Foundation Establishment Technique

Foundation Establishment Technique

Nine Provinces Number One Group

Medicine Master: "@Wandering Monk Profound Principle, Master Profound Principle, regarding the cave-dwelling expedition fourteen years ago, lend me the Vajra Foundation Fist and True Self Meditation Scripture for a while. As for the price, we'll discuss it next time."

Watching Medicine Master type out that string of words, Song Shuhang truly felt his pain. Even with punctuation, it was only a little over fifty characters, yet Medicine Master had spent five minutes deleting and rewriting them, sweating profusely all the while.

At that moment, he finally understood why Medicine Master tried to keep his messages in the group as short as possible. But if typing was that exhausting, why didn't he use voice input?

As soon as Medicine Master's message was sent, the Nine Provinces Number One Group soon became lively.

Northern River's Loose Cultivator teased, "Oh? Medicine Master, are you asking for these two basic techniques so that Little Friend Shuhang can use them for his Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment? These two techniques are quite good. Could it be that, like Soft Feather, you've also been fed some bewitching soup by Little Friend Shuhang?"

Soft Feather of Spirit Butterfly Island quickly sent an emoticon with a steamed-bun face. "Senior Northern River, I haven't been fed any soup!"

"Fed a load?" Mad Saber Three Waves was unusually lively. His dear Soft Feather's father had finally stopped tormenting him and had set off back for Spirit Butterfly Island yesterday! He had been holding it in for so many days, and after seeing the words "fed soup," countless classic dirty jokes immediately flooded his mind. Wonderful! He was just about to fire off a few in the group.

"Don't court death, Brother Three Waves." Northern River's Loose Cultivator warned him again. "Phones and computers can be logged into the same chat account simultaneously now."

What if Spirit Butterfly Island's Soft Feather's father happened to be logged into her account on his phone at that very moment?

Mad Saber Three Waves' expression changed instantly, and he swiftly went silent. Good heavens, how could he have forgotten that? With Venerable Spirit Butterfly's abilities, if he found out Three Waves had dared to spout filthy jokes in front of his daughter, he would definitely jump off the plane and come back to torment him.

Medicine Master laughed heartily, then his fingers flew across the phone. However, only after a long while did he send a few words: "Top-grade mutated Poison Dragon Grass. Worth it!"

Wandering Monk Profound Principle came online. He first sent a smiling-face emoticon, then sent an image of a small sword.

"Good!" Medicine Master replied.

The exchange between these two was downright bizarre.

Soft Feather of Spirit Butterfly Island: "Seniors, are the Vajra Foundation Fist and True Self Meditation Scripture really that good?"

"These were techniques from Vajra Temple eight hundred years ago. Although they were meant for disciples' Foundation Establishment, the power of the Vajra Foundation Fist was comparable to a First-Grade martial technique. Among Foundation Establishment martial techniques, it was considered quite good." Northern River's Loose Cultivator explained, "Unfortunately, Vajra Temple has since lost its heritage and vanished into the river of history. Many profound techniques were lost along with it."

Medicine Master nodded in satisfaction, then logged off and shut his phone.

He then went to the dormitory balcony and pointed toward the sky.

Song Shuhang watched his actions curiously, not knowing what he intended to do.

Before long, ten minutes passed...

Medicine Master remained motionless in that pose, as if he were a statue.

Song Shuhang was just about to go over and ask what was happening.

At that moment, Medicine Master's eyes lit up. He let out a soft shout, and crimson light began to glow from the finger pointing at the sky.

To be honest, this pose should have looked pretty cool.

But to Song Shuhang, Medicine Master's finger looked like a red-hot iron rod. It resembled the special effect in movies where a character accidentally smashed his finger with a hammer, leaving it swollen and bright red.

"All done!" Medicine Master said with a smug smile.

"?" Song Shuhang wore a blank expression.

Seeing Song Shuhang's confusion, Medicine Master explained, "I just fixed the coordinates with Master Profound Principle. In four or five hours, Master Profound Principle will be able to send the Vajra Foundation Fist and True Self Meditation Scripture over."

"Master Profound Principle is coming here too?" Song Shuhang asked.

"Why would he come? I fixed the coordinates with him, so he can send them by Flying Sword Message." Medicine Master sounded pleased with himself.

