The Place of Foundation Establishment

"Do you know the exact extent of Shi Shou's cultivation?" Song Wen continued to press.

Weakened by the heavy blood loss, Du Qiu caught his breath for a moment before speaking slowly. "I am not certain of his current cultivation level, but Elder Shi Shou reached the Foundation Establishment stage twenty years ago."

Song Wen's brows furrowed tightly.

Twenty years was neither too long nor too short for a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Those with exceptional talent could easily reach the late Foundation Establishment stage or even the peak of Foundation Establishment Perfection within two decades. However, those with lesser aptitude might still be struggling at the early Foundation Establishment stage.

For the moment, Song Wen could not accurately gauge Shi Shou's actual strength.

Suddenly, Song Wen's left hand morphed into a sharp corpse claw, plunging straight toward Du Qiu's skull.

Pfft!

His fingers pierced through Du Qiu's head with ease.

Before his breath fully left him, Du Qiu could clearly feel his essence blood being rapidly drained by Song Wen, followed by his soul, which was sucked into a dark abyss. Then, his consciousness vanished completely.

After thoroughly disposing of Du Qiu's remains, Song Wen fell into deep thought.

He had gained two crucial pieces of information from Du Qiu.

First, Shi Shou was indeed practicing the Corpse King Blood Refining Art.

Second, just as he had previously suspected, the moment his own cultivation broke through to the sixth layer of Qi Refining would be the exact moment Shi Shou chose to strike.

Song Wen continued to steer his flying boat toward the northwest.

He needed to find a suitable place to attempt his breakthrough. His cultivation had already reached the peak of Qi Refining Perfection, and now that the Heavenly Spirit Fruit was in his possession, it was time to establish his foundation.

Song Wen chose a specific cliffside located between the Poisonous Miasma Swamp and Three Corpses City, a place he had passed by once before.

It was a desolate, untouched region where spirit herbs and Demon Beasts were scarce, meaning ordinary cultivators rarely ventured there. The only obvious disadvantage of selecting such a location was its incredibly thin Spirit Qi.

However, Song Wen carried a vast amount of Spirit Stones. Before entering the Withered Blood Secret Realm, he had also prepared a first-grade, High-Grade Spirit Gathering Array, which would easily compensate for the lack of natural environmental energy.

Song Wen had considered attempting his breakthrough within his own cave dwelling back at the sect. Breaking through there would mean denser Spirit Qi and greater security, without the risk of rogue cultivators suddenly intruding.

But he harbored far too many secrets, and Shi Shou was constantly watching him like a hawk. Although he possessed the Qi-Concealing Spirit-Isolating Array, its true efficacy had yet to be verified. He could not blindly trust the array master's claim that it could deceive the Divine Sense of a Golden Core ancestor.

Furthermore, aside from several Golden Core ancestors within the Corpse Demon Sect, rumors persisted of an elusive Nascent Soul stage Supreme Elder. While a supreme figure was highly unlikely to pay attention to a mere Qi Refining disciple's foundation establishment, Song Wen refused to risk a catastrophic stroke of bad luck.

Thus, seeking out a completely deserted location was the most sensible course.

Two hours later, Song Wen arrived at the edge of the cliff.

The drop was roughly three hundred meters, leading down into a secluded valley. After surveying the upper and lower sections of the rock face from the air, he finally spotted a narrow fissure along the lower-middle portion of the cliff.

The crack extended over ten meters across and reached about twenty meters deep. The entrance was roughly the height of a man, narrowing further inward.

Song Wen stepped inside, drawing a heavy, sharp axe. The weapon was a Middle-Grade Magical Artifact he had salvaged from a storage bag obtained within the secret realm.

As he channeled True Essence into the tool, it erupted with a cold, blinding light that forced him to narrow his eyes. Gripping the handle firmly, Song Wen swung upward with full force.

The solid rock split as easily as tofu.

After several dozen strikes, Song Wen successfully carved out a narrow, twenty-meter-deep immortal's cave.

Spending a quarter-hour, he carefully deployed the Qi-Concealing Spirit-Isolating Array around the perimeter, then set up the Spirit Gathering Array within the interior.

Song Wen held the primary formation plate, embedding a thousand Spirit Stones into the various nodes of the Spirit Gathering Array before executing several hand seals. Instantly, the array forcibly drew out the latent power from the stones, causing the density of Spirit Qi inside the cave to skyrocket.

