In that small amount of time before Wanluo realized what had happened, Fang Xing had already started dashing towards the Court of Enlightenment. He was afraid this old bastard would chase after him to take him back but, after an hour of flying, the Court of Enlightenment was within reach and there wasn’t any sign of him. Relieved, Fang Xing assumed the old bastard must have just given up and let him be.

　　Although the Court of Enlightenment was called a “court”, it was actually a snowy mountain peak with a large number of caves carved into it. The place was guarded at the foot of the mountain by an old servant whose battle prowess was even greater than the old servant who’d been guarding the Scripture Caves. Fang Xing naturally didn’t dare to be too wild; he stowed away his spirit vessel before landing on the ground and showing the old servant the talisman key. “Wanluo Court disciple Fang Xiao Jiu is here to enter seclusion at the Court of Enlightenment!”

　　The old servant opened his eyes and looked to Fang Xing in surprise. “Why are all of you in such a rush to come out here for seclusion? Are you sure you’ve thoroughly prepared? There is only one chance to enter the Court of Enlightenment—it is a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

　　‘There are others who came here for seclusion as well?’ Fang Xing wondered to himself while replying, “This junior is ready and prepared!”

　　Seeing that Fang Xing was certain, the old servant asked no more. After checking the authenticity of the talisman key, he opened the formation at the foot of the mountain and said, “A-one, A-two, and A-three have all been taken; you can use A-four. Only ten days—appreciate this opportunity well!”

　　Fang Xing excitedly agreed and walked into the depths.

　　After following a small path, Fang Xing found himself in front of a row of caves halfway up the mountain peak. The stone doors were all half closed with the exception of the leftmost three that were completely shut, not allowing even a glimpse of anything inside. Fang Xing didn’t dwell on this and immediately entered the fourth cave that had opened up just for him.

　　As soon as he entered, a cool and refreshing wave of air hit him, cleansing his mind in an instant. When he focused his attention, this cave turned out to be nothing more than a circle thirty feet wide with a jade platform settled at the middle, while a white kind of jade material had been engraved all over the walls of the cave, forming the shape of a seal. What was most surprising was that the jade platform and the white jades engraved on the walls were all Serene Ice Jades, and high-quality ones on top of that—it was no wonder the temperature was so low.

　　After flipping on a switch to activate a formation that would prevent anyone from disturbing him from outside, Fang Xing then moved and sat on the middle of the jade platform. After considering something for a while, he held up his head, took out a high-quality Spirit Stone, and tossed it up into the air before shattering it instantly with a flick of his finger. The Spirit Stone was instantly broken into a fine powder and the purple Qi contained within began to scatter about.

　　This Qi would simply get blown away by the wind if it came in contact with the air outside, but within the cave, the jades kept it suppressed. Although the Qi was scattered, it still remained rather concentrated as it dispersed and swam around in the air like a purple dragon, and Fang Xing soon activated his own Qi to draw this “purple dragon” into his mouth. He instantly felt a warmth rise within him that was powerful enough to even cause a bout of dizziness, but a chill immediately entered his body and cleared his mind.

　　“It really works….” Fang Xing was overjoyed. He took out two more Spirit Stones and repeated the process to inhale the external Qi.

　　Qi was the origin of all things. If a Spirit Stone was broken in the outside world, its Qi would instantly dissipate back into the heavens and earth, and even though there were spells that would allow it to be held in place, the Qi’s special properties would simply draw in the interference of demonic spirits. If someone accumulated too much Qi in one place, the heavens and earth would sense it and heaven’s lightning would strike. That was why—in the outside world—cultivators could only move forward step by step and draw a single strand at a time.

　　The Melodic Ice Palace had discovered a very unique jade mine with incredibly special properties. Inside the Court of Enlightenment, the chill of the jade would keep the Qi from dissipating after Spirit Stones were broken, and that same chill also had the ability to fend off demons and keep all evils from closing in, preventing the concentrated Qi from attracting any demonic spirits. The five Golden Cores had also placed a large formation over the peak to block it off from the heavens and earth, so even heaven’s lightning wouldn’t fall. With this, it was possible for those who were cultivating here to draw in Qi much faster and more effectively.

　　Of course, this method was only possible through using the chilling power of the Serene Ice Jades, and these Serene Ice Jades would become completely ordinary once the chilling power within was used up. The opportunity to enter into seclusion here was extremely valuable, and although each of the young elites who’d entered the depths of the Snowy Mountain would all have one chance, no one would be so lavish as to use it to simply increase their cultivation level. The five Golden Cores also hadn’t placed everything here for the elites to simply increase their cultivation levels; instead, there were three other purposes:

　　The first was so the elites could borrow the special properties of this place to help purify their Qi and further solidify their basis. If two people were in Spirit Stage tier nine, the one whose Qi was more pure would naturally have a greater battle prowess.

　　The second was to allow the elites to form their foundation here. Thanks to the chill’s protection, there was an additional thirty percent chance of success when breaking through.

　　The third was for the elites to use the properties of this place to fend off all evil during the study of spells, preventing them from experiencing Qi deviation.

　　The only person who’d go through all kinds of trouble to come here just for the sake of increasing his cultivation tier would likely be Fang Xing and Fang Xing alone.

　　At first it was one stone, then two stones, then four…. By the end of it, Fang Xing was casually tossing up a dozen of supreme-quality Spirit Stones and shattering them with his Qi, only to engulf everything at once when the Qi had scattered into the air. With the purple haze from the Qi lingering in the air pressing down, this place was like a paradise.

