Five-Element Foundation Establishment

Liang Ji ultimately chose to sign with Shan De Lou and Bai Cao Group, accepting their investment.

Shan De Lou specialized in spiritual cuisine and ranked among the very best in that circle. Its business spread across nearly every Main Star under the Star Alliance; it had a great reputation and formidable strength.

Bai Cao Group, meanwhile, specialized in medicinal pills. It was likewise a leader in the pill industry, with an inheritance stretching back who knew how many years, its pills sold throughout the Primordial Star Sea.

Whether spiritual cuisine or medicinal pills, both consumed vast quantities of spirit plants, spirit beasts, Spirit Medicine, and more every year. Thus, these two groups worked with countless Star Lords and actively invested in newly promoted Star Lords each year. Their reputation among Star Lords was quite good.

As for why he had not chosen Sky Snake Mansion?

It was because he did not need them. Liang Ji understood better than anyone the reason behind the mutations in his Natal Star's Half-Demon Snake People. He also had a rough plan in mind for their future cultivation and advancement.

He neither needed nor wanted outsiders researching his Natal Star and its dependents, lest some of his secrets be exposed.

After the contracts were signed, the two companies swiftly transferred the first investment payment. Each gave ten thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones, for a total of twenty thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.

The contracts Liang Ji signed with both companies were the most basic investment agreements. The two companies would invest in him for three years, providing ten thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones each year.

Once his Natal Star advanced to the second order, he would supply the two companies at cost for thirty years. He would also need to give priority to planting and cultivating the spirit plants, spiritual materials, and other goods they specified.

This was the most basic and common investment contract on the market. Of course, there were contracts with harsher terms, even contracts that amounted to selling oneself directly to the two companies, but Liang Ji had chosen none of them.

He had greater confidence in his own future and was unwilling to sell it cheaply.

And now that the spirit stones were in hand, naturally he had to spend them—turn them into resources that would aid his cultivation and growth. Otherwise, left sitting there, they were truly nothing more than a string of numbers.

Liang Ji logged onto the Star Net, opened the official website of Treasure Basin, and began selecting the treasures he needed.

This Treasure Basin was one of the largest and most commonly used trading platforms on the Star Net. It was said that the Star Alliance held shares in it, and that it was run by several Fortune God cultivators of the Immortal Orthodox.

Its goods were comprehensive, and every kind of merchandise and treasure came with specialized certification, ensuring clean and reliable origins.

"I already have the Essence of Breathing Soil, Tianyi Jellyfish, and the Five-Colored Spirit Grain spiritual root. To complete and advance the Five-Element Origin of my Natal Star, I still need to purchase Essence Gold Mother Ore and a Spirit Fire Seed."

"Mm, one type of spiritual root is far too few. I need more varieties of spiritual roots, which will help the Half-Demon Snake People awaken their bloodlines and intelligence and advance to the first order."

On Treasure Basin's official website, Liang Ji searched and picked through the offerings, quickly selecting several spiritual roots: Snake Fruit, Sea Anemone, duckweed, lotus, Blood Orchid, and more.

"Vegetables alone won't do. They need meat too!"

He also selected fish, shrimp, crabs, birds, beasts, insects, and other spirit breeds containing Spirit Beast Bloodlines from Treasure Basin.

Finally, he selected free shipping and paid!

In no more than a moment, more than half of the enormous investment sum he had just received had been spent.

It was Liang Ji's first time spending money on such a lavish scale, and for a moment, he was so excited he could barely settle down.

He cursed himself inwardly.

The next day, the supplies he had purchased began arriving at his door one after another.

These supplies Liang Ji had purchased were all resources commonly needed during the early stages of a Star Lord's growth and development. Basically, they were available right on Sky Snake Star.

Especially the spiritual roots used to cultivate Half-Demon Snake People, such as Snake Fruit and Blood Orchid. Other star domains or Main Stars might not have them, but Sky Snake Star had no shortage of them.

Because he had spent a large sum, Treasure Basin was willing to pay for the Star Net's logistics teleportation service. The supplies could be delivered to Xiūshé City, where he lived, on the very same day.

