Mortal Mirror

At the sundry shop of the Ancient Sword Sect, Yu Tailai lay contentedly on a bamboo chair. Seeing Li Ergou approach, he chuckled, "You little rascal, you still remember to come see me."

Li Ergou curled his lip. "You're one to talk. I came by before the New Year, but where did you disappear to? Not a trace of you."

Yu Tailai pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized. "Ah, I've been so busy these days. The Emerald Blossom Pavilion has many beautiful young ladies waiting for me to comfort their wounded hearts. Forget it, what am I saying to you? You never come without a reason. Speak, what brings you here? Did you run into some trouble again?"

Without a word, Li Ergou reached into his waistband and pulled out a whole, butchered cow. He grinned. "I was just missing you. I wanted to bring you something good to eat for the New Year. After all, I'm still a nominal disciple of the Ancient Sword Sect, right?

It wouldn't feel right not to bring something for the New Year."

At that moment, Li Ergou placed the cow on the counter. The cow weighed over a thousand pounds and was enormous. Yu Tailai immediately grinned from ear to ear. "You little rascal, I knew you were thoughtful. I, Yu Tailai, didn't take you into the Ancient Sword Sect for nothing.

Alas, it seems such a waste of your talents to have you as a nominal disciple. How about becoming an outer disciple of my Ancient Sword Sect instead?"

Li Ergou's eyes lit up, not expecting such a good thing. He immediately asked, "Are there any benefits?"

Yu Tailai quickly shook his head like a rattle drum. "No."

Hearing there were no benefits, Li Ergou immediately lost interest. He didn't care about some outer disciple title. He was never one to covet empty names; tangible benefits were the way to go.

So he said, "Then forget it. But I happen to have some things I want to ask you about. Just give me some guidance."

Yu Tailai curled his lip. "I knew you wouldn't be so generous without a reason. Fine, let's hear it. It has to be worth a cow, right?"

Li Ergou felt that those words didn't sound too good, but they made sense, so he didn't stand on ceremony and said, "What is Foundation Establishment?"

Yu Tailai stretched lazily, took a sip of the strong tea beside him, and then slowly said, "Actually, Foundation Establishment isn't that complicated. It's just shaping your dantian, turning it into an extremely solid foundation field. That's Foundation Establishment success.

In the late stage of Qi Refining, the cyclone within the dantian is extremely powerful. At this time, you can try to compress these cyclones to increase the amount and quality of spiritual energy that the dantian can hold.

As long as you condense these gases into water mist, you have already achieved the early stage of Foundation Establishment. Condensing it into liquid proves that you have reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.

When you condense all the liquid spiritual energy into a semi-solid, viscous liquid, it proves that you have reached the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

The spiritual energy in the Foundation Establishment stage, whether in quality or quantity, is several times stronger than that in the Qi Refining stage, so entering Foundation Establishment is considered truly entering the path of divinity.

At this time, you can use those powerful spiritual energies to fly with your sword and release various powerful spells, living a life like an immortal."

Li Ergou understood. So that's what Foundation Establishment was like. But this was a lot of information, and he needed to go back and think about it carefully. Suddenly, he thought of a question and immediately asked, "By the way, Senior, I have another question."

"Speak," Yu Tailai said impatiently.

Li Ergou raised his eyebrows, feeling a little unhappy with such a tone, but he continued, "If you refine a Sword Essence, will it feed back into your cultivation?"

Yu Tailai glanced at Li Ergou in surprise, then said with a puzzled look, "What's the use of asking this? Don't even dream about it. Sword Essence, is that something you can even think about?"

He paused for a moment, seeing that Li Ergou still had a look of longing, and then snorted, "Forget it, forget it. I'm indebted to you for the cow, so it doesn't hurt to tell you. Sword Essence is the transformation of super-strong Sword Intent. It's the foundation of a sword cultivator, the supreme thing that all sword cultivators pursue.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing is something that only those peerless geniuses can comprehend. Once you comprehend Sword Intent and transform it into your own Sword Essence,

the Sword Essence will release a unique Sword Dao True Intent to feed back into your body, which can instantly increase your cultivation by a large margin.

There are even powerful sword cultivators who, once they refine their own innate Sword Embryo, if their Sword Intent reaches the heavens, can even directly raise their realm by a large stage, which is truly terrifying.

Unfortunately, such people are rare. Don't let your imagination run wild, lest you harm yourself."

Li Ergou nodded, not expecting Sword Essence to be so terrifying. He couldn't help but ask, "Senior, are you so pessimistic about me? Is my aptitude really so bad that it's outrageous?"

Yu Tailai laughed. He laughed very maniacally. Suddenly, he pointed to a big black dog on the street and said, "Do you see that dog? Perhaps its aptitude is even stronger than yours. It's good for a person to have dreams, but I advise you not to dream."

Li Ergou felt a little annoyed. "Hmph, is it not good to be so sure? Mr. Li Zheng'an told me that the Dao of Heaven is fifty, and the Great衍 is forty-nine, always leaving a glimmer of hope. I'm still very young, who knows if a miracle will happen? What if one day I cultivate my Natal Sword, wouldn't you be very embarrassed?"

Yu Tailai put away his lazy look, his eyes deep. "You young people are just too young, you don't know the immensity of heaven and earth. Do you really think that glimmer of hope is prepared for you? What a joke, a Natal Sword?

Such wishful thinking. If that day really comes, I'll kneel directly in front of you and call you Master. Banana个拔辣, you don't even know if you can get through the Qi Refining stage, and you're still dreaming of cultivating a Natal Sword. Go make your spring and autumn dream."

Hearing these words, Li Ergou calmed down instead, and was no longer annoyed. He put on an arrogant face and said, "Then you just wait to kneel down to me."

After saying that, he didn't say any more, said goodbye, and strode away.

Yu Tailai frowned, feeling a little puzzled, not knowing what was going on with this kid, but he snorted coldly. "

Young people, you haven't suffered the beatings of society. When you are extremely desperate, you will definitely thank me for what I said today."

Saying that, he directly picked up the whole cow and went to the backyard, constantly saying, "Tonight is the fifteenth, eat roasted beef, enjoy the moon, hehe, it's really a good choice. I'll invite a few young ladies from Emerald Flower Pavilion later, and life will be perfect."

Li Ergou returned to the Kǔshān Courtyard. Mèier was not there, and he didn't know where she had gone. Li Ergou sat by the window, opened the window, looked at the round moon in the sky, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

The fifteenth day of the first month, the Lantern Festival, is said to be a time for reunion, but he was still alone. His father was dead, his mother was dead, and his only sister was missing.

He sighed, looked at the moon, and after a moment, he reached into his arms and took out a small purse. The fragrance of the purse was still there. Looking at this purse, he couldn't help but think, Zhū Zhū ah Zhū Zhū, I don't know where you are now.