After a night of rest, Lu Yang stepped out of his cave dwelling and stretched with a long yawn. Glowing with vigor, he felt completely revitalized and bursting with energy.
"Mmm—"
"I'm back to life!" Lu Yang stretched his limbs, feeling strength coursing through every inch of his body.
A good night's sleep truly worked wonders.
Recalling the fall of the Immortal Cult, it felt as though it had just happened yesterday, fresh in his mind.
Lu Yang noticed that the Immortal Fairy was fast asleep inside his spiritual space. In her slumber, she looked quiet, elegant, and peerlessly beautiful, her gentle curves fitting mortal impressions of what a fairy ought to be to perfection.
As long as the Immortal Fairy kept her mouth shut, she could easily fool anyone who did not know her.
A rare moment of peace and quiet.
"Still, do soul bodies even need to sleep?"
Remembering the Yellow Millet Pillow she used, Lu Yang could only chalk her sleeping up to a personal hobby.
Basking in the hazy morning sunlight, the spiritual energy in his body began circulating faster of its own accord, as if a new surge of power was swelling within him.
"I'm about to reach late Foundation Establishment."
Lu Yang muttered to himself and sat cross-legged on the spot, palms, soles, and the crown of his head turned toward the heavens, silently running the Art of Illuminating the Heart and Seeing Nature.
Following the cultivation technique's pathway, the spiritual energy flowed faster and faster, continually washing through Lu Yang's body and tempering every part of it.
Lu Yang tried taking this opportunity to temper his hair as well, only to find it completely useless.
"I wonder how Meng Jingzhou trains his hair, anyway."
Lu Yang recalled Meng Jingzhou headbutting his opponent with his hair during the fight against the Five Elements Sect disciple, with astonishingly potent results.
Casting aside distracting thoughts, Lu Yang settled his mind and allowed his body to blend into nature. Worldly spiritual energy poured continuously into him, while he breathed out refined essence to feed back into heaven and earth.
Throughout the process, his cultivation steadily rose.
"Hmm? What are you doing? Cultivating?" The Immortal Fairy woke up, rubbing her bleary eyes.
She sensed that Lu Yang's cultivation was constantly rising, yet she felt something was not quite right.
"No, I'm advancing to the next stage," Lu Yang explained solemnly.
"I am now half-step late Foundation Establishment."
"Oh, so are you almost at late Foundation Establishment?"
"Almost, but a question suddenly occurred to me."
"What question?"
"I'm currently at half-step late Foundation Establishment. If I take another step that's half of that half-step, won't I be even closer to late Foundation Establishment?"
"Yeah."
"Then what if I take half of that half of that half-step? Won't I be closer still?"
"Right."
"If I keep halving the remaining distance and taking a step forward, won't I get closer and closer to late Foundation Establishment forever?"
The Immortal Fairy nodded blankly.
"I keep breaking through sub-stages, yet I can never actually reach late Foundation Establishment. Doesn't that mean late Foundation Establishment is merely an illusory concept that nobody can ever truly attain?"
The Immortal Fairy furrowed her brows in thought for a moment before deciding she probably hadn't fully woken up yet and should go back to sleep.
Her head tilted to the side, and she drifted right back off to sleep.
After she fell asleep, Lu Yang continued pondering this philosophical quandary.
What was the true answer? Was his continuous breakthrough in cultivation completely meaningless? Could it be that late Foundation Establishment simply did not exist at all?
Hidden in the shadows, the puppet could bear watching this no longer. It crept up behind Lu Yang and delivered a solid kick to his backside.
Startled, Lu Yang's focus slipped, and he successfully took that final half-step.
Late Foundation Establishment!
"Who kicked me?!"
Lu Yang whipped his head around, but the puppet had already scampered off without a trace.
Even though it was gone, Lu Yang could easily guess who was responsible.
Aside from him, the puppet was the only moving thing on the entire Tianmen Peak.
"Whatever, I won't lower myself to its level. Time to head to the Mission Hall and redeem rewards!" Lu Yang figured that even if he found the puppet, he couldn't beat it anyway. There was no need to make getting beaten up the very first thing he did after a breakthrough.
It would be a bad omen.
Lu Yang waited at the entrance of the Mission Hall for a little while before Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu finally hurried over.
