Chapter 27 Foundation Building is all about making a set of clothes for your little tiger by hand...
Zhong Jiuli looked at her aged face, her eyes filled with heartache. She reached out her hand, her fingertips trembling slightly as she hovered in mid-air, before finally shifting an inch and landing on Bai Ye's dry, weed-like hair.
"You little rascal, do you think your older sisters need to risk their lives? If anyone should be risking their lives, it should be your older sisters." Liu Xianyue's voice came from above.
Despite saying that, she still took out a pill from her storage ring and handed it to Bai Ye's lips.
Bai kept her mouth tightly shut, not daring to open it to eat the pill. She was afraid that if she ate it, her debts would increase even further.
Liu Xianyue rolled her eyes and said irritably, "I won't charge you this time, hurry up and eat. Otherwise, you'll die here before the Spirit Devourer dies, and then your sister Zhong will have to go through a lot of trouble to save you."
"You said you wouldn't charge me. If you ask me for spirit stones again later, I won't pay you," Bai emphasized, still not entirely at ease.
Zhong Jiuli couldn't stand watching the two of them dawdle any longer. She took the pill from Liu Xianyue's hand, and with her other hand, she pinched Bai Ye's wrinkled old face and stuffed the pill directly into her mouth.
"Close your eyes, sit in meditation, regulate your breathing, and refine the medicinal power," Zhong Jiuli said, enunciating each word clearly.
Bai obediently did as she was told. While they were joking around, the battle between Xiao Lü and the Spirit Devourer was coming to an end.
The howl of the Soul-Eating Demon grew increasingly sharp and piercing as it frantically summoned mycelium in a final desperate struggle.
Although both are plant-based spirits, Little Green is worlds apart from it; the difference lies in their level of life.
If Bai Ye and the others hadn't helped break through the Spirit Devourer's protective aura, Xiao Lü definitely wouldn't have been able to defeat it. But now that she's already close enough, the Spirit Devourer is doomed.
If it weren't for Xiao Lü's presence, even if Zhong Jiuli and Liu Xianyue were in their true forms, they would be helpless against this Soul-Eating Demon.
Unfortunately, it was destined to suffer this calamity, as it encountered Bai Ye, who possessed an extraordinary ability.
The red light inside the cave grew dimmer and dimmer, and the once ubiquitous scarlet mycelium withered and died off rapidly, while the green light emitted by Little Green became increasingly clear and dazzling.
As the last wisp of red light vanished, the Spirit Devourer's true form completely withered and decayed, turning into a ball of crimson essence that was absorbed entirely by Little Green.
A very long, satisfying burp echoed through the quiet cave.
Having eaten and drunk its fill, Little Green, carrying a surge of vital energy, darted back into Bai Ye's dantian with a "whoosh."
A warm current surged from his dantian, as if withered trees were reborn in spring. Bai Ye's hunched figure straightened instantly, his wrinkles quickly faded, his withered muscles became full and powerful again, and his messy hair became smooth again.
The life force that had been drained not only returned in full, but was also several times stronger than before. The essence of life surged through her meridians, and wherever it passed, her bones glowed with a warm, jade-like color, faintly revealing the sound of metal and jade clashing. Her flesh and blood became crystal clear, and her blood and qi surged like a dragon.
Bai Ye's body was bursting with intense spiritual light, and he was like a celestial artifact being tempered, radiating dazzling precious light.
The aura was too powerful, forcing Zhong Jiuli and the other person to retreat ten feet away.
After circulating through Bai Ye's body for one full cycle, all of the life essence returned to the dantian.
With such immense energy entering his body, Bai Ye's cultivation level instantly surged, rising from the ninth level of Qi Refining to the tenth level, and finally to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining...
This powerful breakthrough did not stop. The spiritual energy vortex within his dantian spun wildly, faster and faster, gradually condensing into a single, translucent drop of spiritual liquid at its center. As soon as this drop of spiritual liquid took shape, the surrounding spiritual mist began to liquefy. The liquefaction of spiritual energy was a sign of Foundation Establishment.
