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Chapter 57: Failure in Laying the Foundation
Lan Chang'an slowly concluded his daily cultivation routine.
At his side, the juvenile Profound Water Turtle the size of a water pitcher nuzzled affectionately against his robe, absorbing the lingering residual aura from Lan Chang'an's cultivation of the Evergreen Technique.
Over the years, Lan Chang'an made a surprising discovery: feeding the juvenile turtle the mana from the Evergreen Technique daily, as well as having it absorb the residual aura during his own cultivation, actually promoted the growth of the Profound Water Turtle's cultivation growth.
From his observations, the growth rate of the Profound Water Turtle's eggs was three to 30% to 40% faster than the records indicated.
This result was understandable to him. The Evergreen Technique was related to lifespan and the passing of years, while the Profound Water Turtle was a long-lived species that required an immensely long period to mature.
"At this rate, the Profound Water Turtle will reach the second-rank in a bit over a hundred years, and around three hundred years it could reach the third-rank, comparable to a Core Formation cultivator." Lan Chang'an did not intentionally increase the duration or dosage of feeding it Evergreen mana, otherwise it would be too obvious.
However, the physical growth of the Profound Water Turtle was normal, with the main acceleration being in its cultivation and bloodline talent. It would be difficult for a non spirit beast tamer cultivator to notice the abnormality.
Demonic beasts had sturdy bodies and bloodlines, naturally comprehending some spells and innate abilities. In this aspect, human cultivators were far inferior and still needed to cultivate diligently and use magical treasures to contend with them.
The Profound Water Turtle had just entered the Qi-Refining stage and was beginning to display some of its talents.
First was the ability to control its aura. It could reduce its presence, making it harder for enemies to detect it, improving its chances of survival.
Second was its water attribute spells. It could produce bubbles, waterballs, and ripples...
Its innate talent for water escape was also starting to show.
Finally, there was its turtle shell. Even as a juvenile Profound Water Turtle, its shell was extremely hard.
Lan Chang'an had tested it - low-grade magical weapons couldn't even scratch its shell.
If it grew for a few more decades, once the juvenile turtle retracted into its shell, cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Realm would have difficulty dealing with it.
...
*Squeak squeak!*
While Lan Chang'an was interacting with the juvenile turtle, the Earth Burrowing Rat came scurrying from the gatehouse carrying two letters, eagerly offering them up.
Over the years, as Lan Chang'an showed increasing care for the juvenile turtle, the Earth Burrowing Rat felt threatened and would often try to curry favor with him.
Low-ranked demonic beasts, though not as intelligent as humans, were still smarter than ordinary animals. However, the Earth Burrowing Rat only had a middle-grade bloodline, equivalent to a human with middle-grade spiritual roots, so it was not easy for it to advance to the second-rank.
Lan Chang'an took the two letters.
One was from Feiyue Lake.
The other was from Jin Yun Valley.
A year ago, at the post station in Huanglong Immortal City, Lan Chang'an had written letters to Li Erqing and Zhao Siyao to contact them.
However, with Huanglong Immortal City being so distant, even spirit pigeon flying letters would take at least half a year for a round trip.
Lan Chang'an opened Li Erqing's letter first.
Learning that Li Erqing had advanced smoothly to the seventh layer of Qi-Refining without using a Bottleneck-Breaking Pill, he felt relieved.
It was foreseeable that Li Erqing's cultivation would return to the right track and he would once again take the lead over Lan Chang'an.
It wasn't that Li Erqing's cultivation was much faster. Both of them used low-grade spiritual roots for their main cultivation techniques. But Lan Chang'an was limited by the constraints of time, unable to gain obvious benefits from pills.
Li Erqing's Earth Rock Scripture was also not outstanding in power, but as long as he cultivated diligently and was well-supplied with spirit pills and spiritual rice, he could steadily progress relatively quickly. Ignoring potential bottlenecks, his progress would always stay slightly ahead of Lan Chang'an's.
"A middle-grade spiritual root, Mu Jiuan?" Lan Chang'an's expression became odd.
