After settling some trivial matters with Scholar and his brother, Chen Qiu returned to Area 8 of Heaven-Question Market, the "Demonic Beast District." He once again purchased a large batch of demonic beasts, instructing the shopkeeper, just as before, to severely wound them before delivering them to an inn room.
Though with his current strength, he could already handle demonic beasts of the Qi Refining Realm himself.
Still, whenever he could trouble others, he tried not to trouble himself.
For less than two hundred Spirit Stones, Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon watched from an inn room as the demonic beast shopkeeper, his face brimming with barely suppressed delight, came and went nonstop, delivering batch after batch of demonic beasts.
They filled three entire rooms.
"There."
Sitting in a wooden chair, Chen Qiu poured himself a cup of cold tea and glanced casually at Fat Dragon. "What are you standing around for? Helping you break through only cost less than two hundred Spirit Stones. That's a bargain."
That was right.
Breaking through in the Qi Refining Realm was just that simple. As long as one could find a large gathering of Qi Refining Realm demonic beasts and had the strength to kill them—or had enough Spirit Stones to buy severely wounded ones—reaching Foundation Establishment in a single day was easy as pie.
Yet neither of those options had anything to do with ordinary people.
Forget the two hundred Spirit Stones Fat Dragon needed to go from the Seventh Level of the Qi Refining Realm to Foundation Establishment; even the thirty Spirit Stones Chen Qiu had spent going from the Third Level of the Qi Refining Realm to the Seventh Level were beyond what most Qi Refining Realm cultivators could afford.
Many Qi Refining Realm cultivators were poor.
Or rather, the logic should have been reversed.
It was not that the Qi Refining Realm was poor. Rather, those still stuck in the Qi Refining Realm were poor. Anyone with even a little savings in their pocket had long since reached Foundation Establishment. After all, only Foundation Establishment counted as truly stepping across the threshold of cultivation.
As long as one had three hundred Spirit Stones, one could go from the First Level of the Qi Refining Realm to the First Level of the Foundation Establishment Realm within a single day.
Breaking through in the Qi Refining Realm was just that simple.
But after reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, cultivation progress slowed dramatically. Killing Qi Refining Realm demonic beasts no longer increased cultivation progress, while adult Foundation Establishment Realm demonic beasts were basically never sold. Demonic beasts at that level could not be raised in batches through human effort and could only be sought out in the wilderness.
Not only were they difficult to kill, but even killing one would barely increase cultivation progress. That was what truly gave people headaches.
At this stage, there were essentially two mainstream ways to raise one's cultivation.
The first was to possess a sufficiently good cultivation art, find a place with dense enough spiritual energy, then circulate the art day after day while entering closed-door cultivation in search of a breakthrough.
The second was to stubbornly rely on pills.
For instance, his Heavenly Dao Foundation had been rotating automatically for most of the day since last night, yet his cultivation progress had not risen at all. It had not even filled the spiritual energy within his body.
After reaching Foundation Establishment, the spiritual energy in his dantian was still only half full.
"Alright, alright."
Chen Qiu could not be bothered to watch Fat Dragon put on that grateful expression any longer. He waved his hand. "Get started already. Don't delay."
Very soon—
The inn room entered a state of noisy silence.
Fat Dragon held a butcher's cleaver, one in each hand, going crack, crack.
Chen Qiu sat cross-legged on the bed, Spirit Stones in hand, absorbing the spiritual energy within them.
At last.
An hour later.
When Chen Qiu opened his eyes again, the room was already a complete mess, and Fat Dragon was nowhere to be seen. Chen Qiu frowned as he lowered his head to look at the shattered Spirit Stones on the bed. In order to refill the spiritual energy in his dantian, he had consumed three whole Spirit Stones.
It was not that the consumption was too high.
It was that the absorption speed was too slow.
It had taken him a full hour to draw all the spiritual energy from those three Spirit Stones into his body.
His current Foundation Establishment was a Heavenly Dao Foundation one hundred and ten li wide and one hundred li high. Even with the Heavenly Dao Foundation's boost, the absorption speed was still this slow. That was only because his current Foundation Establishment could not yet hold much spiritual energy.
Once he attended tonight's auction and went out tomorrow to hunt demonic beasts, increasing the width of his Foundation Establishment to several hundred li or even a thousand li—
Would that mean refilling the spiritual energy in his dantian each time would take nearly ten hours?
What about ten thousand li or one hundred thousand li in the future?
Would filling his dantian with spiritual energy take a whole month?
That was enough time for a mortal enemy to plow through his entire clan three or four times!
"This won't do."
Chen Qiu shook his head and muttered, "I need to find a better cultivation art."
The strength of a Heavenly Dao Foundation was tied to one's cultivation art. If the cultivation art was too poor, the Heavenly Dao Foundation would not be able to display much of its power either. His current cultivation art was merely Yellow Grade, Middle Class. It was no longer enough for him.
