Chapter 116: Planning-Immortality: Unlocking New Abilities Through Farming(An old man with silver hair engages in lively conversation, laughter flowing effortlessly from his lips.)

"Success in Foundation Establishment at thirty-two."

"It's not exactly fast, but it's not too slow either."

Qin Ming stood in the spirit field, his hands clasped behind his back, gazing calmly at the distant Moon-Gazing Lake.

He now possessed a lifespan of over four hundred years, nearly rivaling that of a Golden Core ancestor. With sufficient time, he could pursue the higher paths of the Great Dao.

His primary cultivation method, the *Ancient Wood Longevity Manual*, grew stronger as time passed. By absorbing the essence of flora and the breath of the ages, his dharma power increased, making him more formidable the older he grew.

Now that he had ascended to the Foundation Establishment stage, Qin Ming began to map out his long-term goals. Naturally, the next step was to form a Golden Core. He had to plan ahead; otherwise, the vast resources required for forming a core would far exceed those needed for Foundation Establishment. Accomplishing such a feat through individual effort alone was no simple matter.

Foundation Establishment is, by definition, the building of a foundation for the core; everything is merely a precursor to that ultimate crystallization.

Core formation is divided into False Cores and Golden Cores. A False Core practitioner is technically a Core Formation cultivator, but their dharma power is only half that of a normal Golden Core practitioner, their lifespan increase is limited to a mere hundred years, and they are forever barred from entering the mid-stage of Core Formation. Prospects for the Nascent Soul stage are non-existent. Once a False Core is formed, one's path is effectively at an end.

A Golden Core, however, represents a high-quality achievement. These are further categorized by grade, and those with superior Golden Cores even harbor the possibility of ascending to the Nascent Soul stage, holding infinite future potential.

"With my current aptitude, achieving even a False Core would be difficult," Qin Ming mused, well aware of his limitations.

Beyond the Foundation Establishment stage, one cannot simply break through by consuming pills. The higher one climbs, the more one’s spiritual root aptitude dictates the outcome. For those with less than superior spiritual roots, achieving even a False Core is extremely difficult unless one encounters another stroke of fortune.

However, Qin Ming held the power of "Entries" and possessed the miraculous life-bound spirit plant, the Longevity Vine. As the vine grew, success was not entirely out of reach.

For now, his plan was simple: focus on farming and cultivate until he reached the late Foundation Establishment stage. Once in this stage, a cultivator's lifespan becomes extended. Even for those with superior spiritual roots, progressing from the early to the late stage takes many long decades.

Furthermore, there are no fine-grained divisions like "Level 1" or "Level 2" in the Foundation Establishment stage; it is generally categorized into early, middle, and late stages. This is because the difference in dharma power between the early levels is not particularly vast—each minor step only provides a twenty to thirty percent increase. Most cultivators in this stage remain stuck in the early phase, with very few reaching the middle stage, and the vast majority never seeing the late stage in their entire lives. Therefore, spending a century or more in the Foundation Establishment stage is perfectly normal.

Despite this long, tedious journey, and even though Qin Ming preferred to stay hidden on the remote Moon-Gazing Island, avoiding conflict and competition, he still needed to consider further strengthening his means of self-protection.

His body-refinement technique, the *Hundred-Treasure Glazed Sutra*, was only one step away from entering the Foundation Establishment phase. The prerequisite was to activate the "Hundred-Beast Visualization Diagram" found within the animal-hide scripture. This required his body's innate *gang* energy to reach a certain level.

After his breakthrough, Qin Ming’s blood and energy had reached an unprecedented height. Now, he was just a hair’s breadth away. He decided to use the "Blood and Energy Essence" entry he had recently harvested from the Longevity Vine.

Focusing his intent on the entry, a torrent of energy surged through him, flooding his body and continuously reshaping his physical form. He struck while the iron was hot, consuming five "Blood and Energy Crystal" entries as well.

