In the secret room, the pill in Pingtu's hand quickly popped out!
When he counted to the twenty-fifth breath, the star-like yellowish light on Li Yan's forehead had dimmed to the point where it was almost invisible. How could Pingtu dare to hesitate any longer? He couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Back then, Pei Bu Chong succeeded at the twentieth breath.
The pill was instantly in front of Li Yan. Just as Pingtu was about to wave his hand and let Li Yan open his mouth to swallow the pill, the light yellow spot on Li Yan's forehead suddenly burst into an extremely bright color and formed a white light.
Then, a shocking spiritual power fluctuation burst out from Li Yan's body, which immediately caused the golden spiritual energy in the secret room to surge rapidly in all directions.
The rich spiritual energy that originally filled the entire secret room actually spread outward with Li Yan as the center, forming a hollow area about three meters in size.
This sudden change startled Pingtu, and then he was overjoyed. He reacted very quickly, and changed the direction of his hand. He took advantage of the situation and grabbed the "Foundation Building Pill" back in his palm.
"Hehehe... little guy, it really worked!"
Pingtu showed a look of joy, every time there was an additional disciple in the Five Immortal Sect, or every time someone was promoted to a higher level, it was a big deal, because it was so difficult for their lineage to be passed down.
As the amazing spiritual power in Li Yan's body fluctuated, the next moment, his body, which had been purified by the Qiongqi Purgatory Technique, began to ooze out strands of oily black substance from the pores again.
A fishy smell spread out, but this time Pingtu was not angry, but his face was full of smiles.
Li Yan was still sitting cross-legged, and the pores on his body were still expelling impurities, but the number was getting less and less.
At the same time, sounds of flowing water came from his body - Qi condensed into moisture, which was the magic power in the purple bowel of Dantian. As the spiritual power turned into liquid and started to run, earth-shaking changes occurred, and the purple bowel of Dantian was also expanding rapidly.
After a cultivator successfully builds his foundation, his previous dantian can no longer withstand the tremendous force of the liquid spiritual energy, and will expand accordingly, and the barrier will become thicker.
At this time, the five spiritual energy tanks in Li Yan's body were more than ten times larger than when he had reached the tenth level of Qi Condensation. If they were originally likened to five bowls, they had now become five large basins.
Moreover, the colors of these five spiritual power jars are deeper, the black is deeper, the green is greener, the red is redder, the yellow is thicker, and the white is full of gold.
At this time, the five spiritual power tanks were no longer filled with spiritual power mist floating in the tanks, but there was real five-colored water in them, and the amount was constantly increasing.
The flow rate between the high and low cylinder mouths is getting faster and faster, and the circulation force is getting stronger and stronger, as if it will never stop.
Li Yan only felt a white light in front of his eyes, and then his body suddenly relaxed. When he opened his eyes, he found that he had come to a white space, where soft white light was flickering all around.
At his feet, there was a staircase with nine steps going up one after another. That was all there was. Each step was like a carving of white jade. A refreshing coolness emanated from it, making Li Yan feel comfortable all over.
The oppressive force from before has disappeared, and Li Yan is now standing on the first step below.
Just when Li Yan was confused and didn't know why he was so persistent in coming here, a majestic voice without a trace of emotion came from the top of the white jade steps, rumbling and shaking his heart.
"Lin Dao Foundation Building, Success!"
In an instant, the sound resounded in all directions, like rumbling thunder.
Li Yan's heart was shocked, and all kinds of thoughts flooded into his mind in an instant, and a sense of enlightenment filled his mind.
"I am building my foundation. Oh, this is building my foundation... I, have I succeeded in building my foundation?"
Li Yan slowly woke up from his daze. He looked in the direction of the voice, but there was nothing above him. The voice seemed to come from a distant place and had disappeared without a trace.
"I have already started the ninth level of foundation building. I wonder if I have used the foundation building pill?"
Li Yan withdrew his gaze from the top and slowly looked at the eight steps above. His mind was no longer unconscious, but had become clear.
"Nine steps of foundation building, each step is a step. Is this the legendary nine-step road to heaven? I am only at the first step now, which means I have successfully built my foundation. However, this is not what I want. Then, I have to see how many steps I can reach!"
After Li Yan knew the environment he was in now, he couldn't help but feel excited.
There are nine steps, each of which is about thirty-nine feet long and seven feet wide. He observed the steps first and found that no matter how he walked horizontally on the first step, he could do it easily.
But when he raised his knees and was about to step onto the second step, a huge force almost knocked him off the first step because he was caught off guard.
“So that’s how it is. But this pressure is still not enough. Although I don’t know what level others have reached in building their foundation, I think no one would be willing to stop at the bottom.”
Li Yan thought about it and did not delay any longer. Although his real body was not here, after he circulated the magic power in his body, he was surprised to find that it could still operate freely.
Moreover, ever since he stepped onto the first step, the magic power in his body seemed to suddenly become endless, which greatly boosted his confidence.
Li Yan suddenly raised his whole body's magic power and lifted one leg. As he bent his knee, the space here seemed to begin to distort. From the steps above, huge pressure pressed down directly, as if to stop Li Yan from lifting his knee.
There was no change on Li Yan's face. In the distorted light, his right knee was raised, and then he stepped heavily on the second step.
Just as his right foot stepped onto the second step, a rumbling sound came from this empty space.
