TBIP: Chapter 24 Part 2

Lou Xingyao never expected to hear such an answer. It wasn’t just because the relationship between the two of them wasn’t mentioned in the original novel, but because there were no rumors about this matter on Tianming Continent.

The essence of human beings was gossip. In his previous life, the gossip reporters loved topics related to wealthy families. Tianming Continent might be a world of cultivation, but this criterion still applied.

On this continent, who would have more known about them than the major families entrenched in Canglan City?

Therefore, no matter whether it was the He family or Zhou family, they were all families located in the center of gossip.

After the Zhou family came out with Zhou Hanshan, a single spiritual root genius, the topics related to it were even more noisy.

Some rumors could be heard even in a remote place like Pingyang County.

In addition, the Lou family and He family in Canglan City were in-laws. So when the He family’s madam came, she brought a lot of maids and servants with him. They would gather together to chat in private.

Gossip about Canglan City wasn’t uncommon in the Lou family.

Maybe it was because Wen Hanshan had always been elusive, so among this gossip, the topics related to his father, the head of the Zhou family, were the hottest.

One of the most talked about was the story of the deep love between the head of the Zhou family and his wife, Wen Miaoyin.

Among the various news that Lou Xingyao had heard, it was that the head of the Zhou family was extremely doting on his first wife.

It didn’t affect his feelings that Wen Miaoyin wasn’t born in a big family of Canglan City, her origin was unknown, and that she was just an orphan girl accidentally rescued by his father.

In the rumors, in order to marry Wen Miaoyin, the head of the Zhou family went through many trials. He not only openly disobeyed the family’s order to not marry her, but made a lot of jokes.

In the end, he didn’t hesitate to gamble with his own life. This caused the main elders of the Zhou family to nod and agree to let him marry the beauty.

After getting married, the head of the Zhou family followed his promise to be a couple for the rest of his life, even if Wen Miaoyin was weak due to injuries in her early years, and it was more difficult for her to give birth. The head of the Zhou family still insisted on not taking concubines or raising someone else in his yard.

Perhaps his hard work paid off. Finally, in the tenth year after the two of them got married, she successfully gave birth to Wen Hanshan, their only offspring.

It was a pity that Wen Miaoyin’s body was already weak. The childbirth caused a recurrence of her old injury. Within a few years, she left the father and son of the Zhou family and died.

Since then, the head of the Zhou family seemed to have locked his heart and love. He directly rejected his family’s proposal to marry someone else to continue his bloodline, and instead concentrated on cultivating Wen Hanshan.

On the day of their wedding, Lou Xingyao had sat in a sedan chair on the way to the Zhou family and heard sentences like, ‘If it wasn’t for the old relationship with Mrs. Zhou, the head of the Zhou family would’ve kicked Young Master Zhou out of the house a long time ago’ and so on.

Judging from the follow-up behavior of the Zzhou family and Wen Hanshan’s evaluation of the Zhou family, these rumors seemed to be exaggerated.

But there was indeed no one around the Zhou family. So before this, Lou Xingyao had always thought that the head of the Zhou family and Wen Miaoyin did have a deeper relationship than ordinary couples.

However, the identity of Ye Hantian proved the exact opposite of the rumors.

An illegitimate son who was the same age as Wen Hanshan. No matter what the original truth was, he couldn’t deny that the head of the Zhou family had indeed betrayed Mrs. Zhou.

From Wen Hanshan’s tone, it was obvious that he had already known about the existence of Ye Hantian and his true identity.

Lou Xingyao seemed to vaguely understand why Wen Hanshan couldn’t wait to change his surname after leaving the Zhou family.

As for the Zhou family’s behavior of letting Ye Hantian recognize his ancestors and return to their family with great fanfare, Wen Hanshan only commented, “I wish them good luck.”

It was obviously an extremely bland blessing, but for some reason, Lou Xingyao seemed to hear a sense of impending storms from it.

Then when he carefully distinguished it, he found that Wen Hanshan’s complexion hadn’t changed in the slightest.

Regardless of whether it was his delusion or not, it showed that Wen Hanshan didn’t want to say much about this matter. Lou Xingyao naturally wouldn’t continue to ask.

At the same time, Lou Xingyao could see that Wen Hanshan’s attitude toward Ye Hantian was more like a stranger. He wasn’t angry that this person was ironclad evidence that the head of the Zhou family had betrayed Wen Miaoyin.

In this case, why did the two of them come to a point where they were incompatible and either lived or died?

The doubts on Lou Xingyao’s face were so obvious that Wen Hanshan easily noticed it. “What? What other mess do you have that you can’t figure out?”