Hours later, his crimson innate *gang* energy had been further refined to perfection. Excited, he took out the animal-hide scripture and injected his blood-energy *gang* into it. After a moment, the scripture began to glow with a blood-red light, finally reacting.

Suddenly, phantom images of various beasts flickered across the hide. Qin Ming stared with intense concentration. It appeared that among the hundreds of variations, he had to make a choice. This decision would determine the power and future potential of his body-refinement technique.

In the Hundred-Beast Visualization Diagram, there were primordial pythons with surging blood-flames, celestial wolves, giant bears, silver foxes, white tigers, mysterious turtles—all flickering in and out of existence. These beasts were marked in different positions on the hide, and the brightness of each phantom varied; clearly, the larger and brighter the image, the greater the power once mastered.

Qin Ming found it difficult to choose. Just then, a white light in the corner of the scripture, though not particularly large, caught his eye. A feeling of divine intuition washed over him. Without further hesitation, he channeled the *Hundred-Treasure Glazed Sutra* and selected the white light.

The light transformed into a shooting star and vanished into his body.

*ROAR!*

A thunderous roar exploded in his mind. A mountain-sized great ape, standing between heaven and earth, punched the sky in a fury.

Suddenly, Qin Ming was involuntarily forced out of the visualization. Trembling from the experience, he realized that to maintain the visualization, he would need to refine the blood essence of high-level spirit beasts.

Furthermore, according to the description of the first transformation of the True *Gang* during the Foundation Establishment stage, once a beast was selected for visualization, it was best to refine the blood essence of the same type to maximize the power of the technique.

Qin Ming put away the scripture and pondered. High-level ape blood essence would likely be difficult to obtain, even in the Canghai Immortal City. But having chosen this path, he had to remain steadfast. He decided to visit the city in a while to purchase seeds for the next round of spirit plants he intended to grow on the island. After all, seeds and saplings for second-tier high-grade and peak-grade spirit plants were rarely seen at the Tianhe Market; one could only find them in large immortal cities.

As for his current fields, he would continue to grow crops like the Spirit-Gathering Tea, which provided a yearly harvest—an excellent choice for cultivation, gifting, and leisure. He also had plenty of Purple Gold Bamboo left, beyond what he had asked Gu Qingzhao to auction off. He planned to continue cultivating them to see if they could eventually evolve into a higher grade of spirit wood.

In the coming days, Qin Ming began consuming Spirit-Perch Rice and Rice-Flower Spirit Fish to enhance his Foundation Establishment cultivation. While not quite "a thousand miles in a day," his progress was significantly faster than the average cultivator, and even faster than those who practiced other minor arts. After all, these two rare treasures were capable of greatly boosting one's dharma power.

"Now that I'm in the Foundation Establishment stage, I can't rely on basic magical tools forever," he thought. "Although I don't seek conflict, I must prepare for the unexpected. It's time to put purchasing a Foundation Establishment-grade spirit weapon on the agenda."

Just as he was silently mapping out his future, a message talisman from Wu Jiang arrived outside the defensive formation. Qin Ming opened the barrier to let him in.

Wu Jiang looked pale and drenched in sweat, gasping for breath as he handed an invitation to Qin Ming. "Fellow Daoist Qin, something terrible has happened!"

"Last night, two islands in the southwest of the Lingqi Archipelago, Kongtong Island and Yushui Island, were struck by catastrophe. The two Qi-refining families on the islands were slaughtered. Old and young, nearly a hundred people in total, none were left alive. All the wealth on the islands was plundered."

"The Seventy-Two Island Rogue Alliance is calling an emergency meeting, summoning all rogue cultivators and families to discuss a response. They’ve sent an invitation to you as well. Will you go, Fellow Daoist?"

Qin Ming’s brow furrowed at the news. He had only just broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and already the Lingqi Archipelago was facing such a massive upheaval. A sense of an impending storm filled the air.