Chapter 234: Building the Foundation

Finally, as the last time approached, the foundation-building incense gradually burned to the end.

"After so many preparations, will it fail in the end?" Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes and murmured unwillingly.

As soon as he finished speaking, he couldn't help but take a breath.

At this time, as the flames on the foundation-building incense went out, the yin-yang pattern on the Heaven-stealing Cauldron suddenly lit up, and the thick white mist surrounding Yuan Ming immediately split into two streams, flowing back into his nasal cavity.

Yuan Ming only felt a hot feeling in his throat spreading all the way down, into his chest and abdomen, and finally fell into his dantian.

The next moment, it was like the thunder in the sky stirred the fire in the earth. The mana in Yuan Ming's dantian, which was originally in a boiling state, finally broke through the shackles at this moment and achieved a qualitative change.

Groups of mana began to condense and shrink continuously, as if completing some kind of magical extraction, until it was refined into drops of shiny transparent liquid and accumulated in the dantian.

"Tick, tick"

Yuan Ming first heard the sound of two drops of water, and then his ears were drowned by the whistling sound of a strong wind.

He only felt his eardrums swell, and the whole person was surrounded by a strong stream of heaven and earth energy. The pores around him seemed to be dilated, greedily sucking the gathered spiritual energy.

"Is this the feeling of condensing liquid to build a foundation?"

Yuan Ming only felt that he was dizzy, as if he had drunk a large jar of mellow wine, wandering in the feeling of happiness.

And his body, at this moment, was like a self-operating puppet. Almost without his control, it could swallow the spiritual energy of heaven and earth by itself, transport it into the dantian, condense and extract it into liquid, and gather it into the small pond.

After an unknown period of time, Yuan Ming's dantian finally felt full and saturated, and the state of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth by itself gradually lifted, and Yuan Ming's consciousness also returned to normal.

He reluctantly woke up from that transcendent state, and couldn't wait to check his Dantian, only to find that the mana stored in it had all condensed into liquid, like a lake with shimmering water.

In terms of the total amount of mana alone, it has increased by more than three times compared to when he was in the Qi Refining stage, and as for the purity of the mana, it is even more incomparable.

In fact, by completing the foundation building with the cultivation of the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, Yuan Ming's own mana is not only more pure than that of ordinary cultivators at the same level, but also at least half more than that of cultivators at the same level.

This gives him a great advantage when facing cultivators who are also in the early stage of foundation building.

At the same time, Yuan Ming felt that his spiritual power had increased by nearly one-fold as Xiying said that day.

When the breath adjustment was completed and he successfully came out of retreat, it was already the morning of the third day.

Yuan Ming pushed open the door of the quiet room with a refreshed spirit, and saw Xuanhua Zhenren sitting on a stone bench in the yard with his back to him.

His shoulders drooped down a bit, and he seemed a little discouraged.

Yuan Ming knew what was going on, and knew that he had probably failed to build his foundation.

Building a foundation is a major hurdle on the road of cultivation, and it is reasonable that most people cannot pass it. If he had not had the Stealing Heaven Cauldron to increase the efficacy of the foundation-building incense, it would still be unknown whether he could succeed this time.

Sensing the footsteps coming from behind, Xuanhua Zhenren turned his head and looked over.

Seeing that Yuan Ming's face was calm and he could not see any joy or sadness, he subconsciously thought that Yuan Ming had also failed.

"Yuan Daoyou, building a foundation is not easy. Although I have refined the foundation-building incense, I cannot guarantee that it will be foolproof. Don't worry too much. We will look for materials and continue to refine it in the future." Xuanhua Zhenren comforted Yuan Ming first.

"That... Xuanhua Daoyou, I succeeded in building my foundation." Yuan Ming coughed lightly and said.

Xuanhua Zhenren paused when he heard the words, and looked at Yuan Ming in disbelief, his eyes widened.

Seeing that he was silent, Yuan Ming had to speak up: "To be honest, I succeeded after trying three times."

He deliberately said it once more to show the difficulty of building his foundation.

Unexpectedly, Xuanhua Zhenren said with a bitter face: "This is my third time."

"The third time, what about the previous two times?" Yuan Ming was surprised.

"I spent all my family's wealth to get the foundation-building pill, but it ended in failure. My talent is really too poor, and my luck... is even worse." Xuanhua Zhenren said helplessly.

After saying that, he forced a smile and said: "At least, Fellow Daoist Yuan, you succeeded. This is enough to prove that the foundation-building incense I refined is fine. With this skill, I will not be afraid of not having a meal in the future."

"That's right." Yuan Ming heard this and could only smile awkwardly.

"Fellow Daoist Yuan...you should call me Senior Yuan. What are your plans for the future?" Xuanhua Zhenren asked.

"There is no need for us to be like this." Yuan Ming laughed.

"On the road of cultivation, the one who has achieved success is respected. The higher the level of cultivation, the higher the seniority. This is common sense." Xuanhua Zhenren was very serious.

"No, we should still call each other fellow Taoists. I plan to set off soon and travel alone." Yuan Ming said so.

