Beginning Foundation Establishment!
Sun Bo'an knelt in the cave abode, his forehead pressed against the cold stone floor. For a long time, he did not rise.
Shi Jian impatiently moved a paw. "Have you kowtowed enough? Hurry back and get ready. There's still half a year. Get your body into good shape first."
Sun Bo'an raised his head. His eyes were red, but he shed no tears.
He stood up and said nothing more. After putting the two jade boxes into his Storage Bag, he bowed deeply, then turned and walked out of the cave abode.
His steps were steady.
Ten times, a hundred times steadier than when he had arrived!
Shi Jian watched his gaunt figure disappear, then yawned and muttered to himself, "Just don't die in there. I'm still counting on you to work another two hundred years for me."
For the next six months, everyone in the Sun Clan revolved around a single matter.
Sun Kezheng took over all the clan's general affairs. Operating the marketplace, calculating spirit taxes, and assigning guest elders all fell on his shoulders alone.
Sun Changping, meanwhile, set aside time to prepare three medicinal bath formulas especially for Sun Bo'an.
Using low-grade spirit medicines as a base, supplemented by the medicinal power of the Marrow-Unblocking Pill, he spent three months clearing Sun Bo'an's meridians...
At fifty-eight, his Qi and Blood were indeed on the decline.
But the Marrow-Unblocking Pill was worthy of its rank as a second-tier, middle-grade pill. Once its medicinal power seeped into his meridians, the meridian nodes that had gradually hardened and clogged with age were softened and cleared inch by inch.
In the first two months, Sun Bo'an grew noticeably thinner.
After each daily medicinal bath, foul-smelling black fluid oozed from his entire body. The impurities and turbid Qi that had accumulated over decades were being cleared away bit by bit...
By the third month, his complexion had instead grown a little rosier.
His bearing began to grow steady and substantial, like an old blade that had been polished anew, with something of a treasured sword that had not yet lost its edge.
Shi Jian occasionally wandered over for a look. He offered no assessment or guidance, and left when he was done.
The only thing he ever said was, "Think less about other matters. Keep your mind calm."
Half a year later.
It was late autumn, with a high sky and crisp air.
Sun Bo'an emerged from the quiet chamber, stood in the courtyard, and looked up at the sky.
"It's time."
He spoke those words to Sun Kezheng behind him.
Sun Kezheng nodded, turned, and left.
That night, Hongtian City entered a state of unprecedented alert.
Zhou Sun led twelve Rogue Cultivator guest elders, divided into three shifts, to set up hidden sentries within thirty li of the city. Any unfamiliar Spiritual Qi fluctuations approaching Hongtian City were to be reported without exception.
The remaining guest elders sealed the marketplace's four gates, forbidding passage at night.
On the city walls, the Sun Clan's cultivators stood guard in shifts, keeping their Divine Sense fully extended at all hours as they took turns monitoring the entire city!
In the valley behind the mountain, Lord Rat crouched on a rock.
He twitched his whiskers and squeaked twice.
At once, more than a hundred quasi-spirit rats emerged from every corner, slipping along the bases of walls, beneath eaves, and through sewers to infiltrate every street and alley in Hongtian City.
This was the second line of defense Shi Jian had arranged.
Lord Rat's kin were spread throughout the city, with no blind spots in their field of vision.
At the slightest stir of wind or rustle of grass, he reacted faster than human sentries!
Everything was ready.
Sun Kezheng stood on the rear mountain and glanced back at the brilliantly lit Hongtian City. In a low voice, he said, "The whole city has been sealed off. Nothing was overlooked."
"All right, let him go in."
Shi Jian gave a slight nod. Sun Bo'an then entered the cave abode on the rear mountain and sat cross-legged in a side chamber Shi Jian had cleared out especially for him.
Two jade boxes lay before him.
On the left was the Foundation Establishment Pill.
On the right, the remaining medicinal power of the Marrow-Unblocking Pill had already been absorbed into his body.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After adjusting himself to his best condition, he put the Foundation Establishment Pill into his mouth...
The pill melted as soon as it entered his throat.
A warm current of medicinal power spread through his meridians, rapidly flowing into his entire body.
The first trial of Foundation Establishment-gathering spirit!
