Chapter 405
Whether it was due to the great distance between the Tianhai Domain and the Lingnan Region, there seemed to be a delay in information transmission between the avatar and the main body. The visualization diagrams and pill refining methods obtained by the avatar in the Tianhai Domain were only received by the main body two days later.
"Spiritual Refinement Master... visualization method? The 'Raging Waves Visualization Method'?" Qin Ran pondered briefly, not cultivating it immediately.
He spent the night recording both the "Raging Waves Visualization Method" and the "Starry Sky Visualization Method", drawing diagrams, and writing down cultivation methods based on his avatar's cultivation insights.
Early the next morning, he went outside the greenhouse and found Zhang Junyi, who was reciting his lessons.
When Qin Ran arrived, Zhang Junyi was hugging a book, walking back and forth at the greenhouse entrance while softly reciting.
He was so engrossed in his recitation that he didn't even notice Qin Ran's arrival.
Qin Ran could hear that he was reciting knowledge related to spiritual herb cultivation, not about Foundation Establishment, so he asked, "Have you memorized everything about Foundation Establishment?"
His sudden voice startled Zhang Junyi. When he came to his senses and saw Qin Ran, he hurriedly bowed and replied, "I've memorized most of it."
"Then you can prepare for Foundation Establishment," Qin Ran nodded, not testing him further. He continued, "Later, go find your master to prepare a medicinal bath to nourish your body, and have her teach you a body-strengthening technique. Now that you know about Foundation Establishment, you should understand the importance of physical cultivation."
Foundation Establishment already?! Zhang Junyi was excited inwardly, but he didn't show it outwardly. He only respectfully said to Qin Ran, "Yes, I understand, Senior.""You sensed qi using the 'Basic Cultivation Technique', so you'll need another cultivation method for Foundation Establishment," Qin Ran said, taking out a book from his storage ring and handing it to Zhang Junyi. "Today, I'm passing on to you the 'Water Flower Heart Sutra' as your foundational cultivation method going forward."
Zhang Junyi now understood the importance of gentle and pure spiritual power during Foundation Establishment, and he knew the significance of the "Basic Cultivation Technique" for someone just entering the world of cultivation. His feelings of apology and gratitude towards Qin Ran need not be elaborated.
Now that Qin Ran was passing on another cultivation method to him, he was nearly moved to tears. He extended both hands and respectfully accepted the manual.
"Thank you, Senior!" he said sincerely.
When he straightened up and looked at Qin Ran, the latter had already turned his back, presenting a distant and profound silhouette.
Qin Ran spoke again, "Now, you need to prepare for Foundation Establishment, comprehend the basic cultivation technique, learn about spiritual herbs, and build your residence. Time is tight, and the tasks are heavy. It's quite a challenge for you.
"You're only thirteen. Can you handle it?"
Challenge? Whether he could handle it or not?!
Zhang Junyi smiled. Although he was only thirteen, he had already experienced countless hardships in life. Challenges were what Zhang Junyi feared least.
Moreover, how was this a challenge to him? This was clearly a broad path to grow bigger, stronger, and advance forward and upward.
"Senior, this is nothing," he chuckled. "Of course I can handle it."
"Nothing?" Qin Ran seemed to laugh softly, then continued, "Are you sure it's nothing?
"But your cultivation journey has just begun, so the challenges have just begun too. As you progress further on the path of cultivation, the challenges you'll face in the future will become increasingly difficult.
"You must understand that life is always like this. When you feel that the present is the most difficult, the future is actually the real challenge. The present is always the easiest."
Zhang Junyi thought about his goal of completely destroying Zhican Valley. He understood what the Senior was saying. Because destroying such a large sect would inevitably come at a great cost, his future path would certainly not be easy.
"I'm not afraid!" he guaranteed, patting his chest. "I love challenges!"
"Good that you're not afraid," Qin Ran shook his head and walked forward, saying, "You need to hurry. Currently, your master is taking care of the spiritual herbs. You need to quickly gain some understanding of spiritual herbs to take over your master's tasks. The sooner you take over the tasks, the happier your master will be. Your master is petty; if you're late, she'll be unhappy..."
As he spoke, he walked to the lakeside and stood on the shore. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he turned and walked back.
He walked up to Zhang Junyi and stared at him intently. After a while, he asked, "How do you find Dan Peak?"
Hearing this, Zhang Junyi's memories flashed through his experiences at Dan Peak these days.
This time at Dan Peak had been the happiest and most joyful period since his family's demise. Except for being disliked by the fairy sister on the back mountain, everyone else at Dan Peak had been very kind to him. Even this inscrutable Senior before him treated him quite well.
