The Long Journey to Immortality

The vast majority of villagers who were even slightly involved in the matter exclaimed "Thank you, Immortal!" and kowtowed and bowed again.

The family whose child survived was overjoyed and wept tears of happiness, wishing they could take half of their wealth and stuff it into Han Lu's storage bag.

The family whose child had died looked ashen-faced and couldn't even utter a cry.

The only one who stood out was that scholar.

Perhaps because he knew that only Foundation Establishment cultivators could fly on swords, Han Lu could easily deal with the tiger demon.

Therefore, the scholar presented the map he had prepared in advance and pointed out directions on it to guide Han Lu.

After accepting the map, Han Lu did not linger in this impoverished village, nor did she say thank you or goodbye. She simply flew away on her sword, leaving the villagers of Huilin with only her back view.

Chapter 250 Arrived in the Great Yu Dynasty?!

With the map she obtained from Huilin Township, Han Lu roughly figured out where she was.

"I've actually arrived in the Great Yu Dynasty?" Recalling the words "Eastern Prefecture of the Great Yu Dynasty" written in neat characters on the map, Han Lu found it hard to believe.

Back when it was still Fengbai Road, he didn't know about the Dayu Dynasty.

She only learned about the Great Yu Dynasty through Xiaoyaozi's memories.

Once, when he was a rogue cultivator in the East Sea, Xiaoyaozi had encountered cultivators from the Great Yu Dynasty, so he naturally had some basic understanding of this civilization created by the Western Human Race during the ancient cultivation era.

The system of the Great Yu Dynasty differed from that of the Central Plains or the areas controlled by the Eastern Human Race.

Although the entire territory, four times the size of the Central Plains, belonged to the Dayu Dynasty, the Dayu Dynasty's political system was closer to a relatively loose confederation.

Each prefecture was a relatively independent political entity, controlling the mundane economy and politics of its territory.

Then, each prefecture took turns ruling, forming the imperial court, which coordinated the affairs of each prefecture in a relatively mild way, thus forming the behemoth that is the Great Yu Dynasty.

This is the situation in the mortal world.

The situation in the cultivation world is quite similar to that in the Central Plains.

In the Central Plains, the Southern Dynasties regarded Zhengyi Gate as the head, while the Northern Dynasties regarded Xuanyang Valley as the head.

In the Great Yu Dynasty, under the jurisdiction of each prefecture, there was a large sect that received the favor of the prefecture lord, forming a strong separatist situation within the prefecture.

The largest sect in the Great Yu Dynasty, Tianji Palace, has maintained its independence from the secular system by virtue of its strength.

However, none of this is of much use to Han Lu right now.

She had only stumbled into the Great Yu Dynasty by mistake, and her cultivation level was far lower than that of many cultivators in the Great Yu Dynasty. She was not here to become a king or a tyrant.

What she wanted to do was to find a way to cross the wilderness and the Western Regions from the Great Yu Dynasty and return to the Central Plains.

Therefore, it wasn't because Han Lu missed home, but for another reason.

The two other cave dwellings left by Xiaoyaozi in the Central Plains and surrounding areas contain the Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivation methods of the "Great Zhou Heavenly Water Condensation Technique," which is something Han Lu absolutely must obtain.

The cultivation method suited her perfectly. As long as she followed the rules step by step, Han Lu felt that she had a 50% chance of ascending to the Spirit Realm in her lifetime.

Furthermore, Han Lu liked the relatively peaceful cultivation atmosphere in the Central Plains region.

According to Xiaoyaozi's memories, the cultivation environment in the Dayu Dynasty was extremely harsh.

Although the cultivation resources here are three or four times greater than those in the Central Plains, the population here is ten times greater.

Furthermore, both the Central Plains and the Great Yu Dynasty are located in the human realm, where the spiritual energy in the air is not abundant, and the colossal Jitian Palace creates a monopolistic and suppressive situation.

The danger of practicing here is at least ten times greater than that of practicing in the Central Plains.