"Okay, I also plan to leave Xuanhua Temple and travel outside to find opportunities." Xuanhua Zhenren nodded.

"Where are you going, fellow Taoist Xuanhua?" Yuan Ming asked.

"Let's go to the southern border and the southern region, and maybe go to the South China Sea Islands. It is said that there are many overseas cultivators there, and there are also some special spiritual materials that are not available in southern border and the Central Plains. Many of the ores can be used to refine spiritual incense." Xuanhua Zhenren said with a flash of longing in his eyes.

"Take care on your journey. I was able to successfully build my foundation this time, thanks to the help of Daoist Xuanhua. I have successfully built my four spiritual roots. Don't be discouraged."

If Yuan Ming hadn't gotten the materials this time, he would never have been able to make the foundation-building spiritual incense. He also helped him get rid of trouble. If there was a favor, it was actually Yuan Ming who owed him more.

He looked thoughtful, and after a long time, he took out a green book and handed it to Yuan Ming.

Yuan Ming looked carefully and found that it was the secret book of incense making that Xuanhua Zhenren treasured so much. He was immediately surprised.

"Daoist Xuanhua, what are you doing?" Yuan Ming asked.

"Senior Yuan, you are more talented than me, and you have enough talent in making spiritual incense. Now that you have successfully built your foundation, your life span is longer than mine, and you will have more time to study this in the future. I don't want to wait until I die one day and this secret technique is lost. So I hope you can use this secret book well and truly carry forward the spiritual incense." Xuanhua Zhenren said sincerely.

Yuan Ming was a little bit at a loss for a moment.

"Keep it well, don't let me down." Xuanhua Zhenren stuffed the secret book into Yuan Ming's hand and reminded him.

"I will never let you down." Yuan Ming clasped his fists and replied solemnly.

After that, Xuanhua Zhenren seemed to have untied some knots in his heart, and shouted that Yuan Ming should treat him to a good meal and not return until he was drunk.

So Yuan Ming summoned Qingyun Crane, took Xuanhua Laodao, and went to the nearby state city together, found an ordinary restaurant, and asked for a private room...

Two days later, Yuan Ming said goodbye and left, and continued on his way back to the north.

Xuanhua Zhenren also left Xuanhua Temple as he said and went south.

Seven or eight days later

Yuan Ming rode a crane to fly in the sky. After building the foundation, Yuan Ming's state of mind was completely different from when he first came to Yue State. He leisurely held the secret book given by Xuanhua Zhenren in his hands and read it non-stop.

The various spiritual incense with different effects recorded in the book made him a little dazzled. He couldn't help itching to try to refine one or two.

When passing by a small market along the way, Yuan Ming also bought a batch of materials there. After that, he walked and stopped while refining some spiritual incense with special effects. He stopped at places with beautiful scenery and stayed for a few days.

In addition to the incense, fog incense and beast-attracting incense that he had accidentally made before, he also refined some Qingxuan incense, soul-soothing incense, and health-promoting incense that assisted in meditation and cultivation.

In addition to the above, there are also some incense with special effects like foundation-building incense in the book, but the requirements for materials and craftsmanship are more stringent, which is not what Yuan Ming can refine at the moment.

Two months later.

In the central part of Yue State, outside a small town built near the intersection of two rivers.

Yuan Ming, wearing a green robe, holding the edge of his hat with one hand, looked up at the not-so-high city gate in front of him, and read the name on the plaque: "Hekou Town".

"It seems that the source of the epidemic is here." Yuan Ming sighed and looked inside the city gate.

I saw two vermilion doors opening and closing, and there was no soldier at the door. There was only an old man with dirty clothes and skinny body leaning against the wall at the foot of the city wall, half dead.

Yuan Ming walked up and leaned over to check. He was already breathing and dying.

He shook his head, took out a pill, and wanted to put it into the old man's mouth to give him a breath, but the other party didn't even have the strength to open his mouth. Even if he forced it open, he was afraid that he would not be able to chew it.

The old man's eyes were dull and his expression was indifferent. Obviously, he had lost the desire to survive.

Yuan Ming had no choice but to put away the pill, walked past the old man and entered the city.

He came to the vicinity of this river mouth town three days ago. Several neighboring towns and villages had a large-scale outbreak of plague.

Yuan Ming did not let it go, but took a little action to help eliminate the surrounding epidemic.

After some inquiries, it was learned that the first place where the epidemic broke out was the abandoned "Hekou Town", where the epidemic first appeared and the situation was the most serious.

Other towns had also offered assistance, but found that they could not contain it at all, and finally had to give up helplessly.

Without external assistance, Hekou Town could only let the situation deteriorate, so that most of the population in the city died, and the remaining people were just waiting to die, with no hope at all.

The local government was unable to manage it, and no immortal sects took action. Yuan Ming couldn't bear it for a while, so he came here.

If he hadn't seen it, it would be fine. Since he saw it, he wanted to save these mortals, otherwise he couldn't get over the hurdle in his heart.