Foundation Establishment Pill

"It's here. The Manual left behind by our ancestor was indeed correct—there really is a Water Spirit Fruit Tree here! More than a hundred years have passed; the Water Spirit Fruit should have ripened by now." The two Liu Elders behind Liu Tianlong were visibly excited.

This time, the Liu Family had not only deployed more than half of its fighting strength, but also spent a great sum hiring cultivators from three nearby Qi Refining Families. They had not come merely to kill that Level 2 Silver Armored Crab Demon.

The Liu Family's true purpose in this expedition was to eliminate the Level 2 Demonic Beast occupying the pool, then slip beneath the water and find the Grade 2 Water Spirit Fruit Tree recorded in the Manual Liu Tianlong carried.

The Manual on Liu Tianlong had been left behind by a Foundation Establishment Ancestor of the Liu Family more than a century ago. It recorded how that Liu Family ancestor had once discovered a Grade 2 Water Spirit Fruit Tree here by chance while hunting demonic beasts in the Floating Cloud Mountain Range.

It was precisely by relying on a ripe Water Spirit Fruit from that tree that the Liu Family ancestor had exchanged for a Foundation Establishment Pill from the Carefree Sect, then successfully achieved Foundation Establishment.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, that Liu Family ancestor had wanted to transplant the Water Spirit Fruit Tree onto the Liu Family's Spirit Mountain. Unfortunately, no Grade 2 Spirit Planter Master had ever emerged within the clan, and he did not dare trust outsiders, so he could only set the matter aside for the time being.

This Liu Family ancestor had kept the matter tightly sealed within the clan, recording it only in his own Manual. Unexpectedly, he later died outside, and the other clansmen remained unaware of it. It was not until decades after the next clan head took office that the Manual was discovered by chance, and people were sent to the Floating Cloud Mountain Range to search for the pool recorded within it.

At last, after the Liu Family had patiently lain dormant for nearly a century, Liu Tianlong came here when the Water Spirit Fruit ripened once more.

Ever since the Liu Family lost its only Foundation Establishment Cultivator during the demonic beast unrest in the Northern Frontier a century ago, every Liu Family cultivator had spent the past hundred years pondering how to restore the glory they had once possessed as a Foundation Establishment Family.

To achieve that goal, the Liu Family needed to find a way to cultivate another Foundation Establishment Cultivator. They were now extremely close to that objective. After years of nurturing, the Liu Family had secretly raised a promising seed capable of achieving Foundation Establishment. All they lacked now was a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Aside from the one-in-ten-thousand Heavenly Spiritual Root Cultivators, ordinary cultivators all encountered an immense bottleneck when breaking through to Foundation Establishment. Fewer than half a percent could forcibly break through successfully.

Once a breakthrough failed, the violent spiritual power within a cultivator's meridians would instantly lash back against those fragile meridians, causing injuries that were difficult to heal.

For cultivators whose breakthroughs failed in this way, even the lightest outcome meant more than twenty years before their injuries fully recovered. They would essentially miss their chance at Foundation Establishment again, and their path of cultivation would come to an end. At worst, they would explode on the spot after failing, their entire cultivation vanishing into smoke, their deaths agonizing beyond measure.

This was why many talented cultivators like Liu Tianlong, even if they had cultivated to the Ninth Level of Qi Refining before the age of sixty, still did not dare risk forcibly achieving Foundation Establishment so lightly.

To raise the success rate for more cultivators breaking through their realms, the Cultivation World gradually developed countless pills and spiritual objects that assisted with breakthroughs through the research and accumulated knowledge of many top Mighty Cultivators. Of them all, the most effective and most widely recognized by cultivators was the Foundation Establishment Pill.

The Foundation Establishment Pill was a Grade 2 pill developed in ancient times by a Mighty Cultivator at the Spirit Transformation stage to assist cultivators in achieving Foundation Establishment. After the careful refinements and experiments of countless generations of High-tier Alchemists, it had now become an indispensable item for cultivators seeking Foundation Establishment.

When achieving Foundation Establishment, a cultivator needed to absorb a vast amount of spiritual energy to liquefy the spiritual power in their body. Taking a Foundation Establishment Pill could harmonize the enormous amount of violent spiritual power in their body during the breakthrough.

Not only could the Foundation Establishment Pill greatly increase an ordinary cultivator's chance of success, it could also protect their meridians from excessive backlash if the breakthrough failed. Thus, even if a cultivator failed, they would not be too seriously injured. After recuperating for three to five years, they could recover and still have another chance at Foundation Establishment.

Though the Foundation Establishment Pill was merely a Grade 2 High-grade pill, it was exceedingly rare in the Wei State Cultivation World. Aside from the Carefree Sect, the local overlord, it only occasionally appeared in the Black Market near the Floating Cloud Mountain Range. Its value far exceeded that of other Grade 2 pills, even surpassing some Level Three Pills.

Refining a Foundation Establishment Pill was extremely complicated. Its main ingredients required Jade Marrow Golden Branch and Five Elements Spirit Fruit with medicinal ages of over eight hundred years, along with more than a dozen supplementary spiritual medicines that took one or two hundred years to mature.

Once these spiritual medicines matured, they were difficult to find in the wild. In all of Wei State, only the Carefree Sect's Spiritual Medicine Garden could openly provide a long-term supply of the various spiritual medicines needed to refine Foundation Establishment Pills.