"Boom!!!"
Suddenly, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and thick thunderclouds formed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Dark purple lightning bolts danced in the clouds, and a muffled thunderclap resounded for miles around.
"Is this the start of Foundation Establishment? The Foundation Establishment stage can already trigger a tribulation lightning." Liu Xianyue's beautiful eyes widened. She and Zhong Jiuli exchanged a glance, and the two of them simultaneously flew backward.
Just as the two retreated a hundred feet away, a bolt of purplish-black lightning, as thick as a bucket, tore through the sky, carrying a world-destroying force, and struck Bai Ye precisely on the head.
Dark purple lightning flowed across her body, but the expected bloody lacerations did not occur. Instead, her fair skin glowed with a luminous light, and her pores opened as she actively absorbed the power of the lightning tribulation to temper herself.
This is the "Thunder Tribulation Body Tempering" that many cultivators pursue throughout their lives. Using the power of thunder as a hammer and the physical body as a embryo, it is tempered and refined a thousand times to remove the mortal body, pursue rebirth in destruction, achieve true purity and flawlessness, and attain the Great Dao.
However, not everyone's physical body can withstand the tribulation of lightning. If an ordinary cultivator dares to use the power of the tribulation of lightning to temper his body, he will probably have all his meridians broken and his body and soul destroyed in an instant, ending up dead and gone.
As lightning flashed, bolts of thunder struck Bai Ye, and behind her, a phantom of a white tiger began to appear, undergoing the tribulation of lightning together.
As another bolt of lightning struck, the little white tiger suddenly opened its mouth and swallowed the entire bolt of lightning.
A dazzling bolt of lightning exploded from the white tiger's phantom, and the scattered lightning blasted the remaining mycelium of the Soul-Eating Demon into dust.
The cave collapsed, and the three people who had been trapped for many days finally saw the light of day again.
Such a commotion attracted many cultivators.
When the commotion first broke out, everyone thought that a rare treasure had appeared. Only after arriving at the place did they realize that a powerful cultivator was undergoing tribulation.
"Look! The Crimson Plains have disappeared!" a cultivator exclaimed.
The once scarlet earth and giant mushrooms are decaying at an alarming rate.
"The thunderclouds stretch for thousands of miles; could it be some powerful being undergoing a Nascent Soul tribulation?" someone speculated.
The people around nodded in agreement; no one could have imagined that this would be a tribulation for those in the Foundation Establishment stage.
In this Kunxu Continent, no one has ever triggered a lightning tribulation during the Foundation Establishment stage. If one had to undergo a lightning tribulation during the Foundation Establishment stage, probably 99% of cultivators would perish at the very beginning of their cultivation.
"A full eighty-one layers of lightning tribulation, I wonder which senior expert is so powerful." Another cultivator joined the conversation.
Upon hearing this, everyone gasped in shock, many recalling their own tribulations. When they formed their cores, they had only faced a simple nine-fold tribulation, yet they were already torn apart and charred black.
If someone were to undergo an eighty-one-fold tribulation like this senior, they probably wouldn't even leave a trace.
As more and more cultivators gathered, the discussion became increasingly heated, as everyone wanted to see who this person was.
However, not everyone was eager to watch the spectacle; some remained vigilant, knowing that this place was far from peaceful.
The female cultivator who had publicly confessed her love to Li Shoumo mingled in the crowd watching the commotion while cautiously looking around, ready to run away at any moment.
Several days after entering the secret realm, many cultivators have already died here. If it were just ordinary killing and looting, that would be one thing, but what's hateful are those black-robed cultivators from the ancient state who kill indiscriminately without any reason.
Forced to band together for warmth, the cultivators of the Wilderness State dared to gather here because they felt that their numbers made them powerful enough that the black-robed cultivators from the Ancient State would not dare to act rashly.
Of course, there was another reason why everyone stayed here and refused to leave: after the tribulation of lightning, heavenly rain would surely fall.
