A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Rogue Cultivator

The Flame Manipulation Technique he devised was truly a great help in alchemy. It enabled Wang Li, who had practiced this technique for eleven years and had surpassed his master, to be almost as good as an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator in terms of controlling the heat.

In addition, through repeated attempts, recording, summarizing, and verifying during alchemy, and with his increasingly skillful and natural techniques, a seemingly effortless feel, and the added benefit of the honey from a hundred flowers facilitating the condensation of the pills, his alchemy skills were greatly improved, and the success rate of pill formation increased visibly.

This resulted in as many as sixty-seven Foundation Establishment Pills.

And if I let him refine them again now, even without using the Hundred Flower Honey, he can ruin at most three out of ten. If he uses the Hundred Flower Honey but still ruins one or two, it means he's really putting his heart into it.

"Here you go, Little White, here's one for you."

Wang Li never hesitated to treat the timid mice.

Over the past few months, the little guy has finally reached maturity and is enjoying the special treatment given to him by Wang Li.

However, Wang Li dared not feed the little thing all of his Foundation Establishment Pills, fearing that this fellow, whose physique and rank were far inferior to the other two, would explode and die.

Foundation Building Pills are, after all, meant for cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining to break through the bottleneck of a major realm. The potency of the medicine is so great that it can even allow a cultivator with extremely poor aptitude who has just entered the eleventh level of Qi Refining to advance one level directly to the twelfth level of Qi Refining, even if he cannot fully absorb the potency and some of the potency is wasted.

If the timid mouse swallows it whole, it won't achieve the purpose of testing the poison... ah, ah, it should be that it's not fortunate enough to enjoy this opportunity.

Why would Wang Li specifically raise a small pet to test drugs?

Besides, the Foundation Establishment Pill is a precious elixir for cleansing the marrow and strengthening the tendons, so how could it be poisonous? Moreover, these are all finished elixirs that he refined himself, so how could he not have that confidence?

He peeled off a piece and fed it to the drooling little guy. As soon as the pill went down, the little thing's belly swelled up, turning into a big, fluffy ball. Wang Li had thought his beloved spirit pet was going to die, but after a while, the little thing's belly flattened back down, though it was still all wet.

Immediately afterwards, he slipped away to the private hot spring pool next door for a bath, and came out full of energy.

Upon seeing this, the king felt much calmer.

I knew it! How could there be a problem with a Foundation Establishment Pill that I refined myself through the proper procedures?

So, he jumped into the larger warm water pool next to him and then decisively took one of the two pills given to him by the sect. Cough cough, it was definitely not to wait and see if Xiaobai had any abnormalities.

The elixir was ingested and then refined.

Instantly, the medicinal power transformed into streams of warm currents, filling his dantian and purple palace, with nearly half flowing through the eight extraordinary meridians into his internal organs and limbs.

However, the medicinal power was extremely concentrated, and Wang Li's refining speed could not keep up with the speed at which the medicinal power spread. Soon, it felt as if a raging fire was burning in his dantian, and it seemed to be burning brighter and brighter.

Unbeknownst to me, my internal organs felt warm, while my limbs and other parts of my body felt icy cold.

The sensations of hot and cold are particularly pronounced.

"The Foundation Establishment Pill is indeed potent; it must be refined immediately. Heh, it's fortunate that I've spent a lot of time in my spare time learning from the Foundation Establishment stage senior brothers in the sect, and I've also consulted my master and four other senior brothers; otherwise, I might have missed something."

Foundation Building Pills primarily help cultivators cleanse their marrow and strengthen their tendons, purifying their magical power and transforming the gaseous energy within their bodies into a liquid form that accumulates in the dantian and throughout the body. In addition, it also strengthens the internal organs and meridians, enabling these bodily organs and blood vessels, which could originally only withstand gaseous magical power, to withstand liquid magical power.

With so many tasks to do, can one Foundation Establishment Pill handle it all?

This is why many Qi Refining cultivators still find it very difficult to establish their foundation, even with the Foundation Establishment Pill. They are already incredibly lucky to be able to complete the steps of expanding their dantian and compressing their mana. The kind of physical cleansing that Han Li did, which he treated like candy, repeated two, three, or even more times, is extremely rare.

Foundation building is a long process.

