Chapter 135: Foundation Establishment Stage, Level One

That stream of warm energy actually settled obediently in the middle dantian, existing in gaseous form just like in the Qi Gathering stage.

A flash of inspiration struck Chu Tianfeng's mind, and he immediately realized that his usual cultivation practices might have fallen into a misconception: focusing too much on the lower dantian while neglecting the middle dantian and the upper dantian.

Generally speaking, the upper dantian governs the spirit and soul, the middle dantian governs the internal organs, and the lower dantian governs vitality and life essence. Only by cultivating all three simultaneously can one ensure a powerful soul and longevity.

When cultivators practice, they habitually store true essence exclusively in the lower dantian. The upper dantian is used solely to awaken divine sense and is never employed for storing true essence.

In this regard, cultivators and martial artists are nearly identical.

Chu Tianfeng had long since noticed that martial artists never cultivated the upper or middle dantians, leaving both areas completely empty.

If one only cultivates the lower dantian, their vitality is actually little better than that of an ordinary person. Without the maintenance of the soul and internal organs, the lower dantian becomes like water without a source or a tree without roots, making enduring vitality difficult to sustain.

For instance, while an ordinary person might live to seventy or eighty, an Xiantian-stage martial artist can at best reach around one hundred years old. If a Yuantian-stage martial artist manages to live to one hundred and forty or fifty, they would consider themselves exceptionally blessed.

Cultivators, however, are completely different. Thanks to the simultaneous cultivation of the three dantians, every single dantian fully absorbs the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth.

Thus, cultivators contend with heaven and earth for longevity, and the stronger their cultivation realm, the greater their lifespan.

Qi-gathering cultivators are no different from ordinary people, generally living to seventy or eighty. Once they reach the Foundation Establishment stage, their lifespan increases significantly to around one hundred and fifty years, while Golden Core cultivators live for about three hundred years.

By extension, Nascent Soul cultivators live for six hundred years. The lifespans of cultivators in the Soul Formation, Void Refining, Spirit Integration, and Return to Void stages double accordingly, while Great Vehicle stage cultivators share the same lifespan as Return to Void cultivators, with no further increase.

However, cultivators practicing the upper and middle dantians also have their limitations: they only know that the upper dantian is for cultivating the spirit and the middle dantian for refining the organs, never once attempting to store true essence in the upper and middle dantians just as they do in the lower dantian!

This was a groundbreaking concept!

If the upper and middle dantians were also used to store true essence, his reserves of true essence would expand exponentially, vastly surpassing those of cultivators at the same realm!

With this thought, Chu Tianfeng hesitated no longer and tossed another five Foundation Establishment pills into his mouth!

The exact same phenomenon occurred!

This time, prepared for it, Chu Tianfeng directly guided that surge of thermal energy into his middle dantian. Once the true essence in the middle dantian began to liquefy, he channeled the remaining thermal energy into the upper dantian.

The liquefaction process in the upper dantian was slightly slower, but Chu Tianfeng was in no rush. He continued swallowing Foundation Establishment pills one after another, the thermal energy constantly circulating and liquefying across all three dantians.

Hours later, the warm currents in all three dantians grew calm, and the liquefaction was fully complete.

At the same time, this proclaimed that Chu Tianfeng had successfully established his foundation, advancing to the first layer of the Foundation Establishment stage!

Sweeping his divine sense into his storage ring, he discovered to his astonishment that all thirty of his Foundation Establishment pills had been completely wiped out—not a single one remained!

Thirty Foundation Establishment pills were worth at least several million, if not tens of millions, of spiritual stones on Blue Moon Planet, yet he had consumed them all in one tiny breakthrough.

Nevertheless, the outcome was thoroughly satisfactory. Not only had he successfully built his foundation, but his true essence at the first layer of Foundation Establishment was overwhelmingly vast, rivaling even the first layer of the Golden Core stage from his past life!

Chu Tianfeng let out a long whistle and soared up to the treetops!

The night remained dark and cold.

Yet he felt surrounded by dazzling light and intense warmth!

Sweeping away the stifling gloom in his chest, he raised his head and roared into the night!

"Hey, in the middle of the night, what are you howling like a ghost for?" a crisp voice rang out in his sea of consciousness.