Li Erqing's ninth child "Mu Jiuan" had a spiritual root quality close to the high-grade, so the Mu Family awarded Li Erqing generously with spirit stones, magical treasures, Qi-Refining late-stage pills, and so on.
All of this was due to giving birth to a child. The letter mentioned many matters regarding the Mu Family's internal affairs.
Including the eldest young lady, Mu Xiuyun.
"A year ago, Mu Xiuyun bought the 'Meridian Protecting Pill' at a high price but failed in her attempt to establish her Foundation, sustaining severe injuries and severely damaging her vitality." This unfavorable news made Lan Chang'an sigh deeply.
Failing to establish the Foundation carried the risk of losing one's life. The Meridian Protecting Pill could not increase the chances of establishing the Foundation, however, it retained the effect of strengthening the dantian and protecting the meridians, so there was less risk of losing one's life in failure.
Mu Xiuyun's qualifications and age were similar to Lan Chang'an's, around forty-seven or forty-eight this year.
Without a Foundation Establishment Pill, failing the attempt was normal. Success would have been a fortunate stroke of luck.
With her failure this time and severe damage to her vitality, Mu Xiuyun would likely need to recuperate for a few years. On her next attempt, she would be at least in her fifties.
The older the age, the lower your potential is, and the chances of establishing the Foundation would diminish year by year.
If one wanted to eventually form a true dan, it was best to establish the Foundation around the age of thirty to have greater potential afterwards.
...
Lan Chang'an then opened Zhao Siyao's letter.
Previously he had asked Zhao Siyao about Foundation Establishment Pills from her sect, as well as about their alchemists.
Zhao Siyao's reply was:
"The Foundation Establishment Pills obtained from the sect can only be used internally and cannot be resold to outsiders."
After establishing her Foundation, through contributions to the sect, Zhao Siyao could still exchange for Foundation Establishment Pills. However, aside from the much higher cost, she could only gift the pills to younger members or descendants within the sect.
Even if it were her direct descendants, if they had not joined the sect, she could not give them the pills.
This cut off Lan Chang'an's thought of trying to obtain the pills surreptitiously through the sect.
As for the sect's alchemists, they generally would not help outsiders refine Foundation Establishment Pills either, unless they had an especially good relationship.
After all, aside from the busy work of pill refining, the sect's refiners also needed to cultivate themselves.
Zhao Siyao had just established her Foundation and did not have sufficient connections among the upper echelons of Jin Yun Valley, so she did not know any second-rank alchemists well.
Even if she did, to have someone refine Foundation Establishment Pills, she would still need to gather the materials.
At the end of the letter, Zhao Siyao told Lan Chang'an: Jin Yun Valley had a station in Huanglong Immortal City, and if he encountered any major difficulties, he could use her name and token to perhaps receive assistance.
If there was a great crisis, he could send an urgent message through the sect's station, and Zhao Siyao would hurry over as soon as possible.
"Knowing gratitude and repaying kindness, Fellow Daoist Zhao has a noble character." Lan Chang'an could not help but praise her.
He was now considered to have a sect's backing, successfully latching onto a powerful thigh.
By avoiding conflicts and making friends with others, his path to success would be much smoother.
Of course, this was also because his lifespan was plentiful, allowing him to steadily build connections one step at a time.
For ordinary cultivators who avoided conflict and refused to fight, it was like sitting around waiting to die.
...
Lan Chang'an put away his spirit pets and took stock of the spoils of battle in his storage pouch.
"The timing is about right." Today, Lan Chang'an planned to go out and sell off his spoils.
Two years ago, after arriving near Huanglong Immortal City, he had opportunistically killed two subordinates of the Evil-faced Flying Eagle and obtained some spoils of battle, including the belongings of the family of three he had killed.
He did not need to sell off spirit pills and the like. However, the middle and low-grade magical weapons bore the markings of being spoils, so it was unsuitable to openly sell them.
In his early years, after killing the ugly woman of the Zheng Family to avenge a wrong, Lan Chang'an had obtained two or three low-grade magical weapons.
