Chapter 143: It’s just that Zhan Gu has acknowledged me as his master

There were no surprises on Li Tiansuo’s end.

She had just relived, once again, the bitter memories Professor Li Yunxian had imparted to her half a year ago.

Only after sending Li Yunxian away did she finally manage to relax a little.

But, truthfully, she still couldn’t quite let her guard down.

Li Tiansuo couldn’t help but check her phone from time to time.

She always felt as if that acquaintance of hers in Pingnan might suddenly call her and say, “Something’s happened in Pingnan. It’s because of Li Yunxian.”

But things seemed to be better than Li Tianying had imagined.

She waited and waited. Three days passed, yet no news arrived.

After some inquiring, she heard that Li Yunxian had entered the Battle Valley, and nothing seemed amiss there.

At last, Li Tianying tossed her phone aside and lay down at ease.

It wasn’t that she thought the trouble had passed.

Back when she called someone over at Wenwu, she’d also received the answer, “Li Yunxian is perfectly fine at Wenwu.”

So now, Li Tiansuo thought, unless Li Yunxian pulled off something like “breaking out of Battle Valley within three days and shattering all its records,” then, given her own poor imagination, Li Yunxian would probably only come looking for her at least half a year from now.

Before she had to go clean up another mess, it made sense to enjoy herself a little while she could.

But in reality…

After struggling in the Battle Valley for three days, an utterly exhausted Li Yunxian had only managed to delay the explosion of the rift.

And now she…

Found she could no longer maintain things.

Those city-tower treasures at Wenwu required a cultivator at the Distraction stage like Li Tianying, with a whole team, to manage.

Without a doubt, Battle Valley was far beyond the scope of any artifacts Li Yunxian could craft.

The fact that things hadn’t collapsed after three days was already the result of her using every trick at her disposal, diverting the piled-up energy from the rupture.

But… the energy Battle Valley spat out was more than Li Yunxian could divert.

Li Yunxian stared at the rift before her, which snapped open once more with a brittle “crack.”

Since she couldn’t fix the symptoms… then she would treat the root.

Li Yunxian took a deep breath and drew all the energy she’d refined over the past three days into her body.

Instantly, the blockages in Li Yunxian’s acupoints burst open like a breached dam, with barely any resistance.

All 360 acupoints brimmed with abundant energy.

Qi Refining—full perfection.

Li Yunxian’s gaze remained calm. She didn’t rush to open that final acupoint leading to Foundation Establishment but continued absorbing energy.

Her meridians and acupoints swelled, but Li Yunxian paid them no heed.

After the body tempering in the Blood Pool, her physique already met the standard for Foundation Establishment.

More than a year had passed since then, and with plenty of resources, Li Yunxian had never stopped refining herself.

Her physical strength rivaled Foundation Establishment’s peak—how could mere Qi Refining energy hurt her?

She could withstand more!

Li Yunxian’s judgment of her body was extremely precise.

As her meridians and acupoints swelled, her body didn’t rupture from the overwhelming energy. Instead, the energy was compressed by her physique.

Twice.

The compression continued.

***

In the end, a single drop of pure energy condensed and sank into one of Li Yunxian’s acupoints.

Then came the second drop, the third…

After a week had passed, all 360 acupoints within Li Yunxian were completely saturated with this pure liquid energy.

Only now, after linking all 360 acupoints, did Li Yunxian, for the first time, circulate the cultivation technique she practiced.

The liquefied energy flowed through her body like blood.

Starting from the first acupoint, then the second… all the way to the 360th, finally surging without hindrance toward the last acupoint.

Li Yunxian felt a huge, illusory roar resounding in her ears.

Her dantian opened.

And not just opened.

That exceptionally pure energy liquid carved out an immense dantian for her.

It nearly matched the standard for a typical Foundation Establishment cultivator at full perfection.

This wasn’t particularly strange.

After all, the spiritual power condensed within Li Yunxian’s body was already at the level of a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator.

And that wasn’t all.

Li Yunxian sensed her newly forged dantian.

Using pure, clean spiritual power perfectly matching her own spiritual roots, what she built was the so-called Spirit Foundation.

