Central Heaven Region, Heaven Continent
On Caimen Peak, a mountain where the outer disciples of the Buzhou Immortal Sect resided, stood two figures. Both of them wore the customary white clothing of disciples.
"Hmpf, don't get too proud Xi Tianyi. Didn't you reach the Foundation Establishment realm just because you have a good mother?" The speaker was a youth, his tan skin taut with bulging muscles.
"Indeed, I admit it. I'm very lucky to have such a mother that at the young age of ten I reached the Foundation Establishment realm." The voice was quite high, as expected of a child. Xi Tianyi looked at the blue edged white mantle that covered his purple robes as he rubbed the soft fabric, smooth and silky with spells woven into it before turning his eyes upon the youth. "What about it, should I bemoan the fact that I had a good birth?"
The youth was visibly stunned before rage colored his face. "Xi Tianyi, if you have the guts, disperse your cultivation and see if you can reach Foundation Establishment realm in five years again!"
Tianyi looked at him as if he was an idiot. "Why would I even do that? Taking shortcuts is detrimental to your cultivation, but I've cultivated diligently without taking shortcuts. So why should I disperse my cultivation to entertain your fanciful delusion of competition?"
"You just don't dare! In your heart you know that without your mother, you are nothing." The youth sneered, his eyes stabbing into Tianyi's defensive silk clothing.
Tianyi frowned, his jade like skin stretching from his action. "At the very least at this moment I'm at a higher realm than you. Besides, I'm only ten years old, don't you feel ashamed for trying to manipulate me just because you think I'm easy to provoke?"
"Age has nothing to do with it!" The youth's face reddened even more. "In this world those with strength are respected, nothing else matters!"
Tianyi nodded in agreement. "I agree. So as your elder in the Foundation Establishment realm, I will warn you. As a puny seventh level Qi Gathering realm disciple, don't go provoking people just because of your personal reasons. You'll die very quickly."
Gnashing teeth could be heard as Tianyi turned around to leave. "Hold it right there!" The youth practically screamed as he reared his fist back and launched himself at Tianyi.
However, just as he was about to reach Tianyi, spiritual pressure began to press down upon him and causing him to fall onto all fours. The youth's heart desperately pumped his blood that had slowed down like glue. "Have you gone insane? You aren't even at the twelfth stage of the Qi Gathering realm and yet you dare to attack a Foundation Establishment cultivator? I'll let it slide this time, but next time your target may not be so merciful." Saying those words, Tianyi continued to walk away, leaving the sweat-drenched youth to his own thoughts.
"Senior brother are you alright?" A girl near the youth's age walked up with a flower like smile and asked in concern.
Tianyi spared her a glance. "This big sister, that youth is your childhood sweetheart or something similar, right?"
The girl froze as an awkward smile arose. "This"
"It does not matter, but rather than being concerned about me. You should pay attention to him, I think he is very concerned about you." Tianyi continued on his way, qi circulated in his body as his body turned into a blur to the outer and inner disciples of the Buzhou Immortal Sect that were still in their Qi Gathering realm.
Once he was at the foot of Caimen Peak, Tianyi injected qi into the short sword on his waist with several hand signs. The sword flew out and hovered in front of him, and with a light jump, Tianyi stepped onto the flying sword and flew into the air.
The journey was long as he flew past the numerous other mountains and even met a few other members of the Buzhou Immortal Sect, who he nodded respectfully or saluted, until he arrived at a mountain full of trees whose color resembled that of jade. Tianyi returned to his own estate on the mountain.
"Godammit, I wanted to clear my heart after being cooped up so long. But then I had to meet those idiots. Arghhh!" Tianyi let out a low scream of frustration with none of the calm and collective bearing he had before.
A chuckle was heard as a white-robed elder with ruddy skin like that of an infant's and a long white beard walked forward. "Tianyi, did someone make you angry again?"
"Don't even mention it, Elder Shan." Tianyi sighed as he sat down. The white robed elder sat down next to the young child whose feet dangled in the air.
"Hahaha, why don't you go play with the other young children of the elders? I'm sure Grand Elder Xi won't mind." Elder Shan suggested.
"Don't want to. They are little devils, and everything they want to do is nonsensical and immature." Tianyi immediately rejected the suggestion with a pout.
"Then what about the older ones?" Elder Shan tried again.
Tianyi rolled his eyes. "They're even worse. One, they don't think too highly of my age or are jealous of my cultivation. Or two, they are just silkpants who do nothing but drown themselves in pleasure." Elder Shan smiled as he reached his hand out to rub Tianyi's head. Tianyi dodged.
"Don't, you'll mess up the coronet on my head."
"How about this? I'm going out of the sect to visit an old friend in the northern part of the Heaven Continent, how about you join me?" Tianyi's eyes shined at the suggestion and a sheepish smile appeared as he gave the Elder a glance.
"I'll go ask your mother for you." Elder Shan chuckled.
Tianyi let out a pleased smile. After talking for a few more moments, Elder Shan excused himself, leaving Tianyi alone. Aside from a few elders and his mother, there wasn't another disciple on Jade Peak. Luckily for Tianyi, aside from some menial chores, his home was a mansion that was loaded with spells that kept it clean without needing him to do anything.
Tianyi stood up and wiped the imaginary dust off of his robes before he walked towards the pond inside his estate. It was surrounded by vibrant green grass and the water was perfectly clear with no murkiness. One could easily mistake the pond to be filled with air without the occasional glint of light reflecting off of it. And in the center was a giant lotus, easily able to fit one grown man.
