Qin Sufu

"Three idiots!" After listening to his disciples recount their experiences, Kang Dabao cursed softly. Ignoring the bewildered looks on their faces, he climbed onto the donkey cart without another word.

Master and disciples drove the donkey cart to the center of the market and stopped before a domed building.

"Sect Master Kang, it's been a long time." A white-templed elder with two swords on his back came forward to greet them with a smile.

"Brother Gui, you're as impressive as ever. I've missed you dearly." Kang Dabao put on his businessman's manner again and spoke with equal cheer.

"I can't compare to you, little brother. You're in the prime of life. Please, come in. Association Head Qin has been waiting for you." The white-templed elder took Kang Dabao by the right arm, looking quite affectionate.

"Then I'll go in first. I wouldn't dare keep Brother Qin waiting." Kang Dabao gently pulled his arm free and cupped his hands in farewell.

He pushed the door open and entered. Beneath the dome was an enormous lotus pond.

A faintly fragrant spirit mist drifted from the pond throughout the room. More than a hundred spirited fish darted back and forth among the lotus leaves, coming and going in a flash. The water was so clear that they all seemed to swim through empty air.

Starlight shone straight through the transparent dome onto the middle of the pond, then flowed slowly along the water to a stone islet ten feet wide.

A man sat upright on the islet with his eyes closed, his features and bearing as handsome as a mountain.

Master Fish Mountain, Qin Sufu, was not only among the foremost cultivators in Pingrong County; his handsome looks were known to quite a few female cultivators even in Xuanwei City.

"Brother Kang, I hope all has been well since we last met. I misjudged you. Congratulations on making such progress in your cultivation. Foundation Establishment is in sight." Smiling, the man sprang up, a gentle breeze rising beneath his feet, and drifted down before Kang Dabao.

"Your cultivation has advanced even further, Brother Qin! By the next time we meet, I fear I'll have to call you Senior!" Kang Dabao praised him sincerely. To have reached Peak Qi Refinement as a Rogue Cultivator at forty, with a chance at Foundation Establishment—that kind of talent would be considered above average even in a major Golden Core sect.

He then had his three disciples come forward one by one to pay their respects.

"We're brothers; there's no need for such formalities. These three are your disciples? Good, good! There's hope for the Chongming Sect's revival. Uncle He must be happy down in the nine springs! Since this is our first meeting, I'll give you a few little things."

Three high-quality First-Tier Lower-Grade Law Artifacts could sell for at least a hundred Spirit Stones or so outside—roughly ten years' income for the Rogue Cultivators scraping by in the market.

By now, the three disciples had long understood how valuable Spirit Stones were, and they stared in openmouthed shock. This senior was truly generous.

"When an elder gives you something, just accept it." Kang Dabao paid it little mind; he might well have come intending to sponge a little off his host. He decided for the three disciples and waved them out to wait at the door.

"Brother Kang, have you thought over what I told you last time?" Qin Sufu fixed his bright gaze on Kang Dabao.

"Unite the Rogue Cultivators throughout Pingrong County and serve the court. Brother Qin, this is a matter of great importance. You must think it over carefully!" Kang Dabao's expression turned solemn.

"Commander Tie of the White Sand County Demon Correction Office has met with me three times and spoken to me from the heart. He said outright that if this succeeds, he can recommend me as deputy commander of the White Sand County Demon Correction Office, and he'll also request a Foundation Establishment Pill for me from Shannan Circuit.

"You and I have been friends for years, brother. How could I not know what you're capable of? If you help me manage the Fellow Cultivators Association, why should we worry that our great undertaking won't succeed? If I reach Foundation Establishment, wouldn't restoring the Chongming Sect to the top as Pingrong's number one sect be as easy as lifting a hand?" When Qin Sufu mentioned Foundation Establishment, a trace of longing appeared on his face.

"A Foundation Establishment Pill." Kang Dabao thought, So that's why. No wonder Brother Qin is so invested.

