Most importantly, though… in the instant this immortal spring erupted… the existence of qi sprung everywhere within the realm!

Swoooosh…

 Akin to liquid gas, after the spray of exquisite pure-white broth erupted for several seconds, it covered the sky with silver-white raindrops of light. One after another, the droplets gently floated down.

“This is…” Xu Yangyi gasped coldly. He thought back to an ancient legend. “I once heard… a cultivator’s altar generally has a Preservation Formation. The larger the altar, the greater the Preservation Formation…” The rain of light filling the sky before him, he looked on in shock. “But if one wants to preserve these altars… then the formation and the altar have to be sealed together.”

“An altar is an inanimate object, but a formation… requires the support of a great amount of qi. Only then can it be guaranteed that it’ll still be operating after decades to a century…” He was already racing towards the peak of the platform, his eyes shining. “The method that ancient cultivators used… is recorded in books to be the ‘Godseal Dao’ divine ability! It can draw out a region’s qi! The altar, formation, qi, and spirit stones are used together to seal and form an entire body!”

This was A-rank data from the Featherwood Guard. Regarding the exploration of secret realms, none would dare proclaim themselves as first if the Featherwood Guard said they were second. After he became a commander, he had the luck to flip through this secret resource.

Because it was too rarely seen, and in addition… he clearly remembered that there was only one reason why such a technique seldom appeared! And that... was the Nascent Soul realm, only existing in legend and virtually unseen in modern times! Only at this level could a spatial region be established alone! Only then would one possess the qualifications to accomplish such sealing methods!

Otherwise, even if the altar was sealed better, it wouldn’t be able to resist the several centuries of excavation from the Zhao Clan’s earth masters! In other words...

Xu Yangyi was already charging up, forcing in deep breaths of air. The immortal spring flew into his mouth like an elder dragon entering the sea. “Right now, what I’ve entered is the Godseal Dao left behind in ancient times by a mighty figure who was at the minimum Nascent Soul! And this…”

Boom!

 He stood on top of the crack that had already expanded to a foot in size. Suddenly, all his bodily qi came to a complete boil! Like oil poured on fire! Each of his pores opened wide… striving to absorb these seemingly liquid and gaseous motes with extreme effort!

“This… is the aftermath of centuries to a thousand years of sealing! That mighty figure’s qi from back then! And the countless spirit stones left behind! Over the many long years, it’s formed the purest semi-gaseous qi! Now… all of it’s spraying out!

It wasn’t enough… It still wasn’t enough! In this wink of time, he felt the qi inside his body, originally just thirty to forty percent at middle Qi condensation, dramatically increase to forty to fifty percent in less than three seconds!

“Fuck!” Xu Yangyi cursed fiercely in excitement. Soon afterwards, he tightly clenched his fist, and an orb of red light glimmered. He was planning on attacking straight down! To thoroughly smash open this crack!

However, in the moment he was about to strike, he stopped. His thoughts were veiled, yet his face revealed a kind of extreme reluctance, an expression twisted with peak hesitation. After two seconds, he gritted his teeth and set down his fist.

No… Not like this! 

He shut his eyes, feeling all his spiritual force surging over and over! At this instant, a mere five seconds, he’d already reached 60% completion! So long as this spring remained for several seconds, he could advance to late Qi Condensation! If it remained for a minute… maybe… he could achieve the Great Circle of Qi Condensation! 

The distance from Foundation Establishment was only a single step away! Nonetheless, he squeezed his fists so hard that a bloody trace appeared, restraining the temptation of reaching Great Circle Qi Condensation at twenty-six or twenty-seven years old!

“Not like this.” He opened his eyes and took a deep breath. “The ascension of each boundary is like a child turning into an adult overnight. Spiritual force and spiritual sense become several times broader than before… As for a cultivator getting used to a new body, qi sea, and meridians, one would then have to enter seclusion to stabilize their realm. At the least, it would take several months. At most, a year…”

“If I rise directly to Great Circle Qi Condensation like this… how long will I have to meditate?” 