Even Han Lu wasn't entirely confident that she could cultivate peacefully in the Great Yu Dynasty as a lone individual without the care of any teachers or mentors.

Not to mention that her storage bag also contained treasures coveted by Nascent Soul cultivators.

If the story of a three-year-old child carrying gold in the marketplace were to become known, Han Lu estimated that she would not survive more than half an hour in the Great Yu Dynasty, a place teeming with experts.

Besides these two major reasons, there were also many minor reasons related to emotions and interpersonal relationships that made Han Lu want to leave Dayu Dynasty and return to the Central Plains.

"However, crossing the wilderness is not an easy task."

"Perhaps it would be simpler to travel by boat along the northern coastline to the Northern Kingdom."

……

Han Lu was lost in thought, so engrossed in her own ideas, that she only snapped out of it when the city of Yuxi County in Dongzhou Prefecture appeared before her.

"That's still a long way off for me," Han Lu said as she slowly slowed down to land. "I need to figure out how to settle down here in Yuxi County first. The key is to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage."

Although Han Lu, who possesses the bloodline of the True Spirit and has inherited the legacy of the ancient cultivator Fang Lin, feels that she is already able to rival or even defeat a cultivator in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, no one can complain about having too much strength.

With the matter of the ancient cultivation secret realm settled, and Han Lu not having the worldly entanglements of the Shi brothers, Shi Gong and Yu Wenzhang, there was naturally no need for her to suppress her cultivation level any longer and walk in the perilous Great Yu Dynasty as a Qi Refining Great Perfection cultivator.

As Han Lu landed on the spirit sword, her flight on the sword just moments before naturally attracted the attention of many merchants and travelers who were heading towards Yuxi County along the official road.

Compared to the curious gazes she received in the ancient cultivation realm and the modern world, these gazes were much weaker, and Han Lu could completely ignore them now.

Arriving at the city gate of Yuxi County like an ordinary person, Han Lu was surprised to find that Yuxi County was slightly different from large cities such as Moyu City in the Central Plains.

Because there has been no war between the north and south of the Central Plains for thousands of years, the city walls are more like a means to define the main urban area and restrict the movement of people.

Low height is a characteristic of the walls of ordinary cities in the Central Plains region.

In the Great Yu Dynasty, the walls of Yuxi County were a full twenty meters high. Although they could not stop cultivators, they were sufficient to stop ordinary soldiers.

In addition, there is a barbican about fifteen meters high outside the wall for defense.

This arrangement made Han Lu even more worried about the social situation in Dayu Dynasty.

Even mortals often fight each other, so the cultivation world, with its large population and limited resources, is bound to be filled with chaos.

Han Lu wasn't afraid of fighting; it was just that she had been in the Central Plains for a long time and subconsciously felt aversion to such things.

Of course, her immense wealth and possession of valuable treasures were also contributing factors.

Having the resources to cultivate to the Golden Core and Nascent Soul realms in one go without stealing or robbing, Han Lu naturally hoped to walk the path of cultivation safely.

Upon arriving, Han Lu kept a low profile.

Although cultivators could skip the queue and enter the city for free, Han Lu still managed to blend into the queue as a mortal.

Han Lu used a tael of silver to buy a local gazette and exchange it for some copper coins from the Great Yu Dynasty, which allowed him to pay his way into the city.

Upon entering the city, Han Lu discovered that the Dayu Dynasty was not much different from the Central Plains in the mortal realm.

After all, although the ancient cultivation era was divided into the Eastern Human Race and the Western Human Race, both forces had many Nascent Soul stage cultivators and had a lot of exchanges with each other.

After 100,000 years, although they have lost contact, it is normal for similar cultures to have formed.

After walking around the streets for a while, Han Lu gave up her interest in studying local customs and traditions like she did in the ancient cultivation world. She politely asked several merchants who had come into the city with her and learned the locations of several famous inns in Yuxi County.

Han Lu did not specifically seek out an inn that only catered to monks.

