Chapter 20: Foundation Establishment Pill

“This is it. The records in the ancestor's notebook were indeed correct; there truly is a Water Spirit Fruit tree here! It has been over a hundred years, so the Water Spirit Fruit should have matured by now.” The two Elders behind Liu Tianlong appeared visibly excited.

The Liu family had not spared any effort this time, deploying more than half of the clan's combat strength and spending a fortune to hire cultivators from three nearby Qi Refinement families, and it wasn't just to slay that Level 2 Silver-Armored Crab Demon from earlier.

The true purpose of this trip, after eliminating the Level 2 beast occupying the pool, was to successfully infiltrate the bottom of the pond to find the Level 2 Water Spirit Fruit tree recorded in Liu Tianlong's notebook.

This notebook belonged to a Foundation Establishment ancestor of the Liu family from over a hundred years ago. It recorded that while hunting demon beasts in the Floating Cloud Mountains, this ancestor had accidentally discovered a Level 2 Water Spirit Fruit tree in this location.

It was precisely by trading a single mature Water Spirit Fruit from that tree to the Xiaoyao Sect that this Liu family ancestor obtained a Foundation Establishment Pill, subsequently succeeding in his breakthrough.

After achieving Foundation Establishment back then, the ancestor had intended to transplant the Water Spirit Fruit tree to the Liu family's Spirit Mountain. Unfortunately, the clan had never produced a Level 2 Spirit Plant Master, and since he did not dare to trust outsiders, he could only set the matter aside for the time being.

The ancestor had kept this matter strictly confidential within the clan, recording it only in his personal notebook. He died unexpectedly abroad, and the rest of the clan remained unaware of the secret. It wasn't until decades after the succession of a new clan leader that the notebook was accidentally discovered, leading them to send people to the Floating Cloud Mountains to search for the pool described within.

Finally, after nearly a century of patient waiting, Liu Tianlong arrived just as the Water Spirit Fruit matured once again.

Ever since the demon beast riots in the Northern Border a century ago, which resulted in the loss of the clan's only Foundation Establishment cultivator, every member of the Liu family had spent every waking moment contemplating how to restore their former glory as a Foundation Establishment family.

To achieve this goal, the Liu family had to find a way to cultivate another Foundation Establishment cultivator. They were now very close to this goal; through years of cultivation, the clan had already hidden a "seed" capable of reaching Foundation Establishment. All they lacked now was a single Foundation Establishment Pill.

Aside from the one-in-ten-thousand cultivators with Heaven-grade Spiritual Roots, ordinary cultivators encounter a massive bottleneck when attempting to break through to Foundation Establishment. Fewer than five percent of cultivators manage to force a successful breakthrough.

Once a breakthrough fails, the surging spiritual power within the cultivator's meridians can instantly backfire, causing irreparable damage to their fragile channels.

A cultivator who fails such a breakthrough will, at best, require at least twenty years to fully recover from the injuries, effectively missing their chance to attempt Foundation Establishment again and bringing their cultivation journey to an end. At worst, they may suffer a body explosion upon failure, causing their entire cultivation base to vanish instantly in an extremely painful death.

This reality caused many genius cultivators like Liu Tianlong, even those who could reach the ninth level of Qi Refinement before the age of sixty, to hesitate before risking such immense danger to force a breakthrough.

To increase the success rate of breakthroughs, the cultivation world—through the research and accumulation of many top-tier experts—gradually developed various auxiliary pills and spiritual items. Among these, the most effective and widely recognized is the Foundation Establishment Pill.

The Foundation Establishment Pill is a Level 2 pill researched by a Deity Transformation stage expert during ancient times to assist in breakthroughs. After countless generations of refinement and testing by high-level alchemists, it has become an indispensable item for any cultivator seeking Foundation Establishment.

When a cultivator attempts to establish their foundation, they need to inhale massive amounts of spiritual energy to liquefy the spiritual power in their bodies. Taking a Foundation Establishment Pill helps harmonize the surging spiritual power during the breakthrough process.

Not only does the pill significantly increase the success rate for ordinary cultivators, but it also serves to protect their meridians from excessive backlash if the breakthrough fails. This ensures that even if they fail, the injuries are not too severe, allowing them to recover within three to five years and try again.

Although the Foundation Establishment Pill is only a high-grade Level 2 pill, it is extremely rare in the Wei Country cultivation world. Aside from the local hegemon, the Xiaoyao Sect, it only occasionally surfaces in the black markets near the Floating Cloud Mountains. Its value far exceeds other Level 2 pills and is even higher than some Level 3 pills.

The refinement of a Foundation Establishment Pill is incredibly complex. The primary ingredients include two types of herbs aged over eight hundred years—Jade Marrow Golden Branch and Five Elements Spiritual Fruit—along with over a dozen auxiliary spiritual herbs that take one to two hundred years to mature.

