Chapter 20: Foundation Establishment Pill

"It's here! The records in the ancestor's notes are indeed correct. There really is a second-tier Water Spirit Fruit Tree here! It's been over a hundred years; the Water Spirit Fruit should be ripe by now." The two Liu elders behind Liu Tianlong appeared somewhat excited.

The Liu family spared no effort to mobilize most of their combat power and spent a large sum of money to hire cultivators from three nearby Qi Refining families, not just to kill the second-tier Silver-Armored Crab demon just now.

The true purpose of this trip for the Liu family was to successfully sneak into the bottom of the pool after eliminating the second-tier demon beast that occupied it, in order to find the second-tier Water Spirit Fruit Tree recorded in the notes Liu Tianlong carried.

The notes Liu Tianlong carried were left by a Foundation Establishment ancestor of the Liu family over a hundred years ago. It recorded that when this Liu ancestor was hunting demon beasts in the Fuyun Mountain Range, he accidentally discovered a second-tier Water Spirit Fruit Tree here.

It was precisely by relying on a Water Spirit Fruit that was ripe on the tree at that time that this Liu ancestor exchanged for a Foundation Establishment Pill from the Xiaoyao Sect and subsequently succeeded in Foundation Establishment.

After this Liu ancestor reached Foundation Establishment, he wanted to transplant this Water Spirit Fruit Tree to the Liu family's spirit mountain. It was a pity that there had never been a second-tier spirit planter in the clan, and he dared not trust outsiders, so he had to give up for the time being.

This Liu ancestor kept his mouth shut about this matter in the clan, only recording it in his own notes. Unexpectedly, he later died outside by accident, and other clansmen had never known about it. It wasn't until decades after succeeding as clan leader that he accidentally discovered this note and sent people to the Fuyun Mountain Range to find the pool recorded in the note.

Finally, after the Liu family patiently lay dormant for nearly a hundred years, when the Water Spirit Fruit was ripe again, Liu Tianlong came here.

Ever since the northern demon beast riot a hundred years ago, when the Liu family lost the only Foundation Establishment cultivator in the clan, all Liu family cultivators had been thinking day and night about how to restore the glory of once being a Foundation Establishment family.

To achieve this goal, the Liu family had to find a way to cultivate a Foundation Establishment cultivator again. Now they were very close to this goal. After years of cultivation, there was a seed in the clan who could reach Foundation Establishment, and now they were just missing a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Except for the one-in-a-million heaven-spirit root cultivators, ordinary cultivators will encounter a huge bottleneck when breaking through to Foundation Establishment, and less than half a percent of cultivators can successfully break through by force.

Once the breakthrough fails, the violent spiritual power in the cultivator's meridians will instantly backfire on the fragile meridians, causing injuries that are difficult to recover from.

For such cultivators who fail to break through, at best it will take at least twenty years for their injuries to fully recover, basically missing the opportunity to reach Foundation Establishment again, and their path of cultivation will come to an end. At worst, they will explode and die on the spot after failure, their cultivation will vanish, and their death will be extremely painful.

This also makes many genius cultivators in the cultivation world like Liu Tianlong, even if they can reach the ninth layer of Qi Refining before the age of sixty, dare not easily risk such a huge risk to force Foundation Establishment.

In order to increase the success rate of more cultivators breaking through realms, after the research and accumulation of many top-level great cultivators in the cultivation world, many types of elixirs and spirit objects to assist cultivators in breaking through realms were slowly researched. Among them, the best and most recognized by cultivators is the Foundation Establishment Pill.

The Foundation Establishment Pill is a second-tier elixir researched by a great cultivator at the Soul Transformation stage in ancient times to assist cultivators in Foundation Establishment. After being carefully improved and tested by countless generations of high-grade alchemists, it has now become an indispensable item for cultivators to reach Foundation Establishment.

When a cultivator reaches Foundation Establishment, they need to inhale a large amount of spiritual energy to liquefy the spiritual power in their body. Taking a Foundation Establishment Pill can reconcile the large amount of violent spiritual power in the body when the cultivator breaks through to Foundation Establishment.

The Foundation Establishment Pill can not only greatly increase the success rate of ordinary cultivators reaching Foundation Establishment but also protect the cultivator's meridians from too much backlash when the breakthrough fails. In this way, even if the cultivator fails to break through, they will not be seriously injured, and they can recover in three to five years and have another chance to reach Foundation Establishment.

Although the Foundation Establishment Pill is only a second-tier high-grade elixir, it is very rare in the Wei Kingdom's cultivation world. Except for the overlord of this place, the Xiaoyao Sect, it only occasionally flows out from the black market near the Fuyun Mountain Range. Its value far exceeds other second-tier elixirs, and even exceeds the value of some third-tier elixirs.

Refining Foundation Establishment Pills is very complex. The main medicine requires two types of Jade Marrow Golden Branches and Five-Element Spirit Fruits that are over 800 years old, as well as more than a dozen auxiliary spirit herbs that take one or two hundred years to mature.

These spirit herbs are difficult to find in the wild when they mature. In the entire Wei Kingdom, ostensibly, only the Xiaoyao Sect's spirit herb garden can provide the various spirit herbs needed to refine Foundation Establishment Pills for a long time.

