Senior Brother Song accepted the storage bag and smiled slightly at Wu Tao, indicating he understood.
He would definitely not tell anyone about today's matter.
Heaven knows, Earth knows, I know, you know.
...
"Foundation Establishment, I want to establish my foundation!"
Back in his cave dwelling, Wu Tao took a deep breath, waved his hand, and the cave dwelling's door immediately closed, all formations and restrictions activated, as if sealing off heaven and earth.
All the distracting thoughts, all the secular matters, were instantly put aside. Wu Tao's heart was now occupied by a single thought, and nothing else.
Seclusion!
Time flowed, years flew by.
Wu Tao entered seclusion for Foundation Establishment. For him personally, it was a monumental event, a turning point in his lifelong cultivation journey.
But for the entire Kyushu cultivation world, for Qingzhou, and for the Taiyi Immortal Sect, it was merely a minor interlude, not even causing a ripple.
Everything continued to progress according to its original course.
...
The current era is the Daxuan Year.
Between the cultivation worlds of Qingzhou and the East Sea, a storm was brewing, filled with palpable killing intent.
The Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect had engaged in fierce competition and open struggles over resources and interests, resulting in many bloody conflicts over the years.
Many subordinate sects and families affiliated with the Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect fell into internal strife or were annihilated.
The border between Qingzhou and the East Sea was aflame, with spears pointed at each other.
For a time, Qingzhou and the East Sea were in a state of extreme tension.
It seemed as if an internal war between the Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect, and a localized war between the inland and overseas cultivation worlds, was about to erupt, leading to rivers of blood.
...
However, at this time, the high-level figures of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect still maintained a degree of restraint, not choosing to engage in all-out war.
Then one day, the Taiyi Immortal Sect and the Heavenly Demon Gate, facing the clearly stronger Cold Water True Spirit Sect, suddenly allied and attacked the Cold Water True Spirit Sect together.
Within the Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect, over a hundred Nascent Soul experts, who shook the region, gathered above the East Sea and began to battle.
This great battle lasted for several months, and the whereabouts of over a hundred Nascent Soul experts became unknown.
They returned half a year later, all over a hundred Nascent Soul experts injured.
...
At the same time, in Qingzhou and the East Sea, many renowned Nascent Soul cultivators announced their seclusion.
Within the year that followed, Qingzhou and the East Sea entered a period of tranquility. Not only did no one seize this opportunity to commit arson and murder, but the atmosphere of constant conflict also improved.
Suddenly, everything seemed as if nothing had happened.
A hundred flowers bloom, branching into two.
Time passed swiftly. After a year of seclusion, the spiritual energy in Wu Tao's dantian had been refined and purified, transforming from qi to liquid, gradually approaching the Foundation Establishment stage.
...
Just after over a hundred Nascent Soul cultivators had fought with all their might, bringing peace to Qingzhou and the East Sea,
Not too long after, large-scale conflicts broke out again between the Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect.
Cultivators seeking the Dao, for the sake of eternal life, could forget their own lives, and also fear for their lives.
The Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect were in a stalemate. Experts above the Nascent Soul stage gradually stopped engaging in pointless attrition.
Instead, they used the vast coastline where Qingzhou and the East Sea met, an area spanning tens of millions of li, as their battlefield.
Hundreds of thousands of disciples from the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages of the three sects formed massive cultivator armies.
They swarmed like ants along the coastline, setting up camps and building cities. Core Formation elders commanded from the center, deploying troops and making strategies to decide the victor.
The Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect engaged in offensive and defensive battles for over a month, suffering heavy casualties.
Although it was not a battle to the death, merely mutual probing and harassment, the three sects combined lost tens of thousands of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples.
Three months later, all four Foundation Establishment Pills were exhausted. Wu Tao's spiritual energy surged and compressed, and he was only one step away from a complete transformation and officially stepping onto the path of eternal life, advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage.
...
As time slowly passed, the cause of this great war gradually became clear.
The inland Kyushu, since the Primordial, Ancient, and Archaic eras, had been the birthplace of cultivators, the center of the entire cultivation world.
Therefore, the Kyushu cultivation world possessed immense strength, overpowering the surrounding wilderness and vast seas, holding a dominant position.
The Taiyi Immortal Sect and the Heavenly Demon Gate alone, with the combined power of Qingzhou, could contend with the vast East Sea overlord, the Cold Water True Spirit Sect, for a long time without showing any signs of defeat.
However, the Taiyi Immortal Sect and the Heavenly Demon Gate also had their weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
...