Not to mention that this is the tribulation of a Nascent Soul stage ancestor. At that time, the sky should display the Great Dao runes. Everyone is looking forward to the end of the tribulation. If they can comprehend a little bit of it, it will be of great benefit to their cultivation.
As the thunderclouds rolled across the sky, the final, massive lightning tribulation was brewing.
Everyone looked up at the sky in unison, their eyes sparkling with anticipation.
With a deafening roar, the eighty-first lightning bolt struck down. This final bolt was incredibly terrifying, causing the earth to tremble violently the moment it hit the ground.
Amidst the blinding lightning, a slender figure dressed only in a white undergarment could be vaguely seen standing in mid-air, with a huge white tiger phantom appearing behind her, breathing heavily on the lightning.
This scene stunned everyone. No one had ever seen such a strange phenomenon before. The usual Dao runes were simple law patterns. How could they form a complete beast shape like this?
Just as everyone was engrossed in watching, a group of black-robed cultivators were rapidly approaching from the horizon.
It was the female cultivator who noticed the arrival of the man in black robes first.
"Look, those people from Guzhou are attacking again!" she shouted, her voice booming through the crowd with spiritual energy. After shouting, she used her escape technique to quietly disappear underground and flee, keeping her achievements hidden.
Everyone looked up at the dark mass of black-robed cultivators flying in on swords in the sky.
The group had already acted on instinct, immediately summoning their magical artifacts to escape. However, after running a distance, they discovered that the black-robed cultivators had not followed.
A large group of nearly a hundred black-robed cultivators rushed towards Bai Ye, who had just completed her tribulation, and surrounded her.
The young man in fine clothes who was leading the group stepped forward, his gaze sweeping over the crimson plain that had collapsed. A strange light flashed in his eyes. He hadn't expected that someone could kill this Soul-Eating Demon.
However, this is a good opportunity to reap the rewards.
The richly dressed young man released his divine sense to scan Bai Ye. Seeing that she only had the Foundation Establishment cultivation level, his cautious expression turned arrogant. He shouted, "Hand over the Spirit-Eating Demon Core, and I will spare your life."
Just then, the heavy thunderclouds in the sky dispersed, replaced by a gentle, continuous rain. The glistening raindrops shimmered with a pale golden light, each drop imbued with an extremely rich spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Bai stood quietly in the center of the rain, receiving the baptism of the heavenly rain. The warm, spiritual rain slid down her hair, seeped into her skin, and nourished every inch of her meridians.
Nourished by the sweet rain, the spiritual energy within her body became increasingly solid, emanating an invisible pressure. Her aura was so powerful that it didn't resemble that of a cultivator who had just entered the Foundation Establishment stage. As the surging electric light around her gradually subsided and her dissipated aura subsided, she returned to her usual harmless appearance.
Bai also raised her eyes, and the instant she opened them, lightning crackled and Dao runes flowed within her amber pupils at incredible speed, vanishing in an instant. She turned her neck slightly, tilting her head to look at the group of people, a smile playing on her lips, her clear voice echoing in the void.
"Robbery?"
"Enough with the nonsense!" the richly dressed youth shouted again. "Hand over the demon core."
"Come and get it." Bai chuckled, his right hand clenched into a fist, and slowly extended.
The young man in fine clothes looked at Bai Ye with suspicion; he had a feeling that this person was not simple.
Instead of rushing in, he shouted from a distance of a hundred feet, "Throw it over here!"
"They're not cooperating with me. This batch of cannon fodder is no good. Director, change the extras, change the extras." Bai Ye grinned her white teeth and complained. As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly opened her right hand, which was clenched into a fist.
"Clang!"
The sound of a sword piercing the sky.
The jet-black heavy sword shot out from the hole below and landed steadily in Bai Ye's palm.
The moment the heavy sword was in her hand, Bai Ye moved. She gripped the hilt tightly with both hands and unleashed the first move of the Nine Styles of Heavy Sword: Breaking the Formation.
The sword light arrived in an instant, and the young man in fine clothes reacted just as quickly. He drew his sword and slashed out, and the two sword lights collided in mid-air.
