Chapter 141

Breaking through from mid-Foundation Establishment to late Foundation Establishment naturally also has a bottleneck.

Many cultivators, after successfully establishing their foundation, find diligent training to reach mid-Foundation Establishment relatively simple; it's a matter of gradual accumulation, and once enough is gathered, the breakthrough is not difficult.

But wanting to break through from mid-Foundation Establishment to late Foundation Establishment is not so easy.

However, for a true genius, this bottleneck of late Foundation Establishment is merely a joke.

Just like cultivators with heavenly-grade spiritual roots, they encounter no bottleneck before forming their Golden Core.

And now that Yunhe has successfully condensed the minor Five Elements Spirit Body, to a certain extent he can rival an earth-grade spiritual root; although not as good as a heavenly-grade one, it greatly weakens the impact of the late Foundation Establishment bottleneck on him.

Furthermore, his own mana is already sufficiently pure; with day-and-night training and taking elixirs, he has already met, even exceeded, the mana requirement for breaking through to late Foundation Establishment.

With everything ready, if he doesn't seize the moment of the minor Five Elements Spirit Body's successful condensation to break through in one go, when will he wait?

He closed his eyes and meditated; within his qi sea dantian, the Five Elements mutually generated and forged the minor Five Elements Spirit Body, and the abundant liquid mana, under its reflection, manifested five-colored divine light.

Full and moist.

Begin the breakthrough!

In Yunhe's mind, the essential points of the Grand Longevity Great Five Elements True Scripture surfaced, and the mana throughout his body began to circulate.

The sound of bamboo drums, a faint spirit's cry.

As the Five Elements mutual-generation spirit body rotated, his qi sea dantian suddenly turned into a vortex.

In the vast cave dwelling, surging and rich spiritual energy gathered, forming a spiritual vortex around him that frenziedly poured into his body.

The speed and efficiency of this spiritual energy absorption are incomparable to when he previously condensed the illusory form of the four-element spirit body.

Drip!

Suddenly.

A drop of liquid mana fell into his qi sea dantian, as if a certain special balance had been broken.

The next second.

Rumble—

Like rain falling, more and more liquid mana formed, merging with Yunhe's original mana; in an instant, his qi sea expanded again while the mana, drawn by the five spirit bodies, swirled and faintly formed a semicircular arc.

When the remaining half-circle of mana is fully accumulated and built into a truly round and smooth sphere, it signifies that his cultivation has reached perfected Foundation Establishment, allowing him to attempt an assault on the Golden Core realm!

"Late Foundation Establishment!"

Yunhe opened his eyes, lightly lifted the palm resting on his knee, and five-colored light suddenly appeared, condensing without dispersing.

Immediately after, he turned his palm, and the five-colored light transformed into five sharp little swords.

As he clenched his fist, the five little swords swiftly merged into one, becoming a longsword shimmering with five-colored brilliance.

"The Five Elements Sword Technique is also considered a fairly impressive secret art within the Grand Longevity Great Five Elements True Scripture; it is best executed with a Five Elements Sword Formation, and its power is extremely terrifying."

He opened his palm, and the Five Elements longsword dissipated.

The Grand Longevity Great Five Elements True Scripture is a profound cultivation method with many secret arts; mastering it completely is not something that can be done overnight.

"I can also take a three-year leave under the pretext of consolidating my Cultivation Base."

After successfully breaking through to late Foundation Establishment, the first thought that arose in Yunhe's mind made him want to laugh himself.

But I must say, the events that have transpired between the righteous and demonic paths these past few years have left him somewhat bewildered.

The warfare between the righteous and demonic paths has actually become peaceful.

Yunhe originally thought that after both sides maintained a tacit understanding for a period, larger hostilities would erupt; who would have known that this conflict not only failed to expand, but instead showed a rather odd trend of decreasing scale.

To produce such a result, only the demonic path actively reduced its invasion scale and actively lessened the outbreak of warfare.

But would the demonic path retreat?

Such an odd retreat might be exchanged for a thunderous buildup by the demonic path, a single strike that could directly crush the righteous path.

Naturally, not only Yunhe but also the Qingzong Sect and the Ten Regions Nine Sects harbor this speculation; thus, over these years they have continually reduced their defensive perimeter, and many dispatched cultivators have returned to the sect.

