Three days later, Yu Zongfan and Mao Dou broke through to the tenth level of Qi Refinement one after the other. After stabilizing their cultivation, they stepped out of their respective cultivation rooms.
"Junior Brother, was your breakthrough smooth?" As the senior brother, Mao Dou spoke first.
"Mn. Senior Brother's cultivation is stable as well."
"Ever since Jian Lu Zūnshàng purged the old blockages from my body, cultivation has gone much smoother."
"Come. Let's share the good news with Master, and check in on Junior Sister."
"Alright."
The two tidied themselves and headed to their Master's cave dwelling.
"Greetings, Master."
"Mn. Your realms are stable?"
"Yes."
"Come with me to the Tongzhi's Hall today. I am going to lecture on key points of Foundation Establishment. You should listen as well."
"Yes, Zūnshàng."
Yu Zongfan was delighted. He would get to see his junior brothers and sisters again.
Since Jian Lu Zūnshàng returned, the younger disciples had sent several message talismans asking when classes at the Children's Hall would resume. They also knew Yu Zongfan had become Zūnshàng's personal disciple and wanted to celebrate him.
The day before, Jian Dan had already instructed Lü Se to inform the twenty youngsters at the Children's Hall that there would be a lesson today.
As Mao Dou and Yu Zongfan followed their Master off Tianyue Peak, they happened to see their little junior sister practicing sword swings with full focus. They did not disturb her. They simply blinked at her in greeting, then followed their Master toward the Children's Hall.
Jian Dan did not need divine sense to know the three were trading winks. She did not stop them. Riding sword light, she took Mao Dou and Yu Zongfan to the Children's Hall on Heavenly Sword Peak.
Inside, all twenty children sat neatly in the lecture room. When Jian Dan entered, they rose in unison to salute.
"Greetings, Zūnshàng."
"Good. Sit. These are my two personal disciples. They will listen alongside you today."
Jian Dan gently introduced Mao Dou and Yu Zongfan to the hall, with emphasis on Mao Dou, who was visiting for the first time. She seated her two disciples in the back row, then began the lecture.
"Today I will talk about the key points of Foundation Establishment."
The disciples blinked up at her. Many were only mid Qi Refinement. They did not quite understand why Zūnshàng was teaching Foundation matters now.
Lightly fanning herself, Jian Dan smiled.
"Do not be surprised. Although you are at mid Qi Refinement, your cultivation paths are set. What you lack is accumulation. I will be very busy for a while, so I am explaining the essentials of Foundation Establishment ahead of time."
Understanding dawned. The children took out their small notebooks to prepare for notes, while Yu Zongfan and Mao Dou brought out blank jade slips to record.
"Foundation Establishment is literally laying the foundation. It is an accumulative process. You compress the spiritual energy in your dantian to the limit, then transform qi into liquid. Quantitative change becomes qualitative change, and your body can then hold far more spiritual energy."
As Jian Dan spoke, the fan stirred, and a translucent human figure appeared before them. Every meridian was clearly outlined.
She flicked a red sphere of spiritual power into the meridians and demonstrated the Qi Refinement circulation. After one full great cycle within the body, the red qi arrived at the dantian.
"Take note. Before you build your foundation, you must clear all your meridians. Only then can spiritual power reach every part of the body. Each circulation of your technique expands and tempers the channels. If there is a place qi cannot reach, the difference may seem small at first, but the higher you climb, the more fatal it becomes."
"What would happen then?" Zhao Yunhai, ever eager, raised his hand first.
"If you face me, my divine sense sweep will find your weakness, and that place will become the focus of my attack."
The youngsters thought it over and quickly agreed, pens scratching as they took notes.
Jian Dan continued with a smile. "When you face a strong enemy, if you can identify a weakness immediately, then press the attack there. End the battle in the shortest possible time."
Because of their age, they had little real combat experience, so they only half understood. But nothing stopped them from writing it all down.
In the future, the disciples Jian Dan trained might not shine most brightly on tournament platforms, but they would be the fiercest and swiftest on the battlefield. Once their names spread, they would cut through the enemy with unstoppable momentum, leaving almost no room for escape.
From the first class onward, Jian Dan had been weaving combat experience and tactics into daily training, and the disciples benefited greatly.
Back to the lecture, Jian Dan explained the compression process within the dantian and demonstrated how a saturated dantian ultimately compresses qi into spiritual liquid.
As drops of spirit liquid condensed one by one, the dantian slowly expanded. The body's meridians were also widened to twice their pre-Foundation width.
"Growth in cultivation is growth in your capacity to hold spiritual power. During Qi Refinement, your inner qi might only support ten castings of a large-scale technique. After Foundation Establishment, you can cast a hundred. That is the difference.
When your spiritual power is spent and you cannot attack, but the other side still has reserves, defeating you becomes easy."
Jia Yushu raised his hand. Jian Dan nodded for him to speak. "Zūnshàng, is there no case where a lower-realm cultivator defeats a higher-realm opponent?"
"There is. We sword cultivators have the ability to challenge above our realm." Jian Dan answered without hesitation.
"But."
Jia Yushu's smile froze at that single word. He stared wide-eyed, waiting.
"You must have a body no weaker than a higher-realm cultivator's, and your sword arts must excel. By our sword standards, you need to cultivate sword qi, sword light, sword shadow, sword momentum, and sword domain. Only then will you have a chance to succeed in a cross-realm challenge."
"Thank you for clarifying, Zūnshàng." Jia Yushu sat down and carefully recorded every word.
"These goals are still distant for you as Qi Refinement juniors. Do not rush to think about cross-realm challenges. Now is the time to lay your foundation. Only if the base is solid will you have a chance to challenge higher realms in the future. Understood?"
"Yes, Zūnshàng."
After explaining the Foundation process, Jian Dan went over several cautions.
"Choose a safe place to build your foundation. Do not attempt it rashly. Pick a site resonant with your spiritual root attributes. That will aid your breakthrough.
After a successful breakthrough, there will be a first ninefold thunder tribulation. It will further widen your meridians, increase your spiritual capacity, and strengthen your body. Therefore, you must take the Foundation thunder with your flesh. Do not use defensive artifacts."
Little mouths fell open around the room. In their minds, tribulation thunder was dangerous and to be avoided. Yet Zūnshàng was telling them to meet it head-on.
"Zūnshàng, did you take your tribulation thunder with the flesh as well?" Jia Yushu asked in a small voice.
Jian Dan regarded the scholarly little cultivator, a sly smile on her lips. "Since the day I began cultivating, every first ninefold thunder tribulation I faced was taken with my body. That is why I left my peers far behind."