This breakthrough had gone exceptionally smoothly.
By normal standards, with a mid-grade spiritual root, merely reaching the Foundation Establishment stage was already a fortunate outcome typically requiring a fair amount of luck or opportunity to achieve.
Once one reached Foundation Establishment, however, the pace of cultivation would drastically slow down.
Before reaching the point where one could recklessly consume pills like candy, even if Li Ye burned through spirit stones to assist his cultivation, he could barely accumulate one or two liquid mana drops a year.
And even with full mana reserves, breaking through the next bottleneck would still require a significant amount of time and effort.
But Li Ye's case was entirely different. Everything felt almost effortless and natural a bottleneck he had expected to require multiple attempts to break through turned out to be hardly an obstacle at all.
"Well, that makes sense… The pills I've used are all high-grade, marked with pill patterns, and I've been refined by the spiritual essence of the Void Realm for years. With the quality of my current mana, I already surpass any mid-stage cultivator my foundation is incredibly solid. Even if limited by my spiritual root, the bottleneck has been greatly weakened. This smooth breakthrough is only natural."
Li Ye made his assessment.
"By that logic, with the Void Realm's essence refining me year after year, the quality of my mana will only become more and more terrifying far beyond that of other cultivators at the same stage…"
"From mid-stage to late-stage Foundation Establishment and peak, the process will likely take decades… By the time I reach the late Foundation Establishment, the nature of my mana might be beyond prediction…"
"If I can naturally refine my mana toward a state close to solidification, it would greatly benefit my future Golden Core as well!"
With that thought in mind, he retracted his divine sense and looked inward.
Inside his dantian, fifty slightly condensed, perfectly round liquid mana drops were steadily circulating and absorbing spiritual energy to strengthen themselves.
Though the mana was still a little unsteady after the breakthrough, his overall cultivation had taken a major leap forward.
"Now that I have fifty liquid mana drops, to reach the next bottleneck and attempt another breakthrough, I'll need to accumulate a hundred…"
"At this rate, it'll take at least twelve years of dedicated cultivation to get there…"
"Wait, no!"
Li Ye suddenly had a thought and pulled up his status panel.
[Name: Li Ye]
[Spiritual Root: Mid-Grade Earth-Wood Dual Root]
[Age: 36]
[Lifespan: 190 years]
[Skills:]
Planting: Tier 3 - Low Grade (7147/150,000)
Alchemy: Tier 2 - High Grade (6140/90,000)
Artifact Crafting: Tier 2 - High Grade (2787/90,000)
Talisman Crafting: Tier 2 - High Grade (4317/50,000)
Gu Techniques: Tier 2 - High Grade (3769/70,000)
Formations: Tier 3 - Low Grade (1217/300,000)
Puppetry: Tier 2 - High Grade (1470/70,000)
[Spiritual Essences:]
Qingxuan Essence ×642
Jade Cluster Essence ×228
Blood Amber Essence ×126
Blood-Melting Essence ×400
Withered Bone Essence ×400
[Essence Traits:]
Vitality Lv.2
Absorption Lv.2
Wood Spirit Lv.2
Tongtian Lv.1 (48.19%)
Toxicity Lv.2
[Experience: 0]
Five years of accumulation had brought all his secondary skills to at least a Tier 2 High Grade.
And the two skills most vital to him Planting, which determined his spiritual essence growth, and Formations, which were key to stabilizing the volatile energy left behind by the lava palace had both reached Tier 3 first!
He had already completed the theoretical design to upgrade the protective mountain array to Tier 3, using the increasingly powerful domain strength of the Void Realm Tree as its core, and had begun implementing it at Mount Pingyang.
The outermost Blazing Fire Flowing Flame Array had essentially become a decoy.
His previous idea of using the wood-fire cycle to boost the array's power to Tier 3 was no longer sufficient. Now, in the face of a real Tier 3 array infused with void power, it couldn't serve as his trump card anymore.
