“

This

 is a Foundation Establishment base…” Upon taking in this scene, not even Xu Yangyi could contain his surging tides of emotion. 

Foundation Establishment… how many cultivators held this dream? How many cultivators had been doggedly blocked at this step? Yet he, in over a dozen years of cultivation, had finally arrived before Foundation Establishment!

“This.. is the spiritual force feedback from my awakened demon form. No… it’s also the remnant soul of Butterflymother Southflower. In the end, both of them fused to bring my cultivation this far.”

“This belonged to my body at first, is that what this means?” His finger softly drew the outline of a fog patch. From the deepest abyss at the bottom of his heart, unconcealable enticement ascended. He knew this was the call of Foundation Establishment. To each ambitious cultivator, it was the summons of the first great pit in cultivation.

Nonetheless, Xu Yangyi didn’t answer.

He wasn’t scared, but the present time, location, and even people didn’t allow him to try an attack here. And that was because not only did he sense enticement, but moreover a kind of existence that was like a heavenly moat!

It stood obviously in the fog sea, yet seemed to find footing at the summit of mountains. Across was an even taller and more majestic mountain top. The in between was separated by a fathomless chasm.

“This is the so-called heavenly moat…” He sensed the heavenly moat in his mind and once again confirmed his thought that he couldn’t assail Foundation Establishment right now. “No… just as Xiaoqing said, I haven’t mastered any of my belongings right now. At first… the situation developed too quickly. It didn’t give me much time to slowly feel things out. I’ll take advantage of my time now, no matter where this place is, and give myself the opportunity to condense my foundation.”

His spiritual sense drew back from his qi sea. Time seemed to become serene again, from the inside to the unseen outside. He calmly surmised his train of thought.

“I’ve won the heavenly paradise. Sooner or later, I’ll be back to take Nanzhou… but apart from the heavenly paradise, there wasn’t really any gain. And the rest of the harvest is huge…”

He tried mobilizing his spiritual force. In an instant, a faintly discernible silver thread came from the crown of his head and drifted out. It seemed lithe and graceful, but in fact contained incredible toughness.

“Bloodline Elysial Bestowment… Life Hangs By A Thread!” His fist clenched fiercely. 

This

 was one of his greatest gains!

“At a time of certain death, it can maintain spiritual sense for twenty-four hours without scattering! Butterflymother Southflower… how godly was she?! She’s actually able to find life from death!”

“Life Hangs By A Thread… together with the Lotus Reincarnation that Xiaoqing planted inside me… this is basically a cheat resurrection button!”

The relationship between Southflower and Xiaoqing was a mystery, but it was clear that they absolutely wouldn’t plant such a divine skill in another’s body!

“If Xiaoqing didn’t want to borrow my hand to break her out, and if that unknown ancestor of the Xu Clan didn’t plant Zhuang Zhou’s Godseal Spark inside me, then there’s no way that both of these divine abilities would appear on one person!”

Separated apart and observed, either one of these things was a godly technique. Both were immortal arts, capable of granting the dead new flesh and the breath of life. However… for both moves to appear together on the same person, then it wasn’t so simple as a godly technique. Instead… it was a cheat!

“All’s fine but one thing…” he sighed, “Only one opportunity… per year. Actually… the first time that Life Hangs By A Thread and the Lotus Reincarnation activated at the same time was against Nalan Liusu. That made me look like I resurrected. But the second time, only Life Hangs By A Thread was activated… Plus, an amazing divine ability like this wouldn’t ordinarily show up on someone. Now, my destiny makes my demands a lot more extravagant. It’s because of my greed.”

One had to be satisfied with what they had.

Xu Yangyi forced down the trace of regret in his heart and continued looking.

“Bloodline Elysial Bestowment, Spiritspeak!” 

This wasn’t something brought by Southflower’s remnant soul.

This move was the Wolfbane’s Bloodline Elysial Bestowment!

Although his body and his demon form had been forcibly separated by Xiaoqing, from beginning to end the Wolfbane had always existed in his bloodline. Once aroused, some of its miracles would be kept. Even if it was just a little… it was already an immensely generous treasury to him!

“According to demonkind’s summary, Bloodline Elysial Bestowments and elysial divine abilities are two different categories.”

“A Bloodline Elysial Bestowment doesn’t use one’s willpower to activate. It exists in a cultivator’s body, forever in effect. If an example is needed, its like a ‘passive ability’ in an online game. And an elysial divine ability is an ‘active skill’. However…” His gaze flashed. “On Earth, passive skills are several times more expensive than active skills! And that’s because active skills have an expiry, but passive skills are always on!”

“The stronger the body itself, the greater the display leeway of a Bloodline Elysial Bestowment! If I had to choose, I’d definitely pick a Bloodline Elysial Bestowment. I’ve really earned a lot this time.”

Life Hangs By A Thread was a Bloodline Elysial Bestowment, and so was Spiritspeak! However, Spiritspeak was different from Life Hangs By A Thread. It… could react to all plant-type heavenly treasures! Moreover, it allowed his pill concoction success rate to rise to the next level!

Not to speak of the first skill, but the success-rate increase of the second was practically tailor-made for him! In the Eternal Alchemy Canon, to ignite a pill furnace and concoct pills after Foundation Establishment was to cultivate! Perhaps to pill masters, this level was even yearned for in dreams. To him, it fundamentally couldn’t be abandoned!

“And the last…” A trace of helplessness flitted through his gaze, and he looked to his qi sea. “Why don’t I ever have time to relax?”

In his qi sea… there was something else.