Naturally, the content related to the original novel couldn’t be said. However, for things that had nothing to do with the original novel, Lou Xingyao did have something to figure out and immediately retorted, “What mess? I’m thinking about your injury!”

According to the development of the original novel, Wen Hanshan had already broken through to the middle stage of foundation building when Ye Hantian obtained the spirit cleansing plant.

Now, let alone the middle stage of foundation building, this person showed no signs of breaking through to the foundation building realm.

Was it because of him?

Lou Xingyao couldn’t help guessing in his heart.

After all, in the original novel, Wen Hanshan was the villain and could be said to be alone. There was no one around him.

If it was due to his existence that the opportunity for Wen Hanshan’s breakthrough was lost, Lou Xingyao really didn’t know what to do.

Thinking of this, Lou Xingyao’s face inevitably showed a trace of worry.

“I’m not in a hurry. Why are you in a hurry?” Wen Hanshan snorted coldly when he saw this.

“Your cultivation hasn’t progressed for a long time, and you still won’t let me care about it?” It was natural for Lou Xingyao to be in a hurry. After all, the protagonist’s side had started to follow the plot while Wen Hanshan still looked like he had made no progress.

Lou Xingyao didn’t know if the two of them would develop into a life or death relationship like the original novel, but if they really reached that point, Wen Hanshan’s stagnant cultivation at this moment would become a big danger.

“Don’t worry, I have my own arrangements.” Wen Hanshan’s tone eased a bit after seeing that Lou Xingyao was indeed worried.

This appearance was obviously a success. Lou Xingyao’s heart settled down a lot before he thought of another question, “Brother Wen, can you succeed in building the foundation?”

Before Wen Hanshan was injured, he had already reached the ninth level of qi condensation. If he recovered from his injury one day, it would be easy for him to return to the ninth level.

In the cultivation system of Tianming Continent, foundation building was after the ninth level of qi condensation. At this time, everyone would often break through with the help of the foundation building pill.

But Lou Xingyao had read the original novel and knew that this method was only considered orthodox in a small world like Tianming Continent.

In the inheritance of the big world, there was the tenth level of qi condensation above the ninth level. This was called the great perfection of qi condensation.

As a cultivator with excellent talent, after reaching the tenth level of qi condensation, the person could achieve the foundation building realm without the assistance of the foundation building pill.

Such foundation building cultivators were also called perfect foundation building cultivators.

In the description of the original novel, the path of a cultivator who built a perfect foundation was often longer than that of a cultivator who broke through with the foundation building pill. There was even a saying that without a perfect foundation, there was no nascent soul.

Therefore, even if the cultivators who could build a perfect foundation were rare, people in the big worlds would often choose to reach the tenth level and use the foundation building pill to extend their path to the greatest extent.

Wen Hanshan could be ranked high in the original novel, so his talent must be very good.

Such a person should be an existence that could build a perfect foundation. It would inevitably be a pity if he used a foundation building pill in the ninth level of qi condensation.

Just as Lou Xingyao was organizing his language and preparing to inform him of the matter, Wen Hanshan spoke first.

“There is no hurry to build a foundation. Since you mentioned this matter, there is something that needs to be known to you. There is another realm above the ninth level of qi condensation, which is the great perfection of qi condensation.”

“Huh?” What he wanted to say was preempted by the other person. Lou Xingyao didn’t know how to answer for a while.

However, Wen Hanshan saw a clue from Lou Xingyao’s expression and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes. “You know?”

“There was something mentioned in my inheritance. I originally wanted to tell Brother Wen, but I never expected that you would already know about it.” Lou Xingyao nodded. Since he had already thought of telling Wen Hanshan, he had naturally thought of an excuse.

“I see.” Wen Hanshan’s eyes showed a bit more understanding. The matter of an inheritance had always been secret. It wasn’t surprising that there was some news not meant for outsiders.

From Lou Xingyao’s expression, he also knew that the other person didn’t mean to hide it. Lou Xingyao probably mentioned the matter of building the foundation because he wanted to lead up to the follow-up words. He just hadn’t expected Wen Hanshan to take the lead.

Wen Hanshan thought of this, and the expression on his face softened a lot. He continued to ask, “Then you should also know that if you rely on your own ability to break through, you can achieve a perfect foundation.”

Lou Xingyao nodded again. At the same time, he seemed to realize something. “Brother Wen, is that what you want?”

“Yes, I want to build a perfect foundation. I have been polishing my meridians and dantian all these years to achieve perfection.” Wen Hanshan nodded and gave an affirmative answer.

