Deep within Dragon Yuan Mountain, in one of the secluded cultivation chambers belonging to the Lin Family, Lin Yan sat cross-legged upon a jade platform, her back straight, her hands resting naturally upon her knees, her eyes closed as vast quantities of spiritual qi circulated through her meridians.
The cultivation chamber was almost completely silent, the only sound being the faint hum of the formation engraved into the surrounding walls.
Yet the chamber was anything but empty.
Countless jade bottles and spiritual boxes had been arranged around Lin Yan, each containing medicinal pills prepared specifically for her breakthrough. Most of them carried either Wood or Fire attributes, their spiritual qi leaking from their containers in faint wisps that gathered around her like two coloured clouds, one possessing the gentle vitality of Wood, the other carrying the vigorous and destructive nature of Fire.
These pills were not ordinary Foundation Establishment pills.
Every single one had been carefully selected for her.
Some were intended to replenish spiritual qi, others to repair the meridians, others to restore vitality, while some were specifically meant to assist in balancing the opposing characteristics of Wood and Fire.
Even with the wealth of the Lin Family, gathering so many resources had required considerable effort.
Lin Yan had already been sitting here for several days.
Her aura fluctuated continuously.
One moment, it would rise sharply, causing the spiritual qi throughout the chamber to tremble, the pressure spreading outward like an invisible tide.
The next moment, that aura would suddenly fall, becoming calm and restrained before slowly rising again.
Rise.
Fall.
Rise again.
Every fluctuation represented her body and cultivation repeatedly approaching the threshold of the Purple Palace Realm, then stabilising before another wave of spiritual qi surged through her body.
She was not attempting to force the breakthrough.
At her level, forcing such a transformation would be foolish.
The Foundation Establishment Realm and Purple Palace Realm were separated by a fundamental transformation, and although Lin Yan's foundation was strong enough to support that transformation, she still needed to allow her spiritual qi, divine sense and physical body to reach the appropriate state before taking the final step.
The bottleneck between Foundation Establishment and Purple Palace was actually quite simple.
Opening the Niwan Palace.
Gathering one's divine sense into it.
Then transforming the Niwan Palace into a Purple Palace capable of housing and nourishing one's divine sense.
For ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators, however, that simple description represented an extremely difficult bottleneck.
The Niwan Palace was located within the upper region of the body, connected to the sea of consciousness and divine sense, and opening it required the cultivator's divine sense to reach a sufficient level of refinement. Many cultivators spent years accumulating spiritual qi and strengthening their divine sense, yet when they finally attempted the breakthrough, they would discover that their divine sense was still insufficient to force open the barrier.
Some cultivators would spend decades at the peak of Foundation Establishment because of this.
Others would remain there for the rest of their lives.
But Lin Yan was different.
She had already refined her divine sense to a level where the opening of her Niwan Palace was almost a natural process.
For her, there was essentially no bottleneck in this aspect.
The moment her divine sense entered the required state, the Niwan Palace would naturally open, allowing her divine sense to gather within it and transform it into a Purple Palace.
But that was only one part of the breakthrough.
The more important transformation concerned her spiritual qi.
Foundation Establishment spiritual qi and Purple Palace spiritual qi could not be compared.
The difference was not merely a matter of quantity.
Purity mattered.
The quality of a cultivator's spiritual qi was closely connected to the foundation they had established during Foundation Establishment.
A cultivator with an ordinary foundation might possess an enormous amount of spiritual qi, but the purity of that spiritual qi would limit their future potential.
A cultivator with a high-grade foundation, however, would possess spiritual qi of considerably greater purity, allowing it to undergo a more profound transformation upon entering Purple Palace.
Lin Yan's Foundation was high grade.
Therefore, when the transformation began, she did not need to spend an enormous amount of time purifying her spiritual qi.
The foundation she had established had already laid the groundwork.
The remaining problem was synchronisation.
Her divine sense needed to penetrate deeply into her spiritual qi, causing the two to resonate with one another, and through that resonance, her spiritual qi would undergo a qualitative transformation, its purity increasing while its total quantity simultaneously underwent a leap.
That process was extremely dangerous.
A cultivator could not simply rely on their own spiritual qi to complete it.
A Rank 3 breakthrough spiritual object was required.
More importantly, the spiritual object had to possess attributes compatible with the cultivator's spiritual qi.
For most cultivators, one such spiritual object would be enough.
Lin Yan needed two.
Sitting several metres in front of her were two spiritual objects placed upon separate jade platforms.
The first was a small crimson object that resembled a piece of translucent crystal, although faint flames constantly moved within its depths.
Flame Phoenix Marrow.
