Easy Foundation Establishment

"I want to establish my foundation..."

Ye Xingchen's eyes hardened, and with a slight flicker of thought:

"System, go all in with the remaining 150,000! Put it all into cultivation!"

He felt no psychological burden whatsoever.

Money was something you couldn't bring with you when you were born or take with you when you died. Spending it on yourself was called investment; leaving it in the system meant it was nothing but a string of meaningless numerical code.

Only when it was turned into the size of one's fist did it count as the real deal.

[ Ding! Command received. Deducting 100,000 Source Points. Cultivation is being increased... ]

The anticipated tearing agony did not come.

This time, a warm current flowed from his dantian through all four limbs and every bone, like receiving a top-tier soul spa treatment. It felt so good he almost wanted to moan.

Ninth Layer of Qi Refining, complete.

The bottleneck that had troubled countless outer disciples and trapped countless geniuses was as fragile as a sheet of soaking-wet window paper before him.

Pop.

He did not even need to deliberately break through. A faint crisp sound came from within his body.

Foundation Establishment was achieved.

Just that smoothly.

If those old fellows who had secluded themselves for three or five years without breaking through had seen this, they would probably have been so enraged they suffered qi deviation on the spot.

But Ye Xingchen soon noticed something was off.

When ordinary cultivators established their foundation, they absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, gathered it within the dantian's sea of qi, and compressed it into liquid true essence, laying the groundwork for condensing a Golden Core in the future.

Yet his dantian was completely empty.

There was only a stretch of hazy gray mist.

At the very center of that chaos, the strand of Primordial Purple Qi he had awakened earlier floated quietly, like an ancient titan that had existed since time immemorial, suppressing the entire sea of qi.

All spiritual power that entered that region was instantly assimilated into gray streams of energy.

This energy was terrifyingly heavy.

Ye Xingchen tried gathering a thread of spiritual power at his fingertip.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.

The air seemed unable to bear the burden and let out a faint whimper. The space around his fingertip visibly distorted, as if that thread of spiritual power weighed ten thousand jun.

"This... this is Chaos Spiritual Power?"

Ye Xingchen looked at the dull gray glow on his fingertip.

Though it did not look as dazzling as those flashy Five Elements spiritual powers, this density was simply a strike from an entirely higher dimension.

If spiritual power of cultivators at the same realm was water, then his spiritual power was mercury—or even liquid metal.

If I ever trade blasts with someone...

They'll think I'm just a rookie who's barely established his foundation, only to discover upon impact that they've rammed straight into Mount Tai.

Since ancient times, the one on the left loses in a beam clash?

Sorry, but before absolute mass, I win no matter which side I stand on.

[ Current realm: Foundation Establishment Early Stage. ]

[ Remaining Source Points: 50,000. ]

Looking at the remaining fifty thousand Source Points, Ye Xingchen forcibly suppressed the urge to keep spending.

He still needed to leave some emergency funds. If anything went wrong at the gambling stone convention, these Source Points would be his trump card for staying alive.

He lowered his head and took a sniff.

A sour, pungent stench shot straight to the crown of his head.

The impurities expelled during his physique awakening were still smeared over his skin, sticky and greasy enough to drive anyone mad.

"Time for a bath."

Late at night.

First Saint Sect, Black Dragon Pool.

Moonlight flowed like water, pouring across the pool's dark and deep surface.

A waterfall a hundred zhang high poured down from the cliff and smashed into the deep pool below, kicking up mist that filled the sky. The rumbling roar was deafening.

Bare-chested, Ye Xingchen dove headfirst into the water.

Bone-piercing cold instantly wrapped around his body, cool and refreshing, like downing a bottle of iced cola in one go during summer.

The tyrannical nature of his Black-Tier Physique revealed itself fully at that moment.

He darted through the water like a fish. After washing away the grime from his body in just a few strokes, he climbed onto a massive rock jutting out from the surface.

With a flick of his wrist, he took a wooden hammer from his storage bag.