With a leap, Tianyi landed onto the lotus and sat down. Being born as the son of an immortal is great and all, but it's just so boring. No novels, games, or internet, but at least I don't have to suffer like most protagonists do. Something like getting your fiance stolen or being robbed of your foundation or even having your whole clan exterminated. Actually a fiance leaving you for another man would probably be the most humiliating for a man…
With a shake of his head to cast his miscellaneous thoughts aside, Tianyi closed his eyes. Tianyi started to cultivate the Three Pure True Self Visualization technique that he had acquired when he was reborn here. It was his secret. The golden finger that would allow him to achieve the pinnacle of this world.
Tianyi sank his senses deep inside mind, his inner world. Within this inner world of his existed three figures, with two of them blurry. The middle figure was a man that resembled an aged version of himself with handsome features, a stern and noble disposition with a gold coronet atop his head and silky black hair that reached his waist and black imperial robes with five clawed gold dragons embroidered onto it, an emperor. But he had no breath or qi and felt more like a sculpture made of stone with only the tiniest hint of color.
Surrounding the three figures were endless grey clouds obscuring everything, allowing only the tiniest hint of starlight to shine through. Tianyi could not peer out of them, and even the occasional observation would cause his mind to be fatigued if he strained his sight on it for too long.
Tianyi began to circulate the visualization technique and the chaotic clouds began to turn into multicolored particles before streaming towards the three figures, with most of the particles being funneled towards the emperor. With each passing moment, the small space increased in size. But the three figures remained unchanged. No matter how hard Tianyi had circulated the scripture, only distance of the cloud changed due to being absorb by the three figures.
It wasn't until five years ago when he received the Primordial Heavenly Scripture cultivation technique that the middle figure had been chiseled into what it was now today. Allowing his thoughts to wander, Tianyi began to recollect his previous life.
He dared not think outside of this space that was impervious to most scanning techniques of cultivators. His mother could easily read his surface thoughts, something that scared him to no end. But he was just a normal person back on Earth, a man who hadn't even finished college but with a small circle of good friends.
Then one day, boom, he suddenly woke up to see the woman, now known as his mother, holding him. He, however, did not expect her to be flying at the time and let's say an infant's control of their bowels was…not perfect.
He learned as he grew older that there existed many realms and worlds. With such a discovery, he had begun his journey in cultivation to one-day visit Earth once more. There was some obsession in his mind concerning the fate of his parents that would not leave him alone, but as it was now, there was no point in concerning himself over such matters. He was simply not powerful enough.
And also immortality. Being able to live to forever sounded great to Tianyi.
Exiting his mind, Tianyi felt his thoughts become clear, able to think better and faster than before. "Not only that, I can feel my spirit reached the bottleneck of a Spiritual Crucible Foundation Establishment realm cultivator. With my current spiritual sense I can probably daze those at the Spiritual Pillar and Spiritual Altar Foundation Establishment realm cultivator with a spiritual sense technique."
That's right, a visualization technique was something that could strengthen the mental energy of a cultivator, and the highest grade of visualization technique can even increase the strength of one's soul. To a cultivator the soul was very important as it was the foundation of one's existence, without a sufficiently powerful soul they could not control the massive spiritual qi within or reach the next realm.
Tianyi stopped focusing on the what he gained from the visualization technique this time and instead allowed the spiritual qi in the environment to enter his body. His previous cultivation of the visualization technique did not cause any fatigue to accumulate inside of him and instead revitalized him, like getting into a high state. Not that Tianyi had experience with such a state in his previous life.
After one opens all twelve meridians in the Qi Gathering realm they link their meridians to form a Qi circulatory system. In order to break through into the Foundation Establishment realm, one must open up their dantian and form their spiritual sea inside. It wasn't well known but aside from the twelve ordinary meridians correlating to the twelve stages of the Qi Gathering realm, there also existed Eight Extraordinary Meridians that most cultivators did not unlock but once one did so their potential would increase several folds.
Tianyi, as the son of the Immortal Sword Empress, naturally had the resources and tutelage to unlock all twenty meridians, otherwise he would have reached Foundation Establishment realm sooner.
And in the Foundation Establishment realm, there are three stages: the Spiritual Pillar Formation, Spiritual Altar Formation, and finally the Spiritual Crucible Formation. And when the embryonic core forms inside the crucible, one becomes a peak Foundation Establishment realm cultivator.
From then on a cultivator would form their Spiritual Core, resulting in them stepping into the Core Formation realm. From Core Formation is the Nascent Soul Realm, from Nascent Soul to the Unity Realm, and from Unity to Transcending Mortality realm, the final realm before ascending to the Immortal Realm.
Tianyi had just entered the Foundation Establishment stage and as such had spent some time to stabilize his cultivation. And now he was using the spiritual qi inside of him to form his spiritual pillars.
The spiritual qi sea within his dantian rippled as nine points formed inside his dantian. One large point in the center with eight smaller points around it, all distanced equally. Those points devoured the qi within his spiritual sea until it was dried and when he was low on qi, he would absorb the qi outside of his body in the Jade Lotus Clear Pond his mother had arranged for him.
The Jade Lotus Clear Pond was a formation created from the Jade Clear Spring Water, Immortal Lotus Seat, and numerous other small treasures. The formation calmed the cultivator's mind and soul to allow them to have clear thoughts during cultivation and accumulated purified qi for them to absorb. It wasn't an injustice to say that without the Jade Lotus Clear Pond, he would not have entered the Foundation Establishment realm in five years and at ten years of age.
Tianyi opened his eyes with a slight smile on his lips, the skeleton of the foundation of his spiritual pillar having been formed.