"Mi... Changshou, these Spirit Stones are the reward for escorting the Exceptional Spirit Root, alongside your monthly stipend for the past two months."

Li Daotu smiled, producing fourteen Spirit Stones.

Xu Changshou's current monthly stipend as a Miscellaneous Disciple was a mere one Spirit Stone and sixty shattered fragments. The accumulated total should have been three Spirit Stones and twenty fragments. Li Daotu had given him four whole stones, rounding up generously.

Yet, Xu Changshou feigned dissatisfaction. Knitting his brows, he grumbled, "My future cultivation will require a mountain of resources. What am I supposed to do with this pittance?"

"Ah... hehe!"

Li Daotu was not angered; rather, he chuckled indulgently. With a grand sweep of his sleeve, a cascade of one hundred Spirit Stones materialized. "Is this sufficient?"

"That is more like it."

Xu Changshou was secretly ecstatic. Damn it all, with this convenient Foundation Establishment father, I'm practically a cultivation scion now! Whenever my pockets run dry, I'll just bleed Li Daotu.

"Furthermore, I intend to reach Foundation Establishment. You must prepare a Foundation Establishment Pill for me."

Xu Changshou pressed his advantage, demanding the moon like a spoiled scion.

"What?"

Li Daotu's brows locked together. "Even now, you still dream of Foundation Establishment? Securing a second lease on life was already a heaven-defying fortune. Were it not for a myriad of coincidences..."

Xu Changshou coldly cut him off. "I must reach Foundation Establishment. This time, I possess absolute certainty."

Li Daotu narrowed his eyes, probing, "Are you truly that certain?"

"I am!"

"Very well. I shall exhaust my means to gather the spiritual herbs required to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill."

"I thank Martial Uncle Li."

"One more matter!"

Xu Changshou added abruptly, "I require half a year in Secluded Cultivation to stabilize my soul. I fear I cannot fulfill my Sect talisman quotas during this period."

"Hmm. I will devise a solution for you."

Li Daotu agreed, though his frown deepened.

A dark thrill coursed through Xu Changshou. Since he had inherited such a gullible benefactor, he would wring every last drop of value from this false kinship.

"I am weary. Martial Uncle Li, I shall take my leave."

"Go."

Stepping out of the Patriarch's sanctum, Xu Changshou's mind immediately fell into cold calculation.

Li Daotu had promised to hunt for the alchemical ingredients, yet conspicuously avoided promising the pill itself.

This laid bare a brutal truth: the Foundation Establishment Pill was an incredibly coveted resource. Even a Patriarch like Li Daotu lacked the qualifications to easily procure one.

Therefore, Xu Changshou could not blindly rely on having the pill handed to him. He had to prepare to gather the spiritual materials himself.

Regardless, with Li Daotu absorbing the brunt of the burden, the treacherous path to Foundation Establishment had grown marginally less lethal.

Upon arriving at the Green Immortal Sect, Li Ling'er was not dispatched to Lingxiu Peak, nor did she enter Taiyi Peak. Instead, she remained by Li Daotu's side to cultivate.

Yet, according to the Elder's own admission, even he wielded no authority over her ultimate fate.

The highest echelons of the Sect were already convening to determine the optimal path for the Exceptional Spirit Root.

No matter the outcome, a heaven-defying talent like Li Ling'er was guaranteed the Sect's absolute finest resources.

It would not be long before she transformed into a true dragon soaring above the clouds.

Henceforth, their paths in this cruel cultivation world would likely never cross again.

No matter. My task is complete, and the rewards are reaped.

Returning to his secluded courtyard.

Xu Changshou methodically took stock of his accumulated wealth.

First were the Pseudo-Artifacts.

The Five Clouds Sword, the Crimson Refining Sword, and the Azure Edge Sword.

These three were all formidable Pseudo-Artifacts. Furthermore, he possessed the life-saving jade disc gifted by Li Daotu, capable of unleashing three casual strikes from a Foundation Establishment expert. He had yet to expend a single charge.

Next were his talismans. Ignoring the mundane stock, he only cataloged his premium reserves.

Twelve Earth Stalwart Talismans drafted upon the hide of a Yellow Weasel Demon.

Twelve Flight Talismans and twenty-four Windwalk Talismans, all crafted from the pelt of a One-Horned Cyan Wolf.

One hundred and nineteen Sharp Gold Talismans, carrying the lethal aura of the Ferocious Bull King's hide.

Additionally, he held two hundred and forty prime cuts of Black Antelope Thunder Ox hide, the perfect medium for Thunder Explosion Talismans. However, to harness their violent energy, he still required the horn of a Moon-Gazing Rhinoceros to forge a superior spirit brush.