The second was a piece of emerald-green jade, its surface covered with naturally occurring patterns resembling the veins of a leaf.
Coalesced Wood Jade.
Both were Rank 3 spiritual objects.
Neither had been artificially refined.
They had been formed naturally at the core of existing Rank 3 spirit veins, one born from a Fire-attribute Rank 3 spirit vein, the other from a Wood-attribute Rank 3 spirit vein.
Such treasures were exceedingly rare.
A Rank 3 spirit vein could condense a spiritual object like this only after accumulating enormous quantities of spiritual essence over a long period of time, and once the essence was extracted, the spirit vein would require another period of recovery before it could produce another.
For some Rank 3 spirit veins, that recovery period might be around a hundred years.
For others, it could reach two hundred years.
That was why these spiritual objects could not be produced in large quantities even by powerful cultivation forces.
The Lin Family had spent considerable resources acquiring both.
And Lin Yan knew exactly why.
Her eyes remained closed as the spiritual essence of Wood and Fire continued flowing around her.
She possessed an incomplete Wood-attribute spiritual body.
That incomplete spiritual body had already provided her with considerable advantages.
Her recovery ability was far beyond that of an ordinary cultivator, her vitality was unusually vigorous, her injuries healed faster, and even her lifespan had increased beyond what would normally be expected from someone at her cultivation level.
But it was incomplete.
There was a fundamental flaw.
The Wood spiritual body existed, yet it had never completely manifested its potential.
Then came the Heaven Mending Fruit.
And the Heaven Mending Pill that her brother had taken and subsequently allowed her to benefit from.
Through those opportunities, Lin Yan's spiritual roots had undergone an astonishing transformation.
She now possessed Earth-grade Wood and Fire spiritual roots.
Two Earth-grade spiritual roots.
Yet even that was not enough.
Lin Yan did not want to merely possess two powerful spiritual roots.
She wanted to fuse them.
She wanted to use the power of her Wood and Fire spiritual roots as a foundation, then use the incomplete spiritual body as a conduit, allowing the three to eventually merge into something complete.
A complete spiritual body.
That was the path she had chosen.
And if she succeeded, her future would no longer be limited to the Purple Palace Realm or even Golden Core.
She would have the foundation necessary to walk much further.
At least to Nascent Soul.
Perhaps even beyond.
But that path demanded an extremely dangerous transformation.
The Flame Phoenix Marrow and Coalesced Wood Jade were the key.
The spiritual essence contained within them was powerful enough to assist her breakthrough, but more importantly, they represented the two attributes she needed to fuse.
Lin Yan had understood this long ago.
She also understood the danger.
If she swallowed both spiritual objects simultaneously, their attributes would inevitably clash.
Wood generated Fire.
Fire could consume Wood.
Under normal circumstances, attempting to introduce two powerful Rank 3 spiritual essences into the body simultaneously would be no different from deliberately throwing two raging beasts into a cage and expecting them not to tear each other apart.
Any other cultivator who saw what Lin Yan intended to do would probably think that she had gone insane.
But Lin Yan had no intention of swallowing them separately.
She had already considered every possibility.
If she swallowed one first and allowed its spiritual essence to completely merge into her body before taking the second, the first attribute would establish dominance.
The second would then be forced to integrate into an already established spiritual structure.
That might allow her to break through safely.
But it would also make true fusion far more difficult.
She did not want Wood and Fire to merely coexist within her.
She wanted them to become one.
Therefore, they had to enter her body together.
Her aura suddenly rose.
The spiritual qi within the cultivation chamber began surging violently, the formation beneath her trembling as waves of invisible pressure spread outward.
Lin Yan's eyelashes trembled.
Her breathing slowed.
Her aura rose again.
Then it suddenly fell.
Silence returned.
A moment later, her aura stabilised.
Lin Yan opened her eyes.
Her gaze was extraordinarily calm.
She looked towards the two spiritual objects before her.
There was no hesitation.
Her hand moved.
The Flame Phoenix Marrow and Coalesced Wood Jade immediately flew towards her, one carrying the heat of a phoenix's flame, the other carrying the dense vitality of a vast ancient forest.
Lin Yan opened her mouth and swallowed both simultaneously.
The moment they entered her body, the two Rank 3 spiritual objects melted.
There was no chewing.
No gradual refinement.
Their spiritual essence transformed directly into liquid-like torrents that surged through her body.
Then—
Fire exploded.
Wood erupted.
The two spiritual essences collided almost immediately.
Lin Yan's body violently trembled.
Her face turned pale.
The spiritual qi within her meridians suddenly became chaotic as the crimson Fire essence rushed in one direction while the emerald Wood essence surged in another.
