Chapter 53

Gu Fan's spiritual awareness is a good thing. When Qing Teng's supernatural power sneaked into the tents of Sheng and Wang's teams from underground, Gu Fan instructed Qing Teng to control the thorny vines to aim at the position. Within a second, more than a dozen vines pierced the exposed skin of Sheng Xi and others like water snakes at the same time.

Except for two people who reacted quickly and dodged in time, the other seven were hit, their bodies paralyzed, and they lay on the ground unable to move.

The superficial harmony was officially torn apart, and Gu Fan and the other four flew out of the tent, but they only stopped in mid-air and did not fly away immediately.

"Don't do anything yet!"

He Jing was awakened and left the tent. Seeing someone from the Sheng family about to shoot at the Xinghe team, she immediately stopped them.

"They attacked us!"

"We have no ill intentions, we just want to leave safely." Gu Fan took the initiative to explain to He Jing, "I believe Captain He can see that Sheng Xi has been planning to forcibly take me back to the base. I will go back to the base, but now is not the time. I hope Captain He will help me. This is the antidote for Sheng Xi and others. We will be back to normal in three hours."

He Jing said seriously, "Gu Fan, your medicine is very important to the base. If you return to the base, the military will definitely treat you as a VIP and will never force anything on you. The Sheng family may have ulterior motives, but they don't have the final say over the base."

Gu Fan smiled and said, "Captain He, are you trying to stop us from leaving? Even though we are outnumbered, if we really fight, both sides will suffer."

He Jing didn't want to force Gu Fan to stay. After a moment of silence, she took the initiative to step back.

Without Lu Ya, Sheng Xi and Captain Wang were also paralyzed, and He Jing was now the leader of the team.

"Thank you." Gu Fan threw the antidote to He Jing.

He Jing's expression was complicated: "I hope to see you at the base soon."

Gu Fan nodded, and flew into the endless night with Xinghe and the other three.

He Jing asked someone to give the antidote to Sheng Xi and others.

After drinking the antidote, Sheng Xi couldn't move for the time being, but he could speak now. He looked at He Jing with displeasure: "You're just going to let her go like that?"

He Jing said coldly, "A forced melon is not sweet. Even if you forcibly take her back, if she doesn't cooperate, do you still want to torture her?"

That's what Sheng Xi thought, and he had already made up a reason: "For the sake of the base, sacrificing the freedom of one or two people is nothing."

He Jing wanted to laugh: "Why didn't the Sheng family have such a high level of awareness when the beast tide hit?"

The choices made by the Sheng family members during the beast tide are the Sheng family's biggest handle. Once this is mentioned, even the Wang family team will feel ashamed.

Sheng Xi looked around at everyone, lowered his eyes, and hid the hatred in his eyes.

Let these people laugh at the Sheng family. Now that Lu Ya is dead, and the marshals of the He and Wang families are old, one day, the Jiangnan base will be the territory of the Sheng family. Then, let's see who dares to go against the wishes of the Sheng family.

——

The wilderness at night was too dangerous, so Gu Fan and his four companions went around two hills and landed, hiding in the night.

This place still belongs to the territory of the group of pelicans. Thanks to the residual power of the two S-level pelicans before, no high-level monsters will come here for the time being.

After setting up the tent, Gu Fan asked Xinghe and the other three to rest, and she would be on guard tonight.

As they expected, Sheng Xi did not have the courage to lead people into the dangerous mountains and forests to search for them. The next morning, He Jing, Sheng Xi and others continued to walk back.

The threat from humans has disappeared. The spiritual energy here is rich and suitable for cultivation. Gu Fan flew around the mountains and forests and used the terrain to open up a cave that could shelter from wind and rain.

"The time required to build a foundation varies for each cultivator. It could be three to five days, or even a month or half a decade..."

"Fanfan, just focus on your cultivation. We don't have much else to do, so we'll just guard the gate for you outside."

Fenghuo interrupted Gu Fan with a smile.

Gu Fan really needed their help in guarding the gate, otherwise even if a B-level monster came, it would interrupt her training.

"The vegetation here is lush, and there may be some herbs that can be used. You can try to look for them while you wait for me." Time is precious, so Gu Fan took out her tablet. There was a folder in it that contained some herbs that she had sorted out and discovered by humans on Earth. With the memory ability of an A-level psychic, it is easy to remember the appearance of the herbs as long as you pay attention.

Xinghe took the tablet and told Gu Fan not to worry about them.

Gu Fan looked at his four companions and went into the cave with a smile.

Out of habit, she used spirit stones to set up two defensive formations inside and outside the cave.

Sitting cross-legged, Gu Fan closed his eyes, and the experiences of this period flashed through his mind one after another. The last one was the two S-level pelicans circling in the air, and the look that Lu Ya gave him before they parted.

Time was running out, and no matter what he wanted to say, all he could do was look at her.

As soon as he thought about it, a black porcelain flowerpot suddenly appeared in front of Gu Fan.

A few red flowers are still blooming beautifully.

Gu Fan's fingertips gently touched the edge of the petals. The petals trembled, and the dewdrops on them rolled, but finally returned to calm.

——

"It's great to be able to practice. Fanfan has been in seclusion for seven days without eating or drinking. If it were us, we would have collapsed long ago."

At noon that day, Fenghuo, Menglianying and Qingteng came back from looking for medicine. They gathered around Xinghe to eat and chat while eating.

In the past, Meng Lianying would definitely respond, but now he just focused on eating.

Fenghuo patted his shoulder: "Are you worried about Mr. Lu?"

How could Meng Lianying not be worried? His cousin had been missing for almost half a month. If he was safe, he would definitely find a way to report it.

Xinghe analyzed, "Maybe he has already reunited with the team at the base. If he's fine, he should continue to lead the team to City C."

