This was Luo Chen's first time meeting Mi Shuhua.
The Old Man Mi Brother Qin had spoken of, the leader of the Mountain Shattering Gang.
His head was full of white hair, his face broad and round. Though wrinkled, it glowed with health. Together with his large belly, he looked like a Maitreya Buddha who smiled with his mouth always open.
Placed in the mortal world, he would have looked no different from an ordinary wealthy old man.
But Luo Chen, and indeed every independent cultivator in Great River Market, knew that he was far from as gentle as he appeared.
As everyone knew, Foundation Establishment was the first great hurdle on the path of cultivation.
This realm was rich in resources and abundant in spiritual energy. By all logic, breaking through this hurdle should have been very easy.
Yet among cultivators, fewer than one in ten thousand successfully established their foundations.
Only sect cultivators found Foundation Establishment relatively easier.
The reason lay in the fact that the method for refining Foundation Establishment Pills was controlled by the great sects.
Even if a Pill Recipe for a Foundation Establishment Pill occasionally leaked out, the major sects would pay any price to seize it back.
Even if they could not reclaim the recipe, they would still take its holder back, dead or alive.
Thus, unless ordinary independent cultivators encountered some other fortuitous opportunity, they could only hope for the Foundation Establishment Pills leaked out each year by the major sects.
But whenever a Foundation Establishment Pill appeared, it would often stir up all manner of storms.
At auctions, Foundation Establishment Pills sold for sky-high prices as common as blades of grass.
Therefore, although Great River Market had countless independent cultivators, very few Foundation Establishment Cultivators had emerged over the years.
Over