"Foundation Establishment is the forging of the Great Dao's Immortal Foundation: tempering the physical body and refining away mortal qualities; emptying the six senses into stillness; refining form into qi, so the Five qi Return to the Origin and the Three Yangs Converge at the Crown. When one's cultivation is complete, one forgets the form; the Embryonic Immortal transforms of itself, yin is exhausted and yang becomes pure, and a body exists beyond the body. Only then may one shed the mortal substance and ascend as an Immortal, transcend the ordinary and enter sainthood, thereafter taking one's place among the Immortal ranks and bidding farewell to the mundane world."
Inside the cave dwelling, Lu Yang sat upright on a meditation cushion, silently contemplating.
"Different Cultivation Methods describe the step of Foundation Establishment differently, but when it comes down to it, the actual process is not all that different."
It was to use one's own true qi as a foundation, lift up the Sea of Consciousness, refine one's form, and ascend.
For example, once the Nine Transformations Dragon Art he cultivated reached completion, it could refine Third Grade true qi, the True Dragon Sha.
The more advanced Foundation Establishment technique, the Ten Thousand Chariots Dragon Ascension Scroll, explicitly explained how to use True Dragon Sha to complete the ascension of refined form.
This was where the importance of true qi grade became apparent.
If one's true qi was of insufficient grade, then either it could not lift the Sea of Consciousness, or one would exhaust one's strength and qi halfway through the ascent, come crashing down with a boom, and die without even a burial ground.
The entire process of Foundation Establishment was such a road of ascension.
And the end of that road was the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Seeing this,