Chapter 196: Foundation Establishment Realm
[Body Refining: 14th Layer (3000/14,000) (+3000/14,000)]
[Qi Gathering: 10th Layer (5100/10,000) (+1500/10,000)]
[Mind: Level 6 (180/10,000) (+60/10,000)]
[Soul: Infant (5000/100,000) (+1100/100,000)]
[Spiritual Root: High-Grade Omni-Element (100/3000)]
[Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (36,090/1,000,000) (+110/1,000,000)]
[Chaos Body: Level 2 (250/20,000) (+150/20,000)]
[Bloodline: Dragon, Phoenix: Half Blood (600/3000) (+400/3000)]
[Enlightenment: Sacred (210/5000) (+30/5000)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 5th Grade (2640/50,000) (+40/50,000)]
[Sacred-grade Ten Seasons Sword Art: Beginner (80/100) (+60/100)]
[High-grade Lightning Strike: Major Success (15/400) (+15/400)]
[High-grade Fire Palm: Major Success (175/400) (+15/400)]
[High-grade Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, Lightning Palm: Major Success (15/400) (+15/400)]
[High-grade Ice, Wind, Light, Dark Palm: Intermediate (150/300) (+30/300)]
[Cook: 2nd Grade (100/800) (+100/800)]
[Appraiser: 3rd Grade (100/700) (+100/700)]
[Alchemist: 5th Grade (150/500) (+150/500)]
[Talisman Maker, Formation Master: 5th Grade (90/500) (+30/500)]
[Blacksmith: 5th Grade (50/500) (+50/500)]
[Medicine: 8th Grade (140/200) (+100/200)]
[Spirit Farmer: 8th Grade (70/200) (+30/200)]
[Experience Points Doubled]
[Spirit Farmer: 8th Grade (70/200) → 8th Grade (140/200)]
[Medicine: 8th Grade (140/200) → 7th Grade (0/300)]
[Blacksmith: 5th Grade (50/500) → 5th Grade (100/500)]
[Talisman Maker, Formation Master: 5th Grade (90/500) → 5th Grade (180/500)]
[Alchemist: 5th Grade (150/500) → 5th Grade (300/500)]
[Appraiser: 3rd Grade (100/700) → 3rd Grade (200/700)]
[Cook: 2nd Grade (100/800) → 2nd Grade (200/800)]
[High-grade Ice, Wind, Light, Dark Palm: Intermediate (150/300) → Major Success (0/400)]
[High-grade Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, Lightning Palm: Major Success (15/400) → Major Success (30/400)]
[High-grade Fire Palm: Major Success (175/400) → Major Success (350/400)]
[High-grade Lightning Strike: Major Success (15/400) → Major Success (30/400)]
[Sacred-grade Ten Seasons Sword Art: Beginner (80/100) → Minor Success (0/200)]
[Spirit Flame: Abyssal Void Flame: 5th Grade (2640/50,000) → 5th Grade (5280/50,000)]
[Enlightenment: Sacred (210/5000) → Sacred (420/5000)]
[Bloodline: Dragon, Phoenix: Half Blood (600/3000) → Half Blood (1200/3000)]
[Chaos Body: Level 2 (250/20,000) → Level 2 (500/20,000)]
[Transcendent Dao Body: Level 1 (36,090/1,000,000) → Level 1 (72,180/1,000,000)]
[Spiritual Root: High-Grade Omni-Element (100/3000) → High (200/3000)]
[Soul: Infant (5000/100,000) → Infant (10,000/100,000)]
[Mind: Level 6 (180/10,000) → Level 6 (360/10,000)]
[Qi Gathering: 10th Layer (5100/10,000) → Foundation Establishment: 1st Layer (0/11,000)]
[Body Refining: 14th Layer (3000/14,000) → 14th Layer (6000/14,000)]
...
The moment the system notification materialized before his eyes, Xiang Yu felt the world around him suddenly fall into an eerie silence. Everything became calm and peaceful for just a single instant. But in the very next heartbeat, everything changed, like a massive dam finally giving way under immense pressure.
The transformation was happening deep inside his dantian. Focusing his attention inward, Xiang Yu witnessed something that left him breathless. Massive floods of qi were pouring into his dantian like a raging tsunami, the spiritual energy growing more and more abundant by the second. The torrent threatened to completely overwhelm his dantian’s capacity. Xiang Yu felt as if his entire body might explode at any moment from the sheer volume of energy rushing through him.
But in the next second, something extraordinary occurred. Some of the chaotic qi began to solidify into something that resembled blocks of ice. These brilliant blue blocks formed themselves into protective walls around the perimeter of his dantian, acting like barriers to prevent the qi from overflowing and destroying him. But even with these safeguards in place, the relentless tide of qi kept pouring in without pause.
Then, the walls began to move. They were actually shrinking, pressing inward against the massive floods of qi and compressing the energy together into something far more potent and refined. Xiang Yu wondered if this was what the cultivation manuals meant when they described how the quality of qi increased dramatically when breaking through to higher realms. He had expected some kind of transformation, but why was it so dramatic?
The dantian walls continued their relentless cycle, expanding to accommodate more qi, then contracting to compress it into an even denser form. With each compression cycle, Xiang Yu could feel his qi growing exponentially stronger and more refined. He wondered if he was imagining the sensation, since the difference between qi quality in Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment shouldn’t be this enormous.
The compression cycle continued for what felt like an eternity, each wave more intense than the last. Finally, all the flooding qi was successfully compressed and refined until it could fit comfortably within his dantian without threatening to overwhelm him. The walls of his dantian solidified even further as the compressed qi continued to enhance and strengthen them from within.
Xiang Yu slowly opened his eyes, taking in a deep breath to steady himself. After almost two months of transmigrating into the cultivation world, he had finally entered the Foundation Establishment stage. It wasn’t the fastest pace in the world but it was still something.
Looking inward at the walls of his dantian, he could tell immediately that they were incredibly solid and well-formed. It seemed his foundation was remarkably strong. Now he just needed to eventually form these walls into a solid core to enter the Core Formation realm. But looking at the exp requirement to enter the second layer of foundation establishment, he could only sigh. He was still very far from being able to accomplish that.
He clenched his fist, feeling the raw power coursing through every fiber of his body. Although he hadn’t grown physically stronger due to the breakthrough, he could sense that he could easily take on two versions of his previous self in combat.
This dramatic improvement was due to the massive increase in qi quality. When using qi enhancement techniques, his body felt significantly more powerful, and he could strengthen his martial techniques to levels he’d never imagined possible.
Xiang Yu spent considerable time examining his refined qi, experimenting with different applications and testing its properties. After extensive investigation, he concluded that his qi was roughly equivalent to the quality typically possessed by Golden Core cultivators. It was incredibly high-end in terms of refinement and purity, though still nowhere near achieving a true qualitative change like the true qi wielded by Soul Formation realm experts.
He was a little puzzled though, how had his qi improved to such an extraordinary level. After some consideration, he suspected it must have something to do with the system. When cultivating using the system, it seemed to always pursue the absolute best possible outcomes. That was why whenever he broke through grades in his various professions, he invariably emerged as the very best practitioner of that grade, possessing all the formulas and techniques available at that level.
So it made perfect sense that even when breaking through cultivation realms, the system would optimize for the absolute best possible foundation. Did this mean he would always be invincible in the same realm?
After some contemplation, he decided to name this phenomenon "Absolute Limit."
...
Author’s Corner
Some of the intrinsic stats seem to have some insane jumps, for those who forgot, this is because he took the rebirth pill. I think somewhere around Chapter 180-185
As usual, report on any errors or anything I missed and I’ll fix it right away.