Fenghuo: "Anyway, don't worry. Once Fanfan has established her foundation, we'll go back to the base first. We won't go in, but we'll get information about Master Lu from outside."

Meng Lianying nodded, but his mood was still heavy.

Fenghuo deliberately diverted his attention: "We've found a lot of herbs these past few days, but we just don't have the red ginseng needed to make the bone-repairing pill. Mr. Meng, are you afraid that my arm will grow back, so you've hidden the red ginseng?"

Meng Lianying: "You have amnesia, right? Fanfan said that red ginseng only appears where ice and fire merge. There are no snowy mountains or fire here. Where can I find red ginseng for you?"

Qing Teng: "You two should keep your voices down and don't disturb Fanfan."

They both shut up at the same time.

Xinghe suddenly looked towards the cave where Gu Fan was: "Did you feel anything?"

Qing Teng and the other two stopped eating.

Fenghuo blinked: "Didn't you feel anything?"

Xinghe: "Use your mental power to sense the five elements around you."

Fenghuo tried again, and this time, he felt that a large number of fire elements were gathering towards the cave, as if there was a vortex center there, madly devouring the surrounding fire elements.

What Meng Lianying felt was a vortex of gold.

What Qing Teng felt was a wood vortex.

Xinghe smiled and said, "It seems that Fanfan has reached the most critical step."

Gu Fan said that when she practiced in the past, Lu Ya could feel the changes in the elements around her, but an A-level psychic could not feel it. The fact that such a change had occurred now could only mean that the amount of five elements Gu Fan absorbed at one time was far more than usual, so much that even an A-level psychic could sense it.

In the cave, the pot of red flowers was still blooming quietly. Gu Fan also closed her eyes, but her spiritual consciousness was observing the changes in her dantian with surprise.

For cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage, the spiritual energy in their Dantian condenses into a gaseous state, like clouds of mist.

The process of building the foundation is to condense these spiritual energies into liquid.

The spiritual energy gathered more and more, filling the Dantian and starting to expand. When the Dantian expanded to about twice its original size, the expanding and noisy spiritual energy inside seemed to find that it had nowhere to go. However, the spiritual energy was still pouring into the Dantian rapidly, compressing the spiritual energy that already existed in the Dantian.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth continued to flow, and finally, the first drop of spiritual liquid appeared in the center of Dantian. The five elements of gold, green, blue, red and yellow merged into one.

One drop, two drops...

Gu Fan couldn't feel the time, his whole mind was focused on the changes in his dantian.

As the spiritual liquid in the dantian increased, the speed at which spiritual energy flowed into the body finally slowed down.

Finally, when his dantian was completely filled with crystal clear spiritual liquid, Gu Fan stopped practicing.

Feeling refreshed, Gu Fan released his spiritual consciousness.

Everything within a radius of five hundred meters was before her eyes. She saw the setting sun shining on the mountainside, a few green grasshoppers jumping in the grass, and Xinghe and the other three sitting together eating dinner.

After experiencing the changes in his spiritual consciousness, Gu Fan opened his eyes.

Building the foundation is an improvement in cultivation and a further strengthening of physical fitness. After skillfully using the dust removal technique to clean the impurities on the surface of the body, Gu Fan took a deep breath.

She took out the black storage ring she had picked up, as well as the flying magic weapon that belonged to that unfortunate fellow disciple.

Pills and magic weapons are divided into grades. The hair growth pills and scar removal pills sold by Gu Fan at the base are inferior. The fasting pills and muscle growth and blood replenishing pills are low-grade pills among the low-grade pills. The bone-repairing pills and beast-avoiding pills that Gu Fan didn't know how to refine before are mid-grade pills among the low-grade pills. The marrow cleansing pills and foundation-building pills are high-grade pills among the low-grade pills.

Gu Fan had only seen higher-level elixirs at the sect’s exchange point, but had never touched them.

Gu Fan knew even less about flying magic weapons, but with her knowledge, she was able to determine that the sword in her hand was a standard sword issued by the sect to the foundation-building disciples. It was a mid-level sword among the lower-grade swords and could be used as a flying magic weapon as well as to attack and defend against the enemy.

Disciples in the foundation-building stage, who have higher cultivation and wealthier family backgrounds, will not use this type of standard sword. This means that the unlucky fellow disciple whose belongings were picked up by Gu Fan was either just in the foundation-building stage or his ability was not good enough. It took him a long time to accumulate enough spirit stones or treasures to exchange for a flying magic weapon.

Holding on to a glimmer of hope, Gu Fan used his spiritual sense to destroy the spiritual barrier on the black ring.

Tried three times, but it didn't open.

Gu Fan gave up decisively. It seemed that she had to continue practicing before she could open the ring. But it was also good this way. The higher the other party's cultivation level, the more good things he might have in his collection.

Gu Fan touched the low-grade intermediate magic weapon again. The sect was in such danger at that time, but this person still used this flying sword, which meant that he really had no better flying magic weapon. His cultivation was definitely not high. Perhaps when Gu Fan cultivated to the second or third level of the Foundation Establishment Period, he would be able to open it, and there would be no need to wait too long.

After putting away the black ring, Gu Fan saw the pot of flowers again.

After not watering for a few days, the flowers have wilted and the leaves have turned slightly yellow.

Gu Fan silently recited the spell for cultivating spiritual herbs, and the flower immediately began to flourish.

The flowers are all fine, where did Lu Ya go?

Gu Fan still felt that something might have happened to Lu Ya, either dead or injured.

The two S-rank pelicans had so many eggs in their nests that even if they went after Lu Ya, they wouldn't have strayed far. Therefore, even if Lu Ya and the pelicans perished together, their final landing point would surely be near Zhang City.