This still wasn’t important, however. What was important… was that a cultivator HAD to have belief in themself! What was a cultivator? Among ten thousand people there would be ten thousand interpretations, but these ten thousand would all have ten thousand beliefs!

There were late Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment that relied on pill-elixir to amass power! But the result… was that none of them could advance an inch! They had realm, yet lacked a searching heart. If it wasn’t strength obtained in struggle, and one advanced too much as a consequence, the price would be one’s entire cultivation life!

Hum…

 Even at this instant, a faint swollen ache was felt from all his meridians. It… was the feeling of the qi sea about to be filled! The inside of his body, due to the furnace-cauldron formed from cultivating the Eternal Alchemy Canon, had already absorbed qi to peak capacity.

He’d once read in the Eternal Alchemy Canon that this arcane effort burned spirit stones to supply qi. However, Xu Yangyi currently estimated that his realm was insufficient. He’d tried many, many times, but was unable to make spirit stones melt in his qi sea. He just couldn’t purify it into the most flawless qi to then send back to his strange furnace-cauldron meridians.

Taking a deep breath, he firmly left the crack. He’d seized the harness to drive onwards to late Qi Condensation. Yet as for the Great Circle or even half-step Foundation Establishment, he was unwilling to achieve these realms in this manner.

As if it shared the same spirit as him, the all-present spirit spring from the crack now became progressively weaker and smaller. After several seconds, a splash ‘surged’ out and disappeared without a trace.

Xu Yangyi’s gaze shimmered, and he walked over and felt it. Soon after, he laughed. Inside, there was still qi. However, it simply didn’t have the support to jet out. The formation’s seal had been sealed for a thousand years. Just now had been its final splendor.

“If I wait on this spring to assail Great Circle Qi Condensation or even half-step Foundation Establishment right now, it’s not enough. It’s up in the air if a heart devil will form.” He laughed as he stroked the crack. There wasn’t a sliver of regret in his heart. On the contrary, a kind of freedom was carried. 

“But now…” He stowed his gaze and looked towards his body. Within, each meridian that constructed a “pill cauldron” was clamoring in great joy. The first time his qi was completely full at middle Qi Condensation caused him to now feel that he was brimming with enthusiasm all over!

A voice incessantly reminded him: 

Come… now… Don’t hesitate...

He laughed and promptly sat down, empty of any hesitation. His hand formed a seal to cycle the Eternal Alchemy Canon. His mind fell into silence bit by bit. Following his heart, in this place… he prepared to assail late Qi Condensation!

Timing, a favorable location, and harmony. Not a single one was lacking. This time, he held ample confidence! At the peak of a towering heavenly altar within a stretch of fog, a young man shut his eyes and meditated. In a place no more than a square meter, he himself was lofty and fearless.

Fleets of clouds swirled around. Xu Yangyi seemed to be asleep, without the slightest reaction. After roughly half an hour, the fog around him suddenly quaked gently. It was an extremely indistinct vibration, appearing to just be a trick of the eye. The fog was white, but under the contrast of moonlight, it was more of a pure-white. However… after these tremors, the clouds surprisingly condensed faintly discernible flashes! 

Assailing boundaries required the support of external qi. Originally, there was no qi whatsoever in this bleak realm, but in reality it had merely been sealed within the heavenly altar. When Xu Yangyi had previously absorbed the spirit spring with his full strength, the spring had gushed forth for at least ten seconds!

He… had barely stood there for several seconds, and was already at the peak of middle Qi Condensation. After all, this was a sealed area that an ancient cultivator at Nascent Soul or above had set down. Even though it was ten-odd seconds, it was still enough to support his advancement!

This purest worldly essence, sealed for centuries to a millennium, scattered all around. Presently, along with his advancement, the natural world condensed once again!