He had to gather all the spiritual power scattered throughout his meridians, unite it in his Dantian, and condense it into a vortex of highly purified spiritual power.
This trial tested a cultivator's control over spiritual power.
Sun Bo'an had cultivated for over forty years and had a solid foundation. He had long since mastered the manipulation of spiritual power, and naturally possessed a wealth of experience.
The spiritual power scattered throughout his limbs and bones gathered toward his Dantian in orderly ranks, like soldiers responding to a command.
One wisp, two wisps, ten wisps, a hundred wisps...
The spiritual power vortex spun faster and faster in his Dantian, condensing ever tighter.
In the end, it gave rise to a Spiritual Qi vortex, which drew Spiritual Qi into his body in an unceasing stream.
Half an hour later, he passed the first trial.
The second trial-liquid condensation!
He had to compress the vast quantity of gaseous spiritual power he had absorbed into liquid true essence.
This was the most perilous hurdle of the three Foundation Establishment trials...
Transforming spiritual power from gas to liquid required tremendous compression, and the pressure on his meridians would increase severalfold!
One careless mistake could rupture his meridians. At best, he would be gravely injured and lose all his cultivation; at worst, his body would burst apart on the spot.
Young cultivators had supple, resilient meridians that could withstand such violent compression.
But Sun Bo'an was fifty-eight.
His meridians were like old ropes that had been used for decades. Though the Marrow-Unblocking Pill had repaired and reinforced them, they were still not as sturdy as new ones.
In his Dantian, the spiritual power vortex began to contract violently.
The pressure surged.
Blue veins bulged on Sun Bo'an's forehead, and beads of sweat the size of beans dripped from his chin. The swelling pain in his meridians grew stronger and stronger, as if hundreds upon thousands of needles were stabbing into them at once.
He gritted his teeth and endured without a sound.
The Foundation Establishment Pill's medicinal power played a crucial role at that moment. Like a protective film, its warm power wrapped around several of his most fragile main meridians, relieving him of nearly twenty to thirty percent of the pressure.
The spiritual power was compressed bit by bit, changing from a gas into something viscous...
Then from viscous, it grew dense!
At last, the first drop of liquid true essence formed in his Dantian.
The second and third drops followed close behind...
Sun Bo'an's body trembled violently. His face was deathly pale, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
But he did not stop.
Because he could not stop.
Once liquid condensation began, giving up halfway meant certain death. He had to advance or die.
Outside the cave abode, half an hour passed.
Shi Jian's ears twitched. He heard the muffled cracking of bones from inside the cave abode, along with groans suppressed to the utmost.
"The second trial. He's enduring it."
Shi Jian had gone through it himself and knew well how difficult it was to break through to Foundation Establishment. Back then, he had relied on his physical cultivation to force his way through...
Another incense stick's time passed.
The sounds inside the cave abode gradually subsided. He had passed the second trial!
The third trial-foundation stabilization.
He had to thoroughly fuse the condensed liquid true essence with his Dantian and reshape his foundation.
This trial was not as perilous or violent as the first two, but it was the most grueling. What it tested was not cultivation or talent, but State of Mind.
A cultivator had to maintain absolute clarity in his spiritual consciousness, guiding his true essence and Dantian to resonate, align, and merge.
The slightest distracting thought would cause the true essence to drift free and all previous efforts to come to nothing.
Young cultivators had fewer distracting thoughts and simpler minds, making it easy for them to keep their hearts as still as water. But someone who had lived fifty-eight years carried too much in his heart.
The clan's affairs, great and small; the lives and livelihoods of dozens of people; the frustration of enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens all these years; his worries about the future...
Thought after thought, they all flooded into his mind.
His true essence began to grow unstable, shaking violently in his Dantian.
Sun Bo'an clenched his teeth, trying to forcibly suppress the distracting thoughts.
But the more he suppressed them, the more there were.
He thought of his father, who had died young; of himself, shouldering heavy burdens from childhood; of that night when he had knelt before Shi Jian, begging for a way forward...
His true essence shook ever more violently, on the verge of breaking apart. A trace of despair flashed through Sun Bo'an's eyes, and his face was full of unwillingness!
Could it... end here?
I won't accept it. I can't accept this!