Chapter 328: Chapter 70: Dao Foundation, Dao Body

However, reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm was not that simple.

After consuming the Heart of the Fierce Sun for over two years, Murphy’s Essence had reached 3.6.

This translated to the tremendous strength of nearly three tons with a single swing of his arm.

Through the cycle where Essence, Qi, and Spirit converted into and nourished one another, Murphy’s Spirit and Qi had also gradually increased. The quality of his Qi had even reached the level of First-Grade Mana.

Quantifying his current state resulted in the following values:

Essence: 3.6.

Qi: 2.5.

Spirit: 2.8.

Magic Power Quality: 2.5.

Indeed, Perfection did not mean his Essence, Qi, and Spirit had to be in a perfect balance of 3.6.

Or rather, they were already balanced.

This was because these numbers were merely quantitative values; the same number held a different significance for each of the three aspects of Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

With these stats, Murphy’s Attack Power was calculated as: Mana Value (equal to his Qi stat) + Magic Power Quality = 2.5 + 2.5 = 5.

In the Knight system, this level of power was just a hair’s breadth away from the Legend rank.

When he used his Flying Sword—which he had continuously nourished and refined to a quality of 2.6—his Attack Power soared to 7.6.

This was on par with an Official Wizard.

As for his Black Light Mana, Murphy had deliberately kept its progress stagnant, and it remained at a quality of 3.1, just entering the Second-Grade Mana stage.

The reason was simple. When Murphy’s Mana had truly entered the First-Grade and his Spirit had reached 2.5, he had become capable of stably fusing his own Mana with his Black Light Mana.

He no longer had to use either his Qi or his Black Light Mana separately as he did before.

The fused Mana was even stronger, with its quality reaching 3.3.

This meant Murphy’s actual Attack Power was: Mana Value (2.5) + Fused Mana Quality (3.3) + Artifact Quality (2.6) = 8.4.

He was no longer a mere child in the realm of Official Wizards.

Coupled with the Thunder Punishment Dao Pattern, the speed of his Flying Sword had reached subsonic cruising levels.

This was the result of two years of arduous cultivation after consuming the Heart of the Fierce Sun.

It had to be said that ample resources were sometimes of the utmost importance on the path of Cultivation.

If not for the illustrious achievements from the battle at Blackstone Fortress two years ago, which had earned him the favor and resources of the Church Court, Murphy would have languished for another eight years.

However, even so, truly stepping into the Foundation Establishment Realm was still not that simple.

There was a sentence in the Breathing and Guiding manual that originated from the Tao Te Ching—or at least, was translated into something similar to what Murphy had seen before.

"The Valley Spirit never dies; it is called the Mystic Female. The gate of the Mystic Female is the root of Heaven and Earth. It seems to be there, but it is not exhausted by use."

This was a line about the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Murphy had once quoted it to explain how the "root of man" corresponded to the "root of Heaven and Earth."

Now, Murphy understood it meant far more than that.

The "root of man," which was the Spirit Root, had to emulate the "root of Heaven and Earth"—to seem to be there, yet be inexhaustible in its use.

So-called "it seems to be there, but it is not exhausted by use."

Earlier, Murphy had thought this referred to the so-called "Heaven and Earth Qi," or Mana, flowing from the Spirit Root in an endless, inexhaustible stream.

Now, upon comprehending that the Spirit Root carried a "Path," he instantly realized that the "root of man" had to emulate the "root of Heaven and Earth." By following the principle of "Man follows the Earth, the Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows Nature," the Spirit Root could give birth to its own Law. This Law would be endless and inexhaustible, unaffected by the external environment of the world.

In other words, the first step of Foundation Establishment was to establish the "Path," the "Foundation of Immortality" that would not shift with the whims of the world.

This was similar to how Wizards in the Wizard World used their Spiritual Power to carry fragments of the world’s Law.

Thanks to the unique Qi Refining ability granted by his system, Murphy’s Spirit Root already carried his exclusive Cultivation "Path," so he could be considered to have this step innately covered.

For the second step, Casting the Dao Body, Murphy would have to rely on his own efforts.

"That which has form is born from the formless... There was the Great Simplicity, the Great Beginning, the Great Origin, and the Great Element. The Great Simplicity is that which has not yet seen Qi. The Great Beginning is the beginning of Qi. The Great Origin is the beginning of form. The Great Element is the beginning of substance."

