The stillness of night had wrapped the forest in quietude. After an exhausting day of travel and battle, Li Qingyun finally discovered a shallow cave tucked against a moss-covered cliff. It was not deep, but it was hidden from the trail and shielded from the wind. With a slight exertion of his spiritual energy, he moved a nearby boulder with his earth-elemental affinity and sealed the cave entrance. Only when the natural barrier stood in place, dampening any outside noise or scent, did he relax.
Lighting a spirit lantern from his storage pouch, he sat cross-legged on the stone floor. The pouch contained everything he needed for survival—food, water, extra clothes, and basic necessities. Despite his young age of only seven, his composure in the wild resembled that of an experienced cultivator.
The night passed in silence. Occasionally, he heard the distant cry of a spirit beast or the rustling of foliage disturbed by nocturnal movement, but nothing came close. The stone barrier held strong, and his spiritual sense warned him of any approaching danger long before it could matter.
When the first rays of sunlight crept into the forest canopy, filtered into fragmented beams, Li Qingyun stirred. With a push of his hand, the boulder sealing the cave slid away, scraping against the stone ground. Outside, dew still clung to the underbrush, and the morning air carried the chill of the forest.
He washed his face and hands from a water gourd and tended to his daily rituals with methodical efficiency. Despite the rugged environment, he maintained cleanliness and order. Afterwards, he tightened the straps on his robe and resumed his journey deeper into the outer periphery of the Azurelight Forest.
This forest, though still on the edge of the untamed wilds, was now showing its true nature.
The spiritual beasts he encountered now were all high-grade Rank 1, several of them covered in thick fur or scales, their eyes glowing with fierce intelligence. Though their cultivation was still within the Qi Gathering realm, their bodies were tempered by the harshness of nature and bloodline strength.
"At the same level… a spiritual beast's raw body is far more resilient than that of a human," Li Qingyun noted inwardly after fending off a Windfang Panther with a well-timed sword slash. If it weren't for his precise Sword Intent and adaptability, he would have had to drag the fight out much longer.
His intent was not to kill the spiritual beasts but rather treat them as his training partners and the spiritual beasts also likely noticed that they were not strong enough to harm him so they flee whenever they got a chance.
An average Qi Gathering cultivator, even at the eighth or ninth stage, would have had to use every trick and trump card to contend with a single beast of this level.
It was here that something shifted.
For the first time, he began to actively manipulate the elemental energies circulating within his nine meridians. Until now, he hadn't truly used the latent power of the nine elemental attributes within his Primal Chaos Vessel Physique. Perhaps it was because he hadn't needed them—or perhaps because he instinctively held back. But as he stood in the forest, the sun filtering through the high trees, he understood: to advance further, he needed to master every part of his body's potential.
Fire, water, wind, metal, wood, earth, lightning, light, and dark—each energy strand subtly vibrated within his meridians like a coiled dragon waiting to be awakened.
"Once I reach Foundation Establishment… elemental manipulation becomes the cornerstone of cultivation," he thought. "Better to begin now."
The next few battles were more than just exercises in combat—they were experiments.
He would bind flame to the edge of his sword to sear a beast's pelt, or use the earth element to harden his body to withstand the incoming onslaught. A crackling blade of wind tore through a vine snake's scales like silk. Or a lightning infused sword attack charred the ground. Every clash, every swing honed not just his sword but his mastery over the elements. It was slow, deliberate learning, but learning nonetheless.
By late afternoon, the golden light of the setting sun faded faster than usual. In the dense forest, dusk always arrived early, the tall trees blocking out much of the remaining sunlight.
Li Qingyun knew it was time to make camp.
Using the earth element, he shaped a new cave near a rocky hillside. A shallow burrow expanded with practiced control into a secure hideout. With another push of spiritual energy, he compacted the surrounding stone into a thick door, sealing himself in for the night.
The moment he sat down and closed his eyes, his Ninefold Essence Sutra began circulating automatically, drawing in ambient spiritual energy with increasing ferocity. Under the dual influence of the system and his own physique, the energy in his body surged and stabilized at a rapid pace.
Soon, all exhaustion vanished.
His spiritual sense spread outward, like invisible tendrils feeling every crack in the earth and every trace of energy nearby. He turned his focus inward.
Using his powerful perception like an inner vision, he observed his meridians.
What he saw left him thoughtful.
His body was now saturated—completely filled—with gaseous spiritual energy, like clouds trapped inside glass tubes. No more could be absorbed. He had reached the peak of the Qi Gathering realm, and further progress was now impossible without a fundamental transformation.
To break through to Foundation Establishment, he had to compress this gas-like energy into a liquid form.
The process wouldn't stop there. Once the energy compressed, his nine meridians would begin to intertwine, forming the Core Vein Matrix—a vast, resilient structure designed to liquefy the energy and store it in a core-like structure — like a spiritual array disk or flowing planar basin in the dantian.
This structure circulates and balances the liquefied elemental energies.
"The sturdier the structure, the stronger the foundation… And I have nine meridians," he mused, eyes still closed. "Most cultivators have only three to five. That means… my Core Vein Matrix, once formed, will be far more stable."
The cultivation manuals he read always stressed how critical this step was. An unstable or flawed foundation often doomed a cultivator's entire future path. If the Core Vein Matrix cracked under pressure or leaked energy, it could halt one's journey forever.
"I must proceed carefully," he told himself. "No shortcuts."
But another thought nagged at him.
"What about special physiques like mine… or Xia Shuying's Sword Bone Physique? Will our foundation be different from others?"
No book could answer that question. These physiques were rare, their paths unrecorded. He'd have to feel it out himself, step by step.
And so, inside the self-made stone cave under the starless forest sky, Li Qingyun began focusing on the next great challenge of his cultivation journey.