The Fire essence was like a phoenix breaking free from its cage, blazing through her meridians with terrifying heat.
The Wood essence was equally fierce, carrying a boundless vitality that attempted to expand throughout her body.
The collision between the two created an almost unbearable pressure.
Lin Yan's fingers dug into the jade platform.
Her nails cracked against the hard surface.
Blood slowly seeped from beneath them.
She gritted her teeth.
"Merge..."
Her voice was barely audible.
She did not attempt to suppress either side.
That would be impossible.
Instead, she used her divine sense to force the two spiritual essences towards each other.
The moment they collided, a violent shockwave erupted within her body.
Blood sprayed from the corner of her mouth.
Lin Yan's body shook violently, her hair scattering behind her as the spiritual essence within the chamber was drawn towards her at an astonishing speed.
The protective formation around the cultivation chamber immediately activated.
Runes lit up one after another, preventing the violent spiritual fluctuations from escaping and alerting the rest of the Lin Family.
Inside the chamber, however, Lin Yan was enduring a catastrophe.
Her meridians felt as though they were being torn apart.
The Fire essence burned through her body, while the Wood essence continuously repaired the damage before being burned again.
It was an endless cycle of destruction and regeneration.
Her incomplete spiritual body began reacting instinctively.
A faint green light emerged from within her flesh.
The Wood spiritual body attempted to heal her.
At the same time, the Fire spiritual root began absorbing the surrounding Fire essence.
The two forces continued fighting.
Lin Yan's skin gradually split in several places, blood flowing from her shoulders, arms and chest before dripping onto the ground beneath her.
She did not move.
She only gritted her teeth and endured.
One day passed.
The conflict did not weaken.
Instead, it became increasingly violent.
The spiritual essence of the Flame Phoenix Marrow and Coalesced Wood Jade had been condensed within Rank 3 spirit veins, their power far beyond what an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator could withstand.
If Lin Yan's foundation had been weaker, her body would have already collapsed.
If her divine sense had been weaker, she would have lost control of the two spiritual essences.
If her spiritual roots had remained ordinary, the two powers would have torn apart her cultivation.
But none of those conditions applied.
She had a high-grade Foundation.
She possessed two Earth-grade spiritual roots.
She possessed an incomplete spiritual body.
Her divine sense was powerful enough to naturally open the Niwan Palace.
And most importantly, her will was extraordinarily firm.
She knew that if she gave up now, the spiritual essence would no longer have a path towards fusion.
She would either suffer severe cultivation damage or be forced to abandon the process completely.
Lin Yan refused both possibilities.
"Again..."
Her teeth clenched.
Her divine sense surged deeper.
The Wood essence and Fire essence were once again pulled together.
A terrifying collision erupted.
Blood flowed from Lin Yan's nose.
Then her ears.
Then the corners of her eyes.
Her robes were gradually stained crimson, and the jade floor beneath her became covered in blood.
Yet the green and red spiritual light surrounding her had begun to change.
At first, they were completely separate.
Then, within the violent chaos, traces of green began appearing inside the crimson flames.
Likewise, faint crimson threads began appearing within the Wood essence.
Wood and Fire were no longer completely distinct.
They were beginning to intertwine.
Lin Yan's breathing became even slower.
She could feel something changing deep within her body.
Her spiritual roots trembled.
Her incomplete spiritual body trembled with them.
The spiritual essence that had originally been tearing her body apart was gradually being drawn towards a single point.
The two forces continued colliding.
Again.
And again.
Every collision caused Lin Yan's body to bleed.
Every collision also brought the two attributes closer together.
Two days passed.
By then, blood had completely stained the ground beneath her.
Lin Yan sat within the centre of the crimson pool, her body covered in wounds, her hair soaked with sweat and blood, her face pale enough to resemble white jade.
Yet her eyes remained closed.
Her aura continued fluctuating.
Sometimes weak.
Sometimes terrifyingly powerful.
Sometimes carrying the blazing dominance of Fire.
Sometimes filled with the gentle vitality of Wood.
But now, beneath those two distinct auras, something else had appeared.
A faint resonance.
The two spiritual essences were no longer simply fighting.
They were beginning to respond to one another.
Lin Yan's divine sense slowly descended deeper into her spiritual qi, penetrating every layer of her cultivation.
The transformation had not yet succeeded.
Her Purple Palace had not yet formed.
Her spiritual body had not yet become complete.
But the foundation of that transformation had finally begun to appear.
And Lin Yan remained motionless within the cultivation chamber, silently enduring the pain as Wood and Fire continued their terrifying convergence inside her body.