In particular… although the spirit spring couldn’t spray out, the same pure qi still existed below the crack! Even if the outside world was inadequate and the amount below seemed like sand and dust to high-level cultivators, to him, this qi was already vast like a river. It was absolutely enough to support him to his advancement’s conclusion!

Swoosh… Swoosh… Swoosh…

 In white mist, brilliance sparkled… Fine qi motes quietly sought out their ends. Soon after, light orbs, numbering no less than hundreds to a thousand, began to revolve around Xu Yangyi and flutter. They warped until they formed a funnel-shaped qi vortex. It was almost exactly the same as the year he advanced to the middle stage!

Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense had already arrived in his qi sea. However, his qi sea was now long since hollow and empty. Instead, all his bodily qi was in his meridians. Rather than say he was in his qi sea, it would be better to say that he was standing in a place that was misty-white all around. It was even unknown whether it was his meridians or qi sea.

His spiritual sense clearly felt a vague, extremely tough layer everywhere.

Bodily limiter…

 The crook of his mouth slightly perked up. Afterwards, his fist rumbled out without a moment’s delay! In the outside world, the light motes were revolving yet didn’t rush straight into his body like when he’d advanced to the middle stage. All of a sudden, a sound like shattered glass came from within him!

A lone strike to break the limiter! Late Qi Condensation was the same as the middle stage—a single blow had cleaved through the limiter!

At this instant, the light motes in the air seemed to hear a signal. Struggling to outdo one another, they rushed Xu Yangyi! In the sky, a heart-shaking tempest of spiritual light took shape! Even the surrounding mist was slowly blown away!

On top of the thousand-meter heavenly altar, a tremendous maelstrom of spiritual light was now lazily spinning. The mist all around joined together to form a vortex of linked heavy fog and spiritual light with a radius of several hundred meters! If a person was here, they would surely be awed by this spectacle!

Xu Yangyi didn’t open his eyes. The advancement of late Qi Condensation was a measuring pole of the middle stage! Its significance was completely different from prior advancements!

Late Qi Condensation was the final pit before Foundation Establishment. Once this step was achieved, the qualifications to assail the Foundation Establishment realm were met! The realm where one could fly in the air and make use of magik treasures! A realm where one was addressed as Senior!

As for the Great Circle and half-step Foundation Establishment, these levels were in fact the late stage, simply just subdivisions. They were based on one’s degree of approaching the Foundation Establishment realm, nothing more than the separation of such boundaries. If it truly had to be said, there was still a difference of substance between half-step Foundation Establishment and the Great Circle. To be called half-step was to be already capable of employing some Foundation Establishment might. For example… the outer manifestation of qi!

At that time… one would be at a level cast apart from the muddled use of Qi Condensation’s body techniques and magiks! It was a time of true entry where qi, divine abilities, and realm reigned as king!

Xu Yangyi’s spiritual sense didn’t leave because he saw a thing...

A foundation platform! A foundation platform that exclusively belonged to Foundation Establishment cultivators!

In the boundless qi surrounding his spiritual sense, there was a roughly hundred-square-meter foundation platform. Its face was the same as the heavenly altars and also snow-white throughout its entire body, yet even more profound. Even now, it unhurriedly rotated as it appeared before him.

Xu Yangyi wasn’t one to easily forget himself, but as he looked upon this square-shaped, slowly rotating slab, he was shocked. This jade-white foundation platform took shape from an endless amount of qi. In the wake of a holy whirring sound that it made as it spun each time, his heart pounded. His fists were clenched deathly tight.

This

 was a foundation platform. Each realm would use this surface to start his own true paradise. Even magik treasures could be gently nourished here. One boundary would bring forth one layer. However, Nascent Soul—already impossible to achieve in the modern day—could evolve it into a true world!

This was why only after Foundation Establishment could one be titled as Senior. 

The difference between Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment was as vast as the distance between heaven and earth.

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