"Oh." Song Shuhang nodded. An image formed in his mind: deep in the wilderness, a virtuous monk silently smiled, drew a short sword from his robes, and tied a parcel to it. Inside were several martial arts manuals.

Martial arts manuals and the like should probably be thread-bound paper books. Ancient animal-skin scrolls would also be acceptable.

Then the virtuous monk pointed a finger at the sky and fixed the coordinates with a distant old friend.

After that, the virtuous monk slapped the short sword. The sword shot into the sky with the parcel in tow—whoosh! Dashing and cool.

How awesome. A Flying Sword Message. Just how high did one's cultivation have to be before one could fly on a sword? Song Shuhang secretly envied it.

Flying on a sword... Compared to that, riding an airplane was simply pathetic.

The sky had always been a man's romance!

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"Let's go. We'll first find a place to stay outside, then refine another batch of Body Tempering Liquid! Do you want to bring your induction cooker and hot pot?" Medicine Master asked.

Song Shuhang agonized over it for a long while before finally pulling out his black suitcase and packing both items inside. After all, he was used to this induction cooker and hot pot. Besides, if the place they rented happened not to have a stove or hot pot, or if the brands were different, it might very well cause him to fail when refining the Body Tempering Liquid.

Then he opened his storage cabinet, intending to take out one set of ingredients for the Body Tempering Liquid.

"Little Friend Shuhang, there's no need to bring the ingredients. Since I'm the one asking for your help, I'll naturally provide whatever ingredients are consumed." Medicine Master hurriedly stopped Shuhang. He was a somewhat famous alchemist, after all. If he asked someone else to help test a pill formula and still made them provide the ingredients, wouldn't people laugh their heads off?

Song Shuhang silently nodded and locked the cabinet. This was no time to put on a brave front. He only had thirty-two sets of ingredients, and according to Senior Northern River, those thirty-two sets might not even be enough for his Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment. So he had to save wherever he could.

He dragged his little suitcase along as he asked, "Let's go. Are there any requirements for the place we rent?"

Medicine Master answered, "It should be quiet, and the soundproofing should be good. Otherwise, we'll have to set up a Soundproofing Formation, which would be rather troublesome."

Song Shuhang looked at his wallet and calculated his living expenses. Mom Song gave him three thousand yuan a month for spending. After all, things weren't like they had been twenty-some years ago. Back then, a university student could live quite comfortably on one thousand RMB a month.

Without a part-time job, he would first rent a place for one month.

"Five or six hundred should be enough to rent a small apartment," Song Shuhang murmured.

Medicine Master immediately suggested, with some hesitation, "Would a five-hundred-yuan apartment be too small? We should at least rent a large, standalone apartment. Otherwise, my alchemy furnace won't fit."

Standalone? And huge as well. Senior, weren't you talking about a villa instead of an apartment?

Song Shuhang answered with a bitter smile, "That kind of apartment would cost at least ten thousand a month to rent. I don't have that much money."

"I'll naturally pay for it. What kind of sense would it make for me to ask you to help and then make you pay?" Medicine Master hurriedly stopped him. As a senior, how could he make a junior spend money?

"All right, then. Let's look carefully. There really aren't many large, standalone apartments near the school." At the thought of renting a huge standalone apartment costing over ten thousand a month, Song Shuhang's heart ached. At the same time, a question arose in his mind.

"By the way, Senior, do you usually have ordinary jobs and sources of income like normal people?" A few days ago, Song Shuhang had wondered about this. The people in the group weren't cut off from the world; they used computers, phones, and other modern conveniences, and they even went online. Surely they didn't pay their bills with gold nuggets or something?

"Of course we have our own sources of income. We haven't cut ourselves off from the world, after all. I'm not too clear about the others' sources of income, but my main occupation as an alchemist is enough to cover my daily expenses." Medicine Master nodded as he replied.

At this point, he glanced at Song Shuhang, then asked with a smile, "What? From the way you put it, are you troubled by money in the mundane world?"

Song Shuhang honestly nodded. "After coming into contact with cultivation, I realized that I might need a lot of money. At the very least, yesterday I was considering whether I should rent a place outside the school to keep my identity as a cultivator secret and make alchemy more convenient. But if I rent a place, I have to consider the expense."

He felt too embarrassed to mention that he wanted to find a part-time job.