Immortal Foundation? Dao Foundation!

A white stone landed in the corner, and black clouds surged wildly. As though the land itself had been enraged, heaven and earth underwent a tremendous upheaval. Lightning severed the middle and lower reaches of the solitary peak, and the pavilion atop it teetered on the verge of collapse.

A gentle breeze seemed to sweep past, and the roiling black clouds froze as though someone had pressed pause. A black stone landed next to the white one.

Black invaded, and white attached. In this little corner of the board, a battle quietly began.

After only a few moves, Jiang Wangxuan's "body" had grown dim and lusterless. He seemed to hear heaven and earth whispering around the pavilion.

The somewhat familiar joseki in the lower left corner of the stone board blurred before his eyes. He could feel himself about to dissipate.

At some unknown point, a beam of moonlight had quietly slipped into the pavilion. A crescent moon hung high above the world shrouded in black clouds, and his shadow beneath it lay against a pavilion pillar.

With a "snap," another stone fell. A strand of black hair turned silver, and snowflakes drifted through the pavilion.

Black arrived as expected. Jiang Wangxuan hesitated no longer and played a knight's move. Black made another approach, and after a dozen or so moves back and forth, half his hair had turned silver-white.

Black pushed through.

The hand he had just begun to raise froze in midair. There, in the lower right corner of the board, was the unmistakable "Great Avalanche."

After only a moment's pause, white came down decisively, meeting the attack without retreating. Black was like a gentle breeze brushing against his face: the moment white landed, black arrived as expected.

His black hair turned white as snow, moonlight poured down like a pillar, and the black clouds pressed the sky even lower, settling against the pavilion's roof tiles.

On the stone board now, the "Great Avalanche" in the lower right extended into the middle game, while in the lower left corner, where he had relinquished the initiative, the "Mi Family Flying Dagger" stood between heaven and earth.

As the game reached the middle stage, he finally put down his stone, rose, and brushed the frost from his shoulders. Looking at the "beautiful scenery" outside the pavilion, he turned toward the empty space behind him and said with a smile, "Would you make an enemy of heaven and earth?"

The stone board suddenly surged with movement. Its nineteen intersecting lines transformed in an instant into a board of twenty-five lines, crossing like heaven and earth. The sun, moon, mountains, and rivers appeared, while earth, water, wind, and fire gathered around him.

The sky split open.

A colossal azure hand came from beyond the heavens, pinching a stone between its fingers and bringing it crashing down. The tiny pavilion on the solitary peak became an insignificant footnote to that mighty power.

He was annihilated!

Morning came, and Grand Yang rose as usual. Jiang Wangxuan woke from a pleasant dream like an ordinary person. In the next room, Jiang Dezhao was still sleeping soundly. The young man who had taken a pill needed some extra sleep.

Father Jiang had gotten up early and gone out to buy breakfast for the whole family: soy milk, fried dough sticks, tea eggs, wife cakes with no wives in them, and sweet tofu pudding.

An ordinary morning in an ordinary household.

Jiang Wangxuan did not leave his room. Instead, he sat on the edge of his bed in a daze, looking utterly bewildered, as if wondering where he was and who he was.

Everything from yesterday's dream had been stamped into his sea of consciousness like an iron seal. More frightening still, Big Fat Fish could not see it.

Not only could Big Fat Fish not see it, she could not even detect it.

"I couldn't just not detect it-I didn't even have a concept of it!"

Big Fat Fish hugged her own big tail with both little hands, yawning sleepily.

"After you went to sleep last night, I couldn't find where your true spirit had gone. It was like you'd completely vanished from this Rising Yang Mansion!"

"Then how did you manage to sleep?"

"Hmph, are you trying to put pressure on a Big Fat Fish? You vanished without a sound, but I was still here. Didn't that mean you weren't dead? Since things had come to that, it was time to sleep!"

"You'd better have really been sleeping, and not playing MC for half the night!"

"Oh no, the user's angry!"

Big Fat Fish covered her mouth as if frightened and muttered, "Master wasn't home last night, so Big Fat Fish just stole a little of your Lunar Essence to play games. An opportunity like that doesn't come often, hehe!"

"Besides, why don't you take a look at your Qi Sea now?"

