By the time Xiong Xingfeng had finished introducing the seven Fire Attribute Foundation Establishment Techniques, Fang Yun had already made up his mind.

Each of the seven techniques had its own focus.

Whether it was offense, defense, or escape methods, his Combat Talent meant he lacked for nothing.

The strength a Cultivation Technique could provide paled in comparison to his Combat Talent.

He wanted a Cultivation Technique that could either increase his chances of breaking through to the next Realm or increase his cultivation speed.

In fact, he had pretty much decided when Xiong Xingfeng introduced the Nine Fire Lotus Technique.

"Thank you, Master. I’ll take the Nine Fire Lotus Technique." As Fang Yun took the corresponding Jade Scroll for the technique, he added, "Your disciple wants to go further!"

"Mm." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Reaching Core Formation was undoubtedly harder than Foundation Establishment, but Xiong Xingfeng still believed his disciple could go further.

Any Foundation Establishment Technique cost one thousand Contribution Points.

Sect Cultivators had to ensure they had one thousand five hundred Contribution Points before attempting Foundation Establishment.

For Fang Yun, these Contribution Points were a trivial amount.

His Sect Contribution Points had already surpassed five digits last year.

After leaving the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion, Fang Yun’s next destination was the Celestial Cloud Pavilion at the foot of Cloud Summit.

There, at the Celestial Cloud Pavilion, he would complete his transition from an Inner Sect Disciple to a Sect Elder.

"Once we get to the Celestial Cloud Pavilion and you’ve changed your Identity Token, you’ll come with me to Artifact Casting Peak to see your cave abode."

"I will follow Master’s arrangements," Fang Yun replied.

After taking Xiong Xingfeng as his master and achieving Foundation Establishment, he had almost no other choices left.

Without a master, given his performance in the sect, he would have had four possible destinations.

Battle Peak, Artifact Casting Peak, Dan Cloud Peak, and the Evil Extermination Hall.

But with Xiong Xingfeng as his master, becoming an Elder on Artifact Casting Peak was his best choice. Artifact Casting Peak currently had three Artifact Refining Elders in total. His master was the Management Elder, and once Fang Yun also became an Artifact Refining Elder there, the two of them—master and disciple—would basically call the shots on Artifact Casting Peak in the future.

After becoming an Elder of Artifact Casting Peak, his Alchemy skills would also give him a voice, not to mention the help he could get from Elder Bai Heyan and Song Qiaoqiao.

Fang Yun now had a clear understanding of the relationship between Bai Heyan and his master, Xiong Xingfeng.

Bai Heyan’s willingness to help him was not only due to his own talent, but also the important relationship between Xiong Xingfeng and Bai Heyan, with some influence from Bai Qinying mixed in as well.

「Inside the Celestial Cloud Pavilion.」

After the information was transferred from Fang Yun’s Token, a new one appeared in his hand.

Compared to an Inner Sect Disciple’s Token, the Elder’s Token had far more intricate patterns on both the front and back, and the materials used to refine it were of a much higher grade.

The moment Fang Yun hung the Token at his waist, he opened his light screen and glanced at the sect interface. Just as he expected, it had changed.

[Celestial Cloud Sect]

Sect Level: 3

Sect Position: Elder

Sect Influence: 43%

His Sect Position had changed from Inner Sect Disciple to Elder, while his Sect Influence had remained unchanged for over a year.

Once the news of him becoming an Elder spread, his Sect Influence was bound to rise again.

As he was exchanging his Token, the Steward on duty at the Celestial Cloud Pavilion also offered his congratulations.

Fang Yun remembered this Steward; he had been the one to issue him a new Inner Sect Disciple Token once before.

That was over four years ago, when he was only nineteen.

Counting the days, it had been more than six years since he joined the Celestial Cloud Sect.

Over six years to go from the third layer of Qi Refining to the Foundation Establishment Stage was truly fast in terms of cultivation speed. Of course, the price was a massive consumption of resources.

The number of Upper-Grade Qi Enhancement Pills he had used, in particular, had long since reached four digits.

Converted to Spirit Stones, that was tens of thousands of Lower-Grade Spirit Stones, which was already equivalent in value to dozens of Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts.

After leaving the Celestial Cloud Pavilion, Xiong Xingfeng soared into the air, and Fang Yun immediately followed.

They flew through the air.

Now, even without the help of any external items, Fang Yun could achieve this feat relying solely on the dense, liquid Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea.

