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He acquired over 700 chrysanthemum mollusks. When he examined the collection of mollusks in ice blocks in his bag of holding, he could think of at least six or seven ways to use them in poisons. And each one would be very formidable.

And then I have my ghostlonging horseshoe crabs. If I combined them with the chrysanthemum mollusks, and added in some medicinal plants that provoke transformations in yin and yang... then I might be able to create a poison powder that would instantly kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

After more thought, he realized he was probably being too optimistic. Thinking back to his fight with Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, he remembered how well the man resisted poison. And that was probably typical for Foundation Establishment cultivators. What was more, that combination would probably be a strong attracting agent to wild beasts. That said, the presence of the chrysanthemum mollusk could have a harmonizing effect on the attractant.

I need to make more powerful poisons!

Eyes glittering, he decided that he needed to find another opportunity to go out to sea and do some experimenting with the dao of poison.

With such thoughts on his mind, he looked away from his bag of holding and produced the three jade slips Ding Xue had given him. Sending some spirit power into one of them, he started studying the contents. Before long, an astonished look gleamed in his eyes.

Hundred Suns Foundation Establishment?

Looking thoughtful, he studied the second jade slip. And thus, an entire day passed. It was evening of the following day when he finished the contents of the third jade slip. Putting it down, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. His eyes still contained that look of astonishment.

The glorious life flames illuminate heavenly palaces!

Establish apertures in a hundred suns; hide your cultivation the entire time!

According to the description in the jade slip, the process of a cultivator breaking out of Qi Condensation and into Foundation Establishment was a terrifying event. Apparently, there was some unknown evil force that would interfere with the breakthrough.

Furthermore, it took a long time for the breakthrough, which was why the event was called Hundred Suns Foundation Establishment. It didn’t mean that the breakthrough would require a hundred days. Rather, it meant that once the process started, it couldn’t go past a hundred days. And the longer it took, the more terrifying it was. The jade slips didn’t go into detail about why it was so terrifying. But it did imply that when a cultivator tried to break through to Foundation Establishment, it would attract grues. And even those who escaped death and survived the ordeal would end up in a wretched state.

Because of that, the passage of time was an important factor in Foundation Establishment breakthroughs. The breakthrough process was almost like stealing destiny and trying to make sure the act wasn’t discovered.

What was more, in order to avoid the attention of those terrifying grues, cultivators attempting a breakthrough would usually use special magical devices to protect themselves. Such devices weren’t necessarily rare, but they were usually under the control of great sects and species. Seven Blood Eyes had them, and they were kept in special locations. When a disciple wanted to attempt a breakthrough, they could apply to use them.

Of course, they were very expensive; you had to pay an hourly rate of 100 spirit stones to use them.

Rogue cultivators, or people who didn’t plan to use magical devices of protection, were taking a huge risk in attempting to reach Foundation Establishment. The death rate was high, and thus, few people would ever try to make a breakthrough on their own.

Xu Qing immediately thought of the broken face of the god. It didn’t seem like much of a stretch to think that the god had something to do with the difficulty in the breakthrough.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and mentally reviewed the information from the three jade slips.

Foundation Establishment was about using your spirit sea to open dharma apertures within your body! Dharma apertures were spots hidden throughout the body which contained a mysterious force within them. Upon opening them, one’s life level could be completely transformed. Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment were fundamentally different. In Qi Condensation you built reserves of spirit power into a spirit sea. In Foundation Establishment, cultivation was about opening consecutive dharma apertures.

Once you reached the great circle of Qi Condensation and then tried to step into Foundation Establishment, the first step was to sense how many dharma apertures you had, and where they were. Next, you used your spirit sea to batter open a single dharma aperture. Spirit power would flow into that dharma aperture, and would give birth to dharma force, something that vastly surpassed spirit power.

Qi Condensation cultivators had spirit power. Foundation Establishment cultivators had dharma force. The latter was poles apart from the former!

Similar to how different cultivators could accumulate different amounts of spirit power, the amount of dharma force that came with the opening of dharma apertures was also different. The more spirit power you accumulate during Qi Condensation, the more dharma force you would have later. That advantage applied to every single dharma aperture you opened later. And that effect would build up, leading to wildly varying differences in cultivators.

Sensing the location of those dharma apertures was the most important factor. If you wanted to open a large number, you needed to be able to sense all of them. That was where Foundation Establishment Pills came in handy.

Because the initial breakthrough would determine one’s future potential, it was a very important moment for cultivators.

As for mutagen, it would interfere with one’s ability to sense the location of dharma apertures.

In a world encroached upon by the aura of a god, ninety-nine percent of all living beings had different levels of mutagen within them. Only a very small minority didn’t.

The more mutagen a cultivator had when trying to reach Foundation Establishment, the fewer dharma apertures they would be able to find.

Generally speaking, being able to sense 80 of them was considered acceptable.

Those who sensed 90 were outstanding, and was generally only possible for disciples in the great sects.

Casting your senses out to find dharma aperture was like groping around in the darkness of night. It was possible to encounter terrifying things, and it could attract the attention of grues.

That was the origin of the saying establish apertures in a hundred suns, hide your cultivation the entire time!

In terms of the upper limit of dharma apertures, it was 120. However, that was only a theoretical limit. People who could open that many dharma apertures were as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns.

One of the jade slips mentioned that in the Revered Ancient mainland, where humans originated, there were special methods that could be used to purify the body of mutagen, and then attempt to reach the higher limits. But that required a massive amount of spirit power. And even being purged of mutagen, one’s natural characteristics would influence one’s ability to sense the dharma apertures.

People who accomplished that always had impressive backgrounds, or were fundamentally terrifying in nature. They were usually people who came from superpower sects or extremely ancient clans, the type that had once produced Ancient Emperors and Imperial Sovereigns.

