changed, everything was so clear, and the colors of the world became richer, even the fragrance of flowers and grass outside the cave could be smelled. Everything was so magical and harmonious, with streams of spiritual energy flowing through the broad meridians, the damaged meridians were already repaired, and his body was filled with incredible power. Xiao Tian felt that he could kill a tiger with his bare hands.

  "Ah, it's so refreshing! Is this what cultivation is all about?" Little Tian stretched his waist and said with a comfortable tone.

  "It's actually the later stage of Bigu???? This is abnormal!" Daquan Zhenren stared at Xiao Tian in a daze, his face full of incredulity.

  "Just opened the furnace, I thought it was a golden elixir!" Little Tian said nonchalantly.

  "Thud!" This time it was Daquan who fainted.

  Comments, recommendations, collections, come on! Hehe, isn't Xi Feng being a bit greedy?