He pulled the auction item list from his robes and scrutinized it a few more times. Sure enough, he found a cultivation art among the auction items on the final page.
A Foundation Establishment Realm Supreme Class cultivation art, "Seven Lamps Descend."
In truth, it was simply a Yellow Grade, Supreme Class cultivation art. Heaven, Earth, Mystic, and Yellow were the rank classifications for cultivation arts and spiritual treasures used in the cultivation world, a form of semi-slang. The official naming convention instead classified cultivation arts, spiritual treasures, and pills uniformly as—
Qi Refining Realm, Foundation Establishment Realm, Golden Core Realm, and so on.
A Foundation Establishment Realm Supreme Class cultivation art was the cultivation art most suited for Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. Supreme Class meant it stood among the strongest cultivation arts of that realm. A supreme cultivation art of the Foundation Establishment Realm could still be used in the Golden Core Realm without issue.
Besides that.
There was another item on the auction list that he was determined to obtain.
A Foundation Establishment Realm Middle Class spell, the "Lightning-Channeling Art." It happened to work perfectly with his trait, "Focus Power." This spell suited him extremely well.
Such spells were actually fairly commonplace. The Zhao Clan Merchant Association's shops sold them, and they were not expensive.
Two Spirit Stones would buy one. With a little bargaining, perhaps even one Spirit Stone would do. After all, it was a copy, and its production cost was practically negligible. If one had a few friends, finding someone who cultivated this spell and asking to copy it for free would probably not be a problem.
But this "Lightning-Channeling Art" at the auction came from a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm. Once learned, it would directly reach Major Accomplishment. Naturally, it was anything but ordinary.
Besides that, the auction list also contained two Middle Class Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans suitable for Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. He needed those as well. There were quite a few things at this auction that he dearly wanted, all of them fine treasures.
Only through the shopkeeper did he learn that one could use only two Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans per major realm. He had already used two lower-class Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans in the Qi Refining Realm. After bidding for these Middle Class Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talismans, if the three traits he randomly received during some minor breakthrough in the Foundation Establishment Realm were all good, he could take every last one of them.
Just as Chen Qiu sat cross-legged on the bed studying the auction list and pondering how to arrange the next few days, he saw Fat Dragon push open the door and enter, his complexion grim.
The Foundation Establishment Realm aura faintly and uncontrollably leaking from his body was precisely the sign of a realm he had only just broken through and had not yet stabilized.
"Congratulations."
Chen Qiu tucked the auction list into his robes, rose to the table, and poured himself another cup of cold tea. Looking at Fat Dragon, he chuckled. "How does Foundation Establishment feel? Why the long face? Don't tell me all three traits you randomly got upon reaching Foundation Establishment were trash?"
"Mm."
Fat Dragon wore a face full of bitterness as he dropped into a wooden chair. He lifted the teapot and guzzled directly from the spout. His initial trait had already been terrible enough to torment him. He had finally accepted that fact and looked forward with great hope to the three-choice trait selection upon reaching Foundation Establishment.
Yet.
It was as though the heavens had played a joke on him.
Just recalling the three traits he had randomly received upon reaching Foundation Establishment gave him the urge to smash his head against the wall and die!!!
"Cultivation surged. You have officially entered the First Level of the Foundation Establishment Realm." "Please choose from the three random traits below within ten breaths." 1: "Trait Name": Yama's Personal Edict. "Trait Grade": Gray. "Trait Effect": You will certainly die one year from now, but you will possess Absolute Immortality within that year. 2: "Trait Name": Early Greatness. "Trait Grade": Gray. "Trait Effect": Cultivation progress obtained by any method will be ten times faster, and you will face no breakthrough bottlenecks. However, you can live only until the age of twenty-five and cannot extend your lifespan by any means. 3: "Trait Name": Never Misses. "Trait Grade": White Trait. "Trait Effect": Any opposite-sex member of your species who shares a room with you will certainly become pregnant afterward.
"I'm twenty-four this year. My birthday is in thirty days, and then I'll officially be twenty-five."
Fat Dragon's face was nearly despairing, his voice trembling as he spoke through sobs. "If I choose the first trait, I die next year. If I choose the second, I die in thirty days when winter begins. Does this fucking three-choice trait selection even give me a choice?"
"Only the third trait won't kill me, but what the fuck use is the third trait!!!"
"I came here to cultivate!!!"
"Not to make babies!!!"
"Take it easy."
Chen Qiu patted Fat Dragon's shoulder with a complicated expression. He wanted to comfort him, but for a moment did not know where to begin. After a long while, he finally forced himself to say, "Maybe there's some Pink Trait where the more children you have, the stronger you become?"
"I've even thought of a name for that Pink Trait. It'll be called 'More Children, More Fortune.'"
"And there are other ways to obtain traits too, like Heavenly Dao Secret Realms and auctions. There's still hope in the future."
"Just treat this as getting a trait for free. Take it easy. Don't rush."
"It'll get better."
Before you continue