Chapter 178: Life Fire, Mystic Brilliance, Illuminating the Heavenly Palace

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

That night, Xu Qing gained a lot.

He had grabbed a total of about 700 ammonites.

As he looked at the ammonites sealed in ice in his storage bag, six to seven poison recipes that matched this item appeared in Xu Qing’s mind. The might of each of them was extraordinary.

“There are also my Ghost Desires. If I combine them with the ammonites, and add some medicinal herbs transformed from the two extremes of yin and yang… Perhaps I can make poison powder that will cause even Foundation Building cultivators to die?”

Xu Qing pondered for a moment and felt that his thoughts were still a little optimistic. He recalled the battle with the Diamond Sect’s ancestor. The other party’s resistance to poison was extremely strong. Presumably, the latter wasn’t an exception.

According to the combination of the Ghost Desire and the ammonite, there was a high chance that what he refined would be a primer that attracted ferocious beasts. Of course, with the ammonite, he could balance the level of attraction.

“I need an even stronger poison!” A cold glint flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes. He decided to find an opportunity to head out to sea in the future and search for poisonous materials to strengthen his poison path.

He retracted his gaze from his storage bag and picked up the three jade slips that Ding Xue had given him. After transferring his spirit energy, he began to check them.

A long time later, Xu Qing’s expression became a little strange.

“Hundred-day Foundation Building?”

Xu Qing thought about it and picked up the second one to take a look. Just like that, time slowly passed and a day passed.

When dusk descended on the Seven Blood Eyes’ main city again, Xu Qing finally understood the contents of these three jade slips completely. He put them all down and rubbed his forehead, his eyes filled with shock.

“Life Fire Mystic Brilliance, illuminate the Heavenly Palace!”

“Creating the aperture in a hundred days, hiding cultivation from the heavens!”

Xu Qing mumbled. According to the contents of the jade slip, there existed great terrors when cultivators in this world tried to break through Qi Condensation and advance to Foundation Building.

It was as though there was an unknown evil that would interfere with the cultivator’s breakthrough.

At the same time, the Foundation Building period was also very long. It was known as the Hundred-day Foundation Building.

It didn’t mean that one had to spend 100 days to complete Foundation Building. However, once Foundation Building was started, it couldn’t exceed 100 days at most. The longer the time, the greater the terrors would be.

As for what the terrors were, the three jade slips didn’t point out in detail. However, they vaguely mentioned that when cultivators reached the Foundation Building realm, they would attract bizarre entities. Once they encountered a life-and-death situation, they would often be in an extremely miserable state.

Therefore, when cultivators in this world were at the Foundation Building realm, they had to pay attention to the changes in time at all times. It was as though they were stealing opportunities and couldn’t be discovered by their master.

At the same time, in order to avoid such a great terror from appearing, cultivators would often choose to use some special magic tools to envelop themselves and protect their safety when breaking through.

This type of magic artifact wasn’t rare but most of them were in the hands of large sects and clans. The Seven Blood Eyes also had it and it was placed in a fixed place. Generally speaking, if the Seven Blood Eyes’ disciples wanted to break through, they would apply to go there.

However, the fee was extremely high. If the fee was counted based on time, it would cost 100 spirit stones per hour.

As for those rogue cultivators or those who didn’t have a place to rent magic treasures, they had to take a huge risk if they wanted to reach the Foundation Building realm.

The rate of death and failure was extremely high, so breaking through without the protection of a magic tool was a method that no one would choose unless they had no other options.

Xu Qing thought of the god’s fragmented face and didn’t have to analyze anything to know that this issue was related to its existence.

After a while, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, continuing to organize the information on the three jade slips in his mind.

The principle of Foundation Building was to use the accumulated spirit sea to break through and open one’s magic aperture!

The so-called magic aperture was a hidden spirit point in the human body. It contained mysterious powers and after opening it, the level of life would change.

Qi Condensation and Foundation Building were fundamentally different. In Qi Condensation, the cultivators accumulated their spirit sea, while in Foundation Building, the cultivators would continuously open their magic apertures.

After reaching the Perfected Qi Condensation Realm, the first stage in stepping into Foundation Building was to sense the location and number of one’s magic apertures.

