Immortal Foundation

Back at his cave abode, Kong Jiao eagerly sank his consciousness into the jade slip and began studying this ancient text, Immortal Foundation, which even Huangfu Wuqin held in such high regard.

Only after reading for a short while did he understand why this ancient book had been collected by the inner sect.

It was not merely an ancient text that detailed the essences of heaven and earth.

It also gave a simple explanation of the Wheel-Nurturing realm.

What is Wheel-Nurturing?

The spirit wheel is a cultivator's innate foundation of the Dao. It must be nurtured with spiritual power and nourished by the essence of heaven and earth. Only when it is spotless and flawless, entering the ranks of an Immortal Foundation, can it be called Wheel-Nurturing.

Pure spiritual power can only nurture a wheel of the lowest grade. It cannot be called a spirit wheel, nor can it become a Dao foundation. Only by supplementing it with the essence of heaven and earth and nurturing the wheel can it reveal its wondrous power and achieve a supreme Immortal Foundation.

Those with the bearing of immortals, on the day their Dao foundations are formed, will surely commune with heaven and earth, accompanied by heavenly phenomena.

The essences of heaven and earth are ranked high and low, divided into heaven, earth, and mortal grades. This book lists them one by one for later generations to study.

"Dao foundation? That refers to the great realm of Wheel Ascension, doesn't it? So in ancient times, it was called the Dao Foundation." Kong Jiao seemed to gain some insight.

He also understood why Huangfu Wuqin had once implied that a Wheel-Nurturing cultivator who had never absorbed the essence of heaven and earth was not truly in the Wheel-Nurturing realm.

The book had made it clear that nourishment through spiritual power alone did not count as a spirit wheel. Even if one broke through to the Wheel Ascension realm, what lay within one's body could not form a Dao foundation.

As he muttered to himself, Kong Jiao turned his gaze back to the jade slip.

Yet his eyes suddenly went blank.

The pages that recorded the heaven-grade essences were completely empty.

Kong Jiao searched for a long time before confirming that the jade slip contained records only of earth-grade and mortal-grade essences of heaven and earth.

"Zhao Wei, you bastard! You never told me about this!" Kong Jiao cursed indignantly.

Come to think of it, this jade slip was merely a copy. The original was still in the inner sect.

When making copies, deliberately omitting certain more secret passages was standard practice for many sects.

The section on heaven-grade essences had likely been intentionally excluded by the sect's upper ranks.

As for why, Kong Jiao did not know. Though he cursed under his breath, he could only accept the fact.

After briefly complaining about Zhao Wei, Kong Jiao had no choice but to turn his attention to the entries on earth-grade essences of heaven and earth.

The compiler of Immortal Foundation had been very meticulous, ranking and ordering every essence of heaven and earth.

From highest to lowest, the rankings represented the quality of each essence.

The first thing Kong Jiao saw was the number-one earth-grade essence of heaven and earth.

Earth Grade, First: Great Geng Essence

Born deep within the earth veins, at the core of Heavenly Geng Origin Ore, it takes a thousand years before it may condense into essence.

Its sharpness is such that its killing aura pierces through to the surface. Within a hundred li, not a blade of grass grows; neither humans nor beasts may approach.

Those who harvest this essence must endure the agony of ten thousand swords piercing their bodies.

Since ancient times, those who have harvested this essence have faced nine deaths for every one chance of survival.

Those without immense perseverance cannot obtain it; those without peerless talent should not covet it.

The Dao foundation nurtured by Great Geng Essence is the Geng-Metal Sword Foundation, the foremost Dao foundation for sword cultivators beneath the heaven grade.

Once the Dao foundation is formed, sword light can pierce a thousand li.

Earth Grade, Second: Dragon Vein Blood

Earth Grade, Third: Dark Resentment Corpse Essence

There were a total of one hundred and seventy-nine earth-grade essences. Each had a detailed introduction, including the conditions of its birth and the Dao foundation it could nurture.

Perhaps because earth-grade essences were too tyrannical, absorbing every kind of earth-grade essence carried risks.

Among them, Great Geng Essence was especially vicious, with nine deaths for every one chance of survival.

As for the claim that its sword light could pierce a thousand li, Kong Jiao found that somewhat exaggerated.

At this point, Kong Jiao suddenly thought of something, and a bead of cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

Back in the assessment space of the Moon Palace, when he had absorbed the Frostsnow Essence, all the spiritual power in his body had frozen.

