Breaking Through to the Foundation Establishment Realm!
"Good! Good! Good!"
Yi Wood said it three times in succession, a trace of resolve in his aged voice.
"This secret realm will close in three months. One month before it closes, I will die along with that Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Vine."
When his words fell, Yi Wood's presence fell utterly silent, and he gave no further response.
Feng Zhuo's eyes flickered, and he instantly grasped the deeper meaning.
When the secret realm closed, he would be automatically transported out.
Before then, he had to race against every second and increase his strength as much as possible within two months.
That way, when Yi Wood fell, he could use his Yi Wood Qi to reshape his physique while forming a contract with the newborn Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Vine.
As for Yi Wood's original plan?
Feng Zhuo's fingertips curled slightly. He suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, unwilling to dwell on it.
The Spiritual Qi here was so dense that it was hardly inferior to the Feng Household's ancestral grounds, making it an excellent place to cultivate.
Feng Zhuo swept his gaze around, quickly found a spot riddled with cracks, and sat cross-legged.
He said in a low voice, "Yanba, stand guard."
"Roar-"
Yanba gave a low response. Scarlet flames surged around him, and the shadows of his nine chainlike tails clanked in the air as his crimson beast eyes warily scanned the surroundings.
Feng Zhuo turned his hand and produced two bottles of thousand-year-old Bell Spirit Milk, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.
It was time... to break through to Foundation Establishment.
Although the secret realm restricted the cultivation of those who entered, it did not prevent cultivators from breaking through within it.
This was the perfect opportunity.
"Gulp-"
The instant the thousand-year-old Bell Spirit Milk went down his throat, Feng Zhuo's pupils contracted sharply!
Azure and golden halos burst from his throat, and the vast medicinal power rushed into his meridians like a flood.
The wood-attribute spiritual power was the first to run wild!
Emerald spiritual light surged madly, and wherever it passed, tender green shoots sprouted from his flesh.
In the blink of an eye, it wrapped the rampaging medicinal power of the Bell Spirit Milk in a jade-green cocoon.
Boom!
Deep within his Qi sea, red and white spirit fire leaped out with fierce force!
The jade-green cocoon blackened and curled in the fierce flames as his Life-Bound Spirit Fire burned through the medicinal cocoon along his blood.
The violent fire spiritual power actually burned the Bell Spirit Milk's medicinal power into a crimson mist!
In his previous life, Feng Zhuo had cultivated only one mental cultivation technique, but Feng Qingge had also told him about the mysteries of the two mental cultivation techniques practiced together by the Feng Household.
Thus, he did not panic now.
"Fuse!"
Bloody flames seeped from Feng Zhuo's seven orifices.
Even so, his left hand formed seals to protect his heart meridian, while his right fingertips guided the spirit fire to refine his Qi sea.
Two streams of spiritual power, both opposed and compatible, tore at each other in his Dantian.
The liquid spiritual power had barely gathered into a pool before the intertwined wood and fire spiritual power churned it into a seething, boiling spring.
At the most dangerous moment-
Strange vine patterns spread over half of Feng Zhuo's body, while the skin on the other half cracked like pottery being fired.
Another bottle of Bell Spirit Milk went down his throat.
Azure and golden medicinal liquid burst into starlight where the wood and fire spiritual power met, actually condensing the wood spiritual power into the phantom of an ancient tree and transforming the fire spiritual power into the true form of a crimson phoenix!
Spreading branches swept across his Qi sea, raising towering jade-green waves, while the phoenix's beak pecked their crests into scarlet spiritual mist.
This repeated several times. When the last wisp of mist fell into his Dantian, it condensed in midair above his Qi sea into a dewdrop interwoven with azure and red.
"Drip."
Every drop bore wood and fire Dao patterns, and each one that fell gave rise to a twin-stemmed lotus burning with crimson flames in his Qi sea!
A Foundation Establishment lightning tribulation began to brew.
Feng Zhuo was not surprised.
Ordinary cultivators did not face a lightning tribulation when reaching Foundation Establishment. Most likely, the Heavenly Dao simply disliked him. In his previous life, he had faced three tribulation lightning bolts when he reached Foundation Establishment, and his Golden Core tribulation had likewise been somewhat more dangerous than most.
Tribulation clouds churned like spilled ink, and three bolts of crimson lightning hung on the horizon.
As the first pillar of lightning struck, Feng Zhuo pressed his fingers together in a seal.
Wrist-thick green vines sprang from the ground, crossing into the shape of an umbrella's ribs, and spirit fire three feet high ignited on their surfaces.
The lightning struck the makeshift wood-and-fire canopy, and amid a shower of sparks, seventy percent of its power was blocked.
