58: Has the foundation building been successfully completed?

'Is Foundation Establishment really this difficult? Or is it that I, Lin Feng... truly have such poor Aptitude that I am destined to never achieve Foundation Establishment?'

He even considered giving up, but the moment he thought of the various hardships on the path of cultivation, the people and things that needed his power to protect, the enemies who looked down on him from above, and the Senior Sisters who had already achieved Foundation Establishment, a deep sense of unwillingness surged in his heart.

'No! I absolutely cannot give up!'

A flash of madness crossed his eyes, and with a desperate, all-or-nothing mindset, he consumed the third foundation establishment pill and another ice heart pill.

This time, the immense medicinal power, far exceeding the load his Meridians could bear, failed to shake the Bottleneck; instead, it clashed violently within his body and then exploded.

"Pfft!" Lin Feng's body shuddered violently, and he spat out a mouthful of bright red blood, his complexion instantly turning as pale as gold paper. A needle-like stinging pain came from his Meridians; he had already sustained significant internal injuries.

Wiping away the blood at the corner of his mouth, Lin Feng's gaze, despite this setback, instead became clear and resolute once more.

'I cannot force it... Where is the problem?' He forced himself to calm down and carefully reviewed the previous process.

'That's it... Although the medicinal power is fierce, it is not concentrated enough, scattering the force... Furthermore, the previously accumulated medicinal power was not fully mobilized...'

A sharp light flashed in his eyes, and he made his decision. He adjusted his breathing once again, ignoring the dull pain in his Meridians, forcibly elevated his state, and then consumed the fourth foundation establishment pill, along with the remaining three ice heart pills.

The powerful medicinal force of the ice heart pills instantly protected his heart meridian and Divine Sense. Meanwhile, the terrifying medicinal power of the fourth foundation establishment pill arrived as expected, once again turning into a torrent and rushing toward that solid barrier.

Lin Feng felt as if countless volcanoes were erupting inside his body simultaneously. The medicinal power from the previous three foundation establishment pills that had accumulated in his body and had not been fully absorbed gathered from all directions, merged with the medicinal power of the fourth foundation establishment pill, and slammed into that indestructible, invisible barrier that had kept him trapped in the Qi Refinement Stage.

Boom!!!

A loud noise shook his Divine Soul, causing it to tremble.

Crack...

Immediately after, a sound of shattering reached his perception.

That barrier, which had been so solid it brought him to despair, finally shattered at the sound.

The obstacle vanished in an instant, and Spiritual Qi flooded into an unprecedented, vast, and brand-new world. His entire body's Meridians, Qi Sea, and even every single acupoint were vibrating, expanding, and transforming violently.

'I succeeded! I finally...' Overcome with a mix of surprise and joy, Lin Feng leaped up. But as soon as he straightened his body, a wave of heat washed over him, and he collapsed to the ground again, giving himself quite a fright.

'What is happening?' The stone bed, the moonstone... everything familiar had vanished.

The long-dead Chen Qing lunged at him with a ferocious expression: "Lin Feng. Return my life to me. You actually used that insidious bat guano to harm me?"

Before Lin Feng could react, Mo Yunshen walked slowly toward him with a sword plunged into his chest, while Yin Li, his neck twisted, emitted a chilling, "cackling" laugh.

More blurred black shadows emerged from the darkness; they were all the people from the Mo and Yin families who had died at his hands. They surrounded him tightly.

Countless voices filled with resentment overlapped, sounding like demonic incantations piercing his ears, assaulting his heart and mind.

'I... I just wanted to survive... wanted to become stronger...' Lin Feng clutched his head with both hands, his head throbbing with a splitting pain.

Opening his eyes, all the vengeful spirits suddenly vanished.

He found that he was still sitting in the secret room, but his body was rapidly becoming withered and aged; his skin was covered in wrinkles, his life force was fading, and his Spiritual Qi was draining away rapidly.

