Immortal Path in the Palm of a Mortal's Hand

The third Foundation Building Pill slid down my throat, and its medicinal power dissipated much faster than the previous two.

It wasn't a mutation in the elixir. Rather, the nascent liquid true essence at the bottom of the dantian's sea of ​​qi had developed an instinctive desire to devour. As soon as the medicinal power spread, the silvery-white true essence, like a vicious shark smelling blood, surged up from the depths of the sea of ​​qi and swallowed the immense medicinal power whole in one gulp!

Immediately, it began a frenzied expansion!

What was originally just a small pool of liquid true essence, under the infusion of surging medicinal power, expanded in volume at a speed perceptible to the naked eye! Doubled! Tripled! Tripled! The dantian and qi sea were stretched to the point of bursting, and the color of the true essence subtly changed from silvery-white to a deeper pale blue, not a change in color, but a manifestation of a dramatic increase in density! The magical power contained in each drop of true essence was more than 30% more condensed than in the early stage of transformation!

Within the meridians, true essence surged forth like a flood bursting its banks! For the previous twenty days or so, the flow in the meridians was a sluggish mixture of gaseous magical power and a small amount of liquid true essence. Now, pure, refined liquid true essence completely replaced everything else, and the flow speed suddenly increased several times over! The true essence rose from the dantian, soaring upwards along the Ren and Du meridians, breaking through the spine, reaching the Niwan point, and then cascading down from the Tanzhong acupoint in the chest, returning to the dantian! A complete cycle, which normally takes half an hour, was now completed in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea!

Swift! Steady! Unstoppable!

Chen Fan clearly sensed his physical body being repeatedly cleansed by this new torrent of true essence. With each complete cycle of the Great Circulation, strands of pure true essence slowly seeped from the tough walls of his meridians, seeping into his flesh and bones. The instant this true essence penetrated, his flesh felt as if it were being scorched and forged by invisible true fire, instantly taut, and then becoming even tighter and more resilient! Again and again, under this repeated tempering, his entire body's flesh and bones were undergoing a transformative metamorphosis!

Within the sea of ​​consciousness, the world was also turned upside down.

The moment the foundation-building process was completed, the Prison-Suppressing Wall spontaneously began to rotate. Originally a pale gold, the wall gradually deepened in color with each rotation, transforming from a light gold to a rich, dark gold. The blurred engravings on the surface also became clear, bas-relief patterns. With each rotation, the wall thickened and solidified, grinding the fragments of inner demons suppressed beneath it into finer particles. The pure spiritual power transformed from these fragments flowed like a gentle stream, continuously merging into the wall itself.

The area covered by divine sense expanded dramatically!

One hundred zhang! One hundred and twenty zhang! One hundred and fifty zhang! One hundred and eighty zhang! Two hundred zhang!

After breaking through two hundred zhang, the growth momentum began to slow down, but it did not stop. Finally, the net of divine sense stably covered an area of ​​more than two hundred and twenty zhang! Within this distance, everything outside the stone chamber was clearly visible. In the adjacent room, number six of the Jia-character section, a disciple was sitting cross-legged, regulating his breathing. His magical power was obviously sluggish and not flowing smoothly, clearly indicating that he had failed to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage and was healing his internal injuries. Room eight of the Jia-character section was empty. At the end of the passage, two disciples on duty were leaning against the rock wall, chatting idly. One muttered, "I wonder how many of this batch of people who are in seclusion will succeed..." The other chimed in, "That one in room three of the Jia-character section last month, he held on for three months, and when he came out, he was still only at the Qi Refining stage..." Their whispers, the smell of dust on their bodies, and even the subtle differences in the flow of spiritual energy in the passage were all clearly reflected in the divine sense.

Chen Fan slowly opened his eyes.

A breath of pent-up energy, accumulated in his chest for over twenty days, surged from the depths of his lungs and was slowly exhaled from his throat, long and deep. This breath carried all the fatigue and impurities accumulated during his seclusion. After exhaling, he felt as if he had been pulled out of deep water and then exposed to the scorching sun, experiencing an almost ethereal lightness.

He looked down and examined his palms.

Beneath his skin, a warm, restrained luster emerged—not the protective aura of the silver armor, but a precious light emanating from within after his body had been tempered by true essence. His five fingers slowly closed, forming a fist, the knuckles emitting a soft yet firm "click." The extent of his increased strength was still unknown, but the feel of his fist was completely different; before, it was flesh encasing bone, but now it felt like holding a piece of naturally formed refined iron!