How could the sword light he casually swung out possibly block Bai Ye's full-force attack?
The reason why the Breaking Formation is called Breaking Formation is because it has an indomitable momentum. This sword contains not only spiritual power, but also an overbearing sword intent of "I am the only one who can do it".
The moment the two sword beams collided in mid-air, the sword light that the richly dressed young man had hastily swung out disintegrated instantly, as if made of paper.
He quickly set up several spiritual energy shields in front of him, which barely managed to block Bai Ye's attack.
"Again!" Bai shouted, drawing his sword and charging forward.
The two figures clashed rapidly in the sky, and the other black-robed cultivators were about to rush forward to help, as they had come specifically to protect their young master.
Just as those people were about to unleash their magical weapons and make their move, two figures flew out from the ruins below, descending through the air like immortals.
Zhong Jiuli, dressed in white, looked like a fairy, with her long black hair cascading over her shoulders, standing quietly in mid-air.
Liu Xianyue, dressed in a fiery red dress, held a crimson lotus in her fingertips, her smile not reaching her eyes.
"A group fight?" Liu Xianyue said with a light laugh, "Did you ask for my opinion?"
Although Zhong Jiuli did not speak, the black-robed cultivators felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave when they saw her calm and bright black eyes, and their hands holding swords trembled involuntarily.
Even knowing of such an existence, they wouldn't easily lower themselves to fight them. Facing Zhong Jiuli, they still couldn't help but feel a chill.
Not far away, the fleeing cultivators hadn't gone far. Some of the bolder ones had already quietly returned, hiding in the shadows to await the blessing of the rain. At this moment, someone recognized Liu Xianyue's identity and immediately became much bolder, now that the advantage lay with the Wilderness State.
Numerous cultivators leaped into the air, unleashing their magical treasures to launch a sneak attack from the perimeter. A sudden and chaotic battle erupted instantly.
"Shameless scoundrel, how dare you commit such a despicable sneak attack!" A black-robed cultivator was caught off guard and struck by several magical treasures at the same time, his protective aura immediately shattering.
He coughed up blood and fell from the sky like a kite with a broken string, crashing into the ground and creating a deep crater.
"Hahaha, we're killing people from your Ancient State." A cultivator from the Wilderness State replied, "Compared to your ruthlessness, what are these little tricks? When we achieve great success in our cultivation, we will definitely flatten your Ancient State and crush your so-called eight great families under our feet into mud."
The black-robed cultivators' faces were so gloomy they could drip water, and the anger in their eyes was almost tangible. Although they were servants of the Sima family, they always considered themselves the orthodox lineage of Guzhou. Even cultivators from Zhongzhou were considered second-rate in their eyes.
In the eyes of the people of the ancient state, the cultivators of the desolate state are even less than clay chickens and earthen dogs.
But now these mutts dare to bare their teeth at their owner, which is even more unbearable than killing them.
"You're courting death!" roared a black-robed cultivator, who drew his sword and charged into the group of cultivators.
The crowd erupted into chaos, but Zhong Jiuli and Liu Xianyue remained silent, for they were different from these low-level cultivators.
As highly accomplished cultivators, they possess their own inherent pride. Those who have reached the pinnacle of cultivation are even more capable of touching upon the mysterious laws of cause and effect. Indiscriminately killing the innocent will only lead to karmic entanglement.
Of course, the premise is that your own child cannot be bullied.
Their eyes remained fixed on the white figure fighting the elegantly dressed youth.
The young man in fine clothes was initially caught off guard and struggled to cope. Only after Bai Ye had delivered his first three blows did he realize that the person before him seemed to lack combat experience.
As his thoughts raced, his actions became increasingly ruthless. This girl was exceptionally talented, and since they had already become enemies, he was determined to kill her here and now, or else she would become a major threat in the future.
"In the end, you still lack combat experience. Your little tiger is going to lose," Liu Xianyue suddenly said.
