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

"In two more years, I should start preparing for Foundation Establishment."

Only after the barrier was closed again did the two little ones and seven loaches cautiously peek out from the dense forest and the earthen cave.

Inside the True Cave Mansion beneath the waterfall.

Sitting cross-legged in the ninth warm water pool, Wang Li endured the waves of cramping pain in his dantian, converting the remaining medicinal power in his body into the power of the fourth level of the Qingyuan Sword Technique.

The Azure Origin Sword Technique has nine levels in Yellow Maple Valley, but Wang Li only exchanged for the first four levels.

The first three levels are accessible to disciples in the Qi Refining stage.

Once mastered, one can unleash a sharp sword beam over ten feet long with just one palm, its power enough to rival that of ordinary high-grade magic weapons.

The middle three levels require foundation building before cultivation can begin.

Once mastered, it can instantly release a protective sword shield, with defensive power comparable to a beginner to intermediate level defensive spell, and also has a certain rebound effect.

The last three levels belong to the cultivation techniques of Core Formation stage cultivators.

Once mastered, it allows for the creation of a sword shadow that mirrors the light of a flying sword or knife. This not only confuses the opponent but also possesses a realistic ten percent of the original's lethality. At the ninth level, the lethality of the sword shadow increases to about one-third, and the number of sword lights increases from one to three, resulting in a near geometric increase in combat power.

The light-splitting technique of the Qingyuan Sword Manual is a preliminary preparation for the Great Geng Sword Formation for Nascent Soul stage cultivators; it is far too early to propose it now.

Let's talk about the first four floors.

More than half a year ago, Wang Li had already cultivated his technique to the third level. When he was breaking through the bottleneck of Foundation Establishment, he first perfected the third level with the help of medicine, and then he piled up his technique to the current fourth level in one go.

"Whoa!"

Having achieved minor mastery of the technique, his breath now flows like a dragon.

With a long roar to the sky, a breath of turbid air transformed into a sword-like force, piercing a large hole more than ten feet deep in the cave wall.

"With the Foundation Establishment complete, I can practice fasting and embryonic breathing, and live as long as a snake or tortoise. My divine sense and magical power have undergone a complete transformation; my magical power has become liquid, and my divine sense has increased several times over. Hold on, stay calm, I calm my mind, I calm my mind... Hahahaha!"

Hahaha...!

After the initial excitement of drinking a cup of tea subsided, his emotions calmed down a bit. Only then did he carefully examine himself: Tsk tsk, no wonder he has three spiritual roots.

"Three Earth Origin Fruits, nine Foundation Establishment Pills..."

Not only did it make it difficult to find any gray impurities in his body, but the original gaseous true essence in his dantian also gradually became denser after several temperings and condensations. After the eighth pill was used, not only did the magical power circulating in his limbs and bones undergo a qualitative change, but even the deepest part of his dantian turned into a new green liquid.

The tingling warmth throughout my body suddenly turned into a burning sensation, like being engulfed in flames.

Once he guided most of the medicinal power into the power of the Azure Origin Sword Technique, he then took the ninth Foundation Establishment Pill, and everything fell into place naturally.

In fact, aside from the part about self-tempering his physical body, the suffering Wang Li endured during his Foundation Establishment was significantly less than that of Han Laomo during his Foundation Establishment, and could even be considered negligible.

As for the reason?

Firstly, the former has the experience of many predecessors, ample information, and knows which aspects might be uncomfortable, thus making preparations in advance.

Secondly, the methods of overcoming the obstacles are different:

Wang Li cultivated the Azure Origin Sword Technique, a technique that requires a large amount of medicinal and spiritual energy to improve, while simultaneously using the medicinal power to cleanse his marrow and bones, indirectly resolving the hidden dangers caused by the excessive accumulation of residual medicinal power. Han Li, on the other hand, was simply pursuing the breakthrough for the sake of breaking through; the marrow and bone cleansing was merely a side effect of the pill dissolving on its own, and he only considered cultivating the Azure Origin Sword Technique to address the problem of excessive residual medicinal power in his body after successfully breaking through.

