Hide in the world of gods and demons

Chapter 151 Foundation Establishment Level Two
The next day, Chen Li went to the Hall of Merit to collect the spirit stones for this mission.

The Foundation Establishment cultivator in charge of the Hall of Merit is named Luo Shen, one of the six mid-Foundation Establishment cultivators of the True Sect. He looks quite old, with a face full of wrinkles, drooping eyes, and a hunched back. He is always drunk whenever we meet.

At his age, he should be enjoying his retirement within the sect, only responsible for some simple administrative tasks.

This was the person who accompanied Chen Li during his initiation ceremony.

"Fellow Daoist Chen has only been at the Foundation Establishment stage for two years, right? I heard that he single-handedly killed a second-tier demonic beast this time. Truly, a hero emerges from among the young! Excellent, excellent!"

Chen Li was taken aback upon hearing this.

He was forty-eight years old, almost fifty, but in the other person's eyes, he was just a teenager.

"It's a fight to the death!" Chen Li cupped his hands and said, "If the demon beast doesn't die, I will."

"That makes sense. Alas, that's how battles often are. Life and death situations often bring out a person's potential and unleash tremendous fighting power. Back in the day, this old man..." Old Xiu began to ramble on about the past.

Chen Li could only listen patiently, offering only a few words in response.

Old Xiu rambled on for a while before suddenly remembering he had important business to attend to. He said apologetically, "Look at me, I'm getting old, I just like to ramble. You young people probably don't like listening to me, but I'll get it done for you right away."

"Not at all, I have benefited greatly from your experience, senior."

"Haha, you hypocrite!" Old Xiu, with his childlike nature, spoke without restraint, chuckling.

Faced with this uninhibited old cultivator, what could Chen Li do but force a couple of dry laughs?

Old Xiu took out a booklet and a brush from his storage bag, walked to the table, opened the booklet, moistened the brush with his mouth, and tremblingly ticked Chen Li's name. He then handed over three high-grade spirit stones:

"Take it, but settle it in person. Don't come back and try to fool this old man. Last time, so-and-so gave it to me and then said he didn't. Does he really think I'm senile? And that other guy, he's no good either. He's all talk and no action. He's a hypocrite and a scoundrel. He's disgraced the sect."

Seeing that he had started rambling and cursing again, Chen Li couldn't stand it anymore and quickly made an excuse to get up and leave.

……

After leaving the house, he rushed to a butcher shop inside the shop.

Monster meat has always been sold here, but Chen Li has never bought any. After asking about the prices of various meats, he realized that Feng Qi hadn't given him any discounts on the second-tier monster meat he had been selling over the years.

The price for the second-tier monster meat sold to him was the same as that of the butcher shop.

That's really not very kind.

Chen Li summoned the butcher, and after some negotiation, he finally sold the two storage bags containing about 20,000 catties of pure meat at an 80% discount, earning a total of more than three high-grade spirit stones.

This single second-tier demon beast brought him five high-grade spirit stones, not even counting the more than one ton of second-tier demon beast meat he still had in his storage bag.

Compared to that second-tier snake demon back then.

Income more than doubled.

His previously empty pockets became slightly full again. After leaving the butcher shop, he turned into a magic item shop, intending to buy a large-capacity storage bag, but found that there were none available there; the Five Directions was already the largest available.

"Looks like I'll have to make time to go to the Artifacts Sect again. I also need to buy a better second-tier magic artifact... Sigh, I'm still short of money!" he thought to himself.

He currently only has fourteen high-grade spirit stones at hand.

I wonder how many large-capacity storage bags I'll have left?
Once a magic weapon reaches the second tier, the price difference between different grades becomes enormous. A low-grade second-tier magic weapon only requires one or two high-grade spirit stones, a mid-grade one requires at least ten, and a high-grade one requires forty or more.

Even when he had the most money, he never had more than forty.

Low-grade magic weapons are useless to him; he can only buy mid-grade or higher ones.

"Fortunately, there's no rush for these things. We can talk about them after this year," Chen Li thought to himself. He rarely used magical artifacts. Buying one was just to enrich his attack methods. He was still used to close combat.

……

Sutra Pavilion.

Wow!

Chen Li flipped through the catalog in his hand while sipping the tea that was served to him.

The True Sect has four body-refining techniques.

Immortal Skin and Jade Bones: A superior body-refining method that does not harm the body. After mastering it, the bones become as hard as crystal jade, and the flesh becomes as resilient as an immortal's body. It also generates a layer of soft and gentle strength, which is very effective against attacks such as defensive spells and secret techniques. However, the cultivation is relatively slow and can be combined with medicinal baths.

Pure Yang Immaculate Body: The body is free from dust and impurities, prolonging life and making one light and agile, moving like a gentle breeze. One must abstain from women during cultivation.

Demon Elephant Skill: Possesses immense strength and abundant qi and blood. Practicing this skill will result in an extraordinary physique. Recorded practitioners have reached a height of over ten feet and have an astonishing appetite. It requires frequent medicinal baths during practice. Exercise with caution.

The Great Sun Body Refining Technique: This technique involves absorbing the power of the sun's true fire to temper the body. It is easy to master quickly, and once perfected, the body becomes as hard as metal, impervious to water and fire, and difficult to be harmed by magical artifacts. However, this technique is extremely dangerous and requires utmost caution.

These are the four methods of body refinement.

Chen Li immediately ruled out the Great Sun Body Refining Technique and the Pure Yang Immaculate Body.

The former is too dangerous and not within his consideration, while the latter requires him to abstain from sex... This is simply asking the impossible!
It's too cruel to leave one's beautiful wife and concubines to live a life of widowhood.

