Fifth Grade Opportunity, Vermillion Point Brush

Yuan Mobai had once made a rough estimate based on Lei Jun's current natural talent, comprehension, state of mind, and other factors.

Without any outside influence, Lei Jun would need about a year to advance from Foundation Establishment Initial Stage to Middle Stage.

From Foundation Establishment Middle Stage to Foundation Establishment High Stage, he would need around three years.

From Foundation Establishment High Stage to Foundation Establishment Perfection, he would need about six years.

In other words, from beginning to end, the Foundation Establishment Realm required roughly ten years.

The Third Layer Altar Realm differed from the Twelve Story Building of the First Heaven and the initial, middle, high, and perfection stages of the Second Heaven.

The Altar Realm was divided into three minor stages: Heaven, Earth, and Man. One formed the heavens and imitated the earth, raising a Three-Layer Altar to declare completion and lay the foundation for charging toward the Fourth Heaven Primal Talisman Realm.

But those three minor stages might take around twenty years.

Thus, Foundation Establishment and the Altar Realm together totaled thirty years.

Li Ying, Shangguan Hong, Chen Yi, Guo Yan, and others with conditions similar to Lei Jun's would be more or less the same.

By then, they would all be in their forties, closing in on fifty.

Li Xuan, Li Ming, and Li Ying might have been siblings born of the same father and mother.

But the age gap between any two of them exceeded twenty years.

Among ordinary mortals, that was practically three generations.

Yet in the cultivation world, for cultivators who had already reached Foundation Establishment, fifty was only the beginning of young adulthood.

Still, even for Direct Lineage Disciples of Daoist Holy Lands like Li Ying, Lei Jun, and Chen Yi, their forties and fifties would nearly fill the first quarter of their two-hundred-year lifespans—the most precious golden window, when cultivation advanced the fastest.

Of course, actual cultivation could bring changes.

For instance, Lei Jun had reached Foundation Establishment in February, and by August had successfully opened the city walls' Eight Gates upon his Dao Foundation, advancing to Foundation Establishment Middle Stage. That was because of the cleansing and nourishment of the Cloud Sea Immortal Pool.

Besides superior cultivation methods, Direct Lineage Disciples under Daoist Holy Lands undoubtedly held every conceivable advantage in cultivation over ordinary independent cultivators.

But the disciples of the Celestial Master Mansion also had to consider one issue.

The tribulationary Heavenly Moat between major realms—from the Second Heaven to the Third Heaven, and from the Third Heaven to the Fourth Heaven—might trap a cultivator for a very long time.

The time saved through auxiliary methods such as the Cloud Sea Immortal Pool cleansing might not even be enough to offset the stagnation before breaking through and crossing a major realm's tribulation.

So everyone still needed to devise their own extraordinary schemes and seek their own opportunities. The faster they could advance, the better; progress had to be made early.

Passing fifty did not mean all hope was lost.

But among the Celestial Master Mansion's disciples, every one of them was a favored child of heaven. Who wanted to remain at the Fourth or Fifth Heaven Realm?

Who did not want to climb toward greater realms?

For Lei Jun, the Cloud Sea Immortal Pool cleansing was effective only from Foundation Establishment Initial Stage to Middle Stage.

For his next stage of ordinary cultivation, Lei Jun would still need three years to advance from Foundation Establishment Middle Stage to High Stage.

But as long as he continued relying on large quantities of Azure Stone Ink to aid his cultivation, those three years could be cut in half.

The six years required to progress from Foundation Establishment High Stage to Foundation Establishment Perfection could likewise be reduced somewhat.

Moreover, the Mist-Wreathed Cloud Crystal that helped exempt him from Azure Stone Ink's side effects had not itself been contaminated.

When Lei Jun reached Foundation Establishment Perfection and prepared to challenge the second Heavenly Moat in the future, this treasure could still fulfill its original supporting role.

Only, the Mist-Wreathed Cloud Crystal was limited in quantity and could be used by Lei Jun alone.

If it were shared in rotation with others, the efficiency of cultivating with Azure Stone Ink would undoubtedly drop, losing its original purpose.

Fortunately, none of his acquaintances remained in the Second Heaven Foundation Establishment Realm, so there was no need to share it.

He only needed to focus wholeheartedly on charging ahead.

Thus, as time passed, Lei Jun turned his Inner Vision of One's Body inward, and his Dao Foundation underwent further changes.

Upon the Dao Foundation where the city walls' Eight Gates had already been established, magic power and spiritual qi converged, condensing into illusory curtains.

The major Daoist Holy Land lineages habitually referred to the Second Heaven as the Foundation Establishment Realm.

But not all Foundation Establishment was the same.

In the Taoist Talisman School cultivation passed down by the Celestial Master Mansion, the Foundation Establishment Realm was actually the process of setting up a virtual ritual altar for oneself.

Once the altar grounds were secure, one could erect a Dharma Altar.

As Lei Jun understood it, Foundation Establishment Initial Stage was when the Dao Foundation had first taken shape, like level, square, solid ground.

Foundation Establishment Middle Stage was when one formally raised surrounding walls upon the marked plot of land, opening Eight Gates in those walls.

Foundation Establishment High Stage was when six screens were placed before the Dharma Altar one intended to erect.

Those six screens were the Mystic Master Screen, Five Emperors Screen, Celestial Master Screen, Three Masters Screen, Three Officials Screen, and Overseeing Dharma Master Screen, each enshrining the true spirits of the Dao lineage.

