Yun He Forms His Nascent Soul and Forges the Immortal Foundation [Lord Amid the Clouds]!
At the Purple Firmament Peak, the Thunder Pool boiled.
The Spiritual Qi within a radius of a thousand miles was as if forcibly drained by an invisible giant hand, transforming into a visible tide of Spiritual Qi that converged wildly.
Above the sky, the thick thunderclouds were forcibly pushed aside by an even more ethereal and vast aura.
A white light tore through the clouds.
White Crane, over ten feet tall, soared into the sky, unleashing its Yao Qi at the peak of its Golden Core Perfection without reservation.
Its wings spread wide, blotting out the sky; the pure white feathers shimmered with a crystalline luster, yet exuded a resolute will to die.
Shi Jian lay prone in the Thunder Pool, his Dark Gold eyes fixed on the sky.
"Here we go."
"Nascent Soul Formation!"
Within his sea of consciousness, Purple Firmament's illusory figure also sat up straight, abandoning his usual carefree attitude. "Look closely, this hairy beast is paving the way for you. The Three Trials of Nascent Soul are fraught with danger, each step a death sentence."
"Such an opportunity to observe up close is truly rare."
High in the sky, White Crane let out a clear, melodious cry, then closed its eyes and suspended its massive body in the fierce wind, motionless.
It begins to activate the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, and is also the first test: the Heart Demon Trial.
This inner demon is not the same as that inner demon; it is the erosion of the very source of the Great Dao.
Shi Jian released his Divine Sense and cautiously probed the area around the White Crane.
In an instant, he felt a vast and chilling aura, not some concrete attack, but an omnipresent "reason".
The Great Dao of Clouds.
Formless, Formless, its gathering and scattering are impermanent.
The White Crane's Divine Sense had completely left its body, probing into the the Unseen origin of heaven and earth.
In Shi Jian's view, the White Crane's body began to undergo strange changes. The edges of its pure white feathers began to become transparent, turning into wisps of cloud that drifted away in all directions.
The skin, flesh, and bones are all gradually losing their substance.
"Dao Dissolution!"
Shi Jian felt a chill run down his spine; this was the consequence of being assimilated by the Great Dao.
If one's mind is even slightly weak, one will be lost in the endless illusions of the Great Dao, and ultimately both the physical body and the soul will be transformed into Spiritual Qi and Daoist essence, giving back to heaven and earth.
Half of the White Crane's wing has completely turned into smoke and clouds.
He endured for hundreds of years, serving as a slave to the Azure Edge Sect, pretending to be an honest and dutiful guardian spirit bird, living in constant fear.
They feared that one day they would be captured by the True Lord Tongming and turned into Dao Pill.
All those humiliations, resentments, killings, and schemes seem so insignificant in the face of the great river of life at this moment.
Heaven and earth are ruthless, and the Great Way is merciless.
"I, Bai, have cultivated the Dao for eight hundred years, not for immortality, but solely to refuse to worship Human Race!"
"Live a carefree and unrestrained life, roaming the world with the clouds and mist!"
A faint yet extremely ferocious roar emanated from the dissipating crane's body, instantly causing clouds and mist to swirl and sweep across thousands of miles.
The White Crane suddenly opened its eyes.
In the crane's eyes, there was no longer any confusion, only pure madness.
His half-wing, which had already turned to smoke, was forcibly condensed and reversed amidst that cry of the crane...
His Divine Sense transformed into a sharp blade, slashing fiercely down towards the vast Great Dao of Clouds!
Sizzle--
In the void, it was as if something had been torn apart.
The White Crane trembled violently, coughing up mouthfuls of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, but in its beak, it held tightly a wisp of faint, ever-changing white air.
It was none other than the very origin of the Great Dao!
It's done.
Shi Jian exhaled a breath of stale air. The first hurdle was the most dangerous and the most difficult.
