Foundation

“Yes! Finally, I have reached the Gold stage of the asura body cultivation art with 5 more days to spare till the end of the competition.” Liu Feng shouted out loud.

“Dammit, brat can’t you let me sleep in peace? And reaching the gold stage of the body cultivation art is not something to be proud of. You are still at the Qi refinement 9, you have not broken through to the Foundation establishment realm.” James said as he woke up groggily.

“I know, I know. I was just excited since I will be able to attempt to break through into the foundation establishment realm.” Liu Feng said with excitement and anticipation.

“Breaking into the foundation establishment will not happen in 1 day it might take 3 days or maybe even months depending on your comprehension.” James got up and went to the campfire.

“You did not have to shoot me down like that, anyway what do you want for breakfast?” Liu Feng got up and went to the campfire as well.

“Make me a sandwich or something, and while you are doing that let me explain to you the benefits of breaking into the foundation establishment realm. A normal human being's life span is 70-80 years, and when they are in the Qi realms it would be 100-200 years. But when someone breaks through to the foundation establishment realm in jumps to a 1000 years, and for each realm, they break through after that their lifespan would extend for another 1000 years. But that does not apply to you since you half an asura.” James said taking the sandwich Liu Feng had prepared.

“So what is the life span of an asura?” Liu Feng asked making another sandwich for himself.

“When an asura is born they have a life span of 100,000 years. During the Qi realms, they will have a life span of 1,000,000 years, and when they break through into the foundation establishment realm their life span increases to 10 million years. Each realm they breakthrough after that would increase their life span by 1 million years.” James said as he chewed on his sandwich.

“Damn this sandwich is good! Did you put roast fish in it?” James asked.

“Yes, it is roast fish. But wait asuras live that long! Then how old are you?” Liu Feng asked shocked.

“I am currently 7 million years old, I am considered 32 according to your human age,” James said picking his teeth.

“Holy shit you are old! Out of curiosity how long do Devas live for?” Liu Feng asked trying to hide the actual reason he wanted to know.

“Devas have the same life span as us asuras. And why are you asking about them?” James asked.

“Out of curiosity. But if the devas can live for so long what are they colluding with humans who would be considered insects to them?”

“That is what I intend to find out but before that, I have to go back to my planet to inform the council of elders,” James said as he got up and went to the training area.

“The council of elders?”

“It is what you call the government. Anyways I will be parting ways with you now, I will have to start heading towards the Chaos Zones since it is quite far away. Also, remember our deal, I will be heading further into the passage and there will be 3 passages in that open area. I will be heading to the passage on the right, I need you to tell whoever is in charge that you saw the asura running to the left passage. Do you understand?”

“You’re are leaving? Oh okay okay, I will tell them the left passage.” Liu Feng said slightly downtrodden.

“Anyway don’t forget what I said about breaking through into the foundation establishment realm, once you break through you will not have the blood lust anymore. And remember take your time when splitting your thoughts to control the Qi particles and don’t be hasty.” James said packing up the things in the ‘cave’.

Leaving the cave James said, “I hope to see you one day kid don’t die and don’t forget to pick a cultivation art when you break through into the foundation establishment stage. As that art will stick with you for the rest of your cultivation journey. See you kid.

James walked out of the ‘cave’ leaving Liu Feng standing there with the sandwich in his hand.

“Damn that sucks I really enjoyed spending time with James even though he is a sloth and a glutton. He even helped me collect the heads of the beasts.” Liu Feng thought again filled with sadness at the thought of being alone again.

=Deeper in the passages of the labyrinth=

“I am sorry, kid. I cannot tell you who I really am or help you in any other way as I made a promise with my sister that if I ever meet you, I should never let you get involved in the war of the asuras and the devas. She wanted you to live a peaceful life without any worries.” James murmured as he walked into the darkness of the passages.

“I have 5 more days left before the end of the examination with all the heads James collected for me I definitely will be able to get first place. But I have to sort out all the heads separating them from the ones below the foundation establishment realm and the one above foundation establishment realm.” Liu Feng thought as he looked inside the interspatial ring James had left for him with all the heads.

Looking into the interspatial ring James was shocked to see that there were heads in a pile which numbered up to 10,000 with a pile of beast cores beside them.

“Holy shit, this much of beast cores. Did he forget, and accidentally kept it inside instead of taking it with him? Never mind his loss. Ha Ha,” Liu Feng laughed as he transferred all the beast cores into his ring. He then began sorting out all the heads and placing them into his ring, with the ring James now gave him empty he noticed that red Qi was coming out of his necklace.

