Madman. He really was a madman.
When the system within Li Tianwei's consciousness had first seen him grow dejected over his hopeless prospects of Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days,
it had thought it could use the opportunity to tell Li Tianwei where his true foundation lay, so he would stop stirring up trouble.
The system had even harbored a sliver of hope that Li Tianwei might come to his senses on his own.
Yet this freak Li Tianwei had directly begun burning his foundational lifespan without regard for anything else, all just to glimpse the power of a higher realm. With the assistance of the Sacrificial Dao Undying Body, it truly was possible for him.
After one operation after another, the system could not help recalling how strange he had been when his Heavenly Spirit Root was tested.
At that moment, the system truly began to wonder whether Li Tianwei possessed some ability to make his dreams come true.
Let the world be destroyed! Hurry up! I'm tired.
The system was rendered speechless.
The system was dumbfounded, and Bai Muxu was no better off. Sensing the change in Li Tianwei's aura, he saw Li Tianwei's originally stable condition instantly plummet to the brink of death. He immediately shot toward the summit of Tianmen Peak, his face full of anxiety.
The moment he arrived, he saw Li Tianwei raising both hands, palms pointed at the sky. The qi throughout his body had condensed and transformed, and Bai Muxu did not even know how to describe Li Tianwei's current state.
Five-Colored Spiritual Energy swirled around his body, alongside an aura of destruction, dense vitality, and all sorts of bizarre conditions that would have killed a cultivator hundreds of times over. Yet Li Tianwei remained alive, even using them to continuously stack upon one another, as though he intended to break through with their help.
"This, this..."
Bai Muxu could not help rubbing his eyes. At that moment, he even doubted whether his Spirit Transformation stage was fake, for he could actually see endless signs of death upon Li Tianwei.
The strange part was that Li Tianwei was still alive. At that moment, Bai Muxu even wanted to step forward and assist him, but he feared disrupting the balance and causing Li Tianwei's death.
"What exactly has my disciple done?"
Bai Muxu was not merely dumbfounded. He truly could not imagine how Li Tianwei had managed to remain alive and even advance while wrapped in countless signs of death and burdened by so many circumstances that defied cultivation's common sense.
If Li Tianwei's system could read Bai Muxu's mind, it would probably answer him: If you wanted to learn from him, you had to be mad enough, deranged enough, and confident enough.
At the very least, even it had not figured out Li Tianwei's bizarre state.
At this moment, Li Tianwei himself seemed utterly motionless.
Perhaps only Li Tianwei himself knew what he was doing. Through all sorts of secret techniques, he had forcibly unleashed power that did not belong to him, raising himself to the Ninth Level of Qi Refining to experience the power of a higher level.
Now, he was savoring the power of the Ninth Level of Qi Refining in minute detail. Once he comprehended it completely, he could ascend to the heavens in a single step and reach the ninth level directly.
Li Tianwei closed his eyes. Seeing him in such a state, Bai Muxu also knew that he absolutely could not be disturbed.
"The rest can only depend on himself."
"Is this his comprehension... or Heaven and Earth saving themselves?"
Bai Muxu slowly raised his head and looked toward the heavens as he thought.
Soon, day after day passed.
Some time had passed since the five-element phenomenon had appeared at Lingxu Sacred Land, and the new batch of disciples who had joined Lingxu Sacred Land had gradually embarked upon the path of cultivation.
The new disciples of every peak began displaying their talents. Some had reached the Fourth Level of Qi Refining in a short time, while others had not even touched the threshold of Qi Refining.
On Muxu Peak, Li Tianchen had relied on the talent of his Fire-Wood Dual Spirit Root to enter Lin Moyang's tutelage and become his Personal Disciple.
As Lingxu Sacred Land's Medicine Peak and Pill Peak, Muxu Peak stood among the foremost in the entire Northern Spirit Domain in herb cultivation and pill refinement. Pills and spirit herbs of every kind were plentiful enough to eat one's fill.
"Finally, the Fifth Level of Qi Refining. It took me a whole month."
Li Tianchen took a deep breath, then exhaled a breath of turbid air. He slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he did was touch the ring on his hand.
"Elder Ling, with my current condition, can I achieve Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days and forge a Dao foundation?"
Li Tianchen sent his consciousness into the ring and asked.
"Very difficult, very difficult..."
Elder Ling sighed upon hearing this.
"In this Cultivation World, there are only a handful who can achieve Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days without relying on a Heavenly Spirit Root."
"This is not something that can be achieved through great perseverance alone. You also need luck, comprehension, and every kind of aptitude stacked to the brim before it becomes possible."
Hearing Elder Ling say this, Li Tianchen also shook his head.