Driven by centuries of unwavering determination, the White Crane forcibly tore a sliver of its essence from the heavens and earth, appearing utterly ordinary...
To outsiders, it was merely the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
But in the eyes of those undergoing tribulation, it seemed as if several years, hundreds of years, or even a thousand years had passed, vanishing in an instant...
Next, the second challenge.
The White Crane dared not pause even for the slightest while shattering its elixir Nascent Soul Formation...
He opened his beak, and a Storage Bag exploded, instantly turning tens of thousands of high-grade Spirit Stone and more than a dozen thousand-year-old spirit medicine into a torrent, which he swallowed whole.
A massive surge of spiritual energy exploded within his body.
The White Crane's abdomen swelled high, its skin and flesh stretched almost transparent, and the swirling Demon Core in its Dantian was faintly visible.
"Broken!"
With a low growl, the Golden Core shattered.
The raging true energy, now unrestrained, surged like a wild horse, rampaging through the White Crane's meridians and tearing flesh apart.
His blood vessels burst one by one, and the blood stained the last remaining white feathers red.
But this is precisely the necessary path to destruction and then construction.
At the center of the shattered Golden Core, an extremely pure Primordial Spirit power began to gather, and the violent spiritual energy, as if finding an outlet, surged wildly into that point of spiritual light.
Time passed little by little.
One hour, two hours.
The Spiritual Qi on Purple Firmament Peak was almost completely drained, and even the water level of Thunder Pool dropped by a third, as if trying to squeeze out all the spiritual energy in the world.
Finally, the rage within the White Crane subsided.
At his Dantian, there was a tiny White Crane, no bigger than a fist, crystal clear, resembling a fetus.
This is his Primordial Spirit infant!
"With sufficient foundation, the second hurdle was passed without major incident."
Purple Firmament commented in his mind's eye. "The Azure Edge Sect has poured most of its wealth into this project over the years. Without these resources, he would have been blasted into a bloody mist by the backlash of spiritual energy long ago."
Shi Jian remained silent. Cultivating immortality requires wealth, companions, methods, and a suitable environment—none of these can be lacking.
Good fortune and misfortune are both fortuitous opportunity.
High in the sky, the White Crane's physical body was already broken and battered, but his aura was rising wildly, showing some signs of Nascent Soul!
The third challenge: Forging the Immortal Foundation!
The miniature White Crane opened its eyes, opened its mouth and inhaled, swallowing the wisp of the Great Dao essence torn from the world.
Boom!
The world changed color.
The once clear sky was instantly obscured by an endless sea of clouds.
These clouds were not ordinary water vapor, but a pure manifestation of the Great Dao of Clouds. At this moment, the sea of clouds churned and poured down, completely enveloping the White Crane's mangled body...
It is like a cloud, illusory and ever-changing, unrestrained and free!
"Immortal Foundation, Condensed!"
From the center of the sea of clouds came the slightly majestic cry of White Crane.
Immediately afterwards, the cloud began to shrink and reshape violently, and then its skeleton reorganized and its flesh and blood regenerated.
A moment later, the clouds and mist dissipated.
A man with a delicate and handsome face, wearing a white feather cloak, stepped out of the air. There was a cloud pattern mark between his eyebrows, and his eyes seemed to hold the rise and fall of clouds.
Nascent Soul Realm, Shapeshifting Demon King!
The man stood in the void, his body devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuations, yet he seemed to merge with the entire world, drifting aimlessly.
The space beneath his feet subtly presented a sense of illusory distortion.
Forging the Immortal Foundation: [Lord Amid the Clouds]!
"This is the Nascent Soul..."
Shi Jian narrowed his eyes, his Nascent Soul level Divine Sense sweeping over the man.
The man tilted his head slightly, his gaze meeting Shi Jian's.
There was no earth-shattering clash of power, but Shi Jian could sense that if the two were to fight now, White Crane could pull him into the endless Great Dao of Clouds with just a thought, obliterating him completely.
