The frantic suction force within his body also slowly disappeared.
Meng Hao did not regret his decision. There were some things he could not do because he did not want to betray himself.
The blood orb that Shangguan Xiu had refined from the people of the three counties beneath Mount Daqing, after being pointed at by Meng Hao's right hand, gradually dispersed, transforming into a large amount of blood qi that scattered and fell into the three counties.
For the people of the three counties, it was as if they had been in a coma for two months. Now, after waking up, they only felt weak all over but had no other ailments. They did not know that, in these nearly two months, each of them had invisibly lost five years of their lifespan.
Meng Hao saw this but could do nothing. In silence, he merely sighed softly, flicked his sleeves, and turned to leave.
"Senior Brother Meng, Shangguan Xiu!" Xiao Hu suddenly called out.
"From now on, there will be no such person in this world," Meng Hao said without looking back, moving further and further away. The battle here could hardly escape the attention of the three great sects. He had already guessed that the three sects allowing Shangguan Xiu to set up a grand formation here was likely related to him. They must have had an agreement: Shangguan Xiu wanted his storage bag, and the three great sects wanted him. Since he had not yet come up with a countermeasure, he needed to leave this place quickly and ponder a solution.
Xiao Hu said nothing, watching Meng Hao disappear into the distance. After a long while, a look of resolute determination flashed in his eyes.
"Meng Hao, you may not be tempted by my supreme treasure, and though I, Tong Hu, am not a good person, rest assured, in this lifetime, I will never do anything to wrong you." Xiao Hu turned, glanced at his parents in the distant county town, a gentle look appearing in his eyes, but it quickly vanished. He lowered his head and quickly departed.
Just then, several streaks of rainbow light roared across the sky, led by Liu Daoyun of the Feng Han Sect.
"Meng Hao, you won't escape today!"
Meng Hao frowned, transforming into a rainbow and quickly moving away, using the rapidly dissipating residual power of the tenth level of Qi Condensation to quickly create distance from the group. He saw more and more disciples of the three great sects appearing in the distance. Perhaps those Foundation Establishment cultivators and Core Formation old monsters could not be sure if he would appear here, so they left their disciples scattered around. As soon as he truly showed himself, those people would quickly rush over.
The power behind Shangguan Xiu was truly not small. This Tian He Fang. No wonder the people of the three great sects, though they had arrived early, did not approach, but waited until they detected the dissipation of the spell's fluctuations before appearing. Perhaps such an agreement was because Shangguan Xiu also had secrets he did not want others to know, even the people of Tian He Fang. He had to be careful. It was just unknown how he had managed to hide it from Tian He Fang all these years.
Leaving Mount Daqing, crossing the North Sea, and then crossing a continuous range of desolate mountains, was the direction towards the Kao Shan Sect.
Within this continuous range of desolate mountains, there was a half-mountain. Meng Hao sped up, but his expression was uncertain, occasionally lowering his head to look at the turtle shell fragment in his hand.
This turtle shell fragment was palm-sized, with uneven edges, clearly a piece broken from a larger turtle shell.
The dense, tiny characters written above were extremely blurry to the naked eye; only by pouring spiritual power into his eyes could he barely make them out.
In this Cultivation World, there truly was something called Perfect Foundation Establishment!
Meng Hao gasped. The turtle shell was taken from Shangguan Xiu's storage bag.
On this turtle shell were recorded two methods for refining elixirs: one was the Perfect Foundation Establishment Pill, and the other was the Perfect Golden Core Pill.
The turtle shell also clearly stated that Foundation Establishment in the Cultivation World was not limited to the three types: Flawless, Imperfect, and Shattered Plate. A fourth type also existed, which was Perfect Foundation Establishment. This type of Foundation Establishment was extremely rare, seldom seen in heaven and earth, appearing only once every ten thousand years. Meng Hao’s breathing quickened as he carefully examined the turtle shell in his hand. He recalled Shangguan Xiu's dying words, his regret at being poisoned and unable to achieve Foundation Establishment, and his boundless resentment towards Meng Hao.
Meng Hao pondered. Regarding Foundation Establishment, he had read many introductions in the Inner Sect's Dharma Pavilion of the Reliance Sect back then.
Foundation Establishment meant condensing a Dao platform within the elixir lake. Because Foundation Establishment could increase lifespan, seize the good fortune of heaven and earth, and defy the heavens to change one's fate, the Dao platform would not be perfect; it would have flaws. This was to conform to the Great Dao of heaven and earth. The saying "there is gain, there is loss; there is entry, there is dispersion" meant becoming a part of the heavenly cycle, and thus it was allowed to exist in the world.
The three minor realms of Foundation Establishment—Early, Middle, and Late—would successively condense nine Dao platforms. Each Dao platform would have one flaw, totaling nine flaws, which was called Flawless Foundation Establishment. Such Foundation Establishment cultivators, because their Dao platforms had few flaws and the spiritual energy subtly dispersed was not much, would become stronger after long periods of cultivation, surpassing other Foundation Establishment cultivators.
It could be said that in the current Cultivation World, this was the strongest form of Foundation Establishment. This type of Foundation Establishment required special cultivation techniques, such as the Qi Condensation Scroll of the Grand Spirit Scripture, or other great scriptures. However, these scriptures only left traces of their existence in the Cultivation World; once they appeared, they would lead to a storm of blood and strife. The Reliance Sect had disbanded precisely because of this.
If one did not possess these types of scriptures, achieving Flawless Foundation Establishment required astonishing talent and reliance on good fortune to have a chance. Usually, only those who were "heavenly chosen" would choose this path of development.
If the flaws on the Foundation Establishment Dao platform increased by one, meaning it exceeded nine in the late stage of Foundation Establishment, it was called Imperfect Foundation Establishment. This type of Foundation Establishment, though inferior to Flawless, could not be underestimated; usually, only disciples of major sects could achieve it.
The worst was Shattered Plate Foundation Establishment. When cultivating this type of Foundation Establishment to the late stage, the flaws on the nine Dao platforms often exceeded eighteen. Because the number of flaws was too great, the Dao platform appeared as if it was about to shatter, hence the name. This type was significantly weaker in terms of cultivation speed and combat strategy, and even the chance of forming a Golden Core was much lower.
Meng Hao pondered, staring at the turtle shell in his hand. Because according to this explanation, once a Perfect Foundation Establishment Pill was refined and then used, there would be a certain probability of achieving Perfect Foundation Establishment. The so-called Perfect Foundation Establishment meant that the Dao platform had… no flaws, which was no different from having entry but no exit, cultivating against the heavens.