He looked down in terror, seeing the flesh on his hands dissolving, gradually turning into a pair of stark white, withered bones.

'No... Don't! Foundation Establishment failed... Lifespan exhausted... No...'

His whole body trembled violently, veins bulged on his forehead, and cold sweat soaked his entire body once again.

'In the Bone-Eroding Cave, it was Chen Qing who wanted to kill me first. I killed him for self-preservation.'

'In the Black Water Mansion, everyone had their own ulterior motives and wanted to kill me to seize my treasures. I killed them to survive.'

'The path of cultivation is, by nature, a Heaven-Defying struggle for life. Fighting against people, fighting against the heavens. I, Lin Feng, have walked this path, experiencing endless slaughter, seeking nothing more than to survive and attain the great Dao. What wrong have I done?'

Scenes from the past played back clearly in his mind. He raised his head, faced the layers of illusions, and shouted word by word:

"My Dao is only for longevity. Those who block my Dao are all enemies. With no shame in my heart, why should I fear ghosts and monsters? You mere false illusions dare to disturb my Dao Heart? Break for me!"

The darkness before his eyes, the malevolent ghostly shadows, the aging body... all the illusions turned into countless fragments, then dissipated into specks of flowing light, disappearing completely.

The scene of the secret room reappeared. He was still sitting cross-legged on the stone bed, his aura surging and stabilizing at the Early Foundation Establishment Stage, though his face was pale and he was soaked in sweat, as if he had just been fished out of water.

However, before Lin Feng could catch his breath, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within a radius of several miles above the secret room seemed to be pulled by some invisible force, gathering crazily to form a visible vortex of Spiritual Qi that poured downward and surged into Lin Feng's body.

"Ugh!"

Lin Feng arched his body, veins bulging on his neck, and gritted his teeth. This force was not gentle at all, rampaging through his body as if it wanted to tear his body apart completely and then forcibly reshape it.

His bones made "crackling" sounds, and he was in excruciating pain, as if he were being crushed and then forcibly pieced back together. His Meridians were stretched open, old pathways snapped, and under the violent scouring of the Spiritual Qi, new, wider channels were formed.

His internal organs felt as if they were being placed on an anvil and repeatedly forged; every strike brought violent spasms and unspeakable torment. Sweat evaporated as soon as it seeped out of his pores, and the blood vessels under his skin pulsed wildly.

Gray-black substances were squeezed out from all his pores, covering his body surface in a sticky layer.

This inhuman torture lasted as long as a century.

Finally, the Spiritual Qi gradually calmed down and transformed into a gentle nourishing force. The severe pain receded like a tide.

Lin Feng collapsed limply onto the stone bed, gasping for air, his chest heaving violently. A sense of exhaustion pressed down on him like a mountain.

But immediately afterward, a sense of lightness and power surged from the depths of his body. He had actually succeeded; he had already entered the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Before Lin Feng could savor the joy of his successful Foundation Establishment, he frowned: 'Something is wrong.'

He looked inside himself and found that the situation within his body was far from perfect. The medicinal power of those four foundation establishment pills and five ice heart pills, while helping him succeed in breaking through the barrier, had not been fully absorbed.

A large amount of residual medicinal power was still rampaging within his newly formed Meridians and Dantian, causing waves of distending pain. His newly reshaped Physical Body was in danger of being torn apart again at any moment, or even exploding.

He immediately struggled to sit cross-legged; in his current situation, he had to circulate his Cultivation Technique immediately to absorb this medicinal power at once.

Although Lin Feng figured this out, he could not bring himself to be happy.

Because he had not anticipated this, he had not prepared a high-level Cultivation Technique for the Foundation Establishment Stage in advance.

'"Nine Profound Sword Heart Art".' He thought of that Cultivation Technique he had obtained from the mysterious Immortal Cave. Previously, limited by his cultivation level, he could only study a small part of the beginning of the technique. Now that he had achieved Foundation Establishment...

He quickly took out the white Jade Slip and submerged his Divine Sense into it.