Female Lead, Something's Not Right (GL) - Chapter 23

Gu Shiyan in the alchemy room had just gathered her energy when her spiritual level shook, and she immediately broke through to the seventh stage of Qi Refining! It required no effort at all, which stunned her.

What was even more astonishing came next.

After the breakthrough, her spiritual level showed no sign of stopping; instead, it shook even more violently. The next second! She broke through to the eighth stage of Qi Refining!!

How was this possible? How could she break through two stages consecutively!! What kind of heavenly treasure did True Monarch Hehua give her to eat?

Immediately after!! In one fell swoop, she broke through to the ninth stage of Qi Refining!

She broke through to the tenth stage of Qi Refining!

She broke through to the eleventh stage of Qi Refining!

It wasn’t until the eleventh stage that the spiritual energy began to slow down. It wavered for nearly two hours before breaking through to the twelfth stage of Qi Refining, Grand Perfection, just one step away from Foundation Establishment!

For cultivators in the cultivation world, being able to breathe and absorb Qi into the body is the qualification to go from a mortal body to a cultivator, with one foot stepping into the door of immortality. After a mortal body absorbs Qi, there are twelve stages of Qi Refining. The sixth stage is a small threshold. A mortal’s lifespan is a hundred years; before the sixth stage of Qi Refining, the lifespan reaches two hundred years, and after the sixth stage, it is five hundred years.

Breaking through the twelfth stage of Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment means that both feet have stepped into the cultivation world, possessing a thousand years of life to pursue a longer path.

After Foundation Establishment, all cultivation stages are divided into early, middle, and late phases. Currently, most of the inner disciples and elders of the Tianxuan Sect have reached the Foundation Establishment stage. After Foundation Establishment is the Core Formation stage. In a sect of over a hundred thousand people, there are only a sparse few thousand Core Formation experts.

After that are the rare Nascent Soul Ancestors. In the entire Qianmeng Continent, both known and unknown, there are at most only about a hundred people.

Successfully surviving the seven lightning tribulations of the Nascent Soul stage allows one to successfully enter the revered Soul Transformation stage. This can be counted on one hand, and a Soul Transformation Venerable might not appear for a thousand years.

Even if one perseveres and their cultivation reaches the Soul Transformation stage, they must still undergo the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lightning Tribulation to sever all mortal ties, refine their immortal bones, and thus enter the true Immortal Realm, forever free from the suffering of the cycle of reincarnation.

Cultivating beyond the Immortal Realm leads to the Divine Realm. However, deities are mostly beings nurtured by Heaven and Earth. The Gate of Divinity only opens once every ten thousand years, and very few people can ascend from an immortal to a god. The conditions are a hundred times more stringent than becoming an immortal, something others wouldn’t dare to imagine.

At this point, Gu Shiyan was no longer feeling the initial surprise; it had turned into panic. If she continued to break through at this speed, she would reach the Foundation Establishment stage in no time. But she was completely unprepared. She hadn’t taken a Foundation Establishment Pill to stabilize her cultivation, nor did she have a spiritual artifact to defend against the Heavenly Lightning. Facing the fierce three bolts of Heavenly Lightning, she might not successfully break through!

Sure enough, Gu Shiyan’s worry was correct. At this moment, dark clouds covered the sky above the Alchemy Division’s refining room, mixed with lightning, prompting everyone to rush out and investigate.

“It’s Heavenly Lightning!”

“Judging by the intensity, some fellow cultivator must be attempting a Foundation Establishment breakthrough.”

“That’s unlikely. This is our Alchemy Division’s dedicated outer sect refining room. Which disciple here could possibly attempt Foundation Establishment? Could it be Senior Brother Liu, who’s already at the eleventh stage of Qi Refining?”

“Senior Brother Liu is still out on a mission. Maybe it’s one of the outer courtyard managers.”

The Heavenly Lightning not only piqued the curiosity of the outer sect disciples but also attracted Elder Ling Zhidao, who was tending to medicinal herbs on the Four Star Peak.

“What is all that noise outside?” Ling Zhidao asked the young Dao boy with confusion.

“Elder, the Senior Brothers say someone is attempting Foundation Establishment.”

Ling Zhidao didn’t pay it much mind until the young Dao boy mentioned it was in the outer sect disciples’ alchemy room. He paused, a flicker of interest crossing his face. For some reason, he thought of the young disciple in the main hall whom True Monarch Hehua and the Goddess supported.

“Go ask tomorrow which outer courtyard disciple it is.”

“Yes, Elder.”

