Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Within the space, time flowed silently. Lin Yan slowly awoke from extreme exhaustion. The pain in his soul and body had subsided, replaced by a renewed sense of resilience. He looked inward at himself; the blurry millstone phantom in his sea of ​​consciousness slowly rotated, refining his soul power on its own. Beneath his skin, a very faint iron-gray luster appeared, announcing the achievement of the first level of the second stage of the "Great Zhou Celestial Body Refining Technique".

Amidst his joy, an unavoidable fact confronted him—his cultivation level remained stagnant at the late stage of the first level of Foundation Establishment.

Over the years, he devoted himself entirely to the path of talisman arrays, and almost never took the initiative to go into seclusion to improve his cultivation. Even so, by frequently going to the Myriad Evolution Mountains to "spar" with demonic beasts, exhausting his true essence to the limit each time before recovering, this almost self-torturing method has forced his cultivation to the late stage of the first level.

But in Lin Yan's eyes, this speed was outrageously slow.

"Top-grade eight spiritual roots..." Lin Yan sighed helplessly as he felt the speed at which his body absorbed spiritual energy. This exceptional talent, shaped by the "Heaven and Earth Creation Technique" and the Immaculate Foundation Establishment, had now become his biggest "burden."

There are no other reasons:

1. Massive demand for spiritual energy: When the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is absorbed into the body, it must be proportionally satisfied to meet the absorption needs of eight different spiritual roots. The total amount is dozens of times greater than that of a cultivator with a single spiritual root.

2. The transformation process is complicated: the inhaled mixed spiritual energy needs to be filtered and transformed by eight different spiritual roots to become the basic true essence of eight different attributes.

3. The synthesis process is lengthy: The core change in the Foundation Establishment stage of the "Qiankun Creation Technique" is that these eight different types of basic true essence do not exist independently. Instead, they need to be painstakingly fused and compressed in the dantian and dantian according to a specific ratio and order, and finally synthesized into a drop of highly condensed "Qiankun True Essence" containing eight attributes!

This process severely slowed down his cultivation progress. Others cultivate by absorbing spiritual energy, converting it, accumulating it, and then breaking through. He, however, absorbed a massive amount of spiritual energy, converted it eight times faster, and then painstakingly synthesized it—making his efficiency more than ten times lower.

But the benefits are also extremely obvious:

The quality of the True Essence is terrifying: Every drop of "Qiankun True Essence" after synthesis is more than ten or even dozens of times purer, more energy-rich, and more compatible with and better able to control the spiritual energy of heaven and earth than cultivators of the same level!

His true essence reserves are immense: due to its high degree of condensation, the total amount of true essence that his dantian can store far exceeds that of others of the same level, making him a veritable human battery.

Overwhelming combat power of his peers: This is the fundamental reason why he, with only a first-level Foundation Establishment cultivation, could easily crush mid-Foundation Establishment demonic beasts in the Myriad Evolution Mountains. Whether it's the power of his spells, his endurance in battle, or his recovery speed, he has the upper hand.

"It's painful but joyful," Lin Yan consoled himself. He knew the road ahead would be difficult, but he was taking each step with utmost care.

Without further hesitation, he rose and went to the meditation room specially set up by the spirit spring. He took out the second-tier top-grade spirit-gathering array plate that he had personally crafted and embedded a top-grade spirit stone at the array's core!

Instantly, the concentration of spiritual energy in the entire quiet room rose at an alarming rate, almost turning into a pale white spiritual mist visible to the naked eye, and even showing a faint tendency to liquefy! The overwhelming spiritual energy almost engulfed him.

Lin Yan sat cross-legged in the center of the array plate, holding his breath and concentrating on fully circulating the Foundation Establishment Chapter of the "Qiankun Creation Technique".

In an instant, eight invisible vortexes seemed to appear around him! A massive amount of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, mixed with eight different attributes, surged wildly into his body. He felt a slight throbbing pain in his meridians, but he was already used to it.

After the spiritual energy enters the body, it is quickly divided and refined by the eight spiritual roots.

The metal spiritual root absorbs the sharp energy from the spiritual energy and transforms it into Geng metal true essence that gleams with a cold light.

The Wood Spirit Root absorbs the essence of life and transforms it into the vibrant Wood True Essence;

The Water Spirit Root gathers the power of ultimate gentleness, transforming it into the flowing Gui Water True Essence;

The fire elemental root absorbed the scorching heat and transformed it into leaping and burning true fire essence;

The earth spirit root, with its deep and heavy meaning, transforms into the stable and solid true essence of the earth element.

The Wind Spirit Root captures the ethereal wind and transforms it into the formless and shapeless Xun Wind True Essence;

The Ice Spirit Root condenses the essence of extreme cold, transforming it into the icy and bone-chilling Profound Ice True Essence;

The lightning spirit root drew upon the raging lightning, transforming it into ever-shimmering lightning true essence;

Eight different types of basic true essence droplets, each with its own unique properties and shimmering brilliance, flowed into the dantian (energy center) like eight streams.

Next comes the most crucial and time-consuming step – the synthesis of true essence!

Lin Yan concentrated all his divine sense and carefully guided the eight droplets of true essence to slowly approach, following the profound proportions and specific trajectories recorded in the cultivation technique.

True essence of different attributes is inherently repulsive, especially mutually antagonistic attributes such as fire and water, metal and wood. A slight mistake can cause violent conflict, leading to fluctuations in true essence and even damage to the dantian.

Lin Yan's divine sense acted like a highly precise regulator, forcefully suppressing their repulsion and painstakingly pushing them to rotate and merge according to the principle of mutual generation and restraint. This process was extremely slow, requiring immense patience to fine-tune every strand of true essence.

Time flew by in the silent cultivation. One year, two years, three years passed in the space...

At the center of the eight-colored true essence vortex in his dantian, the highly condensed "Qiankun True Essence" was growing stronger bit by bit at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye. Each successful synthesis was accompanied by a huge consumption of divine sense.

Until one day in the fifth year.

Within Lin Yan's dantian, the vortex formed by the convergence of eight basic true essences suddenly accelerated its rotation speed! The drop of "Qiankun True Essence" at the center, which had grown to the size of a finger joint, emitted a chaotic color, and was extremely solid, suddenly burst out with a powerful suction force!

boom!

The thick spiritual mist in the quiet room seemed to have found an outlet, rushing wildly into his body! The eight spiritual roots transformed at an unprecedented efficiency! The eight newly formed basic true essences were almost swallowed and fused by that drop of core true essence before he could even take a closer look!

A feeling of fulfillment welled up inside me.

A slight tremor ran through his dantian, and the boundary of his dantian expanded outward, allowing it to hold more true essence. The core drop of "Heaven and Earth True Essence" became even more dazzling, slowly sinking to the bottom of his dantian like a stabilizing pillar. The newly synthesized true essence was a level higher in purity and energy than when he was at the first level of Foundation Establishment!

Foundation Building Level 2, Breakthrough!

Lin Yan slowly opened his eyes, a flash of brilliance in them, his aura even more profound and concentrated than before. Feeling the powerful energy surging within him, a smile finally appeared on his lips.

Five years of hard work, costing fifty top-grade spirit stones, were barely enough to break through to the next minor realm. This speed is enough to leave any single-spiritual-root genius speechless.

But feeling the extremely pure and refined true essence of heaven and earth, he felt that it was all worthwhile.