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There were many aspects to consider. For example, he needed to make sure no one was following him. At the same time, he needed to determine if there were any powerful organizations nearby. The local spirit power levels were important; he wanted a place where it wasn’t too strong, but wasn’t too weak. He didn’t want to be too close to a forbidden region, but at the same time, didn’t want to be near a city. All things considered, the wilderness seemed like the best option.

It didn’t seem like there were going to be a lot of places to pick from.

After he narrowed down the places that were suitable, he needed to determine if anyone else had used those places in the past for breakthroughs.

He had considered the temple complex in the forbidden region by the scavenger basecamp. But the surroundings were too dangerous. Besides, the Singing made him hesitant. So in the end, he chose not to go there.

The first place he visited was a Seven Blood Eyes city near Violet Lands territory. It was in the heartland of human-occupied South Phoenix, where there weren’t many forbidden regions, and things were relatively safe.

That said, there were a wide variety of people here.

As the light of teleportation faded, Xu Qing walked off the spell formation. He didn’t immediately leave the city. Instead, he found an inn where he could keep an eye on his surroundings and rest. The next morning, he used a talisman treasure to change his appearance, then teleported out of the city.

That was how he spent the next two weeks. He teleported to seven or eight different locations, changing his appearance each time. Not only did it give him a chance to see what the rest of South Phoenix was like, but also, it allowed him to confirm that nobody was following him. At that point, he breathed a sigh of relief.

During those two weeks, his wounds recovered by about seventy or eighty percent, placing his battle prowess at roughly the same place it had been when he went to the Merfolk Isles.

After his last teleportation, he left the city and began searching the wilderness for a suitable spot for his Foundation Establishment breakthrough. That search took another half month. The place he finally selected was a mountainous region in the southeast of the continent. There were many mountains here, and most of them were covered with jungle. It wasn’t a forbidden region. Rather, it was more like a rainforest, with high humidity and silty soil.

Because of the terrain, there weren’t many cities nearby. In fact, the nearest one was about a week away. The mutagen wasn’t very strong, but neither was the spirit power. Because of that, there were no major organizations nearby. Although there were some aspects to this area that weren’t perfect, after having inspected so many other areas, Xu Qing decided that it would work for him.

The specific location he picked wasn’t on top of one of the mountains, but rather, in a deep jungle valley between two mountains.

Given his experience dealing with jungles, it wasn’t hard for him to find a space to excavate a cave. The soil was loose, making it difficult to dig in. However, Xu Qing was able to use the Seaforming Scripture to extract most of the moisture from one section. Then, deep beneath the surface, he created something like a cave temple.

He concealed the entrance, and also scattered poison powder all over the area. Then, he sat down cross-legged in the cave, took a moment to settle in, then set up and activated all five of his defensive spell formations.

He had an additional formation that would conceal his aura and fluctuations. Putting some spirit stones into the formation to activate it, he settled into place and started breathing deeply. At long last, he was feeling safe.

This is where I’ll reach Foundation Establishment.

Looking down into his bag of holding, he checked the various food items he had purchased on his journey through the various cities recently. There was enough food to last for at least half a year.

He wasn’t sure how long he would need for the breakthrough, but he had already decided that once he started the process, he wouldn’t go outside until it was finished.

He was now totally ready for the breakthrough. However, before beginning any actual cultivation, there were two things he needed to take care of.

Taking out his black iron skewer, he performed an incantation gesture with his left hand and then sent spirit power into it to suppress Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior. The patriarch instantly wailed in agony.

“What’s going on, milord? I’m sorry! I was wrong! Don’t kill me. Just tell me what I did wrong!”

Xu Qing ignored him and continued with the suppression. Eventually, the patriarch became so weak that he passed out. At that point, Xu Qing stopped. He had been worried that the patriarch might interfere with him in the middle of the breakthrough process. But now the patriarch was weak enough that it wouldn’t be an issue. Next, with numerous incantation gestures and portions of spirit power, he put a host of seals on the iron skewer.

His shadow was able to sense everything he had just done, and now it was trembling with the knowledge of what was to come.

Face expressionless, Xu Qing looked at his shadow.

The shadow trembled even more. Then, as Xu Qing stared at it, it started splitting apart, as if it were damaging itself intentionally.

“Not enough,” Xu Qing said tranquilly. Using the power of the violet crystal, he viciously suppressed the shadow, until it became so faint it looked like it was about to collapse. Only then did he stop and say, “If I fail to reach Foundation Establishment, then right before I die, I’ll suppress you out of existence!”

With his shadow taken care of, Xu Qing had weakened two of his greatest potential calamities. Only then did he feel like he could rest at ease. Taking out the Spirit Breath Lamp, he lit it.

Instantly, the light of the lamp spread out to encompass him. Normally speaking, using protective magical devices like this was very expensive. Because of that, cultivators generally would only light them right on the verge of reaching Foundation Establishment.

It was the same even in the fabulously wealthy Seven Blood Eyes. Most disciples who were approaching a breakthrough would rent a spot in the sect, not go outside like Xu Qing. Doing that was considered a luxury.