However, this change is actually a good thing for Yunhe.

It allowed him to settle down and seclude himself for six whole years; now he has not only successfully condensed the minor Five Elements Spirit Body, which can barely rival an earth-grade spiritual root, but also in one fell swoop broken through to late Foundation Establishment, becoming what other cultivators call a "Golden Core seedling".

Of course, for him the improvements over these six years are not merely in cultivation base, nor are his accomplishments limited to training.

During these six years.

Because he needed to gather the illusory form of the metal-element spirit body to complete the minor Five Elements Spirit Body, Yunhe's Demon Beast Body, both inside the secret realm and after leaving it, extensively hunted metallic-element demon beasts.

Against third-tier metallic-element demon beasts he had little confidence, but against second-tier demon beasts, unless they were of extraordinary talent, few could withstand him.

Moreover, as the condensation of the Five Elements spirit-body illusory forms progressed, the demand for demon beast essence and blood grew higher; thus, the Demon Beast Body hunted large numbers of second-tier demon beasts just to barely meet the minimum standard for condensing the metal-element spirit-body illusory form.

Thus, he also obtained a large amount of demon beast flesh, materials, and some demon beast inner pellets.

The demon beast flesh was digested by the Nine-Turns Gourd, the demon beast inner pellets were refined into marrow-origin pellets, and the demon beast materials naturally could only be used for forging artifacts.

Furthermore, the artifact-forging method left by the phoenix bird Qingyao, though intended for forging demonic artifacts, also gave Yunhe considerable inspiration and help.

Therefore.

In these six years, his progress in the way of artifacts was the fastest.

Without regard for cost or loss, he forcibly raised his artifact-forging level to the point where he could proficiently forge middle-grade spiritual artifacts and barely manage upper-grade ones.

His progress is certainly not small.

In the whole cultivation world, those who can forge artifacts as frenetically as he does are likely only the descendants of great sect patriarchs or holy sons; attaining such progress is therefore natural for them.

Besides that.

His pill-crafting level continued to steadily improve, remaining at the standard between a second-tier middle-grade pill master and a second-tier upper-grade pill master.

And his talisman craft, which had already reached second-tier upper-grade level, is a point he focuses on more.

The reason is none other than.

Dragon Scale Pattern!

The dragon scale discovered by the Demon Beast Body on the gate of the "Wash Demon Pool," whose engraved pattern is both a kind of script and a talisman glyph!

Although it is the demon clan's rune, more accurately speaking, it is the dragon clan's rune.

But the Great Dao, though different paths, leads to the same goal; when Yunhe pondered the Dragon Scale Pattern, he gained some inspiration.

He discovered that the rune engraved on the dragon scale actually conveyed a faint sense of void.

The reason he could sense the void was also because of the Cloud Feather in his hand.

He had long suspected that the Cloud Feather might be a special Great Teleportation Order of the Cloud Upper Realm.

And the Dragon Scale Pattern faintly resonates with the Cloud Feather.

It is quite evident that it is likely related to the void.

However, the Dragon Scale Pattern is too profound for Yunhe as he is now; he cannot even stare at it for too long, otherwise he will feel a wave of dizziness and nausea.

But he did not give up; whenever he had time, he would take it out and glance at it, gaining little, yet it helped him considerably in the way of runes.

Yunhe believes that as long as he gains even fragmentary insights from the Dragon Scale Pattern, his way of runes will obtain a great improvement.

It is not impossible to use this angle as an entry point to explore the way of the void.

Moreover, because of the Dragon Scale Pattern, he has basically confirmed that the function of the Cloud Feather is the same as that of the Great Teleportation Order.

This means that even if the demonic path is really plotting something, and even the Qingzong Sect and the Ten Domains Nine Sects cannot resist it, he still has a stable retreat.

Only the way of formations.

He still remains in a state of superficial understanding.

However, the alchemy, tool, and rune arts among the four cultivation arts have already reached above middle grade of the Second Stage; such an achievement is not small.

"Joking aside, we really need to consolidate our cultivation base."

Breaking through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment is undoubtedly a cause for excitement for him.

The huge increase in mana was foreseen long ago and is not surprising.

But the substantial increase in mana also means he will be able to use the Ancient Copper Brick more freely.

