Chapter 134 Stealing Bird Eggs

"It was you who wanted an eagle egg, saying you wanted to raise an eagle for fun," Bai Yucheng said with a depressed look. "Back then, you even egged me on to steal one for you."

"Well, did you go?" Du Jingjing rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Hehe! Do you take me for a fool? There are several eagles in there, and every single one of them is bigger than an ostrich. Going there would be practically courting death," Bai Yucheng said with a sly grin.

"I'll go take a look!" Chu Tianfeng retrieved some more vegetables and handed them to Du Jingjing.

Even if it weren't for Du Jingjing, he intended to steal a few bird eggs anyway. Since he couldn't find the materials to forge a flying sword anytime soon, raising a few eagles sounded like a decent idea—at least it would save him the cost of a few plane tickets.

"Don't go. I was just joking with Brother Yucheng," Du Jingjing said, tugging at his arm.

"It's fine, I'll just go check it out," Chu Tianfeng gently pushed her aside. "If I can steal them, I will. If I can't, I'll run. You know me, my other skills might be lacking, but my talent for running away is second to none."

"Then... be careful!" Du Jingjing still wore a worried expression.

She knew that once Chu Tianfeng made up his mind, it was rarely possible to change it.

"Don't worry, by the time you finish cooking, I might already be back." With those words, Chu Tianfeng leaped forward and sped away.

Du Jingjing remained rooted to the spot, watching foolishly as Chu Tianfeng's figure gradually shrank, grew darker, and finally vanished completely.

"Sigh, it's a pity my cultivation is still too weak, otherwise I'd go along to see," Long Fei said unhappily as he took a large fish from Bai Yucheng.

"Please, I only just broke through to the late Hujing stage this year," Long跃 (Long Yue) tightened the veil on his face. "Hurry up and butcher the fish. He's extremely fast; he might even be back in ten minutes."

"Blockhead, be careful!" Du Jingjing prayed silently in her heart.

Blockhead Chu Tianfeng had no idea the others were fretting over him. He was entirely focused on stretching his limbs and running at full speed.

In less than three minutes, he reached the entrance of the narrow valley.

Perhaps because the sun was about to set, wisps of mist were beginning to curl through the canyon, creating a hazy, ethereal atmosphere that resembled a celestial realm.

Chu Tianfeng cautiously stepped into the valley, his spiritual awareness fully extended to carefully scan his surroundings.

"There are indeed many eagles ahead, but I advise you not to provoke them," Xiyazi's voice sounded in his sea of consciousness once more. "There are many spiritual herbs inside whose value far exceeds that of bird eggs."

Chu Tianfeng paused, startled. "What kind of spiritual herbs?"

"The ones used to forge Foundation Establishment Pills, of course," Xiyazi giggled playfully. "Unless you don't want to build your foundation."

Chu Tianfeng could not help feeling a surge of excitement. Foundation establishment—that was his dream!

He still lagged somewhat behind Wang Caizhang and his companion. If he could successfully establish his foundation, even if Wang Caizhang and the other joined forces, he would have nothing to fear.

Furthermore, martial artists of the Yuantian realm were relatively rare in the Chinese martial arts world. He believed that the number of people capable of threatening him would plummet sharply, vastly increasing his personal safety.

"It seems your luck isn't very good. There are probably more than just a few eagles in here," Xiyazi continued.

Chu Tianfeng no longer cared how many eagles there were; even a mountain of swords and a sea of fire wouldn't stop him now.

A brief sweep of his spiritual awareness revealed that there was indeed a large flock of eagles in the canyon. While the entrance only had a few, the inner valley was teeming with them, gathered in groups of three to five, numbering at least several dozen to a hundred.

The tiers of these eagles varied: most were first-tier, a small portion were second-tier, and there was even a single third-tier eagle.

Chu Tianfeng felt a slight twinge of tension. After a moment's thought, he decided to use the invisibility technique to test the reactions of these feathered beasts.

He danced his hands lightly, his body slowly dissolving into nothingness as he slipped in cloaked in invisibility.

However, his invisibility technique was not yet perfected; he could conceal his physical form, but he could not hide his aura.

