The nearest peak to the one beneath his feet lay more than three hundred zhang away.
Yet on that nearly vertical cliff, Li Guanqi spotted a figure climbing bare-chested!
Two massive black stones were tied to the man's waist.
His muscles bulged taut and hard, veins standing out in sharp relief. His feet trembled uncontrollably against the rock face, and countless scrapes covered his body. Yet his gaze remained unyielding as he climbed toward the summit step by step.
Li Guanqi felt a jolt of admiration at the sight.
It seemed the disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect who had reached Foundation Establishment trained even harder in their daily lives.
Taking a deep breath to settle his mind, Li Guanqi sat cross-legged on the ground and produced the jade bottle Ye Feng had given him.
He popped the jade stopper. The jade marrow fluid inside was a milky white, crystalline and alluring. The moment it opened, a rich surge of heaven and earth spiritual energy wafted out, unimaginably pure.
Surprise flickered in Li Guanqi's eyes. He had not expected this jade marrow fluid to contain such concentrated spiritual energy.
Tilting his head back, he drank it down in a single gulp and swiftly entered a state of cultivation.
Buzz!
At the summit of Yuhu Peak, the dense blanket of clouds and mist parted, gradually forming a vacuum over ten zhang wide. The surrounding mist churned slowly, spiraling into a small vortex.
Sitting upright at the peak, Li Guanqi felt the dantian within his body roaring like a rushing river. Pure spiritual energy was constantly refined into origin energy, flowing into his dantian.
An hour later, centered on Li Guanqi, the mist within a radius of fifty zhang was suddenly blasted away by a formidable aura.
Opening his eyes, Li Guanqi exhaled a breath of turbid air. He clenched his fists, feeling the surging strength within him, and a faint smile crept onto his lips.
Middle Foundation Establishment!
Yet the dantian inside him was already brimming with power. He quickly continued refining the jade marrow's potency, channeling it into the sword casket.
If not for this thousand-year white jade marrow, it would have taken him at least another half month to break through to middle Foundation Establishment.
Li Guanqi remained in place consolidating his cultivation realm until late at night.
When he opened his eyes again, darkness enveloped him, relieved only by the faint glow of moonlight washing over the surrounding peaks. To his surprise, bright lamplights flickered atop countless nearby summits. Crude cultivation huts stood perched across the crests of the high mountains, and listening closely to the wind, he could hear the faint hum of swords echoing through the night.
Li Guanqi drew a deep breath, his understanding of the Great Xia Sword Sect deepening further. He decided he would frequent Yuhu Peak to cultivate in peace from now on, only heading down to the Spirit Ascension Platform inside the sect on occasion.
Stepping onto his flying sword, Li Guanqi swept toward Tianlei Peak.
He spent that night cultivating as well. Having reached middle Foundation Establishment, he found his five senses remarkably sharper than before. His hearing had always surpassed ordinary people, but now, even without using his divine sense, he could clearly make out conversations fifty zhang away. His skin's perception was far keener too; he could even judge an opponent's movements simply by reading the shift of the wind.
The sword spirit explained that this was thanks to his breakthrough from the thirteenth level of Qi Refinement into the Foundation Establishment realm.
Arriving at Tianzhu Peak, Li Guanqi went straight to the sect's Treasure Pavilion and ordered a ready-made spirit-gathering array disc.
Stepping out of the Treasure Pavilion, Li Guanqi could only feel that the place was an outright den of thieves. A single spirit-gathering array disc cost a staggering two hundred points! It was said the sect could even construct a luxurious courtyard on a mountain peak for sixty points. Li Guanqi had decisively refused and beaten a hasty retreat.
Back at Yuhu Peak, Li Guanqi tossed the array disc down and infused it with origin energy.
The bronze array disc, originally only the size of a palm, immediately split into eight fragments that flew to separate directions. Moments later, a spirit-gathering array ten zhang wide formed on the ground. All he needed to do was set spirit stones into the core disc, and it would concentrate the spiritual energy and keep it from dispersing.
Having finished this, Li Guanqi stroked his chin, recalling the time-dilated space inside the sword casket.
"It seems I still need to build a house for secluded cultivation."
Suddenly, the sound of tearing air reached his ears—Lin Dong was arriving on a flying sword!
Lin Dong was built rather broad, and his posture on the sword was thoroughly awkward, his arms constantly adjusting to balance his center of gravity.
Dropping from the air, Lin Dong burst out laughing. "Guanqi, I didn't think you'd pick a peak around here!"
Li Guanqi smiled faintly. "You reached Foundation Establishment too, you rascal?"
Lin Dong scratched his head in mild embarrassment. "I can't compare to you guys. I broke through at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refinement. Got lucky—spent all my points on a Foundation Establishment Pill and barely scraped through."
Li Guanqi nodded without saying more. Talent was something that inherently set people apart from the start. It was completely normal for Lin Dong to choose Foundation Establishment at the ninth level of Qi Refinement, and that did not mean he could never advance further on the immortal path. The road of cultivation was long, and fortune and opportunity might yet come his way.
"By the way, where are you headed? You didn't come all this way just to see me, did you?"
Lin Dong grinned and lowered his voice. "Didn't the sect secure two secret realms? I heard the points required for eligible disciples to enter won't be small. So I took a border patrol mission at the Mission Pavilion—a whole fifty points a day!"
Hearing this, Li Guanqi frowned slightly. Back when he took the mission to deal with the female ghost in Xingyun Town, it had only been worth fifty points—and that was after several disciples had failed and the reward had been raised. For a simple patrol mission...
Li Guanqi warned in a solemn voice, "This mission... fifty points a day might not be so simple. You must be extra careful. If anything feels off, fire the sect signal immediately."
Lin Dong nodded with an honest, simple smile. "Don't worry, I'm not the only patrol disciple out there. Go ahead with your cultivation—I'm off."
Whoosh!
After Lin Dong left, Li Guanqi mused quietly, *The Great Xia Sword Sect's territory only spans fifty li. Nothing should happen.*
Li Guanqi then chopped a great deal of timber and carried it up to the summit.
Beneath the mountains lay numerous waterfalls and rivers, where many Great Xia Sword Sect disciples were gathered as well. Everyone who saw him offered warm greetings.
"Oho! Junior Brother Li came to the peaks to claim a mountain too?"
"Which peak did you pick, Junior Brother Li?"
Li Guanqi smiled and nodded. "Senior brothers, I'm on Yuhu Peak. Feel free to visit whenever you have time."
Along the way, Li Guanqi witnessed the various cultivation methods of the sect's Foundation Establishment brothers. A figure wielded a sword beneath a waterfall, standing rooted and immovable against the pounding rush of a hundred-zhang cascade. Another sat cross-legged on a boulder by the river, bare-chested and meditating toward the blazing sun. Others scaled the crags barehanded, agile as spirit apes, while someone darted across tree trunks jutting from a sheer cliff, thrusting their sword with lightning speed.
Returning to Yuhu Peak, Li Guanqi chopped and sorted all the timber. By the time he erected the frame and beams of the wooden hut, late night had already settled in.
Suddenly!
Li Guanqi whipped his head toward the west!
Dozens of li away, a cluster of fiery red flares shot hundreds of zhang into the sky and burst apart!
Instantly, countless figures took to the air on flying swords from the mountaintops, roaring in fury: "Enemy attack!!"
Swish, swish, swish!
Countless glowing streaks of flying swords illuminated the firmament. Many disciples shot forth on their swords before they could even throw on their outer robes!
Li Guanqi cast out his longsword and blasted forward, urgently taking out a jade slip as he shouted into it,
"Lin Dong!! Lin Dong!!"
Chapter 82