Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 814 Refining the Foundation Building Pill

With the addition of Cangjian Mountain, the war between Youyumen and the three Lingxiu sects has once again reached a stalemate.

The two sides continued their war of attrition east of Yushan Town, which caused many martial arts families in the Lingxiu Sea to complain bitterly.

For most martial arts families, the most terrifying thing is this kind of endless war of attrition.

For them, it didn't matter who won or lost this war, because whether it was the Lingxiu Three Sects or the Youyu Sect occupying the Lingxiu Sea, they would all need these martial arts families to provide them with resources.

Unfortunately, they have no choice. They can only obey the orders of the three Lingxiu sects unless they are willing to give up their family business and move away from Lingxiu.

Time flies, and three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Lingquan Mountain Plain, Lingquan Lake.

Yang Zhengshan, who was meditating, exhaled a breath of stale air and slowly opened his eyes.

Yang Zhengshan's slightly bewildered eyes gradually regained focus, and then a smile appeared on his face: "I have finally reached the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, a year ahead of schedule."

His gaze fell upon the Spirit Spring Lake, sensing the rich aquatic spiritual energy within it.

It was precisely because of the existence of the strange water in the lake that he reached the Great Perfection of Qi Refining a year ahead of schedule.

"Next, it's time to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill!"

Yang Zhengshan slowly stood up, straightened his clothes, and then looked towards the pavilion in the distance.

At this moment, there are six pavilions on the shore of Lingquan Lake. The other five are newly built and are for Yu Qingyi, Hongyun, Qingxia and others to cultivate.

Yu Qingyi, Hongyun, and Qingxia all practice the "Green Wood Longevity Technique".

Ma Qiuyan practices the "Gui Water Nourishing Yuan Scripture".

Ning Yun cultivates the "Taiyin Yuehua Yangxin Jing".

They can all use the spiritual energy emitted by the miraculous water to cultivate, especially Ma Qiuyan, for whom the miraculous water is most compatible.

Yang Zhengshan estimated that Yu Qingyi should have finished her cultivation by now, so he walked towards the pavilion where Yu Qingyi was.

"How about it?"

Seeing Yu Qingyi awaken from her cultivation, Yang Zhengshan asked.

“Almost there!” Yu Qingyi said.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly. "No rush."

He originally thought that Yu Qingyi would reach the Great Perfection of the Innate Realm before him, but it turned out that he was one step ahead.

However, Yu Qingyi will definitely break through before him, because he still needs to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill.

"And you?" Yu Qingyi looked at him, her eyes full of concern.

"It's already at the Great Perfection stage; now all that's missing is the Foundation Establishment Pill!" Yang Zhengshan said with a smile.

"That's good!"

Yu Qingyi smiled.

The two walked side by side toward the villa. When they returned, they found Zhou Tianci waiting outside the door.

Knowing Zhou Tianci's purpose, Yang Zhengshan welcomed him into the courtyard and asked, "Is everything prepared?"

"Yes, I can't delay any longer!" Zhou Tianci said, stroking his white beard.

Zhou Tianci's lifespan is less than ten years, and his vital energy has begun to decline. If this continues, his chances of breaking through will be even lower.

And now he has the spiritual item he needs for his breakthrough.

In three years, the Spirit Source Land has unearthed more than thirty pieces of Crimson Gold Essence from the ancient ruins, while Zhou Tianci only needs one piece to break through.

"When does it begin?"

"tomorrow!"

"So soon?" Yang Zhengshan raised an eyebrow.

“Tomorrow and the day after are the same!” Zhou Tianci laughed.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, "Alright, anyway, everything that needs to be prepared has been prepared!"

As the first person in the Spirit Source Land to attempt to break through to the Innate Realm, Yang Zhengshan still attaches great importance to it.

He hoped that Zhou Tianci could successfully break through, so that the Spirit Source Land would have one more powerful Martial God to lead the way.

The next day, Zhou Tianci went to a mountain valley in the western part of the Spirit Source Land to begin his breakthrough.

That mountain hollow is the place with the most concentrated metal-type spiritual energy in the Spirit Source Land, because there is a black iron ore vein underground.

To help Zhou Tianci break through his limits, Yang Zhengshan prepared a lot of pills for him.

Jade Marrow Pill, Bigu Pill, Golden Spirit Pill, Condensing Essence Pill, etc.

These pills are enough to meet Zhou Tianci's needs during his breakthrough, but they cannot guarantee that he will succeed.

After Zhou Tianci began his breakthrough, An Yuxing and Yu Qingyi also entered the breakthrough stage one after another.

A martial artist needs to go through four stages to break through from the Innate Realm to the Golden Body Realm. The first stage is the spiritual energy cleansing of the body, which is to use spiritual energy to cleanse the bones, flesh, and skin of the body. This stage takes the longest time and usually takes two to three years.

