[Looking at the four Foundation Establishment Pills in your hand, joy spread across your face as you immediately chose to enter seclusion and break through.] [Three months later, after swallowing two Foundation Establishment Pills in succession, you vaguely began to touch the threshold of Foundation Establishment.] [But at that moment, scenes from the previous two simulations suddenly surfaced in your mind, and you sank deep into the breeding Inner Demon.] [You chose to interrupt your breakthrough and left your Cave Mansion to clear your mind.] [When you arrived at the Azure Cloud Sect's Back Mountain, you inadvertently saw a beautiful figure beneath the moonlight.] [After secretly drawing closer, you suddenly found that the figure looked somewhat familiar.] [You saw her jet-black hair dancing through the night sky. Her eyes were tightly shut, sweat beading across her face as though she were enduring tremendous pain.] [Just then, the mysterious woman opened her eyes and shouted in your direction, **"Who goes there?!"**] [At that moment, your eyes happened to meet the mysterious woman's.] [Before you could recover from your shock, you turned and sprinted madly toward your Cave Mansion. The mysterious woman rose to her feet and watched your retreating figure without choosing to pursue.] [After returning to your Cave Mansion, you panted heavily.] [You knew that gaze all too well. It belonged to the Demonic Cultivator woman you had encountered in your previous simulation.] [You had never expected to encounter her ahead of time this time, and from the looks of it, she even seemed to be a disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect.] [At this moment, you could not make head or tail of why a Demonic Cultivator would appear in the Azure Cloud Sect.] [Or perhaps, at this point in time, she had not yet joined the demonic path? Then why would she join it in the future?] [You had clearly sensed that the woman's cultivation had only just broken through to Foundation Establishment, and she seemed to have suffered serious injuries.] [Why had she been gravely wounded within the sect? And why was she healing alone in such a remote place at night?] [Everything seemed shrouded in mystery, leaving you especially perplexed.] [The next day, you no longer dwelled on what you had seen the day before. You planned to strike while the iron was hot and break through to Foundation Establishment in one go.] [You took out the final two Foundation Establishment Pills and swallowed them directly. A powerful force flooded your entire body as you began to draw in the medicinal power!] [Two and a half months later, while in seclusion, you abruptly opened your eyes and shattered the shackles in one burst, successfully breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.] [Just as you were about to experience the power of the Foundation Establishment Realm, that familiar sense of danger struck.] [You fell unconscious...] [You died...] [This simulation has ended. Please select one of the following rewards!] [Orange Talent: Alchemy Prodigy!] [Cultivation from this simulation!] [Foundation Establishment Pill Recipe!] [All alchemy insights from this simulation!]
After glancing at the rewards, he ultimately chose Alchemy Prodigy.
After selecting his reward, Su Ming silently left the Cave Mansion.
Standing outside and looking at the starry sky above, he sank into thought.
"Dead again..."
"What exactly went wrong? Could it be that Foundation Establishment is truly impossible? That breaking through means death?"
No!
Something must have gone wrong somewhere. It was impossible that Foundation Establishment could not be achieved.
There had to be something wrong with this.
Su Ming furrowed his brows, recalling what had happened in the simulation.
This time, he had refined the Foundation Establishment Pills himself, personally gathering the herbs and refining them with his own hands.
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By all rights, it should have been foolproof, so why had he still died?
After a long silence, he could think of only one possibility.
"Could it be... the Foundation Establishment Pills have a problem because the source herbs themselves are flawed?"
Comparing everything before and after, Su Ming realized that whether they were Foundation Establishment Pills from the sect or pills refined by himself, taking them led to death.
If that was truly the case, then the problem was enormous.
Ever since ancient times, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the Canglan Realm had undergone certain changes.
From then on, all cultivators had to rely on Foundation Establishment Pills to break through to Foundation Establishment. They could no longer rely on their own talent to break through as they had in ancient times.
"But... how did the Inner Sect Disciples break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm?"
That question followed close behind, and Su Ming felt as though his brain was no longer enough.
Too many things could not be explained. If the Foundation Establishment Pills were flawed, and consuming one to break through meant death, then how had everyone else reached the Foundation Establishment Realm without dying?
An hour soon passed, and Su Ming returned to his Cave Mansion.
[Simulation begins!] [Drawing random talent!] [Congratulations, you have obtained White Talent: Soul Return!] [Soul Return: On the seventh day after your death, your soul will return to the place where you were and linger there briefly.] [On the first day, after learning that taking a Foundation Establishment Pill to break through would lead to death, you temporarily gave up on breaking through to Foundation Establishment. You needed to find the problem.] [On the second day, Wang Hao saw that you had not gone to work and stormed into your Cave Mansion, intending to settle the score with you.] [Already in an irritable mood, you directly struck and killed Wang Hao, seizing all the spirit stones on his person.] [No longer planning to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, you devoted all your energy to alchemy.] [In the first year, you completely immersed yourself in alchemy.] [In the second year, you became a Pill Boy at the Alchemy Hall. During your spare time, you began studying the Pill Recipes within the Alchemy Hall.] [In the fourth year, an elder discovered that you had been secretly learning Pill Recipes. Just as the elder was about to kill you with a single palm strike, you revealed that you were now a First-grade Alchemist.] [Upon hearing this, the elder stopped his hand before it could strike you dead and looked at you in astonishment. "How could a mere Qi Refining Stage cultivator like you possibly become a First-grade Alchemist?"] [Faced with the elder's doubts, you offered no lengthy explanation. You directly took out your pill furnace and asked the elder for a set of ingredients for a Foundation Establishment Pill.] [The elder had not wanted to give them to you, but after hearing you say that you would kill yourself if you could not refine a Foundation Establishment Pill, he decisively flung a set of ingredients at you.] ["I want to see what tricks you can pull!"] [Thus, under the elder's watchful gaze, you quickly completed the refinement. One furnace of Foundation Establishment Pills was finished, containing two High-grade Foundation Establishment Pills.] [The elder's gaze shifted from doubt to regarding you as a priceless treasure.] [He said that he wanted to take you as his disciple and hoped that you knew how to cherish the opportunity!] [You heard the threat behind his words. Daring not to refuse, you could only nod in agreement.] [Seeing you nod, the elder directly made an exception and brought you into the inner sect ahead of schedule.] [The Alchemy Hall held a high status within the Azure Cloud Sect, and the Azure Cloud Sect also placed great importance on alchemists.] [And so, with only Qi Refining Stage cultivation, you inexplicably joined the inner sect.] [Your master, Mo Chen, told you to go directly to the Academy the next day and study more alchemy knowledge.] [You had no objections. The next day, you went straight to the Academy to study.] [When you entered, everyone's gazes turned toward you. They were all curious how someone at only the Qi Refining Stage had joined the Alchemy Hall.] [You paid no attention to the others' gazes. As you swept your eyes across the Inner Sect Disciples in the Academy, your gaze suddenly stopped on one figure.] ["Why is it her?"]
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