Stepping outside to test the barriers, he confirmed that the Qi-Concealing Spirit-Isolating Array perfectly masked all internal energy fluctuations and physical auras. Satisfied, he slipped back inside.

Song Wen did not immediately attempt his breakthrough. Foundation Establishment was a perilous endeavor; the slightest misstep could cause one's True Essence to spiral out of control, resulting in severe internal trauma and cultivation regression at best, or total Dao dissipation and immediate death at worst.

To ensure he would remain absolutely undisturbed, he decided to first secure a powerful guardian.

He retrieved the pseudo-Tier 2 bronze corpse puppet he had taken from Wu Sui and began the refining process. Since the puppet had originally belonged to Wu Sui, Wu Ren would recognize it instantly if he ever saw it. To prevent this, Song Wen needed to re-forge the corpse, altering both its appearance and spiritual aura.

He emptied six bottles of Corpse Fiend Qi and several dark-attribute spirit materials into the black coffin holding the puppet. As he drove his hand seals deep into its core, the creature's presence and physical build gradually began to shift.

Two days later, the refinement concluded.

The corpse puppet was completely transformed. Its aura was entirely unrecognizable, and its physical frame had compressed significantly.

Song Wen dispatched eight Black-armored Gu to patrol the outer perimeter, monitoring for any anomalies within a several-mile radius. He stationed the re-forged corpse puppet directly at the cave entrance to act as a final line of defense.

With the eight Black-armored Gu and a pseudo-Tier 2 corpse guardian, he would at least be able to stall for time even if a Foundation Establishment cultivator chanced upon the area.

With his preparations complete, Song Wen officially began the process.

He placed another thousand Spirit Stones into the nodes of the Spirit Gathering Array to ensure a continuous, abundant supply of environmental energy. Then, he closed his eyes and sat cross-legged, calming his mind to bring his essence, qi, and spirit into perfect alignment.

Five days passed. With his mental state at its peak, his blood energy robust, and his meridians brimming with power, Song Wen retrieved the jade box containing the Heavenly Spirit Fruit. Alongside it, he laid out a Wind Spirit Flower, Yin-Condensing Grass, and five other auxiliary spirit grasses he had gathered to neutralize the fruit's violent medicinal potencies.

Song Wen took a single Heavenly Spirit Fruit and swallowed it whole.

The moment the fruit settled into his stomach, it was as if a drop of freezing water had fallen into a boiling vat of oil. The immense power bound within the Heavenly Spirit Fruit erupted violently, causing his internal energy to swell exponentially as the rampant, turbulent currents tore through his body.

Song Wen quickly consumed half a Wind Spirit Flower and two stalks of Yin-Condensing Grass, followed by the remaining auxiliary herbs.

He had calculated the proportions himself based on standard Foundation Establishment Pill recipes circulating through common markets. Although most recipes found in the mortal world were flawed or incomplete, Song Wen wasn't trying to perform alchemy within his own body; he merely required the basic properties of the herbs to temper the raw fury of the Heavenly Spirit Fruit.

If he could just pacify the raging torrents within his meridians even slightly, it would be enough.

Yet, reality proved far harsher than his calculations.

The combined medicinal properties of the five auxiliary herbs mixed into a chaotic, impure slurry. The resulting energy was completely uncoordinated and beyond his control, making the notion of using them to soothe the Heavenly Spirit Fruit's primal fury utterly laughable.

"I was far too reckless. If this continues, the energy inside my Dantian will violently rupture, and I will suffer a complete Qi Deviation."

Without a moment's hesitation, Song Wen made a swift decision. He raised his right hand and struck his own abdomen with a heavy palm.

The sheer force of the impact drove through his skin and muscle, slamming directly into his stomach.

Ugh!

Song Wen gagged, violently vomiting out the remaining herbal masses from his gut.

The five auxiliary herbs still retained roughly eighty to ninety percent of their original potency, but the Heavenly Spirit Fruit had already lost the majority of its mass. The fruit now lay mangled and torn on the stone floor, looking as though it had been chewed by insects, its residual Spirit Qi rapidly bleeding into the surrounding air.

Song Wen could not afford to waste a single thought on the ruined herbs. He immediately circulated the Corpse King Blood Refining Art with all his might, focusing entirely on guiding the chaotic, invading currents of foreign energy safely out of his body.

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