"It's very nice!" he replied with a smile in his eyes, and repeated, "Dan Peak is all very good."
As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that the Senior's gaze towards him had softened considerably.
He saw the Senior take out another book from that magical storage ring and hand it to him. The Senior's expression became very serious as he looked at him and said solemnly:
"This cultivation method is Dan Peak's ancestral spiritual refinement technique. Thousands of years ago, Dan Peak's ability to stand at the pinnacle of the Land of Immortal Legacy relied on this technique. Now Dan Peak has declined, and many things have disappeared in the river of time, but only this cultivation method has been preserved. This is Dan Peak's deepest secret, and this method has always been passed down only to Dan Peak's direct disciples. Today, I'm passing it on to you."
"Senior!" Zhang Junyi was overwhelmed with emotion. He extended both hands and bowed again, respectfully receiving the "Dan Peak's ancestral spiritual refinement technique" from Qin Ran's hands.
He lowered his head and saw "Raging Waves Visualization Method" written on the book's cover. His heart couldn't help but skip a beat. He had read many books about Foundation Establishment, which mentioned many cultivation methods, but none had mentioned a visualization method.
Visualization method? What kind of technique was this?
He had never heard of or seen it before, thinking to himself that it truly was Dan Peak's deepest secret.
At this moment, he felt a warmth flowing through his heart. Once again, he felt Dan Peak's goodwill towards him. Dan Peak was treating him as one of their own, as family.
He felt the sense of home at Dan Peak.
As he was feeling moved, the Senior patted his shoulder and sighed, "The future of reviving Dan Peak and the task of destroying Zhican Valley are now entrusted to you."
So he felt trust and importance again, and was even more moved, his eyes brimming with tears. He raised his head, already teary-eyed, looked at the Senior, and nodded heavily.
"Mm!" he responded, making the heaviest promise of his life.
Qin Ran turned and left, walking towards the wooden cabin. As he walked, he disappeared from Zhang Junyi's sight.
Zhang Junyi gripped the visualization method tightly in his hand, his excited heart unable to calm for a long time. Tears kept falling from his eyes as he thought, "From now on, Dan Peak will be my second home!"
After reciting his lessons and having breakfast, Zhang Junyi began his busy day.
It wasn't until late at night, when everything was quiet, that he finally had time to take out the Dan Peak's secret manual—the "Raging Waves Visualization Method"—that the Senior had given him.
He steadied his palpitating heart and, with trembling hands, opened the first page of the visualization method.
On the first page of the visualization method was a picture of rising winds and clouds, with waves beginning to surge. He looked at it for a while but didn't see anything unusual. He casually turned to the second page. The second page contained text, instructions on how cultivators should practice according to the visualization diagram on the first page.
"Visualization diagram? Cultivation?" Zhang Junyi kept praising, truly an ingenious technique. This amazing method actually involved cultivating by looking at a picture.
He turned back to the first page, looked at the visualization diagram, and following the method recorded on the second page, slowly closed his eyes, trying to construct that "wave-rising picture" in his mind.
This was not simple, as it required a great deal of memory and spatial imagination. That night, Zhang Junyi tried for a long time but couldn't construct it.
It took nearly half a month before he could vividly construct that picture in his mind.
The visualization diagram had taken shape in his mind, but...
How to put it?
It might be a bit disrespectful to the Senior, but it's the truth: this technique seemed useless.
According to the manual, during the process of constructing the visualization diagram, the cultivator should see their sea of consciousness opening up as the visualization diagram is constructed.
The moment the visualization diagram takes shape, the sea of consciousness should also be opened. Then the visualization diagram should transfer into the sea of consciousness.
Now the visualization image had taken shape, but Zhang Junyi felt no change.
"Perhaps it's different for everyone," he thought.
Following this train of thought, he strictly adhered to the instructions in the method and began to visualize the image in his mind.
Then he discovered that it still had no effect. He seemed to feel no change at all.
"Maybe it's my problem?"
He continued visualizing for another half month, but still got no response.
So he had no choice but to go find the sect leader.
"Sect Leader, I've failed to meet your expectations," he said dejectedly, returning the visualization method to the sect leader with a sigh. "This disciple has been visualizing for over a month, tried several visualization images, but there's been no response, let alone any sign of a divine soul."
"No effect?" Qin Ran took back the visualization method, pondering, but not particularly surprised.
In the Celestial Sea Domain, among the three cultivation paths of body refiners, qi practitioners, and divine soul cultivators, the divine soul path was the most demanding in terms of talent.