Yunhe, having witnessed its power, deeply understands the function of this ancient treasure.

"With my current mana, I should be able to use the Ancient Copper Brick twice; even using it once, I need not worry about my mana being completely depleted."

This is undoubtedly good news for him.

"My current divine sense is roughly comparable to that of an early-stage Golden Core cultivator. Even some early-stage Golden Core cultivators with weaker divine sense might not be as good as me."

That a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator's divine sense can match an early-stage Golden Core cultivator shows how powerful the "Thousand Gu Myriad Insects Technique" is, after all it crosses a great chasm between major realms.

"Of course, the most important thing is still lifespan!"

Although the Demon Beast Body has not yet advanced to the late Second Stage, it has undergone a full-body bloodline purification, which not only caused some special changes in itself but also gave its lifespan a considerable increase.

He circulated the "Year Ring Technique" and soon obtained an answer from the depths.

Lifespan, one thousand two hundred!

You should know that the lifespan of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator is mostly around five hundred years, and a Yuan Ying Cultivator, when not taking lifespan-extending elixirs, generally has a lifespan of about a thousand years.

And yet the lifespan he now possesses has actually surpassed that of most Yuan Ying Cultivators!

"After decades of cultivation, I am only sixty-one years old now, having broken through to late Foundation Establishment, and I hope to reach Golden Core!"

Any cultivator who can break through to late Foundation Establishment before the age of eighty can be considered to have good talent, decent fate, and can be called a Golden Core seedling.

"Sixty-one years old is not too exaggerated, but if people knew I could now live for twelve hundred years, I don't know what they would think."

Once the Demon Beast Body also smoothly breaks through to late Second Stage, perhaps his lifespan could increase further.

Demonic beasts of the same realm have lifespans roughly five to ten times that of cultivators; some special demonic beasts have even higher lifespans, and this ratio will continue to rise as cultivation base and realm increase.

Yunhe estimates that if he and the Demon Beast Body both smoothly reach Golden Core, perhaps relying solely on lifespan he could outlive several Yuan Ying Cultivators.

Breaking through to late Foundation Establishment, the subsequent progress to full Foundation Establishment encounters no bottlenecks; it is merely a matter of gradual accumulation of mana through diligent effort.

But why do so many cultivators get stuck at late Foundation Establishment and fail to advance to full Foundation Establishment?

Because the mana required in between differs too greatly!

At his mid-Foundation Establishment breakthrough, his liquid mana was ninety drops; at his late Foundation Establishment breakthrough, it was one hundred forty drops, and after successfully breaking through, his mana reached as high as two hundred drops!

He estimates that reaching full Foundation Establishment may require liquid mana of three hundred fifty drops, or even more!

According to his training speed from mid-Foundation Establishment to meeting the breakthrough to late Foundation Establishment, wanting to train from late Foundation Establishment to full Foundation Establishment would take at least twenty years!

This is still under the condition that he cultivates with both bodies simultaneously.

If it were another cultivator, reaching late Foundation Establishment at sixty years old might require until one hundred or even one hundred twenty years old to possibly achieve full Foundation Establishment.

This is also why breaking through to late Foundation Establishment before the age of eighty is considered qualifying as a Golden Core seedling, because reaching late Foundation Establishment at eighty means one can at least achieve full Foundation Establishment before the age of one hundred sixty.

Moreover, the lifespan of a Foundation Establishment cultivator is only two hundred years in total; after one hundred sixty years, although mana and ability do not weaken, bodily functions will inevitably decline, and the possibility of breaking through to Golden Core will become ever smaller.

"But I am not in a hurry; I have plenty of time, I can calmly settle down and slowly polish, even if it consumes a hundred eighty years, I can still wait."

This is the confidence that comes from a long lifespan.

Moreover, because of the Nine-Curve Gourd, his physical strength will only grow stronger, not decline.

"So, for me now, the need for spirit veins and elixirs is actually secondary; a stable cultivation environment is key."

I just don't know how long the fragile peace between the righteous and demonic paths can last nowadays.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

In Yao Shou Shijie.

The Demon Beast Body has also finally completed the cultivation of the technique "Mysterious Demon Immortal-Intercepting Strategy".

(End of chapter)