Chapter 102: The Lucky Koi

After Dao Sansheng finished examining the single-horned Dustmouse, he resumed eating, but Du Xuetao beside him had already lost his appetite. Upon hearing Dao Sansheng's words and learning that they could leave, Du Xuetao now found himself impatient for departure.

Once he had eaten and drunk his fill, Dao Sansheng felt the spiritual energy within him growing restless, barely contained. The breakthrough opportunity previously suppressed by the miasma now resurfaced. He had no choice but to rise and head toward his small wooden cabin.

As soon as Dao Sansheng stepped outside, even the single-horned Dustmouse trailed after him. After shooing the creature away several times with little success, he simply ignored it and went into his room. There, he sat cross-legged on the floor and began his cultivation.

The spiritual power in his body had become uncontrollable. With Dao Sansheng's urging, it had already circulated through his meridians five times. Dusk fell, and the world outside was shrouded in silence; only his cabin and the thatched hut glowed with light, the cabin's phosphorescent stones casting a gentle radiance over him.

As time passed, Dao Sansheng's need for spiritual energy increased. At first, he drew from a radius of a mile, then ten miles, then thirty, and so on.

Eventually, the range expanded to fifty miles. Out on the grassland, a massive tornado formed, following an age-old path, swirling slowly from the center toward the remote corners of the cave.

But this time, the tornado was different from those of the past. Instead of moving on, it was caught by a force of suction, held in place, then reversed in direction, drawn toward the source of that pull.

The source was a small wooden cabin, now absorbing all the spiritual energy from within the cave and valley. Yet, this place held not only spiritual energy but also deadly baleful and miasmic energies, with untold toxins mingling in the air. It was no wonder that when Du Xuetao fell in, he became a master of poisons, his body brimming with toxic treasures and poisonous pills.

Dao Sansheng was unaware of all this, continuing to follow the prescribed paths of his cultivation technique. More and more spiritual power filled his meridians. At this critical moment, he freed a hand and produced a green jade bottle, uncorking the red stopper. Instantly, the scent of medicinal pills filled the air.

Dao Sansheng inhaled deeply, poured the pills into his palm, and swallowed them all at once. The medicine transformed into surging spiritual energy within him, flooding like water released from a dam, rushing toward the thick barrier within his meridians. Yet, despite repeated attempts, he failed to break through.

The surrounding spiritual energy thickened, as did the toxins and miasma. Gradually, Dao Sansheng noticed faint traces of blackness accumulating within his muscles, settling in his body.

Probing his surroundings with his spiritual sense, he discovered that the cabin was saturated with miasma and poison. But it was too late to stop now. Would he die here even if he achieved Foundation Establishment? With his dual opposing spiritual roots, perhaps he was fated never to lay a proper foundation.

Despair overwhelmed Dao Sansheng. Yet, at that moment, the gourd that had always followed him suddenly leapt out, floating into the air. It began sucking in all the miasma and poison inside the cabin, and then drew in even more from outside.

Just as Dao Sansheng rejoiced, he noticed a new problem: the gourd was also absorbing his gathered spiritual energy, threatening to interrupt the arduous process of establishing his foundation.

His spiritual energy, just moments ago at its peak, was now running low. In desperation, the hair band atop Dao Sansheng's head, dislodged by the suction of the gourd, fell to the ground. He suddenly remembered that it contained many spirit beast pills; this was his only hope.

Connecting with the band through his spiritual sense, he drew out over a hundred spirit pills of unknown grade, laying them at his side. A chaotic torrent of five-elemental spiritual energies poured from them into his body.

Ordinarily, cultivators chose to refine a single element based on their spiritual root, absorbing only the corresponding energy. Dao Sansheng had planned to choose his element after establishing his foundation, but now his plans were in ruins. The barrier was breached, and five-colored energy rushed in together.

Now came the most critical moment. Foundation Establishment meant forging the very root of cultivation. Gazing inward at his own dazzlingly multicolored foundation, Dao Sansheng was filled with dismay.

Normally, a newly formed foundation was pure white or colorless, and only later, with focused cultivation, would it take on the color of the chosen element. Such a kaleidoscopic foundation had been seen before, but few ever advanced to the Golden Core, let alone Nascent Soul, and most never progressed at all.

Dao Sansheng was worried indeed. Meanwhile, the gourd's absorption of miasma and poison had noticeably slowed, and some of the toxic energies began to seep into his body. A layer of blackness appeared over his spiritual foundation, shrouded in a purple haze of miasma.

Now, not only were there the five colors, but a riot of hues tinged with black, a darkness shot through with color.

Dao Sansheng, lines of frustration marring his face, entirely forgot about consolidating his cultivation. He simply gazed helplessly at his foundation, uncertain what to do.

Outside the wooden cabin, a storm of purple miasma was being drawn in from afar. As Dao Sansheng’s strength increased, the soul disc in his sea of consciousness began to awaken, observing the brilliant world around it—so like the real world, complete with fog and spiritual energy.

Yet only this patch of land shone on the star map. The rest was shrouded in gray; only this section of the blue planet’s landmass was illuminated.

The soul disc’s power was immense. Sensing the coming storm, it hurriedly directed the gourd to frantically absorb the tempest. The gourd became a bottomless pit, drawing in the storm throughout the night.

In Dao Sansheng's dantian, the two yin-yang fish reappeared—no longer one black, one white, but now both shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. Seeing their appearance, Dao Sansheng felt himself close to fainting. Were these not the ornamental carp from his childhood home’s fish tank? Now they swam about his foundation, vibrant energies swirling within.

At dawn, Dao Sansheng rose, channeled his spiritual power, and gripped a magic tool. As spiritual energy infused the weapon, it hummed with power. With a single thrust, the blade pierced a massive hole in the grassland.

It seemed that after his advancement, he no longer needed techniques; raw spiritual power alone sufficed, its might greatly increased. And this was merely a tool suited for the Qi Refinement stage. Who knew how powerful an actual spiritual artifact would be?

Dao Sansheng weighed the implement in his hand, then put it away. Clearly, he needed to find a superior artifact—ideally an ancient treasure. He recalled rumors from Forging Heaven Valley about the legendary Heaven-Refining Cauldron. He resolved to seek one out in the future.

Looking up, he saw that the grassland had turned black, wreathed in purple miasma. He hadn’t expected such force from a single, ordinary sword strike—the fusion of poison and miasma into his foundation had made him far stronger than he’d imagined.

At that thought, Dao Sansheng recalled the gourd. After absorbing so much poison and miasma yesterday, who knew what it had become?

With that, Dao Sansheng hurried back to his room to find his gourd.