No wonder those major families fought tooth and nail over there—it turned out to be a Foundation Establishment technique.
Although there were four Foundation Establishment cultivators in that small town, they were merely individuals who had managed to reach Qi Condensation Perfection and broke through by relying on a Foundation Establishment Pill. No matter how many times more refined their techniques were compared to ordinary Qi Condensation methods, they were still just Qi Condensation techniques. This, however, was a complete and flawless Foundation Establishment technique; cultivating it to its peak even offered a glimpse into the Golden Core Great Dao.
After hiding in the woods for several days, he finally managed to slip out undetected.
Upon returning to the clan grounds, just as he was about to head to his room to wash up, he saw the three brothers walking toward him.
While he was wondering why the three of them had returned, he heard them say, "Master has advanced to Level 7 Qi Condensation. Congratulations, Master."
The three brothers looked somewhat surprised, and envy involuntarily showed on their faces. Because the three brothers had gone to the town to look after the shop during those few days of breakthrough, they had missed the news of Chen Fan's advancement.
There are twelve levels in Qi Condensation, and breaking through from Level 6 Qi Condensation to Level 7 is a minor bottleneck. How many people with poor aptitude linger here for years, or even decades? For those with inferior aptitude, every single level is like crossing a mountain! No wonder the three brothers were so surprised.
Having been here for a long time, the three brothers had always been diligent and dedicated. Naturally, Chen Fan did not treat them unfairly; to say nothing else, the unreserved sharing of his alchemical knowledge benefited the three brothers immensely. The three brothers were only in their twenties this year, and their cultivation was quite respectable, having already reached Level 4 Qi Condensation.
All three brothers shared the surname Li: the eldest was Li Changzhi, the second was Li Fengming, and the third was Li Zhongming.
...
After asking around, Chen Fan learned why the three of them had returned. Come to think of it, with chaos breaking out in the forest, how could the town possibly remain safe? Sensing that things were going badly, the three brothers had taken the items from the shop and fled back early.
Seeing this situation, Chen Fan decided to hunker down here and develop in secret for a while.
...
Inside the pavilion of techniques, Chen Fan placed his acquired techniques into separate categories. As for the Foundation Establishment technique, he did not dare to take it out just yet, so he had not copied it down.
Looking at the various techniques, alchemy arts, spirit planting arts, beast-taming arts, weapon-crafting arts, along with various low-tier offensive and defensive spells inside the pavilion... Chen Fan could not help but feel a surge of pride.
Looking at all this before him, and recalling the Spirit Tools wielded by the family descendants he had seen in the forest, he finally realized what was missing: a clan treasury.
With this thought, he retrieved from the pavilion of techniques a primary weapon-crafting manual—one of the various miscellaneous manuals he had bought up in town in large quantities back when he had first built the pavilion.
"Blue system, add points..." Ahem, "System, upgrade it to a First-Tier weapon-crafting art for me."
In an instant, hundreds of First-Tier weapon-crafting materials and basic weapon-crafting knowledge introduced in the manual were completely mastered by Chen Fan.
"Ah! All of this relies entirely on my own hard work!" After a brief sigh of emotion, he began having people construct a weapon-crafting pavilion.
At the very beginning, Chen Fan had never thought about crafting magical tools, because he always felt he was different. But over the past few days, Chen Fan had come to terms with reality. He was not like those protagonists who could become immortals in just a few years; he could only take things one step at a time. Therefore, he could no longer underestimate the combat power of the Qi Condensation stage, otherwise he wouldn't even know how he ended up kicking the bucket one day.
Seeing his wife busy preparing and planning the site to build the weapon-crafting pavilion, Chen Fan felt a wave of warmth in his heart. Indeed, Chen Fan had discovered that his wife was quite talented in managing such matters, so he had handed the administration directly over to her.
Thinking of weapon-crafting suddenly reminded him of that Foundation Establishment technique. If he remembered correctly, that Foundation Establishment technique seemed to have wood and fire affinities, which happened to match his identity as an Alchemist, and was also just right for fire-attribute weapon-crafting.
With this thought, Chen Fan had a quick word with his wife and returned to his room to cultivate. After checking his system, Chen Fan decided to give it a try himself.
"System, add points."
A few days later.
Chen Fan finally successfully converted his Spiritual Power. Feeling his surging Spiritual Power, he sighed with emotion: "It is indeed much better than my trashy old technique. As expected of a technique that leads directly to the Foundation Establishment Peak."
Upon going outside and seeing the completed weapon-crafting pavilion, Chen Fan felt a surge of joy in his heart. Just as he was about to get some materials to start crafting, he discovered that all the materials in the room were gone.
Thinking he had been robbed, Chen Fan hurriedly found Li Lingyu and asked her, only to realize that the treasury had already been built, and his wife had packed up all those miscellaneous items and organized them into categories inside.
Sighing over how capable his wife was, Chen Fan scooped her up for a kiss before heading toward the treasury.
According to Chen Fan's requirements, the pavilion of techniques, weapon-crafting pavilion, alchemy pavilion, and treasury were all built surrounding the Spirit Spring at the very center.
This was an inspiration Chen Fan had gained from a Formation. When these four pavilions were constructed, Chen Fan had also refined four formation disks and placed them on the roofs. Later, by integrating the previously established Formation around the Spirit Spring, it would be capable of withstanding Level 10 Qi Condensation cultivators. Of course, as the grade of the Spirit Spring grew higher, the power of this Formation would also increase. Moreover, once resources became abundant in the later stages, it could be upgraded. For now, they just needed to wait for time to foster its growth.
Entering the treasury, Chen Fan's eyes lit up. Looking at everything so neatly arranged, he felt a secret sense of delight. After all, this was something he had created with his own hands—what man could resist having the clan genealogy start from the page bearing his name?
Taking out some First-Tier weapon-crafting materials, Chen Fan turned and walked toward the weapon-crafting pavilion.
These First-Tier weapon-crafting materials were not particularly expensive; ordinary mortal iron, after being tempered by spiritual fire, could form First-Tier spiritual materials. However, materials carrying a trace of spiritual qi were not very common; these were considered top-tier First-Tier weapon-crafting materials. If one were lucky enough to encounter ones imbued with various elemental attributes, those would be Second-Tier, Third-Tier, or even higher-tier weapon-crafting materials.
He began crafting according to the contents of the primary weapon-crafting manual. The lower-tier weapon-crafting process was actually not very complex, as it entirely involved tempering and processing mortal iron.
A weapon-crafting apprentice only had a nice-sounding title; to put it bluntly, they were nothing more than blacksmiths, and everything they forged consisted of mere mortal tools. Even though Chen Fan was now a First-Tier Alchemist—ah, First-Tier weapon-crafting master—he wasn't all that advanced; he had simply crossed the threshold.
Low-tier weapon-crafting was nothing more than using Spiritual Power to raise spiritual fire within the furnace, placing these low-tier mortal materials into the furnace in the correct order and at the proper temperature, smelting them together, tempering them with Spiritual Power, cooling them down, and then hammering them into shape.
If one knew Formations, one could engrave specialized weapon-crafting Formations during the forging process to enhance their power. Therefore, master weapon-crafters were generally also Formation masters, albeit somewhat lopsided in their expertise.
There was also a limit to the number of Formations that could be engraved. For instance, magical tools forged from the lowest-tier mortal materials could only have a single simple Formation engraved upon them. Intermediate magical tools could have three Formations engraved, while advanced magical tools could have anywhere from four to six Formations engraved, depending on the materials used and the artisan's skill.