The Xiaoyao Sect only refines a few furnaces of Foundation Establishment Pills every ten years, and each time they produce at most twenty or thirty pills, most of which are divided up by the sect, and only a very small part will be sold to the major immortal cultivation families under their command that have made contributions. Even Foundation Establishment families find it difficult to get this opportunity, let alone lower-level Qi Refining families.

Even if there is an opportunity to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill, the price of the Foundation Establishment Pill is still not cheap. A Foundation Establishment Pill normally costs 10,000 spirit stones to buy, and this is already considered very affordable compared to the price of Foundation Establishment Pills auctioned in the black market.

The Song family, where Song Qingming is located, can only save a few dozen spirit stones a year after expenses, and they need to take them out to subsidize some in disaster years. The treasury accumulated over a hundred years is only two or three thousand spirit stones.

For low-level Qi Refining families like the Song family, even if a cultivator with excellent spiritual root talent appears, they can only send the person to the Xiaoyao Sect to have a chance at Foundation Establishment.

The Xiaoyao Sect relies on firmly controlling the supply channels of Foundation Establishment Pills in the Wei Kingdom to absorb a large number of cultivators with outstanding talents from the major immortal cultivation families under their rule, constantly replenishing the sect's blood.

The Water Spirit Fruit that Liu Tianlong was looking for on this trip was one of the two main medicines needed to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill, the Five-Element Spirit Fruit, which is of extremely high value.

The Xiaoyao Sect also long-term purchases various spirit herbs for refining Foundation Establishment Pills. Anyone who can take out the main medicine for Foundation Establishment Pills with sufficient age can directly exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill within the Xiaoyao Sect. The Liu ancestor who reached Foundation Establishment a hundred years ago also reached Foundation Establishment in this way.

After the three Liu family members walked a few dozen steps toward the blue light, they passed through a low cave entrance, and the passage suddenly became wide. The blue light emitted was precisely a small green tree in the cave.

Liu Tianlong walked closer and saw that this small tree was five feet tall, about the same height as him, emitting rich spiritual energy. There were five or six blue fruits on the tree. The fruits were crystal clear and emitted bursts of blue light, which were very attractive. The light that the three saw outside just now was precisely emitted by the fruits on the tree.

"Haha, this should be the Water Spirit Fruit. The time recorded by the ancestor is indeed correct. If we had come a few years earlier, I guess the fruit would not have been ripe yet." Looking at one of the fruits that was completely transparent, a Liu elder laughed and said.

"Everyone be careful, try not to damage this fruit tree. We only need to pick the fruit that is already ripe. When our Liu family cultivates our own second-tier spirit planter in the future, we will think of ways to transplant this Water Spirit Fruit Tree."

The Water Spirit Fruit Tree is a second-tier spirit wood. Without a second-tier or higher spirit planter, rashly transplanting it will easily cause the spirit wood's spiritual energy to suffer greatly, lose its activity, and slowly wither and die, along with the unripe spirit fruits on it.

If we can successfully secretly transplant this Water Spirit Fruit Tree to the Liu family's spirit mountain in the future, the Liu family will be able to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill every hundred years, and the family will be able to prosper for a long time. This is also the greatest opportunity for all Liu family cultivators to change their destiny.

Liu Tianlong wanted to pick the ripe Water Spirit Fruit with his hand, but found that the connection between this second-tier spirit fruit and the fruit tree was extremely tough and difficult to pick. He could only release a high-grade flying sword and cut off the fruit with one sword.

The Liu elder on the side hurriedly used a jade box that had been prepared long ago to carefully pack the Water Spirit Fruit and handed it to Liu Tianlong.

Looking at this Water Spirit Fruit that carried the hope of family revival, Liu Tianlong couldn't help but feel a little excited. The Liu family's revival path had finally taken the first step in his hands.

The three had just picked a ripe Water Spirit Fruit and were about to turn and leave this place, but suddenly felt a terrifying spiritual power pressure suddenly emitted from a dark place on one side of the cave. A pair of huge red eyeballs suddenly opened in the darkness, staring dead at the three tiny humans in front of them.

"This is... How could there be another second-tier demon beast here? Not good, run!"

"Clan Leader, go quickly, we will cover your retreat."

Looking at the huge black shadow in front of them, the three Liu Tianlong couldn't help but tremble. The spiritual power pressure emitted by this second-tier demon beast was much stronger than that of the Silver-Armored Crab just now. They had been in the cave for so long and hadn't noticed it at all.

After the Liu family found this pool twenty years ago, they had sent cultivators to explore this pool many times. Except for the Silver-Armored Crab that had just advanced not long ago, they had never seen other second-tier demon beasts.

How could Liu Tianlong have imagined that there were two second-tier demon beasts hidden in such a small pool.

At this moment, Liu Tianlong suddenly understood that the demon beast bones in the cave they saw along the way were not eaten by that second-tier Silver-Armored Crab, but by this other second-tier demon beast that emitted a stronger aura than the Silver-Armored Crab demon.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 21 =====