Foundation Establishment Middle Stage

With the Cave Mansion Array secure, Fang Xiao could act without restraint. The Sword Art in his hands shifted ceaselessly, and the Sword Pellet in the air underwent every conceivable transformation. At times, it became a thick Sword Rainbow with an unstoppable momentum; at times, it split into countless interwoven sword lights, like a Heaven Net Earth Trap that left no place to escape; at times, it became a streak of Formless Flowing Light, turning as nimbly as a swimming fish, its speed and direction following his will.

Especially after using Body Integration with Sword and transforming into sword light, he moved so fast that Qi Condensation Stage cultivators would likely be unable to sense him at all. Even cultivators of the same Foundation Establishment Realm might have no time to react by the time they noticed him.

Combined with the Sword Pellet's unstoppable nature, Fang Xiao would possess an incomparable advantage when facing Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators in the future, whether pursuing enemies, breaking through encirclements, or fleeing for his life. Once he further improved his spiritual power and Spiritual Sense, he would have nothing to fear so long as he did not encounter a Golden Core cultivator.

He gradually withdrew the sword light, and the Sword Pellet returned to its normal state. He summoned it back with his Spiritual Sense and held it in his hand. White as jade and flawless, it was too precious for him to put down.

After playing with it for a while, he guided the Sword Pellet into his Dantian and continued nurturing it. Nurturing a magic treasure was by no means superfluous. Long-term nurturing not only increased the compatibility between oneself and the magic treasure, but also kept it in peak condition at all times. Battles often erupted without warning, so one had to ensure that a magic treasure could be drawn and used at any moment.

Once the Sword Pellet had stabilized, he began his cultivation. After unceasing experimentation over the past year, the Taibai Soaring Sword Canon and the Five Qi Cultivating Immortal Scripture could now operate simultaneously without conflict. He only needed to grow more proficient and let his body gradually adapt to this method.

Later, once he added the Upper Elixir Condensing Spirit Refining Method, which did not require circulation through the meridians, his plan of cultivating three techniques at once would be complete.

Managing the simultaneous operation of three cultivation techniques placed an enormous burden on one's mind. However, cultivators need not worry about exhausting their mental strength. Over time, it might even greatly strengthen it.

Fang Xiao took out the pills Qing Feng had provided and selected a Heavenly Star Pill, intending to test this newly supplied medicine first.

Even merely opening the stopper released a sense of its dense medicinal power. The deep-blue pill shimmered with specks of white light, truly resembling the scattered stars in the sky.

Fang Xiao swallowed the pigeon-egg-sized Heavenly Star Pill. Feeling spiritual energy several times stronger than that of a Spirit Essence Pill surge forth, he immediately circulated his cultivation techniques to refine it slowly. From then on, he officially entered cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, two years passed. During this time, the Cultivation World of the Eastern Domain and the Demon Race of the Southern Wilderness gradually stabilized. Yet this was only an outward appearance. The Nascent Soul and shape-shifting-level beings on both sides remained locked in confrontation. This so-called stability merely meant that demon beasts occasionally attacked immortal cities, while cultivators occasionally exterminated demon beasts, maintaining a delicate balance.

News from the other regions also reached the sect. In recent years, the Central Lands had relaxed restrictions on resources for low-level cultivators, and the number of low-level cultivators had begun to surge.

The demonic cultivators of the Northern Plains also seemed to be brewing something, beginning to stir restlessly.

The Southern Wilderness had even launched Beast Tides of varying scales against the Cultivation Worlds of the four directions, including the Eastern Domain, for no apparent reason.

News also came from the Western Desert that a great Buddhist sect power from the upper realm had undergone reincarnation and descended into the lower realm.

Meanwhile, the Four Seas Cultivation World remained calm and peaceful, but compared to its former conflicts, that calm was deeply abnormal. No one knew whether an enormous storm was brewing beneath that stillness.

The Myriad Treasures Merchant Association had begun holding Auctions frequently more than a decade ago. All manner of rare treasures of heaven and earth, even ones said to have long gone extinct, had appeared one after another. No one knew what role they were playing in all this.

