A Mortal's Start in the Spirit Beast Mountain

Luo Ming discovered that the spiritual liquid condensed by the Spirit Gathering Cauldron was no less effective than ordinary pills, and unlike ordinary pills, it did not cause drug resistance if consumed in excess. While the other Qi Refining stage cultivators living on this cliff were still working hard to buy pills, he was already drinking pills like water.

With the help of these spiritual liquids, he was confident that he would soon be able to cultivate to the point of perfect Qi Refining.

"These spiritual liquids probably won't have much effect after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage." Luo Ming hasn't even reached the Qi Refining Perfection stage yet, but he's already starting to think about Foundation Establishment.

Foundation Establishment is an insurmountable hurdle for all ordinary cultivators. Most cultivators with low aptitude struggle to even reach the Qi Refining Perfection stage; even if they are lucky enough to reach the Qi Refining Perfection stage, the probability of successfully establishing a Foundation is less than 10%.

This is where the importance of the Foundation Building Pill becomes apparent.

For ordinary cultivators, failing to establish their foundation can result in minor damage to their meridians, causing their cultivation to stagnate, or even worse, a ruptured dantian, a regression in cultivation, and death. Foundation Establishment Pills, however, not only significantly increase the success rate of foundation establishment but also protect the cultivator's meridians and dantian even if the attempt fails, preserving an opportunity for the next attempt.

Such precious Foundation Establishment Pills are naturally under strict control by major powers, and ordinary low-level cultivators have no chance of obtaining them and can only rely on luck to gamble.

After much deliberation, Luo Ming finally decided to lie low in Spirit Beast Mountain for the time being, and then go to Yellow Maple Valley to inquire about the "Old Demon Han" after successfully establishing his foundation. If there were no leads in Yellow Maple Valley, he would then go to the Seven Mysteries Sect to search for more information.

With a clear plan in mind, Luo Ming became increasingly focused on his cultivation. The original owner of this body was naturally low-key and taciturn in the Spirit Beast Mountain, and coincidentally, he also disliked socializing. Days passed peacefully amidst cultivation and missions.

That day, Luo Ming had just arrived near the Insect Valley when he saw a pretty young girl dressed in light blue sect attire standing there.

"Han Yunzhi greets Senior Brother!"

"You...you are Han Yunzhi?"

"Senior brother, do you recognize me?"

Seeing Luo Ming's reaction, the girl was puzzled. He had recently joined the Spirit Beast Mountain and was assigned to take care of the spirit insects. She was told that there was a senior brother named Luo Ming here who would teach her.

Luo Ming immediately realized that he hadn't expected to meet this person today. After taking a closer look, he found that the woman was indeed pure and lovely. She lowered her head shyly after meeting Luo Ming's gaze.

"Ahem, Junior Sister Yunzhi just joined our Spirit Beast Mountain?" Luo Ming quickly calmed himself down, warning himself that he must never act like this when he met or heard of anyone; he was still not steady enough!

,,,,,,

After chatting with the other party for a while, Luo Ming learned that it was actually arranged by that Deacon Qin.

This Qin steward, who was in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, was Luo Ming's superior and the manager of this Insect Valley. He often acted as a hands-off manager and was nowhere to be seen, and no one knew what he was busy with.

Luo Ming only dared to complain in his heart, but he was still very respectful to him in person. He often called him Uncle Qin this and Uncle Qin that, which made the old man very happy. In addition, he inherited his predecessor's understanding of the way of beast taming and managed this insect valley in an orderly manner. As a result, Steward Qin had been missing for a long time and was completely left to his own devices.

Looking at Han Yunzhi, who resembled a girl next door, Luo Ming's heart stirred. He thought to himself that there was a reason why Old Demon Han was so protective of this woman.

Now that we know Han Yunzhi has just joined the sect, then that old demon Han should also have just joined Huangfeng Valley. He's probably worried about his Foundation Establishment Pill now. He knows that the other party got a Foundation Establishment Pill for free with the Ascension Token, but because of his low strength, it was cleverly taken away by a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Now that the timeline has been established, there are still some days before the demonic invasion.