"Let's see whether I can hammer this waterfall back two or three zhang."

Ye Xingchen took a deep breath and spread his feet slightly, standing rooted atop the boulder like an ancient pine.

Chaos Spiritual Power surged through his meridians. Gray light spread down his arm and covered the wooden hammer.

Opening stance.

Whoosh!

The wooden hammer tore through the air, carrying a low, mournful howl.

First hammer.

It appeared utterly ordinary, yet the instant the hammerhead fell, the water mist ahead was smashed into a vacuum zone.

Borrowing the force, he turned.

Second hammer.

The force stacked.

Ye Xingchen's movements were not fast; they could even be called slow, like an old ox pulling a cart. Yet with every hammer swing, the pressure grew stronger by another degree.

Third hammer... Tenth hammer...

The surrounding air began to stir. The mist that had originally flowed downward was swept up by the hammer wind, forming a massive vortex.

Twentieth hammer.

Ye Xingchen felt the blood within him begin to burn.

It was the exhilaration of physical strength being pushed to its limit. Every cell in his body rejoiced and cried out: Again!

Thirtieth hammer.

The wooden hammer in his hand seemed to come alive. It was no longer an inanimate object, but an extension of his arm.

Fortieth hammer.

The massive boulder beneath his feet let out a groan of unbearable strain. Cracks spread madly outward from beneath his feet in every direction.

Fiftieth hammer!

Ye Xingchen's eyes shone so brightly it was frightening, as though wild flames danced in the depths of his pupils.

The Chaos Spiritual Power within him circulated madly, perfectly merging with the strength of his physique.

At that moment, he forgot everything.

Between heaven and earth, only this hammer remained.

Sixtieth hammer...

Sixty-third hammer...

The momentum had formed. It could not be stopped!

Ye Xingchen suddenly released a long howl. Power burst from his waist and abdomen, and his entire body became like a fully drawn greatbow as he swung the final strike of this hammer technique.

Sixty-fourth hammer!

"Open!"

Wrapped in hazy gray light, the wooden hammer smashed heavily into the void.

Boom.

It was like a giant's heart had thumped violently once.

At that instant, the scene froze.

The hundred-zhang waterfall, its ten-thousand-jun torrent crashing downward, actually came to a halt before this hammer.

The laws of physics seemed to have failed at that moment.

Then, an unbelievable scene unfolded.

Crash!

The falling water, as though it had struck an invisible wall of air, was forcibly swept backward!

The water surged upstream, shooting more than a zhang into the air before gravity finally forced it to scatter, transforming it into a torrential downpour that poured from the sky.

Even space let out a faint tremor beneath that hammer.

Crack.

The wooden hammer in Ye Xingchen's hand finally could not withstand such terrifying force. It burst into splinters that fluttered down into the pool.

The rain soaked his hair and streamed down his cheeks.

Yet he stood there completely motionless.

Awesome.

Absolutely awesome!

The feeling of controlling such power was even more intoxicating than earning a million spirit stones.

[ Ding! Detected that the host has unleashed a powerful attack. ]

[ Combat power assessment: The force of this strike has reached the standard of a Golden Core Early Stage cultivator's full-power attack. ]

The system prompt sounded at just the right moment.

Golden Core Realm.

In this world, Golden Core Realm cultivators could already be called "powerhouses." In some smaller sects, they could even found their own sect and be addressed as Patriarch.

And he was merely a rookie who had just established his foundation.

Ye Xingchen shook his slightly numb arm. Looking at the splinters scattered all over the ground, he laughed outright.

Challenging above one's realm?

Wasn't that the standard equipment of a protagonist?

"Only now... can I be said to have truly set foot upon the path of cultivation..."

Ye Xingchen raised his head, his gaze passing through layer after layer of water mist toward the broader world beyond. A wild, arrogant curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

"The dream the original owner failed to complete—I, this outsider, will fulfill it for him."

"Next, the strongest seat on the Profound Heaven Continent..."

"I'm taking it."