Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Improving Spiritual Root Aptitude

On this day, the magical power within Wu Fan's body surged and became increasingly concentrated, and an aura far stronger than ever before quietly emanated from his body.

He actually broke through to the ninth level of Qi Refining at the age of forty-four.

"At forty-four years old, I have finally reached the ninth level of Qi Refining."

Wu Fan slowly opened his eyes, a hint of undisguised joy flashing in them.

Today's breakthrough made him feel that he was getting closer and closer to Foundation Establishment.

The eighth to ninth level of Qi Refining is only a minor advancement within the later stage of Qi Refining. According to the sect's records, each breakthrough of such a level would at most increase one's magical power by 20% to 30%.

However, when Wu Fan looked into his dantian, he found that the amount of magical power in his body was far greater than that of other cultivators of the same level, with an increase of more than 30%.

He was only practicing the most basic Five Elements Technique, not some high-level method that could defy the heavens and increase one's strength. This strange phenomenon could only be explained by his improved physique after enhancing his spiritual root.

Wu Fan frowned and pondered for a moment, but ultimately failed to grasp the key point, so he simply suppressed his distracting thoughts.

The Five Elements Beads hold countless mysteries; right now, stabilizing one's cultivation level and preparing for Foundation Establishment is of paramount importance.

Closing his eyes, Wu Fan focused his mind on his dantian, carefully channeling the restless magical power and gradually gathering and solidifying it.

Several days passed in this stable state, until the magical power within his body became completely docile and peaceful, at which point he slowly opened his eyes.

This breakthrough came several months faster than he had anticipated.

It should be noted that there is still a year before the sect distributes Foundation Establishment Pills, and only half a year left before the Pill Hall's alchemy assessment. Now that the goal of reaching the ninth level of Qi Refining has been achieved, there is no great point in continuing to go into seclusion.

At his current pace, even if he were to go into seclusion for another six months, there would be absolutely no way he could break through to the ninth level of Qi Refining perfection; on the contrary, it would be a waste of precious time.

Having made up his mind, Wu Fan decided to end his seclusion.

His primary plan was to go to Falling Star Valley Market to purchase some spiritual items to aid in foundation building.

If there are no suitable markets in Falling Star Valley, then one can only do what Jiang Ling did back then and travel to other major markets near other major sects to search for one.

Mentioning Jiang Ling, Wu Fan's heart stirred slightly.

It has been several years since we last heard from her. I wonder how her cultivation is progressing and whether she is still working on Foundation Establishment.

However, the thought was fleeting, and he quickly regained his composure, his expression becoming serious again.

Logically speaking, even if he obtains the Foundation Establishment Pill a year later, it would still take him several years to reach the Qi Refining Perfection stage, so there was no need for him to be in such a hurry to purchase Foundation Establishment spiritual items.

However, Foundation Establishment Pills are extremely rare treasures for cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage, and are priceless. If one waits until they obtain the pills before going out to search for spiritual items, carrying the Foundation Establishment Pills around is no different from carrying gold in the market.

Outsiders may not know about this, but everyone in the sect knows that the news of the sect distributing Foundation Establishment Pills will spread throughout the inner sect sooner or later.

The fellow disciples in the outer alchemy room usually get along well, but in the path of cultivation, the path to immortality comes first. When it comes to the opportunity to defy fate like Foundation Establishment, no one can guarantee that those seemingly kind fellow disciples won't have ulterior motives.

Therefore, Wu Fan made up his mind to use the next six months to collect as many spiritual items as possible to assist in foundation building.

Once the matter is accomplished, he will completely shut himself away and stay within the sect to cultivate peacefully until he successfully establishes his foundation, never stepping out of the sect even once.

Besides that, there was another reason why he ended his seclusion.

His progress in alchemy over the past few years has reached his own expectations.

Some time ago, he went to great lengths to obtain the examination questions and formulas from previous Dantang examinations. After careful study, he discovered that the examination questions were all randomly selected from first-grade mid-to-high-quality formulas.

Among them, Wu Fan had already mastered the more difficult cultivation-type and breakthrough-type pills. He could even consistently refine some of them into high-quality ones, and three of them could achieve the level of producing high-quality pills three out of ten times.

As for those simple pills, they are even easier to obtain.

Although there are still a few uncommon pills that he has never refined, the probability of such pills being selected as exam questions is extremely low. Even if they are selected, with his current alchemy skills, he will definitely be able to refine them successfully with ten sets of materials, although he cannot guarantee that they will be of high quality.

Based on the difficulty of previous Dantang assessments, it would be no problem for him to secure a place in the top ten, and it would be a certainty for him to sit in the top eight.

In this way, he naturally no longer needed to force himself into seclusion and arduous cultivation.

Unless, of course, it's to compete for first place in this alchemy assessment.

But at this moment, Wu Fan had no thought of competing for first place.

When he first heard that the reward for the top scorer in the Pill Hall assessment was two Foundation Establishment Pills, his desire to win first place was extremely strong.

If he can obtain both Foundation Establishment Pills, his success rate in establishing his foundation will increase significantly.

Even though he only has a mid-grade spiritual root, he is absolutely confident that he can successfully establish his foundation in one fell swoop.

But he ultimately suppressed this feeling of attraction.

He later learned that the reward was not given all at once; the two Foundation Establishment Pills would be received in two separate installments.

The disciple who wins first place in the alchemy assessment will first receive a Foundation Establishment Pill to attempt foundation establishment. If the foundation establishment fails, the disciple can receive a second pill and have a second chance to establish the foundation.

If one successfully establishes a foundation on the first attempt, the second Foundation Establishment Pill can only be exchanged for an equivalent amount of sect contribution points, which can then be used to acquire other cultivation resources.

Upon learning the rules, Wu Fan was speechless, inwardly marveling at the cunning and shamelessness of the Dantang's higher-ups.

It seems like they've given me two opportunities to establish my foundation, but that's completely different from getting two Foundation Establishment Pills at once.

Take Wu Fan himself as an example. He possesses twenty-five strands of spiritual energy, which is a mid-grade spiritual root.

Based on the experience of predecessors, it is estimated that without the help of the Foundation Establishment Pill, his chances of establishing his foundation are about 30%, close to 40%.

If he adds a Foundation Establishment Pill, the probability can be increased to about 60%; with the help of various spiritual objects that aid in Foundation Establishment, plus his advantage of years of body tempering and naturally strong soul, the probability of Foundation Establishment can reach more than 70%.

However, if Wu Fan were given two Foundation Establishment Pills directly, it would be a completely different story. While it wouldn't guarantee success in establishing his foundation, the chances would be over 95%.

The reason is that Foundation Building has three stages: Qi and Blood Stage, Spiritual Consciousness Stage, and Mana Stage.

As for the Qi and Blood barrier, Wu Fan had not yet reached the age of sixty, when Qi and Blood begin to decline. Moreover, he cultivated fire-attribute techniques and refined his body, so passing the Qi and Blood barrier was basically not a problem for him.

The spiritual barrier might be a little troublesome for other cultivators, but they can get through it with the help of some auxiliary items, such as concentration incense or concentration talismans.

Wu Fan already possessed a strong divine sense in the heavens, a fact he knew after breaking through to the early stage of Qi Refining. To be on the safe side, he purchased some items to further enhance his spiritual sense, so this hurdle was no problem at all.

The remaining challenge is mana management.