Translator: Cinder Translations
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"Do you know what kind of cultivation Shi Shou has?" Song Wen continued to ask.
Due to excessive blood loss, Du Qiu had become somewhat weak. After catching his breath, he slowly responded, "I'm not sure about Shi Shou's specific cultivation level, but Shi Shou has been at the Foundation Establishment stage for twenty years."
Song Wen furrowed his brow.
Twenty years is neither long nor short for a Foundation Establishment cultivator. For some exceptionally talented individuals, twenty years is enough to reach the late stages or even the peak of Foundation Establishment. For those with lesser talent, they might still be struggling in the early stages.
Song Wen couldn't immediately determine Shi Shou's exact cultivation level.
Suddenly, Song Wen's left hand transformed into a zombie claw and reached for Du Qiu's head.
"Pfft!"
Song Wen's fingers effortlessly pierced through Du Qiu's skull.
Before Du Qiu had completely died, he could clearly feel his blood and energy being rapidly drained by Song Wen. Then, his soul was sucked into a black void, and his consciousness faded away.
After handling Du Qiu's corpse, Song Wen pondered for a long time.
From Du Qiu, Song Wen obtained two significant pieces of information.
First, Shi Shou was also cultivating the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique."
Second, as previously guessed, Shi Shou would take action when Song Wen's cultivation broke through to the Qi Refining Sixth Level.
Song Wen continued to control the flying boat and flew towards the northwest.
He needed to find a suitable place to lay his foundation.
His cultivation had already reached the peak of Qi Refining, and with the Heavenly Spirit Fruit in hand, it was time to establish his foundation.
The place Song Wen chose for laying his foundation was a cliff he had visited before, located between the Poison Miasma Swamp and the Three Corpse City.
It was a remote area with few people, and spiritual herbs and demonic beasts were extremely rare, so cultivators generally didn't go there.
However, the drawback of this location for foundation-laying was evident: thin spiritual energy!
Fortunately, Song Wen had enough spiritual stones on him. Before entering the Withered Blood Secret Realm, he had also prepared a set of first-grade superior-level spiritual gathering arrays to compensate for the thin spiritual energy.
Song Wen had also considered laying his foundation in the sect's cave dwelling. In the cave, the spiritual energy was more concentrated, and the safety was higher, reducing the risk of other cultivators intruding during the breakthrough.
But considering the many secrets he carried and Shi Shou's watchful eye, even though he had the "Aura Concealment Formation," the effectiveness of the array and whether it could truly evade the detection of Golden Core cultivators remained to be verified.
Moreover, within the sect, besides a few Golden Core ancestors, there were rumors of a Nascent Soul Elder.
The Nascent Soul Elder would likely not concern himself with a Qi Refining cultivator laying a foundation, but Song Wen was still wary of any unexpected encounters!
Therefore, Song Wen decided to find an uninhabited place to lay his foundation.
After two hours, Song Wen arrived at the edge of the cliff.
The height of this cliff was about three hundred meters, with a valley at the bottom.
Song Wen flew around the cliff and finally found a crack in the lower part of the cliff.
The crack was over ten meters long and about twenty meters deep. The entrance was about a person's height, and it narrowed as it went deeper.
Song Wen stepped into the crack, holding a hatchet.
This hatchet was a medium-grade magic weapon, which he had found in a storage bag obtained from the secret realm.
Infusing spiritual energy into the hatchet, it immediately radiated a cold light, making it hard to look at.
Song Wen wielded the hatchet with all his strength, striking the rocks above his head.
The hard rock was easily split apart, as if it were tofu.
After several dozen strikes, Song Wen carved out a narrow, deep cave dwelling of twenty meters in depth.
After spending two quarters of an hour, Song Wen set up the "Aura Concealment Formation" around the cave and arranged the spiritual gathering array inside it.
Holding the array plate for the spiritual gathering array, Song Wen placed a thousand spiritual stones at various points of the array and performed several hand seals.
In an instant, the spiritual energy from the stones was forcibly extracted by the array, causing the spiritual energy within the cave to surge several levels.
