Chapter 129: Foundation Establishment Successful

In the Immortal Prison, Lao He held up the bronze gourd, unscrewed its lid, and called out to the Spirit of Earth Fire in the fire pool.
The Spirit of Earth Fire hesitated for a moment, as if making up its mind, before suddenly transforming into a ball of flames and being drawn into the bronze gourd.
Before long, the bronze gourd emitted a faint glow, appearing much more vibrant. Without Lao He’s explanation, Su Che guessed that the Spirit of Earth Fire must have merged with the basically useless spirit within the gourd, creating a new one.
Once the spirit came to life, the entire magic artifact also came to life.
From now on, by drawing in various types of flames into the gourd, its power would gradually be unleashed. At present, even Lao He couldn’t determine all its functions.
Su Che thought that exploring the growth potential of a magic artifact step by step was a very enjoyable thing—especially true for the most important artifact in the Immortal Prison, the Treasure Pagoda.
Next, it was time to study the statue of the purple-jade figurine.
But Lao He was troubled: “Master, I can only confirm that this faceless statue is a special type of magic artifact. Its grade is likely slightly higher than that of the spirit herb cultivation box and the bronze gourd.”
Su Che interjected, “But…”
“But I still haven’t figured out its purpose. I hope that after you complete foundation establishment, you’ll go to the library to consult relevant ancient texts. Perhaps you’ll find an answer or gain some insights for me.”
“No problem!”
Su Che replied cheerfully, “Then let’s go to bed. We’ll establish the foundation tomorrow!”
With that, he lay down and fell asleep immediately.
One advantage of cultivators is that they never suffer from insomnia. Even when faced with troublesome matters, they can quickly enter a state of clarity free from distractions and fall asleep right away—this is the result of practicing meditation day and night.
There was no conversation throughout the night. When he woke up the next day, Su Che didn’t do any preparations. He didn’t even need to go outside the cave to calm his mind before starting his seclusion.
There is no exact figure indicating how difficult foundation establishment is. Theoretically, innate talent is the most important factor. Those with celestial spirit roots, or single-attribute spiritual roots, are naturally gifted and can achieve a success rate of over 70-80% without using foundation establishment pills.
For someone like Su Che, with average talent, not only would he need to take foundation establishment pills, but he would also need other pills to increase the success rate, such as the Great Success Pill… In addition, factors like favorable timing, location, harmony, opportunities, and insights also play a significant role.

In the entire cultivation world, the number of cultivators at the lowest level, the Qi Refining stage, is extremely large. However, those who can successfully reach the Foundation Establishment stage are rarely seen—often one in a hundred. Take a medium-sized cultivation sect as an example: if its leader is at the Golden Core stage and there are a dozen or so elders at the Foundation Establishment stage, they can control the fates of tens of thousands of disciples at the Qi Refining stage. Even so, it is extremely difficult for those with weaker spiritual roots to enter such a medium-sized sect. Given how hard it is to reach Foundation Establishment, why did Su Che rush and proceed so carelessly with his cultivation? The answer is simple: Su Che felt that his previous accumulation was already incredibly profound, so there was no doubt about his success this time—his chances were even higher than those with a Heavenly Spiritual Root. He was confident enough and didn’t need to wait any longer! Su Che sat cross-legged on the ground, took a Foundation Establishment pill, and began meditating calmly. As for the Great Completion Pill, as Venerable Mysterious Truth said, there was no need to take it at all—it would be a waste. The Foundation Establishment pill has two functions. First, it strengthens and transforms the physical body of a cultivator who has reached the peak of the Qi Refining stage, enabling their meridians and dantian to be capable of holding true energy. Otherwise, the properties of true energy would be like corrosive poison to those at the Qi Refining stage. The second function is to trigger a transformation in the already saturated vital energy within the body, changing it from gaseous to liquid form, so that it can become a higher-level internal energy source—true energy. Su Che’s physical strength had already been enhanced to the highest level of his current realm. In other words, the first function of the Foundation Establishment pill was wasted on him. As a result, his Foundation Establishment process would take less than half the time compared to others. Yu Qing took over a month to complete Foundation Establishment, while Su Che would likely need only about ten to fifteen days. Sure enough, sixteen days later, Su Che slowly ended his meditation, opened his eyes, and said to Lao He in his mind, “It’s done.” “Congratulations, master! You’ve successfully reached Foundation Establishment!” Lao He laughed broadly. A small red liquid floated quietly inside Su Che’s dantian—this was the newly formed fire-type true energy. The process was effortless, even smoother than advancing through the Qi Refining stage. This was because Su Che had accumulated an immense amount of strength beforehand. He had reached the peak in all aspects that others lacked. Under such conditions, if he still failed, he could only be described as useless—and even “extremely unlucky.” “I’ve reached Foundation Establishment—so easily.”

