Ji Qing's Guidance, the Foundation Establishment Hurdle

"Finally, some feedback?!"

Li Ye looked at the panel information, pleasantly surprised.

He subconsciously turned back to look at the Blazing Sun Flower he had just tended.

Its condition was indeed a little better than the others'.

But he had tended them all himself, and at least among the first two hundred and fifty Blazing Sun Flowers, there was little difference in their growth.

Now that the first had given feedback, the others should soon follow.

"Unfortunately, I've been tending the other seven hundred and fifty for quite some time, and they haven't even given me their first experience feedback yet. Who knows how much longer I'll have to wait..."

Li Ye shook his head, rallied his spirits, and continued tending the next flower.

He worked his way through them one by one, and by the time he finished, he had received feedback another ten or so times.

Before leaving the spirit field, Li Ye carefully shook the soil from his hands back into it. Looking rather cautious, he even checked himself again for any dirt.

After all, Elder Ji had personally prepared the soil in this second-tier spirit field using Crimson Yang Soil. If Li Ye accidentally carried any away and the elder mistook him for a thief stealing spirit soil, wouldn't that be a bolt from the blue?

"Hmm... The Blazing Sun Flowers are growing quite well. Every one of them is brimming with vitality, and not a single one has shown signs of withering or decline so far. They're much better than the batch I grew myself back then..."

"Li Ye, you've done a truly fine job!"

Elder Ji had arrived at the edge of the field at some point. Seeing the rather pleasing sight, he offered sincere praise.

Li Ye immediately bowed.

"I was only doing my duty, Elder. You flatter me."

"No need to be so reserved. Since you've done your work well, I'll naturally reward you!"

Elder Ji waved a hand and swept his gaze over Li Ye, an amused smile appearing on his face.

"After all that buildup, your Qi and Blood have finally broken through. By my reckoning, you mastered the first layer of Elephant Armor Force a little faster than normal..."

"You certainly don't hesitate to invest your resources!"

His tone was strange, as though he were certain Li Ye had some ulterior motive for investing so much in body refinement.

Li Ye merely replied,

"This disciple was physically frail before, and after suffering a severe injury on one occasion, my Qi and Blood declined even further. I truly didn't want to go through that pain again, so I resolved to cultivate the path of body refinement..."

"If it gives me a little more strength to protect myself, investing some resources is worth it!"

"Hahahahaha! Well said!"

Ji Qing suddenly burst out laughing and patted Li Ye on the shoulder.

He used such force that even though Li Ye had now made his first achievements in body refinement, half his body went numb.

After laughing, the tall man withdrew his hand and shook his head regretfully.

"Your character is fairly good, but your aptitude is far too poor. Not only is your Spirit Root low-grade, it also belongs to the earth and wood attributes, a far cry from the Cultivation Method I practice. Your physical condition is barely adequate as well. It's truly hard to say what you'll achieve in the future..."

"Otherwise, if you were even a little better, I might have considered taking you as my disciple!"

Over the days they had spent together, Ji Qing had seen Li Ye's performance in every respect.

He was highly skilled with Spirit Plants, could endure solitude, kept his hands clean, and was quite resourceful.

During the earlier competition, he had done well both in winning over companions and striking hard at his opponents.

If his aptitude had been just a little better, Li Ye could practically have kowtowed and become his disciple right then!

Elder Ji's blunt words clearly showed no regard for Li Ye's feelings.

Listening to him, Li Ye felt as though he had been stabbed several times in the heart.

It hurts! It hurts too much!

What exactly is that supposed to mean? What happened to the reward you promised?

Fine, you don't want to take me as your disciple. I wasn't interested in the first place anyway...

But I haven't seen a single benefit, and you've already torn into me and called me worthless!

Li Ye appeared expressionless, but inside, his heart was already dripping blood.

If it had been anything else, he would have laughed it off, but to say his aptitude was poor...

That he truly couldn't stand!