At best, it could be used as a variant or auxiliary formation to deal with certain special situations.
In terms of actual power, it wasn't much stronger than the new wood-element formations he had developed by analyzing and absorbing the essence of various formation diagrams he acquired through auctions over the past few years.
Li Ye was well aware of all this.
When his gaze fell upon the Tongtian trait, a confident smile crept onto his face.
"The second solidification of the Void Realm Tree's spiritual essence is nearly halfway done. In another five or six years, I'll be able to upgrade the [Tongtian] trait to Level 2, elevating my spiritual root to a high grade!"
"Once that happens, my cultivation speed will rise again… At this rate, it'll likely take me less than ten more years to reach a late-stage Foundation Establishment!"
"Which means… when I finally reach peak Foundation Establishment, ready to attempt Golden Core, I might not even be a hundred years old!"
Thinking through the numbers, he couldn't help but show a strange expression.
Aside from cultivators blessed with Heavenly Roots, even most Earth Root cultivators without constant resources or major opportunities might not be able to match his cultivation speed!
"So going forward, my path in cultivation will only become smoother and smoother… I guess this is a case of slow buildup, explosive payoff."
.....
After over ten more days of secluded cultivation, Li Ye finally emerged, having fully stabilized his newfound mana.
But just before stepping out of the cave-dwelling, the aura of his cultivation base rapidly withdrew, once again returning to the level of an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
After all, his currently cultivated spirit herbs still hadn't matured enough to meet the minimum standards for alchemy.
Nearly all the medicinal ingredients he had used for pill refining over the years had been acquired through various channels and traded for with pills accumulated via the many auctions he had hosted.
By conventional standards, his current gains shouldn't have been enough to allow his cultivation to progress so rapidly…
Considering his displayed aptitude, breaking through an entire minor stage within just five years of Foundation Establishment would seem far too excessive.
Naturally, some concealment was in order.
As soon as he stepped out, four handmaidens having sensed his presence hurried over to greet him.
Their voices were soft and sweet as they congratulated him and asked if they should prepare food and soup for him.
"No rush. To make the preparations… and summon Luo Feibai," Li Ye instructed calmly.
The four women exchanged a glance, then immediately responded with a bow.
Rong Yue, Xia Qiong, and Hong Yao went off to the kitchen to prepare the meal, while Ruan Jin who was known to have some ties to Luo Feibai went to summon him.
Before the meal was even ready and only some fruits and pastries had been served, Luo Feibai arrived in haste.
"Greetings, Alliance Leader!"
He gave a deep bow and respectfully offered a jade slip with both hands.
"This contains a report on the major and minor events that occurred in the Chidi Mountain Range and surrounding nations during your seclusion."
Li Ye took the jade slip, swept his divine sense across it, and casually asked,
"Hmm… Tell me about those fire beasts. Are the underground fire tunnels still unstable? Have the fire beast sightings increased?"
"Reporting to the Alliance Leader…"
At this, Luo Feibai's expression turned slightly grim.
"The formation diagrams you provided have already been deployed by our people. They've done a good job at suppressing and controlling the underground fire veins, which means we can continue using them for alchemy and crafting without issue it hasn't affected our ability to profit…"
"But the fire beast situation… isn't so optimistic. They appear and disappear unpredictably, possibly emerging from any location connected to the underground fire veins. Most of them are quite powerful, and even though we've formed squads to try and eliminate them, they've still caused significant destruction…"
"There are even rumors still unconfirmed but some cultivators claim to have encountered fire beasts at the Foundation Establishment level in certain tunnels…"
"The cultivators across the Chidi Mountain Range are both panicked and greedy. The order in the region is starting to spiral out of control…"
Li Ye listened in silence, his expression unchanged.
He looked at Luo Feibai for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said:
"You're not far from fifty now. You've been at the peak of Qi Refining for quite a while, and your cultivation is becoming increasingly refined. Are you ready to attempt a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment?"
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