Stealthily cultivating in the chaotic world of demons and martial artists
Chapter 257 - 256: Perfect Foundation Establishment (Monthly ticket request)_1

Chapter 257: Chapter 256: Perfect Foundation Establishment (Monthly ticket request)_1

Zhang Zhusheng’s headless corpse fell from mid-air, suddenly exploding into a burst of thunder light.

Crackle!

The thunder light flashed, revealing Zhang Zhusheng’s figure not far away, now missing an arm, his eyes filled with disbelief as he stared at You Kun, "You... You dare betray the Heart Demon Oath?!"

Amidst the green escape light, Old Qing also arrived beside Zhang Zhusheng, sneering, "I dared to invade Yue Country because I had the assurances of Yiling Valley behind me... Now it seems, this was all part of your Yiling Valley’s plan from the beginning, wasn’t it?"

He beckoned with his hand, and the phantom of a magic treasure short rod spread throughout the surroundings, forming a defensive layer, and then said to Zhang Zhusheng, "It looks like we should join forces now."

Zhang Zhusheng, with a grim face, staunched his bleeding but did not voice any objection.

For Core Formation elders, everything was guided by interests; former enemies turning into friends was both natural and normal.

"Demon Path Transmutation Secret Skill? Truly a pity..."

You Kun stood with his hands behind his back, surrounded by nine fire dragons, showing a look of regret, "Why... Why are you all so unwilling to just die obediently?"

In this brief moment of time, Zhang Zhusheng had stopped the bleeding and even rapidly exchanged Divine Consciousness Transmissions with Old Qing, resulting in a particularly ugly expression, "Old Ancestor Qing... I even suspect that behind the downfall of Baize Immortal City, Yiling Valley had a hand in it... This sect had always peacefully resided within Martial Kingdom, leaning towards neutrality, but who would have expected that they would harbor the ambition to swallow the Cultivation World of the three countries this time!"

After all, as Core Formation elders, even if they were momentarily deceived, they could quickly piece things together once it was pointed out to them.

"Heh... Sects that haven’t even had a thousand years of tradition, you wouldn’t understand even if I told you..."

The fire dragons around You Kun roared, the temperature around them rose incessantly, as if they were in a fiery red hell.

"You Kun..."

Zhang Zhusheng looked around with vigilance, his powerful Divine Consciousness piercing the void, but he could never locate the source of that invisible and formless Sword Light, growing even more wary in his heart, "Doing such a thing, Yiling Valley, where do you place your sect’s reputation?"

"Coincidentally, my Green Wood Sect also has an alliance with Yiling Valley, and we have similarly sworn Heart Demon Oaths to each other."

Old Qing coldly laughed as he looked at You Kun.

"Hehe... Trapped at the bottleneck of Core Formation for many years, I have long lost hope of forming my core... With my mere Foundation Establishment standing, if I can bring down two Core Formation elders, it’s already a huge profit."

You Kun wore an expression that showed he didn’t care at all about the Heart Demon Oath.

Seeing this, the two Core Formation elders’ expressions turned particularly ugly.

Meanwhile, the cultivators of Green Wood Sect and Mysterious Heaven Sect below had naturally stopped their fighting and looked at each other uncertainly...

Not far away, enormous flying ships appeared one after another, nearly blotting out the sky, pressing down menacingly, with the markings of Yiling Valley inscribed on their flags...

It was the Yiling Valley army’s arrival!

...

On Dragon Fish Island.

Inside the closed-door cultivation room.

Fang Xi opened his eyes, a flicker of greenish-yellow energy crossing his face.

"Core Formation... I see..."

He casually set down the Core Formation insights from Zhan Tu, murmuring to himself.

Although the insights were written somewhat briefly, they did point out a clear path concisely and precisely for him, an individual cultivator who was completely in the dark.

Of course, Fang Xi would not fully trust Zhan Tu; when the time came for Core Formation, he would definitely rely mainly on his own experience.

"Calculating the days... Green Wood Sect must be close to wearing down the array of Baize Immortal City, right? The Cultivation World will be in chaos..."

