Chapter 200 - 193: Forging the Dao Foundation
’This... Suddenly, I don’t want to leave so soon!’
Jiang Zuo gazed at the five portions of Five Elements Innate Spiritual Soil, unable to suppress a small thrill of excitement.
This was something that even the Ten Great Sects would likely struggle to assemble, yet here in the Celestial Eye Black Pupil, he had obtained it so easily.
There wasn’t even a guard watching over something so important.
Moreover, these five portions of Innate Spiritual Soil were all fully formed.
There was no telling how long they had been stored here, with no one able to claim them.
Jiang Zuo had originally planned to get the remaining Spiritual Soil on Five Elements Mountain, break through to the Dao Foundation realm, and then let that glutton of his have a big meal, wreck this place, and find a chance to escape.
But now, Jiang Zuo couldn’t help but change his mind.
If he returned to the Black Tortoise Dao Sect, he’d have to be cautious every time he went out, afraid of being ambushed.
But here in the Celestial Eye Black Pupil’s main lair, he had no such worries.
The cultivation environment here was no worse than the Black Tortoise Dao Sect’s, and he didn’t have to worry about his safety.
He had been looking for a safe place to practice his Cultivation all along. Since that was the case, why be in such a hurry to return to the Black Tortoise Dao Sect?
In this lair of the Celestial Eye Black Pupil, not only could he cultivate in peace, but there might also be other good things like the Innate Spiritual Soil, just waiting for him to take for free.
Thinking of this, Jiang Zuo made up his mind. He would lie low in this Secret Realm of the Celestial Eye Black Pupil for a while and see how things went.
He was still missing three of the Five Elements Spirit Seeds. He might as well cultivate here until his Dao Foundation reached Perfection and get his hands on the remaining Spirit Seeds as well.
That way, he could truly just lie low and cultivate until the end of time.
After the Divine Body Realm, a Cultivator only needed to focus on cultivating and breaking through; there were no more essential external resources required.
’Hmm, for now, I should refine the Spiritual Soil first and break through to the Dao Foundation realm.’
’But which is better, the Fire Element Innate Spiritual Soil or the Phoenix Blood Spiritual Soil?’
Jiang Zuo was in a bind.
For the Fire Element Spiritual Soil, he had both the Fire Element Innate Spiritual Soil and the Phoenix Blood Spiritual Soil.
Jiang Zuo felt that neither portion of Spiritual Soil was bad.
After a moment’s thought, Jiang Zuo decided to let his little glutton decide.
Placing the gluttonous Spiritual Soil on the ground, Jiang Zuo held the two types of Fire Element Spiritual Soil, one in each hand.
Faced with the two options, the gluttonous Spiritual Soil hesitated for a moment before rolling toward the Phoenix Blood Spiritual Soil.
Alright then!
Phoenix Blood Spiritual Soil it is!
Jiang Zuo made his decision without hesitation.
If he didn’t have that Withered Branch Spirit Seed from the Phoenix Blood Secret Realm, Jiang Zuo wouldn’t have considered the Phoenix Blood Spiritual Soil, even if it was slightly better.
After all, he had a Five Elements Spirit Body, so collecting all Five Elements Innate Spiritual Soil was a good option.
However, Jiang Zuo felt that the Withered Branch Spirit Seed was likely one of a kind and could very well allow him to cultivate a Divine Technique related to the Fire Phoenix.
That made choosing the Phoenix Blood Spiritual Soil essential.
Finding a secluded spot near the summit, Jiang Zuo began the process of refining the Spiritual Soil to forge his Dao Foundation.
The process wasn’t difficult. As long as one could refine the Spiritual Soil into their body, forging the Dao Foundation was practically a success.
But Jiang Zuo was different from other Cultivators. He had to refine five portions of Spiritual Soil at once to forge an unprecedented, Heaven-Defying Dao Foundation.
Jiang Zuo had no experience with this, nor could he find any precedent to follow.
However, Jiang Zuo kept in mind the word ’balance’ that he had seen before.
His Cultivation was like that, so breaking through to the Dao Foundation realm should be the same.
’Forging a Dao Foundation is a two-step process.’
’The first step is to refine the Spiritual Soil, turning it into a special kind of Spiritual Qi, and assimilate it into the body.’