"Since this is Steward Qin's arrangement, then Junior Sister Yunzhi, please come with me!"

Luo Ming then led Han Yunzhi into the Insect Valley. Upon seeing the numerous ferocious and terrifying spider demons inside, the little girl, who was seeing this scene for the first time, was clearly startled and unconsciously moved closer to Luo Ming's back.

"Senior brother... is our daily task just to take care of these demonic beasts?"

"Don't worry, junior sister. We carry this with us at all times, so those demonic beasts won't dare to approach us."

Seeing Han Yunzhi's somewhat startled reaction, Luo Ming found it quite amusing and took out a sachet from his storage bag, handing it to her.

This sachet contains a secret insect-repelling medicine from Spirit Beast Mountain. Low-level demonic beasts and spirit insects will stay far away from it when they smell it.

"This Insect Valley is divided into five areas, containing hundreds of different kinds of spirit insects, including twenty species of spider-like spirit insects and five species of ant-like spirit insects..."

,,,,,,

For the next month, Han Yunzhi followed Luo Ming to take care of the spirit insects. After she became familiar with them, she began to take charge of an area on her own.

Although the little girl was shy, she was clever and quick to learn. Coupled with her dual spiritual roots in earth and wood, it's no wonder that she was able to grow into a Golden Core cultivator in the future.

Although the bigger reason was thanks to that Nascent Soul Ancestor of the Spirit Control Sect.

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye, and Luo Ming's cultivation successfully broke through to the twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage.

He sat cross-legged, his internal magical power more abundant than before, but his face showed no joy at the breakthrough; instead, his brows were furrowed. "I didn't expect that even a small breakthrough would be so difficult. It seems that the spiritual liquid can only provide basic spiritual power and is of no help in breaking through the bottleneck of a realm."

He had originally thought that with the Spirit Gathering Cauldron continuously producing spiritual liquid, he could cultivate smoothly and steadily improve simply by going into seclusion and working hard. But reality gave him a harsh slap in the face, making him realize the limitations of spiritual liquid.

"Do I really have to go to that blood-red forbidden land?" Luo Ming frowned.

If breaking through even a minor realm is this difficult, then the hurdle of the Foundation Establishment realm will definitely hold him back. This forces him to reconsider the issue of Foundation Establishment Pills—without them, given his aptitude, the success rate of Foundation Establishment is very low, and he doesn't want to gamble; it's better to play it safe.

"Since the Spirit Gathering Cauldron can take me through time and space, it can't possibly only be used to convert spirit liquid. There must be other functions that I haven't discovered yet." Luo Ming was unwilling to give up, so he quickly took out the small bronze cauldron and examined it carefully from all angles. But apart from some obscure and difficult-to-understand ancient patterns, there was nothing unusual about the cauldron.

"Spirit Gathering Cauldron, Spirit Gathering Cauldron... If only you could speak, you could just tell me all your abilities and it would save so much trouble." Luo Ming said helplessly while fiddling with the small cauldron.

He then decided to test it thoroughly and explore the functions of the Spirit Gathering Cauldron.

He first poured the spiritual liquid onto the spiritual herbs and found that the herbs only became more vigorous and there were no other special changes. He then put his magic weapon, the flying sword, into the cauldron and left it for several days before taking it out. The flying sword showed no abnormalities. He then tried putting in talismans, pills, spirit stones, and other items.

The talisman exploded due to the disordered spiritual energy. He guessed it was because it had absorbed spiritual energy, causing the talisman to be unable to withstand the excessive spiritual energy and thus being activated. This gave him some ideas.

After the pill had been left for a day, I felt that its medicinal power had subtly increased.

"Could it enhance the efficacy of the medicine?" Luo Ming didn't have many pills on hand, and planned to buy some other pills to try later.

Finally, Luo Ming threw a low-grade spirit stone, which had consumed half of its spiritual energy, into the cauldron. The next day, when he opened the cauldron lid again, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the spirit stone was now full of spiritual energy, and its purity was even higher than that of an ordinary low-grade spirit stone.