Cultivation: Being Immortal

Yunzhong City, Cave No. 36 in the north of the city with a yellow sign

In front of Lin Jiang were five jade bottles lined up, each containing a Building Foundation Pill. There were also a row of supporting elixirs that matched the Building Foundation Pill.

The cave's management staff saw that Lin Jiang had reached the perfect stage of Qi Refining and guessed that he was going to make a breakthrough. They kindly reminded him to set up a Spirit Gathering Formation in the cave to increase the concentration of spiritual energy by producing more spirit stones.

This place had experienced incidents where experts at the golden core stage absorbed all the surrounding spiritual energy, causing trouble for other cultivators in the cave. The management wouldn't intervene in such matters, as it was a matter of personal cultivation. If one's cultivation was inferior to others, there was no way to seek justice.

Therefore, as soon as Lin Jiang moved in, he immediately set up a Spirit Gathering Formation. Every two hours, he would put in thirty spirit stones to be refined by the formation until he had refined a total of one thousand five hundred spirit stones. By then, the cave was filled with dense spiritual energy like fog, and he stopped.

"Start building foundation."

After making all the necessary preparations, Lin Jiang began the building foundation process. He swallowed the Building Foundation Pill and a powerful spiritual force surged out from inside it. Without Lin Jiang needing to actively refine it, the spiritual energy flowed along his meridians and gathered in his elixir field.

Meanwhile, Lin Jiang's lower abdomen was already full, and the continuous influx of spiritual energy was being compressed. Lin Jiang used his divine consciousness and actively participated, accelerating this compression process.

Under the immense pressure of spiritual energy, Lin Jiang's lower abdomen began to be damaged. The lower abdomen is the convergence point of the human body's meridians. If the lower abdomen is damaged, it will also affect the meridians, causing problems with the flow of spiritual energy. Most importantly, if the lower abdomen cannot be repaired in time, the spiritual pressure caused by the Building Foundation Pill will leak out, and liquefaction cannot be completed. This is the most critical point of Building Foundation.

With a movement of his divine consciousness, Lin Jiang caught a pill that protected his meridians and swallowed it. He started multitasking, increasing the spiritual pressure while repairing the damage to his lower abdomen.

"Plop"

However, seven days later, Lin Jiang still coughed up a mouthful of blood. His lower abdomen was damaged and couldn't be repaired in time. The spiritual pressure leaked out, impacting the meridians and causing the failure of the Building Foundation.

"I knew it."

Lin Jiang sighed. With his Five Spiritual Roots talent, if he had succeeded in the first attempt at Building Foundation, that would have been truly unbelievable.

Lin Jiang wiped away the blood from the corner of his mouth, stood up and stretched, then took out a prepared healing pill to treat his injuries. He had rented this cave for three years and had no shortage of Building Foundation Pills. He still had a chance.

(Translated by Gravity Tales 😣)

Three months later, Lin Jiang's meridian injuries were healed. After another half a month of preparation, Lin Jiang attempted Building Foundation once again.

"Puff"

Ten days later, Lin Jiang failed his second attempt at building a foundation, and this time he was even more injured.

But Lin Jiang's anger was also ignited, and he couldn't believe it. Even with five Building Foundation Pills, he couldn't build a foundation.

After half a year of recuperation and another month of meditation, Lin Jiang began his third attempt at building a foundation.

"Puff"

"I'm freaking amazed by my own incompetence as the Sixth Brother."

The third failure dealt a heavy blow to Lin Jiang, and he finally admitted defeat.

After a year of recuperation, Lin Jiang tried again. This time, he had a better grasp, and the previous three failures were not in vain.

No matter how much breakthrough experience the outside world provided, it couldn't compare to him gaining practical experience himself. With each failure, Lin Jiang learned from it, and his dantian and meridians were greatly strengthened after multiple attempts.

The common independent cultivators, and even disciples of sects and clans, would never get another chance if they fail. Most of the time, it's because they don't have the opportunity to get a second Building Foundation Pill, or because they're over sixty years old and their vitality declines, affecting their control over their bodies and decreasing their success rate. The families and sects behind them are not willing to invest resources in them anymore.

