Within Fang Xing’s Sea of Consciousness, the sparkling jade tower had already shrunk to about ten feet tall with complicated symbols engraved throughout its form. There was only one level to this current tower, symbolizing Fang Xing was at the first stage of the foundation, also referred to as the early stages of Foundation Stage. The tower would have two levels added after the first stage was completed, each representing tiers one, two, and three of Foundation Stage. By mid-stage, there would be the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels, and then the late stages would have seven, eight, and nine. Once all nine levels had formed, it would be time to create the golden core.

The scattered thunder still appeared from time to time. Fang Xing shut his eyes while inside the tower, trying to appreciate all of this.

Although he’d cursed at the Peng King, Fang Xing didn’t completely ignore his words; he simply had the reflexive desire to argue with the Peng King for the sake of it. In fact, he’d actually taken in quite a lot of these words and was now understanding and appreciating them within his heart.

The lightning inside the Sea of Consciousness had in fact been formed from the power contained inside the Foundation Pellet. Every strand of its power, every single strike of the lightning brought a change in him that he was carefully pondering and appreciating. The path of cultivation was in fact not as mysterious as what outsiders thought—the beginning of it all often stemmed from excruciating pain.

Heaven and earth was intertwined with its people to continue functioning, yet its people could not easily fantasize about the Dao of the immortals. For those who understood Dao, it begins from changes within oneself. These people were also a part of this Dao, and it was only those who had understood themselves who would be able to use this as their basis to reach towards enlightenment. The meaning of this formation was an understanding of oneself, to have a thorough understanding of one’s physical form before beginning to study the heaven and earth to finally understand Dao itself.

As the foundation was solidified, mysterious sounds—vague and illusory—rose up one after another. From far away, the expression of the Peng King began to slowly change as he gazed upon Fang Xing’s tower.

Under the strikes of lightning, the sparkling foundation began to slowly change in color, from a milky translucent color to a light blue shade, then a scarlet red. It went from red to a pure white before, finally, a pale s.h.i.+ne of gold….

"Is it going to be the golden foundation?" The Peng King was surprised, his gaze filled with envy. Although he knew the boy was out of the ordinary, it was still rather astonis.h.i.+ng to see an inclination towards a golden foundation.

Within the realm of cultivation, there were four different ranks of Foundation Stage: gold, white, red, and blue.

If a person didn’t work hard enough during their Spirit Stage and had just enough to break into Foundation Stage, their foundation would be a blue color, signifying that their basis was unstable and it was unlikely they would have further advancements. A little better than the blue foundation was one of scarlet red, which was rather exceptional and gave the person a high chance of advancing into the late stages of Foundation Stage. Above scarlet red was the white foundation, or the "pure" foundation, that only those chosen ones from sects and large clans would be able to form.

Finally, even better than this white foundation was that of gold. This was an existence beyond what an ordinary chosen one could obtain, even containing the impression of royalty. It was extremely powerful and unfathomable, the foundation everyone in the realm of cultivation pursued. Legend had it that only those with an extraordinarily solid basis would have the chance of forming such a foundation, and according to the Peng King’s knowledge, there were no more than five people with the golden foundation within all of Southern Jambu.

This boy’s foundation showed a hint of gold; could it be that he was truly about to form the golden foundation? Slowly, the golden s.h.i.+ne became more and more evident, and it was almost guaranteed such a thing would occur.

The Peng King’s eyes grew wider before he released sigh after sigh….

Fang Xing was inside the foundation tower with his eyes shut, but at that moment he suddenly opened his eyes and commanded in a low voice, "Activate, True Samadhi Fire!"

Within the Sea of Consciousness, the lightning that formed from the Foundation Pellet had already disappeared, and the foundation itself was solidifying. With Fang Xing’s command, however, small flames began to form on top of the formation, each of them burning ardently to refine the formation from the inside. The more the fires burned, the more intense they became….

The bright gold color that had settled in Fang Xing’s foundation began to change once more. Now there seemed to be a hint of purple!

The Peng King was so startled by the sight that he jumped up and started screaming, "This… this is actually… a purple foundation?" His voice quivered, and his face was filled with utter disbelief as he looked on.

In the realm of cultivation, there was said to be four ranks of foundation. After coming into contact with the nine coffins by chance, however, the Peng King understood that there was actually another foundation above these four ranks: the purple foundation. The color gold represented royalty, but the color purple represented the immortals. It was said that only those who had a chance to truly become an immortal would be able to form the purple foundation.

