Chapter 25: Early Stage of Foundation Building

The one-year training in the Misty Monster Mountains for the lower-ranked disciples of the Immortal Cloud Sect has officially come to an end.
Twenty groups of disciples gathered in a valley within the mountains aboard cloud-piercing boats.
The team from Chase Cloud Peak led by Kang Feng and the team from Wind Gale Peak led by Kang Chen joined together to tally the gains from their training.
With top-tier magic weapons at stake, Kang Feng and Kang Chen took this very seriously, as even at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, they were not yet capable of crafting such weapons.
Chase Cloud Peak’s team consisted of five disciples in the Foundation Building stage and ten in the Qi Guiding stage, with no casualties. Wind Gale Peak’s team lost Mu Qiushui, leaving only four in the Foundation Building stage and ten in the Qi Guiding stage, also without casualties.
First, the disciples in the Qi Guiding stage from both teams showed off their collected items.
The ten disciples from Wind Gale Peak’s team took out their items and counted them one by one—only five Foundation Building stage monsters had been killed, while there were 300 Qi Guiding stage monsters, which was a decent result.
The ten disciples from Chase Cloud Peak’s team also showed their gains, but Qu Yi deliberately delayed a bit. Nine of them had killed only one Foundation Building stage monster, with around 200 Qi Guiding stage monsters.
After all nine had shown their items, they all turned to Qu Yi, hoping he would produce a large number of items to turn the situation around, as their current results were clearly inferior to Wind Gale Peak’s.
Seeing everyone staring at him, Qu Yi smiled calmly, bringing great joy to his team from Chase Cloud Peak and causing great panic among those from Wind Gale Peak.
He took out three storage bags and immediately opened all of his items.
Wow!
The disciples from both Chase Cloud Peak and Wind Gale Peak exclaimed in surprise.
Just the Foundation Building stage monsters numbered fifty, most of them in the middle stage, with five in the later stage. Adding the Qi Guiding stage monsters, there were over 300 in total.
Qu Yi’s single person’s gains far exceeded those of the entire Wind Gale Peak team.
Undoubtedly, in terms of Qi Guiding stage disciples, Chase Cloud Peak outperformed Wind Gale Peak.
Everyone looked at Qu Yi in confusion, but he simply smiled and remained silent.
Elders Kang Feng and Kang Chen did not force Qu Yi to explain and instead urged the disciples in the Foundation Building stage from both teams to show their own gains.

Without a doubt, on Wind and Mist Peak, the two disciples at the Foundation Establishment stage, Liu Qingfeng and Mu Qiushui, had been cultivating together in a picturesque place all along—there was no way they had gone hunting for any monsters. The gains of the disciples from Cloud Chasing Peak at this stage far surpassed those from Wind and Mist Peak.
In the competition between the two teams, Cloud Chasing Peak won.
As soon as the result was announced, Kang Chen’s face turned as dark as night, filled with embarrassment.
Kang Chen didn’t have any top-grade magic weapons!
Liu Qingfeng remained calm among the group, occasionally glancing at Qu Yi, and finally confirmed that Qu Yi hadn’t revealed Mu Qiushui’s death, which relieved him greatly. Seeing Kang Chen’s predicament, Liu Qingfeng immediately took out a yellow ruler from his storage bag and handed it to Kang Chen.
Kang Chen took the yellow ruler awkwardly and passed it to Kang Feng, saying lightly, “Senior Brother Kang Feng, this is a top-grade magic weapon, the Sandfall Ruler. Please take it.”
Once activated with true energy, the Sandfall Ruler would create a waterfall of yellow sand around it, which could be used to block or trap enemies.
Seeing Kang Chen’s forced smile, Kang Feng didn’t make fun of him but happily took the Sandfall Ruler and handed it to Qu Yi right away.
“Fifth junior brother, you’ve gained the most from this expedition in the Fiery Demon Mountains. This is your reward,” Kang Feng said kindly.
Everyone was shocked, especially Liu Qingfeng, whose face showed evident hatred as he watched his treasure go to the enemy.
Qu Yi didn’t hesitate and took it immediately, declaring ownership with a drop of blood right in front of everyone. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Liu Qingfeng’s face almost twisting in rage—Qu Yi felt extremely satisfied.
“I’ll make you regret this!” That was Qu Yi’s thought at that moment.
All the disciples gathered, and the twenty groups of disciples from Immortal Cloud Sect boarded the Cloud-Piercing Boats to return to the sect immediately.
……
Cloud Chasing Peak, Wind-Listening Residence.
After returning from his expedition in the Fiery Demon Mountains, Qu Yi went straight to his residence to prepare for advancing to the early Foundation Establishment stage.
In less than two years, Qu Yi was ready to advance to this stage—if other cultivators knew about this, they would surely choose to hit their own faces against a wall to death.
In front of him lay five green Foundation Establishment pills in a jade box.
Qu Yi meditated for a while, adjusting his body and mind to their best state before opening his eyes and looking at the pills.
“The time has come.”
Muttering these words, Qu Yi quickly grabbed the jade box and swallowed all five pills inside.

In an instant, the five Foundation-Building Pills released five powerful streams of medicinal energy, rushing throughout his body. Qu Yi had already activated the Five Elements cultivation method—Golden Splendor, Revitalized Forests, Unity of Water and Sky, Sparking Flames, and Vast Imperial Land—and immediately began to refine the medicinal energy filling his body.

