Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 53: Foundation Establishment

White Camel Peak, within the cave dwelling of the Chen Family Foundation Establishment Cultivator, Chen Pingzhi.

After Zhouyang entered the secluded cultivation chamber of this Chen Family Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s cave dwelling, he did not immediately take the "Foundation Establishment Pill" to attempt foundation establishment. Instead, he first closed his eyes and focused on the Cold Jade Bed within the seclusion chamber, once again recalling the experiences summarized by predecessors regarding the foundation establishment process.

According to the experiences of predecessors in the Cultivation Realm, foundation establishment comprises three major challenges: the Divine Sense Barrier, the Magic Power Barrier, and the Physical Body Barrier.

Divine Sense Barrier: Once a Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Cultivator resolves to pursue foundation establishment, numerous illusions arise in their mind to confuse the cultivator’s consciousness. If the cultivator fails to discern these illusions and transcend them, they will ultimately exhaust their mental energy and perish within boundless illusions.

It’s worth noting that the "Divine Sense Barrier" tests the cultivator’s determination and steadfastness towards Dao, and rarely can external objects aid the cultivator in surpassing this barrier; even the Foundation Establishment Pill cannot.

However, based on predecessors’ experiences, generally, as long as the cultivator is not someone innately weak-willed or immature, for a normal Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Cultivator, passing the "Divine Sense Barrier" is not difficult; this barrier is the easiest among the three foundation establishment barriers.

After a cultivator overcomes the "Divine Sense Barrier," their divine sense will transform, its intensity doubling rapidly. At this point, they can use their transformed powerful divine sense to compress and refine magical power to tackle the "Magic Power Barrier."

Everyone knows the magical power of Foundation Establishment Cultivators is several times that of Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Cultivators, but why is this so?

The reason lies in the difference in the form of magical power.

Although Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators can absorb and refine external spiritual qi to produce magical power, the form of magical power for Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators is merely vague and indistinct mist, very unreal.

In contrast, the form of magical power for Foundation Establishment Cultivators is like water, continuous and real.

Comparing the weight of a barrel of mist and a barrel of water, which is stronger and weaker is clear at a glance.

Thus, for Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators to succeed in foundation establishment, they need to compress and refine their magical power, transforming gaseous mist-like magical power into liquid magical true essence—this is the second barrier in the three foundation establishment barriers, the "Magic Power Barrier."

Especially noteworthy is that although the "Magic Power Barrier" is the second barrier in the three foundation establishment barriers, its difficulty and danger level rank it as the genuine first toughest challenge.

To overcome the "Magic Power Barrier," a cultivator must first have sufficiently strong divine sense to compress and refine gaseous magical power; then their meridians must be sufficiently resilient to withstand the pressure generated by highly refined magical power. This is particularly important; most cultivators fail in foundation establishment because their meridians cannot withstand the pressure of highly refined magical power, causing their meridians to rupture and killing them during the process.

The role of the Foundation Establishment Pill becomes apparent at this time.

Once a cultivator consumes the Foundation Establishment Pill during foundation establishment, the elixir’s potency will permanently enhance the durability of the cultivator’s meridians and temporarily form a protective membrane within the meridians to safeguard them from harm.

Therefore, as long as a cultivator taking the Foundation Establishment Pill does not recklessly act against better judgment, they can disperse the refined magical power before their meridians rupture and preserve their life.

However, cultivators who have not taken the Foundation Establishment Pill do not have sufficient time to do this even if they wish to.

Once the liquid magical power traverses all major meridians throughout the cultivator’s body, refining these meridians and returning to the Dantian Qi Sea, the "Magic Power Barrier" is considered overcome.

At this time, the final challenge in the three foundation establishment barriers, the "Physical Body Barrier," arrives.

Physical Body Barrier tests the vitality of the cultivator’s physical body. After a cultivator overcomes the "Magic Power Barrier," it triggers the "Spiritual Energy Infusion" phenomenon, where external spiritual qi surges frenetically into the cultivator’s body. The quantity and speed of infusion exceed what the cultivator routinely absorbs while practicing their cultivation technique by many times.

The majority of this surging spiritual qi will be refined into magical true essence to fill the void in the Dantian Qi Sea, but a small portion will temper and strengthen the cultivator’s physical body.

At this time, if the cultivator is over sixty years old, their body begins to age rapidly, or if they have disabilities, or previous injuries affecting their body’s foundation, there is a great possibility the surging spiritual qi could cause their body to burst.

Even if someone manages to survive with severe injuries, their inability to fully temper and strengthen their body will negatively impact the lifespan and performance after foundation establishment.

Additionally, since this barrier tests the completeness and vitality of the cultivator’s physical body, the Foundation Establishment Pill’s effectiveness is not particularly significant, even though the elixirs for refining the Foundation Establishment Pill include the Tier Three Spiritual Object "Earth Element Spirit Milk," which restores the vitality of the cultivator’s physical body.

When a Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation Cultivator successfully passes through the Three Foundation Establishment Gates, their Divine Sense, Magical Power, and Lifespan all reach the standards of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, which means they’ve successfully established their foundation.