The second stage is to absorb spiritual objects and build a spiritual foundation. The spiritual foundation of a martial artist is different from that of a cultivator. The foundation building of a cultivator requires breaking the dantian and qi sea, completely connecting the dantian and qi sea with the meridians and acupoints of the whole body, and also requires a strong enough soul!
A martial artist's spiritual foundation further compresses and purifies the true essence within the body, transforming it into pure liquid true essence, and forming a stable "true essence vortex" in the dantian.

The reason for absorbing the spiritual energy within spiritual objects is to imbue the True Essence Vortex with spiritual attributes.

Simply put, a martial artist's spiritual foundation lays the groundwork for their spirituality, making them more compatible with a certain spiritual attribute.

The process of forging a spiritual foundation is also the most dangerous stage of breakthrough. The slightest carelessness can damage the dantian, thus wasting all cultivation. However, compared to the foundation building of immortals, the danger of a martial artist forging a spiritual foundation is much less.

Because the foundation building of immortals directly shatters the dantian, while martial artists only suffer damage to their dantian.

The third stage is the forging of the golden body. This stage is actually a continuation of the first stage. However, while the first stage uses external spiritual energy to cleanse the body, this stage uses the internal true essence to further temper the body, making it more resilient and better suited to the attributes of one's own true essence.

This process is extremely painful, almost equivalent to crushing every part of the body's flesh and bones.

At the same time, this process also carries certain risks, which may damage the body and cause injuries that are difficult to recover from.

However, once you get past this stage, you've already succeeded in breaking through. The final stage is to stabilize your cultivation and there's no more danger.

The process involves four stages and takes approximately three to five years. However, it is not necessary to go into seclusion during the breakthrough process; one only needs to be fully committed when forging the spiritual foundation.

Zhou Tianci chose to go into seclusion in the western part of the Spirit Source Land because there was a black iron ore vein there.

An Yuxing, on the other hand, went into seclusion next to the waterfall and stone pool below Lingquan Mountain, where the water-attribute spiritual energy was abundant, not much different from that of Lingquan Lake.

As for Yu Qingyi, she naturally went into seclusion on Lingquan Mountain, under the personal care of Yang Zhengshan.

The three of them began to break through one after another, which meant that the development of martial arts in the Spirit Origin Land had entered a new stage, namely the Martial God Era.

They are just the beginning. As time goes by, more and more people in the Land of Spiritual Origin will begin to attempt breakthroughs.

Liang Shengze and Qu Changkong are also preparing for their breakthroughs. After they finish, it will be Ding Qiu, Yang Mingcheng, Yang Minghao, Wu Zheng, Wu Zhan, Luo Jingsong, and others' turn.

Yang Zhengshan estimated that at least twenty people in the Spirit Source Land could attempt a breakthrough in the next twenty years.

Yang Zhengshan himself will also attempt to build a foundation within five years.

As time went by, Yang Zhengshan refined pills while watching over the three as they broke through to the next level.

He would occasionally check on Zhou Tianci and An Yuxing, but most of the time he was focused on Yu Qingyi, as he was quite worried about his wife's breakthrough.

"It's time to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill!"

In the alchemy hall of Flaming Mountain, Yang Zhengshan sat in front of the Golden Crow Eight Trigrams Furnace, taking out all the medicinal herbs he had prepared and placing them in a convenient spot.

Foundation Establishment Pills are second-tier pills. Low-grade Foundation Establishment Pills can increase the success rate of Foundation Establishment by 20%, medium-grade by 30%, high-grade by 40%, and top-grade by 60%.

Generally speaking, as long as one's cultivation is stable and there are no major health problems, taking a low-grade Foundation Establishment Pill will give one a 40% chance of successfully establishing one's foundation.

In other words, without Foundation Establishment Pills, the chance of establishing a foundation is only 20%, while with top-grade Foundation Establishment Pills, the chance is 80%.

Yang Zhengshan naturally wanted a top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill, but he also knew that was wishful thinking. His requirements were not high; he would be satisfied if he could refine one high-grade Foundation Establishment Pill out of four batches of pills.

Logically speaking, it is very difficult for Qi Refining cultivators to refine second-tier pills, because refining second-tier pills requires Foundation Establishment True Fire or the use of second-tier Earth Fire.

Qi Refining stage cultivators certainly don't have Foundation Establishment True Fire, and controlling second-tier earth fire is extremely difficult; one must cultivate fire control techniques to an extremely proficient level.

The earth fire of Flaming Mountain is barely considered first-tier, and is far from sufficient to refine second-tier pills.

However, Yang Zhengshan has the Golden Crow Eight Trigrams Furnace, which contains the True Fire of the Sun, so Yang Zhengshan doesn't need to worry about the flames at all.

Using the True Fire of the Sun consumes too many spirit stones. Yang Zhengshan prepared 200,000 low-grade spirit stones, but he didn't know if it would be enough to refine four batches of Foundation Establishment Pills.

"Are you ready?" Yang Zhengshan turned his head to look at Jinwu beside him.

"Don't worry, Master, I definitely won't make any mistakes!" The Golden Crow flapped its wings, striking a confident pose.

Well, Yang Zhengshan should be more worried about whether he will make a mistake than about Jinwu.