If a Law was to exert its great power on the physical plane, it must rely on a tangible, material vessel.

This vessel was the cultivator’s own Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

First, all three had to reach a certain value before one could even begin Casting the Dao Body.

This was known as Qi Refining Perfection.

But this was merely Perfection in terms of Qi Refining—the growth of the Spirit Root and the balance between Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Second, beyond this layer of Perfection, since the Daoist path emulated Heaven and Earth, the cultivator’s own "microcosm" also needed to achieve a deeper level of balance with the external "macrocosm."

This formed another kind of Perfection, one where the internal and external were interwoven.

At this moment, inside a quiet chamber deep within Monte Castle, an assortment of materials was laid out neatly before Murphy. Aurora had expended great effort to gather them through various channels.

On the left were all sorts of ores. If tested with the technology of his past life, some of them would be found to contain radiation far beyond normal, harmful levels.

For example, there was uranium ore, as dark as night; cobalt ore, which shimmered with an eerie, ghostly blue luster; and thorium ore, its surface covered by an iridescent film of oxide.

Beside them were refined, high-purity gold ingots and silver ingots, as well as dozens of metal blocks made from extremely dense heavy elements.

On the right were several rows of specially made, thick-walled glass jars and Crystal Bottles. They contained herbal juices and extracted essences of different colors, as well as several types of compressed gases that a human body could never directly inhale and utilize under normal conditions.

There was odorless helium, which aids combustion; chemically active fluorine; and inert yet unique neon, among others.

That’s right. To emulate Heaven and Earth, one’s body naturally had to contain what Heaven and Earth contained.

The human body is composed of only about sixty or so common elements. How could it possibly be called a complete microcosm that "emulates Heaven and Earth"?

Heaven and Earth are so vast, containing well over one hundred elements.

Therefore, a key step in Casting the Dao Body was to use a mystical method to refine and integrate certain elements that existed in Heaven and Earth but not originally in the human body. This would complete the composition of the "microcosm," making it closer to the "macrocosm" on a material level.

This was why Foundation Establishment had strict requirements for one’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Otherwise, there would be far too many numerical ratios for the Perfection of the Spirit Root and Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

Without sufficiently formidable Essence, profound Qi, and resilient Spirit, a cultivator would be completely unable to withstand the immense burden of refining and integrating these unique elements.

Before he had acquired Celestial Craftsmanship, if Murphy wanted to attempt Foundation Establishment, he could only follow the method recorded in the Breathing and Guiding manual.

He would have to risk directly absorbing the "Heaven and Earth Qi" of various natures that existed around these minerals, herbs, and even gases. At the same time, he would also need to absorb the "Heaven and Earth Qi" of different attributes brought about by the turning of the four seasons, the alternation of day and night, and the changes in solar terms. He would have to rely on an Extraordinary physique to endure it all, forcibly achieving a balanced state of Perfection among the various types of "Heaven and Earth Qi" inside his body.

This method was exceptionally treacherous, with nine chances of death for every one of life.

The slightest carelessness could break the balance, causing the different types of Heaven and Earth Qi to clash. This would result in a backlash, and the cultivator would perish before their journey’s end.

But with Celestial Craftsmanship, Murphy had another choice.

He could use his True Flame to first refine the substances corresponding to these elements into Spiritual Materials. Then, he could use these Spiritual Materials as bricks to build his Dao Body, refining them into himself in an orderly manner and fusing them with his own Essence, Qi, and Spirit. This would allow him to complete his microcosm and cast a flawless Dao Foundation under relatively safe conditions.

Murphy let out a deep breath. He sat cross-legged in the center of the quiet chamber, his gaze sweeping over the materials that had been gathered at a tremendous cost.

’I’ll start with the immortal nature of gold to stabilize my physical form.’

He raised his right hand, palm up, and with a slight stir of his will, a black True Flame leaped into existence, hovering silently just above his palm.

Then, a refined gold ingot floated up gracefully and plunged into the cluster of dark True Flame.

Under the tempering of the flame, the gold ingot itself gradually shrank, its color shifting from a brilliant yellow to a deeper, more subdued Dark Gold.

The first step of Casting the Dao Body had begun.