Heaven Dao Foundation Establishment!
However, it was a gamble... He needed to use his longevity to corrode the seal! The thought alone almost made Xiaochun back down... but suddenly, he felt a flash of inspiration!
Gritting his teeth, he decided the idea was worth trying. Getting the second Earthstring crystal out of his bag of holding, he crushed it while calling upon the aura of time from the time hourglass in his mind. Only then, with bloodshot eyes, and clenching his teeth... he began mixing his longevity with the two energies.
If it works, my chances of breaking the seal will increase dramatically! If it doesn't, at least I should get back some of that longevity when reaching Heavenstring Foundation Establishment! I need to do everything I can to be able to live forever!
Using his mind as a pill furnace, he mixed the three energies with extreme caution, forgetting even the trial of fire he was in.
Meanwhile, the other Chosen were relieved to see that Bai Xiaochun seemed to have stopped at four Tideflows. They weren't aware of what was going on, but it was good news for them. A few days later, another Tideflow began!
It was Song Que!
Our hero was too focused on the task at hand to notice but if he had known Song Que was the second after him to start his Tideflows, he would have been relieved.
A few hours later, three other Tideflows started almost at the same time: Ghostfang, Shangguan Tianyou and Nine-Isles!
Those fifth Chosen were all in the first wave of Chosen who started their Tideflow.
It was only when Song Que started his third Tideflow that Bai Xiaochun managed to completely fuse the three kinds of energy into... a time sand grain!
Every time hourglass had special sand grains in them. Thanks to his insane level of knowledge and to an unexpected opportunity, Bai Xioachun managed to make a single sand grain. It had took a few days and this time sand grain would remain stable only inside the Fallen Sword Abyss... but he still managed to do it! It worked!
Bai Xiaochun also paid a heavy price to create this single grain of sand. Much of his hair had turned white and a few wrinkles could be seen on his face. He had sacrificed no less then 50 years of his longevity for it!
Sensing the other Chosen catching up, he didn't hesitate. He sent the time sand grain in his mind toward the seal of eternity. When they touched, the pain he felt was immense!
You see, the seals of eternity were not like the five shackles of mortality. They weren't a huge pressure the person had to destroy. Instead, they felt like a part of the user's body that was being corroded when it was being destroyed. In his past life, the huge amount of power of the gravekeeper gave him and the state of our hero's body meant he didn't felt it... but now he was living it in full!
Fortunately, Bai Xiaochun's method was extremely effective. Soon, fissures appeared on the seal until finally, it broke! As the first seal of eternity broke, a huge amount of Qi that was also full of vitality filled Bai Xiaochun's body. His wrinkles vanished and his hair returned to normal. He felt like the Qi inside his body was being purified, especially inside his dantian.
Unfortunately, Bai Xiaochun was not training the Live Forever Codex, only the Undying Codex, which meant that he didn't get any substantial increase to his fleshy body and he didn't unlock the divine technique associated with the Live Forever Codex.
However, he felt that his Qi had become more potent and his dantian could contain a lot more Qi then before!
But for our hero, the best part was definitely the fact that breaking the seal suddenly created Bai Xiaochun's fifth Tideflow! Inside of it, the other chosen could see a broken hourglass floating inside!
Overall, Bai Xiaochun felt the risk had paid off! But he didn't have time to relax or rejoice. With a shout, Bai Xioachun started his sixth Tideflow, with the Mammoth part of the Dragon-Mammoth-Sea Forming scriptures!
Bai Xiaochun suddenly realized that normally speaking, The Mammoth part of the scriptures shouldn't have been enough to make a complete sixth Tideflow. It should have been able to make an incomplete one, like the Sea Forming part of the scriptures had given him in the past.
However... Bai Xiaochun had fused both the Mammoth part from his Dragon-Mammoth Sea Forming scripture and the one from his Undying Muscles. Therefore, it was vastly stronger than it should have been, forming a complete Tideflow!
