Chapter 36: Foundation Establishment (Part 1)

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another year passed. Lin Fan's four disciples were each in seclusion, and none of them had come out. Ye Ling'er, having obtained the "Foundation Establishment Pill," practiced even more bitterly every day. He had to take the "Foundation Establishment Pill" at the optimal moment and then succeed in Foundation Establishment in one go; after all, there was only one Foundation Establishment Pill, and there was only one chance.

Inside Zhang Nuo's room, after more than a year of recuperation, he had stabilized his cultivation at the Ninth Layer of the Qi Refining Stage and was prepared to charge toward Foundation Establishment.

In the dead of night, the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" was placed in front of Zhang Nuo. The slowly gathering Spiritual Qi became increasingly dense. At this moment, the two dragon carvings on the surface of the Sword Box rose up from the box. They held their dragon heads high, and with their dragon mouths wide open, the Spiritual Qi began to gather into a spherical shape at a distance of four inches from their mouths.

When the Spiritual Qi sphere first formed, it was only the size of a grain of rice. As time passed, it gradually became the size of a plum. The snow-white Spiritual Qi sphere emitted a faint glimmer, looking just like a firefly flying through the sky.

This was another secret Zhang Nuo had discovered during his research into the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" in the year or so since he advanced to the Ninth Layer.

The Sword Box would absorb Spiritual Qi every night, and this Spiritual Qi was stored within the box. When the storage of Spiritual Qi reached a certain value, the dragon carvings on the surface of the box would automatically rise to absorb more Spirit Power. Zhang Nuo could draw out this stored Spirit Power from the Sword Box at any time for his own use. This was also revealed when the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" devoured the last Great Profound Crystal Stone.

Ever since this discovery, Zhang Nuo felt more confident about Foundation Establishment. The Spiritual Qi required for Foundation Establishment is immense. Some wealthy cultivators would hold several High-grade Spirit Stones in their hands during Foundation Establishment; the dense Spiritual Qi of High-grade Spirit Stones could provide cultivators with more pure Spiritual Qi.

However, Zhang Nuo was not the type of person with piles of Spirit Stones. He could not possess High-grade Spirit Stones, and the Spiritual Qi of Low-grade Spirit Stones and Mid-grade Spirit Stones was too weak and not enough for Foundation Establishment at all; unless the number of Low-grade Spirit Stones was considerable, absorbing them would just be a waste.

But now, the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" was a treasure vault for storing Spiritual Qi. Once it was fully absorbed, the richness of its Spiritual Qi could be completely compared to dozens of High-grade Spirit Stones.

After one more day, the Spiritual Qi inside the Sword Box would reach an unprecedented peak. In this way, Zhang Nuo could officially charge toward Foundation Establishment the next day.

The Spiritual Qi slowly dissipated, and the dragon carvings on the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" swallowed the previous Spiritual Qi sphere in one gulp and returned to the surface of the Sword Box. Zhang Nuo picked up the Sword Box and set it aside, and his whole person began to sit in meditation. He was not practicing; he was just sitting quietly like this. What he needed to do now was to adjust his physical state and let his body be at its peak moment.

Charging toward Foundation Establishment is an especially important process. It is several times harder than going from the Eighth Layer to the Ninth Layer of the Qi Refining Stage, and the degree of danger is also very high.

During Foundation Establishment, the body will be filled with a large amount of Spiritual Qi. If handled improperly, the Spiritual Qi will become chaotic, and it is even possible to explode and die.

This day passed very slowly. Zhang Nuo sat motionless on the stone bed like this until late at night, when he slowly opened his eyes. He sensed the concentration of Spiritual Qi around him and found that it was becoming denser bit by bit, which also indicated that the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" had begun to gather Qi.

Placing the Sword Box back in front of him, Zhang Nuo took a deep breath and took out all the remaining Pills from his Storage Bag—a total of eight. Without a second thought, he swallowed them. Zhang Nuo had never dared to waste these Pills that improved cultivation, but today he had to take a gamble; he could no longer be stingy.

After the Pills entered his stomach, they completely dissolved in a short time, and a warm current rose from his dantian. At this time, the concentration of Spiritual Qi around him also reached a climax. With no time to think, Zhang Nuo changed the hand seals, and his body crazily absorbed the Spiritual Qi around him.

"Swish! Swish!"

With two soft sounds, the Spiritual Qi that had been floating around Zhang Nuo like mist suddenly began to rotate automatically. Gradually, a huge Spiritual Qi vortex nearly a zhang in diameter wrapped him within it.

Every pore on his body opened wide, absorbing Spiritual Qi without any restraint. Very quickly, the Spiritual Qi in Zhang Nuo's body had reached its peak, but he was still continuing to absorb it. At the same time, the Ninth Layer of the "Sword Control Art" within his body began to compress the Spiritual Qi.

The process of Foundation Establishment is actually the process of compressing the Spiritual Qi in the body. During the Qi Refining Stage, the Spiritual Qi in a cultivator's body is in a gaseous state. Because of this, the Spiritual Qi storage capacity of a Qi Refining Stage cultivator is not very high. But if one enters the Foundation Establishment Stage, the cultivator's own body is like a high-pressure container; it will rapidly compress the Spiritual Qi into a liquid state, and in this way, the materialized Spiritual Qi will be even purer.

Time passed second by second. Zhang Nuo rapidly switched the hand seals in his hands, and the concentration of Spiritual Qi in his body climbed higher and higher time after time. His body felt somewhat bloated, and his internal organs felt as if they were being squeezed by a great force; that kind of pain was hard to describe in words.

Despite this, Zhang Nuo's body was still constantly absorbing the surrounding Spiritual Qi. He was like a bottomless pit that could never be filled; he could absorb as much Spiritual Qi as there was.

The Spiritual Qi gathered by the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" had reached its peak, and the Spiritual Qi vortex surrounding Zhang Nuo also accelerated its rotation speed. The sound of "swish-swish" was incessant, but Zhang Nuo turned a deaf ear to all of this. He also had no time to look at these things; his body was now bloated like a balloon, and his figure was more than twice as large as before.

If anyone were to prick Zhang Nuo with a needle at this very moment, he would definitely explode with a "Boom."

Just as Zhang Nuo's body was bloating, some black substances began to be squeezed out of his body. These things emitted a foul stench that made one want to vomit.

The first stage of charging toward the Foundation Establishment Stage had been completed, which was to expel the toxins and impurities from the body. Those black, foul-smelling substances were the waste that had accumulated in Zhang Nuo's body for many years.

After the first stage was finished, the second important stage had to be carried out immediately, which was to compress the Spiritual Qi in the body. This stage was also the most important stage of Foundation Establishment. If it failed, the entire Foundation Establishment process would also fail completely.

"Hah!"

A low shout came from Zhang Nuo's mouth! Following this shout, the hand seals in his hands changed once again. Success or failure depended on this one move; Zhang Nuo did not dare to have any distraction.