So, for some people with special status, as long as they are willing to invest a huge amount of resources, they can stack their cultivation to the Building Foundation Period.

······

"Success!"

After two years of seclusion, and consuming four Building Foundation Pills, Lin Jiang looked at the small droplet of liquid spiritual power in his dantian, feeling a sense of contentment and satisfaction spreading throughout his body.

It was not easy at all. Many independent cultivators can't even get one Building Foundation Pill, yet he spent four of them. According to market prices, that's over ten thousand.

In addition to the Spirit Gathering Formation spirit stones, rent, healing pills, and more used in these two years, he has already spent around one hundred and seventy to eighty thousand spirit stones for building the foundation. If you include the loss of wages during these two years, it would be even higher.

Going through such a difficult process naturally made Lin Jiang sigh with emotion. This sense of satisfaction is something that can only be understood by one who has experienced it personally.

"Keep up the good work, aim higher!"

After going out to buy food and drink to celebrate, Lin Jiang returned to his practice. He had just made a breakthrough, but his progress was not stable yet, so he needed time to strengthen his skills.

This strengthening process took a year. After a year, when the rent for his dwelling expired, the caretaker came to ask Lin Jiang if he wanted to continue renting the cave. Lin Jiang refused and packed up his things to leave.

Two days later, Lin Jiang appeared outside the gate of Zhonghang Sect. Before long, Cao Ying came running from the gate.

"Uncle!"

When Cao Ying saw Lin Jiang, she jumped up with joy. In the past two years, she had quietly visited Lin Jiang in Yunzhong City, but each time she didn't see him. She knew he was in seclusion, so she didn't want to disturb him.

"Little Ying, are you building your foundation?"

As Lin Jiang saw Cao Ying, the first thing he noticed was her progress in her training. He was amazed to find out that Cao Ying had also reached the foundation building stage.

"Yes, Uncle. I made the breakthrough two months ago."

"So fast?"

"Master said I am also very fast, why did it take you so long for Building foundation? I completed it in just half a month."

"Half a month..."

Lin Jiang was choked and couldn't speak. The satisfaction of completing Building foundation a year ago had vanished completely. Is it really so frustrating to compare oneself with others? He had spent two years, while others only took half a month.

"Uncle, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, you've been practicing for only five years, right?"

"Five years and seven months."

"Five years and seven months..."

Lin Jiang pondered, trying to recall what state he was in when he had practiced for five years and seven months. Oh, right, the original owner had just gone crazy and died not long ago, and he was still at the Spiritual Peach Mountain Villa. He didn't want to think about it, didn't dare to reminisce, how embarrassing.

"Uncle, why did you come to find me this time?"

"Goodbye to you, I told you a few years ago that the world is so big, and I wanted to go see it. But because of some unexpected events, I kept delaying. Now, I am in the beginning stages of my journey and it's time for me to go out and explore."

"Uncle, where are you going?"

"I don't know yet, just going to take a look around."

"But it's so dangerous outside."

"It's okay, Uncle is capable of taking care of himself."

Lin Jiang and Cao Ying chatted casually like this. He had long wanted to give up his current identity because being involved with Cao Ying attracted too much attention. Now that Cao Ying is not even eighteen yet and already making progress, it will definitely attract even more attention, making it more inconvenient for Lin Jiang to act in the future.

Lin Jiang didn't join the Zhonghang Sect again. He chatted with Cao Ying outside the mountain gate for a while, and after giving some instructions, Lin Jiang flew away.

But instead of going to another place, he flew into the middle section of the Yunzhong Mountain Range. The area within thousands of miles in the Yunzhong Mountain Range is a paradise for independent cultivators.

It's unclear what the Zhonghang Sect and Cloud Sword Sect are thinking. They don't claim this territory for themselves, nor do they allow their affiliated followers to occupy it, and they even don't permit the powerful independent cultivators in Yunzhong City to claim it. They simply let many independent cultivators gather there.

