Foundation

"Sigh"

Bai Hu sat with his legs crossed at the highest point on Thunderwind Peak. Before him were dozens of pill bottles, Formation plates, and jade boxes containing the True Flame Lotus and Ice Spirit Lotus.

With a series of hand seals, the Formation plates floated up into the air and organized themselves in a spiral pattern. A transparent dome several meters wide formed, making the night sky above Bai Hu brighter.

It was a truly odd view, as below him were dark clouds crackling with lightning and churning from the turbulent wind. Above Bai Hu was the night sky, with a full moon and countless stars sprinkled onto the black expanse.

A star diagram appeared under Bai Hu, depicting all kinds of constellations. With a wave of his hand, all the Star Stones he had gathered appeared and were evenly placed across the diagram.

A mystical energy erupted from the stones and filled the Formation, making it light up. A seemingly endless stream of qi and strands of Star Power flowed into the Formation from the outside. It was as if the stars and the moon were sending the energy, causing the inside of the Formation to glow ever brighter with this mysterious power.

Bai Hu felt like his pores were opening up and trying to absorb every last drop of this energy, but held back. When the moon reached its peak, Bai Hu opened his eyes.

With quick movements, the True Flame Lotus and Ice Spirit Lotus were brought before him, their auras mixing and rejecting at the same time. Holding one in each hand, he started to circulate his qi.

Every round of circulation shook his Dantian and brought a bit of pain. Finally, after a dozen cycles, the qi gained momentum and rose up to crash into the qi vortex above Bai Hu's Dantian.

Bang!

Qi flowed into the vortex frantically as if a dam had broken. The vortex grew and grew without any sign of stopping.

Finally, when his qi was half depleted, Bai Hu opened his eyes and let the incomparably pure Star Power start flowing into his body.

The white Star Power glittered like hundreds of millions of stars all rushed towards Bai Hu.

"Cough!"

He spat out some blood due to the impact and focused on guiding the Star Power to the qi vortex. Despite various cracks forming all over his body and pouring out blood, Bai Hu knew that if the foreign energy in his body grew out of control, no miracle could save him.

Whoosh!

When the vortex came into contact with the Star Power, it started growing even more rapidly than before. It shone like a distant galaxy containing millions of stars.

It was at this moment that Bai Hu opened his mouth and ate both lotuses in one gulp. The ice and fire energy seemed to pacify the raging Star Power and the vortex, allowing Bai Hu to make a series of hand seals.

"Rise!"

The pill bottles opened and over a hundred pills floated in the air. The 5 Foundation Establishment pills were the first to go, ending up in Bai Hu's Dantian almost instantly. They broke down into a fine gold dust and entered the colorful qi vortex.

The purpose of Foundation Establishment pills were to aid in the forming of the First Foundation. As expected, once the Foundation Establishment pills dissolved, the vortex elongated into a vague and loose pillar shape.

Finally, Bai Hu started to eat the 100 Foundation Building pills one at a time. Each Foundation Building pill solidified the Foundation Pillar and brought it closer to solidification.

This was actually the most difficult part of establishing the foundation. One mishap was enough to ruin all his efforts along with all the resources used.

Sweat now beaded Bai Hu's forehead as he ingested more and more Foundation Building pills. The solidification puts a huge burden on the body so it's a good thing that his body is a bit stronger than the average person.

Time passed slowly, with each moment feeling like an eternity. Bai Hu's supply of Foundation Building pills dwindled little by little, until...

Weng!

After an unknown amount of time, a bright light bursts out from where Bai Hu's Dantian is, seemingly illuminating the night. Behind him, a blurry golden pillar projection around 3 meters in length stood imposingly.

"Whew"

Bai Hu held up a fist and punched the air. A shockwave spread out from what seemed like a casual movement.

He nodded in satisfaction, "I would have needed over half of my strength to do that when I was in the Qi Gathering realm. Now I can to it casually as it it were nothing"

He then steeled himself and went back into a meditative state. His Foundation had just broken through and had not yet stabilized, thus requiring a long time to be spent stabilizing his realm.

...

..

.

Bang!

Mo Yuan Kai barged into an unknown room and glared at an elderly man sitting at a table calmly sipping tea.

"What do you mean he got away?!"

He charged forwards and slammed his fist onto the table.

Bang!

Small cracks formed where his fist had landed, but it didn't manage to break the table.

"You said that your assassins would handle him, a measly Qi Gathering realm cultivator, without any mishaps"

He paused to see the man's reaction but was appalled to find him still sipping his tea.

"You're telling me I spent 15,000 spirit stones for no reason?!-"

Swish!

Thud!

"Argh!"

Mo Yuan Kai jumped back and cupped his bleeding ear. The previously calm elder who looked like he could be a grandpa now had his hand outstretched like he had thrown something. A dangerous light filled his eyes as the dagger he had embedded in the stone wall flew back into his hand.

Mo Yuan Kai couldn't help but quiver upon sensing the murderous intent emitted by the elder. He thought that with his talent, the secret organization would pay more attention to him and easily get rid of Bai Hu, but the elder's next words completely dispelled those thoughts.

"Just because you have a Spiritual Root of the darkness element does not mean you can strut in here like you're the young master or something. I'll say this once, that person is now off limits, an important elder of ours is particularly interested in him"

"What?!"

Mo Yuan Kai almost forgot about the pain of having part of his ear cut when he heard that. If Bai Hu attracted one of the higher ups of the organization, then he most likely won't be able to hire a powerful assassin no matter how much money he throws at them.

"Humph!"

He turned around and took a healing pill before preparing to leave.

Just as he was a step outside the door, the elder called out once more, "Do not touch him. If we find out that you did something, even the Heavens won't be able to save you from 'that person's' wrath"

Mo Yuan Kai froze for a moment before walking away without another word.

Shortly after he left, the elder waved his hand. A shadowy figure emerged from a dark corner of the room and bowed.

"What is your order"

"Keep an eye on that kid, oh, and report what the other one is doing once every week"

Without another word, the figure bowed and disappeared to carry out his duties.

...

"Humph!"

Mo Yuan Kai opened the door to his residence and was met with an air of killing intent. Yang Feng and Dong Wang sat at a circular table with equally dark expressions. Mo Yuan Kai's arrival only seemed to make the place seem darker than it is.

Yang Feng was the first to break the silence, "So... how did it go?"

Bang!

Mo Yuan Kai slammed his fist down on the table in anger as he sat down.

"Don't even mention it, the talk had gone much worse than we had thought"

This time, it was Dong Wang who asked, "What happened?"

He tilted his head to the side to reveal the still healing cut on his ear, "The bastard told me that the kid is off limits. Supposedly some really important elder has their eyes on him and won't even allow us to dirty our own hands"

""What!?""

Both were in shock, as they knew how valuable a person with the darkness attribute was, especially to an assassin organization.

"What about him can attract an important figure from their organization?" Yang Feng inquired.

Dong Wang ran his hand through his hair, "I heard that his talent is good, though it doesn't really match the qualities of an assassin. So it should be that he has some sort of secret treasure that they covet"

"I don't think so," said Mo Yuan Kai.

"The organization must have an entity at the Golden Core Realm that is about to break through. Bai Hu has both wind and lightning attributes, meaning that he can help a Golden Core cultivator fend off a portion of their tribulations power"

Dong Wang was taken aback at this information, "Then that means... we can't touch him"

"That is correct"'

Mo Yuan Kai grit his teeth and clenched his hands, "Send a message to Fei Yuan Wei and tell him to not mess with Bai Hu for now. We'll wait for an opportunity if it ever presents itself"