Chapter 257: Chapter 175: Foundation Establishment
Three months had passed since Li Shiming took up residence in the Wei Family’s stronghold, and during this period, the Tie Clan and the Hu immortal family had used every trick in the book, yet they still hadn’t managed to breach the stronghold’s formation.
In a fit of rage, they set fire to the marketplaces outside.
After leaving behind a number of Qi Refining Cultivators, the two families left; however, once they were out of the valley, Li Shiming, through his divided soul, saw that they were lying in ambush just outside the valley, ready to launch an attack as soon as any cultivator from the Wei Family stronghold emerged to attack the Qi Refining Cultivators left behind.
Unfortunately for them, their plan was entirely ineffective. Li Shiming couldn’t be bothered with them and let the few Qi Refining Cultivators stay in the valley.
He cultivated daily using the top-grade spirit veins, and with the help of his clone, he had raised his Spiritual Power to the peak of the Qi Refining Ninth Layer in three months.
However, reaching the peak of the Qi Refining Ninth Layer did not mean he could break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage; he still needed to regulate the spiritual power within his body.
Of course, if he didn’t care about having good prospects within the Foundation Establishment Stage, he could choose to break through directly. He believed that with the guarantee of seven Foundation Establishment Pills, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Stage shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
But he wouldn’t dare to do so. He needed to establish a very solid foundation before attempting the breakthrough.
In the main hall of the cave dwelling, Li Shiming sat with his eyes tightly closed, his consciousness connected to the IBMz15.
As soon as he had moved in three months ago, he assigned a new research topic to the IBMz15.
That was to use the resources at hand to set up an array that, in conjunction with the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique,’ would balance the Five Elements Spiritual Power.
This method, recorded in the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique,’ was said to increase the success rate of breakthroughs and also purify spiritual power during the conversion process.
During his time on Sky Sea Island, Li Shiming had been cautioned by numerous cultivators, including Golden Core cultivators, that his physique was too strong; it far exceeded his spiritual cultivation level, which paradoxically decreased his chances of breakthrough.
Being a cultivator with three spirit root seeds, the odds of a successful breakthrough were already slim for him.
This had created a knot in his heart, so he desperately sought more Foundation Establishment Pills, and intentionally or unintentionally, he had managed to acquire seven.
But this did not lessen his fear of failing the breakthrough; he was not like those with Heavenly Spirit Roots who didn’t need to worry about the challenge of Foundation Establishment at all.
For those with the Heavenly Spirit Root, the trouble was only the breakthrough to the Golden Core stage, as Foundation Establishment was as easy as reaching out their hands.
Therefore, he took the vague records in the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique’ very seriously.
He even judged that this was a solution devised specifically to give Five Elements cultivators a chance to break through to the Foundation Establishment.
If cultivators with the Five Elements spirit root seeds could find a way to break through, then wouldn’t his own chances as a three spirit root seed cultivator be even greater!
Over the course of three months, the IBMz15 had continuously revised the array design, leading to the current formation blueprint.
This formation, which he named the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Array,’ was designed to make use of the Wei Family stronghold’s own formation and the top-grade spirit veins, all to serve the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique.’
Li Shiming took out the Iron Spirit Wood, green crystals, Flame Crystals, Binding Soil Stones, and wood-iron—these five types of Second Grade Five Elements Array materials were already refined by him into formation items.
On the floor of the main hall, there were even more Spiritual Power lines than before, and these lines were converging from all around the stronghold.
To install these Spiritual Power lines, he had used up all his array materials available and even demolished many of the Wei Family’s buildings to finally gather all necessary materials.
If any cultivator from the Wei Family were still alive to see the current state of the stronghold, they would hardly believe their eyes.
The Wei Family stronghold was now almost devoid of intact buildings, only the main structural elements remained. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to demolish the main structures, but because they were nodes of the Defensive Array and couldn’t be removed.
All the other secondary formations, however, had been transformed back into formation materials by him.
On the ground of the stronghold, a web of rudimentary formation lines linked various nodes throughout the stronghold together.
This was the state of the stronghold without the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Array’ activated. Once activated, these formation lines would merge into the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Array’ and would no longer be visible.
This had been a massive undertaking which he and his clone had busied themselves with for many days to complete.
Today was the most critical moment, the final part of the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Array.’
Carefully, he placed the Second Grade Iron Spirit Wood, green crystals, Flame Crystals, Binding Soil Stones, and wood-iron at the five converging points of Spiritual Power lines in the main hall.
“Activate!” He uttered softly, and the entire Wei Family stronghold shook briefly.
The few Qi Refining Cultivators in the valley felt it too, but after merely watching the entrance of the stronghold for a while and noticing nothing else, they paid it no further attention.
The few Qi Refining Cultivators left in the valley were no longer from the Tie Clan and the Hu immortal family, but were Loose Cultivators tasked with a mission.
For these Qi Refining Cultivators, their only job was to report when someone entered or left the stronghold; they were unconcerned with anything else.
Li Shiming released his Spiritual Thought, sensing the operation of the formations around him.
Since the ‘Five Elements Qi Absorption Array’ had only been simulated by the IBMz15 and not actually implemented, everything still needed to be verified through practice.
All around the Wei Family stronghold, the formation lines glowed, drawing the Five Elements Power from the formations, channeling it towards the main hall along the Spiritual Power lines.