The different choices made at the time of breakthrough, the disparity in personal aptitude, and the varying quality of pills and the abundance of various spiritual herbs directly resulted in Wang Li undergoing two or three rounds of tempering throughout his body, ultimately reaching the early stage (middle level) of Foundation Establishment. Han Li, on the other hand, continued to consume Qi Harmony Pills for nearly a year after Foundation Establishment before reaching Wang Li's current level.

"If the Foundation Establishment Pill hadn't become so much less effective, I would have continued to use it for cultivation."

Looking at the remaining fifty-eight Foundation Establishment Pills beside him, Wang Li sighed regretfully, then stroked his chin thoughtfully for a long time:

How should I deal with it?

Keeping twenty is enough to prepare for the third level of the Heavy Yuan; any more will just gather dust.

It can't be bought or sold, and who would you give it to as a gift?

As for training subordinates, he seems to only have three small ones and seven large loaches that have grown quite a bit; but that's too extravagant, costing three or four thousand spirit stones each; moreover, the foundation-building pills for cultivators can only be used to increase magic power in the mouths of these little guys, completely losing their marrow-cleansing effect.

Also, should we exit the seclusion directly, or continue to cultivate our magical power in seclusion?

"Forget it, let's get out of the pass first, and then establish our own cave dwelling."

The Spirit Valley Plantation is certainly good, but it can never truly belong to him; moreover, more than three years of the five-year period have already passed, leaving only about two years, which is simply not enough time for him to break through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

When the Chen family wants to take back this place, how will he face them?

So, it's time to move.

It's best to move now while you're still in the early stages of Foundation Establishment, to avoid any unnecessary trouble later.

Chapter 53 Future Planning

Before leaving, Wang Li had to accomplish some small goals.

first day.

"Uncle-Master Wang... hello."

As soon as Xiao Chen stepped out, he bumped into a familiar figure. Upon closer inspection, it was none other than Xiao Wang, the guard of the Spirit Valley Garden.

It can be scanned with divine sense.

What the heck? What's going on? How did I reach Foundation Establishment? How is it possible to reach Foundation Establishment?

But without a doubt, it has to be Uncle Wang.

"Little Chen, you need to cultivate diligently from now on. You can do it."

Wang Li patted the little guy on the shoulder and said with a smile.

He felt good hearing that "Uncle-Master" address.

Two hours later, Xiao Chen returned to his cave dwelling, only to encounter that familiar figure again.

"Greetings, Uncle-Master Wang!"

What a coincidence!

Xiao Chen forced a smile, trying hard to put on a very strained, cheerful one.

"Ah."

Wang Li simply nodded.

The second day, the third day...

"Greetings, Uncle Wang..."

"Greetings, Uncle Wang..."

"Uncle-Master Wang..."

On the fourth day, Xiao Chen bought a bottle of fasting pills and announced to the public that he was going into seclusion.

Only then did Wang Li finally give up.

During this period, he made a list of future plans based on feasibility.

Three possible paths were roughly listed.

【One】

Occupying the cave dwelling of the Spirit Eye Spring to the east of Han Li, he used the Spirit Eye Spring, along with a continuous supply of five kinds of pills and a large amount of spirit stones, to seclude himself for four years until the next opening of the forbidden area. Then, using the Three-Turn Rejuvenation Technique within the Golden Page to disperse his power, he entered the forbidden area again and swept through the other thirty underground stone halls on the second floor of the central area.

Are there so many stone palaces in the forbidden area?

That's right, to be precise, there are thirty-six in total.

(Nangong Wan led the disciples of the Hidden Moon Sect, starting from the northeast corner and sweeping clockwise. When they reached the stone palace "bridal chamber" in the south, they obtained a golden treasure chest. They had already looted more than ten basin stone palaces.)

Wang Li only managed to loot six places previously; there were still thirty places he hadn't visited.