“Wait the ring James gave me is a 1000cm3, this means I can use the interspatial ring combination technique to upgrade the size of my ring, thank god my ring was starting to cram up. But did he give me this accidentally also? No that can’t be but then why is he being so nice to me?” Liu Feng wondered as he placed his ring and James’s ring on the ground.

He drew a first layer runic circle on the ground with the sigils required, he then started to channel his Qi into the runic circle causing James’s ring to crumble into dust and merge with Liu Feng’s ring. His ring now had 2 clouds engraved on it, “My ring now has 10,000cm3 of space and is now grade E! But this means the ring James gave me was a grade F ring which was not bonded, meaning he did give it to me intentionally but why?”

The question as to why James was nice to him weighed on his mind, but with no further progress as to why he left that question in the back of his head. Before proceeding in sorting is ring out. After sorting out everything Liu Feng was shocked at the points he has amassed.

“There is a total of 4000 beast heads at the Qi refinement realm, there are 5000 beast heads at the foundation establishment realm and there are 4000 beast heads at the essence transmutation realm. Along with 13,000 beast cores which I have no idea how much it is worth, but wait didn’t Kumo upgrade in rank with a beast core from a dark ox at Qi condensation 2? Should I try and see if it can upgrade itself with another core?” Liu Feng thought as the took out Kumo and placed it on his lap as he took out a beast core at the Qi refinement realm placing it next to Kumo. Observing his necklace there was no reaction whatsoever from it, no re Qi was emitting from it. “What the hell? Okay, let me try a beast core at the foundation establishment realm.” Saying that Liu Feng took out a beast core at the foundation establishment realm and place it next to Kumo.

After a while, Liu Feng noticed that the necklace was vibrating ever so slightly but no red QI was emitting from it. “Do I have to be at the foundation establishment realm for it to work?” Liu Feng pondered keeping back the staff and the beast core.

“Let's start body training before sleeping early as I need to attempt to break through into the foundation establishment realm tomorrow. And I will try again with Kumo once I am at the foundation establishment realm.” Liu Feng walked over to the training area and picked up the weights.

The next day Liu Feng got up early as he finally could attempt to break through into the foundation establishment realm. After having his breakfast Liu Feng went to the training area and sat down in a lotus position, observing his three dantians two of which were filled with Qi and glimmering red, and the third one which was empty as that needed to be so.

James explained that the third dantian needed to be empty before making a Qi sea though he did not explain why Liu Feng trusted him despite only spending less than a month with him.

Liu Feng started to sense his surrounding before isolating the first Qi particle and dragging it into his body below his three dantians. He could feel resistance and that Qi particle wanted to go into his empty dantian, “Oh this is why he wanted me to make a Qi sea with an empty dantian. So that it would trick the Qi particles into thinking that I have space in my body. If the dantian had been filled absorbing this Qi particle in my body would cause it to lose control and immediately blow up my body.” Cold sweat dripped down Liu Feng’s back.

He then focused on another Qi particle and brought it beside the first Qi particle, he now had to focus on each of them individually not letting them run amok and not allowing them to touch each other. This was already proving to be a difficult task for him.

Three hours later Liu Feng stabilized the 2 Qi particles his thought has now been split into two. He now attempted bringing in the 3rd Qi particle, followed by the fourth and the fifth and so on.

Seconds passed, minutes passed, hours passed and even days passed. It was now the last day of the exam, but Liu Feng was still sitting in a lotus position. “I now have 9,998 Qi particles below my dantians, I only have two more left before I can merge them all together. I don’t know how long as passed as if I even look at my watch, all the Qi particles will run amok and I will die dammit. Hopefully, the exam has not ended.”

With 10,000 Qi particles now under his dantian, Liu Feng began the process of merging them. He had to merge all of them together at the same time, the amount of focus and concentration needed for this part was 10x more than what he needed before.

A soothing warm feeling rushed all over Liu Feng when all the Qi particles were merging together. Another hour passed, Liu Feng opened his eyes, sweat beads covering his face and his entire back drenched in sweat. “Finally I am at Foundation establishment, now how long would my life span actually be since I am half asura and half deva.” Liu Feng thought as he looked into his body.

He noticed three red dantian floating over a small pond, surprisingly the small pond was golden in color very contrasting from the three dantians which were blood red. “Hmmm does this have something to do with me being a deva? The necklace has not given any reaction, dammit the time.” Liu Feng looked at his watch and noticed that he had 3 more hours before the end of the exam.

Clearing up all his belongings in the ‘cave’ and keeping them in his ring Liu Feng headed towards the exit before rushing towards the entrance of the labyrinth.

“Finally time to take the number one spot in the competition.” Liu Feng smirked as he suppressed and hid his cultivation to Qi refinement 9.