Chapter 171: Foundation Establishment Stage Three

With the passage of time, ten years felt like an instant.

It was November of Wang Yu's fifteenth year as a deacon. Weather: Heavy snow!

Inside a quiet room in the Guiling City Lord's Estate.

"Whoosh—"

A long, narrow stream of white mist, exhaled from his throat like a sharp sword, created an indentation on the hard wall. On the back of the naked young man, who sat cross-legged, his dark flood dragon tattoo gradually took on a hint of crimson.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes and whispered softly.

"Even without a cultivation technique, the Dragon Blood Elixir, refined from the 'Blood Dragon Essence,' has allowed me to advance further, reaching the peak of Body Refinement Stage 2, early phase. This is equivalent to the strength of Foundation Establishment Stage 3."

He clenched his fists, then put on his raven-blue crane-patterned robe again.

"But this is the limit. Without a corresponding cultivation technique, my body refinement cultivation absolutely cannot break through from the early to the middle phase. However, there are still 14 years left until the Flood Dragon Strength is ready for placement."

At this thought, a bitter smile touched Wang Yu's lips.

There aren't enough placement slots!

As 'Blood Dragon Essence' is a gem formed from the concentrated vital blood of an ancient flood dragon, it was naturally impossible for Wang Yu to gain only this much over ten years.

The improvement in his body refinement cultivation was merely a byproduct.

If one observed closely, the Netherworld Demonic Flood Dragon Spine, formed from his qi and blood on his back, had changed considerably, now resembling a pure-blooded flood dragon even more!

Along with this, the mystical "dragon power" within Wang Yu's physical body also greatly increased. This is the effect of enhancing one's foundation; even if someone cultivated the same technique as him, they would not achieve the same results.

Without the fortuitous encounter with the Blood Dragon Essence, their physique would definitely not be as strong as his.

Among body refiners of the same stage, his physical body could be considered among the very best. The mutated product of the intertwined Flood Dragon Spine, Heavenly Yin Blood, and Corpse Demon Bone had been enhanced to its current extreme.

Even so, he still had half of the Blood Dragon Essence unused, and the Dragon Blood Elixir accumulated within his body had also reached its limit. He would need to find an opportunity to engage in physical combat.

This would stimulate his body to fully absorb the accumulated medicinal power. However, this would have to be put off for now, as he first needed to deduce the second-tier cultivation technique for Flood Dragon Strength.

Ten years had yielded bountiful harvests!

His high-grade Escape Technique, Frost Moon Wings, had reached completion. The dual-path Soul and Sound spells, Mind-Controlling Demonic Sound and Ghost Crow Soul-Devouring Sound, had also both reached completion.

The Ancient Soul Art had reached minor accomplishment, and his divine sense had further increased. The fierce souls on his Black Fiend Armor had been completely drained by him, collectively falling into a deep slumber.

Other spells had also improved, but not as significantly as these three.

For example, Ice Wheel Technique, Mountain Search and Demon Hunt, Heavenly Soul One Qi, Crying Soul-Shattering Blade, and other spells were roughly at the level of Minor Accomplishment 2, still some way from major accomplishment.

After those spells reached completion, only one empty slot remained for replacement.

He allocated it to Heavenly Soul One Qi, a divine sense secret technique. The sooner it reached completion, the better the effect of him leveraging "Fierce Soul Devouring Body," which would help enhance his divine sense realm.

As for alchemy, he had already placed it when Profound Yin Hand reached completion that year. However, there was a time lag in waiting for Situ Hong's supply of Yin Marrow Fluid.

Now, he was only a few months away from successfully advancing to Second-Tier Completion.

The completion of the Corpse Demon Secret Technique, however, would come in the last two years. This was because, halfway through, he encountered bottlenecks when comprehending other spells and repeatedly replaced this secret technique, sometimes for a month, sometimes for another.

Little by little, it added up, and nearly two years remained. The closer it got, the more stable his mindset became. According to the description of the "Yin Blood Pill" in the Corpse Demon Secret Technique, completing it to the second tier would allow him to attempt reshaping.

Of course, reaching the third tier would be best to ensure complete success.

