Chapter Forty-Four: A Tragic Ending Brings a Lesson

  When they had finished exploring the more prosperous and larger Ju Yuan Tai, there were less than ten days left before the opening of the Jiu Tai Shan Trade Fair. As people from all over flocked to attend this grand trading event, the inns on Zheng Ning Tai and Ju Yuan Tai, which could be entered and exited at will, were already experiencing a situation where it was hard to find a room. Fortunately, Zuo Xiao Yao and her group had arrived relatively early, so they didn't have to worry about having nowhere to stay.

  As they met more and more fellow disciples or old friends, Lu Hongtian and Qin Xiao received more and more invitations, becoming increasingly busy.

  After accompanying the two to an appointment and getting to know many fellow Taoist cultivators through introductions, Zuo Xiaoyao really didn't like being constantly sized up, tested, and suspected about her relationships with Luo Hongtian and Qin Xiao. However, she couldn't refuse their kind intentions either. In desperation, Zuo Xiaoyao decided to shut herself in seclusion to focus on breaking through the Foundation Establishment stage.

  Although she is only half a step away from the foundation stage at this time, in front of true foundation stage cultivators, she still lags behind after all. Not everyone can ignore this half-step difference like Rong Hongtian and Qin Xiao did. Understanding all cultivators' pursuit of cultivation and strength, upon learning about Zuo Xiaoyao's decision, Rong Hongtian and the others didn't find it unexpected, but only Qin Lian pouted in protest, somewhat reluctant to part with her.

  After all, Zuo Xiao Yao had gone into seclusion. In the following days, when she went out again, there was no longer someone with the same abilities to accompany her. After more than half a month of getting along, although their friendship couldn't be considered very deep, they could still be considered quite compatible.

  In Qin Liangyu's view, it was extremely rare to meet a female cultivator of the same sex who would not pretend to be elegant and refined, nor intentionally try to please her, but had ulterior motives. Moreover, they had many common topics to discuss with each other, unlike most cultivators in the cultivation world, who were also familiar with some social phenomena and popular culture in the mortal world, and wouldn't sneer at them, and got along well with her!

  Of course, regardless of others' opinions, Zuo Xiao Yao had no intention of giving up on her plan to seclude herself. To ensure the success rate of building her foundation, she sought advice from Luo Hong Tian and Qin Xiao on their experiences during the foundation-building process. After careful consideration, Zuo Xiao Yao resolutely decided to spend a high price to rent a high-grade quiet room with an array for gathering spirits at Ju Yuan Tai. The room cost one thousand first-grade spirit jade per day and night, which was many times more expensive than the inn that only required twenty first-grade spirit jade. This was because the high-grade quiet room had a high-level defensive formation that could even block the spiritual awareness of a Golden Dan True Person from invading or disturbing her.

  In the quiet room, on both sides of the stone gate, five slots were filled with a three-product spirit jade each. After that, the formation in the quiet room was opened. This is a stone chamber built with whole stone materials around and on top, inside which there is only one 3-meter-long and 3-meter-wide tripod, nothing else!

  Since meeting Hong Tian, she had not personally entered the Ziyuan boundary again. Only now did Zuo Xiaoyao realize that she really missed the days when she could freely enter and exit this place. For her, no matter where she was, it was not as safe and reliable as here, where she could cultivate, rest, and refine elixirs with peace of mind.

  After entering the Rongyuan stage, the spiritual energy in the Dantian that had already been fully liquefied became increasingly viscous. Every time she practiced her skills and absorbed spiritual energy into her body, a large portion of it would merge with the viscous liquid, which was now roughly the size of her fist, about one-third larger than the egg-sized ball described by Luo Hongtian and Qin Xiao, who had experience in building their foundation. This anomaly left Zuo Xiaoyao perplexed, unsure of how to explain her situation, and she could only comfort herself that it might be due to differences in their skills, as there may be other factors at play, such as the environment in which they cultivated.

  As she continued to run the Rongyue Man period Gongfa, she 'saw' that the ball of spiritual energy inside her body was becoming more and more condensed. Zuo Xiaoyao, who was fully prepared, knew that as long as the ball of spiritual energy, which was still liquid but had become quite dense, could condense and shrink to one-third of its current size, she would truly enter the foundation-building stage!

  Build the foundation! A cultivation that can bring relative respect and status to oneself in the Cultivation Realm, Zuo Xiao Yao doesn't care about fame or wealth, but she needs strength. Not to mention having the power to use and protect the Purple Venerable's Three Treasures without hiding her true appearance, for now, her biggest goal is to have the power to uncover the truth behind many questions!

  For example, why did Zuo Zhenglong deceive his grandmother and flee to a distant land back then? Which members of the Wang family were in cahoots with which forces, and what had they done to him and his grandmother over the years? What kind of cultivators were behind the Hongxin Group, what was their cultivation level, and how did they find out that the Zuo family possessed a rare treasure?

  Unconsciously thinking of the difficulties that have been in front of her all along, Zuo Xiao Yao's expression turned solemn. Although she could clearly feel a surge of intense pain as the Gong Fa circulated within her body, and this painful sensation was still growing stronger, she could endure it silently. Even later on, when she had become pale, drenched in cold sweat, with clothes that could be wrung out like water, feeling as if every meridian in her body had a small knife slashing and strangling, perhaps this was the legendary Ling Chi!

