Chương 127: The Earth Chapter Awakens

Three days later, Zhang Huaijin successfully broke through to the sixth level of Foundation Establishment Realm. He was forty-seven years old that year. In his previous life, he would have been approaching the age when men were said to "know their destiny." Yet here, in the world of cultivation, he was still considered remarkably young. For Tier 2 cultivators, the maximum lifespan stretched to two hundred and forty full years.

At the rate Huaijin was advancing, he could very well attempt to breach the Purple Mansion realm before he even turned a hundred. The Realm-Breaking Pearl had smoothed every step of his journey thus far. Bottlenecks simply didn't exist for him. Those impassable chasms that other cultivators spent decades trying to cross, to him, they were nothing more than an open road. Boom! The very moment Huaijin stepped into the sixth level, the breakthrough in his qi cultivation seemed to jolt something deep within his soul.

Crack! A soundless shattering rang out from the core of his being. Within his sea of consciousness, the Primordial Tai Chi Visualization Diagram accelerated its refinement of his soul at a frenetic pace. The Black-and-White Divine Mill spun without pause, and his spirit grew ever more crystalline, ever more luminous. A faint wisp of Purple Mansion pressure seeped outward from his cultivation cave, rippling through the surrounding world.

The mysterious Pine Fish in the lake burst from the water in a spray of silver, its eyes glinting with surprise.

"Triple cultivation of body, qi, and soul... such audacious ambition. I wonder if he'll end up charred to ash beneath the heavenly tribulation," the fish murmured, though a flicker of envy lurked beneath its skeptical words. Triple cultivation gave Huaijin terrifying combat prowess. It also granted him a foundation as deep and solid as bedrock, precisely the kind of foundation needed to walk the farthest paths.

Some geniuses blazed brilliantly at the very start of their journey, their natural talent turning heads and drawing envy. But they refused to temper their foundations, rushing from one breakthrough to the next in reckless haste. When they finally slammed into an immovable bottleneck, they would waste decades, centuries, even, going nowhere. And by then, regret would be a hollow, useless thing.

Huaijin had just broken through to the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, yet his physical body and soul had already stepped into the first level of the Purple Mansion Realm. He was now confident enough to challenge even an early stage Tier 3! Though the outcome of such a battle remained uncertain, one thing was clear: an early stage Tier 3 cultivator could not possibly kill him.

And once Huaijin reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment, even an early-stage Purple Mansion cultivator might no longer be a match for him. With his soul elevated to the Purple Mansion realm, the Black-and-White Divine Mill refined his spirit ever faster. But without the supplemental boost from the Realm-Breaking Pearl and his physical cultivation technique, his body's progress lagged behind his soul's ascent once more.

It was then that a surge of new information coalesced within the Primordial Tai Chi Visualization Diagram. Zhang Huaijin's eyes blazed with brilliant light.

"This… this is a true soul technique!" His voice trembled with genuine awe. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The Yin Yang Divine Needles he had practiced before, that had only been the foundation! The soul techniques contained within the Primordial Tai Chi Visualization Diagram were divided into three chapters. And now, Zhang Huaijin had unlocked the Earth Chapter. The Yin Yang Divine Needles were simply the building blocks upon which everything else rested.

The Earth Chapter, in essence, could be distilled into four words: Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, and Seas. With his soul power now at the Purple Mansion level, there was no longer any limit to the number of Yin Yang Divine Needles he could manifest. As long as his soul strength held out, he could condense countless needles and shape them into any soul attack he could imagine. Anything that existed within the vast landscapes of mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas, he could summon it into being.

Huaijin's soul power churned, and the number of Yin Yang Divine Needles multiplied. After the time it took to burn a single incense stick, the needle count had already surpassed one hundred, and it kept climbing. With his current soul strength, constructing spiritual herbs and plants from nature posed little strain. And as everyone in the cultivation world knew, some of those spiritual plants possessed terrifying offensive capabilities.

"Mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas, all within my grasp!" A glint of ambition flickered in Zhang Huaijin's eyes. There were still three years before the Spirit Beast Tide erupted. Huaijin did not emerge from seclusion. Instead, he continued refining. Spirit Peaches, polishing his realm, tempering his soul, and forging new soul attacks. Everything flowed at his command, spiritual plants, terrains, and environments continuously bloomed and shifted across his sea of consciousness.

The Crimson Flame Spirit Ruins Scripture circulated without pause, drawing spiritual energy from all directions like water into his dantian. His realm climbed steadily higher. But according to his own estimates, even with three full years, he wouldn't reach the seventh level.. In the blink of an eye, another two years slipped past. Huaijin was now forty-nine years old. And the Spirit Beast Tide was on the verge of breaking loose.

Over the past twenty years, the outer reaches of the Purple Dusk Mountain Range had undergone a complete transformation. Every single Tier 2 spirit beast in the area had been wiped out, and even Tier 1 spirit beasts had been thoroughly purged by the Zhang family. Green Bamboo City's boundaries had expanded significantly. Purple Cloud Peak had become the most dazzling landmark in all of Langya County, everyone knew exactly who its master was.

Langya County's overall strength had surged dramatically compared to twenty years ago. The Zhang family now boasted four Foundation Establishment cultivators in their ranks! The Gao family's patriarch, Gao Zenyu, had finally broken through after two decades of arduous effort, advancing to the seventh level and claiming the title of late-stage cultivator. The Gao family had also produced one new Tier 2 cultivator, and their existing members had each made measurable progress.

Gao Zhengxin, who was allied with the Zhangs, had also gone a step further, reaching the sixth level. The other Tier 2 cultivators in the area had improved their strengths as well. Even Tian Jianmo, over the past twenty years, had reached the peak of the fifth level. Whether he could break through to the sixth remained to be seen. The only disappointment was that the Tian family had still failed to produce any new Tier 2 cultivators. The signs of the Spirit Beast Tide were becoming increasingly unmistakable.

The two Purple Mansion clans that governed Qingtai Prefecture began issuing mobilization orders. The Zhang family's meteoric rise had not gone unnoticed, both the Fang and Zhou families had taken an interest. And Huaijin had always harbored wariness toward the Fang family. Back when he had returned from Qingtai Prefecture, it had almost certainly been the Fang family who leaked news of his movements, if not for an unforeseen accident. That incident had left him with an extremely sour impression of them.

The Zhou family, on the other hand, merely observed from a distance. After all, Langya County fell outside their sphere of influence. The two Purple Mansion clans each had their own territories, and they generally kept out of each other's way, cooperating only when the Spirit Beast Tide demanded it. This time, the Zhang family needed to dispatch two Tier 2 cultivators and fifteen late-stage Tier 1 cultivators to Blood Lion Mountain. Purple Cloud Peak didn't require any cultivators to remain behind for defense.

Green Bamboo Mountain needed one, and Green Bamboo City itself would also require a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator stationed there. As for Langya County town, that responsibility would fall to the Gao family, after all, they had more Tier 2 cultivators to spare. Under normal circumstances, nothing would happen in Langya County town. If the spirit beasts ever pushed that far, it would mean only one thing: the various powers of Qingtai Prefecture had been utterly defeated.

Blood Lion Mountain would be a chaotic, dangerous place. And right now, the Zhang family still needed Huaijin to clear the path ahead for them.