Clan Cultivation: Starting from Foundation Establishment on Mount Luoxia

Li Xiaoyao picked up his wine cup and gently clinked it against his.

The wine is slightly spicy with a hint of sweetness. It's not some rare and precious brew, just ordinary rice wine.

But at this moment, it is more mellow than any fine wine.

"Fellow Daoist Wuju," Li Xiaoyao put down his wine cup, "True Monarch Minghuang said that you who cultivate the Primordial Immortal Path do not have the Purple Mansion realm. After the Foundation Establishment is completed, you directly attain the Golden Core realm."

Xiaoyao Tian nodded: "Yes."

"Those people in the paradise thought you were about to break through to the fifth level—that is, the Purple Mansion. They thought you were at the peak of Foundation Establishment and about to enter the Purple Mansion."

Xiaoyao Tian laughed: "That's why they dared to come. To deal with a chosen one who is about to break through to the Purple Mansion realm."

"But what they don't know," Li Xiaoyao looked at him, "is that you're about to break through to the Golden Core stage. And the Golden Core..."

He paused.

According to the classification of the cultivation world, the Golden Core corresponds to the sixth to seventh level of the Paradise.

Xiaoyao Tian continued, "The Golden Core corresponds to the sixth rank of the Paradise. At the moment of breakthrough, the Heavenly Dao gives back, and I can reach the mid-stage of the Golden Core in a short period of time."

He picked up his wine glass and took a small sip:

"Those two sixth-tier guild leaders and vice-guild leaders are perfect for me to practice on."

Li Xiaoyao was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "How long have you been waiting here?"

"From the day I was chosen," Xiaoyao Tian thought for a moment, "it's been about... forty-seven years."

Forty-seven years.

One person waited for forty-seven years in this small martial arts school in the desolate mountains.

Li Xiaoyao looked at him and asked, "Was it worth it?"

Xiaoyao Tian did not answer directly. He looked up at the setting sun on the horizon and slowly said:

"Fellow Daoist Shangyuan, do you know what the most difficult aspect of the Primordial Immortal Path is?"

"An empty certificate of enlightenment?"

"No." Xiaoyao Tian shook his head. "Although attaining enlightenment is difficult, as long as one's willpower is sufficient, one can always find a way. The most difficult thing about the Primordial Immortal Path is—loneliness."

"Our lineage consists of only a few hundred people. They are scattered across various regions, each cultivating on their own. Many people will never see another fellow practitioner in their entire lives."

He withdrew his gaze and looked at Li Xiaoyao:

"When I was thirteen, my family suffered a famine. The entire county was affected by the famine."

"Drought and locust plague came at the same time. The crops in the fields yielded nothing, and the tree bark was all eaten away. My father took our family of seven and fled to the neighboring county town to seek a living."

"On the way, my grandparents were too old and couldn't hold on; they starved to death first."

"My younger brother was eight years old, and my younger sister was six. They couldn't walk anymore, so my parents carried them on their backs. They walked for almost a month, and then they died."

That very night, my father took the bodies of my younger brother and sister and disappeared into the night.

"The next morning, I ate soup made with dried cured meat. I asked my father, 'Where did this soup come from? Where are my younger siblings' bodies?'"

"My mother remained silent, only urging me to drink soup and eat dried cured meat. My father casually remarked, 'Bury them,' and then turned his back to me to drink his soup."

"A month later, my mother also starved to death. She was only in her early thirties and was so thin that she was just skin and bones."

"My father, with trembling hands and red eyes, led my mother into the night, just like he had taken my younger siblings away."

"I was young at the time and somewhat naive. I took the gleaming kitchen knife from home, held it to my neck, and knelt down in front of him with tears streaming down my face."

"Father, please, leave Mother a whole body. If you can't bear the hunger anymore, kill me and eat me."

"My father looked at me with red eyes. He gently laid my mother's body down, came to my side, tenderly took the kitchen knife from me, and then slapped me hard across the face!"

"In the end, my father looked at my mother's body, then at me. Finally, his back hunched over, he touched my face, and asked me if it hurt."

I shook my head and said, "It doesn't hurt."

"Later, under the cover of night, the two of us secretly took my mother's body to a wasteland, dug a pit, and filled it with soil."

"When they put my mother's body into the pit to fill it with soil, I couldn't help but cry out loud. My father covered my mouth with his hand. He was crying too, but he still trembled and said to me in the gentlest tone, 'Cry, don't shout.'"

"That night, my father and I buried my mother in that unknown wasteland, and we didn't even dare to build a mound of earth."

"In the end, it was my dad. He gave me his last bite to eat and starved to death himself."

"I buried him and continued on my way alone."

Li Xiaoyao listened quietly without saying a word.

Xiaoyao Tian's voice was calm, as if he were telling someone else's story:

"By the time I reached the county town, I was starving. I collapsed at the city gate, too weak to even move a finger."

