First-Class Foundation Establishment Accomplished

Yang An was fuming.

Suddenly, he felt a wet patch on his face. Turning his head, he saw Manman smearing a large patch of saliva on his cheek, like she was applying putty.

"What are you doing?"

Yang An lifted her off him.

Manman stammered, "N-nothing."

"Nothing? Then what's with all the drool on my face?"

"Manman doesn't know either."

Thinking Manman was just being naughty again,

Yang An grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and tossed her onto her own little bed.

After wiping his face clean.

Yang An recalled the three fragments of memory he had just seen, his brows knitting together in a tangled knot.

The shattered Dao Foundation within my body.

And the piercing pain between my brows, both prove that those three memories were indeed my experiences from when I was five or six years old.

Is my real surname Li?

That foul-mouthed old man is my grandfather.

So who exactly are my sister and I?

Whose hand was it that crippled me? What is the background of that flower-wearing youth who stole my Demonic Eye Divine Form? And what did the white-clad youth mean by "things you shouldn't have touched".

Was he referring to the Demonic Eye Divine Form or that nameless cultivation method?

Enduring the throbbing pain coming from between his brows.

Yang An followed the clues he currently had, and a judgment quickly formed in his mind. The Cui and Lin families must be in league with those people! Perhaps, among the experts who hunted me down over a decade ago, there were people from their two families!

If they were after the Demonic Eye, it was already in their hands now.

I am already a cripple.

There is no need to exterminate me completely.

Unless they came for the nameless cultivation method!

That must be it!

This would also explain why the youth from the Zheng family said the noble behind the scenes insisted on capturing my sister alive! After all, the key to unlocking the cultivation method is on her!

Having finally figured out the reason why the Cui and Lin families harmed him.

A freezing killing intent ignited in Yang An's eyes.

Recalling the anger of being hunted by a group of martial artists, the deep-seated hatred of having his limbs snapped and his Dao Foundation shattered by that golden arm, and the heart-piercing humiliation of having the Demonic Eye gouged from between his brows by the flower-wearing youth.

He opened the jade box.

He took out the bottle of peak seventh-grade beast blood. The moment he twisted it open, a thick, baleful aura instantly filled the small room.

Sitting on her little bed, Manman was craving it intensely.

She forcefully stuffed jerky and pastries into her mouth. When that didn't work, she buried her little head into a cup, her bottom sticking out, trying to hypnotize herself: "Manman doesn't want to eat, Manman doesn't want to eat..."

Saying more was useless.

If he wanted revenge, if he wanted to destroy them.

There was only power!

Yang An tilted his head back and swallowed the entire bottle of beast blood in one gulp. He then immediately began to circulate the Foundation Establishment incantation recorded in the nameless cultivation method.

As the incantation circulated.

The essence blood of the peak seventh-grade vicious beast transformed into streams of spiritual energy, pouring into Yang An's long-shattered Dao Foundation. The power of the two Heavenly Spirit Fruits he had swallowed earlier had not yet fully dissipated.

At this moment, it intertwined with the spiritual energy of the beast blood.

It continuously nourished that perfect Dao Foundation which had been as dead as a wasteland. Driven by the cultivation method, the originally shattered Dao Foundation actually began to gradually show signs of life.

From the dead ashes, a sprout was quietly emerging.

At this time, Manman once again smelled the appetizing scent of food beginning to emanate from Yang An, and she couldn't help but drool.

Afraid she wouldn't be able to control herself.

And actually eat Yang An, Manman tried hard to endure the hunger and sat obediently on her little bed, not daring to go over and take a taste.

As Yang An entered a deep state of cultivation.

Time passed bit by bit.

The sky grew completely dark. A crescent moon hung high in the cloudless night sky, scattering its clear radiance everywhere.

Yunzhou City had no curfew.

Although it was late at night, the taverns and gambling dens were still bustling. Red lanterns hung high, attracting passing guests.

And the most clamorous place of all.

Was the Jiaofangsi in the red-light district. Colorful lanterns made it bright as day, exuding extravagance and decadence everywhere. Inside, the charming, soft whispers of women intertwined with the indulgent laughter of men.

The sounds of string and bamboo instruments, along with the urging of wine, lingered endlessly in the ears.

It was a scene of intoxicating luxury. Thumping drumbeats mixed with the music drifted over the walls, rippling through the night and pushing the late-night prosperity to its peak.

Knock, knock, knock.

