Mortal: Starting with the Golden Jade Book

"Junior Brother Yan is really cunning. He actually thinks he can exchange a book on the Five Elements Formation, which can be bought for ten spirit stones, for a Foundation Establishment Pill? It's unbelievable that Junior Brother has the nerve to say that."

Upon seeing this, a person nearby immediately retorted disdainfully, and then took out a thick book on formations.

"Young Lin, why don't you take a look at my book, 'The Divine Firmament Formation Record'? This is a masterpiece that brings together the best of ancient and modern formations. It is an absolutely rare ancient secret manual."

"What utter nonsense! You think you can bully a junior who doesn't know anything? How much of what's in there can you even understand yourself? It's all about those long-lost, unorthodox formations. What use is it to a beginner?"

"It's better than your 'Five Elements Formation.' If he needs a basic formation to get started, can't he just buy it at the market? Why would he need to exchange it for a Foundation Establishment Pill?"

Seeing the two start arguing, the others didn't wait any longer and started speaking up.

"Why don't you take a look at my 'Nine Explanations of the Dao of Formations'? By deducing the Dao of Formations from the methods of breaking formations, you might be pleasantly surprised."

"Bullshit, how can you learn to break formations if you haven't learned how to set them up? Senior Brother Chen, your ability to lie through your teeth has become increasingly refined."

"How about you take a look at my 'Pure Illusion Array'?"

"Looking at illusion formations is not as good as looking at killing formations. My 'Seven Deadly Formations' is the essence of killing formations."

"..."

Ignoring the noise of the people around him, Lin Zui continued to flip through and compare the books one by one.

The reason he did this was, of course, because with his strength he couldn't possibly keep the Foundation Establishment Pill. Rather than being threatened by others, he decided to just let everyone compete for it.

In this way, he wouldn't have to face the pressure from Foundation Establishment cultivators. With them checking and balancing each other, no one would dare to offend the masses and threaten him. In the end, even if someone didn't get the Foundation Establishment Pill, it wouldn't be his fault.

Another point, though it was just his guess, he thought was highly likely.

That is, with his current terrifying total amount of magical power from cultivating all five elements, if he can cultivate to the peak of Qi Refining, breaking through to Foundation Establishment might not be as difficult as imagined.

Breaking through a barrier, to put it simply, is about compressing a large amount of magical power into a higher-level form. If you have enough magical power, it will always be easier for you to compress it than for ordinary people, right?

Han Li relied on the Three Revolutions Replenishing Yuan Technique to have such a great effect on overcoming the bottleneck of Core Formation. My total amount of magic power is even higher than his. How could I be troubled by a mere Foundation Establishment?

Even if I'm wrong, once I reach the Qi Refining bottleneck, with various methods, I shouldn't be much weaker than a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Getting a few Foundation Establishment Pills wouldn't be too difficult.

Therefore, he didn't feel the slightest bit of heartache at giving up the Foundation Establishment Pill at this moment. As for why he wanted to exchange it for a book on formations, it was naturally to lay the foundation for studying the formations in the Jade Book in the future.

After looking around, Lin Zui was somewhat disappointed. Some of the books were commonplace like the "Five Elements Formation," while others were profound and obscure, making them incomprehensible. There were very few that were truly easy to understand and suitable for his study.

Just as they were hesitating, a hearty laugh suddenly came from outside the hall.

"Hahaha, such a lively scene, how about I join in too?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a beam of light flew into the main hall, and a middle-aged scholar-like cultivator appeared.

Upon seeing the Confucian scholar appear, the noisy cultivators around immediately fell silent and stood up to pay their respects. Even the sect leader, Daoist Zhongling, stood up and greeted him with a smile.

"Junior Brother Yu, weren't you in seclusion? When did you come out?"

The scholar was not arrogant at all and politely returned the greetings to everyone.

"I just came out of seclusion and was on my way to pay my respects to my senior brother. I didn't expect to run into him like this."

"Oh? Junior Brother is also interested in this Foundation Establishment Pill?"

"It's quite a coincidence. My junior brother's disciple accidentally ingested a Spirit Awakening Grass while traveling recently. I'm sure you, Senior Brother, are aware of the effects of this Spirit Awakening Grass. My disciple has good talent. If he could focus on cultivating for a few more years and wait for the sect to distribute Foundation Establishment Pills, he might be able to break through. But times have changed, and we can't wait any longer."

The middle-aged scholar sighed, and Zhongling Daoist also frowned upon hearing the name Qiling Grass.

"Spirit Awakening Grass? Is that the miraculous medicine that can greatly enhance spiritual intelligence and comprehension in a short period of time?"

"good."

Zhongling Daoist pondered for a moment.