It contains a large number of spiritual herbs and medicines suitable for the Foundation Establishment stage, as well as a large amount of inheritances and what the Core Formation stage considers "trash" but are treasures to the Foundation Establishment stage. The precious medicines in it are enough to help him complete three cycles of the Third Rebirth, let alone another one.

In this way, they can save two or three decades' worth of small bottles of green liquid. This green liquid is also excellent for cultivating ten-thousand-year-old ironwood, cedar, and oak—the main materials for refining Core Formation stage puppets. As a second-best option, it's also good for cultivating thousand-year-old ironwood—the raw material for Foundation Establishment stage puppets.

Huh? Not looting the core area?

That was ten years later.

The stone halls in the core area are filled with spiritual herbs suitable for Core Formation cultivators and those aiding in Nascent Soul formation. Taking them out now would be useless to him and would only be a burden. If word got out, he'd be doomed. After all, the teleportation array wasn't finished yet; he couldn't afford to be reckless.

There will be many choices at that time.

But the principle is: develop in seclusion and ignore everything else in the outside world.

The reason is: to impact the foundation building.

Instead, relying on the true fire of a Foundation Establishment cultivator and the Crimson Sun Furnace, he successively refined five types of Foundation Establishment pills: Qi Harmony Pill, True Essence Pill, Essence Tempering Pill, Essence Condensation Pill, and Spirit Gathering Pill. With just one pill every two or three days, ensuring the medicinal power was fully refined, Wang Li's cultivation would skyrocket. While he couldn't guarantee reaching the level of a pseudo-pillar in four years, he was certain to be in the mid-stage (high-level) of Foundation Establishment.

【Second】

Find a suitable place on the northern edge of Mount Taiyue to build a cave dwelling, and then head further north to the Yuanwu Kingdom and Tianxingzong Market:

1. Go to the Star Pavilion to purchase some good formations;

2. Find a reliable craftsman to transform the large amount of top-tier monster materials into high-tier or even top-tier magic weapons to enhance your own abilities;

3. In addition, you should buy more talismans, or see if there are any suitable high-quality or even rare top-tier magical artifacts;

4. While we're at it, let's also look for Qi Yunxiao, or more accurately, find out about his grandfather.

Based on the timeline, it should be nine years before Han Laomo and Qi Yunxiao met. This family should have left the Divine Weapon Sect and moved to the Tianxing Sect Market.

The loyal old servant that Qi Yunxiao took in was most likely recruited around this time. The fact that he could maintain a Qi Refining level of three or four at that age clearly indicates he wasn't taken in early on, but rather later. Otherwise, with the support of the Qi family, which, though declining, wasn't exactly destitute, he wouldn't have remained at only three or four levels of Qi Refining after decades.

If Old Wu were in his shoes, he wouldn't be so useless either.

In this light, the Qi family father and son who brought the old man his destiny to the immortals were indeed worth protecting with his life. (And indeed, he later gave his life to Qi Yunxiao, who had caused the giant pit.)

Wang Li's move to contact the Qi family at this time—no, it should be said that he was going to contact Qi Yunxiao and his grandson, who had been expelled from the Qi family—could be more appropriate than ever.

It's better to offer help in times of need than to add flowers to brocade.

Taking advantage of Qi Yunxiao's young age before he joined the Tianxing Sect and became the so-called genius weapon refiner of the Tianxing Sect, it shouldn't be too much for him to intercept these two, grandfather and grandson, right?

Of course, Wang Li wasn't entirely certain about the specifics; the above was merely speculation and conjecture.

The probability is less than 30%.

If he really wanted to know the specific situation of the Qi family grandfather and grandson, he would have to go there and take a stroll, search around, and inquire at the Qi family before he could confirm it.

The weapon-forging techniques passed down by the Divine Weapon Sect are not particularly important to him at the moment; they are the kind of things he can take for granted. He can learn some of them when he is about to form his core and forge magical treasures. Right now, it is best not to be too distracted and to focus on breaking through his cultivation level and improving his strength.