’The second step is to merge this special Spiritual Qi into the Qi Sea. It will then coalesce into a Dao Foundation within the Qi Sea.’
’What I need to do is refine the five types of Spiritual Soil into my body separately, then merge them all into my Qi Sea at the same time.’
Jiang Zuo had already thought through how to do it.
𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
Since he couldn’t operate five different Cultivation Techniques to refine five types of Spiritual Soil simultaneously, this method should be the most appropriate.
Having made up his mind, Jiang Zuo began refining the Spiritual Soil.
Refining Spiritual Soil consumed a large amount of Spiritual Power.
It depended first on the quantity of a Cultivator’s Spiritual Power, and second on its quality.
This was heavily related to a Cultivator’s aptitude and the Cultivation Technique they practiced.
Another factor was the type of Spiritual Soil being refined.
Cultivators who failed to forge a Dao Foundation usually had poor aptitude, a weak Cultivation Technique, or low-grade Spiritual Soil.
They were always afflicted by at least one of these three factors.
If one wasn’t affected by any of them, it would be difficult to fail even if they tried.
But Jiang Zuo’s aptitude, Cultivation Technique, and Spiritual Soil were all unparalleled in the world.
What’s more, with the effects of his Five Elements Spirit Body, it was already difficult for him to encounter bottlenecks in his Cultivation.
In less than three days, Jiang Zuo had completely refined all five types of Spiritual Soil into five special kinds of Spiritual Qi and assimilated them into his body.
Five clusters of special Spiritual Qi, each a different color, descended toward his Qi Sea under his guidance.
It was like kindling meeting a roaring fire.
As the five types of special Spiritual Qi fell into Jiang Zuo’s Qi Sea, his once-calm Qi Sea began to boil violently, erupting with five distinct glows of light.
All the Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea converged on the five clusters of light.
But the Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea wasn’t enough. On Five Elements Mountain, Jiang Zuo began to frantically absorb the surrounding Spiritual Qi.
It was a good thing the Spiritual Qi on Five Elements Mountain was so astonishingly dense. Otherwise, with the way Jiang Zuo was absorbing it, he would have drained the surrounding area completely dry.
Even so, a sizable Spiritual Energy Vortex still formed above Five Elements Mountain.
Fortunately, he was within an Array. Otherwise, his actions would have attracted a great deal of attention.
Jiang Zuo’s frantic absorption of Spiritual Qi continued for three whole months.
For others, forging a Dao Foundation was a matter of two or three days, and they absorbed far less Spiritual Qi than Jiang Zuo.
But the time Jiang Zuo’s breakthrough took was astonishingly long.
Three months later, the speed at which Jiang Zuo absorbed Spiritual Qi gradually slowed.
’The Dao Foundation... it’s formed!’
Jiang Zuo curiously examined his Qi Sea with his Divine Sense.
His Qi Sea had transformed into a vast ocean. In the center of this ocean were five small islands, each a different color.
’Forging the Dao Foundation liquefies Spiritual Power.’
’As long as you succeed in forming a Dao Foundation, your strength increases tenfold.’
Aside from his Qi Sea being a bit larger and the fact that he had five islands while others only had one Dao Foundation, Jiang Zuo seemed no different from any other Dao Foundation Cultivator.
’For the next stage of Cultivation, all I have to do is continuously absorb Spiritual Qi again.’
Jiang Zuo was quite satisfied with his current state.
After forming his Dao Foundation, he could clearly feel that he had become much stronger in every aspect.
From now on, Cultivation in the Dao Foundation realm was all about making the Dao Foundation larger and more solid.
This process wasn’t much different from the Qi Cultivation realm.
However, Jiang Zuo still wasn’t sure what the exact differences were between him and an ordinary Dao Foundation Cultivator.
’Now that I’ve formed my Dao Foundation, it’s time to find that Qiu Yiping.’
After letting his gluttonous Spiritual Soil have a big meal, Jiang Zuo decided not to cause any more trouble on Five Elements Mountain. He put it away and headed down the mountain.
"It seems you’ve built a solid foundation. It was worth spending so much time on your breakthrough."
Qiu Yiping looked at the post-breakthrough Jiang Zuo and nodded in approval, feeling that his aura was stable and not at all like someone who had just broken through.
"With your aptitude, it will be difficult to raise your Cultivation quickly without some special fortuitous encounters."
