Foundation Establishment

Waves of spiritual energy rippled around Jiang Lu's body, causing the air in the entire room to shimmer.

Her brow furrowed slightly, and her face turned pale in an instant.

The surrounding white spiritual liquid continuously surged toward her, swirling around her to form circles. Guided by the power of laws, these circles flowed into her meridians.

Feeling the fullness in her dantian, Jiang Lu's brow relaxed, and color gradually returned to her face.

Her clothes fluttered slightly in the quiet room as if a gentle breeze were blowing. This was a spiritual wind generated by Jiang Lu's own magnetic field.

As her clothes fluttered more intensely, Jiang Lu's aura grew increasingly tranquil.

Suddenly—

Within her quiet dantian, her spiritual sea began to churn. Massive spiritual waves surged repeatedly toward the center of her dantian, eventually condensing into a hazy white mist under the continuous wash.

Jiang Lu held her breath and focused, gathering all the power in her body into her dantian.

Her aura surged violently for an instant. She felt her dantian grow warm, and this warmth quickly spread throughout her entire body.

The white mist burst with a soft sound, and the dense spiritual energy within it scattered in all directions, flowing through her dantian and into every corner of her body.

She immediately chanted a spell in her mind. The chaotic spiritual energy rampaging through her body instantly stabilized. Guided by her spell, it flowed through her meridians in an orderly fashion.

She felt her meridians grow even stronger from this washing. Opening her eyes, she exhaled a breath of turbid qi. A fleeting golden-brown light flashed in her dark pupils before vanishing.

Sensing that the spiritual energy in her body was far stronger than before, she opened her hand. A five-colored light flickered in her palm. With a thought, the five-colored light transformed into two beams of black and white light, then into crackling lightning, then into an icy chill... Finally, it condensed into a ball of purple before slowly fading into transparency. In the next instant, it turned back to purple.

Jiang Lu's eyes widened slightly. Although it was fleeting, she still caught that subtle change.

She was certain that even when the spiritual energy in her palm became transparent, it was still there. It was just invisible to the naked eye, its form impossible to detect.

If she unleashed this transparent spiritual energy against an enemy during a battle—

She quietly suppressed the thought. It was too early to speculate on such things. Once her strength increased in the future, she would naturally understand its mysteries.

She stood up and packed away the spirit stones and magic tools surrounding the Spirit-Gathering Array. By now, the spirit stones in the array were completely depleted, and there was barely any spiritual energy left in the room.

Fortunately, she had chosen a cultivation cave meant for the Foundation Establishment realm. Had she chosen one for the Qi Condensation realm, even with the Spirit-Gathering Array, the spiritual energy inside would not have been enough for her to break through.

Returning to her courtyard, she sensed that the auras of her two spirit beasts seemed to have changed. Although they were still Tier Two spirit beasts, their strength had clearly improved, and they felt on the verge of breaking through to Tier Three.

Remembering her previous mention of dissolving their contracts, her eyes darkened slightly.

A phoenix and a divine dragon...

If they harbored no ulterior motives and were truly loyal to her, it wouldn't be impossible to keep them. After all, divine beasts were incredibly proud, and it was extremely rare for them to willingly form contracts with cultivators.

She would wait and see. In any case, they couldn't harm her.

“Master, these are all for you.”

Seeing Chi Li and Cang Chen fast asleep (cultivating), Mengbao snatched the storage bags off them and handed them to Jiang Lu.

These were all the treasures they had gathered from those caves.

Seeing the pile of magic treasures and the two storage bags before her, Jiang Lu immediately swept them into her space.

She emptied the treasures from the storage bags, placed the empty bags back onto the two spirit beasts' backs, and set up a barrier around them. Then, holding Mengbao, she vanished in a flash, entering her space.

Glancing at Mengbao's limp, tilted head, she saw that it had fainted yet again.

Tucking it into her pouch, she walked over to the mountain of natural treasures.

“Linglong—”

She called out toward the vines, and the little light orb flew over, rubbing against her cheek.

“Master~ Master~ I'm here~”

“Help me sort and organize those.”

She patted the little light orb and pointed toward the pile.

After organizing things last time, she had realized that Linglong could move everything to its proper place with just a thought. Why should she tire herself out doing it manually?

Linglong chirped in response. With a flash of the little light orb, all the natural treasures flew toward the nearby shelves, neatly arranging themselves by category.

Jiang Lu walked over and carefully scanned them with her divine sense.

“Speech-Granting Elixir?”

She saw the name of the elixir written on a black jade bottle. Recalling the recipes from the Endless Elixir Recipes, she instantly recognized what it was.

The Speech-Granting Elixir was specifically formulated by beast tamers for spirit beasts. Once consumed, it allowed a spirit beast to speak human tongue.

After all, not all spirit beasts could speak. Typically, only spirit beasts or demon beasts at Tier Seven or above could speak human language.

Even with a contract, they could only communicate telepathically, and the spirit beast still couldn't speak aloud to the outside world.

Thus, this elixir was invented, and it was completely harmless to a spirit beast's body.

Jiang Lu took down the bottle. There were only four pills left inside. She fed one to Mengbao, deciding to save the remaining three for later.

Wait—

A thought suddenly flashed through her mind. She rushed over to the herb garden. Seeing Ling Xi with only half of its head poking out, she squatted down and beckoned it with her index finger.

“Master, didn't you know? Ling Xi is a Tier Seven spiritual plant. But because it's a ginseng, it can take human form directly without having to wait until Tier Ten.”

Sensing Jiang Lu's confusion, Linglong floated over and explained immediately.

Huh?

Is that so?

No wonder this little ginseng spirit had such a massive herb garden; it turned out its strength was actually that formidable.

As for its claim that it didn't dare expand the herb garden because the outside was too dangerous, that was probably open to debate. Although it lacked offensive capabilities, its sheer power was undeniable.

Was making it tend the fields a bit of a waste of talent?

She shook her head, though the grin on her face only grew wider.

No, how could she let herself get carried away just because she had these precious spirit beasts?

Farming was still necessary. The farming instincts in her blood were calling!

“I see.”

Lost in thought, she looked at the surrounding spiritual plants, especially those few unique ones. Out in the real world, those would only grow in highly specific environments.

Yet here they were, planted in the soil alongside ordinary spiritual plants. While the space itself played a part, the credit likely belonged mostly to Ling Xi.

It was best to let it keep farming. That way, she would never run out of spiritual plants for her elixirs.

She stood up and continued to browse through her treasures.

While there were many rare natural treasures, there were also plenty of basic cultivation methods and magic tools. She had no use for these, so she set them aside. Her space was massive, so she had plenty of room to spare anyway.

After reviewing the Star River Swordplay once more, she exited the space.