At the back door of the Flying Flower Courtyard under the jurisdiction of the Jiaofangsi.

A series of knocks rang out.

A young servant dressed in green yawned and opened the door, only to find a disheveled little beggar standing outside.

His hair was matted together.

The clothes on his body were so dirty that their original color couldn't be seen, and a sour, rancid stench could be smelled from afar. In his hands, he tightly clutched two flatbreads he had scrounged from who knows where.

The young servant looked him up and down.

He immediately waved his hand impatiently: "Scram, scram, scram! It's not time to put out the slop yet, you're too early!" He frowned in disgust. "Wait two or three hours. When the guests have mostly left, the slop buckets will be brought over. Come back then!"

The little beggar struggled to speak: "N-no slop... I... I... am looking for Madam Fu..."

"Looking for Madam Fu?"

The servant sneered, his face full of disdain. "In the entire Flying Flower Courtyard, so many top courtesans and entertainers want to see her and have to wait in line. You think it's your turn? A filthy beggar like you is worthy of seeing Madam Fu?"

Seeing that he was about to close the door.

The little beggar hurriedly stepped forward half a pace, suppressing his fear to explain: "I, I kn... know..." In his fear, his words became even more unsmooth.

"Are you trying to force your way in."

The young servant immediately flared up. He raised his foot and kicked the little beggar to the ground. The two flatbreads the little beggar was holding fell to the floor.

"You wild dog!"

The servant pointed at him and shouted angrily, "Hurry up and scram! If you dare to come bother us again, I'll smash your head in!"

The little beggar lay on the ground picking up the flatbreads. Seeing that the flatbreads he had been reluctant to eat were now covered in dirt, the light in his eyes gradually grew cold.

He silently tucked the flatbreads into his robes.

And stood up without a word.

The servant inside the door was still cursing: "What, you still want a beating? Why don't you..."

Before the word "scram" could leave his mouth.

A sharp white flash suddenly tore through the night sky.

When one looked again.

The little beggar was somehow standing ten feet behind the servant, holding a bloody head in his hand.

It was exactly the servant's head.

He casually tossed the head away.

The headless body behind him also fell to the ground as the head landed.

Falling together.

The little beggar's face held no expression, as if he had casually crushed a bug or stepped on an ant. He hid the short blade, which hadn't been stained with a single drop of blood, back on his person.

There was no one around anymore.

He let out a breath of foul air and muttered smoothly and quietly: "I'm already in Yunzhou City now, so using my cultivation doesn't count as breaking the rules, right?"

With no one blocking his way.

He crouched down and hid in the shadows. Then, with a movement technique as agile as a ghost, he silently slipped through the crowded Flying Flower Courtyard in just a few flashes.

He arrived in front of Madam Fu's room.

During this time, he wasn't noticed by a single person. Without knocking, he slipped through the window like a black cat, walked silently behind a heavily made-up woman, and called out: "Madam Fu."

Clicking her abacus.

Madam Fu, who was happily calculating today's earnings, was so frightened that her heart almost leapt out of her mouth.

Thinking an enemy had come knocking.

She hurriedly spun around and struck out with a palm. However, before her palm could reach the little beggar, Madam Fu saw the intruder clearly. Her eyes suddenly shrank, and she hastily withdrew her palm force!

"Hua Yuelian?"

Madam Fu's heavily made-up face was full of astonishment. Then, she hugged the little beggar, heartbroken, and cried out, "Oh my! My little ancestor! Has our White Lotus Divine Cult been wiped out by the imperial court? How did a majestic Divine Sense Fairy end up in such a state?!"

In front of Madam Fu.

The little beggar was no longer as nervous and afraid, and her speech became more fluent. Feeling a bit embarrassed, she broke free from her embrace and said, "Just now when I entered... someone stopped me... I couldn't out-talk him... so I killed him..."

Madam Fu didn't take it seriously at all.

She circled her, checking her carefully. Seeing that she wasn't injured, she breathed a sigh of relief and said casually, "It's just a filthy servant. If he offended you, he deserved to die! Later, I'll find two people to dig a hole under a random tree in the backyard and bury him."

Seeing Hua Yuelian so incredibly dirty.

She hurriedly ordered the maids to bring a tub of hot water. Madam Fu rolled up her sleeves and personally helped Hua Yuelian undress.

Enduring the sour stench.

She peeled off Hua Yuelian's dirty clothes, which were almost glued together, layer by layer. Seeing that she was still carrying two stone-cold flatbreads in her arms, she casually tried to throw them away as well.

