Brother, how come you're a witch?

Foundation Building is considered the true starting point for cultivating immortality.

Specifically, one can only control artifacts after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, and one will not have dark circles under the eyes even after staying up all night.

Su Yan had only fallen in cultivation level and didn't originally need to rebuild his foundation. However, the time turbulence was a strange thing; while stripping away his cultivation, it also added some constraints back to him.

"Ready? I'm about to begin."

Su Yan picked up the Foundation Establishment Pill with two fingers and waved it at Ye Jingqiu, who was sitting cross-legged opposite him.

"Um."

Little Sword Ancestor nodded vigorously.

"Watch carefully and learn well."

Su Yan raised a finger and put the Foundation Establishment Pill into his mouth.

The pill entered his stomach and immediately transformed into a warm current flowing into his dantian, becoming fiery hot.

Unlike ordinary cultivators who need to carefully guide the medicinal power, Su Yan's meridians and dantian were like parched land receiving sweet rain, greedily absorbing the warm current on their own and eagerly beginning to break through the shackles.

The surrounding spiritual energy surged wildly towards Su Yan's dantian as if it had encountered a sinking sea, gathering and growing stronger at its center, and lingering before that mysterious, seemingly tangible yet intangible layer of foundation-building membrane.

Once the amount of spiritual energy gathered is large enough, it will break through the membrane in one go and achieve foundation building.

This is why it is difficult for those with five spiritual roots to establish a foundation, because the speed of absorbing external spiritual energy is too slow. It is difficult to gather enough spiritual energy during the foundation-building period, so it is impossible to break through the membrane.

The Foundation Building Pill can not only accelerate the absorption of spiritual energy, but also change the nature of spiritual energy, making it more robust in a short period of time.

This makes breaking through the constraints much easier, and it's not impossible to delve even into higher levels.

Ye Jingqiu's eyes flickered slightly.

She found Su Yan's already pleasant scent even more alluring.

The true immortal sword intent overflowed from Su Yan's bones and skin, transforming into an alluring fragrance that tantalized Ye Jingqiu's heartstrings.

She sniffed constantly, trying to inhale the rich aroma of the sword intent and the scent of Su Yan's body, imprinting it firmly in her mind.

The scents seemed to still carry Su Yan's body heat, making her feel hot as well.

The line separating them from the Core Formation stage had become faintly blurred, as if one could step across it with a single step.

Ye Jingqiu suddenly understood the deeper meaning behind Su Yan's decision to have her study the material closely.

When a cultivator breaks through a barrier, regardless of their level of cultivation, they will inevitably connect with the two energies of heaven and earth, attracting the manifestation of the Great Dao; the only difference is the degree of manifestation.

Su Yan's sword intent was so profound and mysterious that it made the sword path so clear, as if thousands of sword moves were flashing before Ye Jingqiu's eyes. However, she could not fully understand it and could only comprehend a small part of it.

"Sniff."

She involuntarily leaned forward, getting even closer, almost touching Su Yan's nose, and then followed the curve of his cheek down to his neck where the scent was even stronger.

"..."

Su Yan's lips twitched slightly.

When he invited Ye Jingqiu in to study the teachings, he had anticipated this turn of events, but this commotion didn't affect him much, so he ignored it for the time being.

Ye Jingqiu's nose moved lower and lower, past her collarbone to her chest, and finally stopped at her lower abdomen, where the scent was strongest.

Her posture changed from sitting cross-legged to bending her legs outwards, pressing her buttocks to the ground and leaning forward, lowering her head to Su Yan's lower abdomen to sniff, her increasingly heavy breathing constantly blowing out hot air.

That's going a bit too far.

The location of the dantian is actually a bit awkward. Ye Jingqiu's breathing always seems to touch other places, and Su Yan even feels that she is deliberately moving towards that place.

If things continue like this, he'll have no choice but to kick the girl out.

But at that moment, Ye Jingqiu suddenly stood up, walked around Su Yan, and went behind him.

Su Yan's heart stirred. At this moment, he was completely focused on controlling his spiritual power and could not detect the situation behind him. Although he trusted the Little Sword Ancestor, his instinctive reaction from years of surviving still made him alert.

But then he heard Ye Jingqiu's increasingly heavy breathing and the sound of splashing water behind him.

This is?

Su Yan recalled that day when Ye Jingqiu drooled over his sword, and felt that the girl was probably smacking her lips again, savoring the sword's intent.

Don't drool on my head...

Su Yan was a little worried about his hairstyle.

At this moment, the spiritual energy had reached its limit. The scorching spiritual energy hadn't even made a move yet; it had only remained in front of the shackles before crushing the thin barrier.

it's time.

Su Yan immediately focused his mind and devoted himself to the breakthrough, controlling his spiritual power to push forward!

The shackles were instantly pierced, and he stepped into the Foundation Establishment realm. The sword intent within his body surged out uncontrollably, filling the entire small house.