In the distance, high in the sky, just as Bai Ye finished his sword routine, the richly dressed young man suddenly launched an attack. Three thin needles flew out from his sleeve, their tips glowing with a ghostly blue light, clearly extremely poisonous.
The three poison needles moved with incredible speed, reaching Bai Ye's throat in an instant.
Bai hadn't expected the other party to resort to such a sneak attack. She didn't have time to dodge, and just as the poisoned needle was about to pierce her throat...
"Freeze." A clear shout echoed from the void, its sound like shattered jade striking each other, clear and melodious. Even amidst the chaos of the battlefield, it reached Bai Ye's ears clearly.
Zhong Jiuli flicked a silver light from her fingertip, pinning the three poisoned needles an inch in front of Bai Ye's throat and freezing the elegantly dressed young man's body.
Bai was breathing heavily, staring in shock at the poisoned needle frozen in front of him.
"Little guy, what are you daydreaming about? If you don't hurry up and deal with that guy, he'll beat you up again soon," Liu Xianyue urged.
Bai Ye, holding a heavy sword, looked at the young man opposite him with a hesitant expression, his breath quickening.
She has never actually killed anyone. In all the years since she transmigrated, the worst thing she has ever done was throw a bunch of rotten fruit into the Jackal Tribe.
She couldn't help but feel a little flustered at the thought of killing someone.
In the brief moment she hesitated, the young man in fine clothes suddenly became fierce, and he moved again, raising his long sword to attack Bai Ye.
The sword flashed with a cold light, aiming straight for Bai Ye's chest. This time, Zhong Jiuli did not intervene.
Bai hastily drew his sword to defend, and the two engaged in combat once again.
Liu Xianyue glanced at the seemingly calm Zhong Jiuli and suddenly chuckled, "Zhong Jiuli, since you're so worried, why don't you take care of that person? That way, the little tiger won't have to fight so hard, right?"
"She needs this kind of tempering, and so do you and I, don't we?" Zhong Jiuli said casually.
But when he saw Bai being stabbed in the chest by the young man in fine clothes, he couldn't help but frown.
Bai did it on purpose. She had already realized that her opponent had much more combat experience than her, so she directly chose to trade blows.
The moment her opponent's longsword struck her chest, her heavy sword had already cleaved into his shoulder.
However, she did not feel the sharp pain in her chest as she had expected. Looking down, she saw the young man in fine clothes with his long sword in front of her chest, the tip of the sword pressed against her clothes, but it did not pierce through her plain white undergarment.
"How is this possible?" The young man in fine clothes was shocked. This was a strike he had put all his strength into, which should have been fatal, but now his opponent was standing in front of him unharmed.
He stared intently at Bai Ye's inner garment, his lips twitching and blood spilling from them. Who, after all, was the true scion of a noble family?
As a direct descendant of the Sima family, he was already a Golden Core cultivator at the young age of eighteen. Even so, he had never been as well-equipped as the person before him, whose inner garment was engraved with defensive arrays. This person was practically armed to the teeth.
However, he didn't have much time to think about it anymore, as Bai Ye's heavy sword almost cleaved him in two.
The young man in fine clothes let out a miserable scream, but fortunately he had a protective spiritual treasure on him, which preserved a trace of his soul.
Just as his protective spiritual treasure was about to take effect and draw his soul into it, Bai Ye's heavy sword emitted a faint light, directly annihilating his soul.
The young man in fine clothes only had time to widen his eyes in astonishment before his soul and body were annihilated by the power of the heavy sword.
The moment the elegantly dressed youth plummeted from the sky, the group of men in black robes were shocked and frantically tried to break out of the group of cultivators to settle scores with Bai Ye.
However, the crowd was now mixed together, and even though the men in black robes fought desperately, they were unable to break through and get close to Bai Ye.
Liu Xianyue said with a twitch of her lips, "So, the reason you suddenly came to my Wanxiang Pavilion and took away a bunch of rare and precious materials was just to make a set of clothes for your little tiger?"
Zhong Jiuli glanced at her, but didn't say anything, only nodded slightly.
