The news that the Foundation Establishment candidate had been chosen quickly spread across Emerald Maple Mountain. Gu Shiwen was naturally overjoyed to learn he was the one selected by the clan, while the others harbored a mix of envy and jealousy.

Everyone hoped to obtain the pill and reach Foundation Establishment. Success would raise their standing in the clan and allow them to live for three hundred years. Who could resist that?

Gu Shiwen paid no mind to what others thought. He laughed aloud in his courtyard, having cultivated day and night without even starting a family, all for this very moment. His efforts had finally yielded a return!

Having stayed at the Qi Condensation Ninth Layer for several years, his spiritual power was refined and far more robust than that of ordinary peers, yet he remained cautious.

First, he borrowed the clan predecessors' accounts of their Foundation Establishment attempts from the Scripture Pavilion. Even the records of failed attempts he read several times.

He then exchanged Clan Contribution Points for a Meridian-Protecting Pill. Fully prepared, he chose an auspicious day, bathed, changed into clean clothes, burned incense, offered prayers, and entered secluded cultivation.

Gu Wanchang had personally handed him the Foundation Establishment Pill beforehand.

The cave dwelling used for the breakthrough was specially constructed by the Gu Clan above a spiritual spring.

The spring supplied abundant third-tier middle grade water-attribute Spiritual Qi. Since water was his main spirit root, breaking through there would improve his chances.

Once he entered, the dwelling's Formation sealed shut, with Gu Wanhao remaining outside as his Dharma Protector.

A breakthrough could take just a few days, though cultivators with weakening blood and qi might need more than a month. Gu Shiwen was in his prime, so news should come within days.

Meanwhile, Gu Changhuan had finally found a cultivation technique suited for his Five Spirit Roots.

Called the Chaos Myriad Spirits Art, it was a suspected Immortal Realm technique obtained by Zhenlingzi in a secret realm.

It required all five elemental spirit roots, each measuring at least seven cun. The more evenly balanced they were, the better.

Any method Zhenlingzi had kept was bound to be exceptional. This one extended to late Great Ascension and was even somewhat more powerful than his own Nine Firmament Thunder Art.

Yet...

Gu Changhuan rubbed the jade slip. The technique required an immense variety of spiritual materials, consuming resources several times greater than ordinary methods!

And yet its secret techniques—Primordial Chaos Escape, Blood-Ignition Transformation, and Chaos Shackles—were all exceptionally powerful.

He found himself torn between coveting the sheer strength of the technique and hesitating over the astronomical cost.

After wrestling with the decision, he resolved to keep it as a backup while checking if Zhenlingzi's ring held any other five-element techniques.

To his disappointment, the Chaos Myriad Spirits Art was the sole five-element manual inside.

With no other choice, he weighed his options carefully.

He possessed the Tongxian Map and a considerable store of High-Grade Spirit Stones; exploring more secret realms in the future should secure the necessary materials.

With that thought, he made his final decision: he would practice the Chaos Myriad Spirits Art!

He did not begin immediately, however, as he had yet to finish organizing Zhenlingzi's journals.

Gu Changhuan had to complain about one thing: for a Great Ascension cultivator and pillar of humanity, Zhenlingzi had kept an astonishingly untidy ring. When Gu Changhuan first opened it, treasures lay in heaps and jade slips were strewn everywhere. Only a few jade boxes were neatly arranged on shelves, and he could not open the restrictions sealing them.

Zhenlingzi's journals were priceless treasures, often recording profound insights and secret arts that proved immensely valuable.

While reading through them that day, Gu Changhuan suddenly sprang to his feet, pulling a millstone-like object from the ring.

He had found it before: a seventh-tier low grade object whose appearance gave no clue to its use. He had put it back in the ring. Now the journal supplied its name—the Spirit-Tempering Disc.

Zhenlingzi had taken it from a member of another race he had killed. It was not a weapon, but an extraordinary aid: it removed impurities from a cultivator's body and Spiritual Power, and could even purify spirit objects.

It worked only on cultivators and spirit objects below the seventh tier. Zhenlingzi had already reached Body Integration when he obtained it, so it was of no use to him. Still, he had found it interesting enough to keep.

If the journal was correct, Gu Changhuan would no longer need to worry about Pill Toxin accumulating from Spirit Pills or impurities destabilizing his cultivation!

Fortunately, the disc needed no cultivator to power it. Pressing the activation mechanism on its side was enough.

Eager to test it, Gu Changhuan started the disc and seated himself upon it.

The disc slowly began to turn. After half a quarter-hour, he noticed something strange.

Another half a quarter-hour passed. Gu Changhuan sat pale and sweating on the disc, unable to resist wiping his brow.

The journal had failed to mention that the process would be this agonizing!

A fine, piercing pain seemed to originate deep within his bones, akin to an intensified flare-up of gout.

As time wore on, the agony intensified despite his efforts to distract himself.

His bones, flesh, and meridians felt like beans being crushed in a mill. The pain clung to him, inescapable.

He clenched his teeth. Sweat dripped from his chin onto his clothes, leaving dark patches.

After another half a quarter-hour, he blacked out, toppled from the disc, and fell to the floor. His cultivation had dropped to the fifth layer of Qi Condensation.