Song Wen controlled both arrays, ensuring they were functioning properly.
After confirming that the "Aura Concealment Formation" could indeed block all spiritual energy fluctuations and auras from within, he returned to the cave.
Song Wen did not immediately attempt to lay the foundation. The process of foundation-laying was extremely dangerous; even a slight mistake could result in spiritual energy losing control, causing severe injuries or death.
To ensure the entire foundation-laying process went undisturbed, Song Wen decided to first find a powerful guardian.
He took out the pseudo-second-level corpse puppet he had obtained from Wu Sui and began refining it.
This corpse puppet belonged to Wu Sui, and if Wu Ren saw it, he would immediately recognize it. To be safe, Song Wen needed to reforge it, altering its appearance and aura.
Six bottles of corpse evil aura and several Yin Attribute spiritual materials were thrown into the black coffin containing the corpse puppet.
With Song Wen's hand seals imprinted into the corpse puppet, its aura and form gradually began to change.
After two days, the corpse puppet was fully refined.
At this point, the corpse puppet had undergone significant changes.
Its aura had completely transformed, and its form had also shrunk somewhat.
...
Song Wen set up eight Black Beetle Gu around the perimeter to monitor for any abnormalities within several miles, and positioned the corpse puppet at the cave entrance as a precaution.
With eight Black Beetle Gu and the pseudo-second-level corpse puppet, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be delayed momentarily.
With everything prepared, Song Wen began to prepare for foundation-laying.
Another thousand spiritual stones were placed into the spiritual gathering array to provide ample spiritual energy for the upcoming foundation-laying.
Afterwards, Song Wen calmed his mind and sat cross-legged to adjust his state of mind to its best condition.
Five days later, Song Wen, in high spirits with rich energy and abundant spiritual power, took out the jade box containing the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, along with five other pre-prepared spiritual herbs like Wind Spirit Grass and Yin Condensing Grass, which were used to harmonize the potent medicinal effects of the Heavenly Spirit Fruit.
Song Wen took out one Heavenly Spirit Fruit and swallowed it.
Once the Heavenly Spirit Fruit entered his stomach, it was like dropping cold water into a hot oil pan. The powerful spiritual energy within the fruit erupted explosively in an instant, causing the spiritual energy in his body to surge wildly, and the violent energy raged through his body.
Song Wen then swallowed half a stalk of Wind Spirit Grass, two Yin Condensing Grass, and other auxiliary herbs.
The ratio of the auxiliary herbs was roughly based on the recipes for foundation-laying pills circulating in the market. Although most of these recipes were likely incorrect, Song Wen was not refining pills but merely using the herbs to adjust the Heavenly Spirit Fruit's powerful medicinal properties.
As long as he could slightly moderate the surging spiritual energy within his body, he would have achieved his goal.
However, things did not go as smoothly as Song Wen had hoped.
The medicinal effects of the five herbs mixed together were impure and chaotic, and the erupting spiritual energy was disordered and uncontrollable. It was somewhat unrealistic to expect them to calm the Heavenly Spirit Fruit's violent medicinal power.
"It seems I was too optimistic. At this rate, the spiritual energy in my sea of qi might become volatile, leading to a disaster and demonic transformation."
Without a moment's hesitation, Song Wen decisively raised his right hand and slapped his abdomen.
The powerful palm force penetrated his flesh and struck his stomach.
"Ugh!"
Song Wen opened his mouth and vomited all the remaining medicinal herbs from his stomach.
The medicinal effects of the five herbs were still about eighty to ninety percent intact, while the Heavenly Spirit Fruit's medicinal power had been mostly consumed.
The Heavenly Spirit Fruit had become damaged, as if it had been bitten by insects. The remaining spiritual energy was rapidly dissipating into the air.
Song Wen had no time to care about the Heavenly Spirit Fruit and auxiliary herbs. He focused entirely on operating the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique," guiding the chaotic external spiritual energy out of his body.
(End of the Chapter)
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