White Bone Cave

The entrance to the White Bone Cave looked like the gaping maw of a monstrous beast, black and wide against the cliff face.

An eerie wind poured out from the cave, carrying the smell of rotting earth and a subtler sound, like bones scraping against stone.

Qin Yuan stood thirty feet from the cave mouth, his iron sword already drawn.

He probed the cave with his divine sense, but it was blocked after only ten feet by a dense Yin energy—so thick it felt tangible, with a chill that eroded the divine sense.

Faint howls echoed from the depths of the cave, neither human nor beast, like something writhing and struggling in agony.

An ordinary Qi Refining Stage disciple would likely have been scared off by this Yin energy before even entering the cave.

Qin Yuan merely frowned. He took an Amulet of Warding from his robes and placed it on his chest. The talisman emitted a faint warm light, pushing back the encroaching Yin energy by an inch. He raised his sword and stepped into the cave.

Darkness swallowed him instantly.

The cave was more spacious than he'd imagined. The ceiling was about ten feet high, and the stone walls on either side were covered in a dark green moss that gave off a faint phosphorescence.

By this dim light, he could see scattered bones on the ground—some human, some beast, most of them broken.

The deeper he went, the heavier the Yin energy became.

The light from the Amulet of Warding was compressed to a radius of three feet around him, with dark tendrils of energy churning at the edges, emitting a "hissing" sound of corrosion.

Qin Yuan's breathing was exceptionally clear in the silent cave. Each step crunched on broken bones, emitting a teeth-grinding "crack."

After walking about half a li, he reached a fork in the path.

The left passage carried a strong scent of blood, while the right had a faint dripping sound.

Qin Yuan sensed for a moment and chose the left path, with the stronger smell of blood—Yin Fiend Crystals usually formed where Yin energy and blood energy converged.

This passage was narrower, barely wide enough for one person. The stone walls were slippery, and a viscous liquid dripped down the rock face, though whether it was water or something else was unclear.

The smell of blood was so thick it was almost palpable, drilling into his nostrils and triggering primal fear.

Qin Yuan didn't slow his pace.

After another hundred steps, the path opened up into a natural cavern.

In the center of the cavern was a pool of blood, its liquid dark red and viscous. Bubbles occasionally rose to the surface, and the foul stench released when they burst made Qin Yuan frown.

Scattered around the edge of the blood pool were several fresh corpses—judging by their clothing, they were all disciples of the Xuan Yuan Sect. The latest one had died no more than three days ago.

Their faces were frozen in extreme terror, their eyes wide open as if about to burst.

And directly above the blood pool, three fist-sized black crystals floated, their surfaces etched with dark red patterns—Yin Fiend Crystals.

The mission objective was right before him.

But Qin Yuan didn't approach immediately. His gaze fell on the depths of the blood pool, where something was slowly stirring. His divine sense couldn't penetrate the blood, but he could feel a chilling aura far beyond the Qi Refining Stage awakening.

"I need to break through first."

Qin Yuan retreated to the edge of the cavern and found a relatively dry stone platform to sit cross-legged. He took three mid-grade Spirit Crystals from his storage bag and held them in his hands—not for cultivation, but to set up a simple alarm formation.

Then, he closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into his body.

[Extract today's twenty years of cultivation?]

"Extract."

BOOM--!!!

This time, the impact was more violent than ever before!

If the influx of ten years of cultivation before was like a river surging, then this was like a tsunami crashing in!

Twenty years of pure cultivation transformed into a scorching torrent, erupting from the deepest part of his dantian and instantly shattering the "Extreme Realm" barrier of the thirteenth layer of Qi Refining!

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Qin Yuan's body trembled violently, and fine beads of blood seeped from his skin—a sign that his meridians were being torn apart by the rampant spiritual energy. But he wasn't panicked. Instead, he circulated the Qi Guiding Art with all his might—no, the path of the spiritual energy surging within him had spontaneously changed, now flowing along a deeper, more profound trajectory.