Lifespan: Over two hundred years.

A Qi Refining cultivator's lifespan is barely over a hundred years, though those blessed by heaven might extend it to one hundred and twenty or thirty. He had spent several years progressing from the tenth level of Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, and now he had unexpectedly gained over a hundred years of lifespan! A hundred years was enough time to do so much. He could meticulously refine his cultivation techniques, delve into alchemy, artifact crafting, and array formations, venture into the legendary Chaotic Star Sea, a place of both opportunity and danger, or even seek someone to decipher the profound demonic script on the bone fragment…

Chen Fan's lips twitched upwards very slightly.

It wasn't a smile, but rather something long suppressed suddenly loosened, quietly leaking out from this tiny crack. He quickly concealed this loosening, but the sharp glint that flashed deep in his eyes was neither concealed nor needed to be.

Foundation Establishment Stage. Success!

He rose from the jade platform. Despite sitting motionless for over twenty days, his joints felt perfectly smooth. His true energy spontaneously circulated between his muscles and bones, relieving most of the stiffness. He slightly turned his neck, producing a few crisp cracking sounds. He bent down and picked up the storage bag from beside the jade platform.

He took out a Spirit Restoration Pill and swallowed it. The medicinal effects dissipated, and the true essence in his dantian increased slightly.

A sweep of divine sense through the storage bag revealed: over thirty Abstinence Pills remained. Six Spirit Recovery Pills and three Yuan Rejuvenation Pills were left. All talismans remained unused. The Golden Flame Spirit-Slaying Blade hung at his waist, its flame patterns, infused with Foundation Establishment True Essence, shone with a light far more intense than before. Black scale armor clung tightly to his skin, the repair marks on his chest clearly visible. Fragments of talismans still remained. Bone fragments were wrapped in oilcloth.

Golden pages.

He retrieved the paper-thin golden page from the deepest part of his storage bag and laid it on his lap. His Foundation Establishment stage liquid true essence probed into it once more. The fourth layer of restrictions had already shattered, and he had already quickly skimmed the contents of the cultivation method on the jade platform. Now, he needed to carefully comprehend it, word by word.

The fourth level of cultivation technique is called "Soul Suppression." It builds upon the solid foundation of the "Prison Suppression Wall," projecting condensed divine consciousness power outwards to form an invisible barrier that can actively resist external divine consciousness attacks! The first three levels—Concentrating the Mind, Transforming Thoughts, and Prison Suppression—are all about tempering the origin of divine consciousness; from the fourth level onwards, divine consciousness finally possesses offensive and defensive capabilities!

Continue your comprehension. Upon completion of the fourth level, the range of your divine sense will increase by another hundred zhang, reaching over three hundred zhang! At the same time, the efficiency of the Prison Suppression Wall in suppressing and refining the fragments of inner demons will also double!

Chen Fan carefully read the fourth level of the cultivation method twice from beginning to end, closed the book, and solemnly put it back into the depths of his storage bag.

He stood up, walked to the stone chamber door, and placed his palm on the bronze plaque embedded beside the door. The pale golden light membrane of the defensive array and the soundproof barrier dissipated at the same time, and the sound waves from the outside world suddenly surged in: the howling wind, the faint conversations of disciples in the distance, the clear cries of spirit beasts... The chaotic sounds after more than twenty days of isolation flooded into his ears, and his eardrums even felt slightly swollen.

The heavy stone door slid open silently.

The light inside the passage was much brighter than in the stone chamber, and Chen Fan subconsciously squinted. At the end of the passage, the two deacon disciples turned to look at him at the same time upon hearing the sound.

Chen Fan stepped out of the stone chamber.

The two deacons stared intently at him for a moment. One of them twitched his nostrils almost imperceptibly, trying to detect the aura emanating from Chen Fan. The true essence fluctuations of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so different from those of a Qi Refining cultivator, were like fireflies in the dark, impossible to hide from cultivators of the same level, let alone the veterans who had guarded this place for years.

"Congratulations on your successful Foundation Establishment, fellow Daoist!" The steward who had spoken earlier straightened up, cupped his hands in congratulations, and spoke in a much more solemn tone than in his previous casual conversation.