　　It went without saying that inhaling Qi directly like this was quite dangerous; similar to how if an ordinary person was drinking wine, he would be downing straight ethanol. It was extremely easy for him to lose control over his mind—which would cause the Qi to completely disperse—but since Fang Xing was well-versed in using the technique of transforming Jing essence into Qi, his body had already become accustomed to being overfilled. Put simply, his “alcohol tolerance” was much higher, and by using the Serene Ice Jade’s chilling power for further assistance, he was able to keep his control over his mind, allowing such a large influx of Qi to be controlled and added to his foundation….

　　Within this cave covered in Serene Ice Jade, it seemed as though the dark force of Fang Xing’s malice-covered foundation was also mostly suppressed. Qi entered the foundation and allowed for the accumulation to grow more and more dense. If he had cultivated outside, the demonic spirit would just grow with each increment of Fang Xing’s Qi, yet in here it grew at an incredibly slow rate and there was no noticeable increase in the demonic spirit’s power throughout the process.

　　A day slowly passed. Then two days. Then three….

　　By the seventh day, the five hundred supreme-quality Spirit Stones Fang Xing had prepared earlier were all nearly used up, and the amount of Qi within his body had reached an extraordinary level. Around the tower of Dao within his Sea of Consciousness, Qi permeated everywhere as though a mist full of spirit force. It swayed from one side to the other, filled with life and creating all sorts of mystical illusions.

　　“It is time for a breakthrough….”

　　After lightly shutting his eyes and carefully sensing the changes within his Sea of Consciousness, Fang Xing immediately made his decision. His spirit sense was like a whip as it struck out along the Sea of Consciousness, accumulating all of the purple mist into a single spot at the tower’s base to form into the shape of the second level. After this, Fang Xing’s spirit sense began to rapidly ascend, transforming into a giant intangible force that pressed down on this shapeless mass of Qi.

　　“True Samadhi Fire, activate!” Fang Xing’s mind commanded.

　　The True Samadhi Fire appeared within the tower of Dao, churning towards the second level of the tower that was being formed by the Qi. It was like tempering gold with a violent fire that refined the already extremely pure Qi and removed what few impurities it had. Then, it helped to mold the shapeless and formless Qi into a tower-like structure, making it the exact same as the first level—it formed something out of nothing, tempering Qi into a foundation.

　　After a long time, a loud hiss could be continuously heard within the cave covered in purple mist. Afterwards, all of the purple mist was suddenly engulfed by a whirlpool and twisted around into a small dot, fast enough to be seen even by the naked eye. As the purple mist began to disappear, Fang Xing’s body appeared seated upon the jade platform once more while a smear of purple remained between his brows for a long time.

　　Within that purple, however, there were also strands of black. The two colors seemed to entangle and fight against each other despite seeming coming from the same source.

　　” Aii , I originally believed the demonic spirit would be completely suppressed by the chill if I formed the second tier of the foundation here, but it seems it still managed to steal some of the power. Why is this bastard so hard to deal with? It’s so annoying….”

　　Fang Xing was indeed incredibly annoyed right now. The demonic spirit had tainted the first level of his foundation, allowing it to use the foundation itself to grow. He’d thought the Serene Ice Jade within the Court of Enlightenment would be able to easily suppress the demonic spirit so he could break into the second tier without problems; it was completely outside his expectations that even though the demonic spirit was suppressed at first, its malicious energy still managed to make its way over just before the second level was formed. It was as though it was simply meant to be.

　　By now, he couldn’t help but admit that the Peng King’s analysis had been correct. The first tier of foundation was the basis of all foundation, and all the other tiers were extensions of the first. If the first tier is tainted, there was no method for him to avoid the future tiers being tainted as well.

　　Although Fang Xing was furious for a bit, he eventually managed to calm down. The only choice he had left was to place all of his hopes on the spell the old bastard Wanluo was trying to complete, although it was impossible to tell just what kind of mysterious abilities such a spell would need for it to be able to solve Fang Xing’s greatest hidden dilemma—the demonic spirit within him that had already intertwined itself with his foundation.

　　‘Should I leave now? It seems I have three more days left before I have to go. Leaving now would be a bit of a waste… ‘ Fang Xing thought to himself. This was a chance of a lifetime; he didn’t want to leave his seclusion here any earlier than he had to.

　　Since the Serene Ice Jades here protected from demonic forces and all things evil, it was a great opportunity to study techniques and spells. Leaving so soon would be completely squandering away this opportunity, so Fang Xing began to ponder on how he could make use of the remaining three days.

　　After some thought, he decided it wasn’t worth it to spend the time studying the Hundred and Eight Thousand Swords. With the help and advice from the Peng King, the difference between doing it here and doing it outside wasn’t that large, after all.

　　As for the other techniques and spells, there were quite a few random ones, but none of them seemed worthwhile to study in detail….

　　After some time of serious thought, he had a flash of insight. ‘Ah, wait. That scripture I always thought was hard to understand and couldn’t figure out its true meaning; why don’t I study it right now?’ He quickly took out a jade scroll from where he kept his most precious items—the storage ring he wore in his ponytail—and looked it over seriously before reading….

　　The jade scroll was the exact same one he’d taken from the Qingqiu Tomb earlier: Scripture of the Revered Sense.