Now, Lan Chang'an had as many as ten useless magical weapons in his possession, with the majority being low-grade.
If he wanted to scheme for a Foundation Establishment Pill, it would be better to liquidate these spoils.
When he had first arrived in Huanglong Immortal City, unfamiliar with the environment, Lan Chang'an did not act rashly. But, these past two years, he learned there were places in the city specializing in buying second-hand magical weapons without inquiring about their origins, though the selling price would be a few dozen percent lower.
In reality, these were places for fencing stolen goods in a roundabout way. fre𝚎w𝐞bn𝗼v𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝗼𝚖
With Huanglong Immortal City's large population flow and all sorts of people gathered, it was inevitable that there would be killings and plundering.
In the outer city, the environment was more chaotic, and around the perilous Black Fog Mountain Range, an unknown number of cultivators perished every day.
With so many spoils, a demand naturally arose. There were shops with backing that would do business in fencing stolen goods.
"Talisman Master Lan." As Lan Chang'an exited Water Moon Residence, passing cultivators on the street would greet him.
Over these past two years, Lan Chang'an had gotten acquainted with his neighbors, and nearby cultivators would also come purchase talismans from him.
The talismans sold by Lan Chang'an were of excellent quality yet priced slightly lower than regular shops.
...
Huanglong Immortal City covered a vast area, with flying not prohibited in most residential areas within the city.
Lan Chang'an rode a magical weapon, flying out of Jinxiu Lane towards the commercial district in the city center.
The street stalls and most shops in the inner city were concentrated in this area.
Lan Chang'an did not go directly to the place for fencing stolen goods, first checking into an inn.
He disguised himself in his room. Then, seizing an opportunity when no one noticed, he slipped out of the room and blended into the crowd leaving the inn.
An hour later, he arrived at a shop that bought second-hand magical weapons.
This place overtly repaired magical weapons as its main business while also buying used ones, but in reality, it was for fencing stolen goods.
"What can I do for you, sir?" The shopkeeper gave him a once-over, noticing his disguise, and revealed a knowing smile.
"I have three magical weapons I have no use for, do you buy them?" The disguised middle-aged man Lan Chang'an took out the magical weapons from his storage pouch.
"We buy, of course we buy. But since these are second-hand magical weapons, the price will be thirty to fifty percent lower than normal magical weapons." After verifying them, the shopkeeper quoted a price for the three magical treasures.
"One middle-grade, two low-grade magical weapons, the condition is still decent. How about one hundred and sixty spirit stones?"
"Too low, at least two hundred." Lan Chang'an negotiated the price slightly, closing the deal at one hundred and eighty spirit stones.
The price was cheap, but it was worth it to avoid trouble.
Lan Chang'an strode boldly out of the shop, secretly probing with his spiritual sense to prevent being targeted.
The law enforcement in the inner city was decent, but not absolutely safe.
The formation arrays in the city could detect the fluctuations of battles, and enforcement cultivators would promptly arrive.
However, if it happened in a secluded area where one could instantly kill the target or poison them without causing too much of a disturbance, then theoretically murder and plunder were still possible.
It was just that the difficulty and risk would be much higher than outside, so hardly anyone attempted it.
This was the real world of cultivation, not a game's main city - there was no such thing as absolute safety anywhere in the cultivation world.
...
"No one's following me." Lan Chang'an blended into the crowd, not detecting any abnormalities.
Two or three magical weapons were not enough to provoke murderous intent within the city.
He returned to the inn.
Disguising himself again, he went to another shop that bought used magical weapons.
This time, Lan Chang'an was bolder.
He sold four magical weapons at once, obtaining over two hundred spirit stones.
"Still no one targeting me?" Lan Chang'an blended back into the crowd, feeling surprised that he had gone unnoticed.
Huanglong Immortal City truly deserved its reputation as a sanctuary for wandering cultivators!
It seemed that as long as it wasn't a greatly renowned treasure, there was little risk in fencing ordinary magical weapons.
This led him to speculate that an unknown number of evil and rogue cultivators must be lurking within the city, their identities obscured.