The reason they were only delivered to his door the next day was simply to arrange a time with him.

Once the supplies arrived, Liang Ji did not refine them directly at home. Instead, he brought them to school and, under the watch of his homeroom teacher, Teacher Du, sent them one by one into his Natal Star to be refined and integrated.

This was in case something went wrong while he refined these supplies and treasures. Teacher Du could then intervene directly and help him.

For Star Lords, the first year of cultivation—the senior year of high school—was an exceptionally crucial stage for laying foundations. It was also when their Natal Stars were at their most fragile.

At such a time, every significant cultivation and growth process was best conducted under the watch of experienced and capable elders or teachers, to prevent unforeseen mishaps.

Liang Ji treasured his own little life and was willing to heed advice.

Under the watch of his homeroom teacher, Teacher Du, Liang Ji activated the Starlight Treasure Mirror. Starlight shot out and traced a teleportation formation, and he first placed the Essence of Breathing Soil within it.

Starlight flowed through the formation, and the Essence of Breathing Soil vanished directly.

On his Natal Star, Dragon Soul Star, another meteor could be seen falling from the starry sky. Once again, the Dragon Soul coiled around the star swallowed it first, refined it once over, then sent it into the Natal Star to merge with the earth.

Next came the Essence Gold Mother Ore, Tianyi Jellyfish, spiritual roots such as Snake Fruit, Blood Orchid, duckweed, and Sea Anemone, as well as the Spirit Fire Seed.

Last came the various spirit breeds containing Spirit Beast Bloodlines: fish, shrimp, crabs, birds, beasts, insects, and the like.

A meteor shower appeared over Dragon Soul Star. Every meteor was a spiritual material. The Dragon Soul swallowed and refined every one of them, then planted them into the star.

"Thank you, Teacher."

After refining all the spiritual materials and observing his Natal Star to ensure there were no problems, Liang Ji thanked his homeroom teacher, Teacher Du.

Teacher Du shook his head and said, "I am your teacher. These are all things I should do."

"Liang Ji, now that the spiritual materials have been planted into your Natal Star, its foundation has been preliminarily laid."

"Next, you need to place more attention on your dependents. Guide them to awaken their bloodlines and intelligence as soon as possible, then advance into first-order half-demons."

"As for that, you can begin by guiding them to make and use tools, use fire, eat cooked food, and so on."

"Of course, you must also make use of the plants propagated from the spiritual roots you planted, such as Snake Fruit, Blood Orchid, Sea Anemone, and spirit lotus."

"The school's official website has specialized courses on all of this. You can watch more of them and study."

"Yes, Teacher Du." Liang Ji nodded. "I'll remember."

After bidding Teacher Du farewell, he went to the school's training room to find Teacher Wang Hu. He sought advice on several body-tempering cultivation matters, then practiced the Ox Demon Great Strength Fist several times and asked the other man to correct him.

Time passed quickly. When he returned home that evening, he once again observed the condition and changes of his Natal Star.

His Natal Star had now formed a first-order spirit vein and become a First-Order Star. Under the operation of the Xiantian Spiritual Treasure, the Celestial Star Array Diagram, it normally maintained a time flow of several hundred years per day.

A day equaling a thousand years was the maximum time flow, activated only when necessary. Under normal circumstances, several hundred years per day was sufficient.

Liang Ji had spent only half a day cultivating at school, yet more than a hundred years had already passed on Dragon Soul Star.

That morning, the spiritual materials he had planted into the star had already begun showing their effects. Both the land and oceans had expanded to varying degrees.

Mountains rose high, their interiors filled with newly formed metal ore veins.

Rifts collapsed inward, blazing with roaring earthfire.

Plants and animals containing spiritual energy appeared in great numbers across the land, seas, and skies, multiplying and thriving.

The Half-Demon Snake People had already changed through several generations, their numbers surpassing three thousand. These half-demons possessed the bloodline of the Void Demon Race and generally had long lifespans. Once they awakened their bloodlines and intelligence and advanced to the first order, they would live even longer.

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