Magical Item Foundation Establishment Method

After cultivators reached perfection at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, they could attempt Foundation Establishment. Foundation Establishment placed extremely high demands on aptitude; for cultivators with even slightly poorer aptitude, achieving it was as difficult as climbing to heaven.

Besides having sufficient cultivation, one also needed to obtain a pill refined from numerous heavenly treasures and earthly materials to raise the chances of Foundation Establishment—the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Yet Foundation Establishment Pills represented a higher probability of Foundation Establishment. They were exorbitantly expensive and rarely seen.

They were even strategic resources for sects, which meant Foundation Establishment Pills often had a price but no market. Ordinary cultivators could scarcely obtain them.

But in the Cultivation World, geniuses emerged in endless succession, and the methods of Foundation Establishment came in many forms. There was far more than one path.

Achieving Foundation Establishment without relying on any external object, solely through one's own formidable foundation and abundant cultivation, was called Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment.

Taking a Foundation Establishment Pill was Pill Dao Foundation Establishment.

Beyond that, certain supreme-grade spirit plants of heaven and earth could assist with Foundation Establishment through special methods. This was called Spirit Plant Foundation Establishment.

Likewise, there was also so-called Spirit Object Foundation Establishment.

And the secret method passed down by that True Disciple of the Little Five Elements Sword Sect was an even rarer method of Magical Item Foundation Establishment.

More precisely, it was an even narrower branch within Magical Item Foundation Establishment: Sword Item Foundation Establishment!

Legend had it that ancient Artifact Refiners had pioneered Magical Item Foundation Establishment.

The Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method was one such method.

It suited cultivators with unremarkable Spirit Root aptitude. A Magic Treasure Embryo refined through artifact-refining methods was nurtured within the body.

Like a pregnant woman carrying a child for ten months, it was nourished with one's own essence blood and spiritual qi until they gradually reached the point of shared intent and linked bloodlines.

It was equivalent to recasting a false Spirit Root, greatly increasing the success rate of Foundation Establishment.

Of course, the reason Foundation Establishment through Foundation Establishment Pills had become so widespread in the present-day Cultivation World was that, comparatively speaking, it was the simplest method and the easiest to acquire.

Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, meanwhile, was the most direct and straightforward, but its chance of success was not high.

Magical Item Foundation Establishment also had requirements. On the contrary, it was precisely because those requirements were so harsh that it had gradually been lost and become unknown to most people.

For Magical Item Foundation Establishment, first, the cultivator's physique had to be extraordinarily strong. Only someone close to a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could withstand the impact caused by a magical item's spiritual power flooding into the body.

Second, the cultivator needed an immense amount of spiritual power to completely refine the magical item. Otherwise, success was impossible.

Third, and most crucially—

The magical item required for Magical Item Foundation Establishment was not an ordinary magical item, but a Magic Treasure Embryo that had nurtured its own spirituality.

A Magic Treasure Embryo was not a true magic treasure, and its power might not even match the Spirit Tools wielded by Purple Mansion Cultivators. Yet merely requiring a magical item to nurture spirituality was already extraordinarily rare. It meant the magical item could advance further and evolve into the legendary magic treasure.

The requirements were extremely high. Even an ordinary Magic Treasure Embryo might cost a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator their entire fortune, let alone a Qi Refining Stage cultivator.

Moreover, refining a Magic Treasure Embryo was ten times harder than refining a magical item of equivalent power. Aside from old monsters of the Foundation Establishment Realm, what ordinary Qi Refining Stage cultivator possessed such ability?

It was precisely these harsh conditions that had caused other types of Foundation Establishment methods to gradually be lost.

Thus, when Zheng Yi finally chose the "Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method," even that True Disciple of the Little Five Elements Sword Sect had been somewhat puzzled.

But at the time, he had been bent on death. How could he care so much about Zheng Yi?

He could choose whatever he wanted. As long as he fulfilled his promise, that was enough.

But for Zheng Yi, especially after thoroughly reading the Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method, it stirred certain thoughts within him.