Seven Blood Eyes was powerful, but that was only in the context of South Phoenix. Only the Seven Sect Coalition could possibly be considered a superpower sect on the Revered Ancient mainland.

In fact, Seven Blood Eyes didn’t even qualify to produce disciples like that. From ancient times until now, not a single one had appeared there.

Not a single one.... Xu Qing looked away from the jade slip and up into the dark sky. Up in the inky blackness, he was able to spot a few twinkling stars. Looking at them, he thought about the second part of the process of reaching Foundation Establishment.

The first was sensing the dharma apertures.

The second was actually breaking open the first dharma aperture, unleashing dharma force, then sending it throughout one’s body to push it into a different level of life!

When you did that, your breakthrough to Foundation Establishment was considered a success.

Afterward, your cultivation would involve using your sect’s various techniques to open more dharma apertures. After you opened 30 dharma apertures, you could use the resulting dharma force to form your first life flame.

After opening 60 dharma apertures, you could form a second life flame.

With 90 dharma apertures came a third life flame.

At that point, you could attempt a breakthrough to the Gold Core level. In terms of a fourth life flame, that was something only extremely talented and lucky individuals could ever attempt.

As for the life flames, all you needed was a single one to cast light over you, and you would be like sparks in the night, illuminating the heavenly palaces. A Foundation Establishment cultivator who formed a life flame was on a completely different level of existence compared to one who had not. And that was because one of the characteristic abilities of Foundation Establishment cultivators was the ability to enter the profound radiance state.

Life flames were very draining, but igniting them released astonishing might. Therefore, most cultivators kept them in a state of being extinguished. Only when they were in a full-fledged fight would they choose to ignite them. Once ignited, the cultivator’s battle prowess would increase dramatically, allowing them to surpass anything they were capable of before. And that was called the ‘profound radiance state.’

Normally speaking, someone who had developed a 300-meter spirit sea, and then opened a 30th dharma aperture, would be able to enter the profound radiance state for 1,800 breaths of time.

Every breath of time involved draining a huge amount of dharma force.

Xu Qing took a deep breath and let all the details about Foundation Establishment sink in.

The information Ding Xue had given him was very comprehensive. However, Xu Qing was cautious by nature, and though he didn’t get the sense any of it was false information, he couldn’t be absolutely sure until he corroborated it. Besides, though his spirit sea had previously reached the size of 810 meters, he knew that in his recent cultivation it had already expanded to 870 meters.

And that wasn’t his final limit. Nor was he finished with the Sea and Mountain Incantation. He wanted to push both his fleshly body and his spirit sea to the absolute limit before aiming for Foundation Establishment.

That said, he could still start working on accumulating the resources he would need for the breakthrough, for instance, the Foundation Establishment Pills.

I might not have mutagen in me, but if I want to play it as safely as possible, I should still get some Foundation Establishment Pills. Ideally, I should get two, although I’m not sure how I can afford that. Looking into his bag of holding, he sighed. He really was a long way from having that much money.

I’ll also have to rent a safe place, and that’s also ridiculously expensive. The jade slip says Seven Blood Eyes disciples can get loans to cover the cost. Once you reach Foundation Establishment, you’ll have three years to pay it back in principal and interest. But I would still have to provide the pills....

He really didn’t like the idea of paying interest. After all, his payments would work out to about fifty percent interest.

At 5,000 spirit stones per month for three years, that’s 180,000 spirit stones. The rent for a hundred days would be 200,000. No, it’s not worth it.

He had to sigh at the realization of how difficult it was to reach Foundation Establishment. Now he realized what the Captain had been talking about. This was why so many disciples kept their cultivation base low and were setting their sights on the Grand Tournament. And it seemed he was in the same position, and was now really starting to look forward to the tournament.

After some more thought, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and started working on his cultivation.

The next morning at dawn, as Xu Qing was still hard at work on his cultivation, he shivered and opened his eyes. Walking out to the deck of his ship, he looked up into the sky, his cultivation base pulsing with spirit power.

Almost at the same moment that he looked up, he saw a bright beam of light flying through the air in his direction. The person in the air didn’t seem like he planned to stop, as if he intended to go right through the dharmaboat’s defenses and land on the deck.

But after seeing Xu Qing step out, he made an exclamation of surprise, and came to a stop in the air above the boat. It was a young cultivator in a dark violet daoist robe. He was obviously in Foundation Establishment, and looked with open surprise at Xu Qing standing there.

“Well met, Honor Guard Li,” Xu Qing said. Of course, his guard was up, and he was scrambling to think of the reason why Honor Guard Li had come.

After all, this was the same person who had come to take Zhao Zhongheng away to see Elder Zhao. And he was also known as one of Elder Zhao’s favorites. [1]

“Well isn’t this a surprise,” Honor Guard Li said with a smile. “You secretly cultivated your way to the great circle of Qi Condensation. You’re almost at the breakthrough point.” All of a sudden, his seemingly rigid attitude softened. “You don’t need to worry. Elder Zhao just sent me here because he wants to ask you some questions about that giant pulling the dragon chariot. That’s all.” [2]

Honor Guard Li recognized the look of vigilance on Xu Qing’s face. Honor Guard Li wasn’t a conclave disciple who had reached Foundation Establishment. Rather, he was an ordinary Offpeak disciple who killed his way to the top. Normally speaking, he wouldn’t treat a disciple the way he was treating Xu Qing. But now that he realized Xu Qing was on the verge of reaching Foundation Establishment, things were different.

1. Honor Guard Li was introduced in chapter 70, which was when he came to take away Zhao Zhongheng. ☜

2. Xu Qing saw the giant and chariot in chapter 80, and reported the matter in chapter 96. ☜