Yanba leaped up and bit the remaining snakes of electricity to pieces.
"The flames were fiercer than a Pill Furnace's, at least."
Feng Zhuo shook out his numb fingertips and chuckled.
The second net of lightning descended over his head. He flung three Thunderclap Seeds with his left hand to clear the way and slapped the ground with his right, summoning a wooden shield.
The instant the Thunderclap Seeds blasted a hole in the lightning net, the green wooden shield spun into place to fill the gap.
The chains of Yanba's nine tails clanked as they channeled the net-shaped lightning that slipped through into the ground, blasting a patch of earth into scorched soil.
The final bolt of heavenly lightning transformed into a colossal crimson python. As its scales rolled, they radiated pressure beyond Foundation Establishment.
Feng Zhuo finally pressed his palms together, swallowing all the flawless Spirit Recovery Pills he had held in his mouth. Wood Spiritual Qi formed a green cocoon around him, while fire spiritual power wove a robe of flame over its outer layer.
The spirit fire took the shape of a bird, and Yanba's lion head hovered over Feng Zhuo's shoulder, breathing out his Life-Bound Demon Fire.
When the lightning python struck the shield interwoven with green and red, all vegetation within a radius of ten zhang turned to ash.
When the clouds dispersed and the sky cleared, Feng Zhuo's crimson robe curled like a battle flag, with only its cuffs scorched black.
Where the pressure of Foundation Establishment spread, fine spiritual rain pattered down. Tender shoots emerged from the scorched earth and blossomed into crimson lotuses upon touching fire.
Yanba licked the lightning flickering between his claws, his nine tail chains now coated in a faint purple sheen.
Although he had only recently advanced to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, Yanba actually advanced again after the lightning tribulation, thanks to the Life-Bound Contract!
"What rejection by the Heavenly Dao? Favor from the Heavenly Dao would be more like it."
Yi Wood had feigned silence, but in truth, he had secretly sent out a strand of Divine Sense to keep a close watch on Feng Zhuo.
Feng Zhuo flicked his robe, and a meditation cushion appeared beneath him. He sat down cross-legged and began regulating his breathing.
The many insights from his previous life and this one appeared in Feng Zhuo's sea of consciousness, and the spiritual power surging within him gradually grew calm.
One month later.
Feng Zhuo's eyes snapped open, a brilliant light flashing in them like lightning.
He turned his hand and produced three jade bottles. They contained ten drops gifted by Yunxiaozi, twenty from Lingxiaozi, and five per year-a full thirty-five drops of Primordial Spirit Spring!
"Gulp-gulp-"
He swallowed every drop in one go!
Feng Zhuo intended to use this vast spiritual power to charge straight into the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage!
Boom!
The instant the spirit spring entered his stomach, his meridians, tempered by his mental cultivation technique, could no longer bear the strain and nearly burst apart.
Feng Zhuo's face went pale. He immediately activated the Spirit Control Instruction, a Cultivation Method that should only have been manageable at the Golden Core Realm, forcibly dividing the rampaging Spiritual Qi into thirty-six thin streams.
This was a delicate maneuver that an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator would never dare attempt. The slightest mistake would cause their body to explode, killing them.
"That brat's risking his life!"
The withered Yi Wood trembled and rustled, his bark peeling away even faster.
"But... that's just what I wanted!"
He secretly calculated how much Yi Wood Qi he had left, then suddenly shook loose half a charred branch. "Catch! Use the Everlasting Spring Scripture to refine it..."
Before he finished speaking, another gruesome crack appeared on his trunk.
Yanba had no time to think. With a low growl, he turned his spiritual power into a net of fire, caught the broken branch, and carried it to Feng Zhuo.
The instant the branch fell, the Everlasting Spring Scripture seethed as never before!
After all, a mere small section of a second-tier Yi Wood Broken Branch had previously been enough to help the mental cultivation technique break through to the second layer.
Let alone this branch from a divine tree of High Antiquity, which still retained vitality!
They called Feng Zhuo a madman, but clearly Yi Wood was the true madman!
The Everlasting Spring Scripture madly devoured Yi Wood Qi, trying to break through on its own, but the divine tree's original intention in giving him the branch was for Feng Zhuo to repair his Yi Wood Sacred Physique and suppress the Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Vine.
Now, Feng Zhuo had no choice but to forcibly tear his Divine Sense apart. One portion controlled the Spirit Control Instruction to assault the bottleneck, while the other suppressed the Everlasting Spring Scripture's rampage.
As his life-bound pet beast, Yanba's soul was closely linked to his master's. He could clearly feel the terrible ordeal unfolding in Feng Zhuo's sea of consciousness.
The tearing pain even made all of Yanba's fur stand on end, yet he could only growl anxiously...