Those two were thoroughly exhausted as well, having slept straight through from the previous evening until just waking up.
Following his routine, Meng Jingzhou went to buy high-grade fodder at the Mission Hall, prepared it according to the proper ratio, and planned to feed it to the old horse once he got back.
"Ice-Making Talismans are so cheap! Give me twenty!"
Lu Yang looked at Meng Jingzhou in surprise. "What are you buying so many low-grade Ice-Making Talismans for?"
These talismans were only useful against mid-to-late Qi Refinement cultivators, serving mostly as filler items on the exchange list.
"Hehe, you don't get it, do you? Summer is starting. Do you know what matters most in summer? Staying cool!"
Man Gu was confused. "Don't our cave dwellings already have heat-dispelling formations? That should be plenty."
Meng Jingzhou wagged his index finger. "Come, let me demonstrate for you."
He pulled a wooden tub from his identity jade pendant, filled it with cold water, and leaped in with a splash, leaving only his head poking out.
He pulled out an Ice-Making Talisman, and the water inside the tub froze solid in an instant, locking him within a block of ice.
"Refreshing!" Meng Jingzhou bellowed. Frozen into a giant lump of ice with only his head able to move, the sensation felt exhilaratingly cool.
Only a cultivator could do this; an ordinary mortal would have caught a severe illness on the spot.
Lu Yang's eyes lit up. He hauled Meng Jingzhou along with the block of ice straight out of the tub, tipped it over, and began rolling it around the Mission Hall with loud rumbles.
Even in a sect as progressive as the Dao Seeking Sect, such an art form was seldom seen, drawing the curious stares of numerous senior martial brothers and sisters.
"Lu Yang, damn your ancestors!" Meng Jingzhou cursed loudly, his head spinning so hard he couldn't tell north from south.
As he rolled the block of ice, Lu Yang explained, "You don't understand, do you? When the three of us combine, what's our biggest problem? Isn't it that our bodies can't handle spinning around so much? We can use this method to train and get used to spinning in advance!"
Man Gu nodded beside them, thinking that Brother Lu was clever as always; he had assumed Brother Lu was simply tormenting Brother Meng.
Meng Jingzhou had a rather different view. "Anyone can spout theories! If you're so tough, Lu Yang, let's switch and I'll push you!"
"You were frozen first, so you get to train first!" Lu Yang was not about to fall for that.
Such a childish provocation.
In the end, it was the senior brother on duty at the Mission Hall who stopped them with a grim scowl.
Only then did the two behave themselves and head back to the exchange list to claim their rewards.
"One Ten-Ox-Strength Pill, please." Seeing that the list offered a Golden Core stage version of the Ten-Ox-Strength Pill for fifteen hundred contribution points, Lu Yang purchased it without a second thought.
At that price, it was an absolute steal.
"Huh? A Golden Core Realm Experience Voucher? What on earth is that?" Meng Jingzhou spotted an odd item whose description was exceedingly vague.
Meng Jingzhou mused, "Could it allow a Foundation Establishment cultivator to temporarily experience the Golden Core realm and feel what it's like?"
He had heard that mighty cultivation masters often let their disciples experience higher realms in advance to benefit their future training.
"Buy one and give it a try. It's not like you'll lose out," Lu Yang urged him.
Meng Jingzhou thought it made sense. Since it wasn't expensive anyway, he bought one.
He hurried over to the front counter and found the senior brother on duty.
"Senior Brother, I'd like to use this experience voucher."
After verifying its authenticity, the senior brother nodded. "You can use it right now."
Meng Jingzhou asked curiously, "Senior Brother, what does this experience voucher actually do?"
While contacting someone, the senior brother answered offhandedly, "It lets you experience the combat prowess of a Golden Core cultivator."
Meng Jingzhou suddenly had a very bad feeling. Just as he was about to speak, someone clapped him on the shoulder.
He turned around to see a bald Golden Core senior brother with a kind, gentle countenance. Flashing a neat row of teeth, the man smiled.
"Junior Brother, I hear you want to experience the combat prowess of a Golden Core cultivator? Come on, let's take this to the arena outside."
Meng Jingzhou: "..."
Lu Yang, you set me up!
Chapter 203