However, the strengthening and abnormal changes caused by "Heavenly Yin Blood" and "Corpse Demon Bone" to his physical body had formed a fused mutation with his body refinement cultivation technique. The enhancement of his life essence had actually helped him.

Reshaping his left arm... was not far off!

Finally, there were the changes in his cultivation.

Strictly speaking, this was an increase over ten years and five months.

The placement slots increased his cultivation by 187.5 drops of True Essence, and his own cultivation increased by 25 drops. Adding his original 132 drops, his total accumulated True Essence limit had broken through to 344.5 drops.

More than two years ago, he had successfully broken through—to Foundation Establishment Stage 3!

In another eight to ten years, he would be able to accumulate 500 drops of True Essence, reaching the threshold for the first True Essence Condensation. This speed was quite fast.

Once he broke through to the middle phase of Foundation Establishment, his No. 6 unit should also be in place, which would be a truly significant improvement for him!

After years of management, the new alliance of interests in Guiling City had become incredibly stable, with revenue growing at a rate of 4-5% annually, a very healthy curve.

Furthermore, at the Guiling branch of Jinman Building, Wang Yu had cultivated his own network of connections, enabling him to utilize the vast resources of the merchant guild to search for the most suitable cultivation resources for him.

After all these years, compared to ascetic cultivators, he merely had a more abundant spiritual energy environment and had not yet reached his current maximum cultivation speed.

At this time, he estimated that the top-grade ice-attribute materials he had commissioned should have arrived. Wang Yu always preferred to plan ahead; he was not accustomed to buying the elixirs he consumed himself from elsewhere.

Even if Jinman Building had an excellent reputation, he still wasn't at ease.

But preparing third-tier treasures in advance was something he could do.

Normal cultivators, after breaking through to Core Formation, would exhaust their family fortunes.

It often took them over a decade of effort to gather the materials needed to refine their Natal Artifact. He, being extremely wealthy and having a clear path for the future, could collect them in advance and transform into a complete Core Formation cultivator in one go.

Whether one possessed a Natal Artifact was a sign of whether the Core Formation stage was complete. As for the other required Natal Divine Ability, Wang Yu did not know enough about this aspect.

For him now, it was still secret knowledge, and he would only be able to exchange for relevant scriptures from the sect after breaking through to the late Foundation Establishment stage.

Currently, he already had two Yin-attribute third-tier treasures, plus the previously obtained Living Soul Blood Gold. Not to mention refining a Natal Artifact, refining a second one would also be easy.

Investing spirit stones in one place wasn't a loss; after all, these items only had value when put to use.

The underground spiritual vein of Guiling City also produced spirit stones.

However, after years of excavation, it had long reached its limit, and further digging would damage the integrity of the spiritual vein. Thus, it was only mined again every ten to twenty years.

Spiritual veins are inherently formed by the convergence of heaven and earth spiritual energy, extremely similar to terrestrial veins. One could even say they were originally terrestrial veins that had undergone a spiritual mutation.

With the passage of time, the associated spirit stone mines naturally continued to breed. After each recovery cycle, a large number of spirit stones would be produced. The mid-grade third-tier spiritual vein in Guiling City even had a chance to produce high-grade spirit stones, which were hard currency among high-level cultivators.

It is said that for Nascent Soul cultivators, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is not as pure as the magical power within their bodies. It generally needs to be refined outside the body before being absorbed and repeatedly refined internally.

If high-grade spirit stones were used to set up multiple spirit-gathering formations, such trouble could be avoided. The higher one's cultivation, the more the difficulty multiplied; eventually, even heaven and earth become obstacles to one's progress.

Being able to accumulate more now would only bring benefits in the future.

Wang Yu had checked the records from previous years.

After the recovery period, the yield of high-grade spirit stones should be between 500 and 1000. He had a full three hundred years of Guiling City Lordship.

Even if he mined once every twenty years, it could help him accumulate 7,500 to 15,000 high-grade spirit stones, an enormous sum.

The mid-grade and low-grade spirit stones produced each time were the smaller portion, with a total value of around a million low-grade spirit stones, all considered his own income.

As for Guiling City's current state:

Calculating on a five-year cycle, after deducting city maintenance and personnel expenditure costs and the annual tribute of a million spirit stones, his net income would be around 600,000.