At the time, he had only found it strange. How could he have imagined how hair-raising his situation had truly been?

In his muddled ignorance, he had actually passed the most dangerous trial of absorbing essence energy by sheer accident.

"Let's see where Frostsnow Essence ranks among the earth-grade essences." Still shaken, Kong Jiao's gaze moved down the rankings of earth-grade essences one by one.

At last, he found Frostsnow Essence in eighteenth place.

Earth Grade, Eighteenth: Frostsnow Essence

Also known as Snow-Soul Essence, it condenses in the deepest reaches of glaciers that have never melted since antiquity. It is the ultimate evolution of frost and snow power.

Those who harvest Frostsnow Essence must cultivate the Ice-Aspected Wheel-Nurturing Scripture. Otherwise, all the spiritual power in their bodies will be frozen by the force of frost and cold, making circulation impossible.

If the frost-cold power cannot be dissolved within the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the meridians will all rupture, injuring one's origin. Without great fortune, the damage cannot be reversed.

If it cannot be dissolved within half an hour, one will die and one's Dao will vanish.

Frostsnow Essence can nurture the Ice-Soul Foundation. Thereafter, one can ignore frost and cold, and fire aspects will be naturally restrained.

The spiritual power of Frostsnow Essence is white as frost and possesses characteristics of extreme cold. It has miraculous effects when cultivating ice-type Dao arts.

When the Ice-Soul Foundation reaches great completion, snow can drift across a hundred li with but a thought.

After reading the introduction to Frostsnow Essence, Kong Jiao became even more certain that the essence energy he had absorbed was Frostsnow Essence.

The suffering he had endured back then was exactly as Immortal Foundation described—the freezing of spiritual power by Frostsnow Essence, not a single word different.

"If the frost-cold power isn't dissolved within the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the meridians rupture. If it isn't dissolved within half an hour, it's instant death and the Dao vanishes." Kong Jiao could only smile bitterly.

Only he himself knew how perilous it had been.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, his spirit wheel had exerted its power. Like a millstone grinding grain, it had forcibly ground away that frost-cold force.

Otherwise, he would likely be a corpse by now.

Of course, high risks brought high rewards as well. Frostsnow Essence ranked eighteenth among the earth-grade essences. After Kong Jiao had completely refined it, the spiritual power within his body underwent a qualitative transformation.

With his Wheel-Nurturing fifth-stage cultivation, he could crush Wheel-Nurturing sixth-stage cultivators who had not absorbed the essence of heaven and earth. Even against Wheel-Nurturing sixth-stage cultivators who had absorbed such essence but had not reached the earth grade, he could suppress them.

"Eighteenth among one hundred and seventy-nine earth-grade essences is already quite high. Don't be greedy; contentment brings happiness!"

Gathering his thoughts, Kong Jiao continued reading downward, finishing all one hundred and seventy-nine kinds of earth-grade essence in one go.

"There really are quite a lot." Kong Jiao rubbed his brow. Even with his extraordinary memory after cultivation, forcibly memorizing so much knowledge at once still left him somewhat exhausted.

Yet he did not pause for long. He merely closed his eyes for a brief rest, emptying his mind for a moment before opening them again and shifting his gaze to the records of mortal-grade essences.

"More than a thousand kinds!" Kong Jiao immediately gave up on the idea of memorizing every mortal-grade essence.

He simply looked through their rankings and names.

Then, at a rank somewhere above three hundred, he saw the Tidal Spirit.

It was the reward offered by the Law Enforcement Hall for Han Dong's head.

Feng An had said at the time that the Tidal Spirit ranked fairly high. Among more than a thousand varieties, a rank above three hundred truly was rather high.

"But compared to the earth grade, a rank above three hundred really isn't much to look at." Kong Jiao muttered.

Another half day passed, and Kong Jiao had roughly gone through all the records of earth-grade and mortal-grade essences of heaven and earth.

Only then did he put down the jade slip.

He had not intended to memorize the entire jade slip in a single day.

After all, he had borrowed it for three days.

"Ah! Immortal Foundations truly are wondrous." Stretching fiercely, Kong Jiao slowly rose from the stone bed where he had been sitting and walked over to the spirit spring.

It was time to cultivate again.

He had attained his present cultivation entirely because he had never missed a single day of cultivation.

Even at the Frostmoon Altar, he had never neglected it. Today would be no exception.