Such a thing had not appeared in over tens of thousands of years, yet hints of purple were seen in Fang Xing’s foundation as he began to refine it with the True Samadhi Fire. During the process, Fang Xing’s tower became smaller and smaller, its s.h.i.+ne growing dim. Yet, within the dimness, it seemed to contain something else: a purple s.h.i.+ne that was harder to see, but even more astonis.h.i.+ng in its brilliance.

"Could he really form the purple foundation? Is it because of that True Samadhi Fire?" Even the Peng King’s heart began to quiver. Despite being inside Fang Xing’s Sea of Consciousness for so long and knowing just how extraordinary the True Samadhi Fire was, he hadn’t expected it to have the ability to help form the purple foundation.

The Peng King wasn’t an idiot. The reason he’d been so well-behaved inside Fang Xing’s Sea of Consciousness was in part because he’d long ago discovered the benefits of the True Samadhi Fire. Whenever Fang Xing burned and roasted him, although it would use up the power of his True Spirit, he’d noticed that his True Spirit had changed slightly after being contaminated with the flames. To the Peng King, it could be considered a rare opportunity.

Still, although the Peng King knew this fire was abnormal, he hadn’t expected it to hold so much power. The purple foundation was something from legends; just how many years had it been since someone had even spoken of it? This boy was certainly talented at surprising others!

By now, the Peng King had guessed the likely reason behind Fang Xing’s purple foundation: the True Samadhi Fire! Only the True Samadhi Fire would bring about this opportunity.

To some extent, the True Samadhi Fire could be considered an immortal’s flame. The purple foundation was necessary to become an immortal, and only with an immortal’s flame would there be a chance for it to form. Even with the purity of Fang Xing’s Qi and help from the Fuyao Palace’s Foundation Pellet, he would have at most reached the golden foundation; it was only with the addition of the True Samadhi Fire that he was able to take another step further.

However, this purple light wasn’t strong. It was merely a flickering glint, and only a portion of the foundation showed a purple s.h.i.+ne. The Peng King had already stopped drawing in some of the True Samadhi Fire’s intent for himself and focused his gaze on Fang Xing’s foundation. When he saw what was happening, his eyes flickered and he muttered to himself, "So he hasn’t really formed the purple foundation, he just incorporated parts of the purple intent…."

The Peng King was a little disappointed to not see the real purple foundation in front of him, but he didn’t know that Fang Xing’s True Samadhi Fire hadn’t yet finished. Of the three flames that formed the True Samadhi Fire, Fang Xing had only managed to reach the Flames of Anger, and the intent in his flames was weaker than it would be otherwise. To reach this point with just this much was already rather extraordinary.

"Aii, but that’s still not bad. To be undefeatable by anyone in the same stage is just around the corner for this kid!" The Peng King sighed and stood up, preparing to congratulate Fang Xing.

It was also at this time that something drastic occurred.

"Grrrrgh…"

Following a mournful growl, a black shadow flew up from beneath Fang Xing’s foundation. The shadow was mysterious and melancholic, dark and filled with a terrifying aura. It flew directly over Fang Xing’s foundation without fear for the remaining True Samadhi Fire and threw itself directly inside, causing his foundation to be engulfed with a seemingly endless amount of thick black smoke.

"Demon spirit…."

Both Fang Xing and the Peng King were surprised. They hadn’t expected that just as the foundation was about to finish forming, the demon spirit that had supposedly been sealed would manage to form a small crack in its bindings. The demon spirit followed its intuition and tried to devour Fang Xing, but collided with the foundation instead.

The foundation’s purple light had been able to suppress the demon spirit and Fang Xing wasn’t too affected himself, but it was as though the sordid aura had contaminated the foundation itself. The purple s.h.i.+ne grew dim before finally settling on a black color, like jewels being covered with dust or quality jade that had been turned to ashes….

The Peng King repeatedly sighed in annoyance. "It must be heaven’s doing for this d.a.m.ned thing to come out at this precise moment. Could this be the boy’s tribulation? Is this heaven’s method of trying to prevent the appearance of this immortal foundation?"

Although it was well known there would be a tribulation, no one would know exactly what they’d have to go through or when it would appear. Furthermore, Fang Xing’s foundation had only just formed and the Peng King thought his tribulation would come only after he’d broken through into the Foundation Stage. He hadn’t antic.i.p.ated that the demon spirit that had been sealed away would suddenly crack open part of the seal and contaminate Fang Xing’s foundation from its desire to eat him.

Fang Xing had been sitting atop the tower, but he flew out as well. He looked at the black foundation in front of him with his brows knit tightly together. "What happened?"

The Peng King shook his head with a sigh. "It’s that demon spirit. That monster was sealed away, but parts of it unexpectedly came out just as you were about to complete your foundation and contaminated it. Not even I realized until it was too late. It seems this is your tribulation!"