“Finally, I can have a truly safe environment to cultivate and farm!”
Qi Ping had been looking forward to this day for a long time!
Only after experiencing days filled with constant worry about his secrets being discovered and the fear of unpredictable dangers could one understand the value of a stable farming environment.
Now, Qi Ping could finally plant various precious spirit herbs without fear of discovery. There was no longer a need to hurriedly gather up all the herbs at the slightest disturbance.
“This is just the beginning; it’s still a long way from being truly built up!”
With a stable environment for cultivation and herb nurturing, Qi Ping devoted himself even more intently to his research in the following days.
For Qi Ping now, a space of one hundred square meters was far too small. The top priority was to quickly upgrade the illusion formation to cover a larger area.
After planting all the spirit herbs he had on him, and with the little spirit fox and flower sprite working together to build the small wooden cabin, the remaining space within the illusion formation had become very cramped. Moving around felt quite oppressive, and even a few actions felt inconvenient.
However, this situation didn’t last long. After spending another month and a half, Qi Ping finally successfully researched a first-grade intermediate illusion formation.
Through Qi Ping’s efforts, and fueled by his abundant spiritual power and soul force, a formation far larger than the first-grade basic one rose from the ground!
“Intermediate Illusion Formation! Success!”
Looking at this formation, which was more than ten times larger than the previous one, Qi Ping felt an immense sense of satisfaction!
Nearly two thousand square meters!
The area had increased almost twentyfold!
While this area wasn’t particularly vast, compared to the original hundred-square-meter illusion formation, it was now abundantly spacious.
What followed was straightforward.
Clearing rocks, moving soil…
Although a bit troublesome, Qi Ping found it quite enjoyable.
For a cultivator with a storage pouch and spiritual power, such tasks weren’t difficult. For Qi Ping, now at the ninth level of Qi Refinement, handling this ordinary infrastructure work was exceedingly simple.
Having been cooped up for so long, the little spirit fox and flower sprite could finally go all out. They brought many flowers, plants, and fruit trees into the illusion formation. Several pretty little wooden cabins were also quickly expanded and renovated.
As days passed, most of the area within the illusion formation was covered by a thick layer of black soil, and the planted spirit herbs grew increasingly lush and vibrant.
With Qi Ping now cultivating nearly twenty different types of spirit herbs—such as Blood Ginseng, Fire Spirit Grass, Fire Spirit Fruit, Flowing Light Grass, and other extraordinary varieties—his territory began to look remarkably rich in spiritual energy.
The concentration of spiritual energy in the air and the fragrance of the various spirit herbs also grew stronger.
Combined with the decorations arranged by the flower sprite and little spirit fox, and the busy scene of bees buzzing about, it began to take on the appearance of a nascent utopia, a world apart. Compared to the previous barren expanse of rocks, the improvement was simply immense.
The feeling of gradually building up his own territory was incredibly satisfying for Qi Ping.
In his previous life, Qi Ping occasionally played management and territory-building games, but the limitations of games were far too great, nowhere near as free as building here.
With the resources of the cultivation world at his disposal, Qi Ping was confident he could build the most perfect territory.
Moreover, building his territory here meant no rent to pay, no taxes to hand over, and no one else’s rules to follow—this sense of complete ownership was something hard to find elsewhere.
Only two areas posed significant challenges for Qi Ping.
The first was formation construction.
To properly protect this place, he had to rely heavily on formations to conceal and defend his territory. This required him to achieve extremely high proficiency in formations.
Otherwise, after building his territory and cultivating various precious spirit herbs and resource-producing spirit trees, it would all become someone else’s harvest. That would be the worst outcome.
Fortunately, his current talent in formations wasn’t bad. Moreover, after studying formations for so long, Qi Ping had genuinely developed a heartfelt fondness for the art of formations.
The other challenge was the creation of spirit lands.
This was the biggest difficulty Qi Ping faced in building his exclusive territory.
“Currently, I still have four Spirit Origin Stone Pillars. The spiritual energy they generate should be enough for me until the early Foundation Establishment stage, possibly even sufficient into the mid Foundation Establishment stage.”
“It’s just that this spiritual energy can only meet the cultivation needs for myself and my animal companions. It’s far from enough for planting other things. I must find a way to create more spirit lands at a low cost!”
However, Qi Ping wasn’t overly anxious about this. These matters could wait until after Foundation Establishment.
With the strength of Foundation Establishment and after evolving the bee colony to the second rank, his ability to protect himself would improve significantly. Then he would be more confident in undertaking these tasks.
With Foundation Establishment strength and a second-rank bee colony as his safety net, many future endeavors would be much safer. These included returning to the mortal world to find Old Man Zhou, searching for a fifth animal companion, obtaining the spirit herbs needed for Foundation Establishment cultivation, purchasing seeds for productive spirit trees, and gathering materials needed to create spirit fields.
After completing the intermediate illusion formation and establishing the spirit fields, Qi Ping gradually settled into a steady routine.
The intermediate illusion formation was fully capable of hiding Qi Ping’s presence here.
In the following time, Qi Ping focused on studying formations, nurturing spirit herbs, and steadily working to cultivate his realm to the peak of Qi Refinement.
Once he reached the peak of Qi Refinement, Qi Ping could attempt his breakthrough to Foundation Establishment.
Therefore, Qi Ping planned that, until his breakthrough, aside from selling honey and asking Meng Yan to help him find a Foundation Establishment technique and related knowledge, he would temporarily refrain from venturing out.
If it weren’t for the need to earn spirit stones to purchase the Foundation Establishment technique before breaking through, Qi Ping would have considered simply cultivating here until Foundation Establishment.
After all, he had not only comprehended the True Intent of Fire but also gained insight into the state of the Dao Heart. For him, reaching Foundation Establishment was already a near certainty.
After cultivating peacefully for two or three months like this, Qi Ping learned something rather shocking from Meng Yan.
In a corner of Blackrock County, Meng Yan stood before Qi Ping, his face somewhat pale, his aura fluctuating unsteadily—clearly, he had suffered significant injuries.
Even more surprising was that Meng Yan’s aura had unmistakably reached the Foundation Establishment level!
“Brother Qi, on the Foundation Establishment battlefield in Blackrock County, the Qingyuan Sect suffered a major defeat… My master has already ordered me to withdraw from here immediately!” Meng Yan’s tone was full of helplessness.
Because Qi Ping’s strength was still at Qi Refinement, Meng Yan hadn’t involved him in the recent battles.
“The Qingyuan Sect was defeated?” Hearing this, Qi Ping’s heart shook slightly.
After all, in his perception, the Qingyuan Sect had always been an immovable behemoth. Previously, they had maintained an advantage in Blackrock County, with members of other sects suffering repeated setbacks here.
He never expected that in less than half a year, the Qingyuan Sect could be defeated so thoroughly here!
However, Qi Ping was more concerned about Meng Yan’s injuries, so he immediately asked:
“Brother Meng, how are your injuries?”
“No life-threatening wounds, just some weakness. No need to worry!” Meng Yan replied with a smile.
These injuries would mostly heal within a few days.
“This is the Foundation Establishment technique you asked me to find, along with some experience on breaking through to Foundation Establishment. I’ve also recorded some of my own insights from my breakthrough onto this jade slip…”
As he spoke, Meng Yan handed over a jade slip and several ancient texts.
On the topmost ancient text, three powerful, vigorous characters were engraved: “Golden Flame Art”!