At this moment, even Su Che himself seemed dazed. He blurted out foolishly, “Lao Hei, tell me—am I still in the Xiao Mi Immortal Realm, under the illusion spells cast by the protective forces of that sacred place? Is everything happening now fake? Is it all just my dream?”
“Yes, master,” Lao Hei sighed. “In fact, you’ve been asleep in the Xiao Mi Immortal Realm for over thirty days. By now, those explorers who survived have already left through the barrier. As for you, you can only wait until fifty years later, when it opens again…”
“Get lost!”
Su Che snapped in annoyance but didn’t leave the realm right away. Instead, he swallowed a sixth-grade pill and continued his cultivation.
Leaving now after just sixteen days would seem unbelievable to many—it would be too showy. It was better to steadily strengthen his cultivation level first and show off in two months.
Moreover, only a tiny amount of true energy had accumulated in his dantian, and his meridians felt empty. Even releasing a few foundation-building spells would deplete his true energy completely.
This feeling of emptiness made him uneasy; he needed to fill it up to feel confident.
Before foundation-building, under the influence of the Warm Currents of the Immortal Prison and the Clear Streams of Black Stones, it took a whole day to absorb and transform a sixth-grade pill. But now, it wouldn’t last even five hours before its effects faded.
Su Che thought to himself, “With this way of cultivating, no amount of pills will be enough. Thankfully, that Upper Ancient Town Mountain Talisman allowed me to obtain a large supply of pills from the sect. Otherwise, relying solely on my own strength, I don’t know how much effort it would take…”
“Yes, master. Everything else is trivial. For now, the most important thing is to get enough pills to quickly raise your cultivation level,” Lao Hei added. “Otherwise, even if you’re given more spiritual treasures, you won’t be able to control them if your cultivation isn’t strong enough.”
“That’s true.”
Another pill was swallowed, and cultivation continued.
After over thirty days of relentless hard work, Su Che’s cultivation level stabilized at the early stage of foundation-building, with his true energy fully saturated in his body.
Just as he was about to leave the realm, Lao Hei brought up a major matter.
For Su Che, this was undoubtedly an unparalleled event!
“Master, these past few days, to avoid disturbing your cultivation, there was something I haven’t told you. It’s not too late to tell you now,” Lao Hei said solemnly.
“What is it? Go on,” Su Che replied, still somewhat unconcerned.

“On the tenth day after you successfully reached the Foundation Establishment stage, the Immortal Prison Pagoda automatically revealed the method to open its second floor,” Lao He said solemnly.
“What?”
Su Che was shocked immediately. “Can the second floor of the Immortal Prison really be opened?”
“Yes,” Lao He confirmed.
“Hurry, tell me…” Su Che was extremely excited.
The Immortal Prison! It was the foundation of everything to him. Any change related to it held great significance to Su Che.
It was precisely because of this that Lao He had delayed telling him, so as not to disrupt his focus and affect his cultivation.
“The method to open it appeared automatically in my mind,” Lao He explained. “To open the second floor of the Immortal Prison Pagoda, several conditions must be met.”
“Mm,” Su Che replied. In fact, he had already guessed that certain conditions were required to open the second floor, as opening the first floor had required capturing humans, demons, and monsters.
Lao He elaborated further, “The first condition has already been met—namely, the master of the Immortal Prison must reach the Foundation Establishment stage.”
“The second condition is to provide sufficient energy for the Immortal Prison. In other words, enough spirit stones are needed. I estimate at least one million lower-grade spirit stones.”
One million lower-grade spirit stones sounded daunting, but in terms of higher-grade spirit stones, just a hundred would suffice. Su Che silently calculated that the nearly a hundred high-grade spirit stones he had obtained from the underground hall in the Xiao Mi Immortal Realm would, even if not enough, not require him to cover too much of the cost.
“The third condition is eight hundred Earth Fiends and three thousand evil spirits,” Lao He continued. “I guess the attributes of the second floor of the Immortal Prison are related to cold and dark elements.”
“That sounds plausible,” Su Che nodded silently.
The three thousand evil spirits were easy to explain—they were simply three thousand demons, which could be easily obtained in the cultivation world. There was no need to capture them personally; one could buy many in the cultivation markets in the domains of demon cultivators.
But finding eight hundred Earth Fiends on the surface was difficult. Su Che would need to go to the underground world and confront the underground demon clans.
The underground demon clans were divided into four ranks: Earth Fiends, Yakshas, Asuras, and Great Asuras.
The strength of Earth Fiends was comparable to that of human cultivators in the Qi Training stage; Yakshas were roughly on par with human cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage; Asuras were at the Golden Core stage. Su Che had already encountered one such being and had almost died at its hands.

Higher up are the ‘Great Asuras’, equivalent to cultivators at the Yuan Ying stage. However, there aren’t many of them in the entire underground world, which is why they are suppressed deep underground and cannot emerge for hundreds of thousands of years.
“Thankfully,” Su Che sighed in relief, “it’s just a Earth Fiend. I’m already at the Foundation Establishment stage, so capturing it isn’t too difficult. It seems the three conditions to open the second layer of the Immortal Prison can be met quite easily.”
Unexpectedly, inside the Immortal Prison, Lao He appeared shy and softly protested, “Master, did I say there wasn’t a fourth condition?”