Whenever a cultivator broke through a realm, fortune and misfortune always went hand in hand.

Take Foundation Establishment, the first hurdle after entering the Dao. Apart from cultivators with Heavenly Spirit Roots, jokingly called "descendants of the Dao Ancestor," who faced no bottlenecks before Core Formation-

Other Qi Refinement cultivators had less than a five percent chance of successfully reaching Foundation Establishment without outside help.

That did not mean five Foundation Establishment cultivators would emerge from every hundred Qi Refinement cultivators, but that perhaps five could emerge from every hundred Peak Qi Refinement cultivators.

Most other Qi Refinement cultivators would never even reach the threshold of Late Qi Refinement in their lives.

Cultivators like Bai Bian, who could reach the Qi Refining Seventh Layer in their eighties or nineties, were uncommon.

Most Qi Refinement cultivators began to suffer a decline in Qi and Blood after ninety, and their Law Power grew far less solid than before. If they were still at Peak Qi Refinement by then, they should no longer be thinking about finding spirit medicines for Foundation Establishment.

If they took good care of themselves and avoided fighting others to the death, they could often live another thirty years after reaching one hundred. The proper course was to tend to their health and stay alive to protect their Lineages and descendants.

The cultivation foundations of cultivators whose Qi and Blood had declined had already begun to deteriorate, leaving them almost no chance of advancing further.

But heaven never sealed off every path. Even then, success at Foundation Establishment was not entirely impossible. It was just that attempting it was little different from seeking death.

For Foundation Establishment, the foundation mattered most, followed by luck, and only then resources.

The Foundation Establishment Pill was the most reliable spirit item for the purpose. According to the conclusions of several grandmaster alchemists, taking everything into account, it should increase the user's chance of success by thirty percent.

A thirty percent chance might not sound like much, but it was enough to send every Qi Refinement cultivator flocking like ducks.

A failed Foundation Establishment attempt, for the lucky, meant years of recuperation. Preparing for another attempt would take at least ten years of painstaking recovery.

The unlucky, like Chen Ye, leader of the Grass Witch Cult, accumulated lingering illnesses, suffered decades of agony, and remained trapped in Qi Refinement, unable to advance an inch.

Those even less fortunate died on the spot, decades of cultivation reduced to withered bones and flying ash.

In fact, nearly ninety percent of those who failed met the second fate. There were relatively few in either the first or third group.

In recent years, however, fewer and fewer cultivators attempted Foundation Establishment without outside help. Cloud Horn Prefecture had not heard of one in nearly twenty years.

Even those who could not obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill would usually do everything they could to find spirit items such as clear-veined warm jade and stone ox fat, which were much less effective, to aid their attempt.

From this, one could see how precious a Foundation Establishment Pill was, increasing its user's chance of success by thirty percent.

But it had two problems: there were too few, and they were too expensive.

Such pills rarely appeared at the major auctions in Cloud Horn Prefecture, and even when they did, their prices were driven sky-high.

The most recent appearance had been three years ago, at a large auction in Han City.

Ten Foundation Establishment Pills had been placed on the stage, and who knew how many cultivators in the audience had been seized by killing intent at the sight?

Only the Two Instruments Sect's emblem on the pill bottles had brought them to their senses and kept them from acting rashly. Several Golden Core patriarchs from that sect were notorious for their ferocity and well known throughout Shannan Circuit.

In the end, of all the powers in Cloud Horn Prefecture, only the Dingnan Niu Household and the Han City Yue Household each bought one, for eighty-six thousand and seventy-nine thousand Spirit Stones respectively.

Half a month later, word spread through the market that the Dingnan Niu Household's current head's eldest legitimate son had failed at Foundation Establishment after taking a Foundation Establishment Pill and died on the spot.

Thus, countless seniors had reason to say that in Foundation Establishment, the foundation mattered most, followed by luck.

That was why even Qin Sufu, whom Kang Dabao regarded as a heaven's favored son, still longed so desperately for a Foundation Establishment Pill.