As before, it was a cocoon, a golden cocoon. The silk on the surface formed the shape of a cloud. It was different from the Godseal Spark. This cocoon didn’t have the previous trace of mystery as the Godseal Spark did. Instead, it was interlinked with his bloodline. So interlinked that if he made it shatter now, it would break without a moment’s hesitation.

Life or death, all was within his grasp.

He gazed at this feeble cocoon. He didn’t crush it. He could sense… the thing inside was young and weak, very weak. There wasn’t the faintest omen of power or mystery. He’d discovered it long ago. In his heart, a daring guess already existed.

“Back then, Southflower’s larva was growing on the Wolfbane. Maybe… it might’ve recognized that Southflower was much, much greater than me. Even if she was a divided soul, she was still above my fleshly body. Even if Senior Xiaoqing said that the Wolfbane surpassed Southflower, both sides canceled each other out, and I was the only one to take the ‘qualifications’ for the spiritual sense fight.”

“After that, I wiped out the remnant soul, but…” He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe back then… there was a sliver’s chance that the egg Southflower planted in the Wolfbane wasn’t just Zhuang Zhou…”

This thought left him begrudging to crush the cocoon! 

Any cultivator could carry a spirit familiar. If there was a faint chance that the larva hatched from the cocoon, never having once met the butterflymother… 

In that case, he would possibly the first cultivator in centuries or maybe a thousand years to have a demon king as a demon familiar! This was one of the demon kings as equally famous as Xiaoqing. In the entire cultivation world, who would dare use her as a spirit familiar?

And who would have the destiny to coincidentally find Southflower’s egg?

The crook of his mouth faintly perked up, and he observed the cocoon with a fiery gaze. After he set out, his first order of business would be to find a place to reach Foundation Establishment. The second would be to immediately hatch this egg.

He restrained his burning-hot mindset and cycled his spiritual force, beginning to attack the shell protecting him.

“Lastly… there was another hidden gain!”

And that… was memories!

Knowledge and legends… story after story, although smashed and scattered, he could understand the era of the time periods! Understand the history of myths!

Furthermore… he could understand the history of Butterflymother Southflower’s ascension into a demon king!

Xu Yangyi opened his eyes to a stretch of darkness and gained an impression of the remnant soul’s experience. All of it was fragments without even a complete story. Nonetheless, many names and usage methods for items appeared intact in his mind.

“New Moon… Isn’t this Coldfrost Grass? You can actually use it like that?”

“Dragon Claw… Isn’t that Dragontail Flower? It’s already been extinct for centuries, but… once it finds out that the environment doesn’t suit it, it’ll actually live inside other spirit plants? That’s unbelievable.”

There wasn’t much complete information, only as much as one or two intact phrases. These phrases, however, allowed him to gain much.

Time passed minute after minute. The shell of azure light over his body crackled. Just as the light was about to completely recede, a golden light suddenly flashed within his spiritual sense as he was skimming through Southflower’s memory fragments.

“What is this?” He furrowed his brows and looked carefully. He discovered… that something seemed to be flickering and shining amidst a violently swaying scene?

“How could… This is Southflower’s memory. Nothing can possibly exist in a memory…” A deep crease formed between his brows, and he mumbled to himself for a couple seconds. Ultimately, he extended his hand. 

The place where his hand entered was solid and ice-cold. It was a hexagonal object, as if… it was a well-cut gemstone.

“Interesting.” Studying the object for several seconds, Xu Yangyi laughed coldly and took it. “Memories are classified as illusory, but the real was hidden inside the illusory. This thing really is pretty interesting.”

It was then that the azure light around him cracked aloud. Like mercury, it finally spread apart little by little.

It was night time outside.

Crack crack crack… 

He stretched out, and the sound of his joints cracking rang out. He took a deep breath, winds and clouds rolling in his heart, and heavily leveled his gaze to the surrounding area.

This night was especially black.

Far away, a stretch of lights came to an end, the sign of a city. He could even see neon rays streaking into the sky. Borrowing the feeble light of this neon illumination, he could vaguely make out that he was standing on a mountain highway. There shouldn’t have been many people walking this path. From the top of the mountain, it zig-zagged downwards. The distance away from the city was also rather far. However, he could see a total panoramic view from his location.

A field, and a city in the field. There was no difference whatsoever from a majority of cities.

“In that case… first I’ll have to find out where I am.” He stowed his gaze, and his brows knitted together. “Inside… what kind of place is this? A private place for Earth’s cultivators? Or… some sect hidden from the world?”

No… it seemed something was wrong… 

With the bodhi seed in his mind, the agility of his thoughts transcended other people’s. The landscape was very placid. But in no more than a few seconds of examination, he’d always felt a kind of inharmonious sensation coming from this peaceful landscape.

Narrowing his eyes, he looked again to the city. Afterwards, he extended his vision from the city to look at a distant place.

In that faraway place was a pitch-black expanse; it was truly pitch-black! As if a thick black curtain had been pulled over the region! Nothing could even be made out clearly! The sole thing he could clearly see was a pearl-like city towering below a mountain.

He understood what was wrong with this place.

“It’s too black… no matter how dark it is at first, I should still be able to see an outline far away. But, there’s nothing here…” He calmly faced the sky and looked forth. He soon smiled as he snapped his fingers.

In the sky… there was no moonlight! There were no stars!

There wasn’t even illumination from the stars and moon penetrating through the clouds! Just an obsidian expanse

But more importantly… the qi in this place was unbelievably weak! There was virtually no difference from it not even existing at all!

“Interesting.” After ages, Xu Yangyi stowed his gaze, and a playful smile hung at the corner of his mouth. “Let me see why this place is called the ultimate secret.”

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