After that, the cultivator needed to use the spirit sea to attack a magic aperture. After opening it, it would become their first magic aperture.

The spirit energy would fuse into this magic aperture and gather into a vortex, giving birth to a trace of magic power that far surpassed spirit energy!

Qi Condensation contained spirit energy, and Foundation Building contained magic power!

The difference between the two was like heaven and earth!

Due to the fact that the spirit energy of different cultivators was inconsistent, the magic power born from the opened magic apertures was also different. The denser the spirit energy when one was in Qi Condensation, the more magic power they would have when they broke through to Foundation Building. Moreover, this advantage would be reflected in every magic aperture. As this advantage accumulated, the difference would gradually be extremely great.

Also, the main point here was sensing.

The cultivator had to find the location of the magic aperture first if they wanted to open it. If they wanted to open more, they had to sense more locations of magic apertures. The effect of the Foundation Building Pill lied here.

This would determine how far one could go in the future, so it was extremely important to cultivators.

And anomalous substances were the greatest obstruction to sensing the magic apertures.

In this world contaminated by the aura of the god, 99% of the living beings contained varying degrees of anomalous substances.

The moment a cultivator was ready to advance to the Foundation Building realm, the anomalous substances in them would further conceal their magic apertures.

Generally speaking, it was already good to be able to sense 80 of them.

If they could sense 90, they were definitely an outstanding talent. Only the disciples of large sects could accomplish it.

Sensing the magic apertures was like exploring in the dark night, so there were great horrors in it.

Hence, there was the saying of building the spirit in a hundred days and hiding the cultivation from the heavens.

As for the limit of magic apertures, it was 120. However, this was only a theoretical limit. Those who could sense all of them were extremely rare.

The jade slips also mentioned that in the place of origin of the human race in the Wanggu Continent, only those who used special methods to make their bodies pure without any anomalous substances were qualified to attempt it.

However, it required dense spirit energy to support it. After all, even if there were no anomalous substances, the difference in aptitude would still affect the sensing process.

Such people would have an extremely terrifying background and strength. They were often seeds nurtured by the super large sects and ancient families at the origin of the human race to walk the path of the ancient kings and sovereigns.

Although the Seven Blood Eyes was strong, it was only in comparison to the Nanhuang Continent. Only the Seven Sects Alliance could barely be considered a super sect in the Wanggu Continent.

The Seven Blood Eyes didn’t have the qualifications to have such a disciple. Since ancient times, it never had such a disciple.

“None…” Xu Qing retracted his gaze from the jade slip and lifted his head to look at the pitch-black sky. The sky tonight was even darker than before but he could still see a few bright stars.

Looking at those stars, the description of the second stage of Foundation Building appeared in Xu Qing’s mind.

The first stage was sensing the magic apertures.

The second stage was to open the first magic aperture and give birth to magic power. This magic power would flow through the entire body and change the life level!

At this point, it could be considered a success in Foundation Building.

The cultivation after that was to open one magic aperture after another according to different cultivation arts and the methods of the various sects. After 30 magic apertures were opened, the magic power emitted by the 30 magic apertures would form the first ball of life fire for a Foundation Building cultivator.

The 60th magic aperture would form a second ball of life fire.

The 90th magic aperture would form the third ball of life fire.

At this stage, the cultivation could attempt to break through to the Golden Core Realm. As for the fourth ball of life fire, it required great opportunities and great talent.

Once the life fire was formed, even if there was only a ball of it, it was enough to envelop the entire body. It was like a spark in the night, illuminating the heavenly palace.

A Foundation Building cultivator who had formed a life fire was a completely different existence from those who had not.

This was because the life fire involved the signature ability of Foundation Building cultivators, which was to activate the Mystic Brilliance Form.

Due to the huge consumption of life fire and the astonishing might when it erupted, it was usually in an extinguished state. Only when Foundation Building cultivators fought with all their might would they choose to light it.

Once ignited, the cultivator’s combat strength would increase greatly. This state far exceeded the norm, so it was known as the Mystic Brilliance Form.

Generally speaking, if a cultivator who had a 1000-foot-high spirit sea opened the 30th magic aperture and formed the Life Fire, they could maintain the Mystic Brilliance Form for 1,800 breaths of time.