One of the most stable types of cultivation foundations.

Foundation Establishment—this is the stage where everyone strives to forge a stable foundation for further cultivation.

If your foundation isn’t stable enough, you can’t even contain a Golden Core, let alone hope to reach that stage.

But what kind of foundation was this dantian of hers, forged entirely from pure energy?

Li Yunxian felt her dantian was even more stable than the Spirit Foundation she knew of.

It seemed as if it could already withstand a Golden Core without issue.

Li Yunxian pondered her current situation—should she count as early Foundation Establishment, or peak Foundation Establishment?

Of course, the answer was: as long as she didn’t immediately condense a core, she should count as early Foundation Establishment.

If she did condense a core, she’d immediately enter the Golden Core stage.

At present, her dantian foundation wasn’t fully shaped—it could still expand and stabilize further.

This was the state of early Foundation Establishment.

Li Yunxian slowly opened her eyes.

She looked once again at the energy swirling around the rift.

With all the auxiliary items, plus the energy she’d burned in advancing her own cultivation, over the past week or so, the rift in Battle Valley had only increased by a tiny amount—for a Heaven-grade artifact capable of supporting everything from Qi Refining to Tribulation Crossing, her leap from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment barely counted for anything.

Even though the energy she consumed was nearly at Golden Core level, for Battle Valley as a whole, it was still too little.

It only slightly delayed the collapse of the valley.

Li Yunxian checked how much longer the area beneath her feet could last, then closed her eyes again.

She unceremoniously began Foundation Establishment cultivation.

Her technique ran rapidly.

Each full cycle tempered her acupoints and dantian anew, and with an endless supply of pure energy, the stabilization of her dantian progressed at astonishing speed.

A month later, Li Yunxian opened her eyes.

Mid Foundation Establishment.

This pure energy, produced by a Heaven-grade artifact, was truly remarkable—her dantian was basically stable now.

Looking at the now half-shattered section before her, Li Yunxian drew a deep breath.

She had prepared everything she possibly could in this time.

So now…

Li Yunxian’s divine sense shot along Battle Valley’s internal energy pathways.

She knew this route well.

All this time, she’d been following this channel to draw in energy for her own cultivation.

She was intimately familiar with this path.

Li Yunxian had used only the purest energy from Battle Valley to forge her dantian, draining all the spiritual power from her meridians and acupoints as she cultivated.

In Battle Valley’s perception, Li Yunxian was not an intruder to guard against, but a part of itself.

And so…

Li Yunxian’s consciousness smoothly reached Battle Valley’s control core.

Without any hesitation, her divine sense swept out to cover it.

She intended to modify Battle Valley’s operations!

All the current issues stemmed from the fact that Battle Valley’s creators had left out the conversion of merit golden light.

If she just filled in this gap, all the problems could be solved!

She could do this.

Or rather—she alone could do this.

Ordinary people couldn’t alter a Heaven-grade artifact.

Li Tianying’s soul was not strong enough; Su Wenjing knew nothing of artifact crafting.

Only her.

Li Yunxian could accomplish this with a soul at the Tribulation Crossing stage!

It took little effort for Li Yunxian to find the control core’s logic module.

Without a moment’s pause, her divine sense engraved itself there.

Yet, just as she did, Li Yunxian suddenly felt something was amiss.

She… seemed to have expelled something from within the core.

As for what she had driven out… cough, Li Yunxian was actually quite familiar with it.

It was someone else’s divine sense.

And it belonged to someone at the Body Integration stage.

Having fixed Battle Valley’s bug and seized artifact control—now successfully enthroned as the master of Battle Valley—Li Yunxian thought:

Wait, isn’t this Battle Valley supposed to be like the Blood Pool, Heavenly Staircase, and Immortal Cascade?

The other three items never required a master—why do you, Battle Valley, have to be special!!!

Pingnan Principal, currently not in Pingnan Academy, and having suddenly, without warning, lost control of the academy’s treasured Battle Valley:

???

Confusion flickered in the Pingnan Principal’s eyes.

