Chapter 165 – Foundation Establishment – Part 1

  Jun De escaped from Lin Yue’s courtyard only after she had begun to stammer through something that only tangentially resembled an explanation. She didn’t go into details, but Mei Lian knew enough to know that Lin Yue’s increase in cultivation had to do with her intimacy with Jun De.

  He had excused himself as quickly as possible, all while ignoring their response, and fled.

  By the time he had returned to his own residence in the Inner Sect, the sun had shifted enough that it now shone directly overhead, and the temperature had risen. It was now summer, and Jun De regretted that he would likely miss the good weather when he finally emerged from his seclusion.

  Jun De activated the array surrounding his residence, blocking off all sounds or anything that could disturb him. With the barrier in place, no one would be able to enter and disrupt his seclusion, a necessity that Shen Weifeng had reminded him of multiple times.

  Silence swallowed the world as Jun De walked to his cultivation chamber and closed the door behind him. The room was deep within the side of the mountain, and strong with spiritual energy. But, although it was underground, it was impeccably clean and dry, with walls that practically glowed with Qi.

  Jun De settled onto his cultivation mat and placed the Tranquil Cultivation Method on the floor beside him, opened to the section he had read so many times over the past few months, but still barely understood.

  The text described the process to reach Foundation Establishment, but, just like the rest of the manual, was written in a flowing, poetic script that was beautiful, elegant, and entirely unhelpful to Jun De.

  Jun De frowned at the first line and read it aloud in the hope that he would be struck by a sudden surge of enlightenment.

  “To establish the Dao Foundation, one must reverse the flow of heaven within the meridians, returning the gathered Qi to the unformed state, so that the unformed may birth the formed.”

  Reverse the flow of heaven? Return Qi to the unformed state? What did that even mean? He had tried to ask Shen Weifeng about the process, but the former Elder had left the Sect shortly after visiting him.

  Without any other options, Jun De had also broached the topic with Mu Yanyu, but her answers were the same as the manual in front of him. Each time he asked clarifying questions, she had looked at him as though he were speaking a foreign language.

  Finally, she had just told him that she couldn’t make it any simpler and easier to understand than what she had already said. Jun Ded had finally been forced to nod and pretend to understand.

  Jun De read further.

  “Gather the nature of tranquillity until it becomes so still that movement arises. Compress the essence of movement until it stills. Merge movement and stillness until distinction vanishes, the foundation is formed.”

  Jun De stared at the page for a long moment.

  “I still understand nothing about the process. Did someone translate this from another language or something?” Jun De muttered unhappily.

  This manual looked like it could be written in a language he knew, with all the familiar words he would expect to see, but they had strung them together in an incomprehensible way. It was like reading an advanced technical manual for a product he had never seen before!

  “Someone needs to rewrite this in a way that makes sense. What’s wrong with bullet points, or step-by-step instructions?!?” Jun De exclaimed as he massaged the space between his eyebrows and flipped the page.

  Thankfully, the next page contained a more practical diagram instead of more poetry. The style was simple, composed of clean black lines, red arrows, and blue squiggles that he assumed were meant to depict spiritual energy.

  At the top of the page was the outline of a cultivator with their legs crossed in the lotus position, their back perfectly straight, and their hands forming a classic mudra that had their fingertips pressed together while forming a shape like a triangle.

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  The air around the small, painted figure had blue squiggle lines that represented spiritual energy, and red arrows that indicated the flow of spiritual energy being drawn inward with each inhale. Multiple thin lines funnelled toward the center of the person’s abdomen toward the Dantian, with careful annotations in the margins describing the correct rhythm of breathing, and the proper cycle of Qi.

  It was the most technical diagram Jun De had seen in the manual, and the only thing that was remotely helpful.

  He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “There’s no point in delaying. It’s not going to make any more sense even if I stare at it longer.”

  Jun De reached into his storage ring with his spiritual sense, pushing past talismans and spirit stones until he located a small, cool object. He drew out a small jade box, its surface carved with faintly glowing runes that kept its contents perfectly preserved.

  He set it gently on the floor beside the open Tranquil Cultivation Method, and the two items were the only preparations he made for Foundation Establishment.