Consequently, the moment he passed the valley entrance, the eagles caught his scent almost instantly, and several of them immediately flew toward him.

Alarmed, Chu Tianfeng quickly pulled a few crocodile legs from his storage ring and flung them far into the distance.

The eagles were mere beasts, after all. Upon catching sight of the blood-stained crocodile legs, they swarmed forward, completely forgetting all about Chu Tianfeng.

This allowed Chu Tianfeng to press straight ahead, charging directly toward the spiritual herbs.

Silver-light root, jade dodder, nine-leaf clover... Apart from the core ingredient, the Earth-Heart Lotus, virtually all nineteen spiritual herbs required for the Foundation Establishment Pill could be found right here.

Moreover, their age was considerable, with some specimens having grown for several hundred years.

Chu Tianfeng accepted them all gladly, sweeping every single one into his storage ring.

As dusk deepened and the fog in the canyon grew thicker, the number of eagles increased as well. Daring not to linger any longer, Chu Tianfeng quietly retreated toward the valley entrance.

As he fell back, he tossed out a crocodile leg or two at intervals to feed the eagles, silently thanking them for guarding this herbal garden—if not for them, these spiritual herbs would never have fallen into his hands.

Upon creeping back to the valley entrance, he noticed a bird nest resting on a large tree nearby. Inside the nest lay two bird eggs, while a lower-second-tier eagle rested quietly atop them.

Recalling the original purpose of his trip, Chu Tianfeng's eyes rolled, and he suddenly lunged toward the nest.

Startled, the lower-second-tier eagle resting on the eggs let out a sharp screech and took flight into the sky.

A secret smile playing on his lips, Chu Tianfeng swiftly collected the two bird eggs, flicked his wrist, and vaulted onto an adjacent tree.

The eagle, returning its gaze to the nest, found the eggs missing and spotted the disturbance on the neighboring tree, instantly putting the pieces together.

It shrieked angrily, flapping its wings furiously as it charged fiercely at Chu Tianfeng.

Chu Tianfeng waved his hands in a blur and unleashed a volley of fire arrows!

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Reacting with agility, the eagle caught sight of the incoming fire arrows and hurriedly dodged to the side.

Without looking back, Chu Tianfeng revealed his form and sprinted at top speed toward the valley exit.

"Over here!" At that moment, a graceful figure appeared on a distant tree, accompanied by a crisp cry.

A wave of warmth washed over Chu Tianfeng, and he dashed toward that familiar silhouette.

"What took you so long?" Du Jingjing's face was etched with worry.

"We'll talk when we get back!" Floating to her side, Chu Tianfeng caught her arm, tapped the ground with the tip of his toe, and soared into the air once more.

A chorus of screeches rang out as dozens of eagles poured from the valley entrance, charging straight at the pair.

Noticing the pursuing eagles, Du Jingjing's expression changed drastically.

Pushing his speed to the absolute maximum, Chu Tianfeng left the valley entrance in a flash, flying desperately toward the mountain slope.

The flock of eagles chased relentlessly. Being much faster than Chu Tianfeng, they began to close the distance between them before long.

In response, Chu Tianfeng spun around and hurled several crocodile legs, showering them down upon the pursuing birds.

The tactic proved remarkably effective. The vast majority of the feathered beasts abandoned Chu Tianfeng and Du Jingjing, diverting their attention to the falling crocodile legs.

Only the lower-second-tier eagle continued its relentless pursuit, diving viciously toward Chu Tianfeng to peck at him.

Chu Tianfeng had no fear whatsoever of a mere lower-second-tier eagle.

Without turning his head, he unleashed a flurry of piercing ice daggers!

Lunging forward too eagerly and caught completely off guard, the eagle—thanks only to its high tier—managed to twist away from a fatal hit at the last split second.

Thud!

An ice dagger pierced deep into its wing.

Wounded, the eagle let out a miserable shriek.

Seizing the opportunity, Chu Tianfeng grabbed Du Jingjing and fled rapidly into the distance.

Moments later, the two returned to the campsite.

Long Fei and the others had grown impatient with waiting, but upon seeing the two return safely, they cheered and crowded around with expressions of relief and concern.