He, Qin Sufu, did not have a Heavenly Spirit Root. How could he not be afraid?

But to throw in his lot with the court for that Foundation Establishment Pill? It seemed Brother Qin had never seen a proper pie before, either.

Six thousand years ago, the founding emperor of the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty had advanced to the exalted Spirit Transformation realm with a False Spirit Root. Inheriting the remaining legacy of the previous dynasty, he opened up vast stretches of demon territory in Li Mountain, establishing twenty-nine circuits and over four hundred prefectures. He also relocated three thousand sects and countless millions of people to establish sects and schools.

At the dynasty's height, no one below False Core could serve as a county magistrate, no one without years of experience as a Golden Core cultivator could serve as a prefect, and every circuit governor had a chance of reaching Spirit Transformation.

But the founding emperor and most of his original followers had been lost in a forbidden land from High Antiquity for over a thousand years.

Now only three Nascent Soul cultivators remained in the imperial clan, including the reigning emperor, to maintain its dignity. If the dynasty had not withered so badly, how could the magistrate of an important border county like Pingrong County be only at the Qi Refining Second Layer?

Even the prefect now in charge of Cloud Horn Prefecture's thirteen counties was only at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage. He was extremely old, and no one knew how many years he had left.

At the dynasty's founding, every county had a Demon Correction Office, with one Foundation Establishment commander, one Foundation Establishment deputy commander, three Foundation Establishment officers, ten Peak Qi Refinement squad leaders, and a hundred Late Qi Refinement officers.

Now, across the seventy-six prefectures of Shannan Circuit, only six offices remained, in six counties.

Commander Tie of White Sand County might be only a county commander and a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator, but he could now call himself one of the six giants of Shannan Circuit's Demon Correction Office system.

The court had declined so far that it could not even collect all the taxes owed by the sects. In neighboring Ye Prefecture, the struggle between the legitimate and collateral branches of the Ye Prefecture Yang Household had lasted nearly seventy years, and the court had spent nearly seventy years trying to mediate.

Yet it still could not prevent corpses from carpeting Ye Prefecture and its people from being plunged into misery.

A fine, great prefecture, rich in both people and resources, had now been turned almost into a ghost domain.

The Yang Household was merely a medium-sized Lineage with a few Golden Core cultivators, yet the court was powerless against it.

There were thirty-three major Nascent Soul sects within Great Wei. The three Nascent Soul cultivators of the imperial clan could not protect what little fortune the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty had left; that depended on the founding emperor's soul lamp, flickering between light and darkness.

But the soul lamp could do nothing about the great sects growing ever more arrogant and overbearing. Whether they carved out territory and declared themselves lords depended on a single thought from their sect masters.

Could one really enter the service of such a court?!

Just for a Foundation Establishment Pill that might not even exist? Once you joined them, you would be the court's running dog in the eyes of the sects. Could you withstand them?

"Uniting the Rogue Cultivators in Cloud Horn Prefecture is easier said than done, and the court doesn't have the funds for it either." Kang Dabao looked at him oddly. "Brother Qin, did you know that the magistrate of Pingrong County is owed three years of salary?"

"Isn't a county magistrate's annual salary only thirty stones?"

"That changed ten years ago. The circuit governor sent orders to every county to share the burden of the state. It's only twenty stones now."

"Do you know why he hasn't been paid?"

"Pingrong County hasn't remitted its taxes for fifteen years."

"Uh, Brother Kang, you don't pay yours either?"

"No one pays, so of course I don't."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"No one's afraid, so of course I'm not. Do you pay, Brother Qin?"

"...That's true. The Fellow Cultivators Association is just a group of Rogue Cultivators huddling together for warmth. I can barely keep it going. How would I have money to spare?"

"You have a point, Brother Qin."

"Then, then about this matter—you're right, little brother. It needs more careful consideration."

"How wise of you, Brother Qin!"

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