Translator: Cinder Translations
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Two days later, Song Wen finally managed to stabilize the chaotic spiritual energy within his body. He opened his eyes and, without hesitation, took another Heavenly Spirit Fruit.
Taking a deep breath, Song Wen swallowed the Heavenly Spirit Fruit.
As soon as the Heavenly Spirit Fruit entered his stomach, its violent spiritual energy erupted explosively.
The surging spiritual energy ran wildly through Song Wen's limbs, body, and meridians like a runaway wild horse.
The violent energy began to cause cracks in Song Wen's meridians, with intense pain sweeping through his entire body.
Small fissures appeared on Song Wen's skin, and dark red blood began to seep out from these cracks, quickly turning him into a bloodied figure.
This time, Song Wen did not take any auxiliary spiritual herbs. Gritting his teeth and enduring the excruciating pain, he focused on operating the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique."
The loss of blood and whether it might lead to insufficient essence and blood was not a concern for Song Wen.
After expending substantial resources and suffering through the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique" and "Thousand Poisons Body," their advantages finally manifested at this moment.
These two body refinement techniques enhanced his skin, muscles, meridians, organs, and bones, making his body's resilience and strength far superior to an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator's.
This strength prevented his meridians and flesh from being shattered by the Heavenly Spirit Fruit's violent power.
Under the guidance of the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique," the raging spiritual power was gradually guided and started to flow through his meridians, eventually settling in the sea of qi.
The spiritual power in the sea of qi gradually increased, but it was still far from filling the sea of qi or transforming into liquid spiritual power.
Song Wen sensed that the Heavenly Spirit Fruit's spiritual energy was gradually depleting and resolutely swallowed another Heavenly Spirit Fruit.
"Argh!"
Another wave of intense pain swept through his body, causing Song Wen to utter a low cry.
The violent energy once again rampaged through his meridians.
With previous experience, Song Wen managed this much more skillfully, operating the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique" to slowly guide the surging spiritual power within his body.
The surging spiritual power flowed through his meridians like a rushing river and then converged in the sea of qi.
The spiritual energy in the sea of qi gradually filled up until it could hold no more.
However, there was still a large amount of spiritual power in the meridians that had not been fully refined. Under the guidance of the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique," this spiritual power continued to pour into the sea of qi.
The excessive spiritual power filling the sea of qi was like it was about to burst the sea of qi.
Yet, Song Wen continued to guide the spiritual power into the sea of qi. When the spiritual energy in the sea of qi reached a certain threshold, it began to compress itself.
A drop of liquid spiritual power appeared at the center of the sea of qi.
Liquid spiritual power!
This was the mark of advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage.
But the foundation had not yet been fully established, as there was still a significant amount of spiritual power in the sea of qi that had not yet transformed into liquid.
Song Wen continued to operate the "Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique," refining the residual spiritual energy of the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, and simultaneously, his body was rapidly absorbing the ambient spiritual energy from the surroundings.
With a flick of his finger, a thousand spiritual stones flew out from his storage ring and fell into the spiritual gathering array.
The spiritual energy in the cave surged abruptly, with extremely dense spiritual energy being continuously absorbed by Song Wen.
One drop, two drops, three drops...
The sea of qi continuously gathered liquid spiritual power.
...
Half a month later, Song Wen opened his eyes, and the joy in his gaze was unmistakable.
The foundation-laying was successful!
He was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
No longer the lowest existence in the cultivation world.
Song Wen did not stop cultivating immediately. After several hours of adjusting his breathing and calming the surging aura within his body, he stopped meditating and stood up.
He had been in seclusion here for nearly twenty days, and it was time to return to the sect.
Taking out the array plate, he cast a few spells to dismantle the "Spirit Gathering Array" and "Aura Concealment Formation." Song Wen then stepped out of the temporary cave residence.
Outside the cave, the second-tier undead puppet stood like a statue, remaining motionless and vigilant.
After retrieving the undead puppet and recalling the eight Black Beetle Gu, Song Wen boarded his flying vessel and set off toward the sect.
After a brief communication with the Black Beetle Gu, Song Wen learned that during this time, apart from two Qi Refining cultivators passing by, no other cultivators had come through this place.
The two cultivators had not discovered the cave on the cliff.
This made Song Wen very satisfied with the effectiveness of the "Aura Concealment Array."
During the foundation-laying process, Song Wen had consumed three Heavenly Spirit Fruits and a thousand spiritual stones, leaving him with four Heavenly Spirit Fruits.
A few dozen miles from the sect, Song Wen stowed away the flying vessel and walked the rest of the way toward the sect.
Passing through the market at the foot of the Corpse Demon Peak, he saw numerous disciples and loose cultivators from the Corpse Demon Sect. The majority were Qi Refining cultivators, which filled Song Wen with a sense of pride.
He was no longer a Qi Refining cultivator struggling at the bottom of the cultivation world.
However, he was still burdened by the threat of Shi Shou, which immediately dampened his mood.
The path of cultivation was long and arduous; he had only just left the base of the mountain. He needed to continue striving forward to have a chance at seeing the view from the mountain's peak.
Song Wen noticed that there seemed to be more loose cultivators in the market. After just a brief walk through the market, he saw several Foundation Establishment loose cultivators.
It was rare to see Foundation Establishment experts casually strolling around the market.
...
Crossing the streets, Song Wen arrived at the vendor area and immediately spotted Chen Yi at her stall.
In a good mood, Song Wen took the initiative to greet her.
"Junior Sister Chen, long time no see. How have you been recently?"
Seeing Song Wen suddenly appear, Chen Yi's face lit up with a bright smile.
"Senior Brother Ji Yin, where have you been these days? I haven't seen you for a long time. I sent you messages, but you didn't reply."
Song Wen replied, "I've been out recently and didn't receive any messages. Did you send me a message about something important?"
"It's nothing crucial. I've just been feeling a bit down lately and wanted to talk to someone."
"Oh? I'm free at the moment. If you have anything on your mind, you can share it. Don't keep it bottled up; it's not good for your cultivation if it lingers too long."
Chen Yi opened her mouth but hesitated to speak, looking as if she was about to say something but held back.
After some hesitation, she finally shook her head and sighed.
"It's nothing major, just some trivial matters. It's already past, and I've gotten over it. There's no need to bring it up again."
Seeing that she was unwilling to talk, Song Wen did not press her. Instead, he changed the subject and asked, "Junior Sister, how's the business with the spiritual herbs going? I noticed there are quite a few new faces among the loose cultivators in the market. I suppose your business must be doing well?"
Chen Yi gave a wry smile.
"There are indeed more cultivators in the market recently, but the business has declined a bit."
"I don't know why, but these new loose cultivators never buy spiritual herbs. Instead, they are very interested in talismans and runes."
"Recently, talismans and runes in the market have been selling quite well."
"That's quite unusual."
After chatting with Chen Yi for a while, Song Wen bade her farewell and headed toward the cave residence.
(End of the Chapter)
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