"Then let's get started!"

After saying that, the Golden Crow ignited the true fire of the sun, and the temperature inside the hall instantly soared several times, making Yang Zhengshan feel his face burning.

However, after feeling the gentleness and stability of the flames, Yang Zhengshan nodded in satisfaction.

He then placed the prepared medicinal herbs into the alchemy furnace one by one in order.

First came four adjuvant herbs: goosegrass, sweet dew grass, dragon bone flower, and cold pine cone; then came two harmonizing herbs: red ginseng and bone-washing flower.

Yang Zhengshan carefully put one medicinal herb after another into the alchemy furnace, observing the changes in the herbs with his spiritual sense. At the same time, he carefully made a hand seal with one hand and inscribed talismans with the other, which he then poured into the furnace.

After all the medicinal materials in the alchemy furnace had fused into a liquid, Yang Zhengshan added eight more auxiliary medicines.

Yang Zhengshan was very careful throughout the entire process, observing all the changes inside the alchemy furnace with complete concentration.

In fact, he had practiced this process countless times and knew it by heart. However, practice is just practice; this was his first time actually refining a Foundation Establishment Pill.

Finally, there are three main ingredients: three-hundred-year-old purple-leaf orchid grass, five-hundred-year-old phoenix blood flower, and three Qingxuan fruit kernels.

Of the three main ingredients, the Qingxuan Fruit kernel is the most precious to Yang Zhengshan, because there are many purple-leaf orchids and phoenix blood flowers in the ancient ruins, but Yang Zhengshan only found twelve Qingxuan Fruit kernels.

The so-called Qingxuan fruit kernel is the kernel of the fruit after the Qingxuan fruit tree has matured.

There are more than a dozen Azure Profound Fruit Trees in the ancient ruins, but these Azure Profound Fruit Trees are second-tier spiritual plants that only bear fruit once every hundred years, and only twelve fruits at a time.

Yang Zhengshan was lucky enough to find twelve fruit pits under these green jujube trees.

The ancient array has existed for tens of thousands of years, so there should be many fruit pits. However, the fruit pits from before have long been picked up, leaving only these twelve.

Yang Zhengshan estimated that no one had been to the herb garden when the last remnant array was activated, otherwise they wouldn't have left him with these twelve fruit pits.

Yang Zhengshan threw three fruit pits into the alchemy furnace, and immediately controlled the medicinal liquid inside the furnace to envelop the fruit pits.

But the next moment.

There was a boom.

A cloud of black smoke billowed from the alchemy furnace, and the medicinal liquid and fruit pits inside immediately turned into ashes.

"It's a failure! The fruit pit was added a little too early; the medicinal liquid hadn't fully mixed in yet!"

Yang Zhengshan calmly analyzed the mistake he had just made.

Failure was an expected outcome, and he was not discouraged by it.

“Master~” Jinwu looked at Yang Zhengshan.

Yang Zhengshan waved his hand, "Clean the furnace, let's do it again!"

Although he failed once, he felt he was in good shape now, so he decided to try again.

After cleaning out the ashes from the furnace, Yang Zhengshan carefully washed the inside and outside of the furnace with spiritual spring water before starting the second round of refining Foundation Building Pills.

This time, Yang Zhengshan successfully put the Qingxuan Fruit pit into the alchemy furnace. The pit slowly melted under the influence of the medicinal liquid and merged into it.

However, it failed again when it came to the final step of condensing the medicinal liquid into a pill.

Despite two failures, Yang Zhengshan remained calm and composed.

However, he did not continue refining pills. Instead, after cleaning the pill furnace, he left the pill refining hall and returned to Lingquan Mountain Plain.

Yu Qingyi sat in the pavilion, her mind and body immersed in cultivation, with Qingxia and Hongyun taking turns guarding her side.

After seeing that she was alright, Yang Zhengshan went to check on An Yuxing and Zhou Tianci.

All three are currently in the first stage of their breakthrough. There is no danger at the moment, but it is taking some time.

Half a month later, Yang Zhengshan started refining Foundation Building Pills again.

Inside the alchemy hall, the true fire of the sun blazed fiercely, constantly warming the medicinal liquid in the alchemy furnace.

"Congeal!"

Inside the alchemy furnace, three pale blue medicinal liquids continued to condense, their color constantly shifting between bluish-black and dark blue.

Yang Zhengshan's forehead was covered in sweat as he carefully stabilized the various medicinal interactions within the liquid.

More than an hour later, Yang Zhengshan suddenly stood up. With a thought, the lid of the Eight Trigrams Furnace opened with a bang. Yang Zhengshan made hand seals and cast talismans into the furnace.

The Eight Trigrams Furnace trembled slightly, and three round, light blue pills flew out of the furnace and landed in the white jade plate beside it.

Before Yang Zhengshan could examine the three pills closely, two of them turned from blue to black, then cracked open and turned into ashes.

Only one pill had a faint glow surrounding its surface, with three shallow cloud patterns imprinted on its outer skin.

(End of this chapter)