Since the Primordial, Ancient, and Archaic eras, the inland Kyushu had been a land of chaos and constant warfare.
As recently as three thousand years ago, there was a full-scale war in the Kyushu cultivation world, with major immortal sects fighting to the death.
The consumption and destruction of resources in the Kyushu land due to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, millions, and even tens of millions of years of internal strife had already depleted them significantly.
For the past few thousand years, the Kyushu cultivation world had relied heavily on mutual trade with the overseas cultivation worlds to barely maintain its current state.
Starting a thousand years ago, the Four Seas and the inland Kyushu, up to the full-scale war eight hundred years ago, was caused by the excessive exploitation of the Four Seas by the Kyushu continent.
...
With strong forces and high morale, the Kyushu cultivation world was at its peak. However, the resources required for daily cultivation were severely lacking.
They were left with only two choices: either bloody expansion outwards or internal self-destruction.
It was obvious which choice a normal person would make!
The Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Seas, as later rising overseas cultivation worlds, were relatively weaker.
However, the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Seas were vast, boundless, rich in resources, and close to the Kyushu continent.
Naturally, they were the primary targets for invasion by the Kyushu cultivation world.
However, although the Kyushu continent's cultivation world was powerful, far surpassing the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Seas,
But just as a dragon has nine heads, each with its own intentions, how could they possibly unite?
The strategy of alliance was to unite the weak against the strong. The strategy of isolation was to use the strength of one to attack many weak ones.
Thus, the war between Qingzhou and the East Sea erupted.
However, these high-level matters were not of concern to the outer disciples of the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages.
As the lowest stratum of the cultivation world, they were only concerned with defeating their opponents to gain rewards from their sect.
...
Facing death, tempered by flames, hammered by steel, one becomes gold. The great waves wash over the sand, eliminating the weak and leaving only the strong.
Lin Yuer, Zhang Wan'er, Wang Meng, Duan Yu Yi, Yu Xiangyu, Liu Weilin, Xu Shuai...
And countless other rising stars from the Taiyi Immortal Sect, the Heavenly Demon Gate, and the Cold Water True Spirit Sect, whom Wu Tao had never heard of, officially stepped onto the stage in this great war between Qingzhou and the East Sea.
They rose to fame accompanied by bloody slaughter, treading on piles of white bones.
...
Another hundred days passed. Within the Taiyi Immortal Sect's territory, a bell chimed, resonating through the thousand-li region without warning.
The restrictions and formations outside the cave dwelling vibrated violently, and after a short while, they returned to peace.
In the quiet room, Wu Tao sat cross-legged.
"Hoo hoo hoo..."
His breathing echoed in the secret chamber like a whale inhaling seawater.
"Foundation Establishment stage!"
A sound akin to a moan escaped him as Wu Tao sighed softly.
The simple three words, spoken at this moment, felt as heavy as a mountain, as if filled with endless emotion.
After a quarter of an hour, Wu Tao slowly stood up and gave a slight shake.
The dust accumulated on his body during over a year of seclusion instantly scattered and flew away.
In that instant, he felt as if he had been reborn.
Looking around, Wu Tao's face gradually showed a look of relief, followed by one of ecstatic joy.
He had finally succeeded in Foundation Establishment.
In just over a year, while the outside world churned with storms and clamor, with blood raining down and mountains of corpses,
Wu Tao, who had been in seclusion, had only been continuously consuming Foundation Establishment Pills.
Attempting breakthroughs, failing, and trying again, over and over, until he finally succeeded at the last moment.
...
A mere Foundation Establishment stage, the first step on the long road of seeking immortality, was so difficult. How arduous and difficult would Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Violet Palace, and God Transformation be?
"Truly, not a moment can be relaxed!"
Sighing, Wu Tao collected his thoughts and carefully considered his current situation.
At the Foundation Establishment stage, the "Dragon Tiger Yuan Gang Nine Arts" he had originally cultivated was no longer useful.
He had to change his primary cultivation technique, and this technique could not be too inferior.
...
On the path of cultivation, a partner, wealth, and methods are all indispensable.
Wu Tao had not yet found a lifelong Dao companion. As for spiritual stones and other resources, due to various reasons, he was not currently lacking compared to cultivators of the same realm.
Regarding cultivation techniques, the primary technique Wu Tao cultivated, as an outer disciple of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, was considered good in the cultivation world for the Qi Refining stage.
However, after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, obtaining cultivation techniques above this level was not simple.
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