The First Signs of Crisis

Three months later.

On Penglai Island, inside a Cave Mansion.

A massive amount of spiritual energy surged wildly into Long Aotian's body. His aura steadily grew deeper and more solid until it finally reached a critical point, crossing that final step into Foundation Establishment.

With it done, Long Aotian opened his eyes and reached out to embrace the female cultivators beside him, unable to keep himself from sighing. Having money really was wonderful.

Two or three years ago, he had been nothing more than a lowly Rogue Cultivator, with barely a few Spirit Stones in his pouch. He had even been born with a Five-element Spirit Root, such inferior aptitude that female cultivators like the furnace cauldrons beneath him would not have spared him a glance. How could it compare to now, when more than one wanted to climb into his bed?

Good thing he had gotten hot-headed back then.

After learning of the Spirit Puppet Method, he had without hesitation thrown his only few hundred Spirit Stones into it. He had then presold his corpse after death, had descendants with spirit roots, and set up a loan passed down from generation to generation.

Death Loans, Descendant Loans, Future Loans, coupled with cultivating the Spirit Puppet Method and investing in the East Sea's War Bonds, had given him more than enough Spirit Stones. He had forcibly earned over a hundred thousand Spirit Stones!

With such an enormous sum, he had not only moved into the spirit-vein Cave Mansion he had once dreamed of, acquired large numbers of female cultivators as furnace cauldrons for cultivation, and obtained the Foundation Establishment Pills he had never even dared imagine. In the end, as a Rogue Cultivator with no backing and a Five-element Spirit Root, he had become a mighty Foundation Establishment Cultivator—a realm