After a hasty dinner, seeing that the eagles had ceased their pursuit, Chu Tianfeng slipped away from the group to an isolated spot to brew pills.

This time, he was refining Foundation Establishment Pills, which were similarly low-grade spiritual elixirs. However, their ingredient composition featured over a dozen more components than the Qi Gathering Pills, making the refining process correspondingly more difficult.

After drying the elixir cauldron, Chu Tianfeng added the spiritual herbs one by one, followed by impurity removal, liquefaction of the herbs, and further purification. Just as he entered the formal refinement stage, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him, and he decided to channel the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the liquid medicine.

Much like drawing spiritual energy into his body during meditation, he slowly guided the environmental spiritual energy into the cauldron, swirling it gently so that it integrated thoroughly with the medicinal liquid.

When separating the medicinal liquid, he continued to divide it into ten portions for further refinement.

At the moment of harvesting the pills, he once again introduced the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The elixirs spun rapidly within the cauldron before he produced a porcelain bottle, wrapped his true essence around the contents of the cauldron, and summoned them with a sweep of his hands. Ten crystalline Foundation Establishment Pills dropped steadily into the bottle!

One hundred percent yield!

He struggled to suppress his inner excitement; this was the first time he had ever successfully refined pills with a hundred percent yield!

Furthermore, one of the pills was enveloped in a faint layer of white mist—unmistakable cloud wisps of elixir, true elixir clouds!

Though there was only a single pill, it was enough to send Chu Tianfeng into a state of ecstasy.

Because elixirs possessed by cloud wisps differed vastly in efficacy from ordinary elixirs, their medicinal potency was often roughly ten percent higher than standard ones!

Based on this alone, Chu Tianfeng knew he had fully grasped the secrets of elixir refinement!

Sure enough, for his second batch of Foundation Establishment Pills, he achieved ten pills once again, with one bearing the cloud wisps.

For the third batch, the yield remained ten pills, but the number of cloud-wreathed elixirs increased to two!

When he intended to brew a fourth batch, however, he suddenly discovered that the spiritual herbs in his storage ring were nearly depleted; the jade dodder and nine-leaf clover had been completely exhausted.

Packing away the cauldron, Chu Tianfeng rested for about half an hour.

Afterward, he crossed his legs, produced a Foundation Establishment Pill, and solemnly swallowed it.

The familiar, violent medicinal potency was skillfully refined by him, transforming into true essence that poured into his lower dantian.

Foundation establishment was, in essence, the process of liquefying the true essence within the dantian—compressing and liquefying all the true essence stored in the dantian during the Qi condensation stage to render it thicker and more immense.

Having experienced foundation establishment in his previous life, Chu Tianfeng was quite familiar with the procedure.

Normally, after swallowing a Foundation Establishment Pill, the true essence would turn intensely ferocious, breaking through the foundation barrier. At that point, one simply had to circulate their cultivation technique to convert it into liquid form, declaring foundation establishment a success.

Yet, after swallowing a Foundation Establishment Pill, Chu Tianfeng felt only a minor ripple stir within his dantian before it slowly returned to tranquility.

Damn it! He realized this was yet another side effect of the Five Elements Art; the medicinal force required for his breakthrough was simply too massive, and a single Foundation Establishment Pill had zero effect!

Gritting his teeth, Chu Tianfeng casually summoned five Foundation Establishment Pills and tossed them all into his mouth at once.

This time, a reaction finally occurred within his lower dantian—and a monumental one at that!

Like a turbulent storm suddenly lashing across a calm sea, the foundation barrier of the lower dantian was shattered in an instant, and the true essence began to liquefy.

Yet, that surge of heat remained violently intense, far too great for the lower dantian to contain in time.

Consequently, the scorching current began to tear through his limbs and bones, hunting for any vulnerable point to force a breakthrough!

Overwhelmed by excruciating pain, Chu Tianfeng broke out in a cold sweat!

In the nick of time, recalling that his middle dantian was completely empty, he wasted no time channeling that torrent of heat straight into his middle dantian.

Then, a strange thing happened!