Chapter 11: Foundation Establishment, Eighth Layer, Encountering the Qingyun Sect Again

【Ouyang Xiu has revoked your status as an Outer Sect Deacon, allowing you to focus on cultivation.】

【There are still fifteen years left before the Trial Battlefield opens. In the time that follows, you cultivate diligently.】

【All resources required for Foundation Establishment cultivation are supplied entirely by Ouyang Xiu.】

【You need not worry about anything. You only need to devote yourself fully to raising your cultivation.】

【A year later, Li Chen finds you, saying that his situation has taken a turn for the better.】

【Xiao Fan found a method for Li Chen to raise his cultivation without breaking through to Golden Core: the False Core!】

【This is a realm between Golden Core and Foundation Establishment, stronger than Foundation Establishment yet weaker than Golden Core.】

【Fortunately, however, it can increase a cultivator's lifespan!】

【An ordinary Golden Core cultivator can live five hundred years, while a False Core Realm cultivator's lifespan can reach as long as four hundred years!】

【You are happy that Li Chen can live another two hundred years.】

【That night, the three of you drink deeply, not stopping until drunk.】

【The next day, Li Chen and Xiao Fan leave to prepare for breaking through to the False Core.】

【You begin a life of solitary cultivation.】

【In your thirtieth year after joining the Body-Refining Sect, you cultivate the Startled Swan Sword Art to the Grandmaster Realm. Once Jinghong strikes, there is no life left to return is no longer a legend.】

【In the thirty-second year, aided by vast resources, you successfully break through to the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment.】

【In the thirty-third year, you cultivate the Palm Technique That Falls from the Heavens to the Grandmaster Realm. The palm imprints grow ever more solid, and their power surges.】

【That same year, a Junior Brother you once invested in among the Outer Sect disciples finds you.】

“Senior Brother, Senior Sister Hong Li… she's dead!” Li Changsheng weeps bitterly, telling you the entire course of events.

“A month ago, Senior Sister Hong Li was out on a sect mission. Somewhere, a demonic cultivator had appeared and was slaughtering a city to refine his Soul-Devouring Banner!”

“Senior Sister always loved to fight injustice. Naturally, she could not stand by and watch.”

“After confirming the other party's cultivation was inferior to her own, she decisively acted to stop him.”

“Just as she was about to slay the demonic cultivator, who would have thought he had accomplices!”

“Several demonic cultivators joined forces and hunted Senior Sister Hong Li. In the end, her spiritual power was exhausted, and she perished, her Dao extinguished.”

“Investigation revealed that they come from the Azure Cloud Sect in the southern part of the continent!”

“The Azure Cloud Sect?” you murmur to yourself. Decades have passed, yet you will never forget the moment you were refined into a pill!

【It dealt a great blow to your young heart when you had just entered the world of cultivation.】

【You tell Li Changsheng to keep inquiring about where those beasts from the Azure Cloud Sect are.】

“I've been in secluded cultivation for so long. It's about time I stretched my legs!” Your eyes are resolute, and you silently resolve yourself. New grudges and old debts — you will settle them all at once.

【A month later, Li Changsheng finds you again.】

“Too arrogant! They actually came knocking on our door themselves!” Li Changsheng says furiously.

【From Li Changsheng's mouth, you learn that the Azure Cloud Sect will come to the Body-Refining Sect in three days to hold a friendly exchange event between disciples.】

【Commonly known as, a dojo challenge!】

【Over the next two days, you raise your condition to its peak, preparing to sharpen your blade for the pigs and sheep!】

【At the Body-Refining Sect's Martial Grounds, the Azure Cloud Sect is led by a Nascent Soul Ancestor, accompanied by dozens of Golden Core Elders, plus ten Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment disciples.】

【You arrive early and scan the Azure Cloud Sect's ranks. You find that your good Master, True Person Zidan, is not among them!】

“In that case, I'll collect some interest first.” You think silently to yourself.

【As the leadership of both sides finishes their discussion, the rules are finally set.】

【The rules are simple: the Azure Cloud Sect sends out five Qi Refining disciples and five Foundation Establishment disciples. So long as the Body-Refining Sect can defeat all five, it counts as victory; otherwise, defeat.】

【In a sparring match, life and death are unavoidable, so before stepping onto the stage, one must sign a life-and-death contract!】

【The sparring begins. You do not step up directly, but instead intend to observe the opponent's strength first.】

【Aside from your spar with Li Chen, you have no real combat experience whatsoever. Though you are confident in your own strength, you do not wish to take risks.】

【So-called: know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.】

【The cultivation resources for the Body-Refining Sect's inner and outer disciples are basically all earned by doing missions themselves, so there are not many disciples left within the sect.】

【Most disciples are either doing missions, or on their way to do missions.】

【The Foundation Establishment disciples the Azure Cloud Sect brought this time are all at the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment.】

【The Body-Refining Sect only has three ninth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivators still in the sect right now.】

【The three of them step forward without hesitation to fight.】

【First battle: the two sides fight three hundred rounds, all sorts of moves emerging one after another. In the end, the Body-Refining Sect's Foundation Establishment cultivator Li Erniu comes out slightly ahead.】

“I yield.” Li Erniu turns to leave.

【Suddenly, the defeated Azure Cloud Sect disciple attacks sneakily, striking directly at Li Erniu's vital point!】

【Li Erniu, with years of combat experience, dodges in the critical moment, barely avoiding the vital spot and preserving his life, but he is badly wounded as a result.】

【Before the opponent can strike again, the Body-Refining Sect's Sect Master Ouyang Xiu arrives in time and slaps him to death.】

“The sparring continues.” Ouyang Xiu glances at the Azure Cloud Sect's Nascent Soul cultivator and says flatly.

【Knowing they are in the wrong, the Azure Cloud Sect members say nothing more.】

【Second battle: both cultivators go all out, neither holding back.】

【The two sides fight three hundred rounds without a victor. At the critical moment, the Azure Cloud Sect disciple suddenly uses a secret method to forcibly raise his cultivation to the half-step Golden Core level.】

【Relying on the advantage in realm, he directly slays the Body-Refining Sect disciple!】

【Third battle: the Body-Refining Sect disciple Zhang San has only recently broken through to ninth-layer Foundation Establishment, his realm not yet stabilized. He is no match for a veteran ninth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator.】

【In the end, he is slain.】

【The Body-Refining Sect has one win and two losses.】

“Maybe we should just forget it. Let me cultivate another ten years, and I'll personally avenge Senior Sister!” After watching the three battles, Li Changsheng tries to dissuade you.

【Hearing this, you shake your head and say nothing.】

【The next moment, you actually soar into the air, landing steadily on the fourth battle platform.】

【Your opponent sizes you up and down, then says with disdain: “Eighth-layer Foundation Establishment? You think you're worthy of challenging me? Does the Body-Refining Sect have no one left? Get the hell down!”】

“Senior Brother, you should come down. Fighting above one's realm isn't so easy. Your life matters!”

“Exactly. Each layer of realm is a whole heaven apart. Don't push yourself.”

【Even your own people from the Body-Refining Sect look down on you, urging you to step down.】

“What are you doing up there? Save your life for the Trial Battlefield!” Sect Master Ouyang Xiu cannot help but transmit to you.

【You say not a word. You merely take the Azure Luan Sword, a lower-grade Profound-rank spiritual artifact, out of your system space.】

【Spiritual power surges through your entire body. You unleash your sword art: Jinghong!】