Chapter 173: Critical Law l
Translator: 549690339
Chen Mobai didn’t have high demands for living conditions.
He could live comfortably even in an environment like Green Light Island, let alone a small mountainside villa in the Immortal Sect, complete with water and electricity, internet, and abundant spiritual energy.
However, after the estate agent left and he made a detailed inspection, he realized something.
Didn’t this log cabin seem like it was made by a talisman?
He took several photos and sent them to the shopkeeper of the Wood Spiritual Talisman Shop, who, after inspection, gave a confirmative answer.
Indeed, it was.
Chen Mobai could only sigh at the marvel of immortal cultivation civilization – even in the construction industry, money couldn’t be made.
He checked the rental agreement once more to confirm that the land where the log cabin was located was legal, then he put his mind at ease.
Since he had already cleaned it once using the Cleaning Technique, the interior of the log cabin was now spotless.
After going out to buy some basic daily necessities, he returned to the Dance Tool Dao Academy.
The two seniors who were welcoming the newcomers were still on the stone platform, so Chen Mobai went over to greet them.
The Dance Tool Dao Academy had only admitted up to 49 students each year before, but this year the number was expanded due to pressure from the Immortal Sect. Still, the total number of students was relatively low, so the two seniors responsible for welcoming the newcomers were quite relaxed.
After chatting with them for a while, Chen Mobai finally learned their names.
The male senior was called Meng Mu.
The female senior was named Qu Hongyu.
Both were seventh graders, had reached perfection in the ninth stage of Qi Cultivation, and were planning to attempt Foundation Establishment within the year.
“By the way, seniors, have you used the Foundation Building Treasure?”
Chen Mobai thought of this software. He wanted to know if other factors could be added to increase the success rate of Foundation Establishment.
“Of course, we’ve used it. If we follow the conditions we’ve envisioned, there’s basically a 55% chance of successfully establishing our foundations,” said Qu Hongyu.
At Qu Hongyu’s words, Chen Mobai was taken aback.
How could the success rate of Foundation Establishment be raised to over fifty percent without Foundation Building Pills, given the resources of the Immortal Sect? Could there be some unknown elixir even more potent than Foundation Building Pills within the four Daoist Academies?
If you don’t know, just ask.
Chen Mobai immediately asked humbly for guidance.
Since he was the only new student that day, Qu Hongyu was more than willing to give this new junior some pointers. She started talking about the Daoist Academy’s in-depth research on Foundation Establishment.
“Foundation Establishment is the most crucial transformation in the process of Immortal Cultivation. It is only by crossing this threshold that one can truly be considered a cultivator. That’s why cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage are known as ‘True Cultivators’.”
“To successfully establish a foundation, three steps pertaining to our body, spiritual power, and divine sense are needed. The process of Foundation Establishment involves body transmutation, spiritual power condensation, and divine sense departing the body. As these three processes must be completed at one stroke during Foundation Establishment, the failure rate is quite high.”
“That’s why the ‘Three Foundation Establishment Treasures’ developed by the Immortal Sect and Daoist Academy are specifically targeted at these three steps. They ensure that, at the very least, a cultivator can pass through the transformation process of body, spiritual power, and divine sense.”
“However, even though the Three Foundation Establishment Treasures are mystical, they are just a substitute for Foundation Building Pills and can’t aid in the final unified transformation and transmutation of the body, spiritual power, and divine sense. Therefore, the key to Foundation Establishment still lies in the cultivator’s own willpower.”
After listening to Qu Hongyu’s explanation, Chen Mobai nodded in agreement. He caught the most critical point – Foundation Building Pills are still the best to use.
Seeing his earnestness in wanting to learn, Qu Hongyu, deeming him a teachable student, continued to explain.
“But willpower is too abstract. So to significantly increase the success rate of Foundation Establishment, the leader of the Immortal Sect from 800 years ago led an effort for the Jumang Daoist Academy to partner with the Imperial Medical Academy in conducting an in-depth research on the transformation process.”
“After observing cultivators establishing their foundations for thousands of times, they derived a set of ‘Critical Methods’.”
“This cultivation technique can help cultivators to halt at certain critical junctures during the transformation of their body, spiritual power, and divine sense, allowing them to not waste their energy on the initial three-step transformation process and focus all their attention on the final transmutation.”
“Indeed, the success rate of Foundation Establishment began to increase significantly. In recent centuries, our four Daoist Academies have students who have successfully practiced the Critical Methods and, combined with the Three Foundation Establishment Treasures and other external conditions, have made the success rate of Foundation Establishment exceed fifty percent.”
Chen Mobai listened, a bit confused.
He didn’t understand what the Critical Methods were or how they worked to halt the transformation process.
So, he humbly asked for more explanation.
Qu Hongyu was not weary of his questions, she added him as a friend and sent him some documentation.
She then instructed Chen Mobai to read the documentation while she explained further.
“Let’s use a simple example. During the process of Foundation Establishment, there’s the step of body transmutation. You can complete this step before Foundation Establishment.”
“And after the body has undergone transformation, it will automatically trigger the spiritual power to condense. Many people are only able to complete the first transformation step—body transmutation—and lack the energy to complete the condensation of spiritual power.”
“But with the Critical Methods, you can interrupt this automatic process. After completing the body transmutation step, you can halt progression right there. When you feel that you have accumulated enough energy for spiritual power condensation, you can lift the halt and start the next step.”
“In this manner, if you have strong enough foundation, naturally, you would complete the three major steps in one go, culminating in transmutation. If your foundation is not enough, then you can stop after the second step of spiritual power condensation, and prevent the divine sense from leaving the body.”
“This is the Critical Methods. It was inspired from the ancient method ‘Jade Lock Golden Barrier Secret’, discovered by a genius from the Jumang Daoist Academy.”
After listening to Qu Hongyu’s explanation, Chen Mobai couldn’t help but give her a thumbs-up.
For the Immortal Sect, this was indeed an earth-shattering contribution.
No wonder the success rate of Foundation Establishment in the four Daoist Academies could reach up to eighty or ninety percent.
However, why didn’t they spread such an extraordinary method and let the public know?
If this was the Tianhe Realm, definitely because they hated to part with it.
But here on the Immortal Sect’s side, even the most recent research knowledge could be paid for and accessed on specific websites by the public if they were willing.
Confused, Chen Mobai asked Qu Hongyu about this. The latter shook her head.
“The Immortal Sect did try to promote it, but this cultivation technique has a drawback: the threshold for cultivation is extremely high. Ordinary people may not be able to grasp it even after decades of practice. With that amount of time, they could have tried to establish their foundation.”
“How high is it?”
Chen Mobai was very worried. He’d recently been struggling to comprehend Longevity Sutra and Diphase Technique, and if the Critical Methods were indeed difficult to comprehend, he felt he might be out of luck.
“It’s still acceptable for us in the four Daoist Academies. After all, the students who get admitted to our academies are all prodigies, so most of us can comprehend it.”
Hearing this, Chen Mobai relaxed a little. He thought he got the lowest admission score because he broke through to the late stage of Qi cultivation very late and didn’t have time to study. He believed he was admitted into the Dance Tool Dao Academy for being a prodigy: there was no way he would be unable to understand it!
“But when the Critical Methods were disseminated to the ten academies, only one percent of people could comprehend it.”
“It’s even more needless to say when it comes to the Hundred and Twenty Prefectures. The student resources of one hundred and twenty universities combined didn’t necessarily produce one person who could comprehend it..”