Once it stabilized, Bai Xiaochun knew the next part would become difficult as the other Chosen would target him once again. By now, Xu Xiaoshan, Chen Qingrou, Gongsun Wan'er and Beihan Lie had started their Tideflow too, part of the second waves. They were at four Tideflows, almost ready to start their fifth.
But now... focusing on his Waterswamp Kingdom, Bai Xioachun started his seventh Tideflow. His secret technique was so strong that it started his eighth Tideflow at the same time!
And yet, because Bai Xiaochun had, in this timeline, the reputation for being very strong, fierce and vicious, the Chosens in the Fallen Sword Abyss hesitated slightly. But pushed by the other Chosen of the first waves, they gritted their teeth and ran to our hero in an attempt to wreck his Tideflow.
However, this time, guarding our hero, they could see a giant snake with a long horn, who radiated shocking fleshy body power. Its venom dripped from its fang and its potent aroma was enough to make every other Chosen tremble in terror. Not only that, but the wall of paper talismans that was protecting Bai Xiaochun seemed endless.
Just like in the past, nothing they could do mattered. Bai Xiaochun even smiled smugly, unafraid of them.
Secretly, there was another reason that Bai Xiaochun was smiling. He was pleasantly surprised that Shangguan Tianyou had started his seven Tideflow, going much further than he did in the past, equaling Ghostfang. It was even more interesting for him as he recognized the symbol of a resurrection seal inside Shangguan Tianyou's sixth and seventh Tideflow.
Internally, Shangguan Tianyou had becomed incredibly frustrated. Not only had Song Que and Bai Xiaochun been quicker than anyone else in history for starting their own Tideflow but they were also progressing with astonishing speed. Grinding his teeth, he made the heartbreaking decision to directly use his strongest technique to make his next two Tideflows. By doing so, he was sacrificing some of his potential as he knew his remaining techniques wouldn't be enough to make an eighth Tideflow.
Bai Xioachun sighed... He realized that maybe he had shown off a bit too much. So much that Shangguan Tianyou had forgo his ego and hatred to make such decision in this critical moment.
Or...Maybe it was worth it to show off a little. Although this Shangguan Tianyou is still painfully prideful and arrogant, maybe now he can be more useful in the grand scheme of things...
Putting that mental note aside, it was finally time for Bai Xiaochun to start his ninth Tideflows, using his Undying Codex of the Undying Live Forever technique. Song Que felt a lot of pressure from it and now, only Bai Xiaochun and Song Que were continuing their Tideflows.
Seeing that Bai Xiaochun and Song Que were trying to reach nine Tideflows, a lot of Chosen hesitated. Both had now a fearsome reputation. The Spirit Stream Sect's Chosen went to defend Bai Xioachun, so to our hero surprise, many of the other Chosen simply fled. They couldn't afford to offend either of them and now, with the Spirit Stream disciples protecting Bai Xioachun behind his paper talisman shields and with the impressive King there, they felt powerless to change the situation.
This time, Shangguan Tianyou managed to finish his seven Tideflows by the skin of his teeth. He growled in anger and frustration, unaware that in the past timeline, he had only managed to make five Tideflows. Ghostfang and Nine-Isles also had seven Tideflows but if you looked at them very closely, they were a bit more unstable then Shangguan Tianyou's last Tideflow. As for the rest of the Chosen, they had between three or four Tideflows at best. The last wave of ordinary Chosen only had managed to get a single Tideflow.
And of course... Bai Xiaochun managed to finish his ninth Tideflow! And because of this... King also made his breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Stage! Now his cultivation matched his fleshy body power!
Our hero massacred the competition once again, letting the released Earthstring energy get absorbed by his Dao protector from the Spirit Stream Sect. Not for long however, he knew he had to go after Song Que. He found him in the same spot as before, and again, wrecked his Tideflow and forced him to enter Foundation Establishment with eight Tideflows!
After Song Que ran away, he brought back Chen Qingrou here and let her increase her Tideflow. She had only three of them but after absorbing the Earthstring energy from the node Song Que put there, she now had seven of them! However, she sensed it was her limit and couldn't go further than that. Bai Xioachun let her have his defensive bracelet to protect her while she stabilized her Tideflows before going after Song Que.