Foundation Establishment was the first true chasm on the path of cultivation.

The Qi Refining Stage merely guided spiritual energy into the body, circulated it through the meridians, and strengthened the physical body.

Foundation Establishment, however, involved compressing gaseous spiritual energy into a liquid state, opening up a "sea of qi" in the dantian. From then on, the total amount of spiritual energy would surge, allowing the user to cast true spells and extending their lifespan to two hundred years.

Ordinary cultivators attempting Foundation Establishment needed to find a quiet room for seclusion, prepare a Foundation Establishment Pill, and carefully attempt the breakthrough under the protection of their elders, with a success rate of less than thirty percent.

Qin Yuan, however, was in the sinister and bloody White Bone Cave, alone, using the twenty years of cultivation injected by the system as fuel, forcefully crashing against that chasm!

"Crack—"

Something inside his body seemed to break.

It wasn't the sound of a barrier shattering, but a subtler sound, like an eggshell cracking.

Immediately after, a violent sense of expansion came from his dantian—the "qi chamber," which could previously only hold a stream, was being forcefully stretched open, expanding into the shape of a lake!

Liquid spiritual energy began to condense.

The first drop, the second, the third... Spiritual energy was forcibly compressed from its gaseous state, transforming into crystalline droplets that fell into the newly formed sea of qi. With each drop, Qin Yuan's aura grew more profound, and his physical body was strengthened.

This process lasted for a full hour.

When the last wisp of gaseous spiritual energy was converted, the sea of qi in Qin Yuan's dantian had taken shape—though it was only newly formed, less than three feet across, the spiritual energy within it was already more than ten times that of the thirteenth layer of Qi Refining!

Foundation Establishment Layer 1, complete!

But the torrent of twenty years of cultivation had not yet been exhausted.

His Qi Sea continued to expand, and liquid spiritual energy dripped down like rain. Foundation Establishment Layer 2!

The torrent finally subsided completely when his cultivation firmly settled at the peak of Foundation Establishment Layer 2.

Qin Yuan opened his eyes, a sharp glint flashing within them before receding like a deep pool.

He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, which condensed into a white arrow of air in the atmosphere, shooting out three zhang before dissipating.

This was Foundation Establishment.

His five senses were clear, and his divine sense surged. Without deliberate probing, he could now clearly "see" every crack in the cave's stone walls, the flow of every drop of blood in the blood pool, and even sense two Yin Rats gnawing on a corpse three hundred zhang deep within the cave.

His strength was also worlds apart. He clenched his fist, his knuckles making popping sounds like bursting beans, feeling as though he could collapse the entire cave with a single punch.

Qin Yuan stood up, dismantled the alert formation, and walked towards the blood pool.

This time, he no longer concealed his aura. The pressure of Foundation Establishment Layer 3 naturally radiated outward, and the Yin energy within three feet of him vanished instantly as if encountering boiling snow. The bubbles churning on the surface of the blood pool also abruptly calmed, as if sensing a threat.

He reached out and grasped, spiritual energy transforming into an invisible giant hand that snatched three Yin Fiend Crystals from above the blood pool.

The moment the Yin Fiend Crystals left the pool--

"Roar--!!!"

The blood pool exploded! A pale white tentacle as thick as a water bucket, covered in suckers, shot out from the bottom of the pool, coiling directly towards Qin Yuan's neck! The countless eyeballs on the tentacle simultaneously opened, emitting soul-devouring evil light!

Qin Yuan didn't even look. He formed his left hand into a sword with his fingers and casually slashed.

Ching--

A faint golden sword light flashed, and the tentacle was severed with a clean cut, spewing foul-smelling black blood from the wound. A shrill scream echoed from the depths of the blood pool, and the entire pool of blood began to boil as more tentacles surged out wildly!

"Troublesome."

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