Zheng Yi's aptitude was not particularly good either. He merely possessed Mixed Spiritual Roots with four types of Spirit Roots. Otherwise, he would have long since entered a sect instead of becoming an ordinary Rogue Cultivator in Profound Sky City.

This Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method undoubtedly gave him strong confidence that he could travel far along the path of cultivation.

With an Apocalyptic World at his back, merely scraping together an ordinary Foundation Establishment would likely not satisfy Zheng Yi himself.

Before, without any good methods, Zheng Yi had planned to make proper preparations after reaching Qi Refining perfection and seek ways to improve his aptitude, so that he could go farther on the path of cultivation.

Now, this Lesser Five Elements Sword Foundation Casting Method used sword items as its foundation to reshape five false elemental Spirit Roots. At the critical juncture of Foundation Establishment, it could invisibly and artificially elevate a cultivator's Spirit Root aptitude.

Naturally, its requirements were also exceedingly harsh. Yet after pondering it over, Zheng Yi discovered that this Foundation Establishment method fit his own circumstances exceptionally well.

First was the Magic Treasure Embryo. That True Disciple of the Little Five Elements Sword Sect likely did not know that the Qi Family had spent a hundred years and three generations cultivating a total of five Blood Fetus Ghost Infants.

Now, all those Ghost Infants had fallen into Zheng Yi's hands. Combined with the resources of the Apocalyptic World, he was confident he could forge sword embryos at the level of Magic Treasure Embryos.

Even when ancient cultivators chose Magical Item Foundation Establishment, they would select their finest Spirit Root aptitude and cultivate a Magic Treasure Embryo of the same attribute. Good added to good, it raised their own cultivation aptitude.

But Zheng Yi's idea was even more audacious. Since he was going to do it, he would do the very best.

He himself had four Spirit Roots, and each Spirit Root's affinity for its corresponding spiritual qi attribute was about the same, all roughly below thirty percent. Since he had chosen Lesser Five Elements Sword Item Foundation Establishment, he might as well achieve complete Five Elements balance.

Zheng Yi's plan was to use the five Blood Fetus Ghost Infants as Artifact Spirits, directly refine Five Elements Magic Treasure Sword Embryos, then use the five Sword Embryos for Foundation Establishment and forge five false Spirit Roots of five different attributes. In this way, he could elevate his own Spirit Root aptitude once and for all.

As for how he would obtain such immense spiritual power to refine the five Sword Embryos, that would depend on cultivating the Black Fiend Technique.

As long as Zheng Yi continued cultivating the Black Fiend Technique, refining more Vengeful Spirits and Malevolent Ghosts, and raising his Sha Qi to the peak of Ink Spirit Fiend—or even to the level of Purple Demon Fiend—refining five Sword Embryos would not be difficult.

Of course, gathering the treasures and resources needed to refine the Five Elements Sword Embryos would require an enormous quantity.

Thus, Zheng Yi needed to make plans early and devise a solution that killed two birds with one stone, allowing him to make use of the Apocalyptic World's resources.

Besides, he did not need it urgently at present. He still had time to prepare.

But with a direction, it would undoubtedly be of tremendous benefit for what came next.

Before long, Zheng Yi found what he wanted.

Beneath the Black Refined Iron Ore Vein, within the labyrinth of the Nine Yin Gathering Evil Vein Termination Array, there was a secret stone chamber containing all manner of unorthodox secret arts the Qi Family had gathered from every corner over the years.

Many were exceptionally cruel Devil Dao secret techniques, which did not interest Zheng Yi.

But all these things could broaden his knowledge, expand his horizons, and add to his cultivation foundation.

After organizing them for some time, Zheng Yi discovered something else that interested him. Among them, he found a rare artifact-refining text.

It was called the Five Poison Soul Severing Sword.

This artifact-refining manual came from the Devil Dao Sect, the Five Venoms Sect.

It was a Foundation Establishment-level force in the northern regions. It was said to be a minor branch of the ancient Gu God Sect and had gradually declined by now.

Yet even a broken ship still had three pounds of nails. This Five Poison Soul Severing Sword was a fragmentary artifact-refining secret art that had spread from the Five Venoms Sect.