These spiritual herbs are difficult to find in the wild once mature. In the entire Wei Country, only the Xiaoyao Sect's spiritual herb gardens can provide a long-term, stable supply of the various herbs required for refining Foundation Establishment Pills.

The Xiaoyao Sect only refines a few batches of Foundation Establishment Pills every ten years, yielding at most twenty to thirty pills per batch. Most are divided among the sect's internal members, with only a small portion released to the various cultivation families that have served the sect. Even Foundation Establishment families find it difficult to obtain this opportunity, let alone lower-level Qi Refinement families.

Even when given the chance to purchase one, the price remains exorbitant. Under normal circumstances, a single Foundation Establishment Pill costs ten thousand spirit stones, and even this is considered a very reasonable price compared to the auction prices in the black market.

The Song family, where Song Qingming belonged, could only save a few dozen spirit stones a year after all expenses. In years of disaster, they even had to use their savings to make ends meet; even after a century of accumulation, their treasury held only two to three thousand spirit stones.

For a low-level Qi Refinement family like the Song family, even if a cultivator with exceptional spiritual root talent appeared, they could only send that person to the Xiaoyao Sect to stand a chance at Foundation Establishment.

It is precisely by maintaining a tight grip on the supply of Foundation Establishment Pills in Wei Country that the Xiaoyao Sect is able to continuously siphon off the most talented cultivators from the various families under its rule, replenishing the sect's own ranks.

The Water Spirit Fruit that Liu Tianlong was searching for was the Five Elements Spiritual Fruit, one of the two primary ingredients needed to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill, making it extremely valuable.

The Xiaoyao Sect also maintains a long-term policy of purchasing various spiritual herbs used for refining Foundation Establishment Pills. Anyone who can provide primary ingredients of sufficient age can directly exchange them for a Foundation Establishment Pill within the sect. This was exactly how the Liu family ancestor had achieved his breakthrough a century ago.

After the three members of the Liu family walked dozens of steps toward the blue light and passed through a low opening, the passage suddenly widened. The source of the blue light was a small green tree within the cave.

As Liu Tianlong approached, he saw that the small tree was about five feet tall, roughly his own height, and emitted a dense aura of spiritual energy. Five or six blue fruits hung from the branches; they were crystal clear and emitted pulses of blue light that were highly enticing. The light the three had seen from outside was indeed emanating from these fruits.

"Haha, this must be the Water Spirit Fruit! The ancestor's timing was indeed perfect. If we had come a few years earlier, these fruits probably wouldn't have been ripe yet," one of the elder Liu family members remarked with a laugh, looking at a fruit that had become completely transparent.

"Everyone, be careful. Try not to damage this tree. We only need to pick the ripe fruit. Once our Liu family cultivates its own Level 2 Spirit Plant Master, we will find a way to transplant this Water Spirit Fruit tree."

The Water Spirit Fruit tree was a Level 2 spiritual wood. Without a Spirit Plant Master of Level 2 or higher, a reckless attempt at transplantation would easily cause the tree to lose its spiritual energy and vitality, leading to a slow death and the loss of any unripe fruit on the branches.

If they could successfully and secretly transplant this tree to the Liu family's Spirit Mountain in the future, the Liu family could exchange for one Foundation Establishment Pill every hundred years, ensuring the long-term prosperity of the clan. This was the greatest opportunity for all Liu family cultivators to change their destiny.

Liu Tianlong reached out to pluck the ripe Water Spirit Fruit, only to find that the connection between the fruit and the tree was incredibly tough. Finding it difficult to pick by hand, he released a high-grade flying sword and used a single strike to sever the fruit.

The Liu family elder beside him quickly used a pre-prepared jade box to carefully secure the fruit and handed it to Liu Tianlong.

Looking at this Water Spirit Fruit, which carried the hopes of his clan's revival, Liu Tianlong could not help but feel a surge of excitement. The path to the Liu family's resurgence had finally taken its first step in his hands.

Just as the three had picked the ripe fruit and were about to turn and leave, they suddenly felt a terrifying pressure of spiritual energy erupt from the darkness on one side of the cave. In the darkness, a pair of massive red eyes suddenly snapped open, staring fixedly at the three tiny humans before them.

"This is... how can there be another Level 2 demon beast here? This is bad, run!"

"Patriarch, go quickly! We will cover your retreat!"

Staring at the massive dark shadow before them, the three Liu family members trembled uncontrollably. The spiritual pressure emitted by this Level 2 beast was far more powerful than that of the Silver-Armored Crab, yet they had been in the cave for so long without noticing it at all.

After the Liu family discovered this pool twenty years ago, they had sent cultivators to investigate it many times. Aside from the Silver-Armored Crab that had recently advanced, they had never seen any other Level 2 demon beast.

How could Liu Tianlong have imagined that this small pool actually harbored two Level 2 demon beasts?

At this moment, Liu Tianlong realized instantly: the demon beast skeletons they had seen in the caves along the way had not been eaten by the Silver-Armored Crab, but by this very beast, which possessed an aura even more powerful than the crab.