Hua Yuelian hurriedly stopped her, "Don't throw them away."

Madam Fu said, "These flatbreads are completely cold and look like they're about to go sour. They can't be eaten anymore."

"They aren't sour. They can be eaten."

"These flatbreads can still be eaten? Has our Divine Cult gone mad from poverty? If my little ancestor is hungry, I will prepare some exquisite food for you right now, so you can eat well after washing up."

A hint of displeasure appeared on Hua Yuelian's brows.

Not wanting to speak, she snatched the flatbreads from Madam Fu's hands and hugged them to her chest.

Madam Fu was speechless.

Unable to dissuade Hua Yuelian, Madam Fu had no choice but to say, "Then I'll heat them up for you later, okay? You can't eat them cold, right?"

Hua Yuelian reluctantly agreed.

She handed the flatbreads, along with the broken silver in her arms.

Together, she gave them to Madam Fu, instructing her to put them away properly.

After stripping off all her clothes, she saw that her originally cold, snow-white, delicate skin was covered in a thick layer of grime.

A majestic Divine Sense Fairy.

How did she turn into a mud child?

Finding it hard to accept, she hurriedly pressed Hua Yuelian into the wooden tub. Holding a brush in her left hand and fragrant soap in her right, she scrubbed her body vigorously.

In a short while.

That tub of hot water infused with fragrant petals turned pitch black and unbearably stinky, no different from river sludge.

After changing the water three times.

The little beggar finally washed off the mud and dirt from her body. Madam Fu pulled her out of the bathwater, sniffed her, and found that she no longer had a foul smell but was instead fragrant.

She then dressed Hua Yuelian in a lotus-white dress.

And carefully braided her long black hair.

After dressing up.

Hua Yuelian finally regained the appearance of the Divine Sense Fairy of the White Lotus Divine Cult. Her eyebrows were curved, her eyes clear, her lips pink, and her face lustrously white. Her timid demeanor wasn't exactly exquisitely glamorous, but it was very eye-catching.

She looked like a blank sheet of paper.

Or a snowy landscape.

From inside out, she exuded the word "innocence."

Madam Fu finally breathed a sigh of relief. She sat beside Hua Yuelian and asked repeatedly, "My little ancestor, how did you end up like this? And you came so late. If you were a few days later, you would have missed the Qilin Banquet! What will we do if you aren't selected as the courtesan then? How will you compete with the other divine maidens for the position of Saintess?!"

Madam Fu had too many questions.

Hua Yuelian didn't know how to answer for a moment. She pursed her pink lips and asked, "Where are the flatbreads?"

Are those flatbreads really that delicious!?

Madam Fu slapped her forehead, wanting to die, but helpless, she hurriedly ordered the maids to bring up the heated flatbreads.

Hua Yuelian asked again, "Where is the silver?"

The broken silver had already been put away separately by Madam Fu before the bath and placed in a money pouch.

She immediately handed the pouch over.

Taking the pouch.

Hua Yuelian opened it and poured the broken silver onto the table. She counted them carefully one by one. After confirming that there were exactly nineteen pieces of broken silver, not a single one missing, she relievedly put them all into a small sachet and kept it close to her body.

Madam Fu sat beside her, feeling a bit strange in her heart.

She had watched Hua Yuelian grow up since childhood. This child had never cared so much about money before. When did she start valuing silver so much?

Just these dozen or so pieces of broken silver.

Yet she actually had to count them carefully one by one.

Madam Fu asked, "Little ancestor, could it be that you are short of money recently? How about I withdraw a thousand or eight hundred taels of silver from the account for you to use first?"

Hua Yuelian just shook her small head.

Then, she picked up the two heated flatbreads and started eating them in small bites.

Madam Fu was speechless.

Waiting until she had eaten both meat flatbreads completely, Madam Fu poured her some water to wash down the salty taste in her mouth before asking the question again.

Hua Yuelian wiped her mouth.

And briefly explained the origin of how she became a beggar.

It was roughly this.

For the Saintess election, the assessment task given to her by the Divine Cult was that she was not allowed to use her cultivation base, nor was she allowed to bring silver. She had to use her beauty to swindle money and cross half of the Great Xia Dynasty from the main headquarters to the Yunzhou branch.

The Divine Sense Fairies of the White Lotus Divine Cult.