That said, Xu Qing wasn’t ready for his breakthrough quite yet. His first goal was to expand his spirit sea as much as possible. What was more, he wasn’t going to power the lamp with his own resources, but rather draw on the lamp’s inherent spirit power. He could sense that the lamp had an abundance of spirit power, and he felt no qualms about burning it.

Next, he produced two jade boxes.

One of them contained three Foundation Establishment Pills. The other contained two. The first he’d acquired from the Captain, and the second was from the corpse of the unlucky merman whose breakthrough Xu Qing had interrupted at Foundation Establishment Tower in the Merfolk Isles. That merman had obviously been an important person, and had originally possessed more than these pills. But he had consumed several of them, leaving only two remaining at the time of his death.

Xu Qing was pleased to have a total of five pills. Taking a deep breath within the light of the Spirit Breath Lamp, he closed his eyes and began cultivating.

Seven days passed.

During that time, Xu Qing completely immersed himself in cultivation. He constantly used the Seaforming Scripture, bringing in spirit power from the surroundings and sending it coursing through his body and into his spirit sea. As the process continued, his spirit sea grew larger. It went from the previous limit of 891 meters to 1,020!

That alone smashed all historical records in the Seventh Peak. After all, when Master Seventh broke through, he only reached 810 meters. [1]

Before Master Seventh, no one had reached that level. Now, a full sixty-year-cycle later, in a little cave no one knew about, Xu Qing pushed the Seaforming Scripture to new heights. [2]

His 1,020-meter spirit sea was shockingly majestic, and if he revealed it openly, it would shake the jungle around him. If people in Seven Blood Eyes found out about it, they would be shaken, from the top leaders to the lowliest disciples.

Unfortunately, that would attract far too much attention in the sect. And in a place where the only unifying force was profit, being so dazzling wouldn’t necessarily lead to a good outcome.

Xu Qing had no intention of letting anyone know the truth. Prestige didn’t matter to him. He just wanted to stay alive, and maybe increase his quality of life. In the brutal world he lived in, the only way to do that was to get stronger. If an enemy threatened your safety, you needed to be able to kill them. That was the only way to stay truly safe.

Of course, if there was some purpose to revealing his spirit sea, he would consider it. But until he was sure that he was superior to everyone around him, he would keep it hidden, and use it only to strike a killing blow unexpectedly. That was his way of staying alive.

Taking a deep breath, he calmly continued with his cultivation.

More days passed. He had not reached the final limits for his spirit sea, and thus, every day it would grow by another thirty meters.

1,050.

1,110.

By the time another seven days passed, his spirit sea reached the shocking level of 1,200. His spirit sea was now quadruple the size of an ordinary disciple in the great circle.

Thanks to the light of the Spirit Breath Lamp, Xu Qing seemed sparkling and translucent, as though endless seawater was flowing through him. In fact, the entire cave was filled with thick water vapor.

Opening his eyes, he took a short break to eat, check the spell formations and poison powder, and then prepared to continue.

I can still push it farther!

1,230 meters. 1,260 meters. 1,290 meters.

At the end of the third week, his spirit sea reached 1,410 meters, and at long last, he was starting to feel pain.

It was like he was a bag of water. As that bag filled with water, it would eventually reach its limit, and burst if too much was added.

Breathing unsteadily, Xu Qing mulled the matter over and then gritted his teeth and continued with his cultivation. This time, he went slower. Instead of adding 30 meters per day, he instead added 15.

As he made further progress, the pain increased. Half a month later, his spirit sea reached the astounding size of 1,500 meters.

Pain assailed him throughout his body, to the point where he seemed like he might burst. Meanwhile, the violet crystal worked madly to help him recover.

“That’s my limit,” he murmured.

He had pushed himself so far that he felt like it would be difficult to move. It was like entire mountains and seas were resting on his shoulders, pushing down on him with incredible force. Thankfully, he had the violet crystal, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to continue with cultivation.

Now it’s time for Foundation Establishment!

Eyes shining with determination, he took out the first Foundation Establishment Pill and put it in his mouth.

It was like throwing water into boiling oil. His 1,500-meter spirit sea exploded, its surface instantly turning into raging waves as it spread out with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

1. It was in chapter 105 that we first heard about someone reaching 810 meters. Now we know who that person was. ☜

2. I believe this is the first time a sixty-year-cycle is mentioned in this novel. The sixty-year-cycle, or a sexagenary cycle, is a common way of measuring time using the system of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. If you want to learn more, here’s a wikipedia link. Over the years I’ve seen a few questions about my translation choice for this term, so I’ll answer them here. Question: Why not just say “sixty years” to make it simple? Answer: because this is an important and unique aspect of Chinese culture, and I think it’s important to keep those things in the translation as much as possible. Question: Why not use “sexagenary cycle” instead? Answer: For the specific term used in Chinese, virtually all of the dictionaries I use in translation (and there are over twenty of them), use “sixty-year-cycle” or a variation on that. Furthermore, using “sixty” in the translation makes it easier for everyone to understand what it’s talking about. Also “sexagenary” sounds weird right? ☜