While everyone was still curious about who was attempting Foundation Establishment, the dark clouds in the sky slowly dispersed. The crowd, now disappointed, scattered.

In contrast to the others’ disappointment, Gu Shiyan breathed a huge sigh of relief. As the spiritual energy calmly returned to her dantian, she didn’t dare to relax and focused on firmly stabilizing her cultivation at the Grand Perfection of Qi Refining.

It was nearly another hour. The sky began to lighten at the horizon, the sun rose, and the cries of immortal birds echoed through the bamboo forest. Gu Shiyan finally withdrew her hands, feeling spent. When she opened her eyes again, she felt light and refreshed from head to toe, as if a gentle breeze had passed over her. With the surging vitality of the rising sun, Gu Shiyan could even acutely sense the density of the spiritual energy in the air.

“Oh my god!!” Gu Shiyan couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.

Her inner feelings could no longer be described by mere shock. She even wondered in a daze if she had died and was currently in a beautiful dream. Whatever Shen Shu had given her must be a top-grade or even an Immortal-grade item; otherwise, how could a person with her useless spiritual roots continuously break through in such a short time? This was an extremely rare case in the Qianmeng Continent.

“This is incredible!” Gu Shiyan excitedly looked at her stabilized dantian and her hands. Her gaze caught the silver alchemy furnace and the herbs on the cabinet wall. Her heart moved with her thoughts, and she immediately prepared to test the effect of her new cultivation on pill refining.

••••

The cave, now blocked, was like a giant steamer basket. Fiery flames surged, threatening to burn everything to ashes. The now-irrational Suzaku’s soul attacked the trapped Shen Shu in the corner.

“Seeking death,” Shen Shu said with a cold expression and the detachment of an observer. A black Divine Dragon soul-body responded to her call and coiled above her head.

The Black Dragon was vigorous and powerful, its claws mighty and its aura grand. Its scales shimmered with cold light. Just one look from its eyes, which held the power to look down upon all living things, was enough to make one crawl on the ground and submit.

“Break.”

Shen Shu’s fingertip moved slightly. The Black Dragon rushed toward the Suzaku’s soul like a blur, fiercely biting the Suzaku’s neck. In an instant, the black turbid energy inside the Suzaku began to escape outward. The Suzaku’s soul regained consciousness, plunged back into the magma riverbed, and the heat inside the cave was extinguished.

The Black Dragon’s sharp claws tightly clenched the turbid energy, which struggled and churned. Shen Shu’s face was ashen. With a muffled groan, her figure swayed weakly. Having already lost a drop of her essence heart-blood and now forcibly summoning her true form, her spiritual energy was rapidly draining. Facing the turbid energy that could devour the six realms, even a small wisp of it took a tremendous effort.

The Black Dragon’s soul-claws were being corroded by the turbid energy, causing a burning sensation. She grimaced and, with a surge of effort, that wisp of turbid energy was finally dissipated. Just as Lu Ran broke through the rubble and entered the cave, Shen Shu could no longer hold on and fell unconscious.

“Shen Shu!” Lu Ran anxiously flew forward to catch her.

“The residual turbid energy was actually eliminated?” Yu Kong was slightly surprised. She looked at Shen Shu with a scrutinizing gaze, suspicion in her heart. This turbid energy was no ordinary demonic energy; it was extremely difficult to eliminate unless by a divine realm artifact.

“Goddess, now is not the time to worry about the turbid energy. The Suzaku has returned to the tower bottom to guard. It’s best to repair the seal before the next wave of turbid energy invasion,” Zhao Feixue said, offering the Heaven-Mending Stone.

Lu Ran sent his spiritual energy into Shen Shu’s body, his brows furrowed deeply enough to crush a fly. “Her dantian is severely damaged, and there are traces of turbid energy corrosion. I must take her to the Kunlun Valley to find the Valley Mistress for treatment!”

“Good! We’ll handle things here!” Zhao Feixue nodded seriously.

Gu Shiyan, thousands of miles away, was still unaware that Shen Shu had been severely injured and was in trouble. She was engrossed in the pot full of mid-grade elixirs!

“Ten pills in one batch, three batches refined in one day, and not a single failure! Moreover, they are all mid-grade Spirit-Recovery Pills! This is fantastic! The finished product of these elixirs will sell for at least a hundred low-grade spirit stones at the market. With this, I will definitely get into the inner sect during the competition!” Gu Shiyan excitedly placed the elixirs into her storage bag.

“Should I tell the True Monarch…” Gu Shiyan murmured to herself, but the next second, she shook her head, vetoing the idea. “The True Monarch is busy with important matters right now. It’s best not to bother her.”