For body refiners, a lack of talent at most meant they couldn't reach higher realms, but they could still enter the path. For divine soul cultivators, without talent, they couldn't even touch the door to cultivation.
The conditions for cultivation were too harsh, which was why the Lingnan Region changed their cultivation system.
"If there's no effect, then so be it..." Qin Ran let out a pretend sigh, "There's no need to be discouraged. This method's requirement for talent is too high. It's not about spiritual roots, but talent in the soul aspect."
Soul?
Hearing this, Zhang Junyi could only sigh, blaming himself for not having the right destiny.
He then withdrew to study the Water Flower Heart Sutra.
Originally planning to use Zhang Junyi as a guinea pig to practice the visualization method first, now this idea had to be abandoned.
Qin Ran frowned, looking at the visualization method in his hand: "Do I have to cultivate it directly?"
He couldn't make up his mind and hesitated for a day. When he was about to cultivate at night, he suddenly felt something was off...
"Visualization image, visualization image..." He recalled the moment when his avatar first saw the original method, at that moment, the avatar could perceive the unique charm of the visualization image, "Is it possible that it's not Zhang Junyi's problem, but that the image I drew is a fake, a pirated version?"
Realizing this possibility, the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. So the next day, he found Zhang Junyi again and directly shared the memory of the original visualization image seen by his avatar through divine soul transmission, asking Zhang Junyi to visualize using that image again.
Seeing the sect leader put so much effort into his cultivation, Zhang Junyi was deeply moved and visualized through the night.
He had already constructed the pirated visualization image in his mind before, so now visualizing the authentic image came naturally and smoothly.
By dawn the next day, he saw his sea of consciousness.
His sea of consciousness opened a line for him.
The method...
It worked!
He hadn't failed the sect leader's expectations.
He immediately shared this good news with the sect leader, and after another month of cultivation, he opened his sea of consciousness, his consciousness entered it, gave birth to a divine soul, and constructed the image of raging waves in his sea of consciousness.
The sect leader said that the cultivation path becomes more difficult as one progresses, with greater challenges ahead. However, Zhang Junyi clearly felt that his path was becoming wider and broader.
Since coming to Dan Peak, his life had been filled with light.
He built a bamboo house, having his own home; he gradually took over the task of tending to spiritual herbs from his master, having a job; he opened his sea of consciousness, cultivated a divine soul, obtaining a great opportunity; after all this, he also comprehended the foundation-building part of the Water Flower Heart Sutra, and his body was ready for foundation building.
Nearly half a year after entering the cultivation world, he had made all preparations and was finally ready to build his foundation!
On this day, the sky was clear and the breeze was gentle.
Zhang Junyi sat cross-legged by the lake, under the Devouring Demon Willow, as the spiritual energy of Dan Peak gathered towards him. He skillfully and methodically guided the spiritual energy into his body, starting the foundation-building process.
Unlike the careless Li Shiyin, he had thoroughly read various foundation-building classics, was familiar with various meridians and acupoints, understood different situations during the foundation-building process, and mastered both the greater and lesser heavenly circuits...
People like him, like him and Qin Ran, once they start doing something, it's hard for them to make mistakes.
So, when he was building his foundation, something unexpected indeed happened.
The moment his spiritual seed just took root in his dantian, a sudden thunderclap rang out in the sky!
"Boom!!"
The sound was intense, the thunder majestic and awe-inspiring.
In an instant, the weather changed dramatically, dark clouds pressed down on the mountains, and a terrifying aura descended from the sky...
"Thunder tribulation!"
Zhang Junyi was shocked. He knew that foundation building could possibly trigger heavenly tribulation, but such occurrences were rare even in the entire cultivation world.
How could it happen to him?
He hurriedly opened his eyes and looked up at the sky. He saw a vast expanse of darkness above, clouds like black iron hanging in the air, the entire Dao Sword Sect territory had turned dark. Golden, red, black, and white lightning snakes weaved through the dark clouds.
Such a spectacle...
Wasn't this tribulation a bit too intense for foundation building?!
Was this really a foundation-building tribulation?
As a newcomer on the path of cultivation, he didn't understand heavenly tribulations and didn't know if this was a normal situation.
"Continue with your foundation building..." At this moment, the sect leader's voice came over, "This isn't about you!"
He looked over and saw the sect leader with a grave expression, floating on the surface of Sword Washing Lake, looking at the closed cultivation room under the old spirit locust tree.
He immediately understood that it wasn't his tribulation, but Li Shiyin's.
After nearly three months of closed cultivation, Li Shiyin had finally made a breakthrough. Her Golden Core tribulation had arrived... or had it?
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