Finally, the Spirit Stones. Currently, Xu Changshou's spatial reserves held a staggering four hundred and ninety-one Spirit Stones.

Barely two months ago, upon departing the Sect, his net worth had been a mere three hundred and twenty-two.

That initial sum was the bloody culmination of years of miserly hoarding. The additional wealth was harvested entirely from this brief, lethal excursion.

Two months of seeking fated chances in the outside world had eclipsed a full year's Sect stipend.

Yet, transcending the Pseudo-Artifacts, the lethal talismans, and the mountain of Spirit Stones, Xu Changshou's greatest spoil of war was undoubtedly the successful counter-Body Seizing of Li Xiaoming.

Consuming the Evil Spirit had obliterated the Bottlenecks plaguing his Qi Condensation realms, forcibly injecting the profound experience required to tread the path of Foundation Establishment.

For a lowly Miscellaneous Disciple like Xu Changshou, this was a heaven-defying Fated Chance.

Bereft of this encounter, he would have ultimately decayed into dust, forever barred from establishing his Dao Foundation.

His immediate objective was to shatter the barrier to the tenth layer of Qi Condensation, followed swiftly by the eleventh layer.

Reaching the tenth layer would be trivial. He had already touched the ethereal threshold; even without the aid of a Barrier Breaking Pill, a short stint in Secluded Cultivation would ensure a flawless breakthrough.

The eleventh layer, however, was a steeper precipice. He conservatively estimated it would demand two or three years of grueling refinement.

Precision was difficult; having digested Li Xiaoming's spiritual essence, his rate of absorbing Spiritual Qi had vastly outpaced his former meager limits.

As for his mandatory Sect quotas regarding the Windwalk Talisman, he was temporarily unburdened.

Firstly, under the guise of stabilizing his seized vessel, he had squeezed a six-month exemption out of Li Daotu.

Secondly, his Storage Bag still hoarded over five thousand perfectly drafted Windwalk Talismans.

When his exemption expired in six months, he could simply rely on his stockpile. By then, his cultivation would undeniably have stabilized at the tenth layer of Qi Condensation.

Upon Green Ink Peak, a Miscellaneous Disciple at the tenth layer was strictly bound to a monthly tribute of two hundred and eighty talismans.

Crunching the numbers, Xu Changshou realized his reserves could sustain his monthly tribute for another two full years.

Thus, for the ensuing two and a half years, the agonizing grind of Sect quotas was utterly irrelevant.

Two and a half years. That would be ample time.

"Secluded Cultivation!"

Activating the defensive Formation around his courtyard, Xu Changshou swallowed a Qi Gathering Pill, shut his eyes, and sank into profound Secluded Cultivation.

Half a month later.

"The tenth layer of Qi Condensation."

Xu Changshou opened his eyes, a predatory smirk curling his lips.

Consuming Li Xiaoming's spirit body had irrevocably transformed him. The Spiritual Qi flowed with unprecedented ferocity, rendering his ascension across minor realms smoother than ever before.

At this terrifying pace, breaching the eleventh layer of Qi Condensation might not even require two and a half years.

He was currently twenty-one. In two years' time, he would be twenty-three.

By that brutal calculus, achieving Qi Condensation Grand Perfection before the age of thirty was entirely within his grasp. He could touch the threshold of Foundation Establishment while his vitality was still peaking.

Provided he secured a Foundation Establishment Pill and solidified his Grand Perfection before thirty, his success was virtually guaranteed.

In the cultivation world, striving for the Foundation Establishment realm past the age of thirty was a fool's errand.

In his past estimations, Xu Changshou believed he was doomed to hit that peak only in his twilight years. Now, his destiny had violently shifted.

Difficult at thirty, utterly hopeless at fifty.

Attempting the breakthrough before his thirtieth winter was now a tangible reality.

Moreover, he held a trump card: the stolen memory of a failed Foundation Establishment attempt, acting as a bloody map of what pitfalls to avoid.

Calculating the myriad variables, Xu Changshou realized only a single Foundation Establishment Pill stood between him and the heavens.

Furthermore, after a half-month of ruthless refinement, he had entirely digested the remnant dregs of Li Xiaoming's soul.

In doing so, he had awakened a terrifying ability unique to him alone: the flawless manifestation of two distinct soul signatures.

This was no mere mimicry of facial expressions; it was the fundamental aura radiated by a cultivator's very soul.

Just as mortal flesh bore unique scars and bone structures, every soul possessed an irreplicable resonance.

Cultivators intimately familiar with one another could easily sweep an area with Divine Sense and identify a peer solely by this resonance, long before sighting their physical silhouette.

Such recognition stemmed from an intimate familiarity with the intrinsic vibrations of their Dao.