However, the rate of Spiritual Power consumption was unacceptable to him.

So, while in mid-air, he equipped the Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifact, the Light Wind Boots.

At that moment, his Spiritual Power consumption began to drop rapidly. Given the amount of Spiritual Power currently in Fang Yun’s Qi Sea, this level of drain had become negligible.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, he was even better able to bring out the effects of his four-star Combat Talent.

From now on, within the sect, the Upper-Grade Magical Artifact-level Light Silk Boots could be completely phased out.

"This is the cave abode where you’ll be living from now on."

Halfway up Artifact Casting Peak, Xiong Xingfeng had brought Fang Yun to the front of his new cave abode.

The cave abode he would be living in wasn’t very far from Xiong Xingfeng’s. If he needed to tell his master something in the future, it would take him less than two breaths’ time to get there at his current speed.

"This is the Token for the cave abode. I’ve already prepared it for you."

"Thank you, Master!"

"Mm." Xiong Xingfeng nodded. "For the next three months, take your time and get used to your Foundation Establishment Stage power."

Xiong Xingfeng didn’t enter the cave abode with Fang Yun. After giving a few final instructions, he left.

Newly promoted Elders of the Celestial Cloud Sect were exempt from any duties for the first three months. As Xiong Xingfeng had said, this period was for them to adapt to their Foundation Establishment Stage power.

Opening the cave abode, Fang Yun first sensed the concentration of Spiritual Qi inside.

The concentration of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within was very high, enough to satisfy the daily cultivation needs of a Late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator. For Fang Yun, an early-stage one, it was more than enough.

Ever since becoming a disciple of the Celestial Cloud Sect, he had rarely absorbed Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi for cultivation.

But things were different after Foundation Establishment. Unlike the Qi Refining Stage, he no longer had enough pills to support his rapid cultivation. Therefore, in his future time allocation, a portion would have to be dedicated to arduous training.

The cave abode was vast and already fully excavated.

Fang Yun went to check the Cultivation Room first.

The Cultivation Room itself wasn’t very large. In its center was a carved Second-Tier miniature Gathering Spirit Array.

Around the miniature Gathering Spirit Array were ten grooves.

These grooves were for placing Spirit Stones.

With a wave of his sleeve, Fang Yun sent ten Lower-Grade Spirit Stones flying, which landed precisely in the ten grooves.

This Second-Tier miniature Gathering Spirit Array could be fully activated by triggering the switch-like pattern next to it.

’Inside the Gathering Spirit Array, the Spiritual Qi concentration here is enough for an Early-stage Core Formation Cultivator’s normal cultivation.’

Fang Yun was very satisfied. He then deactivated the Second-Tier miniature Gathering Spirit Array. In the future, all his time spent in arduous training would be done with this Spirit Array at full power.

He left the Cultivation Room and checked the other rooms.

He planned out all the future locations for his Artifact Refining and Alchemy.

Fang Yun went to the main hall of the cave abode, its most spacious area.

He took out his two Earth Yellow Swords and two Profound Crystal shields.

Having just broken through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, he was still adapting to his newfound power. However, when controlling these Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts, he felt no awkwardness at all; everything was perfectly smooth.

Of course, this only applied to three types of Spiritual Artifacts.

’After Foundation Establishment, even without imbuing them with my Divine Sense, I can easily control five Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts.’

This was the total number of Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts he had available to test with, and that was including the Light Wind Boots.

In a little while, he would have seven Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts.

He had already finished collecting one set of refining materials for the Earth Yellow Sword and the Profound Crystal shield. The next time he refined Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts, whether it was the Earth Yellow Sword or the Profound Crystal shield, he would refine them with three patterns.

Unlike with Magical Artifacts, even though Fang Yun gave these Lower-Grade Spiritual Artifacts the same names, he would change the materials. The main material for the next Profound Crystal shield he planned to refine, for example, would be different.

His principle for refining, whether for Magical or Spiritual Artifacts, was to use main materials that were easy to gather. He didn’t need exceptionally rare ingredients; common and abundant were his best options.

The two Earth Yellow Swords and two Profound Crystal shields he currently had were made from the same main material; only the auxiliary Spiritual Materials were different.

’An ordinary Early-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator has a Divine Sense range of about ten zhang. Spiritual Artifacts imbued with Divine Sense can’t exceed that range. But the range at which I can use my Spiritual Artifacts now is...’

Fang Yun glanced around. The cave abode was clearly not a suitable place to conduct such an experiment.