Li Yan's figure was torn and twisted by the rays of light, as if they were going to pull him out of the void, but Li Yan's body still rose sharply upwards.
"The foundation of the military path is established!"
Just as Li Yan stepped onto the second step, that majestic, emotionless voice came again from the top. Outside, Pingtu looked at Li Yan who was sitting cross-legged, and suddenly, another extremely bright light appeared on his forehead.
“Hehehe… The little guy has started to charge. The first few levels shouldn’t be too difficult for him. After all, he has five spiritual energy tanks to support him.”
Just as Pingtu was thinking, vertical rays of light appeared on Li Yan's forehead, flashing continuously.
Article 3, Article 4, Article 5...
As rays of light appeared on Li Yan's forehead, his body would tremble every time a ray of light came on, and a large amount of oily black substance would flow out of his body surface in just an instant.
In the void space, the roar continued, as if it had never stopped since Li Yan began to step towards the second step.
"Battle and build foundation, done!"
"The Taoist has established his foundation and is now complete!"
"No foundation has been built yet, it's done!"
That cold voice echoed in the space from time to time, as if responding to the roar.
Li Yan stood on the fifth step, holding his knees with his hands, breathing heavily.
Although there was no sweat here, he still felt extremely tired and his heart was pounding like a drum. In Li Yan's ears, these sounds had long drowned out the rumbling sound and the cold voice.
Although Li Yan felt the pressure on the second, third and fourth steps, he was still able to climb up relatively easily. However, starting from the fourth step, the pressure from above suddenly increased about ten times.
This made Li Yan use up almost all his strength when he stepped onto the fifth step. Looking at the fourth step above that was shining with jade-white light, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in Li Yan's eyes.
"Is it getting harder? But this is still not what I want!"
Li Yan thought silently in his heart, then he raised his leg and took another step, but the next moment, he groaned heavily and fell directly to his knees on the ground.
Li Yan's face flushed. Although he couldn't vomit blood in this space, his internal organs were still churning violently and he felt extremely uncomfortable. After more than ten breaths, Li Yan's restless breath slowly calmed down.
Next, he did not immediately rush to the sixth step, but sat cross-legged on the fifth step.
Pingtu looked at the five flashing thin lines on Li Yan's forehead. At this time, three hours had passed since the fifth ray of light appeared, and the bright thin lines on Li Yan's forehead did not grow again.
Pingtu was not in a hurry either. He knew that Li Yan should be recovering at this time. This could be seen from his body in the secret room. Now impurities were no longer discharged, but there was a lot of sweat. This also showed how huge Li Yan's consumption was.
In the void space, the magic power in Li Yan's body was running at an even crazier speed, and Li Yan also discovered that the spiritual power tank in his body would expand by about twice as much after each step, and the magic power in it would also double.
Moreover, the colors of the five spiritual power cylinders became deeper and deeper. When reaching the fifth step, densely packed ancient runes appeared on the five spiritual power cylinders, but they were not very clear and were vague.
Each of these runes emitted a little crystal light, but Li Yan had never seen any of them before. However, it seemed that every rune brought a shock to Li Yan's mind.
As physical strength and magic power continued to circulate, these ancient and mysterious runes flashed faster and faster, but they still could not be clearly seen.
Li Yan slowly stood up.
"I was a little impatient before. After the continuous breakthroughs, my entire state declined and I couldn't step onto the sixth step. Now that I have completely recovered, the mana after successfully building the foundation is at least four times that of when I first built the foundation.
But at the same time, the pressure from above is ten times or even more than before. Although it is obviously not equal, now that I have fully recovered, I may still be able to fight back."
Li Yan silently calculated his current strength in his mind, and thinking of the pressure he felt when he was about to step onto the sixth step, he had roughly guessed a possibility.
Maybe the first four levels are a stage, and the gap between each step is not too big, but starting from the fifth step, each step may have more than ten times the pressure of the previous step.
Li Yan took a deep breath, his whole body flashing with light. Facing the pressure from above, he suddenly raised his knees again.
Just as he raised his knee, a pressure greater than the sum of the first five steps came down with a bang, causing Li Yan's bones to make a series of "cracking" sounds, as if to crush him into a pile of broken bones.
In the secret room, Li Yan, who was sitting cross-legged, felt his body shake. His back, which had been as straight as a mountain, suddenly bent a little. At the same time, his bones made a "cracking" sound, as if an invisible big hand was squeezing him to the ground.
Pingtu watched all this. He could not interfere with the rules of heaven. Li Yan could not afford the consequences. It would directly cause all the steps of Li Yan's foundation to collapse, and he would fall back to the Qi Condensation Stage in an instant. His future path to foundation building would also be cut off.
The only thing he could do was to bounce the foundation-building pill into Li Yan's mouth at the critical moment, turning it into an external force to help him, but he felt that it was not the right time yet.
"Pei Bu Chong rushed to the eighth step. The disciple that Dong Fuyi favored, without external force, the sixth step is not a problem!"
Pingtu stared at Li Yan, thinking in his heart.
In the void, on the white jade steps in mid-air, Li Yan raised his knees little by little, but every time he raised them an inch, his body rumbled as if it was about to be crushed.
Li Yan's forehead was bulging with blue veins. He gritted his teeth and raised his knees a little bit...