Foundation Establishment

Bai Qingxue chose a day without rain for her seclusion.

She told no one.

Neither Lu Xueqing nor Ye Qingyao knew.

In the early morning, she bolted the courtyard gate from the inside, placed a simple ward at the entrance of the quiet room, and then sat cross-legged on the stone bed. She took the Foundation Establishment Pill from its jade box and held it in her palm.

Without hesitation, Bai Qingxue placed the Foundation Establishment Pill into her mouth.

The moment the pill entered her stomach, a gentle yet heavy medicinal power dissolved, surging out from her dantian like a massive river and rushing toward her limbs and bones.

Because she lacked the buffer of a Meridian Protection Pill, the Ice Spirit power woke almost simultaneously.

The Ice Spirit power erupted from the deepest part of her dantian, like a ferocious beast sealed for a thousand years finally breaking its chains, lunging at every meridian and every inch of Bai Qingxue’s bones.

Agony.

Wherever the chill passed, a layer of white frost instantly formed on the walls of her meridians.

The frost grew thicker and thicker, like a winter river freezing inch by inch in a cold current.

Without the film of the Meridian Protection Pill to act as a buffer, ice crystals embedded themselves directly into the inner walls of her meridians. Every surge of spiritual power felt as if someone were carving into her flesh with an ice pick.

Bai Qingxue gritted her teeth, pushing her spiritual power to its absolute limit.

The techniques of the 《Mystic Frost Heavenly Heart Art》 circulated within her. Every surge of spiritual power brought a tearing pain, but she did not stop; she did not dare to stop.

To stop meant death.

Spiritual power and Ice Spirit power engaged in a repetitive tug-of-war within her meridians. One pushed against the barrier, while the other destroyed her meridians.

In the midst of this struggle, Bai Qingxue seemed to sense something and immediately began to press all her spiritual power against that barrier.

A moment later, the first crack appeared in the barrier.

Spiritual power seeped through the crack like water into a rock crevice, where it condensed and expanded, forcing the crack wider.

More and more cracks appeared on the barrier, growing denser like a spiderweb on ice, spreading from the center to the edges.

Sensing the danger, the Ice Spirit power’s backlash grew even more violent. The chill surged like a tide, each wave more vicious and frenzied than the last.

The cracks on her meridian walls grew deeper, and some places began to bleed. The droplets of blood froze instantly in the cold, turning into dark red ice crystals that clung to the inner walls like tiny, frozen tears.

Bai Qingxue felt her body collapsing. From the inside out, she was shattering piece by piece.

She felt as if she were standing on a cracking surface of ice, with bottomless freezing water beneath her feet, ready to swallow her at any moment.

Bai Qingxue clenched her teeth and forced the last shred of her spiritual power into that crack.

Then, the old traces deep within her dantian began to melt away. The spiritual power pathways that had accompanied her for three years dissipated inch by inch, like ice sinking into still water, silent and traceless.

Upon the ruins, a new framework slowly grew from the depths.

Spiritual power condensed into crystalline pillars, and the chill settled into frozen walls.

An ice palace rose from the ground within her dantian, every sharp angle reflecting her will.

But at this moment, the pain was even more intense than before.

Bai Qingxue’s meridians had not yet healed, and for every inch the Dao foundation expanded, those cracks were forced wider, as if something were tearing outward from within her body.

Finally, the Ice Spirit power withdrew its sharp edges.

It settled at the very bottom of her dantian like a newly awakened cub, curling its body and no longer struggling.

Then, the Dao foundation was completed.

Bai Qingxue’s Dao foundation was an ice lotus.

Its petals were layered, so thin they were translucent, with edges tinged a faint blue.

At the heart of the flower, a clump of mana condensed to the extreme sat quietly. One look at it brought only a sense of profound cold.

The ice lotus suspended itself in the center of her dantian, rotating slowly.

With every revolution, mana flowed through her meridians once.

The newly refined mana was broad and steady, like a river. Starting from the Dao foundation, it flowed through her limbs and bones before returning to the source. It was a cycle without end.

At this moment, Bai Qingxue had successfully achieved Foundation Establishment.

Bai Qingxue opened her eyes. If anyone had been there, they would have noticed a change in them.

It wasn't a change in color, but rather that something deep within had altered.

If one had to describe it, Bai Qingxue’s eyes were a lighter shade than before, showing even less warmth or emotion.

‘Is this the effect of the 《Mystic Frost Heavenly Heart Art》 at Foundation Establishment?’ Bai Qingxue thought quietly to herself.

“Severing emotions and desires, a heart like still water. Undisturbed by external things, uninvaded by a myriad of thoughts.”

Bai Qingxue remembered these words. True Lord Shuanghua had said them the first time she passed on the technique. At the time, she felt the technique was tailor-made for her because she had always been someone who found it difficult to empathize with others. But now, she wasn't so sure.

At this moment, as Bai Qingxue recalled various past events, her heart could no longer feel any stirrings of emotion.

It was like a person reading a book they had read long ago; every plot point was familiar, but they would no longer be moved by it.

It was like standing by a dry riverbed, knowing there had once been water there, but now there was nothing.

Sitting on the stone bed, Bai Qingxue quietly felt this change.

She didn't feel pain, nor did she feel regret. She simply felt empty. A very quiet, soundless emptiness.

This wasn't the first time she had felt this emptiness. She had felt it before, but in the past, she could use cultivation to fill it. Now that she had succeeded in Foundation Establishment, tamed the Ice Spirit power, and resolved the crisis of the three-year limit...

She suddenly didn't know what to use to fill it anymore.

Bai Qingxue closed her eyes and leaned against the wall of the quiet room.

The room was very still. Outside the window, the wind blew, making the withered branches of the old plum tree rustle.

She knew the old plum tree had undergone a change while she was breaking through.

She could feel a chill surging from deep within the tree’s roots, echoing the ice lotus inside her body.

But she had no desire to go and look.

At this moment, Bai Qingxue was thinking about something—something she hadn't dared to think about before, hadn't wanted to think about, and had suppressed with cultivation.

And that was: why did she want to become a powerhouse?

Because she wanted to control her own fate?

But why did she want to control her fate?

Because she wanted to prove that “I” was still “me.”

The growth of her cultivation allowed her to feel grounded, to confirm that she was still moving forward. But if she lost that power, would she no longer be herself?

She had numbed herself with one realm after another, swallowing all her confusion and emptiness, adopting a posture that nothing mattered, becoming even more focused than before. But when all this was stripped away, she found she was no longer the person she was. She no longer knew what to do after becoming stronger to fill that void in her heart.

Because of this, she stopped; because of this, she was lost.

Was it over? No, it shouldn't be over. There should still be many paths ahead to walk.

But she was tired. If she didn't even know what she wanted after achieving her goal, where else could she go?

Bai Qingxue opened her eyes and looked at the empty quiet room.

She thought that she finally stood at the threshold of Foundation Establishment. Three years, from the first level of Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, from the backlash of the Ice Spirit Physique to completely taming it. She had done it. She had survived.

But what then?

Bai Qingxue put the jade box into her storage bag.

Bai Qingxue had no answer.

Perhaps there would be one tomorrow, or perhaps there never would be.

However, what Bai Qingxue did not know was that a thousand years ago, someone else had stood in this very spot, thinking the same thoughts as she did today.

Outside the window, the snow on Xueji Peak had been falling for countless years and was still falling now, as if the snow witnessing the Foundation Establishment of these two people was the very same storm.