"The Immortal Sect already has arrangements for you. You are to report to Spirit Beast Mountain. There, you will cultivate while also making use of your Beast Taming Talent to revise some of the Immortal Sect’s low-level Beast Taming methods."
Qiu Yiping then swapped Jiang Zuo’s Five Elements Mountain Token for a Spirit Beast Mountain Token.
"Alright!"
Jiang Zuo had no objections.
This was almost exactly what he had expected.
Soon, someone used a Xue Haiqing to transport Jiang Zuo to Spirit Beast Mountain.
Spirit Beast Mountain was similar to Five Elements Mountain; it was also a large mountain.
But compared to Five Elements Mountain, Spirit Beast Mountain was even more outrageous.
Five Elements Mountain at least had Qiu Yiping as a manager, but Spirit Beast Mountain didn’t have a single person in charge.
At the foot of Spirit Beast Mountain, there were two large halls.
One of them was a mission hall.
On the four walls of the hall hung numerous Wooden Tokens with missions written on them.
When someone felt capable of completing a mission, they would take down the Wooden Token and set out to do it.
The entire process required no supervision or management.
In the other hall stood rows upon rows of bookshelves.
On the shelves were a large number of Beast Taming Secret Manuals.
Except for not being able to take them away, all disciples of Spirit Beast Peak could use their Tokens to enter and view any of these Secret Manuals at will.
Jiang Zuo returned to the mission hall and saw quite a few missions for revising Secret Manuals. He wondered if they had been created specifically for him.
Inside, Jiang Zuo saw a mission to revise the Taming Secret Manual for the Xue Haiqing and immediately accepted it.
After Jiang Zuo accepted the mission, a disciple quickly gave him directions, pointing out the location of the Xue Haiqing on Spirit Beast Mountain.
Jiang Zuo needed to go there to raise and study the Xue Haiqing.
Jiang Zuo didn’t rush over. Instead, he went to the Secret Manual hall and first read through the Xue Haiqing Taming Secret Manual.
That was what it looked like on the surface, but in reality, Jiang Zuo was already using his Divine Sense to secretly browse through the other Secret Manuals.
In this way, Jiang Zuo memorized a large number of Beast Taming Secret Manuals.
Jiang Zuo didn’t linger for long. After finishing the Xue Haiqing Taming Secret Manual, he headed for the location of the Xue Haiqing.
The Xue Haiqing was only a first-rank Spirit Beast, located at the foot of Spirit Beast Mountain.
From a distance, Jiang Zuo could see a large flock of beautiful Xue Haiqing, occasionally flying in groups through the sky before landing on the ground.
There were a dozen or so people raising Xue Haiqing nearby. When they saw Jiang Zuo approach, they just gave him a silent glance and paid him no mind.
There were many empty stone houses in the vicinity. After finding a house to live in, Jiang Zuo sought out a few young Xue Haiqing.
Jiang Zuo genuinely intended to complete the Xue Haiqing Taming Secret Manual.
In any case, it was just a first-rank Spirit Beast. No matter how well he raised it, it wouldn’t amount to much.
’If I want to get more benefits, I have to put out some bait.’
He had been so impressive at the Black Tortoise Dao Sect; if he came here and failed to produce any results for a long time, the people from Celestial Eye Black Pupil would probably start to suspect him.
「A year passed quickly.」
Jiang Zuo had completed his revisions to the Xue Haiqing taming method.
To say he completed it was an understatement; it was more like a complete rewrite.
Jiang Zuo wrote a brand new Xue Haiqing Taming Secret Manual and took it back to the mission hall.
In the middle of the mission hall, an old man sat perpetually behind a counter.
Jiang Zuo handed the mission’s Wooden Token and the new Taming Secret Manual to the old man.
The old man said nothing, merely nodding to indicate that Jiang Zuo could leave.
That’s right. Jiang Zuo had completed a mission but received no reward whatsoever.
The people here all firmly believed that as long as they completed their missions, the Immortal Sect would not treat them unfairly!
It was utterly terrifying!
If Jiang Zuo weren’t so used to being a loner, it would have been truly difficult to pretend to be just like them.
However, if they wouldn’t give him rewards, Jiang Zuo would take his own.
He had already secretly read one-third of the Secret Manuals in the hall next door!