If the medicinal power is allowed to circulate and strengthen on its own, at most it can only achieve a preliminary strengthening of the tendons and marrow, and can only provide simple enhancement to the superficial skin and bones. Even if a cultivator with good aptitude tries to guide the residual medicinal power, he can only specifically strengthen the meridians, the dantian, or some other part of the body, thereby gaining some improvement in that area.

For example, those who strengthen their hearing system during the foundation-building stage often have slightly stronger hearing abilities than others of the same level after the foundation is established.

For example, some people who focus on strengthening their meridians will have much stronger resilience than others of the same level.

Those who focus on strengthening their dantian can have a slightly higher total mana than those who have reached the same level in the same foundation-building stage, and their combat endurance is also slightly longer.

Various types, too numerous to mention.

Regardless of the circumstances, once these individuals reach the Foundation Establishment stage, they will undoubtedly be a cut above the average, lucky ones who barely manage to reach the Foundation Establishment stage.

Huh? Why don't these people strengthen themselves in all aspects?

The medicinal power of a mere one or two Foundation Establishment Pills is limited. The primary purpose is to expel impurities and improve physical constitution; the real goal is to utilize the medicinal power to concentrate magical energy, transforming it from a gaseous state into a pure liquid, and ultimately advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage. Can a slight strengthening of the physical body compare to such a momentous event as Foundation Establishment?

Is it worth it?

not worth.

By then, even if some medicinal power remains in the body, it will be far from sufficient.

Besides, how many Foundation Establishment Pills does Huangfeng Valley only produce once every five years?

Only about seventy or eighty pills on average!

Even in the most prolific years, there are only a little over a hundred.

However, the sect has tens of thousands of disciples in the Qi Refining stage! The majority are at the eleventh level of Qi Refining, over a thousand are at the twelfth level, and quite a few are at the thirteenth level. Fifty or sixty Foundation Establishment Pills are simply not enough to go around, so who would be shameless enough to ask for several at once? Moreover, after consuming several precious Foundation Establishment Pills, there is no leap in strength boost, so it would be better to use them to cultivate more Foundation Establishment stage disciples.

Furthermore, body cultivation has long since disappeared.

The current focus is on magical power, not the physical body.

As a result, the physical bodies of cultivators, which are often neglected, become increasingly weak; those like Wang Li, who possess strength equivalent to hundreds of kilograms, are among the strongest. Once they lose their magical power, they are no different from ordinary mortals.

So, what exactly are these bodily impurities?

Besides what can be seen, there are also some things that cannot be seen.

Small imperfections such as deposits in capillaries, muscle fibers, and hard bones of the hands and legs; blockages adhering to the walls of blood vessels of all sizes; differences in muscle fiber density due to individual differences; some unavoidable "wind holes" in the bone; and some coagulations left after strenuous activities, etc.

Now, what Wang Li needs to do is to refine the medicinal power while actively guiding the dissolved medicinal power to fill in the gaps in those easily overlooked parts of his body.

With the help of a large amount of Foundation Building Pills and medicinal power, try to complete the transformation of the physical body.

For example, with the help of medicine, the delicate capillary tissues can be strengthened little by little, making them less prone to developing hidden ailments due to high-intensity battles; and the blood can be cleansed, pollutants removed, and impurities eliminated from the human digestive system.

For example, by compressing muscle fibers inch by inch, the density of one's own muscle fibers can be one, three, ten, or fifty times that of a normal person!

Is this difficult?

Have.

The density of muscle fibers varies from person to person (including ordinary people) from birth, with differences that can be as high as ten times or more.

A physique with muscle fiber density several times or even ten times that of an average person is commonly known as a superhuman.

Those born with superhuman strength have muscle fiber density far greater than that of ordinary people. Otherwise, we all have one head and four legs, and our body sizes are not much different, so why is it that their weight, normal strength, explosive power, etc., are far beyond what is expected? The reason lies here.

For example, a slight contraction of the skeleton.

Why are the bones of high-level cultivators so hard?

Why can the bones of most demonic beasts be used to refine weapons?

It's simply because their bones are strong enough!

Why are the four Blood Servants under the Yue Emperor able to challenge opponents of higher ranks?

Bone hardening is one of the important factors.

Compared to monsters, humans generally suffer from osteoporosis. Whether caused by congenital or acquired factors, this disease must be treated. Because no matter the extent of treatment, there are numerous benefits.