Every breath consumed a huge amount of magic power.

Xu Qing took a deep breath and suppressed the thoughts of Foundation Building.

The information Ding Xue had given him was complete, but Xu Qing had a cautious personality. Although there was a high chance that the information was not fake, he still didn’t completely believe it and would wait for further verification.

In addition, although his spirit sea had reached 2,700 feet previously, Xu Qing could clearly sense the spirit sea expanding over the past few days of cultivation. Now, it had reached 2,900 feet.

However, this was far from his limit. It was the same for the Mountains and Seas Art. Hence, Xu Qing was prepared to cultivate the spirit sea in his body to the extreme before breaking through to the Foundation Building realm.

He also needed to think of a way to collect spirit stones to prepare for the Foundation Building, such as the Foundation Building Pill.

“Although I don’t have any anomalous substances, I still have to prepare the Foundation Building Pill to be safe. It’s best if I can prepare two of them, but it is too expensive.” Xu Qing opened his storage bag and felt a little worried after calculating.

“In addition, although the fee for renting a Foundation Building place that provides shelter is still astonishing, the jade slip mentioned that in order to encourage disciples to reach the Foundation Building realm, the Seven Blood Eyes can provide loans to pay for the fees of the Foundation Building place. The hundred-day rent fee along with interest can be paid back in three years.”

“However, I have to prepare the Foundation Building Pill myself…” Xu Qing fell silent. His heart ached a little at the thought of the interest on the loan. According to the jade slip, the interest would be above 50% of the principal.

“The 100-day rent is 120,000 spirit stones, if the interest is added, it would be 180,000 spirit stones in three years which means 5,000 spirit stones a month. It’s not worth it.” Xu Qing sighed. He realized that it was too difficult to reach the Foundation Building.

He suddenly understood why the captain said that many disciples were suppressing their cultivation levels and not breaking through because of the competition.

Now that he thought about it, there was a high chance that they hadn’t accumulated enough spirit stones and were just waiting for the competition to start to make a fortune.

Hence, Xu Qing had very high expectations for the upcoming competition of the Seventh Peak.

A long time later, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, starting to cultivate.

The night passed. The next morning, Xu Qing, who was cultivating intensively, suddenly felt his mind tremble. His eyes suddenly opened and he walked out of the cabin. When he looked at the sky, the cultivation base in his body circulated and the spirit energy in the surroundings spread.

Almost at the instant he looked over, a rainbow flew over rapidly. Its target was Xu Qing’s boat, and it instantly got close.

It was as though the other party had no intention of stopping. It directly ignored Xu Qing’s magic boat’s defense and wanted to forcefully step onto the boat.

However, after noticing Xu Qing, a soft cry of surprise rang out from within the rainbow. It suddenly stopped in the air outside the magic boat, revealing the figure of a young cultivator.

This youth wore a dark purple Daoist robe and his Foundation Building cultivation was very obvious. He stood in the air and lowered his head to look at Xu Qing, who was inside the magic boat’s protective barrier. A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

“Greetings, Deacon Li.”

Xu Qing’s expression was calm but he was extremely vigilant. He quickly analyzed the reason why the other party was here.

He recognized the other party’s identity. He was the favorite of Elder Zhao, and had taken Zhao Zhongheng away during the Dispatch Department incident.

‘Interesting. He actually silently cultivated to the Perfected Qi Condensation Realm and can attempt to break through at any time.’

Deacon Li looked at Xu Qing and revealed a smile. His attitude was clearly better than before.

“You don’t have to think too much. I’m here on Elder Zhao’s orders to summon you to meet and ask about the matter of you reporting the giant and the dragon carriage earlier. It has nothing to do with anything else. You can rest assured!”

Deacon Li could see Xu Qing’s vigilance. He wasn’t a core disciple who had advanced to the Foundation Building realm but had fought his way up from the foot of the mountain. Hence, he was very clear about the temperament of these wolf cubs at the foot of the mountain.

If it was any other disciple, he wouldn’t care. However, to a disciple who could break through at any time and had a high chance of becoming a Foundation Building cultivator, his attitude was naturally different.