Chapter 178 Success in Foundation Establishment

If one cannot succeed, the attempt to establish a foundation will fail.

At this moment, He Song is preparing for his third compression of spiritual energy, and he still has many chances left.

A glint of determination flashed in He Song's eyes.

With the aid of six Foundation Establishment Pills in his abdomen, he quietly gathered strength, steadily advancing toward establishing his foundation.

Third time.

Fourth time.

Fifth time.

At a certain moment, when He Song once again exerted all his strength to compress the spiritual energy within his Dantian, making it increasingly dense, an unprecedented sense of comfort surged into his heart.

At that moment, He Song distinctly felt a powerful force beginning to emerge within his Dantian.

Upon realizing this, his heart trembled instantly.

This was the sign of magical power being born!

The next moment, without hesitation, He Song continued to fully compress the spiritual energy within his body.

Simultaneously, the powerful force within his Dantian grew even more terrifying as He Song continued to compress the spiritual energy.

When He Song sensed that the force within his Dantian had fully formed, a feeling of unity between his mind and the force instantly arose within him.

Spiritual energy, when compressed to its limit, would give birth to magical power.

Only by successfully generating the first trace of magical power could a cultivator step into the Foundation Establishment stage and become a true practitioner!

Below the Foundation Establishment stage, it was merely a phase that one must go through in transitioning from an ordinary person to a cultivator.

Magical power, on the other hand, differs greatly from spiritual energy.

Its most significant distinction lies in its ability to be in sync with the cultivator's intentions.

Spiritual energy is just raw power.

Manipulating spiritual energy is no different in essence from a common person wielding a sword or knife.

Magical power, however, acts like a third hand, a third eye, a third ear, and so on.

Where the mind goes, magical power follows.

For instance, when manipulating magical artifacts, using spiritual energy is akin to a common person holding a sword or knife.

But using magical power to manipulate magical artifacts is like extending oneself; with just a thought, magical power flows according to one's will.

This is why a Foundation Establishment practitioner can launch attacks from a great distance.

Even at the initial stage of Foundation Establishment, the range covered by their divine sense extends up to two miles.

At such a distance, it would be impossible to attack using only spiritual energy.

However, by harnessing magical power, it can reach the area covered by the divine sense almost instantly.

Thus, launching attacks from afar becomes a normal occurrence.

On top of a small mountain, He Song sat quietly.

At the same moment the first trace of magical power emerged within his Dantian, he was about to circulate the newly formed magical power to convert all the remaining spiritual energy in his Dantian into magical power.

But at the very moment the magical power was born, He Song suddenly felt a wave of darkness wash over him.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself floating in mid-air.

However, at this moment, He Song could not see far with his eyes but could vaguely perceive things around him.

He sensed the figure of himself sitting atop the mountain peak.

At the same time, he could also perceive the rocks, trees, and soil surrounding his figure.

Upon realizing this, He Song immediately understood.

When the first trace of magical power emerges after compressing the spiritual energy in the Dantian, that trace of magical power nourishes the cultivator's soul and aids in the birth of divine sense.

Both Meng Guan and Wei Fan had mentioned this point when discussing their insights on Foundation Establishment with He Song.

The process of forming divine sense is actually quite simple.

At this moment, He Song floating in the air is equivalent to extending his divine sense to perceive his surroundings.

His soul is currently in the process of transforming into divine sense due to that trace of magical power.

Only after the first trace of divine sense is successfully formed does He Song's perception appear in mid-air.

However, since his divine sense has just been born, he needs to wait until his soul is completely transformed into divine sense before his perception will return to his body from mid-air.

Thus, He Song finally understood why both Meng Guan and Wei Fan, upon successfully breaking through to Foundation Establishment and leaving seclusion, were fully aware of external matters.

It turns out that during the breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, cultivators are not limited to what they physically see.

At the moment divine sense is born, they can vaguely perceive various things around them.

Voices.

Placement of objects.

And movements of people nearby.

All these can be faintly perceived.

However, to truly perceive these things clearly, one must make contact with the divine sense.

A mere scan through the air will only provide a vague perception of the surroundings.

For instance, at this moment, He Song could only perceive his own body and some nearby rocks and trees.

Beyond ten meters, this vague perception would fade.

Only when the divine sense comes into contact with objects, animals, or even people does the perception of the divine sense reach its maximum potential.

Of course, if one truly uses divine sense to make contact, it is similar to directly touching something with one's hands.

In the cultivation world, using divine sense to touch others is considered a major taboo.