Lei Jun now cultivated in peace, condensing and erecting those illusory curtains upon his own Dao Foundation.

With Azure Stone Ink and the other resources supplied by the Celestial Master Mansion ensuring his needs, Lei Jun quickly erected three screens.

Though it became harder as he went higher and required ever more time, after estimating it overall, he was indeed at least twice as fast as ordinary cultivation!

When Yuan Mobai came to the Private Residence to teach and saw Lei Jun's progress, he nodded again and again. "Not bad, not bad. You are even a little faster than this teacher expected."

Lei Jun said, "Only because I have not been disturbed by outside matters and could cultivate with single-minded focus have I achieved this. It is all thanks to Master, Eldest Sister, and Senior Brother Wang for your guidance and care."

Yuan Mobai smiled. "You have been diligent in your cultivation yourself. This teacher cannot claim the credit."

Lei Jun asked, "Master, what about Eldest Senior Brother and Senior Brother Fang, as well as Senior Sister Zhang and Martial Uncle Shangguan?"

Yuan Mobai said, "There have been some new developments. For the time being, they have no attention to spare for this teacher's affairs."

"This is what happened. When the Cloud Sea Immortal Pool incident occurred, Junior Brother Chen Yi, Martial Uncle Yao's disciple, mentioned something."

At the side, Wang Guiyuan spoke on his master's behalf, recounting the matter at length. "At the Upper Immortal Pool, he found a treasure called the Blazing Cloud Lotus Seed. But someone ambushed him and tried to seize it. In the end, Junior Brother Chen fell into the Upper Immortal Pool because of that."

Lei Jun said, "So he was practically saying Li Ming did it?"

Wang Guiyuan said, "He said he fell into the water in a rush, while the other party's cultivation and strength were much greater, so he did not see their identity clearly."

That was what he said, but at the time, only Fang Jian and Li Ming in the Minor Cave Heaven had higher cultivation than Lei Jun and Chen Yi.

Combined with Li Ming going to the Lower Immortal Pool to retrieve another treasure, Heat Crystal Sand, Chen Yi's accusation was hardly any different from naming him outright.

"The dead cannot testify." Lei Jun asked, "Is Chen Yi determined to fight the Li Family to the bitter end?"

Wang Guiyuan quietly said from the side, "It is only that his enmity with the Li Clan Members of Martial Uncle Ziyang's branch has deepened, not with the entire Li Family..."

Lei Jun understood and gave an "Oh." "The Li Family itself is divided into different factions."

Wang Guiyuan gave a dry cough.

Lei Jun had been in the sect for a long time. Even without Wang Guiyuan explaining, he roughly understood.

The Contemporary Celestial Master, Li Qingfeng, had two blood siblings.

The eldest brother was Li Qingfeng, the second sister Li Hongyu, and the youngest brother Li Ziyang.

Those three siblings, together with Yuan Mobai, Chen Yi's master Elder Yao, and Elder Shangguan, had been the six Personal Disciples of the previous Celestial Master Li.

Among them, Second Martial Aunt Li Hongyu had the worst relationship with the Contemporary Celestial Master.

The brother and sister had once directly competed for the position of Celestial Master.

"Before Eldest Sister caused that stir, Chen Yi did not manage to raise much of a storm." Lei Jun asked, "Is he suddenly digging up old accounts now because Martial Aunt Hongyu, who had been in seclusion, has emerged?"

Li Ziyang stood firmly with his eldest brother Li Qingfeng, so his relationship with his second sister Li Hongyu was naturally just as poor.

Wang Guiyuan said, "That is exactly it."

Lei Jun said, "What a mess."

But it was a good mess.

Lei Jun and Yuan Mobai, master and disciple, were temporarily free and clear. They could simply stand apart and watch the show.

After chatting a few more sentences, Yuan Mobai put the subject aside and began the day's formal lesson.

After teaching Daoist scriptures and answering questions in the morning, Lei Jun ate lunch, then returned to the mine vein that afternoon.

As he continuously mined Azure Stone Ink for cultivation, he ventured ever deeper into the mine.

Several days later, after Lei Jun gathered two more chunks of raw Azure Stone Ink ore, a streak of vermilion suddenly seeped through the sea of blue-green before his eyes.

Lei Jun sensed no danger. As his magic power aura circulated, he instead felt a sense of familiarity.

After grinding around it for a while, he actually drew a brush from the Azure Stone Ink mine.

The brush shaft was jet-black and gleamed with blue light, while its tip was vermilion-red.

"Nurturing a Talisman Brush with Talisman Ink? That truly is an ingenious idea."

After studying it briefly, Lei Jun's heart stirred slightly again.

Because he had handled and refined Azure Stone Ink day after day for so long, when he touched this Talisman Brush now, he unexpectedly found it quite compatible with him.

The Talisman Brush contained countless profound mysteries, and a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could not fathom even one ten-thousandth of them for the moment.

Yet when Lei Jun held the Talisman Brush, it felt as natural as moving his own arm and fingers.

"The Vermillion Point Brush Master used back then?"

Wang Guiyuan was quite surprised when he saw it. "I have not seen it in a long time."

Lei Jun raised his brows at those words.

Besides mentioning escaping the wind and rain, the Upper Middle Auspicious Sign had also contained a Fifth Grade Opportunity.