"My Divine Sense is naturally much stronger than others, plus I’ve lived two lifetimes. In terms of knowledge and resistance to temptation, I’m far superior to my peers and cultivators of the same tier, so there’s no reason I can’t pass the ’Divine Sense Barrier’ that most others can pass!"

"Although the ’Magic Power Barrier’ is challenging and perilous, I have middle-grade spiritual root talent and the Foundation Establishment Pill to protect my meridians, so the probability of passing is also very high!"

"The ’Physical Body Barrier’ may pose difficulty for other older cultivators, but at the age of thirty-four, even ordinary mortals are in their prime, and since I’ve never suffered any severe injuries, failure is almost impossible!"

"Furthermore, I’ve examined the insights of four Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the clan, including the reflections written by Uncle Zhou Qian after his Foundation Establishment failure, so I’m well-aware of the various situations during foundation establishment and prepared to respond to them."

"With so many advantages and so much preparation, how could I possibly fail at foundation establishment? What reason is there for failure?"

In the Seclusion Chamber, Zhouyang’s tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, his gaze shining with a belief in inevitable victory.

Then he closed his eyes again and, following the methods summarized by predecessors in the cultivation realm, officially began attacking the first gate of the Foundation Establishment Stage, the ’Divine Sense Barrier.’

Once he began attacking the ’Divine Sense Barrier,’ countless illusions indeed arose in Zhouyang’s mind. First came the relatively low-level demon sound confusion, with various mesmerizing sounds that either tempted him to fall or frightened him, arising directly from his mind; being unable to block them, he could only rely on his will to maintain his true heart and endure gradually.

After several days of these mesmerizing sounds, various character and environment illusions appeared out of thin air in Zhouyang’s mind. These included both clan elders he interacted with in this life, such as the deceased Elder Zhou Quan and Elder Zhou Yun, and leaders, colleagues, parents, and girlfriends from his previous life.

When the illusion was most lifelike, Zhouyang seemed to return to the office of his previous life. In front of him was the department supervisor reprimanding him for playing on his phone during work hours, and beside him were colleagues gloating at him, even hearing the sound of car horns from outside the office building turn the corner.

At that moment, he felt as though his decades-long cultivation life was indeed just as the department manager said—a yellow rafter dream born from being absorbed in novels, and there was no Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm, no Zhou Family; it was all just a big dream conjured by his own imagination!

Yet illusions are ultimately illusions; although they arise from the heart and can simulate and recreate scenes from one’s experiences, they cannot reproduce everything exactly, nor can the illusions faced when attacking the ’Divine Sense Barrier’ be so powerful.

After the initial panic, Zhouyang quickly discovered the flaws in the illusions and swiftly broke free from them.

In this way, he repeatedly pierced through illusions intended to confuse his heart, his divine sense undergoing tempering and transformation through the baptism of illusions.

When he pierced through the final layer of illusion and completely passed the ’Divine Sense Barrier,’ his divine sense intensity increased nearly tenfold, with the range of divine sense expansion reaching a terrifying three kilometers!

At this divine sense intensity, not to mention newly established Foundation Establishment cultivators, even Late-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators like the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan, with their Seventh-Layer Foundation Establishment, barely reached this level of divine sense intensity.

After breaking through the ’Divine Sense Barrier,’ Zhouyang calculated the time, realizing that ten days had passed since entering the Seclusion Chamber, at least one-third faster than the recorded experiences of those predecessor cultivators he’d seen.

This discovery greatly increased Zhouyang’s confidence, so after resting for a day to recover his spirit, he immediately took the Foundation Establishment Pill to begin attacking the ’Magic Power Barrier.’

It’s not that he didn’t want to rest for a few more days; but with the surge in divine sense, the pressure on his body increased significantly, resulting in a ’head heavy, feet light’ situation.

If he couldn’t timely break through the ’Magic Power Barrier’ and the ’Physical Body Barrier,’ to also enhance the intensity of his magic power and physical body, his body would shrink and perish due to being incapable of bearing the powerful divine sense.

Indeed, the ’Magic Power Barrier’ proved to be the toughest barrier among the Three Foundation Establishment Gates. Zhouyang’s divine sense was strong, being several fold that of general newly established cultivators, posing minimal issues in compressing and refining magical power. While others spend tens to dozens of days and endure countless failures to achieve this, he accomplished it in nine days with merely hundreds of failures.

Yet when the highly compressed and refined magical true essence surged from the Dantian Qi Sea into his meridians, despite his meridians being fortified by the Foundation Establishment Pill and protected by a membrane formed by its medicinal strength, the pain, akin to being sliced by knives and burned by fire, still made him grimace in anguish, breaking out in cold sweat.

Fortunately, the Foundation Establishment Pill lived up to its grand reputation; the seemingly thin protective membrane lasted for up to a month and had strong resilience. Under its protection, the feared magical power overload situation never occurred.

Once the magical true essence flowed through all the major meridians of his body after completing one major circulation back to the lower Dantian Qi Sea, he could finally relax his tension.

As the magical true essence returned to the Dantian Qi Sea, the spiritual energy within the Seclusion Chamber instantly became active, forming dense fog-like spiritual energy, seemingly sensing a kind of summoning, like moths to a flame, actively rushing towards Zhouyang on the Cold Jade Bed, and entering his body through pores all over.