55. Drink Responsibly

When Clay drank a cup of the Tapa'y Wine, despite the sharp bitter aftertaste , he felt something warm pervaded throughout his body. It felt relaxing and comfortable. The feeling was addictive and without him realizing it, he already drank eight bottles in an hour.

Clay wanted to take this feeling of floating and succumb to sleep when he felt his Beast Cores stirred and became active. He sat in lotus position and meditated to inspect his body. His body has grown and his chest particularly got wider and the Cores have increased in size as well.

He carefully observed the changes within the Beast Cores. It looks like a new base is being created within the patterns. Having drawn Formations and seen varying circulation images and derive and predicted the movement of Qi in the nodes, he realized the Cores are advancing to a new level. The wine must have triggered the change.

Clay inspected the spatial rings including the three rings given to him by Urda.

When he broke through the Peak of Late Qi Condensation a few months ago, he discovered that his body had become like a bottomless pit that one Foundation Establishment Breakthrough Pill barely had any effect on him and he estimates that if he need to advance to Foundation level, he must at least ingest more than sixty of Tier II pills to stimulate an advancement.

And unfortunately, even with the combined riches of so-called Nascent Experts, they only have around 25 Foundation Breakthrough Pills in total.

While Clay is considering ingesting Tier III Pills, he noticed how each rings have abundant White Qi Crystals in them. Clay has little knowledge about cultivation but now that he has limited pills, maybe it is high time he consider absorbing these crystals instead.

Clay summoned one crystal and crushed it with his hand then began absorbing the energy from the air and when it successfully entered his body, he smiled as he had found an alternative.

Clay took out two thousand crystals and crushed them all at the same and when the concentration of Qi in the room got stronger, he took out ten pills and placed them into his mouth. He then sat in meditative position.

His objective is to simultaneously have his dantian and Beast Cores break the barrier of Foundation Establishment.

As Clay made the connection between the 27TH to the 30TH Major Qi Nodes on all six meridians, his dantian and the five Beast Cores began to expand and absorb the surrounding Qi.

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When first broke through to Qi Condensation, the circulation almost instantly became automatic when he connect the initial nine Qi Nodes yet today, he needed to constantly guide the flow of his Qi. This is probably why cultivators needed to secluded themselves for days in order to stabilize the connection.

After three hours, Clay felt that the energy in the room thinned and his body is still not satisfied so he summoned another two thousand more Qi Crystals. Clay felt like a vortex have formed on his chest but he ignored it and continued to meditate.

Meanwhile, Clay is unaware that the advancement of his Cores are creating ripples which are continuously escaping the room then outside like radio waves.

Yesterday, when Urda found Clay, he flew to one of their hideouts which is near lake. And to hide Clay body from any powerful cultivators who might be looking for him, he set up a Tier III Isolation and Defensive Formation around the cabin.

Normally, even if two Core Formation experts fight within an Isolation Array, even the explosive burst of their powers would still not leak out but Clay is different. Even if he is not deliberately combining his energy, the fact that he had activated them all at the same time cause tiny amounts of combined energy to leak out which unfortunately attracted two cultivators who were passing by.

As Clay is absorbed in meditation, he suddenly felt strong Qi fluctuations followed by a deafening thunder.

Clay slightly panicked as he is on a critical juncture of stabilizing his cultivation but after a few minutes, nothing happened. He is tempted to scout the area but he decided to deal with it later.

Time passed and after twelve more hours, the circulation finally stabilized and became automatic.

Clay opened his eyes.

His body seems to glow with golden sparkle and if not because of the abnormal discoloration of his skin, someone will probably mistake him as a celestial.

Clay knew that advancing to Foundation Level means significant increase in power but he felt like he had become ten more times stronger. Even the Qi in his dantian has become denser and more concentrated.

Clay got to his feet then spread his divine sense and when he thought there would be enemies outside, all he sensed are two lifeless bodies. He did not know what transpired but judging from the human sized pillars scattered around the perimeter, Clay guessed Urda probably set up some kind of Defensive Formation.

Looking at the robes of the two charred bodies, Clay noticed the crimson patterns similar to the Nascent experts he killed. He reckons they are probably pawns ordered to scout and find traces of their Elder.

Thanks to Urda again, he avoided being ambushed and live another day.

Clay looted the bodies then dug a pit enough to bury the bodies.

Exhale!

Clay took a deep breath then felt the cold breeze of fresh fill his lungs then slowly relaxed his body.

Urda said his day is numbered but the fact that he was given ten bottles of wine to enjoy, he felt like he is being hinted he has less than ten days to live.

How he wished Urda was wrong.

Indeed his body is transforming but his sanity remained intact and unlike Death Qi practitioners and the fact that he is not practicing the forbidden Death Qi, he believes that he should live longer.

But to be safe, he will wait ten days and if nothing happens, he will travel west and track down any remnants of Ul Al'iya clan for salvation.