As before, Bai Xiaochun managed to get ahold on the smaller part of Heavenstring Energy while Bai Xiaochun ran after the big one. The other Chosen tried to get that one too, but they couldn't stand up to Bai Xiaochun.
After all, most ordinary Chosen going after that Heavenstring energy couldn't resist to the pressure of his Waterswamp Kingdom and to his battle beast's ferocity, as well as its venom.
In fact, his battle beast's venom proved too much to handle even for some of the great Chosen! In this timeline, Nine-Isles had to explode his whole right arm before the poison could spread further. This was the only way he could save his own life!
However, our hero discovered that Song Que had come prepared to deal with King. He used a treasure to make King's own poison coagulate inside of his venom's sac. King's head became heavy and fell to the ground! The poor battle beast simply couldn't raise up its head! Even worst, our hero felt it was affecting the regeneration aspect of his Heavenspan Elephant Body Art, reducing its regeneration and overall power by half!
Bai Xiaochun was surprised but it pretty much confirmed to him that the Blood Stream Sect had sent spies inside the Spirit Stream Sect. Song Que loudly declared: " Killing you will count as a great service for the Blood Stream Sect! DIE! "
Song Que closed the gap between them, having confidence that the precious treasure he had been given would make Bai Xioachun's body refinement technique, the Heavenspan Elephant Body, become sluggish and nullify its regeneration...
However, to his surprise, Bai Xiaochun remained focused and calm.
As Song Que was about to strike a blow, Bai Xiaochun shouted and his skin turned golden, with flickering silver light on his skin, flashing like a lightning pattern!
Both opponents started fighting at close-range...The fight that followed was good practice for Bai Xiaochun. He needed to get used to his Foundation Establishment stage, as he still found himself to be sluggish compared to the battle prowess he was able to achieve in the past.
However, that barely gave his opponent any advantages... In fact, Bai Xiaochun had extremely acute martial prowess, based on many MANY years of experience... and as he fought, Bai Xiaochun discovered that those battle instincts were something that were very hard to suppress, especially when his opponent was Song Que's current self!
Song Que was secretly astonished to see that he was having such a hard time facing Bai Xiaochun. Because Bai Xioachun's battle beast was a snake, it had been viewed as a blessing for the Blood Stream Sect. While they couldn't deal with every kind of battle beast, the Blood Stream Sect had a few ways to deal with poisonous battle beasts. It was in fact one of the reasons the 10,000 Snake valley had been in control of the South Bank instead of the North Bank.
But even with this trump card paralyzing Bai Xiaochun battle beast, it seemed like it didn't affect his opponent's techniques or battle prowess! Song Que was a true Chosen, he quickly understood that Bai Xiaochun had mastered another type of body refinement technique, even if he didn't know which one.
Of course, so far in this timeline, only our hero and the Hell Emperor knew that Bai Xiaochun's fleshy body strength came from the Undying Codex. And while the Heavenspan Elephant Body technique was strong, it obviously couldn't compare to the Undying Skin.
The only thing going for Song Que was that Bai Xiaochun was very careful to not kill or cripple his opponent... Each hit was aimed toward Song Que's tendons and joints, making his movement slower and more painful. He then tried to take some distance and fight Bai Xiaochun with magical techniques but his opponent was too fast and tenacious.
Even so, the fighting was fierce and realizing that Song Que wouldn't give up anytime soon, Bai Xiaochun sighed regretfully and was prepared to use the Throat Crushing Grasp on Song Que's dantian once again. Only then did Song Que release the Heavenstring Energy inside of him and teleport away.
Bai Xiaochun sighed in relief. He was glad he didn't have to cripple Song Que. With a flicker of his sleeve, King was back in his battle beast bag. Then, with glittering eyes, he began absorbing the last bit of Heavenstring Energy. As he finally reached Heaven Dao Foundation Establishment, everyone was teleported out of the Fallen Sword Abyss.