"You actually took so many materials just to make her a dress?" Liu Xianyue became more and more angry as she spoke. "With your doting attitude towards your child, what's the point of 'training' her? Train her my ass! With you by her side, what can she possibly train herself to achieve?"
“What’s wrong with me doing my best to protect her?” Zhong Jiuli retorted.
As soon as she finished speaking, she flashed in front of Bai Ye, reached out and lifted her cheek, looked directly into her eyes and said, "If you don't kill him, he will kill you."
“I know.” Bai nodded. “I don’t have any strange feelings. I’m not the kind of saint who would scream that I can’t kill someone if someone wanted to kill me.”
She rambled on for a while, and Zhong Jiuli understood her panic. She comforted her, saying, "It's normal to be a little panicked the first time. When Liu Xianyue killed someone for the first time, she secretly cried and was even afraid to stay in the house alone at night."
"Hey, Zhong Jiuli, if you're going to comfort the child, then comfort the child. Why are you bringing up my past?" Liu Xianyue shouted in dissatisfaction.
Bai looked at them, a smirk playing on his lips, revealing his small white teeth. "Liu Xianyue, you're so bad. I definitely wouldn't be afraid to sleep alone in the middle of the night."
During the pause in their conversation, the continuous rain from the sky finally stopped.
A myriad of rays of light appeared in the sky, and dozens of golden lotuses drifted down from the heavens.
The dazzling golden petals slowly unfurled in the air, with the sounds of the Great Dao swirling around them.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at the golden lotus that was still slowly falling.
"The Golden Lotus of the Great Dao! It's the Golden Lotus of the Great Dao! My God! Heaven has actually bestowed a golden lotus as a blessing!" someone exclaimed.
The roar caused an eerie stillness to rise over the entire battlefield. A moment later, as if waking from a dream, all the cultivators soared into the sky to seize the golden lotus descended from the heavens.
Even the group of black-robed men who had lost their master couldn't care less about Bai Ye. Since their young master was already dead, they would definitely be punished if they went back. They might as well seize the opportunity first, because the opportunity they seized was theirs to keep.
The sky was filled with deafening battle cries. The fighting was different from before. If the people had held back before, now they were using all their trump cards.
Everyone went into a frenzy, with people constantly falling from mid-air. But others rushed forward one after another, all firmly believing that as long as they obtained a golden lotus and comprehended the great laws within, their future cultivation would be unimpeded.
Bai stood still, her clear eyes reflecting the golden light that filled the sky. She didn't know why those people couldn't see that the dazzling golden lotuses were almost all illusions of light and shadow.
Of all the golden lotuses in the sky, only one was real. At this moment, that golden lotus was slowly flying towards her through the fighting crowd.
The crowd glanced at the golden lotus, then turned back to continue their struggle.
The swaying golden lotus finally flew to his eyes, and Bai Ye reached out and caught it. In an instant, the Great Dao Golden Lotus transformed into a stream of light and entered Bai Ye's body.
The moment the Golden Lotus of the Great Dao disappeared, the phantom of the Golden Lotus in the sky also vanished simultaneously.
The people fighting in the sky all stopped, and everyone's eyes turned to Bai Ye and his two companions.
At this moment, whether it was the black-robed man from Guzhou or the cultivators from the Wilderness State, everyone's goal became to snatch the real Golden Lotus of the Great Dao from Bai Ye's hands.
Things change. The reason we didn't compete with Bai Ye earlier was because there were still many in the air, but now that there's only one, things are hard to say.
That's how the path of cultivation works; if you want an opportunity, you must seize it through life-or-death struggles.
Bai felt a chill run down her spine under their dark, menacing gazes. She lowered her voice and whispered, "Can you fight off hundreds of people?"
Liu Xianyue said with a charming smile, "Even if hundreds more people come, I can easily kill them. But these people are not targeting me, so why should I take action?"
"Did you hear that? Don't come up here to die. Pavilion Master Liu can crush you with a single finger." Bai Ye shouted at the group with an air of confidence.
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