Then, without hesitation, he rejected the Demon Elephant Technique.

A height of one zhang...

Whether he can accept it is another matter.

Zhou Hong and Shuniang probably couldn't accept it.

In the end, the only suitable cultivation method for him was the Immortal Muscle Jade Bone Technique.

"Sigh, the True Sect has too few body-refining techniques to choose from," Chen Li sighed inwardly.

He got up and registered with the old gatekeeper of the Scripture Pavilion, and made a vow. The price, which was as high as one high-grade spirit stone, was so expensive that it made Chen Li's heart ache. He only hoped that it would be worth the price.

After obtaining the cultivation technique, he rushed home immediately, instructing Zhou Hong and Zhang Shuniang not to disturb him.

He then went to the quiet room and closed the stone door.

He took out the jade slip for transmitting skills and read it.

A cultivation technique appeared in his mind.

This is a kind of static exercise that strengthens the physical body by tempering it with one's own spiritual power. It is divided into three layers: Immortal Muscles, Divine Organs, and Jade Bones. Each layer is relatively independent and can be performed simultaneously or separately. Finally, it is trained to achieve a perfect unity, and the power will be generated spontaneously.

Chen Li discovered that this technique was even more wondrous than the concise description in the catalog.

When one cultivates to the point of immortality, one becomes immune to heat and cold, difficult to be harmed by low-grade magical artifacts, and experiences a significant increase in strength, enhanced senses, and sharpened hearing and vision.

When one reaches the Gangzang stage, the organs become flexible, the internal organs function greatly enhanced, and one has unlimited physical strength. One can go for half a month without sleep or rest without feeling tired. The final Jade Bone stage is not so miraculous; it is merely a tempering of the bones.

The exercise manual also includes a recipe for a medicinal bath.

"It can complement basic swordsmanship!"

He withdrew his spiritual consciousness and tossed the shattered jade slip aside.

Strictly speaking, his swordsmanship is not a method of body refinement, but a combat technique. Body refinement is just a side effect, just like practicing combat will strengthen the body.

"But this medicinal bath... sigh!"

Thinking of the dozen or so spiritual herbs on the prescription, some of which were even second-tier spiritual herbs, he couldn't help but sigh deeply. He finally understood Feng Qi's pain; there was never enough money.

He's even saving up to buy large-capacity storage bags and ritual implements!
"However, this medicinal bath is not necessary. It just takes a little longer. Let's try it first, and we'll talk about it if it doesn't work out."

After Chen Li gradually mastered the technique,

He took out a Body Tempering Pill and swallowed it. He felt a warmth gradually rising in his abdomen. He sat cross-legged and began his first real body tempering.

……

Time flies like an arrow.

Winter has passed and spring has arrived; summer will soon follow.

More than half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

"I didn't expect to break through to the second level of Foundation Establishment so smoothly..."

In the quiet room.

Chen Li breathed a sigh of relief.

A look of joy.

He thought he would encounter a bottleneck, but he didn't encounter anything. Everything happened naturally and smoothly.

Fortunately, he got used to it.

“A few days ago, I went to visit Guo Xingquan, but he was still in seclusion. It seems that I have entered the second level of Foundation Establishment first, so I am no longer at the bottom.”

There are quite a few people at the second level of Foundation Establishment in the entire Real Realm.

There are more than thirty people in the Realm of True Foundation Establishment.

Among them, there is one person in the late Foundation Establishment stage and six people in the middle Foundation Establishment stage.

The rest are all in the early stages of Foundation Establishment, and most of these people are hovering around the second or third level. The second level of Foundation Establishment is already the mainstream level, forming the massive base of the pyramid.

"It must be the effect of the max-level Longevity Technique. I've rarely encountered bottlenecks in my life. I only get stuck for a while when I encounter some major challenges, and the longest I've ever been stuck is no more than three months." Chen Li thought with pleasure.

The effects of maxing out the Longevity Technique don't stop there. When the Qi Refining stage reached max level, the effect was that spiritual energy could automatically regenerate. However, the Foundation Establishment stage directly granted him a divine ability, which was also his only one:
"Immune to all diseases"

Although this supernatural power seemed insignificant, it directly extended his lifespan by more than twenty years.

However, perhaps because he always looked like a young man, he didn't actually look that much younger.

Chen Li opened the game panel.

Life expectancy: 49/290 years

My lifespan has increased by two years.

His gaze swept across the crowd before moving on to the others.

Over the past six months, he has maxed out his X-ray vision and ice magic. At a glance, all the spells in the spellbook are maxed out except for six spells: Cleansing, Far Vision, Insect Repellent, Earth Hearing, Hemostasis, and Disease Curing.

"It looks a bit awkward. I'll max out these spells when I have time!" Chen Li thought to himself.

Fortunately, these are all low-level spells, so they don't take much effort to use.

Furthermore, the Immortal Skin and Jade Bone Technique has reached the proficiency level.

This body-refining method progresses extremely slowly because it is a static exercise and consumes a great deal of spiritual energy. Often, each practice session lasts less than three hours before the spiritual energy is exhausted, and the daily progress is only two or three points.

It's only a little faster than the basic swordsmanship progress.

However, Chen Li was not in a hurry. He cultivated step by step every day. At this stage, he mainly tempered his bones, while he trained his muscles and internal organs less. His attack power was already sufficient, but his bones were not strong enough and were too brittle. Once he unleashed his full power, he would easily break bones.

With each day of tempering, his bones began to crystallize, and the enamel on the surface became denser and thicker. In internal vision, his bones shone brightly, radiating a hazy glow.

Although I haven't tried it.

However, it is also clear that the bone strength has improved significantly compared to before.

(End of this chapter)