Chapter 117: Planning

"Foundation Establishment successful at thirty-two."

"Not particularly fast, but not too slow either."

Qin Ming stood within the spirit field, hands clasped behind his back, his gaze calmly fixed on the distant Moon-Gazing Lake.

He now possessed a lifespan of over four hundred years, almost catching up to the longevity of a Jin Dan ancestor.

With enough time, he could pursue the greater Dao that lay beyond.

His main cultivation art, the *Ancient Tree Eternal Life Art*, as time went on, drew in more essence of flora and the breath of years; the more, the stronger his magic power became—the older, the more monstrous.

After advancing to the Foundation Establishment realm.

Next.

Qin Ming cast his eyes toward a long-term goal.

Naturally, that would be Core Formation.

He had to plan ahead and prepare in advance; otherwise, the vast resources required for Core Formation would far exceed those of Foundation Establishment.

Relying on one's own strength alone, how could that be easy?

The so-called Foundation Establishment was simply building the foundation for the core—everything was but a prelude to Core Formation.

Core Formation was divided into False Core and Jin Dan.

A False Core, by rights, also counted as a Core Formation cultivator, except that one's magic power was only half that of a normal Jin Dan cultivator, the increase in lifespan was merely a hundred years, and one could never step into the mid Core Formation realm in their lifetime.

Nascent Soul was even more hopeless.

Once a False Core was formed, one's Dao path in this life was destined to stop right there.

As for Jin Dan, it was a Core Formation cultivator whose core quality was extremely fine; among them there were also grades high and low, and a high-quality Jin Dan even held the possibility of advancing to Nascent Soul.

Its future potential was limitless.

"With my current aptitude, I'm afraid even achieving a False Core will be very difficult." Qin Ming knew this well in his heart.

Realms above Jin Dan could not be broken through at will just by popping pills.

The further one went up, the greater the influence of spiritual root aptitude.

Below a top-grade spiritual root, achieving a False Core was extremely difficult, unless one chanced upon another opportunity.

However.

Qin Ming had his trait panel in hand, and also a divine life-bound spirit plant like the Longevity Vine.

As the Longevity Vine grew, it was not necessarily impossible.

For now.

He would simply focus on farming, developing steadily until the late Foundation Establishment stage.

After stepping into the Foundation Establishment realm, a cultivation cultivator's lifespan became long.

Even for a top-grade spiritual root, cultivating from early Foundation Establishment to late Foundation Establishment required a lengthy span of several decades.

Moreover, after the Foundation Establishment realm, there were no longer such fine divisions as Foundation Establishment first layer, second layer.

Basically, it was divided according to the realms of early, mid, and late Foundation Establishment.

Because the gap in magic power between layers one to three of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was not particularly large; each small realm was at most an extra twenty or thirty percent.

Most cultivators at this realm were stuck at early Foundation Establishment; those who could enter mid Foundation Establishment were relatively few.

The vast majority could never enter late Foundation Establishment in their lifetime.

Hence, lingering in the Foundation Establishment stage for a hundred years or more at the slightest was perfectly normal.

During such a long stretch of cultivation time, although Qin Ming kept a low profile on the remote Moon-Gazing Isle, avoiding contention and strife,

he still had to consider further strengthening the means to protect his Dao.

His body-tempering cultivation art, the *Hundred Treasures Glazed Sutra*.

Was only one step away from being able to enter cultivation at the Foundation Establishment stage.

First, he had to activate the Hundred Beasts Visualization Diagram on the beast-skin scripture.

The prerequisite was that the innate astral qi of the fleshly body needed to reach a certain level.

After Qin Ming broke through to Foundation Establishment, the qi and blood throughout his body had reached unprecedented heights.

Now, only the very last bit remained.

The 【Qi-Blood Essence】 trait he had harvested from the Longevity Vine a few days prior had not yet been used.

Now was the perfect chance to break through.

Qin Ming's consciousness landed on the trait, and a flood of energy swept in, filling his entire body, ceaselessly remolding his fleshly form.

Seizing the momentum, he also used up five 【Qi-Blood Crystal】 traits in one go.

Several hours later.

Qin Ming's blood-colored innate astral qi rose once more, refined to perfection.

He excitedly took out the beast-skin scripture and channeled his qi-blood true astral qi into it.

After a familiar breath.

A blood-colored glow rose on the beast-skin scripture, gradually beginning to respond.

In an instant.

Phantoms of demonic beasts in all manner of strange forms flickered unsteadily upon the beast-skin. Qin Ming stared at it with complete focus.

It seemed that among the several hundred forms, he had to make his own choice.