Of course, after the powerful teleportation, Bai Xiaochun had to empty his stomach and he felt quite dizzy. But after a moment, he felt well enough to explore... When he realized he was close to Eastwood City once again, he sighed. While he was relieved, it was a bittersweet feeling...
I might never know if it was the Hell-Emperor's doing or if it was fate at work... but here I am once again.
Inside the city, he didn't take the time to visit everything like he did last time. He went directly to the shop where he knew they sold battle robes managed by Hou Tunqing. This time, with a specific goal in mind. He wanted to find a battle robe that could be enhanced with some spirit enhancements. Unfortunately, this meant he couldn't pick one that also had a spell formation built into it.
To Hou Yunqing and the salesperson's surprise, he selected a heavy robe for winter that was mostly made with fur from skyflame bears. Such robes not only had some defensive properties toward divine senses but could also change colors at the wearer's will as long as long as the wearer was a cultivator and circulating his Qi. Although it couldn't make the user invisible like a skyflame bear, it was still very convenient and with enough practice, the cultivator would eventually be able to change its color, display patterns or even living sceneries. It was truly a luxurious item!
Considering how heavy it was though, it made Bai Xiaochun stand out quite a bit...
Nevertheless, Bai Xiaochun and Hou Yunging went to the banquet made that day for the departure of Du Lingfei. Bai Xiaochun was a bit more nervous this time around, but he was glad to be able to be lavished in Hou Yunging's praises to distract himself from the incoming reunion with Du Lingfei.
However, he was worried over nothing. The reunion went well and even if others found Bai Xiaochun's outfit eccentric, for Du Lingfei, our hero was looking like he did in their mission on the Luochen Mountains, covered in several layers of armor. And if she had noticed anything about the fact he removed the first seal of Eternity, she didn't show it or ask any questions about it.
After the failed assassination attempt against our hero, they talked about their respective lives almost all night. Of course, Bai Xiaochun kept calling her "Boo" once again:
"You wouldn't believe this Boo, I managed to tame the strongest snake in the 10,000 Snake Valley, a mutated version of the bloodgod cobra! But after that, the rest of the snakes were still aggressive toward me! I just wanted to make them stop hissing at me, I didn't want them to start attacking the other disciples! I'm so glad my Eldest Brother, the sect leader, understood it wasn't my fault..."
" I can't believe the Sect Leader forced my hand and asked me to kill Chosen from the other sects in exchange for a secret technique! Can you believe that Boo? I hate all this violence. I just wish we could all get along..."
He said stuff like that, to which Du Lingfei was happy to listen. On their trip back, they took their time. Bai Xiaochun's cultivation finally stabilized, and he probed Du Lingfei about if she was happy to come back to the sect and made more inquiries about her. She answered evasively or even lied but Bai Xiaochun pretended to trust everything she said.
Soon enough, he fell asleep and Du Lingfei left in the middle of the night. She once again kissed Bai Xiaochun as what she thought would be her final farewell to him. The next morning, Bai Xiaochun wasn't surprised that Du Lingfei wasn't there anymore. He sighed regretfully. He had secretly hoped she would open up to him, but she didn't. Soon enough, the Spirit Stream found him and escorted him back home.
Bai Xiaochun was less depressed during the celebration, but overall, he was still somber. Since the celebration reunited both the North and the South Bank, Bai Xiaochun took the time to speak to Gongsun Yun in private. During their conversation, he assured him he would honor his promise and that Gongsun Yun should receive some good news in the next month or so. Before leaving, Bai Xiaochun made Gongsun Yun promise that he would try to master some of his legacy technique by the time he was summoned.
Xu Baocai had been waiting further in the back for Bai Xiaochun to finish. He truly was acting like one of Bai Xiaochun's followers. He wondered what Gongsun Yun and our hero were talking about, but when he asked Bai Xiaochun, he simply said that Gongsun Yun wanted to thank him himself for saving Gongsun Wan'er inside the Fallen Sword Abyss. Xu Baocai suspected there was more to the story, but he let it go.
