"If water is the foundation of life, then it goes without saying that the quest for immortality should start there as well." This ancient saying passed down from elders to juniors since time immemorial, defined the Qi Refinement and Foundation Building stages. The Qi Pool condensed through the accumulation and merging of Spiritual Drops pretty much decided whether or not junior experts had a shot at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages. And if there was one thing that talent—no matter how high—couldn't defeat, it was a shallow foundation.
For that reason, elders of the cultivation world paid close attention to their young and rash juniors' Foundation Building—never allowing them to cross that threshold unsupervised. And to make sure that their juniors knew what to aim for, they divided the Qi Pool into four tiers: Shallow, Regular, Profound and Heavenly.
Anything below 10 square meters fell into the shallow category. Ten to fifty gave you a Regular Foundation. Fifty to one-hundred brought the cultivator a Profound Foundation, and everything above 100 belonged to the Heavenly Foundation category. But even then, in Dongli history, not a single Qi Pool had exceeded the 300 square meters mark. Even Yanzhou at large had never produced a chosen capable of crossing the 500 mark. But Xinzi? No need to mention square meters, the brat's Qi Pool piled up hundreds of square kilometers, more than enough to cover large cities and blot out the sun.
"How is this a pool? Not human! You…are not human!" Yan Le's husband despaired, his voice and courage broke, and sweat trickled down his cheeks. He wasn't the only one. Before this limitless foundation, from the lowest of elders to Zi Yao, Guang Fanghu and even Hanxing in seclusion, all senior experts clutched at their chests—suffocating underneath this boundless sea. Size, depth and quality had all reached levels that they couldn't make sense of, and the Nascent Souls could see that with that foundation alone, Xinzi could beat anyone below the late-stage of the Golden Core realm like raggedy dogs.
"Naturally. I am a God, not a man—well, sort of." Xinzi cracked his neck and said in a jesting tone. In any other circumstance, none would take such words seriously. But as they confronted our monk's Qi Pool—no—Qi Ocean, all had the firm belief that humans couldn't accomplish such a feat. Waves of conjectures set the White Immortal sect ablaze. Our monk didn't care for these and snapped his fingers.
Squalls of radiant runes materialized around Xinzi, the Five Elements Transmutative Technique kicked in, surging alongside his Five Elements Qi to turn the runes into three Transmutative Array Circles. The three array circles rotated by Xinzi's size, setting up an energy field that the White Immortal sect elders recognized instantly:
"A third-layer Qi Absorbing Array? He's a profound-grade Formation Master already?" Her mind reeling, Zi Yao lurched back. From top to bottom, the White Immortal sect only had 18 profound-grade Formation Masters, and in Dongli, that was already a mind-boggling feat. But now, an 18 years old Lianist Monk had not only built a mythical foundation but also reached the profound grade. Worse, as ludicrous as this sounded, Xinzi seemed capable to cast his formations like spells, without any of the materials or layer arrangements that made other formation masters waste so much time.
Guang Fanghu, and other Nascent Soul elders that watched this scene, didn't fare better. Some gnawed their lips, others bit their hands, more fell on their rears, and all firmly believed that, for Xinzi to accomplish all this at such a tender age, an unfathomable faction had to stand at his back. The Eastern Imperial clan? No…perhaps even the Taiyang clan!
Xinzi's Qi Absorbing Array kicked in, draining all the Qi that the disciples and rebellious elders had to offer. Their shuddering bodies fell limp, but for the elders, the nightmare only began here. Again, our monk snapped his fingers. Multicolored chains flew out of the Transmutative Array Circles, bypassing the three elders' flesh to latch on their golden cores?
"What is this? No! Don't…don't!" Yan Le's husband's eyes stretched to their limits, horrid grimaces took hold of his face, and in desperation, he clawed at the chains—all three elders did—but to no avail.
"The Golden Lotus be praised. I understand that you miss your wife. But like I said, Yan Le is dead. Since you want me to reunite you so badly, as a monk, I have no choice but to oblige," Xinzi said, and ignoring the elders' screams of grief, made a grasping motion.
"Abbot Xinzi, I had eyes…ey…" They wouldn't have time to finish their plea. The chains pulled out their golden cores, drawing all three lustrous orbs into Xinzi's storage ring. The three elders' Dao Foundation collapsed, their internal organs spiraled out of control, with blood gushing out of their orifices. Turned mortals in such an abrupt fashion, the aging bodies couldn't endure the move and fell flat on the ground—eyes still open in death.
"I call it the Core Stealing Array. In the future, I hope I will not have to use it on fellow White Immortal sect disciples. With that said…I do feel bad for monopolizing so much of your partners' attention. Let me give you all new partners to make up for it." Xinzi's leisurely tone didn't match his actions, making the inner and elite disciples flounder in sheer terror. All tried to run, but pinned down by our monk's cultivation base, they couldn't avoid his "grace."
"Impious monk, halt!" It was one thing to lose three aging Golden Cores with exhausted potential, another to have 120 inner and elites fall overnight. Guang Fanghu and Zi Yao reacted almost simultaneously, but still came a step short.
"May All Living Things Enjoy Eternal Bliss." Our monk's lips curled into a warm smile, golden light flashed by the disciples' faces, and their eyes glazed over. Mesmerizing religious chants pervaded the air, echoing alongside the virtual images of gilded idols. Lotuses bloomed across the land, and in tandem, the 120 male disciples stood up—their faces stretched by silly grins. Uninterested in the upcoming spectacle, Xinzi walked past them.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" The disciples cackled like mad, tossed their daoist robes into the air, and leaped onto one another. What happened there would become a lasting stain in the White Immortal sect's history. The elders tried to end the crude orgy but were almost dragged into it by their insatiable disciples.
Some tried to put the disciples in chains but realized that they were willing to break arms and legs to keep the "party" going. Hours passed before exhaustion brought the disciples down. And again, Xinzi's name shook Dongli.
Some speculated that the young abbot had also risen to Eminent Monk status, and in Dongli homes, a new saying gained traction: "Offend a monk, and your butthole will not survive it."
At the same time, the destruction of the Thousand Roads mountain reached the White Immortal sect's ears. Disciples of the Foreign Affairs hall left to investigate the event but returned terror-struck by the thick scent of demonic energies.
The news put Zi Yao on maximum alert, forcing her to make the White Immortal sect go through a complete overhaul. Xinzi's promotion to named elder status came swiftly—the first in a series of moves meant to avert a calamity.
Our monk's name became a symbol of terror, and his legend began.