Damn it! You're the one howling like a bona fide ghost! Chu Tianfeng's whistle cut off abruptly.

"Isn't it just establishing a foundation? Did you really need to be that thrilled?" Xiyazi's disdainful voice continued.

Chu Tianfeng had no desire to bicker with this female ghost. Tiptoeing lightly, he quickly plunged back into the forest.

Afterward, he returned to the campsite and slept soundly until dawn.

Early the next morning, Chu Tianfeng exchanged a few words with the group, telling them to continue pushing deeper while he alone sneaked back into that narrow valley once more.

Just like the day before, he used invisibility arts to sneak in, using alligator legs to clear the path whenever necessary.

Having broken through to the first layer of Foundation Establishment, his duration of invisibility had greatly increased, now lasting roughly four to five hours.

After harvesting spiritual herbs for half a day—enough for roughly two batches of Foundation Establishment pills—he also discovered seven types of spiritual herbs required for refining Foundation-Yuan pills deep within the narrow valley.

Much like Foundation Establishment pills, the herbs needed for Foundation-Yuan pills numbered nineteen in total.

Last time he had acquired the main ingredient, Purple-Blood Celery, leaving eighteen remaining, and this single valley had yielded seven at once, making him dance with joy.

Once he finished gathering the herbs, he carefully retreated again.

As he neared the valley entrance, realizing he had run out of alligator legs, Chu Tianfeng had no choice but to switch to a direct assault.

He suddenly materialized and unleashed a barrage of icicle rain toward the eagles perched on the giant tree at the valley entrance.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Most of the eagles were caught off guard. Several low-rank eagles were immediately struck and screeched in pain, while the remaining few squawked in terror and fled into the sky.

Seizing the opportunity, Chu Tianfeng rushed out of the valley entrance and pursued Du Jingjing and the others.

Unexpectedly, those eagles, perhaps infuriated by Chu Tianfeng's repeated harassment, squawked wildly and summoned over a hundred companions, pursuing him relentlessly and refusing to let go.

Chu Tianfeng had no choice but to tuck his tail and run.

The eagles were extremely fast; even though Chu Tianfeng had advanced to the first layer of Foundation Establishment, he still could not outpace them.

Scarcely had he cleared a small hill when the eagles caught up to him once more.

If you can't outrun them, you fight!

He decisively dropped into the forest, cast the Invisibility Technique, and instantly vanished into thin air.

Discovering abruptly that they had lost Chu Tianfeng's trail, the eagles grew furious. They circled continuously in the low airspace, attempting to locate him.

Hiding on the branch of a massive tree, Chu Tianfeng held his breath to the absolute limit.

A mid-stage rank-one eagle happened to fly right over his head. Without a second thought, Chu Tianfeng raised his hand and unleashed a volley of icicles!

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Although the eagle had been somewhat on guard, the distance between them was simply too close, and the icicles moved too swiftly for it to dodge in time.

Thud!

Several icicles slammed viciously into the eagle's body.

Screech!

The eagle let out a miserable cry and plummeted toward the ground like a shooting star.

Chu Tianfeng swiftly followed, thrusting out his right hand to grab the eagle by the neck, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Snap!

That eagle instantly snuffed it, and Chu Tianfeng tossed its carcass into his storage ring.

Hehe! Eagle meat for dinner! Chu Tianfeng smiled triumphantly and once more vanished into the mid-air.

Regrettably, no sooner had he taken flight than he was spotted by higher-rank eagles yet again!

Chu Tianfeng showed no fear. As that eagle called upon a few companions to pursue him, he greeted them with another round of icicle rain to stall their advance.

Thus, he fought while retreating, occasionally ambushing one or two lower-rank eagles and stashing their corpses into his ring.

The eagles grew increasingly fierce with every clash, tailing him relentlessly.

To prevent the eagles from discovering Du Jingjing and the others, Chu Tianfeng deliberately led them back in the opposite direction.

With one fleeing and the others pursuing, a life-and-death brawl unfolded across the jungle.

Chu Tianfeng felt somewhat depressed; his proud speed and spells had virtually no significant effect on these eagles. Even his invisibility could be easily seen through by them.

Chu Tianfeng was running in such frustration that his gloom only dissipated entirely when he crossed a small stream and caught sight of the two elderly men charging toward him with swords drawn.