If it had been the end of things, it wouldn't have really mattered. But then to his surprise, Lu Tianlei came to talk to Bai Xiaochun, even bowing in greeting! He blinked in surprise a few time and almost couldn't resist from gasping. Although having Scaly around actually had helped Lu Tianlei in becoming less socially awkward, he still had the reputation of a haughty figure who sees other Chosen as goals to surpass, with very few friends. And yet, here he was, greeting Bai Xiaochun respectfully with a small smile on his face!
Although Bai Xiaochun had given Lu Tianlei the opportunities he had, rumors had spread that it was because his master and Li Qinghou were very close. It would have made sense for Li Qinghou to have arranged everything. However, seeing how Lu Tianlei was acting, Xu Baocai began to wonder if Bai Xiaochun had a part in it...
Once they were alone, he couldn't help but ask... and Bai Xiaochun gave him a strange look in response. The tension rose before Bai Xiaochun gave him half a smile and told him he was imagining things. Xu Baocai was an astute person, however, and clearly understood the true meaning of it. Grumbling inwardly, he wondered what he should do to get Bai Xiaochun's attention but then again, he realized maybe he was being too greedy as Bai Xiaochun had always been generous with the medicinal pills he gave him. And yet, he began to wonder how he could be more useful to Bai Xiaochun. He realized that the problem probably lies in his lower latent talent and wondered if he should train more...
The celebration had been joyful yet bitter, especially when Bai Xiaochun had brought back the bodies of the Spirit Stream sect Chosen that he had found. The sadness in the eyes of the elder generation was genuine. At some point, Bai Xiaochun went to see Hou Yunfei's gravestone with Hou Xiaomei and his brother Zhang. He was glad to see that both Hou Xiaomei and Zhang Dahai seemed very close and happy together. Bai Xiaochun sighed and he bowed to the gravestone, clasping his hands. In his heart, he knew that Hou Yunfei would be delighted that he had helped Hou Xiaomei find such happiness and that his eyesight was strong as Love Saint Bai Xiaochun's.
Early on the very next day, Bai Xiaochun didn't waste any time and went to the Ancestral Darktunnel. Of course, as soon as he activated his authentication medallion, all the legacies began to light up and although it might be Bai Xiaochun's imagination playing tricks on him, it seemed like the Violet Qi Heavenspan Incantation interfered even sooner than before. He picked it, of course, but didn't take the time to study it. He already knew how to cultivate it after all. He was more focused in looking proud, his hands behind his back, like an ultimate Chosen as he left the place.
After making some preparations, Bai Xiaochun asked his eldest brother, the sect leader, for a drop of water from the Heavenspan River before heading toward the arcane pocket. Just as before, getting first place in the Chosen Competition had given him one day of time, being a Heavenstring Dao cultivator gave him three days, and both Li Qinghou and the sect leader had given him two days of time... for a total of eight days!
Before entering, Bai Xiaochun warned the elder: "Honored Elder, I'll be giving one day of time to my fellow disciple Gongsun Yun. So, I'll only be staying one week of time. Thank you very much!"
Without waiting for a reply or reaction, Bai Xiaochun entered the arcane pocket realm which then closed behind him. Once inside, he didn't waste any time. First, he started with the Violet Qi Heavenspan Incantation. Gritting his teeth and focusing very hard, he let the drop of Heavenspan River fall on his forehead. It was as painful as Bai Xiaochun remembered. After stopping its fall above his first spiritual sea, he began to heal and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Once he was back to normal, Bai Xiaochun smiled. Now, he could finally start working on another step on his secret plan. He was planning to do something no other Foundation Establishment disciple had ever done in history: create his own techniques and cultivation methods!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Restarted working in overtime lately. And RL has being very stressful. I really need to catch up on "I'm a Spider So What" though, so I can continue my other fanfic... In any case, look forward to the techniques Bai Xiaochun will create!