But he did not stop. Instead, he pushed the remaining spiritual power forward, trying to squeeze into a higher and deeper realm. Even if he could not stay there, he could leave a trace so that he could arrive there in the future.

Time slips away quietly.

As the first light of dawn appeared in the east, Su Yan slowly opened his eyes.

His eyes held a profound and clear sword-like light.

"He actually reached the mid-Foundation Establishment stage in one fell swoop."

Su Yan gently exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling refreshed and invigorated.

He stood up and stretched, then turned to look at Ye Jingqiu.

Little Sword Ancestor sat on Ning Jiu's small bed at some point, seemingly in a daze.

Seeing that Su Yan had finished, she slowly got up, supporting herself on the headboard.

"How does it feel?"

Before Su Yan could ask, Ye Jingqiu interrupted and spoke.

"very good."

Su Yan raised his hand and smiled:

"It went even better than expected. How about you? Did you make any progress?"

"Well, one foot is already in the bag."

Ye Jingqiu nodded seriously, hesitated for a moment, and added:

"……Thanks."

"What's the big deal? But you shouldn't take it too seriously. Don't keep thinking about sword intent that you can't understand right away."

Su Yan smiled and stepped forward to pat Ye Jingqiu on the head:

"Look at how listless you are."

"......oh."

Ye Jingqiu looked away guiltily.

The two walked out of the hut one after the other and saw Ning Jiu sleeping soundly at the door, with a white wolf that had been dragged there as her pillow.

Su Yan didn't call her; he and Ye Jingqiu set up a pot and cooked on the spot.

After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, his body was full of spiritual energy, but his stomach was very empty, so he unusually decided to have breakfast.

He threw the egg yolk cake and shelled melon seeds into the pot, and then picked out a handful of tree fruits from the wooden box that Ning Jiu was holding and added them in to stew.

Stir it a few times with a wooden spoon, and a hot, fragrant aroma will waft up.

"Hmm... is there anything good to eat?"

Ning Jiu woke up groggily, followed the aroma to the pot, and without any hesitation, reached out to scoop it up.

"Hey, where's your manners?"

Su Yan knocked her hand away and served Ye Jingqiu a bowl first.

After he and Little Sword Ancestor had eaten, he left the remaining half pot for the eagerly waiting rabbit.

By the time I finished my leisurely breakfast, morning class had already started.

The two immediately left Guanyu Valley and went straight to the shop.

Along the way, Ye Jingqiu was frequently distracted, as if the mental strain of comprehending the profound swordsmanship had taken a toll on her, leaving her in a daze.

As soon as they arrived near Liu Liu's warehouse, they saw Cao Xiong and other body cultivators gathered together, with Lu Jing in the middle, his face flushed and pacing back and forth excitedly.

"Junior Brother Su!"

Lu Jing spotted them immediately and rushed over, grabbing Su Yan's hand:

"I did it! I did it! The Foundation Establishment Pill... I finally..."

He was incoherent, his eyes were red, and he had failed to achieve his goal after ten years of trying. Today, he finally succeeded and his excitement was beyond words.

"Congratulations, Senior Brother Lu." Su Yan was genuinely happy for him.

"It's all thanks to my junior brother! I, Lu Jing, will never forget this kindness!"

Lu Jing bowed respectfully, then said solicitously:

"By the way, junior brother, Su Xue's yellow bird just arrived and is now perched on the windowsill. No matter how we call it, it won't come over. It must be looking for you."

"Oh?"

Su Yan raised an eyebrow.

He immediately went inside and, sure enough, saw Liu Baishuang's little yellow oriole with its round body puffing out, staring at him with great displeasure.

"Chirp chirp!"

It yelled twice, clearly cursing Su Yan, then turned and flew away, leaving only a small storage bag behind.

"...The little demon girl's beast-taming skills are quite impressive."

Su Yan's lips twitched slightly as he stepped forward, picked up the storage bag, and opened it to take a look.

Inside were spirit stones piled high, and a faintly fragrant, unsigned note.

The handwriting on it was neat and elegant, and it contained three sentences:

"As compensation for the incident at Xiaozhu Peak, the elders have instructed you never to mention that night to anyone again."

"There weren't originally this many, but I managed to get you a little more."

Good luck in the game.

Su Yan's lips curled up slightly.

He had almost forgotten about the compensation, yet he gave so many spirit stones at once. It seems the little demoness played a significant role in it.

What a good girl...

However, this habit of deliberately using literary language and then immediately switching to vernacular writing is somewhat similar to Li Changsheng's, and the two of them might be able to get along well.

"...Speaking of which, Senior Brother Li hasn't replied to my Feixin messages for quite a while. I hope he's alright."

He shook his head and put the letter into his pocket.

There are four days left until the Ultimate Sword Cultivator Challenge.

Su Yan plans to go into seclusion.