In truth, he had long anticipated it. Starting from the Fourth Level of Qi Refining, the difficulty had multiplied. In Li Tianchen's view, breaking through to the Sixth Level of Qi Refining would take another month. If he could reach the eighth level within a hundred days, that would already make him superior to ordinary people.
"But you need not lose heart. Although Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days and forging a Dao foundation can increase the chance of ascension, how could the road to ascension be paved by a Dao foundation alone?"
"It is said that many who achieved Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days went on to ascend, but do not forget that every one of them possessed talent unrivaled in their era. They were already more likely to ascend."
"More than anything, it still depends on yourself. A Dao foundation formed later is not impossible either."
Elder Ling comforted Li Tianchen, then shifted the subject to someone else, hoping to make Li Tianchen feel better.
"Compared to that, your fine elder brother is striving for Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days. A Pseudo-Spirit Root achieving Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days—I have truly never heard of such a thing."
Upon hearing Elder Ling's words, Li Tianchen indeed relaxed somewhat. When Li Tianwei was mentioned, he even felt like laughing for a moment.
Yet for some reason, Li Tianchen had an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
Li Tianwei simply felt far too strange to him. First, during the spirit root test, the spirit-testing stone had somehow identified his Pseudo-Spirit Root as a Heavenly Spirit Root. Then, after arriving at Lingxu Sacred Land, there had even been an elder to cover for him.
Li Tianchen admitted that he truly regarded Li Tianwei as a joke. Now, even Elder Ling could no longer detect Li Tianwei's original spirit root.
In other words, even if Li Tianchen wanted to report him to Lingxu Sacred Land, it would be impossible to implicate him.
With all these events combined, Li Tianchen even suspected that Li Tianwei might cause some new trouble next.
This made him think of the phenomenon that had appeared on Tianmen Peak on the day he entered the sect.
"I hope I'm overthinking it."
On Yunxiao Peak.
A figure sat suspended in the air. His white robes, combined with his handsome features and sharp sword-like brows, gave him an air as clear and radiant as the wind beneath a bright moon.
"Junior Brother Fang, this is the thousand-year Jade Pine Fruit Master gave you. It can help you gather qi."
Just then, a hurried figure ran into Fang Mochen's cultivation hall.
Fang Mochen suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Lin Xuyan in the great hall.
"Thank you, Senior Brother Lin."
Fang Mochen accepted the spirit herb from Lin Xuyan's hand and thanked him.
"I wonder, Junior Brother, how confident are you in achieving Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days?"
Lin Xuyan sensed the aura of Fang Mochen having already reached the Sixth Level of Qi Refining, and excitement colored his words.
"Thirty percent. A thirty percent chance of accomplishing it."
Fang Mochen calculated for a moment before answering truthfully.
"Junior Brother, simply do your best. Our Yunxiao Peak will also pour out everything we have to help you establish your foundation."
Lin Xuyan reassured him.
"I wonder how Senior Brother Li Tianwei, who entered the sect alongside me, is doing now."
The hand holding the Jade Pine Fruit unconsciously tightened slightly.
"Junior Brother, I do not know that either. Tianmen Peak has been sealed ever since he entered the sect."
"As far as I know, the martial uncle of Tianmen Peak has accepted several disciples before, exhausting all kinds of resources to cultivate a prodigy capable of Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days. But he has one prerequisite: they cannot consume pills or spirit items that increase cultivation. Thus, to this day, no one has succeeded in Foundation Establishment in a Hundred Days."
Lin Xuyan relayed everything he knew to Fang Mochen.
"No medicine that increases cultivation?"
Hearing this, Fang Mochen's expression grew much heavier.
He had indeed reached the Sixth Level of Qi Refining, but he had also eaten an Azure Gloom Fruit, using it to reach the Sixth Level of Qi Refining.
"Is there some hidden secret behind this?"
Fang Mochen could not help wondering.
On the Heart-Questioning Stairway, Fang Mochen had also witnessed how difficult it was to reach the summit.
He had fallen at the 997th step. He needed only three more steps to reach the top, yet when Fang Mochen recalled the difficulty of those three steps, a chill ran down his spine.
The moment he stepped onto them, he had to prove his Dao Heart through reincarnation across ten thousand lifetimes. Fang Mochen had forgotten which lifetime he had fallen in. It had simply been too long.
But what about Li Tianwei? Fang Mochen remembered clearly that Li Tianwei had not paused in the slightest. With a single step, he had crossed all three tiers.
It was as though he were saying that a thousand steps were the Heart-Questioning Stairway's limit, not his own.
"Then I, too, will not consume spirit herbs that increase cultivation."
At this thought, Fang Mochen's unwillingness to admit defeat erupted.
It was as though he intended to contend with Li Tianwei.
"The Dao foundation is mine for the taking."
Fang Mochen clenched his fist.