Fang Xi sighed, and took out a bottle of magic power enhancing elixir from his body, pouring it into his mouth casually, then continued to close his eyes and refine the contained spiritual energy.

The changes in the outside world forced him to strengthen his power as much as possible.

Just as Liu Sanqi had a new batch of Spirit Medicine ripe, Fang Xi asked for all of it, and together with the Spiritual Objects from Yuan Feihong that came from the treasures of Baize Immortal City, he gathered the materials needed for precious Pill Recipes, producing a large quantity of magic power enhancing elixirs and began to take them without interruption.

The ’Yi Wood Magic Body’ lived up to its reputation as a Spirit Body, not only absorbing Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi extremely quickly but also neutralizing all poisons, especially those related to elixirs!

After a few tests, finding that the ’Yi Wood Magic Body’ had such effects, Fang Xi freely indulged in medication, continuing to refine his magic power.

This had been going on for several years.

After practicing the Kuyong Skills for an unknown period, Fang Xi opened his eyes once more.

Upon inspecting himself with Divine Consciousness, he saw within his Dantian Qi Ocean, three hundred and sixty-five drops of liquid magic power had condensed into a cluster, faintly taking the shape of a pill, presenting a greenish-yellow hue, and even ten percent had already begun to solidify!

"The limit of the Kuyong Skills... is three hundred and sixty-five drops of liquid magic power. With the Foundation Establishment thus perfect, my cultivation can progress no further!"

Having cultivated the magic power of late Foundation Establishment to the point of no further progression marked the perfection of Foundation Establishment!

Next, only Core Formation remained!

"One hundred and seventy-four years old, with perfect Foundation Establishment..."

Fang Xi gazed at the streams of liquid magic power still solidifying, lost in thought.

Whether it was what the Core Formation insights said, or his own observations, the continuous solidification of this liquid magic power was naturally greatly beneficial to Core Formation.

This is also the natural probability of Core Formation associated with the ’Yi Wood Magic Body’.

"The liquid Magic Power has only solidified by ten percent... This process is still continuing... Unfortunately, except for Core Formation Spiritual Objects, other pills cannot accelerate this process, one can only rely on the ’Yi Wood Magic Body’ to continuously purify and compress the Magic Power... When the liquid Magic Power in the Dantian Qi Ocean solidifies to its limit, one can then attempt Core Formation."

After calculating that the day of Core Formation was not far off, Fang Xi couldn’t help but feel good as he emerged from seclusion.

Right away, he saw over a dozen Voice Transmission Talismans, fluttering aimlessly like headless flies, blocked outside by the prohibitions of the closed-door cultivation room.

"This... it seems a major event has occurred, could it be that Mysterious Heaven Sect and Green Wood Sect have settled their conflict?"

Fang Xi stroked his chin, deep in thought.

The next moment, he grabbed a Voice Transmission Talisman, listened for a moment, and then revealed a look of surprise, "So that’s how it is... this is really interesting..."

...

Several hours later.

At the top floor of Evergreen Pavilion.

Zhong Hongyu, Taishu Hong, and Yuan Feihong were all present, with urgent expressions on their faces, looking at the several jade talismans on the table with apprehension.

"Has the Island Master not yet emerged from seclusion?"

Taishu Hong murmured, "This important matter, ultimately, requires his old self to decide..."

"Didn’t I repeatedly send several Divine Consciousness Transmissions?"

Zhong Hongyu said helplessly, "Do we not yet understand the Island Master’s temperament? If we dare to intrude forcefully during his seclusion, I’m afraid none of us will end up well..."

As the two spoke, they turned to look at Yuan Feihong.

Yuan Feihong could only spread his hands helplessly, "I am merely a guest... I’d rather not be involved in this kind of matter..."

"Oh? It seems that this matter is indeed troublesome."

A hearty voice came over, causing the several Foundation Establishment cultivators to turn their gaze toward the main door involuntarily.