Fang Xiao knew nothing of these matters. At this moment, his cultivation had already reached the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.

With Foundation Establishment Realm resources available for him to use as he pleased, along with a Heavenly Spiritual Root that eliminated bottlenecks, reaching the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage was only natural.

Over these two years, aside from emerging once midway through to seek out Qing Feng for more pills and materials, he had not stepped outside again.

Using those materials, he not only deduced and brewed Foundation Establishment spirit wine, but also successfully brewed Second-Order Monkey Wine with the help of Maoqiu, who had broken through to the late first order. The grade of Monkey Wine mainly depended on the age of the spiritual ingredients, while the power within Maoqiu's bloodline chiefly served a harmonizing function. With his current cultivation, Maoqiu could barely complete one batch of Second-Order Monkey Wine.

In cultivation, he had also truly realized his ambition of cultivating three techniques together. With pills and spirit wine aiding his cultivation, Fang Xiao's spiritual power cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. Not only did he successfully reach the limit of the Foundation Establishment Early Stage with ninety drops of liquid spiritual power, but after smoothly entering the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, he had condensed more than eighty additional drops. If he had not feared advancing too quickly and damaging his foundation, he would likely have nearly reached one hundred and twenty drops by now.

The Five Qi Cultivating Immortal Scripture had also advanced smoothly to the early second layer through a great quantity of Body Forging Pills. After completing the conversion of his spiritual root, he successfully mobilized the Five Qi Spirit Seeds within his Five Viscera, forming a closed cycle through which the Five Qi circulated. From then on, the Five Elements Qi flowed endlessly through the meridians of his Five Viscera.

From this point onward, the Five Elements Qi could radiate into every corner of his body. The continuous tempering of his entire body greatly increased his physical strength. He had already tested it: with his current body, he could take a low-grade Magic Tool head-on without suffering a single injury.

As for his Spiritual Sense, its range had reached four hundred meters. This was already the intensity of Spiritual Sense possessed by Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivators. It could only be said that the Twin Spirit Water had been immensely beneficial to him.

For the time being, he did not know whether the Upper Elixir Condensing Spirit Refining Method, together with the Soul Nurturing Gourd containing Twin Spirit Water, could help his soul cross the limits of the Foundation Establishment Realm and reach the level of a Golden Core Stage soul.

If not, he could only seek better materials. Of course, there was not no once-and-for-all solution, but it was far too difficult. He would need to find a spiritual material capable of nurturing a Nascent Soul Dao Sword.

At its root, the Upper Elixir Condensing Spirit Refining Method and the Soul Nurturing Gourd were methods. To solve the problem completely, he needed to turn method into treasure, refining the Soul Nurturing Gourd and Nascent Soul Dao Sword into a single, unified magic treasure.

The Heavenly Dipper and Earth Fiend Restrictions that needed to be inscribed were contained within the Upper Elixir Condensing Spirit Refining Method. Yet putting aside whether such a spiritual material could even be found, some people doubted whether it existed at all. Or perhaps it could only be found in the upper realm.

This method had originated from the Taibai Sword Sect. On this trip to the Taibai Ruins, aside from refining the Sword Fiend, he also needed to focus on searching for clues about this spiritual material.

The ancient Taibai Sword Sect had stood at the easternmost edge of the Eastern Domain, atop Pillar of Heaven Peak in Donghua Prefecture. This Pillar of Heaven Peak was not comparable to the Thirty-Three Peaks of the Tianlan Sect. If not counting the Jianmu Divine Tree in the Central Lands, which could lead directly to the upper realm, Pillar of Heaven Peak could be considered the foremost peak of the Taichang Realm. Its spiritual vein nearly reached the sixth order. It was only because it was surrounded year-round by spatial rifts that the various sects had not seized such a sacred cultivation ground.

Only one year remained until the opening of the Taibai Ruins. He planned to first take a teleportation array to the location nearest Golden Jade City, then return to see his father. He had been away from home for nearly six years. Though he still sat within the cultivation chamber, his heart had already flown thousands of miles away.