Jiang Wangxuan's mind trembled, and his spiritual sense immediately entered his middle Dantian. The Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence, which had already condensed into a beam of Luminous White Moonlight, had vanished from his Qi Sea. In its place was a silver-white moon disc.

The moon disc slowly revolved in the Qi Sea, its surface smooth as a mirror, silver-white moonlight flowing toward the surrounding reaches of the Qi Sea. It was a radiance of utmost coolness, silently nourishing every corner of the Qi Sea like mercury spilling across the ground.

Have I reached Foundation Establishment?

Jiang Wangxuan felt a surge of absurdity and hurriedly checked the spirit wheels in his three Dantians. Only when he saw that all six were still there did he breathe a sigh of relief.

For a Qi Refinement cultivator to break through to Foundation Establishment, the most crucial step was to perform Liberation by Violence on the six spirit wheels from the three mansions within the Qi Sea. The six spirit wheels would then turn into six streams of spiritual light and merge with the true essence in the Qi Sea to form an "Immortal Foundation."

And now, within his own Qi Sea, Jiang Wangxuan could already tell that this moon disc was not an Immortal Foundation, yet surpassed one.

He gently raised a hand in his room, and a beam of silver-white "moonlight" spilled across the little space, a radiance like both light and brilliance.

It fell casually into a corner, and the fragrance of osmanthus and a moon rabbit appeared. With another flicker, the moonlight disappeared into the morning sunlight streaming through the window.

Big Fat Fish began calculating automatically, but in only a few breaths, Jiang Wangxuan and Big Fat Fish both arrived at the answer: "The great Dao is the simplest."

Judging from the two Cultivation Methods for the Fetal Breathing Realm and Qi Refinement, the Essentials of Moon Essence Breathing used the cultivator as an anchor to connect with the Moon Essence Qi that the Heavenly Yin Star poured over this world, thereby condensing six wheels.

The Autumn Moon Frost Osmanthus Qi Condensation Method for the Qi Refining Stage, meanwhile, began with a strand of Moon Osmanthus Cold Breath to cultivate Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence. The quality of Moon Osmanthus Cold Breath was naturally far superior to the Moon Essence Qi scattered throughout heaven and earth.

The Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence Jiang Wangxuan had cultivated was an even more refined product of Moon Osmanthus Cold Breath. As Big Fat Fish altered the Cultivation Method, the Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence shed its frosty chill and drew closer to the Grand Yin, producing that beam of Luminous White Moonlight.

From the Embryonic Breathing Realm onward, cultivation was, in essence, a constant search for truth, for the true nature of the Grand Yin. The Grand Yin was vast; how difficult it was to seek! Throughout the ages, how many cultivators could obtain even a trace of its spiritual wonder?

The Grand Yin was selfless, pouring moonlight over heaven and earth to nourish all things. Thus, all yin revered the Grand Yin, and all things bowed to it.

All things received the Grand Yin's bounty, and all living beings had known the moon. Yet though everyone had a moon, no one truly understood its true nature.

And now, Jiang Wangxuan had sought out a ray of moonlight, the closest to the original substance among those the Grand Yin cast upon heaven and earth, and transformed it into a moon disc that settled in his Qi Sea.

Merely by activating this silver-white moon disc, moonlight washed over all, vegetation flourished, clear waters murmured, calamities were dispelled, and no evil could intrude.

He could also condense all the moonlight within him into a beam of Silver River Moonlight, slaying the wicked, destroying demons, and shattering illusions. It was a killing technique of majestic, open radiance.

But since he had yet to break through to Foundation Establishment, he would inevitably run out of power if he tried to fully drive the silver-white jade disc. In other words, his mana bar wasn't big enough.

Clearly, this silver-white jade disc had already become the foundation of his great Dao.

Jiang Wangxuan now understood that this silver-white jade disc was enough for him to face Foundation Establishment cultivators who had already forged their Immortal Foundations. With Silver River Moonlight, he could even exert tremendous suppressive power over ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators.

He thought so because the Autumn Moon Frost Osmanthus Qi Condensation Method was originally a sixth-grade Cultivation Method, although he possessed only its Qi Refining Stage teachings. The Immortal Foundation cultivated through this method was an Autumn Moon Osmanthus.

The Autumn Moon Osmanthus Immortal Foundation could form a frost moon in the Qi Sea, silver-white with faint glimmers of gold, cradling an osmanthus tree. Frosty moonlight flowed endlessly among its branches and leaves, settling in the Qi Sea as Frost Osmanthus Spirit Liquid.