"Although this Spirit Awakening Grass can help with breakthroughs and improve cultivation aptitude after a breakthrough, if the breakthrough fails, it will completely block a cultivator's path to advancement. Although the benefits are considerable, the risks are also extremely high."

The middle-aged Confucian scholar gave a bitter smile.

"Junior Brother naturally understands this matter, but since things have come to this, I can only do my best to prepare some auxiliary items to ensure that he can successfully break through. Originally, I wanted to ask Senior Brother Sect Leader to help me think of a way to make an exception and ask the senior uncles and elders in the sect for a Foundation Establishment Pill, but now it seems that there is no need to trouble him."

The middle-aged scholar looked at Lin Zui.

"Kid, you're interested in formations?"

"Replying to senior, this junior is of inferior talent and has no hope of achieving the Great Dao. I can only settle for second best and seek some breakthroughs in miscellaneous studies."

"Haha, it's alright, it's alright. Who says you can't pursue the Great Dao if you don't have good aptitude? Your uncle's aptitude isn't that great either, but with the help of the formation, I still managed to successfully establish my foundation."

The scholar smiled and patted Lin Zui on the shoulder. Seeing Lin Zui's respectful and receptive expression, the scholar nodded in satisfaction and handed him a book.

"It is fate that we meet today. This book, 'Yu Feng's Explanation of Formations,' is my research on formations over the years. It progresses from simple to complex and will definitely inspire you. However, if you do not have enough talent in formations, it is best to just dabble in it and not force yourself to study it, so as not to hurt yourself."

The scholar's words carried a hint of warning, and Lin Zui's heart skipped a beat. He realized that he might have indeed encountered something extraordinary. Moreover, the crowd that had been undermining each other just moments before now dared not utter a word of mockery in the face of the "Yu Feng Formation Explanation." Instead, they looked at Lin Zui with a hint of envy, which further confirmed the value of this item.

"Yes, I will study it carefully. Thank you for your kind advice, senior."

Lin Zui was overjoyed and quickly took out a Foundation Establishment Pill, handing it to the scholar.

"Haha, okay."

The scholar accepted it with a smile, then, as if suddenly remembering something, he glanced at Lin Zui a few times.

"However, if you can truly understand all the contents of this book, you can come to me. I wouldn't mind giving you another chance."

After saying this, the scholar didn't linger. He bid farewell to everyone and then drifted away.

Zhongling Daoist watched the scholar's departing figure, sighed, looked at Lin Zui, and encouraged him:

"Junior Brother Yu is the most outstanding array genius in Huangfeng Valley in the past hundred years. He strengthened himself with arrays and forcibly established his foundation with the aptitude of a pseudo-spiritual root. Now that you have received his inheritance, it can be considered your good fortune. Go back and study it well. Perhaps you will also have a chance to establish your foundation in the future."

"Yes, Sect Leader."

……

A month later.

The residential area for lower-ranking deacons and disciples.

Inside an ordinary stone house, Lin Zui cast several spells, causing the stone house's inherent array restrictions to shift. Under Lin Zui's continuous manipulation, as subtle spiritual energy runes were continuously integrated, the most basic isolation restriction quickly became more stable and solid.

Lin Zui nodded.

This master uncle's reputation as a genius in array formations is truly well-deserved. He casually modified the basic array according to the method in the book, and the effect was increased several times over. It was truly remarkable.

After studying it for several days, he has gained some understanding of the book "Yu Feng's Explanation of Array Formations". This book completely and thoroughly breaks down the principles of array formations, just like analyzing matter into the most basic atoms, and then combining these atoms into countless tiny runes in another form, and running the array formation by combining spiritual power runes.

It can be said that this senior uncle abandoned the mainstream array formation schools and created a new path of array formations - the rune array path.

Lin Zui didn't know how far he could go, but the fact that his Uncle-Master Yu could analyze the formation to this extent on his own was definitely a testament to his extraordinary talent.

As for the method Zhongling Sect Leader mentioned—using formations to strengthen oneself and forcibly building a foundation with the aptitude of a pseudo-spiritual root—he had almost figured it out.

This senior uncle must have used some method to fuse a large amount of spiritual energy runes into his body, turning his entire body into a spirit-gathering array. He relied on the large amount of mana absorbed by this human spirit-gathering array to forcefully break through the Foundation Establishment stage.

"What a madman."

Lin Zui shook his head. He knew without even thinking how risky this brutal way of breaking through was. He was lucky to have survived without his body exploding.

Lin Zui would never risk his life like that, but if this method could increase his speed of absorbing spiritual energy from heaven and earth, he wouldn't mind giving it a try.

However, given his current research progress, it is clearly not enough for him to take this step, and he can only proceed slowly.