By opening up the eight extraordinary meridians, one could reach the eighth level of qi condensation.

By forming a circulation between the eight extraordinary meridians and the dantian, one could break through to the ninth level of qi condensation.

When refining the ninth level, in addition to stimulating the circulation between the eight extraordinary meridians and the dantian, the most important thing was to refine the spiritual power in the body and make it purer.

The tenth level of qi condensation paid more attention to the accumulation in the dantian and meridians.

At this stage, the spiritual power could stimulate and widen the meridians and dantian. At the same time, the spiritual power needed to be compressed to the extreme and atomized into liquid.

Once all the free spiritual power in the dantian was compressed into a liquid state, the dantian could be turned into a sea. At that time, it was time to build the foundation.

The whole process could be described as time-consuming.

If Wen Hanshan had been carefully polishing it all these years, in the eyes of uninformed people, it would indeed show the appearance of a stagnation in cultivation.

“What about Brother Wen now?” It was the first time that Lou Xingyao had heard a specific answer related to his cultivation from Wen Hanshan. He was a bit curious for a while.

Unexpectedly, after Wen Hanshan thought about it for a moment, he placed his wrist in front of Lou Xingyao. “If you have doubts, you can come and explore it.”

“This…” Lou Xingyao was a bit surprised for a moment. The other person’s move was putting his lifeline in Lou Xingyao’s hands.

This was undoubtedly an attitude of not having the slightest suspicion about him.

Then after meeting Wen Hanshan’s trusting gaze, a smile gradually appeared on Lou Xingyao’s face. “In this case, I won’t be polite.”

After saying that, he stretched out his hand and put it on the wrist in front of him. He carefully separated out a ray of spiritual power and probed it into the other person’s body.

He didn’t expect that this separated spiritual power would be out of control in an instant.

He met Wen Hanshan’s encouraging gaze and boldly increased the output of his spiritual power.

It wasn’t until two-thirds of the spiritual power in Lou Xingyao’s dantian was used that he finally felt the feedback from the meridians in Wen Hanshan’s body.

At this time, he finally saw the results of the other person’s efforts over the years.

It must be known that Lou Xingyao’s current meridians were no longer the weak meridians like when he first transmigrated.

First, there was the reshaping from the meridians reconnection pill. Then there was the reshaping. Lou Xingyao’s continuous stimulation of the medicinal power made his originally weak meridians suddenly look new as if they were reborn.

Not only could it be compared with ordinary cultivators, but it was even broader and tougher.

In addition, in the past two years, he continued to take the spiritual spring water every day. This made his already tough meridians go up another level.

Lou Xingyao couldn’t guarantee that he was the best in the same stage in terms of the breadth of his meridians, but he could definitely call himself one of the top.

But at this moment, when he tested the condition of Wen Hanshan’s meridians, he understood what it meant by a minor magician encountering a grand sorcerer, and the difference between a trickling stream and a surging torrent.

Lou Xingyao exhausted two-thirds of the spiritual power to explore, and he couldn’t even fully measure the breadth of Wen Hanshan’s meridians.

What was even rarer was that Wen Hanshan widened the eight extraordinary meridians to such an extent, but he didn’t leave behind the twelve standard meridians.

As for the dantian, there was even less to say about that.

If Lou Xingyao’s dantian was a small lake then Wen Hanshan’s one was an endless ocean.

There was such a strong accumulation that Wen Hanshan didn’t need to be afraid at all when facing foundation building cultivators.

Lou Xingyao finally understood why Wen Hanshan gave him the sense of leisurely strolling when training outside in the Endless Forest. This was clearly the confidence brought about by his strength!

Lou Xingyao also understood that it took more than a day’s work to reach Wen Hanshan’s accumulation.

He thought of this, and a sense of admiration rose from the bottom of his heart.

But then, Lou Xingyao sensed that something was wrong.

There wasn’t much free spiritual power in this dantian. It all gathered into droplets of liquid, covering the entire ‘sea surface.’

In this scene, there was no trace of someone who had regressed to the eighth level of qi condensation. This had clearly reached the great perfection of qi condensation, the tenth level!

He was even one step away from foundation building!

Lou Xingyao suddenly looked up at Wen Hanshan, his eyes full of confusion.

“You found out?” Wen Hanshan raised his eyebrow slightly, and his tone was full of laughter. “Are you still worried about my cultivation now?”

Based on this person’s appearance, what else did Lou Xingyao need to understand?

It was clear that the injury had long healed, and Wen Hanshan was teasing him!