It fills the "wind acupoints" in the bones as much as possible to improve bone quality; through a rhythmic movement of medicinal power, it compresses the looseness that is not visible to the naked eye. It makes the bones that bear the weight of the main body harder and more refined, and makes the bones that exert force in the limbs more fluid.

It was the process that was a bit painful.

"It feels like a warm current is gathering in my dantian, like countless ants crawling all over my body, so itchy. Whew, the medicine is finally working, so warm... what a joke."

"Ouch, that hurts!"

My skin has started to feel like it's tearing.

It's important to understand that this is just the beginning; it's far from the point where the dantian is stretched and the intense pain of seven or eight sharp knives simultaneously churning inside will occur.

"Steady up, slow down a bit more. I have no shortage of pills, there's no need to rush."

Soaking in the hot spring pool filled with the essence of various medicinal herbs, Wang Li's forehead was covered in large beads of sweat. Before long, his body began to twitch slightly in pain. Fortunately, by remaining calm and taking a steady approach, he gradually adapted to the pain. Half an hour, an hour…

Soon, two hours had passed.

The medicinal effects of the first Foundation Building Pill have completely dissipated.

Normally, at this time, every cultivator who took the Foundation Establishment Pill would experience excruciating pain in their dantian, because most of the medicinal power would be concentrated in that area.

Wang Li, who was somewhat prepared, did not experience the pain as intensely as she had imagined, and she gritted her teeth and endured it.

One day, two days, three days...

With the hot stones ensuring the water temperature remained constant, Wang Li, after seven days of stabilizing and tempering his entire left arm several times with the majority of the medicinal power of a Foundation Building Pill, suddenly opened his eyes.

"Cough cough."

He spat out a mouthful of bloody filth, and immediately felt refreshed.

"With less than a third of the medicinal power acting on the internal organs and a considerable amount remaining, how can the effect be so obvious?"

Seeing the pool of pure water turn into blood-stained water, the Foundation Establishment Pill's effect of cleansing the marrow and removing impurities was indeed real.

With a flick of his finger, he used the small bottle of green liquid first, then jumped up and decisively changed to another pool, burying his head in it to continue.

In any case, in order to establish his foundation and refine his physical body, he prepared ten such warm water pools.

The spiritual herbs soaking in these pools were mostly healing herbs from the Crimson Forbidden Land, with some auxiliary herbs collected from the many Foundation Establishment stage senior brothers in Yellow Maple Valley. Based on these herbs, he concocted a medicinal liquid that could heal wounds from the outside in.

This was done in case of unforeseen circumstances, such as fainting, internal injuries, bodily lacerations, or excessive blood loss caused by severe pain; in such cases, these healing elixirs would be sufficient to keep him alive.

As long as he doesn't die immediately, he won't die.

Having connections and resources allows you to acquire relevant experience and access more insurance.

"Let's spend another three days refining the remaining medicinal power before we talk about it again."

And so, a cycle was repeated every seven to ten days. While others used the Foundation Establishment Pill to purify their mana and use the residual medicinal power to increase their mana, Wang Li mainly used it to cleanse his marrow and refine his essence. He guided most of the medicinal power to circulate throughout his body several times, until the effect was negligible, until the residual medicinal power accumulated in various parts was about to reach its limit, before he stopped!

Before we knew it, three months had quietly passed.

"Senior Brother Wang, Senior Brother Wang, it's time to collect the spirit grains..."

Okay, seeing the communication talisman outside the barrier and a storage bag containing ten spirit stones inside, Xiao Chen immediately understood.

After running off to get a spare restriction token from his father, he quickly ran back and the first thing he did after sneaking into the formation was to happily pick up the storage bag on the ground.

"Oh dear, only ten spirit stones? Senior Brother Wang has become stingy!"

Others might not know about what Wang Li gained in the forbidden area, but the three members of the Chen family, who were well-informed, couldn't possibly be unaware of it.

"Foundation Building?"

Looking at the "fake cave" that Wang Li had carved out on the mountainside, Xiao Chen's nonchalant expression vanished, replaced by a burning intensity.

He didn't bother him or show any curiosity. Xiao Chen, who had matured quite a bit, knew this much about the importance of things.

After Linggu finished tidying up and planting new seeds, he couldn't help but look back with envy one last time before turning and walking away.