After Wang Yuan left, Luo Chen didn’t head into the thatched hut but instead he stood still atop the mountain, eyes closed as the wind swept through his hair and robes.
In the next moment, his consciousness turned inward toward his dantian.
The newly rebuilt dantain after his breakthrough was now ten times larger than it had once been, layer upon layer, it resembled distinct cultivation stages. In truth, calling it a “dantian” no longer felt accurate. Based on the ancient records he’d read, this was something else entirely.
This... was the sea of qi.
The dantian had transformed into a sea, capable of holding a hundred rivers, his spirit energy swirled within like the tides of a vast ocean. And above that sea hung nine layers, suspended like heavenly strata. The "Nine Heavens of the Sea of Qi," as the texts had described them, each layer a milestone, each breakthrough a gateway.
If one could ascend through all nine, it was said the golden core would naturally form. Hence, the path to the Golden Core Realm.
In structure, the Foundation Establishment Realm mirrored the Qi-Refining Realm: nine stages, divided into early, middle, and late stages, three, six, and nine.
But Luo Chen wasn’t thinking about that yet.
What mattered to Luo Chen was his current condition.
After succeeding in his Foundation Establishment, the Dao foundation he had reconstructed was extraordinarily solid. Though he didn’t know how others fared, for him, reaching Perfected Mastery of Foundation Establishment through hard cultivation alone would take hundreds, perhaps even a thousand, years.
And that was merely a rough estimate.
Since he lacked a core cultivation method, he could only rely on the Perfected Mastery Long Spring Art to refine the spirit power within him.
At the base of the sea of qi, there was a thin layer of spirit liquid. That liquid was another defining feature of the Foundation Establishment Realm, liquefied spirit energy, in addition to externalized spirit consciousness.
Only with this liquefied energy could a Foundation Establishment Initiate perform advanced techniques, command supreme-grade artifacts with ease, and even wield enchanted treasures to a certain extent.
Luo Chen’s spirit liquid wasn’t abundant. But that wasn’t all he possessed.
In the first layer of his sea of qi, massive clouds of spirit energy still swirled and rolled like storm fronts over an ocean. They were remnants from the five sets of Foundation Establishment spirit medicine he had consumed.
Whether it was the violent Foundation Establishment pill or the gentle Imperial Nectar, both contained immense spirit energy. Having attempted Foundation Establishment multiple times in a short span, some of that energy had inevitably gone unused.
Now, all of it lingered within the newly expanded sea of qi. If he didn’t completely refine it, he couldn’t begin the cultivation within the Foundation Establishment Realm.
So, the Medicine King Yimu Codex must be acquired!
After completing his internal examination,
Luo Chen quickly opened his status panel.
[Status Panel]
Name: Luo Chen
Lifespan: 32/150
Spirit Roots: Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth
Realm: Foundation Establishment Stage One (10/100)
Achievement Points: 3
[Techniques]
Long Spring Art: Perfected Mastery
Divine Breaker of Malevolence: Perfection (351/500)
Myriad Beast Sutra: Beginner (10/100)
[Spells]
Fireball: Perfected Mastery
Carefree Wind-Control: Perfected Mastery
Traction: Perfected Mastery
Spirit Suppression: Perfected Mastery
Spirit Eyes: Perfected Mastery
Entangle: Perfected Mastery
Cleanse: Perfected Mastery
Heal: Grandmaster (625/1000)
Earth Summit: Perfection (315/500)
Wave Surge: Perfection (309/500)
Sound Isolation: Perfection (312/500)
Soul-Intimidation: Skilled (179/200)
[Alchemy]
Jade Fracture Hand: Perfected Mastery
Unadorned Heart Hand: Grandmaster (513/1000)
Flowing Creek Hand: Skilled (125/200)
Cloud Transformation Hand: Skilled (112/200)
[Martial Arts]