But the way he struggled to suppress his emotions looked to Ji Qing like regret at being unable to become his disciple.

For a moment, Ji Qing couldn't help feeling a little softhearted.

"But even if I won't take you as my disciple, I won't treat you unfairly!"

Changing tack, he hesitated briefly before taking out a Jade Slip and tossing it to Li Ye.

"This contains my cultivation insights from when I was at the Qi Refining stage. You may use it for reference."

Holding the Jade Slip, Li Ye brightened and immediately bowed.

"Thank you for your gift, Elder. This disciple will do everything in his power to tend all these Spirit Plants for you!"

"Mm... Keep up the good work. If you can still maintain more than nine hundred Blazing Sun Flowers by the time they mature, I will certainly reward you again!"

Seeing Li Ye's reaction, Ji Qing nodded in satisfaction. After giving that instruction, he turned and left.

Only after he had entered the great hall did Li Ye sigh, a complicated look on his face.

"Aptitude, huh..."

"Elder Ji is truly generous!"

Leafing through the Jade Slip in his hand, Li Ye couldn't help praising him.

He had already tossed Elder Ji's comments about his poor aptitude to the back of his mind!

It contained not only the many problems Elder Ji had encountered while cultivating from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, but also their respective solutions.

There were also all kinds of cultivation techniques, covering both cultivation and body refinement.

After only a quick look, Li Ye found answers to some of the questions he had accumulated over time and benefited greatly.

The final section even recorded some of Elder Ji's experiences and insights from breaking through to Foundation Establishment!

As Li Ye read it, a look of surprise appeared on his face. When facing the impact of the spiritual power drawn in during the breakthrough, even Elder Ji's formidable physique had found it extremely difficult to withstand, and he had felt as though his meridians were splitting apart.

Afterward, he concluded that he had not tempered his spirit sufficiently, and that the transformation of his Divine Sense had fallen behind, leaving him with weak control over the vast spiritual power.

As a result, he could only rely on his physique to endure until his Law Power and Divine Sense finished transforming, then gradually bring the spiritual power under control.

"Law Power and physique are the baseline, determining the limit of what one can endure during a breakthrough, while the spirit determines whether one can complete the breakthrough more smoothly..."

Li Ye fell into thought.

After transmigrating and merging with what his predecessor had left behind, his spiritual strength was fairly good, and he was relatively sensitive to external things. Pill refinement also helped temper it...

But that alone still seemed somewhat insufficient.

"Secret Methods for improving the spirit are truly rare, though. I asked Niu Ba about them in the scripture repository, but he said he hadn't seen any on the floors he could access... So even if the sect has one, it's definitely not something I can get my hands on!"

"To be safe, the chances of breaking through should be highest when essence, Qi, and spirit have no weaknesses at all..."

"But if I can't find a spiritual Secret Method, I can only follow Elder Ji's example and temper my physique and Law Power to their best possible state to face the Foundation Establishment hurdle..."

Several more days passed. Under Li Ye's dedicated care, all two hundred and fifty Blazing Sun Flowers he had initially tended had given spirit essence feedback.

In the end, he had only managed to gather two complete portions of Blazing Sun Spirit Essence!

But as his delight faded, Li Ye suddenly realized a problem...

He didn't seem to have any suitable way to use these two portions of Blazing Sun Spirit Essence!

Refining them directly would conflict with his attributes.

If he forcibly refined and absorbed them, their pure yang-fire medicinal power might ignite all of Li Ye's wood-attribute Law Power, causing him to burn himself to death with it!

And if he made them into pills, only those few top-grade first-tier yang-attribute pills would be worthy of having them as an ingredient!

Li Ye currently had neither the Pill Formula nor pill-refining skills anywhere near that level, so he could only think about it.

Do I really have no choice but to store them for now?

After pondering for a moment, Li Ye's earlier conjecture resurfaced in his mind. He gritted his teeth and headed for the talisman-making room.