If the person touched happens to be a female cultivator, it might lead to a deadly feud.

At this moment, the first trace of magical power has appeared in He Song's Dantian.

His soul is also gradually transforming into divine sense.

During this period, a Foundation Establishment cultivator is actually quite vulnerable.

Even an ordinary person could easily cut off a cultivator's head with a single strike.

This is why cultivators usually seek close friends, parents, or mentors to guard them during their breakthrough to Foundation Establishment.

Having someone guard them naturally makes the process much safer.

However, He Song did not need to worry about this.

Being inside the Mist Veil Formation, his safety was assured.

After a while, He Song's perception returned to his body.

That trace of magical power had successfully transformed his soul into divine sense.

At this moment, although He Song could have tested how far his divine sense could reach, he instead focused his attention on his Dantian.

Now, He Song had successfully established his foundation.

The spiritual energy within his Dantian needed to be quickly converted into his own magical power.

This conversion process would take a relatively long time.

Focusing his attention on his Dantian, He Song willed the Earth Scripture to activate.

That trace of magical power surged out from his Dantian and began to circulate continuously within his meridians.

Under the operation of the Earth Scripture, that trace of magical power gradually absorbed the remaining spiritual energy in He Song's Dantian, growing stronger and stronger.

One strand.

Two strands.

Three strands.

Several days later, after He Song had continuously operated his cultivation technique for several days, all the spiritual energy in his body had disappeared.

Simultaneously, external spiritual energy was continuously drawn into his body and converted into magical power.

During the process of converting spiritual energy into magical power, He Song would also absorb external spiritual energy to speed up the conversion.

At this moment, newly promoted Foundation Establishment practitioners have an incredibly fast absorption rate of external spiritual energy.

This is also why small spirals of spiritual energy often appear above newly promoted Foundation Establishment practitioners.

The spiritual energy in their vicinity is insufficient, so they must draw it from afar, naturally forming spirals of spiritual energy.

But He Song was different.

He was inside the Mist Veil Formation, which contained two Minor Spirit Gathering Formations, and he even had tens of thousands of spirit stones around him.

In such a situation, the amount of spiritual energy around He Song was certainly sufficient.

Therefore, during these few days, no phenomena such as spirals of spiritual energy appeared where He Song was located.

Without any unusual phenomena, it naturally did not attract the attention of other cultivators.

This was something He Song had planned in advance.

At this moment, after several days, his meridians and Dantian were filled with a considerable amount of magical power.

Some of this magical power was converted from his original spiritual energy, while some was generated from absorbing external spiritual energy over the past few days.

Now, He Song only needed to will it, and the magical power within his body would flow smoothly through his meridians, continuously absorbing external spiritual energy and converting it into his own magical power.

Although converting spiritual energy into magical power requires a substantial amount, for He Song, as long as cultivation can increase his magical power, everything else was secondary.

Now, several days later, when his body was fully filled with magical power, He Song casually operated the Earth Scripture, and his attention quickly turned to his divine sense.

Logically speaking, after several days of consolidation, He Song could now leave seclusion.

From the moment he leaves seclusion, he will be a newly promoted Foundation Establishment practitioner.

Identity.

Status.

Power.

Strength.

All of these have risen to a whole new level.

Compared to his previous self as a low-level Qi Condensation practitioner, an enormous gap has formed.

However, after consolidating his cultivation and stabilizing his advancement to the Foundation Establishment stage, He Song did not leave seclusion immediately.

Instead, he began to study his divine sense.

Divine sense is transformed from the soul.

The stronger the soul, the stronger the resulting divine sense.

He Song is a traveler from another world.

Since coming to this world, his soul has always been much stronger than those of others.

Thus, after his soul was transformed into divine sense, He Song wanted to know whether his divine sense would be stronger than that of others.

Thinking of this, He Song acted immediately.

While operating the Earth Scripture and continuously absorbing surrounding spiritual energy, he extended his divine sense.

The perception gained by extending divine sense is quite fascinating.

In this uninhabited Mist Veil Formation, He Song could freely extend his divine sense to scan everything within the formation.

As his divine sense swept across the area, soil, rocks, trees, dead leaves, water currents, wind sounds—all appeared in He Song's mind.

After processing by his divine sense, they instantly constructed a vivid two-dimensional map in his mind.

Every detail of the areas scanned by his divine sense was clearly visible on this two-dimensional map.

However, it was only a two-dimensional map, not a three-dimensional image.

As He Song willed it, his divine sense rapidly spread outward from him as the center.

(End of Chapter)