Song Changsheng was never one to settle for mediocrity. As a transmigrator, he carried a sense of pride that was uniquely his own. The Dao Scripture that had come with him into this world was his greatest source of confidence and strength.
He had a far-reaching vision Foundation Establishment was never his end goal. He wanted to go further, to leave behind Lingzhou, even the entire Kingdom of Qi, and one day stand toe-to-toe with the disciples of the great sects.
To achieve that, he needed to lay the most solid foundation possible. Only with a stable base could a tower reach the skies.
In the path of cultivation, although one's life form changes from the very first step of drawing in spiritual energy, that was merely scratching the surface.
Only upon reaching Foundation Establishment could one truly be said to have embarked on the path toward immortality only then could one be called a cultivator.
As the name implies, Foundation Establishment is all about building one's base. The higher the quality of the Dao Foundation, the greater the potential for future advancement.
It was said that the clan's patriarch, Song Taiyi, had formed a Windwalk Dao Foundation back when he reached the peak of Qi Refining. This was formed by absorbing the essence of the northern winds, matching his spiritual root attributes.
This was a type of attribute-based Dao Foundation, and with it, Song Taiyi's lightning-fast sword techniques became famous throughout the entire cultivation world of Great Qi. Many tales circulated of him defeating the strong while being the weaker party.
If Dao Foundations were to be ranked into three tiers low, medium, and high, then a non-attribute Dao Foundation would be considered low-tier. This was because cultivators who formed such foundations typically couldn't comprehend a true intent upon breaking through, putting them at a natural disadvantage in combat and making future advancement to the Purple Mansion Realm significantly harder.
Song Taiyi's attribute Dao Foundation was a mid-tier one. Those who could form such a foundation were all gifted talents, and upon reaching Foundation Establishment, they could grasp a true intent aligned with their spiritual root greatly enhancing their combat power and aiding their breakthrough to the Purple Mansion Realm.
But above that, at the pinnacle, lay the Great Dao Foundations those derived from the Three Thousand Great Daos. Among a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators, perhaps not even one could form such a Dao Foundation. Calling them "as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns" might be an exaggeration, but not by much.
Upon forming a Great Dao Foundation, one could instantly comprehend the Dao Law of one of the Three Thousand Great Daos during their breakthrough for example, the Intent of Slaughter, Intent of Fate, and so on. The profundity of these truths was beyond what could be expressed in words.
Song Changsheng's goal was precisely to form the Yin-Yang Dao Foundation, one of the Great Daos.
Due to the unique nature of his cultivation method, he could absorb both the essence of the sun and the radiance of the moon one yang, one yin. This was one of the established ways to form a Yin-Yang Dao Foundation, and for him, it was relatively straightforward.
All he needed to do was operate his cultivation technique at specific times each day, and the essence of the sun and moon would naturally flow into his dantian to help condense his Dao Foundation.
For most others, however, without such a special technique, obtaining the yin and yang energies would be nearly impossible. Even with help from senior family members, it would still be an enormous challenge. For disciples of minor sects, it was likely they could spend their entire lives without ever forming a Dao Foundation.
This was why, in this world, it was incredibly difficult for low-born cultivators to rise. Song Changsheng was simply a fortunate exception, not a repeatable example.
"Whew..."
After finishing his morning cultivation under the rising sun, Song Changsheng "looked" inward at the Dao Foundation forming within his dantian. Seeing its contours already taking shape, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Although it was still far from fully condensed, he was already quite content. After all, this pace was already exceptionally fast.
"It's time to visit Uncle Wu. That batch of artifact refining materials should be ready by now," Song Changsheng murmured as he stood up and ended his cultivation.
A few months earlier, he had submitted a request to Song Luzhou for a batch of top-grade tier-one and low-grade tier-two artifact refining materials to improve his crafting skills.
However, tier-two materials were rare and scarce, even within the clan's reserves. Song Luzhou had needed time to gather them, and by now, the timing should be about right.
When Song Changsheng strolled over to the Hall of Arts, he found Song Luzhou already waiting in the stone pavilion outside.
"Greetings, Uncle Wu," Song Changsheng greeted respectfully and meticulously.
"Here. The materials you wanted," Song Luzhou said tersely, nodding once and placing a storage pouch in front of him.
Though he tried to appear calm, Song Changsheng still caught a flicker of heartache on his face.
Song Changsheng chuckled to himself. His Uncle Wu was notoriously stingy an iron rooster who wouldn't part with a feather. And yet he managed the clan's entire treasury. Normally, trying to squeeze even a single item out of him was like snatching food from a tiger's mouth.
For him to fork over such a large batch of high-quality materials just for practice it must have felt like cutting flesh from his own body.
If it weren't for Song Changsheng's special status as a Purple Mansion seed, he probably wouldn't have managed to wrest these materials from this miser at all.
Opening the pouch and glancing inside, Song Changsheng frowned slightly. "Uncle Wu, why are there only twenty portions of low-grade tier-two materials? That's way less than I expected."
It would've been better if he had said nothing just one sentence, and Song Luzhou nearly exploded on the spot. He jabbed a chubby finger at Song Changsheng and bellowed like a wrathful guardian deity:
"Only twenty portions? What do you think this is, cabbage?! Do you have any idea what these are worth? If I gave these to your Uncle Sixty-One, he could forge five low-grade tier-two artifacts from them! Do you know how much that's worth?! And will you even get one finished product out of these? You don't feel the pain when you're spending someone else's silver!"
Song Changsheng immediately protested, "Uncle Wu, can't you see? If I break through and become a tier-two artifact master, I'll be able to contribute far more to the clan!"
Song Luzhou didn't reply. He just glared at him with puffed cheeks, as if Song Changsheng had committed some unforgivable crime.
"Alright, alright! You might as well hatch spirit stones instead of eggs," Song Changsheng muttered, quickly picking up the storage pouch, giving a respectful bow, and making a hasty retreat worried Song Luzhou might change his mind.
Watching his nephew's retreating, Song Luzhou couldn't help but let a smile creep onto his face. "That brat… he dares mock me now."
But in the next moment, that smile faded into a bitter expression.
As an alchemist himself, he knew full well that improving artifact crafting required burning through vast quantities of materials for practice.
He genuinely wanted to support Song Changsheng more, but the clan's current finances were a mess. They had all but emptied their coffers to purchase Foundation Establishment pills from the main family.
If he hadn't been pinching every copper coin, scraping and saving from every corner, he wouldn't have been able to cobble together even these twenty sets.
"I hope you can give this old man one more surprise," Song Luzhou murmured, then turned and slowly walked into the main hall, settling back into his usual lounge chair tucked in the corner…
.....
Back in his courtyard, Song Changsheng immediately began refining artifacts to improve his skill.
Although artifact crafting wasn't something that would improve just by doing it repeatedly, without practice, there would be no improvement at all.
While tier-two materials were limited, there were plenty of top-grade tier-one materials a full fifty sets. By all accounts, Song Luzhou had gone all in this time.
Time passed swiftly amid busy work. In the blink of an eye, half a year went by.
Song Changsheng's artifact crafting skill was now on the verge of breaking into tier two, yet that final step eluded him.
He had attempted to refine five tier-two low-grade artifacts and failed every single time…
-support me in Patreon for more chapter, 95+ chapters in there
patreon.com/LordoftheReader