The middle part of Yunzhong Mountain Range is very large, with many independent cultivators, and it's extremely chaotic. Even the slightly better mountain peaks have changed ownership multiple times. It's not a matter of buying and selling, but rather direct seizing. If you have the ability, you occupy it; if you don't, someone else takes it.

Lin Jiang wouldn't actively engage in robbery, so he didn't steal from others. He wandered around for a few days and found an abandoned cave. The defensive formation of the cave had already been broken, and the original owner probably died inside. Anyway, Lin Jiang cleaned up several skeletons.

After setting up a new defensive formation, Lin Jiang tidied up the cave and considered it his new home.

"The concentration of spiritual energy is a bit weak, only enough for Qi Refining Period cultivation. It takes three days of gathering with the Spirit Gathering Formation to have enough spiritual energy for one day of practice."

Lin Jiang tried cultivating and found that the concentration of spiritual energy was very weak. However, he could gather spiritual energy with the Spirit Gathering Formation and add some spirit stones, which was enough.

"The gardening instinct has kicked in. These overgrown weeds look uncomfortable."

The next morning, Lin Jiang looked at the grass in front of his house and couldn't help feeling that it was a waste. He needed to plant something.

So, Lin Jiang went to Yunzhong City again and bought another set of formations. He covered half of the mountain peak in front of his house and spent two days opening up over a hundred acres of land. He planted some vegetables, but mainly focused on planting precious medicinal herbs.

The medicinal herbs didn't require much management because Lin Jiang wasn't expecting a high yield. If a few could survive, that would be enough. However, the few acres of vegetables needed to be taken care of so that he could strive for self-sufficiency in the future.

"Big Shadiao, Small Shadiao, you've kept watch until the clouds parted and revealed the moon."

Lin Jiang slapped his head, almost forgetting about Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao. After sleeping for over two years, they finally woke up and successfully advanced to the later stages of the second rank.

"Chirp chirp."

Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao happily chirped a few times, then spread their wings and flew high.

"Bang."

"Bang."

But when they flew to a height of about a hundred meters, they flew straight into the defensive barrier of the formation, almost falling down. Angry, Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao flapped their wings, wanting to attack the barrier, but Lin Jiang quickly stopped them.

"That's enough, don't push your luck. Think about where you used to live. It was so small."

Lin Jiang pressed them down and educated them, about how small the house in Yunzhong City was. It was only a few tens of square meters, and that's not even accounting for the size of the house itself. It had such a tiny courtyard that they could reach the end with only a few steps on the ground.

And now, Lin Jiang's territory is at least around a thousand acres. They can do whatever they want, but they won't let them fly freely. Lin Jiang won't let them out.

"Chirp chirp..."

Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao were so angry that they cursed, as if saying, "We are the kings of the sky, what's the big deal about trapping us on this small hill? Are you kidding me?"

"We don't care about you, go play by yourselves. Just don't attack our formation, or else we'll take care of you."

Lin Jiang rolled its eyes at them. It was already generous enough to do that; they shouldn't push their luck.

"The most important thing now is to increase our income. The expenses during the Building Foundation Period are not small."

Lin Jiang pondered alone. The medicine used during the Building Foundation Period was called the True Spirit Pill. In Anhua City, it is sold for thirty spirit stones, but in Yunzhong City, the price soars to fifty spirit stones. However, the True Spirit Pill in Yunzhong City is better, so it's worth the price increase.

Following Lin Jiang's usual practice of practicing for four hours each day, it would consume one True Spirit Pill every two days. Plus, taking a two-day break to expel toxins, about eight True Spirit Pills are needed each month, which is four hundred spirit stones. Adding other various expenses, thousands of spirit stones are needed each year.

Fortunately, Lin Jiang no longer lives in Yunzhong City. There's still three to four thousand yuan left in rent, and the supporting spirit tools have already been taken care of. Otherwise, it would be even more expensive and could deplete the remaining savings of Lin Jiang.

"Second level spiritual talisman, you must master the techniques of the second level spiritual talisman."

Lin Jiang set a goal for himself, within three years, to master the refining techniques of the second level spiritual talisman. He wanted his income to be greater than his expenses for future plans.

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