novelraw Chapter 89 Three Hurdles of Foundation Establishment
Chapter 89 Three Hurdles of Foundation Establishment
Chapter 89: Three Hurdles of Foundation Establishment
In ancient times, the hundred arts were not yet flourishing. Humanity's utilization of various spiritual herbs remained at the stage of raw consumption, no different from the beastly ways of savage demonic beasts.
At that time, human cultivators who wished to break through cultivation bottlenecks essentially relied on pure luck. Often, only one out of dozens or even hundreds of individuals would succeed, truly a perilous crossing of a single-plank bridge by an army of thousands.
Later, as time progressed, the myriad arts of cultivation gradually developed and thrived, and alchemy also advanced by leaps and bounds. Only then did auxiliary breakthrough pills gradually emerge.
The Foundation Establishment Pill, for example, was a product that only appeared in the last epoch. Because of its existence, the danger of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage was greatly reduced, leading to the current prosperity of the human cultivation world.
Of course, this doesn't mean ancient cultivators were stronger than those of today; the cultivation world is constantly progressing. In fact, ancient cultivators were far inferior to modern cultivators in terms of spells and magical tools.
However, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was rich and pure back then, so cultivators didn't need to rely on spiritual veins to cultivate, leading to much faster cultivation speeds, but their combat strength was far weaker.
Nevertheless, the ancient cultivators' method of Foundation Establishment is still highly sought after by human prodigies, as it makes them stronger, though the extremely high fatality rate deters many.
Song Changsheng had a certain degree of confidence in himself, coupled with the aid of the Meridian Guarding Pill, which emboldened him to take this gamble. It was all driven by ambition.
“Cultivation is a grand gamble. I hope this time, I can still make the right choice,” Song Changsheng whispered softly, then held the Meridian Guarding Pill in his mouth and began to break through the bottleneck.
This seclusion chamber was specially built by the clan for cultivators attempting Foundation Establishment, containing a small spirit-gathering array to collect spiritual energy.
Song Changsheng also dipped into his own pocket and lit a censer of Calming Incense, which was made from the Condensing Fragrance Flower he obtained from the "Wutong Secret Realm" last time.
Back then, Chang Tianhua had even used it as a trap, severely ambushing him, but now it had become one of his aids in breaking through to Foundation Establishment.
The Calming Incense could help him clear his mind and steady his spirit, preventing inner demons from taking advantage of him during the breakthrough process.
Don’t assume that low-level cultivators don’t have inner demons. In fact, quite the opposite: the lower the cultivation level, the more distracting thoughts one has, and the easier it is for inner demons to breed.
Thinking back to his time in Drifting Cloud Market, Cheng Yufei’s son, Cheng Xiao, had nearly lost his life by suffering Qi deviation during a competition with Song Changsheng.
With this item’s assistance, Song Changsheng essentially had an extra layer of insurance!
After closing his eyes, inhaling the Calming Incense, he quickly entered a state, casting aside all distracting thoughts, and began to absorb spiritual energy to fill his Dantian.
Foundation Establishment has three hurdles. First is the "Spiritual Power Hurdle." Simply put, the goal of this hurdle is to transform the "gaseous" spiritual power in the Dantian into a "liquid" state, allowing the Dantian to hold more spiritual power.
It sounds simple, but in reality, many people have fallen at this hurdle. The Foundation Establishment Pill is primarily used to overcome this hurdle.
Time quietly flowed by. After a year of persistent effort, Song Changsheng finally reached the moment of his formal breakthrough.
The spiritual energy within his body instantly turned violent, surging through his meridians, causing a faint tearing sensation in his meridians and Dantian.
He hastily swallowed the Meridian Guarding Pill. He felt his meridians expand slightly, able to accommodate more spiritual energy.
Spiritual energy flowed along the meridians throughout his body. The tearing pain made Song Changsheng frown tightly, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. He circulated his cultivation technique, enduring the intense pain, desperately suppressing the surging spiritual energy.
The wild spiritual energy forcefully scoured all the acupoints in his body. One by one, acupoints were unblocked by the spiritual energy. Everything went smoothly at first, but when the spiritual energy reached the Baihui acupoint, an unexpected turn occurred.
Spiritual energy impacted the acupoint like a tide. Song Changsheng felt as if his head was about to explode, as if something was about to burst out of his skull.
The intense pain made Song Changsheng's head spin, seeing stars. He gritted his teeth, letting out muffled roars of agony.
...
Though he was in excruciating pain, he knew he couldn’t stop now. He gathered all the spiritual energy in his body, impacting with all his might. Cracks began to appear in his meridians, and the intense pain almost made him faint.
Song Changsheng endured all the immense pain, gritting his teeth and holding on. Finally, the path ahead was clear, and the Baihui acupoint… finally opened.
Spiritual energy surged forward, continuously breaking through the remaining acupoints, and finally re-converging all the spiritual energy into his Dantian. The Dantian slowly expanded, stopping only after increasing several times in size.
Spiritual energy re-condensed into a liquid state, stored in his Dantian, and his Yin-Yang Dao Foundation, at this moment, underwent a monumental change, transforming into a four-sided “Spiritual Platform” with a black and white Tai Chi diagram at its center.
The spiritual energy in his Dantian revolved around it, subtly forming a vortex.
Song Changsheng secretly sighed in relief. The first hurdle, the Spiritual Power Hurdle, had been passed.
He began to circulate the spiritual energy through all the opened acupoints in his body. Each acupoint seemed to transform into a pump, absorbing the vast spiritual energy in the seclusion chamber into his body.
Every acupoint felt intensely itchy and painful as it absorbed spiritual energy. Song Changsheng bit his lips tightly, completely unaware of the blood dripping down.
The absorbed spiritual energy permeated every muscle, every bone, and every organ in his body.
Every muscle fiber was undergoing the baptism of spiritual energy. The spiritual energy seemed to penetrate into his bone marrow, and the bone-chilling pain made Song Changsheng unable to help but let out a long howl.
His body was being comprehensively strengthened. This process was long, so long that Song Changsheng used every ounce of his strength!
Sweat exuded from every pore on his entire body.
These sweat droplets emitted a nauseating stench, clinging stickily to his body, forming pools of black impurities. Time quietly slipped away. When his body no longer expelled impurities, Song Changsheng's heart suddenly relaxed somewhat.
He had undergone body tempering nine times, so this was nothing to him, it was much easier than the "Spiritual Power Hurdle."
Soon, it would be the final step, the "Soul Hurdle."
His head felt heavy, and his eyelids were as heavy as a thousand pounds. His soul began to waver, and scene after scene flashed through his mind, from his past life and his current one.
Those scenes repeatedly appeared in his mind like a movie: hardship, anger, joy…
Gradually, he saw some images that did not belong to him.
He saw Song Lutong lying in a pool of blood, struggling for help; he saw Song Luzhou with a look of despair, devoured by a demonic beast, leaving no bones behind; he saw Song Qingxi with a bitter expression, facing a field of graves.
On one of the gravestones was written:
“Tomb of Song Changsheng”
“Boom—”
It was as if a thunderclap exploded in his mind. His soul began to tremble, and more and more images appeared before his eyes. His head suddenly vibrated violently, as if being continuously struck by a large hammer.
“An inner demon is at work.”
Feeling the constant flashing of memory fragments, some his own, some not, in his mind, Song Changsheng understood: the inner demon had arrived…
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