He had received two waves of income over ten years, plus the fixed extra income from this spirit stone mine, which was more than after he became wealthy ten years ago, even after accounting for his consumption in recent years.

Additionally, three more early Foundation Establishment cultivators had joined the Hall of Offerings.

Wang Yu had arranged for them to serve as temporary commanders in the City Guard and Patrol Army, and they would return to the City Lord's Estate once his own cultivated personnel reached Foundation Establishment.

They acted on his orders, and each Foundation Establishment cultivator also required a significant amount of spirit stones every five years, so expenditures were increasing annually.

"It's time to generate income, Xueyu!"

The three-tailed snow fox had changed slightly less. Although Wang Yu's alchemy still needed some time to be fully placed, he had long been able to refine second-tier elixirs.

He just couldn't refine top-grade ones. In ten years, even with the second-tier spiritual elixir Snow Fox Pellet refined by his own hands, it had only just broken through to Foundation Establishment Stage 2.

Its cultivation speed was much slower than his. Snow Fox Pellet was an advanced version of the Beast Feeding Pellet, and Wang Yu could often refine high-grade ones.

The elixir recipe and medicinal ingredients were purchased from Jinman Building, and were said to have originated from the North Suppressing Pagoda, the most mysterious force in this world, before spreading to the outside.

It was specially developed for the Snow Beast clan of the extreme northern ice plains.

After his placement and improvement, it became a tailor-made Snow Fox Pellet for Xueyu. Its effects would be even more outstanding, and it could continuously activate the potential within its bloodline.

Accumulation over time forms one's foundation. In the future, if it could obtain a rare mystical place like the 'Spiritual Spring Cold Pond' as an opportunity for bloodline baptism, there would be a small chance it could continue to evolve.

He had not emerged from seclusion for a long time.

Goose feather-like heavy snow was falling from the sky, and the temperature was only a few degrees.

Standing at the entrance of the City Lord's Estate main hall, Wang Yu could naturally overlook the entire Guiling City. During this period, he had encountered many minor troubles, all of which he could resolve.

Occasionally, he would encounter Core Formation cultivators. These cultivators would be collectively rejected by the three sects outside the city, unless they were rogue cultivators, in which case they would be greeted amicably by all and even invited to exhibitions.

If they were Core Formation cultivators with sect affiliations, they would generally not be welcomed.

God knows what they were planning.

Over these years, Wang Yu had only encountered it once. It was said to be from the Fuhai Sect, a Core Formation sect from the north, near the Chaotic Ancient Sea!

Their purpose in passing through Guiling City was merely to buy some supplies. Their true goal was to head to the Yama Ghost Market, south of the three-thousand-li Reed Marsh.

At this stage, cooperation had entered an ambiguous period.

Wang Yu would occasionally leave the city, but he would never go too far. For him, the Guiling City Lord's Estate was the safest place, and very few could breach it.

Just as he was contemplating how to expand his ventures, two wafts of fragrant breeze drifted from the side, revealing the Guan Yingdong and Guan Yingxue sisters, who had grown into young women. They had been beauties since childhood and had grown into graceful beauties.

When Wang Yu was pleased, he would bestow them with top-grade Tier 1 cultivation spiritual elixirs.

This caused them and the two members of the Jiang family to reach the sixth layer of Qi Condensation cultivation, a speed several times faster compared to their three-spirit root talent.

Around sixty or seventy, they might touch the threshold of Foundation Establishment. With two chances to attempt Foundation Establishment, their success rate was relatively high.

They came over, naturally to report something. The older sister, Guan Yingdong, calmly said, "Master, an unfamiliar senior from the Ink Sect has come to visit and has already been escorted to the reception room."

"The Ink Sect? I see."

Wang Yu nodded and said nothing more.

Seeing this, Guan Yingxue cautiously added a remark.

"Master, the guest is likely here for the ancient ruins. There have been many reports from that area recently; apparently, another cluster of ancient ruins has been discovered."

"Other forces might also arrive in the next few days."

"Hmm, let's go take a look."

He patted Yingxue's head. This girl was a bit more clever than her older sister and more proactive, often receiving rewards from Wang Yu.

(End of chapter)