The medicinal energy transformed into metal energy and entered his lungs; it turned into wood energy and entered his liver; it became water energy and entered his kidneys; it turned into fire energy and entered his heart; it transformed into earth energy and entered his spleen.

Within his five internal organs, the energies converged intensely, colliding violently as if trying to burst them apart.

Soon, a tiny realm sphere appeared in Qu Yi’s soul. It flashed briefly within his five organs before returning to his soul. Under the green glow of the realm sphere, the five elements’ energies in his organs quickly gathered in an orderly manner.

Gathering, condensing, and undergoing a qualitative change!

The highly concentrated gaseous vital energy transformed into mist. The liquefaction of vital energy was a sign of the early stage of Foundation Building.

Faint wisps of misty vital energy appeared in each of his organs, and soon, all the vital energy within them had turned into mist. In his dantian as well, the mixed vital energy changed and also turned into mist.

The Five Elements cultivation method continued to operate at high speed, helping him get familiar with the state of vital energy at the early stage of Foundation Building and allowing his body to adapt to this abundant energy.

After a while, Qu Yi stopped his exercises and opened his eyes.

“Early stage of Foundation Building—feels pretty good!” Qu Yi said to himself as he slowly stood up, pleased.

In his soul, the artifact god residing in the realm sphere suddenly spoke up, “Qu Yi, with your peculiar body and this strange Five Elements cultivation method, raising a cultivation level turns out to be so dangerous. If not for me intervening in time, you would have died from internal explosion.”

The appearance of the realm sphere in his organs was under the control of the artifact god.

Hearing this, Qu Yi said dejectedly, “Artifact god, what can I do? With this body of mine, I can only practice the Five Energies and Three Flowers Divine Art. If I don’t practice, I’m doomed to death. If I do, though it’s dangerous, at least I have a chance to survive.”

The artifact god was left speechless and fell silent. It seemed that every time Qu Yi advanced to a new level, the artifact god would have to step in to help.

…

Among the thirty-six peaks of the Immortal Cloud Sect, about a hundred kilometers away from the main peak, Chasing Cloud Peak, there was a high mountain covered with fragrant wind bamboo—this was Wind Mist Peak.

Wind Mist Peak was the cultivation site of the sect’s elder, Huai Jin, and there were also hundreds of disciples practicing there.

At this moment, on the top of Wind and Mist Peak, inside the Wind and Mist Pavilion, Huai Jin sat on a white jade phoenix-shaped chair. Across from him was none other than Huai Jin’s grandson, Liu Qingfeng.
“Qingfeng, is everything you said true? Que Yi has a technique to conceal his aura, and he’s already reached the later stage of Qi Guidance?” Huai Jin was extremely surprised. If it weren’t his grandson sitting across from him, he might have struck him immediately.
In less than two years, Que Yi had reached the later stage of Qi Guidance—this completely defied the laws of the cultivation world. Of course, if Huai Jin had known at that time that Que Yi had already reached the early stage of Foundation Building, he would likely have gone mad.
“It’s absolutely true. Mu Qiushui and I practiced cultivation together, and her level had reached the middle stage of Foundation Building, yet she was killed by Que Yi with a single sword strike. Grandpa, do you think someone only at the early stage of Qi Guidance could do such a thing? Moreover, I saw the fluctuations of Que Yi’s true energy back then—it was definitely at the later stage of Qi Guidance,” Liu Qingfeng said through gritted teeth, filled with hatred.
Huai Jin lowered his gaze and fell silent, deep in thought.
“Could it be that my senior brother taught that kid some techniques to conceal his aura…” Huai Jin wondered suspiciously.
Liu Qingfeng stood quietly aside, not daring to interrupt.
“Alright, Qingfeng. Only the two of us need to know about this. Back then, when our senior master brought Que Yi here, I found it strange—why would a kid with a Five Spirit Root need our senior master to take him as a disciple? It seems that kid has some background. We’ll find another chance to deal with Que Yi later. For now, your top priority is to focus all your efforts on reaching the Golden Dan stage. By then, you’ll be able to toy with that kid as you wish,” Huai Jin said calmly, opening his eyes.
Liu Qingfeng nodded. This was also his plan—the reason he suddenly left after a few confrontations with Que Yi was precisely because of this thought. As long as he reached the early stage of Golden Dan, Liu Qingfeng was confident he could kill Que Yi.
After a while, Liu Qingfeng left the Wind and Mist Pavilion.
Only then did Huai Jin slowly stand up and gaze toward Cloud Chasing Peak, murmuring to himself, “Senior brother, back then my cultivation level was far higher than yours. If it weren’t for our master pouring all his magical power into you at the end of his life, how could you have reached the Yuan Ying stage before me? Now, your disciple has clashed with my grandson. I really want to see what methods you have to help your useless disciple…”
After finishing his murmurs, Huai Jin’s thoughts returned to those bygone days.

Back then, Huai Qing, Huai You, Huai Miao, and Huai Jin—these four brothers were full of vigor and had a very close bond. One year, when their master, the immortal Dong Yun, was nearing the end of his life, he poured all his cultivation into a great sealing technique and forced it into Huai Qing’s body, helping him reach the early stage of the Yuan Ying realm. Afterward, Huai Qing became the leader of the Xian Yun Sect, while the other three became elders. With this change in status, the relationship among the four brothers also changed. While Huai Jin and Liu Qingfeng were discussing Qu Yi, Qu Yi had already followed the instructions of the Artifact God and gone to find Huai Miao, the sect’s artifact-crafting elder.