A life of leisure is worse than a life of flowers and splendour

Then, a gigantic figure emerged from the ground. Du Shuangshuang looked closely and saw it was a Level 2 Earth Armor Beast! It must have snuck in while she was fighting the Level 1 Earth Armor Beast, which was why she hadn't spotted it in time. Level 2 Earth Armor Beasts were even larger than Level 1 Earth Armor Beasts, and their shells were even harder. It glared at Du Shuangshuang, as if seeking revenge for its dead relatives. Du Shuangshuang thought to herself, "Oh no!" She hadn't expected another Level 2 Earth Armor Beast to be here. It must have been attracted by the screams of the previous Earth Armor Beast.

She quickly sheathed her longsword and replaced it with a high-grade magical flying sword, ready for battle. The second-tier earth-armored beast roared and lunged at Du Shuangshuang. Du Shuangshuang dodged its attack with a flash of her body. Then, she poured her spiritual energy into the flying sword and attacked, testing the effect. The spiritual energy-infused high-grade magical weapon slashed the earth-armored beast's armor, leaving only a faint mark that vanished moments later. Pretty tough!

The second-level earth armor beast was much more proactive than the first-level dog, launching a flurry of earth spikes. This time, Du Shuangshuang didn't dare to be careless and activated her shield to protect herself. After all the earth spikes hit the shield and landed, she controlled her wood-element spiritual power to generate vines to bind the earth armor beast, but the earth armor beast quickly broke free from her vines. It seemed that her idea was not working, so she decided to keep it for weaving baskets.

Du Shuangshuang was worried that the beast meat would be roasted, so she tried using fireball magic first. The earth armor beast may not have reacted or may not have taken it seriously. As a result, after being hit on the head, it just shook its head and rushed forward again. Du Shuangshuang used her ethereal and invisible body skills to quickly dodge.

This time, Du Shuangshuang prepared to try out the Explosive Flame Technique, aiming for the Earth Armor Beast's head and striking it. When the smoke and dust from the explosion cleared, the Level 2 Earth Armor Beast's head, though charred, was otherwise unaffected.

Du Shuangshuang was slightly surprised. This second-level Earth Armor Beast's defense was indeed formidable. Enraged by its injuries, the Earth Armor Beast charged frantically at Du Shuangshuang. Du Shuangshuang concentrated her energy and once again used Ethereal to dodge the attack.

This time, he added wood-type spiritual power to the explosive fire spell, and this time he attacked the Earth Armor Beast's head again. Perhaps because of its previous experience, it felt that this spell posed no threat to it, so it rushed forward without even dodging.

But this time, Du Shuangshuang felt a different kind of power the moment it struck, definitely far more powerful than the Explosive Flame Technique. The Earth Armor Beast's head exploded, but fortunately, its body was unharmed.

After two battles, Du Shuangshuang concluded that if she encountered that sneaky first-level earth armor beast again, she could knock it out, capture a few, and throw them into the bracelet's spirit beast space to raise. Killing a second-level beast was easy, but catching it would be more difficult. The key was to find a spirit beast that either didn't resist or whose spiritual sense was inferior to hers, requiring her to completely suppress it. Du Shuangshuang wasn't sure of that. She might end up damaging her own spiritual sense just to raise a second-level earth armor beast, which would be more trouble than it was worth.

After finishing off the earth-armored beast, Du Shuangshuang found a direction to continue forward, looking for jade crystal ginseng. Du Shuangshuang found that jade crystal ginseng was easier to find in those caves that were dug earlier, while jade crystal ginseng was rarely seen in newer caves, so Du Shuangshuang specifically found an old road to go.

After walking for a while, as expected, there were a lot of jade crystal ginseng, so Du Shuangshuang started her ginseng digging journey again, and picked some to plant in the bracelet space that was going to be used as a breeding farm.

There were not many earth-armored beasts, but as Du Shuangshuang walked, she found that the earth spiritual energy was more abundant. During this period, she only encountered three first-level ones, and she caught and raised them. When she encountered a second-level earth-armored beast again, she did not rush to kill it, but prepared to use this earth-armored beast to practice her combat skills.

Ordinary spells were difficult to inflict damage on it, so Du Shuangshuang only used it as a distraction, often practicing the Flower Sword Technique to perfection during combat. A Tier 2 Earth Armor Beast was more agile, with a small head relative to its massive body. Spells could easily lock onto it, but it was difficult to hit with a sword.

It's a good opportunity to practice the application of the "Piaomiaowuzong" body technique in actual combat, and combine it with the "Fanhua" sword technique.

As she dodged and dodged, Du Shuangshuang's agility was greatly improved, and she began to use it with some skill. The Earth Armor Beast finally exposed its relatively vulnerable abdomen. Du Shuangshuang's final strike of the Flower Sword Technique landed directly on the Earth Armor Beast's abdomen. Honestly, the Earth Armor Beast had been through quite a bit of training, its earth armor battered to a pulp. Ordinary sword techniques couldn't damage its armor, but the Flower Sword Technique certainly could.

Du Shuangshuang's sword successfully pierced the belly of the earth armor beast and easily broke through the defense of the earth armor beast's belly. The sword went straight into its belly.

The earth armor beast felt pain and struggled desperately for a few times, but finally fell down powerlessly. Du Shuangshuang successfully harvested a second-level earth armor beast.

He practiced with each beast he encountered, and each one got better than the last. In the end, he finally learned how to use the Earth Armor Beast, and could almost accurately hit the vulnerable parts of the Earth Armor Beast every time.

It was also at this time that Du Shuangshuang felt that she was about to break through. She chose a good place, set up a formation, and prepared to break through the foundation. She didn't have the foundation-building pill, but it wasn't necessary to have a foundation-building pill. There was a kind of foundation called the perfect foundation, which didn't require a foundation-building pill at all.