The chasm between these realms is like an insurmountable barrier.
The White Crane crane flashed and instantly appeared in front of the Thunder Pool.
The speed was so fast that even Shi Jian's Divine Sense could only catch a fleeting afterimage. It wasn't that his Divine Sense couldn't lock on, but rather that his physical cultivation couldn't keep up with the strength of Nascent Soul Divine Sense...
Shi Pan and the other powerful demons were already prostrate on the ground, trembling all over, by the pressure of the Nascent Soul cultivator, and dared not even lift their heads.
Shi Jian remained lying in the Thunder Pool, half his body submerged in the purple-gold thunder liquid, calmly looking at the effeminate man before him.
"Congratulations, Brother Bai, on attaining the Great Dao and establishing your Immortal Foundation."
Shi Jian spoke, his voice steady and calm.
White Crane looked at the enormous Lightning Bear before him, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
He is now Nascent Soul; theoretically, Demon General.
But he dared not, and was unwilling.
Putting aside the Dao Heart Blood Oath the two had made, Shi Jian's unfathomable foundation and his composure when facing his Nascent Soul pressure just now made White Crane He feel a little wary.
Moreover, his successful Nascent Soul Formation was entirely due to the protection of Purple Firmament Peak.
There was also Shi Jian, who planned the overall strategy for him.
White Crane suppressed his aura, clasped his hands together, and bowed deeply to Shi Jian.
"If it weren't for Brother Shi's protection, I, Bai, would be reduced to ashes today."
White Crane's voice was clear and melodious. "From this day forward, our two clans will be of one blood and one branch. If Brother Shi has any requests, I, Bai, will not refuse."
Upon hearing this, Shi Jian smiled.
The bear grinned, revealing a row of gleaming white fangs, and readily agreed.
"Brother Bai, you're too kind."
"We are both from different races, and on this continent of Human Race, we should support each other."
Shi Jian stood up, bringing with him a burst of lightning, and walked to White Crane. The bear and the human were vastly different in size, but their auras were equally matched.
"Brother Bai, how does it feel to have just entered the Nascent Soul?"
White Crane clenched his fist, feeling the vast, ocean-like power within his body and the resonance with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth:
"Very strong. If I were to face that old dog Tongming again now, I would surely take his head within a hundred moves."
At this point, White Crane changed the subject and looked eastward.
"Brother Shi, just now when I Nascent Soul Formation, I sensed multiple Great Dao Principle colliding in the far distance. The Nascent Soul monsters of the Human Race seem to be fighting fiercely..."
Shi Jian nodded. "The Liang Kingdom is in chaos. The Supreme Purity Sect, the Grand Purity Sect, the three factions of the Liang Kingdom, and the Demon King of the Boundless Sea are all fighting each other in the East Sea and the heartland of the Liang Kingdom."
"Fourteen Nascent Soul fought so fiercely that the heavens and earth shattered."
Upon hearing this, White Crane's eyes flashed with calculation, and he licked his lips.
"Fourteen Nascent Soul cultivators engaged in a chaotic battle... This is a once-in-a-millennium spectacle."
White Crane sneered, "Brother Shi, my Immortal Foundation is newly formed, and I desperately need the flesh and blood of fellow cultivators to stabilize my realm. The Human Race is fighting so fiercely, shouldn't we go and collect some interest?"
Shi Jian lay back down at the Thunder Pool and closed his eyes.
"No rush."
"Let a few more die, then we'll step in and reap the rewards from all sides..."
Shi Jian was confident and had already planned ahead. "When they are both severely weakened and their resources are exhausted, we will enter the game at our peak, and that will be a complete victory."
The White Crane was taken aback, then burst into laughter.
"Excellent! What a brilliant move to take all the advantages! I, Bai, will stay here and wait with Brother Shi a little longer!"
"If I have the chance, I will devour that old scoundrel, Tongming!"