Li Yunxian had integrated with Battle Valley so thoroughly, the Pingnan Principal hadn’t sensed her presence at all.

To him, it felt as if he’d suddenly been kicked out by Battle Valley.

He had no idea what was going on.

But the Pingnan Principal acted quickly, immediately contacting the senior staff in the academy.

“Something’s happened with Battle Valley! Evacuate everyone from it, investigate what’s going on—I’ll return at once!”

And while the Pingnan Principal was fast to react, so was Li Yunxian.

She quickly withdrew her divine sense.

The bug beneath Li Yunxian’s feet instantly vanished, leaving only a scattering of cracks as evidence of what had just transpired.

Then Li Yunxian blinked, and the cracks on the ground disappeared completely.

Now that she controlled all of Battle Valley, directing it to self-repair cost her no effort at all.

With a wave of her hand, Li Yunxian retrieved all the artifacts and items she’d placed around herself, and sensed over a dozen Distraction-stage cultivators appearing above Battle Valley.

***

Ten minutes later, the perfectly ordinary Li Yunxian was escorted out of Battle Valley.

She obediently complied with Pingnan’s arrangements and returned to her temporary residence.

She felt a divine sense monitoring her.

As long as Li Yunxian willed it, anyone with weaker soul strength than hers would be unable to monitor her actions.

Calmly, Li Yunxian picked up her phone and dialed Li Tianying’s number.

“Teacher, I’ve come out of Battle Valley.”

“Want to pick me up for Tiantong? Uh, maybe there’s no need to rush.” Li Yunxian said tactfully, “Something happened at Battle Valley—a minor issue, nothing serious, so I won’t be leaving right away.”

“What sort of minor issue?” Li Yunxian answered in the mildest way possible, “Just that Battle Valley recognized me as its master, that’s all.”

Li Tiansuo:

Li Tiansuo:

As a mighty cultivator at the Distraction stage, specializing in artifact creation, her hands had never trembled since advancing to that level.

But now, she completely lost control—they trembled.

For a moment, she thought she’d misheard.

But reason told her she hadn’t.

This was exactly the kind of thing Li Yunxian could pull off.

After all, she’d already lured away the Heavenly Staircase at Wenwu.

So, back then, she didn’t snatch the Heavenly Staircase, because she was waiting to claim Pingnan’s Battle Valley now?

Li Tianying fell silent, then suddenly sensed something wasn’t right.

“Isn’t Battle Valley the artifact inherited by every Pingnan Principal? It’s already recognized a master, and with someone at the Body Integration stage controlling it—in theory, there’s no one in all of Shenzhou who could do that.”

“Even Su Wenjing, with a soul at the Tribulation Crossing level, couldn’t do it.

The moment someone tried to invade with their divine sense, the system would instantly detect and reject them.

Li Yunxian’s voice was full of innocence: “I don’t know, I just suddenly felt like I could control the entire Battle Valley.”

She was just a fresh Foundation Establishment cultivator—how could she possibly know anything!

She didn’t!

Li Tiansuo covered her face, finally coming out of her shock, and helplessly instructed Li Yunxian,

“Keep controlling Battle Valley. Don’t undo the binding. If no one’s controlling it, Battle Valley will shut down, and its entire landscape will collapse.”

Battle Valley had been running for a thousand years and was already integrated with the surrounding terrain.

Li Tianying often fixed things up at the Four Academies, so she knew all about this.

Of course, right now she really wished she didn’t.

Li Tianying finished with, “I’ll come right over.”

“Okay,” Li Yunxian answered obediently.

Li Tiansuo:

If only her student’s actual behavior could be as obedient as her voice.

After hanging up, Li Tianying checked the date.

Well.

At least she’d had a month and a half of rest.

Thinking so, Li Tiansuo left her room and walked to the door of a villa.

She knocked.

The door opened.

Looking at the person inside, Li Tianying put on a smile.

“Professor Su, Li Yunxian’s accidentally been recognized as the master of Battle Valley. Would you like to come to Pingnan with me?”

She asked in the same relaxed tone as if inviting the other for a meal.

She felt like she couldn’t handle this alone.

Su Wenjing: ???

What?