“I understand.”

Wang Hao accepted the jade bottle and the jade slip, carefully stowing them away in his storage bag. He paused, looking at the elder before him. “By the way, Old Wang, how many Foundation Establishment Pills did the Ancestor manage to refine this time?”

“A total of six.”

Wang Hao frowned slightly. “There were three Essence Condensing Fruits. Why only six pills?”

It was common knowledge that using the Essence Condensing Fruit as a main ingredient usually resulted in a high success rate. Unlike third-tier demon cores, which were riddled with impurities and taxed the alchemist’s energy, these fruits were pure.

Wang Yanzhao’s expression darkened with a hint of regret. “After the Ancestor was injured, he rarely practiced alchemy. His skills have inevitably declined over the years.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Although the Foundation Establishment Pill is a second-tier high-grade pill, its complexity rivals that of ordinary third-tier low-grade pills. One batch failed completely. The other two only achieved a thirty percent success rate.”

Wang Hao nodded slowly. He had procured the pill formula himself and studied it thoroughly; he knew the difficulty involved. Major sects typically employed third-grade or even higher-ranked alchemists for this task to maximize yields. For Wang Guang’an to succeed with two batches despite his condition was a testament to his profound talent.

“And the Li family?” Wang Hao asked. “How did they react?”

“The Li family took two pills,” Wang Yanzhao explained. “Both families have agreed to keep the Essence Condensing Fruit tree a strict secret. From now on, every fifty years, the Li family will provide the supplementary ingredients, and the Wang family will handle the alchemy. The resulting pills will be split evenly.”

“Do they not plan to transplant the tree?” Wang Hao pressed. “That location is hidden, yes, but given fifty years, someone might stumble upon it.”

The canyon wasn’t a forbidden zone for Foundation Establishment cultivators. It was rich in spiritual herbs; any explorer finding the canyon would naturally search deeper and discover the tree.

“The Li family received their benefits, so naturally, they must contribute,” Wang Yanzhao replied matter-of-factly. “They are responsible for deploying arrays and guarding the tree for now. It won’t be for long, though. After the next Beast Tide passes, our two families will coordinate to transplant it.”

Wang Hao considered this. The Wang and Li families were now thoroughly tied together.

In the past, they could only hope to buy a single Foundation Establishment Pill from the Qingyuan Sect every twenty or forty years. Now, they could secure at least two every fifty years, and at a fraction of the cost. It was a temptation no clan could refuse.

With these six pills distributed, if all went smoothly, the alliance could birth six new Foundation Establishment cultivators. They would become the undisputed masters of the Green Bull Market region.

Whether they chose to encroach on other families’ territories or expand into the Severed Origin Mountains, strength would be their guarantee.

Wang Yanzhao gave a few final instructions. “When you are ready to attempt the breakthrough, go to the cave dwelling at the mountain peak. That is where I usually cultivate; the spiritual energy is most concentrated there. I will stay nearby to protect you.”

“Understood,” Wang Hao agreed.

After seeing Wang Yanzhao off, Wang Hao retreated to his room. He sat down and began to earnestly study the jade slip containing the insights on Foundation Establishment.

Every cultivator was unique. Spiritual roots differed, Qi density varied, and personal experiences colored the process. The wisdom of predecessors could serve as a map, but the path had to be walked alone.

According to the records, there were three major hurdles in Foundation Establishment: the Divine Sense Hurdle, the Qi Hurdle, and the Physical Body Hurdle.

The Divine Sense Hurdle was often called ‘Questioning the Dao Heart.’

In the Qi Refining stage, divine sense was minuscule. It only began to truly grow and develop its miraculous uses during Foundation Establishment.

If a cultivator’s will was strong and their Dao Heart firm, this hurdle was negligible. But if one’s heart was impure, illusions would rise to cloud the mind. If the cultivator failed to see through the falsehoods in time, their divine sense would be exhausted by the endless hallucinations, leading to spiritual death.

It was a painless way to die, yet it was the most feared.

The Foundation Establishment Pill offered no help here. It relied entirely on the self. However, experience showed that as long as one wasn’t inherently weak-willed or plagued by guilt, passing was relatively easy. The divine sense at this stage was merely ‘sprouting,’ not ‘maturing’ as it would in the Nascent Soul stage. The risks were proportional to the power gained.

Wang Hao was confident. His divine sense was far more potent than that of an ordinary cultivator, and he had done nothing to violate his own conscience.

Next was the Qi Hurdle.

The true strength of a Foundation Establishment cultivator lay in their Qi capacity, which was several times that of a Qi Refining cultivator.

In the Qi Refining stage, Qi within the dantian existed in a gaseous state. Even at the ninth layer, the gas was merely denser, not fundamentally different.

In Foundation Establishment, True Essence became liquid.

It was a matter of basic physics: a bottle of water is infinitely heavier than a bottle of gas.

To succeed, a cultivator had to compress their gaseous True Qi into liquid True Essence. Those with purer Qi found this easier—this was why those with Heaven Spiritual Roots could break through without pills.

For everyone else, this process was perilous. Transforming gas to liquid generated immense internal pressure. It was a brutal test of the dantian and meridians. If they lacked strength, they would rupture.

This was the primary function of the Foundation Establishment Pill. First, it reinforced the dantian and meridians. Second, it provided a massive surge of spiritual energy to increase internal pressure, forcing the gas to liquefy.

Divine sense played a critical role here as well, guiding the violent energy and compressing it safely. In this regard, alchemists, blacksmiths, and talisman makers—who frequently exercised their divine sense—held a distinct advantage.

Once a single drop of liquid True Essence condensed and circulated through the meridians, tempering the body, the hurdle was considered passed.

Finally, the Physical Body Hurdle.

This was less of a hurdle and more of a prerequisite.

The body was the vessel. When the Qi Hurdle was cleared, the gaseous Qi would condense into liquid, creating a vacuum in the dantian. This triggered the ‘Spiritual Energy Infusion’—a massive intake of external energy.

If the physical body was too weak, the vessel would shatter under the influx.

Most young cultivators met the requirement. But after age sixty, as the body aged and hidden injuries accumulated, the chances plummeted. By eighty, it was nearly impossible without rare, flesh-regenerating spiritual treasures.

Therefore, the earlier one attempted Foundation Establishment, the better.

A stronger body meant a larger capacity. The cultivator could absorb more energy during the Infusion, refining more True Essence and tempering their meridians further. A few moments of Infusion could equal years of bitter cultivation.

If the body was weak, the cultivator might have to terminate the Infusion early to avoid exploding. They would succeed in breaking through, but their foundation would be shallow, leaving them far weaker than their peers.

“That Foundation Establishment cultivator who ambushed me back then…” Wang Hao mused. “He clearly lacked experience and cut the Infusion short. No wonder he was so weak.”

He opened his eyes, a smug smile playing on his lips.

“So the Concentrated Spirit Pill and the Ice Muscle and Jade Bone Technique both increase the success rate. It all makes sense now.”

His physical body, tempered by the technique, was vastly superior to others at his stage. His divine sense, bolstered by the Concentrated Spirit Pill and the Spirit-Splitting Cone, was equally formidable.

Failure was statistically impossible.

He would not just pass; he would maximize the benefits of the Spiritual Energy Infusion.

The only real danger was having insufficient internal spiritual energy to break the bottleneck. But that was a solvable problem.

He looked at the jade bottle in his hand.

He had the pills.