People passing by didn't even glance at me. Occasionally someone would stop, look at me briefly, shake their head, and walk away.

"At that time, I thought, 'I might as well just die. My whole family is dead anyway, what's the point of me living alone?'"

Then, the sect leader appeared.

His voice suddenly sounded different.

"He just fell from the sky like that. The people in the county town were terrified when they saw him. Some knelt down, some kowtowed, and some shouted that a celestial being had descended to earth."

"But he didn't look at anyone."

He walked straight up to me, squatted down, and looked at me.

"I was so hungry that I didn't have the strength to kneel, so I just lay on the ground and looked at him. He was wearing a very ordinary blue Taoist robe, and his hair was just hanging down, much like mine now. But... he just made me feel very at ease."

He took a steamed bun out of his sleeve. It was snow-white, steaming hot, and the aroma wafted straight into his nose.

He said, "Eat."

"I was staring at that steamed bun, my mouth watering uncontrollably. But I didn't dare take it, and I didn't have the strength. I didn't know who he was, why he was giving it to me, or what the consequences would be if I ate it..."

"He noticed. He didn't say anything, he just put the steamed bun in my hand and said, 'Eat it, don't worry. It'll get cold if you don't eat it soon.'"

"I held that steamed bun, smelling its aroma, and finally couldn't resist. I took big bites and finished it in just a few bites."

"Then I choked."

As Xiaoyao Tian finished speaking, he suddenly laughed, a laugh that seemed a little embarrassed:

"I was choking so badly I kept patting my chest, and my face turned red. Then, as if by magic, he produced a bowl of warm water. I took it and gulped it down, and only then could I catch my breath."

He conjured up another plate of steaming hot buns, piled high. He said, "Eat slowly, there's more."

"I started crying while I was eating."

"I ate and cried, cried and ate. Tears fell onto the steamed bun, and I swallowed them down along with the tears."

"He just squatted down next to me, without saying a word or leaving, just watching me eat. He only spoke after I had finished crying and eaten."

He said: "A real man doesn't cry."

Then he stretched out his hand and said: Come with me. I will guide you in your spiritual practice. You will eat big white steamed buns every day.

Xiaoyao Tian's eyes were slightly red, but he smiled.

"Without the former sect leader, I wouldn't be who I am today."

"Now I can finally do my part for the Sect Leader and for the Immortal Sect. Even if I die, I will have no regrets."

"For the past forty-seven years, I've been here alone, cultivating myself, seeking enlightenment, and waiting. Sometimes I wonder, will I ever see anyone? Will it be the enemy who comes, instead of reinforcements?"

He smiled and raised his glass:

"But today, you came. That's enough."

Looking at him, Li Xiaoyao suddenly realized that the young man before him was more insightful than he had imagined.

He raised his glass, and the two drank together again.

"By the way," Xiaoyao Tian put down his wine glass, "after you came in, did you kill anyone, and how many?"

Li Xiaoyao calculated: "About thirty or so. The third and fourth tiers were easy to deal with. I didn't touch the fifth tier ones, for fear of alerting them."

Xiaoyao Tian's eyes lit up: "More than thirty? Then there are... about sixty-five left?"

"More or less." Li Xiaoyao nodded. "The two sixth-tier members are all here, and the five fifth-tier members are all here as well. I've cleared out half of the remaining third and fourth-tier members."

Xiaoyao Tian nodded, seemingly lost in thought: "They should have realized they've lost men by now. But they don't know who did it, or how."

"They'll just assume it was done by the natives of this plane."

Li Xiaoyao put down his wine glass. "After all, in their eyes, the highest combat strength here is only at the peak of Foundation Establishment. It's normal for a few third or fourth-level cultivators to die."

Xiaoyao Tian laughed: "Then let them continue to think that way."

He stood up, walked to the edge of the courtyard, and looked down at the darkening night below the mountain:

"Now, let's just wait and see."

"Wait until the rest of them gather."

"Wait until they think they have victory in their grasp."

"Wait for them to come to us."

Li Xiaoyao walked to his side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him:

"We still have to wait."

Xiaoyao Tian looked at him.

"Waiting for reinforcements from the Immortal Sect." Li Xiaoyao looked at the distant sunset. "True Monarch Minghuang said that his true form would receive a message the moment I touched the stone tablet. Now, the Immortal Sect should already know my location."

He looked up at the sky:

"They are on their way."

Xiaoyao Tian was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed:

"That would be even better."

He turned and walked back to the table, sat down again, and poured himself a glass of wine.

"Come on, let's have a few more drinks. We'll start once everyone's here."

Li Xiaoyao returned to the table and picked up his wine glass.

Moonlight streamed down, and the mountains were silent.

Two carefree individuals sat facing each other, drinking.

Waiting for dawn, waiting for the enemy, waiting for reinforcements from afar.