This concerned the might of the body-tempering art, as well as its future potential.

Within the Hundred Beasts Visualization Diagram, there were primordial giant pythons with blood-flames sweeping the skies, celestial wolves, giant bears, silver foxes, Bai Hu, mystic tortoises—the figures of all manner of demonic beasts flickered between dark and light.

These demonic beasts were marked at various positions on the beast-skin scripture.

The glow of each phantom also varied in size; clearly, the larger the glow, the greater the might once cultivated.

Qin Ming found it hard to choose for the moment.

Just then.

A white light at the corner of the beastskin scripture, though not especially large, caught his attention.

In some unfathomable way, a feeling of blessing descending upon his heart arose.

Qin Ming did not deliberate further, immediately circulating the *Hundred Treasures Glazed Scripture*, and chose this white light.

The white light transformed into a meteor, plunging into Qin Ming's body in an instant.

Roar~ A tremendous roar exploded within Qin Ming's mind.

A mountain ape over ten zhang tall, towering between heaven and earth, swung its fist at the sky and bellowed.

Suddenly!

Qin Ming could not help himself and quickly withdrew from the visualization. Recalling the scene just now, his mind was shaken beyond measure.

It seemed that to sustain the visualization, he would have to refine the essence blood of high-tier demon beasts.

Moreover, according to the description of the First Transformation of True Gang Manifestation at the Foundation Establishment stage, once one has chosen the demon beast from the Hundred Beasts Chart to visualize.

It would be best to refine the essence blood of a demon beast of the same type, so that the might of the First Transformation of True Gang Manifestation could be brought to its fullest.

Qin Ming put away the beastskin scripture.

He pondered to himself for a while — even in Yunze Xiancheng, the essence blood of such a high-tier ape would not be easy to obtain! But since he had chosen this method, he must walk it without wavering.

He planned to make another trip to Yunze Xiancheng after some time.

And while he was at it, seek out the spirit plants he intended to cultivate on the island.

After all.

Second-grade upper-quality spirit plants and supreme-quality spirit plant seeds and seedlings were rarely seen even at Chu Tianhe's market.

Only in the great cities of immortal cultivation could one or two be found.

As for the spirit field crops he currently had, like Shen Shen Cha, he could keep planting them — every year there would be tea leaves to harvest.

It was a peerless choice for cultivation, gifting to friends, and tea tasting.

There was also Purple-Gold Bamboo — aside from the portion he had Gu Qingzhao auction on his behalf, many stalks of spirit bamboo still remained in the spirit field.

Qin Ming planned to continue cultivating them, to see whether in the future they might possibly advance into higher-tier spirit wood.

The days that followed.

Qin Ming began consuming Spirit-Rest Rice and Rice-Flower Spirit Fish to boost his cultivation at the Foundation Establishment stage.

Not to say a thousand miles in a single day, but his cultivation speed was indeed much faster than that of ordinary cultivators.

Even faster, by quite a margin, than Foundation Establishment cultivators who practiced other hundred arts of cultivation.

After all, these two rare items could both greatly enhance Foundation Establishment magic power cultivation.

"Now that I've reached the Foundation Establishment stage, I can't keep using magic artifacts anymore."

"Although I don't really fight with people right now, what needs to be prepared still must be prepared — prepare for rain before it falls."

"Purchasing a spirit artifact for use at the Foundation Establishment stage should also be put on the agenda."

Just as Qin Ming was silently making all sorts of plans for the future.

Outside the formation array.

A message talisman from Wu Jiang arrived.

Qin Ming immediately opened the formation array and let him in.

Wu Jiang, drenched in sweat, his face somewhat pale, gasping for breath, handed an invitation card to Qin Ming and immediately said: "Fellow Daoist Qin, disaster has struck!"

"Last night, the two islands to the southwest of the spiritual energy Archipelago — Kongtong Island and Yushui Island — encountered a terrifying upheaval."

"The two Qi Refining clans on the spirit islands were brutally slaughtered — from the oldest to the youngest, over a hundred people, not a single survivor. All the treasures on the islands were looted clean."

"The Seventy-Two Islands San Alliance is preparing to hold an emergency meeting, gathering the loose cultivators and many clans of the spiritual energy Archipelago to jointly discuss how to respond to this matter."

"The San Alliance has also sent Fellow Daoist Qin an invitation."

"Fellow Daoist Qin, do you think we should go or not?"

Qin Ming's brows knit tightly upon hearing this news.

He had not expected that, just as he had broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage, such a tremendous upheaval would occur on the spiritual energy Archipelago.

At once, a feeling of a storm about to break arose.

(End of this chapter)