Frost Osmanthus Spirit Liquid could be used to nourish the Law Body and restore Law Power. It could also be transformed into Osmanthus Moon Cold Radiance to break an opponent's Law Techniques, damage their Law Body, and disorient their soul.

When calamity descended, it could even condense a Moon Osmanthus Substitute to take the tribulation in the cultivator's place, while the true body escaped along a ray of moonlight. Each use, however, would damage the Immortal Foundation, which had to be nurtured anew with Frost Osmanthus Spirit Liquid. It could not be used repeatedly within a short time.

Among the many Immortal Foundations of Dao lineages known to Jiang Wangxuan, scarcely a few could compare with the Autumn Moon Osmanthus. It was truly worthy of being an Immortal Foundation cultivated from a sixth-grade Cultivation Method of the [Grand Yin] Dao lineage.

Yet even so, Jiang Wangxuan felt that the Autumn Moon Osmanthus was less profound than the silver-white jade disc in his Qi Sea, mainly because Silver River Moonlight and Osmanthus Moon Cold Radiance were not on the same level at all.

But the Moon Osmanthus Substitute made up for it in the Autumn Moon Osmanthus's versatility.

Jiang Wangxuan also felt that the silver-white jade disc could do far more than it presently showed. Many more wonders would have to wait until he broke through to Foundation Establishment before he could discover them.

"Oh, my stupid master, how have you still not realized that this silver-white jade disc can be both your Dao Foundation and your Immortal Foundation?"

Big Fat Fish's mocking remark immediately opened up his thinking. That was right-he had still been clinging to appearances.

The silver-white jade disc had originally been refined step by step from Frost Osmanthus Moon Essence. It had only taken its present form because of last night's "pleasant dream."

Since that was the case, why not simply cultivate it into his Immortal Foundation? All he had to do was perform Liberation by Violence on the six spirit wheels, then merge them with the silver-white jade disc to cultivate an entirely new Immortal Foundation.

And because of the silver-white jade disc's profundity, he would not even need the White Hair Moon-Illuminating Pill. He could find a place in Luzhou to enter seclusion and break through smoothly, perhaps cultivating his Immortal Foundation in less than a month.

No! No! No! That's too impulsive. The wind will surely break the tallest tree in the forest; such a conspicuous move would inevitably draw others' covetous eyes. I should proceed step by step and keep my footing steady. Since I'm already absolutely certain of succeeding at Foundation Establishment...

I might as well wait a little longer. Besides, how would I explain an entirely new Immortal Foundation, different from the Autumn Moon Osmanthus, to my elders and teachers?

I can hardly say, "Yesterday, I returned home and chanced upon an insight. In a dream, I met an immortal who touched my head and imparted the method of longevity. This disciple was delighted and followed it."

"Stupid master, stop letting your imagination run wild."

Big Fat Fish sent a projection out from the Rising Yang Mansion onto the big white moon disc in the center of the Qi Sea. She stretched out her little hands and hugged it tightly, but the disc was too big for her to get an arm around.

"Master, I want this!" Big Fat Fish knelt on one knee atop the white jade disc and looked at Jiang Wangxuan longingly.

Only then did Jiang Wangxuan realize that, haha, Big Fat Fish's level was too low to draw on the Lunar Essence circulating within the silver-white jade disc.

You freeloading Big Fat Fish, you've fallen into my hands now. Let's see if you can still secretly draw on my true essence to play games.

"Hehe, call me Daddy!" Jiang Wangxuan showed his true colors. It was time to give this fellow a proper lesson.

How can my Supreme Dao Wisdom ride roughshod over me? Punish her—punish her hard. Lock her in a little dark room to calculate Cultivation Methods for twenty-five hours a day, and only feed her Lunar Essence once a day.

"Onii-chan, I want this big white jade disc!" Big Fat Fish's projection knelt pitifully on the big jade disc, hands clasped together as she pleaded like a little match girl.

"Ah! I deserve to die! Take it and play with it!" Jiang Wangxuan was defeated in a second.

"Yay! You damned pervert master, Xue Renya really ought to give you a good zap!"

Big Fat Fish happily took a bite of "mooncake," then immediately turned on him.