  For a long time, Jun De simply sat there and stared at the jade box. His pulse beat a little faster in the stillness of the chamber.

  With a deep breath, he flicked open the lid.

  Inside was the single Foundation Establishment Pill he had found in the Inheritance Site years before. Unlike other pills, this one was a perfect, white and gold pill that radiated a rainbow-coloured aura. The strong smell of medicinal fragrance rose into the air, and Jun De could feel the power of the pill even without consuming it.

  This Pill was one of the only ways the Tranquil Mountain Sect had of providing enough spiritual energy to break through to Foundation Establishment in a short amount of time. A Qi gathering array could supply an equal amount but was limited in the speed necessary to crystallize the Sea of Qi.

  Jun De inhaled deeply once again, straightened his back and brought his hands together in the Mudra shown. When his fingertips met, he closed his eyes and prepared for the next step.

  His pulse slowed, his breathing deepened, and he focused on the air entering his lungs and the spiritual energy in the chamber.

  Time lost all meaning as Jun De sank deeper into his meditation. Finally, after an unknown period of time, he slowly opened his eyes and reached out for the Foundation Establishment pill.

  When he placed it in his mouth, the pill dissolved instantly. It was sweet and pleasantly cool, and Jun De marvelled at the sensation for a moment before a detonation of pure spiritual power erupted inside him.

  His Dantian lurched, widening and stretching, then contracting as it pulled the spiritual energy directly toward it. An unimaginable flood of spiritual energy slammed into the center of his being, spiralling outward in a violent torrent. It churned and split into countless streams as it shot into his meridians.

  His meridians thrummed, trembling under the force. Some felt seared by molten light, while others froze in the cold. His very bones vibrated, and his skin prickled as if needles of energy were trying to break out of his body from within his abdomen.

  The Dawnheart Flame was buried immediately under an avalanche of power. The flame flickered violently, guttering like a candle crushed beneath a tidal wave. The sheer density of spiritual energy smothered it, forcing the Flame into dormancy.

  At the center of his Dantian, the ten drops of Liquid Qi that marked the peak of Qi Condensation were caught in the maelstrom. The flood swallowed them whole, and for a heartbeat, they resisted as they shone like pearls.

  Finally, inevitably, they burst apart and dissolved into the raging currents. Their refined essence blended into the flood, turning the Qi denser and heavier.

  Jun De’s body heated rapidly, until sweat evaporated the moment it formed on his skin. A golden aura surged outward from his body, with purple threads that coiled through the gold.

  But oddly, Jun De was totally relaxed. The feeling of the rampaging Qi was even pleasant. It felt as though he were floating on the top of the ocean while the waves carried his body deeper into its depths.

  Jun De’s breakthrough experience was so pleasant that he promptly fell asleep!

  Outside, the sky above Jun De’s residence rippled. The cloud twisted, and a golden palace emerged in the air. It was vast and ethereal, a phenomenon wrought by the heavens in response to Jun De’s attempt to break through to Foundation Establishment.

  Spiritual beasts formed of sunlight, Qi, mist and spiritual energy circled lazily through the air, crying out to one another silently. At the palace gates stood immortal sentinels, tall and imposing, their figures outlined in searing gold light. Their spears pointed downward as if guarding Jun De.

  The entire Tranquil Mountain Sect went into a frenzy at the sudden display.

  “Whose breakthrough is that?!”

  “An illusion phenomenon! I’ve never seen its like!”

  Within a breath, dozens of Elders were already moving as they rose into the sky to witness the signs and determine their source. As one, their eyes locked onto Jun De’s residence, and they were just about to move once again when they were interrupted.

  “Hmph.”

  The single, cold sound echoed from the highest peak. It carried authority and the weight of a mountain. Instantly, the world stilled. The Elder froze in mid-air, and the Disciples found their throats constricted.

  With a flick of his sleeve, the Sect Master obscured the heavenly images above Jun De’s residence. The palace blurred, and the phenomenon collapsed into swirling mist. Seconds later, it disappeared, leaving a calm sky behind.

  “Return to your cultivation. There is nothing to see.”

  The Sect Master’s voice once again drifted through the air, and no one dared question it or even think of disturbing Jun De further.