Sorry! I didn't mean to do this! he muttered inwardly to the two elders, Wang Caizhang.

The moment Wang Caizhang clapped eyes on Chu Tianfeng, he completely ignored the massive flock of eagles trailing behind him, bursting into hearty laughter: "Chu Tianfeng, let's see how you die this time!"

Little did he know, Chu Tianfeng was smiling far more brilliantly than he was.

Just as he was growing physically and mentally exhausted from being hunted by those clumsy birds for hours, Wang Caizhang and his companion had run out to rescue him. He was so touched he wanted to thank Wang Caizhang's ancestors for eight generations.

Too lazy to waste breath replying, he sprinted at full speed toward the two men.

Assuming he was making a desperate final stand, the two exchanged glances, twirled their swords into intricate patterns, and charged simultaneously—Wang Caizhang executing "A Long Rainbow Piercing the Sun," and the other executing "Striking Directly at the Yellow Dragon."

Chu Tianfeng chuckled inwardly. With a flash, he plunged into the forest, cast his invisibility mantra, and disappeared without a trace.

The two elders were dumbfounded in an instant. By the time they realized something was amiss, they were already surrounded.

Meanwhile, Chu Tianfeng had long since flown dozens of meters away. Watching the chaotic scene of figures darting up and down through the woods, he gave a distant cupped-fist salute: "Take care, gentlemen!"

This time, he genuinely hadn't planned on using Wang Caizhang and his companion to deflect disaster; it was entirely their own fault for acting like fools. They hadn't come looking for him earlier or later, but chose precisely this critical juncture to show up, accidentally playing the heroes for him once more.

After resting for ten-odd minutes, Chu Tianfeng turned back to seek out Du Jingjing and the others.

Du Jingjing's group moved at a slower pace, refusing to miss a single hillside as they slowly gathered spiritual herbs, allowing Chu Tianfeng to catch up with them in no time.

Once reunited, the group resumed harvesting the spiritual herbs with concerted effort.

Before long, Chu Tianfeng's ring was overflowing once again. With no other option, he set up his cauldron anew, refining the majority of the spiritual herbs into pills.

In a little over a day, he refined more than ten batches of Pei-Yuan pills, two batches of Foundation Establishment pills, and over a dozen batches of ordinary healing pills.

Without exception, every batch yielded ten pills, and the number of pills featuring medicinal auras gradually increased, peaking at six during the final batch!

He gifted each person a bottle of Pei-Yuan pills, a bottle of ordinary healing pills, and a Foundation Establishment pill, instructing them to consume them when the opportunity arose.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed by the generous gifts, Long Yue proposed that everyone trade using spiritual herbs.

The rest of the group eagerly agreed, handing over the vast majority of the herbs they had gathered to Chu Tianfeng.

Long Yue, Long Fei, and Du Jingjing held nothing back, giving him every single herb they possessed.

Upon careful tallying, Chu Tianfeng discovered that the ingredients for the Foundation-Yuan pills were basically complete, lacking only two herbs: White Sweet Flower and Gexin.

Feeling a bit sheepish, Chu Tianfeng refined their remaining herbs into pills as well, gifting each of them another bottle of standard healing pills.

That evening, Chu Tianfeng personally stood guard while Du Jingjing underwent her foundation establishment.

A martial artist's foundation establishment marked their advancement to the Xiantian realm, differing slightly from a cultivator's process.

They completely ignored the upper and middle dantians, paid no heed to expanding the sea of consciousness, and neglected internal organ enhancement, considering the breakthrough successful solely once the true essence in the lower dantian liquefied.

Consequently, their process was relatively simpler than that of a cultivator.

Even so, Du Jingjing still required an entire night to successfully break through, and another full two hours to stabilize her cultivation realm.

"Thank you!" Du Jingjing used just two words to convey her gratitude toward Chu Tianfeng.

Yet Chu Tianfeng merely shook his head; in his view, those two words were entirely superfluous.

He was far from oblivious to Du Jingjing's feelings for him.

However, he also knew that he neither dared nor could bear to accept them.

He had a beloved whom he had loved for over a millennium, etched so deeply into his bones that even across countless realms, that love had never faded.