Du Shuangshuang grilled a piece of earth-armored beast meat for herself. Grilling skewers takes a long time, so Du Shuangshuang simply took out a teppanyaki grill, heated it over red-hot charcoal, and cut large slices. She placed the meat slices on the heated, oiled teppanyaki plate. The meat instantly curled up in the heat, glistening with oil. The rich aroma of charred barbecue wafted through the air. She sprinkled them with special seasoning and flipped them over. Du Shuangshuang's mouth watered with greed, swallowing non-stop. It wasn't her fault. Since entering the secret realm, she'd never tasted anything so delicious. Before, she'd only settled for bland fare, never bothering to spend time preparing something delicious, especially one she'd have to set up. Wouldn't it be better to waste more time digging for more ginseng? But now that she was about to advance, she couldn't afford to be impatient. Building a foundation required foundation-building pills, and she didn't have any. Naturally, she needed to be well-prepared for everything else, striving for perfection.

Du Shuangshuang ate the barbecue with her mouth watering, and it was so delicious. The rich spiritual energy in her body turned into a spring and rushed to every corner of her body. Her skin, fur, bones, flesh, and internal organs were all receiving its nourishment and cleansing, and her pores were almost open with pleasure.

A pound of earth-armored beast meat was quickly eaten. Although it was not much, the rich spiritual power still made people feel very full.

The effects of the earth-armored beast meat soon took effect. Its skin began to release a yellowish-brown oil. The smell was no less intense than when it had consumed the Green Spirit Fruit, though the quantity was smaller and the color lighter. Du Shuangshuang quickly cast several Dust Purification Techniques. If she continued to smell the smell, she feared she would vomit up the earth-armored beast meat she had just consumed.

His skin had become even whiter and more translucent, comparable to the flesh of a terracotta beast. He appeared radiant and more spiritual. Looking inside, he saw his meridians had become translucent, more elastic, and tougher. More importantly, they were wider than before. The surfaces of his bones, muscles, and internal organs were covered with a lustrous, tough membrane. This membrane also existed on the surface of his skin. Could it be a protective film? Du Shuangshuang wondered.

There is still a lot of spiritual power in his body, which can be used to help build his foundation.

Du Shuangshuang placed dozens of top-grade spirit stones around her, along with a small pile of wood essence. She also had a bottle of first-grade, superior spirit-replenishing elixir, just in case her spiritual power ran low. She began to regulate her breathing and prepare to build her foundation.

The underground cave was silent, with only the audible sound of Du Shuangshuang's breathing. She closed her eyes, concentrated, and directed the spiritual energy within her body to converge at her dantian. Unlike previous breakthroughs to smaller realms, where once enough spiritual energy had accumulated, breaking through bottlenecks and advancing was easy, this time, facing the Foundation Establishment stage, the advancement to a larger realm was completely different. A single mistake could harm herself, at best failing to achieve the breakthrough, or at worst, affecting her future cultivation.

A large amount of spiritual power remained in the earth-armored beast meat, and the spiritual energy in the body surged and boiled. The spiritual energy in the formation and nearby quickly gathered and rotated with Du Shuangshuang as the center, forming a huge spiritual energy vortex, rushing into Du Shuangshuang's body, and a large amount of spiritual energy gathered in the meridians.

The continuous practice of the technique channeled the spiritual energy within her meridians, gathering and pressing it into her dantian. Both her dantian and meridians were under immense pressure from the powerful spiritual energy. As the spiritual energy accumulated, the meridians and dantian, under this pressure, felt as if being gripped by an invisible hand, constantly widening and expanding. She tried hard to ignore the physical discomfort, but she couldn't control the tears that flowed.

Each stretch brought unspeakable pain, but her body gradually adapted to the pain, as if undergoing a complete transformation. If she hadn't eaten the earth-armored beast meat before, Du Shuangshuang wondered if she would have felt the same excruciating pain as when Du Zhengze contracted the Qiankun Ruler.

As time went on, beads of sweat began to form on Du Shuangshuang's forehead, and her body began to tremble slightly. Her tendons and dantian were stretched to the point of aching, and tears kept flowing down her face, but she gritted her teeth and persevered.

Finally, at a certain moment, her meridians expanded to their limit, even her dantian (Dantian) becoming several times larger than before. She felt a powerful force surge from her dantian, instantly spreading throughout her body. The spiritual energy in her meridians and dantian rapidly liquefied, eventually converging in her dantian, leaving a layer of liquid at its base. The spiritual energy poured in, rapidly transforming into liquid within her meridians as the technique was activated, and then converging in her dantian. The rate of spiritual energy absorption gradually slowed, and Du Shuangshuang's cultivation remained at the initial stage of foundation building.

Du Shuangshuang successfully broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage. She opened her swollen eyes, feeling the surge in her strength. With joy, her mouth stretched from ear to ear. A strange, sour odor reached her nose. She looked down curiously. Hmm, much cleaner than before. A greasy, yellowish-brown substance was expelled from her pores, and that was what was causing the odor. She quickly cast a Dust Purification Technique, and her entire body returned to a clean, dry state. The air instantly felt fresher.

She knew it was the impurities expelled from her body after building her foundation, possibly containing a trace of poison, after all, she had taken a pill before. If anyone knew, they would surely complain, saying, "That's a top-grade pill, with very little poison." How could those outer disciples who frequently took low-grade pills survive? Even a monthly bottle of low-grade nourishing elixir was precious to them, costing thirty low-grade spirit stones in the market.

Du Shuangshuang was very happy that the foundation was finally established. All the top-grade spirit stones were used up, and there were still a few wood essences left on the ground. Du Shuangshuang collected them, put away the formation, and continued to search for treasure.