They saw a young man clad in green robes walking leisurely towards them, with an aura that was both ancient and youthful, his eyes seemingly full of worldly experience yet also radiating a childlike innocence... He resembled a semi-withered, semi-thriving Sala tree, giving others a strong sense of contradiction.

"We greet the Island Master!"

Yuan Feihong was the first to break free from this strange aura and paid his respects.

Immediately after, Taishu Hong and Zhong Hongyu also hurriedly followed with a salute.

However, Yuan Feihong took a closer look at Fang Xi and asked uncertainly, "Island Master... have you achieved full Foundation Establishment?"

Fang Xi currently was not using Breath Concealment Skills to hide his Magic Power fluctuations, so this late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator could easily tell.

"Ah? Congratulations, Island Master... you finally reached the last step of Foundation Establishment, I wish the Island Master Grand Accomplishment of Golden Core!"

Zhong Hongyu immediately congratulated him again with another bow.

"Forget it... Grand Accomplishment of Golden Core? How can such matters be so simple in this world?"

Fang Xi gave a wry smile and asked, "Let’s talk about the battlefield first? How has the world turned upside down during the years of my seclusion?"

Zhong Hongyu nodded hurriedly, feeling that the recent changes had been too overwhelming. Upon Fang Xi’s inquiry, she immediately relayed the information she had received, "It is said... several months ago, after a prolonged siege and attack, Green Wood Sect’s army finally breached the third-tier Array of Baize Immortal City... However, during the battle between the two Core Formation Elders, Yiling Valley’s Elder You suddenly made a move, nearly fatally wounding both Elders... Immediately thereafter, Yiling Valley’s forces appeared out of nowhere, inflicting a crushing defeat on the armies of Green Wood Sect and Mysterious Heaven Sect... Not only that, Yiling Valley even split its forces in two directions, invading both Yue Country and Wood Kingdom, and continued to advance irresistibly..."

"Wait a moment..."

Fang Xi stopped Zhong Hongyu, "Yiling Valley’s army split into two and still advanced irresistibly?"

"Yes, Martial Kingdom’s Cultivation World has always been stable, with orderly inheritance, and the number of Immortal Cultivators originally surpassed those of the two countries. Add to that, Yue Country and Wood Kingdom have suffered heavy casualties due to years of war. Even against Yiling Valley’s divided forces, they were still beaten back at every turn. Many counties have already been captured..."

Yuan Feihong explained with a wry smile, "However, there are many oddities in this affair..."

After all, if one were to reverse-engineer the ultimate beneficiaries, one could even suspect that the upheaval at Baize Immortal City might have had Yiling Valley’s hidden hand behind it...

At the very least, it had tied up his teacher’s friend, preventing him from coming to the rescue!

"Let’s skip that, what about the Core Formation Elders of the two Sects?"

Fang Xi immediately grasped the crux of the matter.

For wars in the Cultivation World, the outcome of top-tier combatants is often more crucial.

"We are not informed about that... after all, the scene was too chaotic at that time... rife with rumors... But what can be confirmed is that Elder Zhang and Old Ancestor Qing did not fall, both have returned to their Sects to preside, but it seems that they have suffered a serious loss of Primordial Energy... Oh yes, Mysterious Heaven Sect has already announced an alliance with Green Wood Sect to jointly resist Yiling Valley!"

Zhong Hongyu replied.

"The flag of power shifts atop the city wall... The alliance and strife amongst these Cultivation forces is indeed quite interesting!"

Fang Xi stroked his chin, his eyes flashing with insight, and looked at the letters on the table, "You’re eager for me to come out of seclusion to deal with this?"

"Lord Island Master, indeed so... messengers from Yiling Valley, Mysterious Heaven Sect, and even Green Wood Sect will soon arrive... Our Thousand Island Lake has become a target of contention unexpectedly."

Taishu Hong said with a wry smile.

Now that the three Core Formation Sects were at war, Yiling Valley had invaded Yue Country’s territory, it was natural to win over Thousand Island Lake, in hopes of dealing a harsh blow to Mysterious Heaven Sect’s rear and causing chaos on their home front!