The Carefree Sect only refined a few batches of Foundation Establishment Pills every ten years, and each batch yielded at most twenty or thirty pills. Most were divided up within the sect, with only a small portion put up for sale to the meritorious cultivation families under its command. Even Foundation Establishment Families found it difficult to obtain such an opportunity, much less lower-tier Qi Refining Families.

Even when one had the chance to purchase a Foundation Establishment Pill, its price remained exorbitant. Under normal circumstances, a single Foundation Establishment Pill cost ten thousand Spirit Stones. Compared with the price of Foundation Establishment Pills auctioned in the Black Market, that was already extremely affordable.

After expenses, the Song Family where Song Qingming lived only had a surplus of a few dozen Spirit Stones each year. In lean years, they even had to draw from it to make up the shortfall. After a century of savings, their treasury held only two or three thousand Spirit Stones.

For a bottom-tier Qi Refining Family like the Song Family, even if a cultivator with exceptional Spirit Root talent appeared, they could only send them to the Carefree Sect if they wanted a chance at Foundation Establishment.

It was precisely by keeping a firm grip on the supply channels of Foundation Establishment Pills in Wei State that the Carefree Sect could draw in a large number of gifted cultivators from the major cultivation families under its rule, endlessly replenishing the sect's lifeblood.

The Water Spirit Fruit Liu Tianlong had come for was one of the two main ingredients needed to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill—the Five Elements Spirit Fruit—and was exceedingly valuable.

The Carefree Sect also purchased all kinds of spiritual medicines used to refine Foundation Establishment Pills year-round. Anyone who could produce a sufficiently aged main ingredient for a Foundation Establishment Pill could directly exchange it for one Foundation Establishment Pill within the Carefree Sect. That was how the Liu Family's Foundation Establishment Ancestor had achieved Foundation Establishment a century ago.

After the three members of the Liu Family walked several dozen steps toward the blue light, they passed through a low Cave Entrance, and the passage suddenly widened. The source of the blue radiance was a small azure tree inside the cave.

Liu Tianlong stepped closer and saw that the little tree was about five feet tall, roughly his own height. It gave off dense spiritual energy, and five or six blue fruits hung from its branches. The fruits were crystalline and translucent, each emitting waves of blue light that were extremely enticing. The glow the three had seen outside had come from the fruits on this tree.

"Haha, these must be Water Spirit Fruits. Our ancestor's timing was indeed correct. If we had come a few years earlier, these fruits probably would not have ripened yet." Staring at one fruit that had already become completely transparent, a Liu Family Elder burst into laughter.

"Everyone, be careful. Try not to damage this fruit tree. We only need to pick that ripe fruit. Once our Liu Family has cultivated our own Grade 2 Spirit Planter Master in the future, we can return and find a way to transplant this Water Spirit Fruit Tree."

The Water Spirit Fruit Tree was a Grade 2 spiritual tree. Without a Spirit Planter Master of Grade 2 or above, a rash transplant could easily cause the spiritual tree to lose a great deal of spiritual energy, lose its vitality, and slowly wither away. The unripe spirit fruits upon it would be lost as well.

If they could successfully and secretly transplant this Water Spirit Fruit Tree onto the Liu Family's Spirit Mountain in the future, the Liu Family could exchange for one Foundation Establishment Pill every hundred years. The family would be able to prosper for generations, and this was the greatest opportunity for every Liu Family cultivator to change their fate.

Liu Tianlong reached out to pluck the ripe Water Spirit Fruit, only to discover that where the Grade 2 spirit fruit connected to the tree was extraordinarily tough and difficult to break. He could only release a High-grade Flying Sword and cut the fruit free with a single slash.

The Liu Family Elder beside him hurriedly placed the Water Spirit Fruit into a jade box prepared in advance, then carefully handed it to Liu Tianlong.

Looking at the Water Spirit Fruit that bore the hopes of his family's revival, Liu Tianlong could not help feeling stirred. The Liu Family's road to revival had finally taken its first step in his hands.

The three had just picked the ripe Water Spirit Fruit and were about to turn and leave when a terrifying pressure of spiritual power suddenly erupted from a dark corner of the cave. A pair of enormous red eyes opened in the darkness, staring fixedly at the three tiny humans before it.

"This... How could there be another Level 2 Demonic Beast here? Not good, run!"

"Clan Head, go! We'll cover your retreat."

Before the enormous black shadow, Liu Tianlong and the other two trembled uncontrollably. The spiritual pressure emitted by this Level 2 Demonic Beast was far more powerful than that of the Silver Armored Crab from before. They had been inside the cave for so long, yet had not sensed it in the slightest.

Ever since the Liu Family discovered this pool twenty years ago, they had sent cultivators to investigate it many times. Aside from the Silver Armored Crab that had only recently advanced, they had never seen another Level 2 Demonic Beast.

How could Liu Tianlong have imagined that two Level 2 Demonic Beasts were hidden within this tiny pool?

Only then did Liu Tianlong understand in an instant. The demonic beast skeletons they had seen in the caves along the way had not been eaten by that Level 2 Silver Armored Crab. They had been devoured by the other Level 2 Demonic Beast before them, whose aura was even more powerful than the Silver Armored Crab Demon's.