Were all rare beauties in the world. This level of assessment task was as simple as picking up a cup to drink water for them.

However, Hua Yuelian was an exception.

She was naturally socially anxious.

She couldn't even speak normally with strangers. Using her beauty to swindle money, such a high-end method, was truly too difficult for her.

But the task couldn't be left undone.

Thus, Hua Yuelian relied on her fate, starving nine meals in three days.

Enduring the wind and sun along the way, wading through rivers and crossing streams, she forcefully walked to Yunzhou on her own two legs. During this time, Hua Yuelian, who had walked from a Divine Sense Fairy into a little beggar, had also tried hard to swindle money.

However, she would feel scared just making eye contact with others.

Let alone taking the initiative to strike up a conversation to swindle money.

Hua Yuelian originally thought that it would end like this; she couldn't possibly swindle money with her beauty, and her assessment task was destined to fail.

Dejected, she entered Yunzhou City.

Walking on the main street, having starved for more than ten days, she smelled the aroma of meat flatbreads by the street and couldn't walk anymore. Standing in the corner, she eagerly looked at them a few more times.

But she never expected that she would swindle money just like that!

She even swindled two meat flatbreads!

If she hadn't been so socially anxious, Hua Yuelian would have been moved to tears right then and there. That was why she cherished that bag of broken silver and those two flatbreads so much.

After listening to Hua Yuelian finish telling all this intermittently.

Madam Fu's vision went dark.

She had a feeling that the Divine Cult's future was doomed.

After finishing talking about these sad matters, Hua Yuelian regained her spirits and asked, "Madam Fu, are there any tasks recently?"

Madam Fu said, "Oh my little ancestor, you are already a Divine Sense Fairy now. You don't need to carry out those assassination missions anymore. Just leave them to the subordinates to do. Your priority right now is to prepare for the courtesan selection..."

Before Madam Fu could even finish.

Courtesan selection?

Me?

Hua Yuelian was scared silly. She quickly ducked under the stool, shaking her head rapidly, "Courtesan or whatever, I can't do it! I only know how to kill people!"

"But if you don't compete for the courtesan, how will you become the Saintess in the future?"

Madam Fu squatted beside the stool to persuade her.

"Competing for the courtesan means so many people will be watching! I can't do it, I will die!" Hua Yuelian hugged her head and curled up into a ball.

Madam Fu was speechless.

The pressure was too great.

Hua Yuelian, whose social anxiety was acting up, wanted to kill some people to relieve her stress. She poked her small head out from under the stool and asked, "Are there any assassination missions?"

Unable to dissuade her.

Madam Fu sighed and said, "As of yesterday, all the assassination missions have been completed. Right now... someone actually approached us this afternoon offering a very high price. One thousand taels of gold to buy the life of an ordinary person."

"That person lives in Wanshou Ward and is named Yang An."

...

Early morning.

Yang An sat cross-legged on the bed and slowly opened his eyes, a dazzling golden light flashing in the depths of his gaze.

After a night of cultivation.

His shattered perfect Dao Foundation had successfully revived, blossoming and bearing fruit to condense into a first-grade Dao Foundation.

Normally.

After condensing a first-grade Dao Foundation, a martial artist would undergo a transformation and possess a thousand catties of strength.

Yang An clenched his fist and casually threw a punch.

It carried a whistling wind, smashing the surrounding air with a muffled bang. The force caused the clothes on his arm to pull taut, nearly tearing them apart.

Dissipating the force.

Yang An felt this newly acquired strength and smiled faintly. "Even without the enhancement of my innate talent, I have one thousand five hundred catties of strength. That is five hundred catties more than an ordinary first-grade Foundation Establishment martial artist."

"A Dao Foundation that was destroyed once."

"Now, having been re-condensed with the help of that nameless cultivation method, it has actually gone a step further than before!"

"That nameless cultivation method is truly miraculous."

The nameless cultivation method also recorded a Divine Aspect chapter. It might even be a complete Dharma Aspect sequence.

Yang An tried to recall it.

However, a severe pain throbbing from the center of his brow interrupted him. Clutching his head, Yang An had a feeling that the injury on his forehead had not healed yet.

He estimated that it would only heal after he completed a perfect Foundation Establishment.

By that time.

Not only would he be able to recall all of his childhood memories, but he would also be able to remember the Divine Aspect chapter recorded in the nameless cultivation method.

...

...

...

I did not even ask for a leave of absence for this.

I am truly too hardworking.