Based on proximity, we checked into a hotel called "Poetry Pavilion".

For a fee of three taels of silver, Han Lu successfully booked a private suite in the inn for three months, thus settling down temporarily in the Great Yu Dynasty.

Chapter 251 Foundation Building

While temporarily settling in the Great Yu Dynasty, Han Lu did not rush to swallow the Foundation Establishment Pill to attempt foundation establishment and improve her cultivation level.

Instead, he obediently meditated in his suite for a whole day.

One reason was to digest the cultivation knowledge obtained from Senior Fang Lin.

Secondly, it was to check the spiritual veins in the body to avoid any hidden injuries left by the battle in the ancient cultivation secret realm, which might affect the effect of future foundation building.

Thirdly, it was to give myself a good rest.

Having fainted three times in the narrow space, Han Lu felt exhausted and mentally weak after settling down.

For Han Lu, taking some time to rest and recuperate in a safe environment is quite important right now.

After resting for half a day and meditating for half a day, Han Lu finally recovered her energy and fully accepted the fact that she had been transported to the dangerous land of the Great Yu Dynasty for unknown reasons.

After confirming that her spiritual veins were intact, Han Lu put the Foundation Establishment process on her agenda.

I sat in the hotel lobby and found a seat on the edge of the room. There were four small dishes on the table.

Chewing on deep-fried salty peanuts, Han Lu made a crunching sound as she pondered the preparations for Foundation Establishment.

Han Lu was no stranger to the Foundation Establishment stage, the process of breaking through from the Qi Refining stage. In terms of experience in successfully establishing a Foundation Establishment, there were probably few people in the entire cultivation world who had more experience than her.

The successful foundation construction of Fengbai Road can be considered a lesson learned.

Xiaoyaozi's experience of successfully establishing his foundation counts as one instance.

Now, Han Lu is about to undergo what can be considered her third foundation-building phase.

So how should one establish a foundation? For Han Lu, this question was not much more complicated than how to open up spiritual veins.

A cultivator practices a technique, opening up acupoints and spiritual veins.

When the number of complete spiritual veins reaches ten, one can practice the Foundation Establishment Technique or simply swallow Foundation Establishment Pills to begin foundation establishment.

During the Foundation Establishment stage, cultivators need to sever the connection between their bodies and external spiritual energy, use all the spiritual power in their internal spiritual meridians to expand the volume of their dantian and strengthen the outer walls of their dantian, and finally completely connect their spiritual meridians with their dantian, so that they have a larger storage space for spiritual power within their bodies, thus advancing from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment.

This completes the foundation-building process, transforming one from a mortal to an "immortal" in the eyes of ordinary people.

Foundation building is neither particularly difficult nor particularly easy.

The key is that as long as cultivators are not greedy during the Foundation Establishment process and instead focus their spiritual energy on strengthening the outer walls of their dantian and qi sea, the Foundation Establishment process can be completed with almost 100% success.

But that's precisely where the difficulty lies.

Among cultivators in the Central Plains region, only about one in twenty possess sufficient talent, resources, and the ability to smoothly cultivate to the tenth level of Qi Refining.

Of these one-twentieth of cultivators, how many are content with mediocrity and willing to merely build an ordinary foundation?

The more the Qi Sea is expanded during foundation building, the more likely it is to explode and fail the foundation building process.

Even if one's foundation is not damaged due to the explosion of the Qi Sea during the Foundation Establishment stage, one may still be trembling with fear during cultivation because the outer wall of the Qi Sea is not strong enough, and dare not make full use of it, for fear that the abundant spiritual power in the Qi Sea will go out of control and damage the Qi Sea during cultivation.

However, danger and opportunity coexist; the larger the Qi Sea, the more spiritual energy it can hold.

The more spiritual energy one possesses, and with the assistance of favorable timing, location, and rare and precious materials, one will naturally be able to form a higher quality golden core during the core formation process.

In this way, a smooth road was paved.

How many of these geniuses attempting to build a foundation can resist such temptation?