  Surrounded by the immense pain, except for exerting her utmost to stay awake and persist in operating the internal Gongfa, Zuo Xiaoyao was completely unable to divert her attention elsewhere. She didn't know how much time had passed like this. The effort of a diligent person would not be in vain. When that lump of spiritual energy finally condensed into the size of a table tennis ball, she vaguely felt that somewhere inside her body, another dam had suddenly been opened again. At the same time, Zuo Xiaoyao clearly perceived that before her eyes, it seemed as if a new world had appeared once more. Moreover, a strand of profound and mysterious energy, radiating powerful life force, emerged in her Shen Hai, coexisting with her spiritual energy!

  Although he was thrilled to have successfully entered the Foundation Stage, Zuo Xiaoyao didn't dare to be negligent and immediately ran the new Foundation Stage pre-cultivation method he had just obtained to consolidate his unstable cultivation.

  Her mind stirred slightly, and what appeared in her hand was unexpectedly the hairpin and comb that had disappeared with Ziyuanjing, which were also two of the three treasures of Zizun - Chuanjie Shu and Poyin Zhui! Looking at the long-lost items, Zuoxiaoyao's heart was filled with mixed emotions, and after a moment of contemplation, she once again exerted her spiritual power to retrieve them. Although she already knew their uses, if not necessary, she had no intention of using these two treasures.

  As the time difference increased to thirty-to-one, the spiritual force and spiritual awareness intensity more than doubled. Closing his eyes, the range of his spiritual awareness had reached seventy meters, a staggering number. Typically, for those who had just entered the Foundation Building stage, their spiritual awareness range was between twenty to twenty-five meters. Only those with extremely strong spiritual force or those who had consumed the Awakening Fruit could possibly have a spiritual awareness range of thirty meters, and it would not exceed forty meters at most.

  After carefully analyzing the differences, Xiaoyao glanced at this space that only belonged to her and roughly guessed the difference. Since discovering that her spiritual consciousness could move freely in the Purple Realm and collect spiritual medicine, she had not given up on this wonderful use of her spiritual consciousness. Every night since entering Jiutai Mountain, she would release her spiritual consciousness into the Purple Boundary Realm, and after becoming tired, she would sleep.

  Although it was not obvious at first, after going in and out more than a dozen times, she had already vaguely sensed that her spiritual consciousness could persist in the Ziyuan boundary for an increasingly longer period of time. By the last time, she had been able to persist for six minutes, equivalent to the real world, which was one minute longer than the initial five minutes. The progress made here was obviously enormous!

  After spending nearly ten days consolidating her cultivation, she then spent the next twenty days refining a large quantity of First-Rate Clear Dust Pills, almost filling up all the ordinary jade bottles of various sizes that she had bought later. Only then did Zuo Xiao Yao appear in the quiet room, but she discovered that only one day and half a night had passed in reality.

  Thinking that she could smoothly advance to the Foundation Establishment stage in these three days of renting a quiet room, although it's not uncommon, but also not impossible, and with the experience of taking the Open God Fruit as cover, there's no need to worry about others noticing anything unusual. However, if her cultivation can still be secretly improved after being basically consolidated, this would be somewhat too much, and Zuo Xiaoyao didn't want to see any flaws in her actions.

  But the expensive rent she paid was only for three days, so to make the most of it, during this time, relying on the reverse time difference of Ziyuan Boundary Void, Zuo Xiaoyao, in addition to diligently practicing the seven new spells she had learned, once again carefully studied the cultivation classics she had personally purchased, as well as the jade slips and "books" that were originally present in the Ziyuan Boundary Void. In this way, except for the daily routine cultivation, the time spent on cultivation was actually the shortest.

  Although she already knew that the mysterious power that appeared in her divine sea when she entered the foundation was the grass and wood godly power that could control the life and death of all things, as spoken by the purple-robed woman. However, due to the profound and mysterious aura contained within that power, she felt a sense of trepidation every time her energy approached it, and would unconsciously feel an urge to prostrate herself in worship, as if under the pressure of heavenly might. The feeling was not pleasant at all, so Zuo Xiao Yao had never tried to use it before.

  On this day, with nothing to do, after wandering around the void of Ziyuan Realm, she suddenly thought of the effect of Caomu Divine Power. She always felt that since the woman in purple had set the authority for using Caomu Divine Power as Building Foundation Stage, it wouldn't be just used to make herself feel 'oppressed'. After some deliberation, she came to the medicine garden she had opened up, although she didn't know how to control the Caomu Divine Power, but thinking that it also existed in the Spiritual Ocean, Zuo Xiaoyao tried to carefully release the Caomu Divine Power using the method of controlling her spiritual power.

  But the result that followed was far beyond Zuo Xiaoyao's expectations. Almost as soon as a tiny thread of divine power left the Divine Sea, she felt all the spiritual energy on her body being drawn out at the same time, and a feeling of exhaustion spread throughout her entire body. The surrounding spiritual medicine, which was half a meter away from her body, instantly went through the process of life and death in that instant.

  The tragic outcome she got at this time proved with a strong fact that the control method she adopted by mistake was not wrong, but her cultivation was too low, and the power of the grass and wood gods was too strong. Before having enough strength, one must not rashly do things beyond their own strength!

  It's just as well that curiosity didn't get the better of her and make her want to try out the other two Purple Venerable Three Treasures, which she wouldn't be able to use until her cultivation reached the Foundation Establishment stage!

  This is the long-unconscious Zuo Xiao Yao, who after trying her best to recall the experience and results of previously using the divine power of nature, finally couldn't hold on any longer and lost consciousness again before summarizing the lessons learned!