Chapter 168: Falling Short at the Last Step

Close eyes, focus the mind, and look inward at the five viscera, six entrails, meridians, and dantian.

In the Divine Sense, the entire body slowly transforms into a three-dimensional, interlocking channel of primordial energy composed of meridians and the dantian, emitting a faint, shimmering spiritual light.

Beyond the meridians and dantian, the world is pitch black; all five senses are shut off, leaving only the Divine Sense to illuminate everything.

As the cultivation technique operates, the Foundation Establishment Pill is slowly refined into wisps of red aura that merge into the Twelve Main Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, then circulate through the large and small meridians for one cycle before converging into the dantian.

Under the influence of the red aura, the primordial energy within the dantian emits a surging sound like a mountain collapse or a tsunami, vibrating as if it were boiling.

Driven by the powerful force brought by the Foundation Establishment Pill, the primordial energy in the dantian gushes and churns, rushing into the meridians and transforming into a tidal wave that begins to strike at every aperture in the body.

A rumbling sound like muffled thunder echoes within Xu Chen's body; under the focus of his Divine Sense, it feels like ten thousand galloping horses charging across the ground, making him feel as though his entire Soul is being completely submerged by this sound.

Qu Mei, sitting on a rock nearby, suddenly changes color.

Xu Chen has only taken the Foundation Establishment Pill for half a cup of tea's time, yet she never expected his aura to become so powerful; this momentum feels even greater than the disturbance she caused when she was nearing her breakthrough.

At this moment, the surging primordial energy has already begun to strike the body's apertures continuously, causing a large amount of primordial energy to spray out from every pore, even mixed with wisps of blood.

Any advancement process is inevitably a comprehensive transformation from the Soul to the physical body.

The function of Foundation Establishment is to rebuild the body's primordial energy channels, which will inevitably bring about a massive upgrade and change to the physical body; the parts that change the most are naturally the meridians, dantian, and apertures related to the operation of primordial energy.

The human body has a total of seven hundred and twenty apertures, among which one hundred and eight are major apertures; these are the apertures that govern life and death and are connected to the Twelve Main Meridians and the main vessels of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. If even one cannot be opened, the Foundation Establishment is considered a failure.

The function of the Foundation Establishment Pill is to use the special aura it releases to stimulate the primordial energy to continuously strike these major apertures, find the weakest one among them, break through to open a gap in one fell swoop, and then use that point to break the whole, starting to break through the connected apertures one by one until the goal of breaking through all of them is finally achieved.

As for the remaining hundreds of less important ordinary apertures, they are all connected to the ends of the meridians and can be slowly opened through cultivation after the Foundation Establishment is successful. Once all the meridians in the body are opened, one enters the middle stage of the Zhenyuan Realm; therefore, the early stage of the Zhenyuan Realm is also called the Opening Aperture Stage.

Xu Chen's Soul is powerful, his dantian is vast and full of primordial energy, and his meridians are as thick as steel; therefore, from the moment the Foundation Establishment Pill was refined and merged into the primordial energy, the impact force it brought was incomparably powerful. If this were an ordinary cultivator in the late Kaiyuan Realm, it is estimated that their meridians would shatter during the first round of impact.

Yet he did not feel any pain at all; there was only a sensation of scratching an itch through a boot, without even a feeling of swelling.

The first round of impact ended quickly, and Xu Chen discovered that he hadn't found a single weak point among all the apertures in his body. All the apertures were as tough as the skin of a Third-Rank Demonic Beast; no matter how the primordial energy surged and struck, they would at most tremble slightly.

Xu Chen is very depressed, but there is no other way; he continues to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill, inducing the red aura to stimulate the primordial energy to launch the second round of impact.

Soon, a sound like muffled thunder echoes again within Xu Chen's body. The violent primordial energy, like a bursting river, rushes from the dantian into the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and then charges headlong toward the one hundred and eight major apertures.

In Qu Mei's eyes, Xu Chen's Daoist robe billows, and primordial energy mixed with blood sprays out from his pores again, forming a pale red blood mist around his body, which looks exceptionally shocking.

"To launch consecutive impacts—just how thick is Junior Brother's primordial energy?"

Qu Mei is stunned to the point of being dumbfounded.

She finished her Foundation Establishment not long ago and is very clear that the primordial energy tide formed during the Foundation Establishment process is not a simple release; it requires constant accumulation and compression to form a powerful pressure before one can borrow the aura of the Foundation Establishment Pill to launch an impact.

At that time, the interval between each of her primordial energy tides was about one hour.

But Xu Chen has one wave stop and another rise, with almost no interval in between.

Moreover, the later wave of the tide seems even stronger than the previous one.

Furthermore, she is very clear about the changes in her own body after the strengthening and transformation by the Taiyuan Soul-Entering Pill; her dantian expanded at least twofold, and her Soul also became at least twice as strong. Before her Foundation Establishment, she had even spent a month carefully preparing, adjusting her body, mind, and primordial energy to their best states by taking pills and practicing Qi before officially beginning.

But Xu Chen just returned today, and he began his Foundation Establishment in less than an hour; he seems to have no preparation at all.

From this, it can be seen that the aptitude and strength of the Junior Brother are indeed very abnormal.

Xu Chen is completely unaware of and unconcerned with how Qu Mei views him right now.

He has already begun to feel that something is wrong.

While the Soul, meridians, and dantian transformed by the white energy are abnormally powerful, the physical body, repeatedly tempered by the white energy, is even more terrifyingly tough. Because all the apertures have been tempered and strengthened to excess, they are frighteningly resilient; even with his primordial energy, which is ten times thicker than others, he still cannot shake a single aperture.

The medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill is limited; it cannot induce primordial energy tides endlessly. After at most three to five rounds of impact, the medicinal power will begin to wane.

That is to say, during the Foundation Establishment process, the first three rounds are the most important. Generally, a cultivator with decent aptitude will open the first aperture in about three hours and then use the remaining medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill to break through the remaining apertures point by point. The entire process lasts about one to three days.

If one cannot succeed in the first three rounds, then even if one is lucky enough to break through one aperture in the following two rounds, the chance of successful Foundation Establishment is less than twenty percent.

But if one cannot find a weak aperture to break through within the first five rounds, it signifies that the Foundation Establishment has completely failed.

Regarding the techniques of Foundation Establishment, before Xu Chen went to Yuqing Hall a month ago, after Xuanhe Zhenren had stabilized his Golden Core, he had already summoned him and Qu Mei to explain and instruct them carefully. Therefore, before this Foundation Establishment, Xu Chen did not go to ask again.

Additionally, just a moment ago, Qu Mei had also explained it carefully based on her own experience with Foundation Establishment.

Therefore, for Xu Chen, the process of Foundation Establishment is already very clear.

There is no technique to speak of; it is simply relying on the primordial energy tide excited by the Foundation Establishment Pill to feel the position of the weakest aperture, and then controlling the primordial energy to strike it with all one's might. Once the door to Foundation Establishment is opened, the subsequent process is to rely on the accumulation of primordial energy and the strength of the Soul to tirelessly break open the one hundred and eight major apertures one by one. It requires no insight; it is purely a miracle achieved through brute force.

The larger the dantian and the thicker the primordial energy, the faster the speed of advancement.

If the primordial energy is insufficient or the Soul is not strong enough, leading to subsequent weakness or lack of energy to break open all the major apertures, the Foundation Establishment will still fail.

Once the Foundation Establishment is abandoned halfway, the opened apertures will slowly close, ultimately wasting the opportunity completely.

Soon, the second round of the primordial energy tide triggered by the Foundation Establishment Pill slowly subsides, and a large amount of primordial energy is sprayed out of the body through the pores during the tide and completely consumed.

However, this bit of primordial energy consumption is nothing to Xu Chen; two rounds of tides haven't even consumed one-tenth of his total, and the remaining primordial energy is still full and surging.

But Xu Chen begins to feel nervous. This kind of Foundation Establishment Pill is not as good as the Heqi Pill to begin with. According to what Xuanchen Zhenjun said, it only has about a twenty percent success rate. The medicinal effect was already insufficient, and now that the two most important rounds have passed, he hasn't felt the slightest loosening of his apertures.

However, since he has already started, he can only grit his teeth and persist.

Therefore, as the red aura refined from the Foundation Establishment Pill flows into the dantian again, it triggers the third round of the primordial energy tide.

Inside Xu Chen's body, the thunderous sound echoes again, and the aura is even more powerful.

At this time, Qu Mei also begins to feel that something is wrong; her face tightens and her fists are clenched.

Xiaobai is also lying at the door of the small wooden house, a pair of ruby-like eyes staring tightly at Xu Chen, its little claws opening and closing incessantly; it seems even more nervous than Qu Mei.

Beads of sweat ooze from Xu Chen's forehead, mixed with wisps of blood, rolling down his cheeks.

The third round of the primordial energy tide is incomparably powerful. Under the impact, the Eight Extraordinary Meridians are trembling violently, and the one hundred and eight major apertures emit a sound like beating drums. Under the violent impact of the primordial energy, it booms like thunder striking the ground, exploding within his Sea of Consciousness.

Xu Chen's Divine Sense is like a sieve, seeing the positions of all the apertures struck by the primordial energy with absolute clarity; he is clearly aware of the slightest vibration of any aperture.

But unfortunately, as this wave of the primordial energy tide slowly weakens, he still has not found any weak aperture position, and can only let the primordial energy recede.

This won't do; there are at most two chances left, otherwise this time it will be a failure at the last step. Losing one Foundation Establishment Pill doesn't matter, but if he remains so clueless, even if he had three or five more Foundation Establishment Pills, he fears he would still be unable to successfully establish his foundation.

He even feels that his overly powerful physical body and his impregnable apertures mean that even if he took a Heqi Pill, it would likely be of no help.

This is not a question of success rate, nor is it that the Foundation Establishment Pill's effect is insufficient; it is his own reason—his physical body has been tempered too strongly by the white energy, and the primordial energy simply cannot shake it.

And at this moment, he finally truly understands that his initial worries were not superfluous.

For a cultivator practicing Qi refinement, a physical body that is too formidable is truly not a good thing, as it will greatly hinder breaking through levels and advancing.

However, this body has already become like this, so it is too late to say anything now.

Aside from continuing to persevere, there is no other way to change it.

Therefore, Xu Chen gritted his teeth and continued to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill, which was already half gone, accumulating strength to begin the fourth round of impact.

Very quickly, in no more than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the fourth round of the Qi tide began to recede, and the impact failed once again.

Qu Mei sat to the side, her mood becoming difficult to calm.

With four rounds of impact failed, it could almost be determined that this Foundation Establishment had an eighty percent chance of failure.

When an ordinary person persists until the fifth round, their Qi is already more than half exhausted; even if they manage to force their way through an Aperture, they no longer have enough Qi to break through the remaining one hundred and seven vital apertures.

Xu Chen's Qi tide is more powerful each time, which shows that his Qi consumption is also terrifying; even if his Qi is three or even five times stronger than others, without the medicinal effect of the Foundation Establishment Pill to stimulate it, if he cannot form a powerful Qi tide, he will be unable to break through the apertures later on.

(End of this chapter)