The faint scent of herbs lingered in the air, rich and intoxicating.
Inside the alchemy chamber of the Little World, Lin Xueya sat cross-legged before a floating cauldron, her fingers tracing subtle seals that bent spiritual energy into spirals of color.
Beside her stood one of her clones — the Alchemist Body, whose hands moved with mechanical precision, adding powdered ingredients with unerring rhythm.
"Temperature stabilized," the clone said calmly. "Flow of spiritual fire constant at sixty-seven percent. Core resonance achieved."
Xueya nodded slowly, her eyes half-closed.
"Begin fusion of the array."
With that command, a formation circle lit beneath the cauldron, etched with thousands of miniature runes. It wasn't just alchemy anymore — it was array-based alchemy, a forbidden fusion that few dared to attempt.
As the symbols rotated, the energy within the cauldron began to compress unnaturally. The spiritual essence of dozens of precious herbs intertwined, forming a sphere of silver light that pulsed like a heartbeat.
The clone's tone shifted slightly. "Warning: Energy instability detected at 12 percent margin."
Xueya didn't flinch. Her hands danced through the air, weaving additional runes to reinforce the boundary.
Then she whispered, "Seal of the Hundred Veins."
The runes responded like loyal soldiers, locking the chaotic energies in harmony. The cauldron trembled once… then stilled.
Moments later, the scent changed — deeper, purer, radiant. The silver light condensed into a perfect crystalline pill, smooth as moonlight.
"Success," the clone murmured.
Xueya opened her eyes. "Grade four… no, pseudo-grade five. But its structure is unlike any known classification."
Indeed, the pill shimmered faintly with array lines engraved on its surface — thin glowing patterns that seemed alive.
She smiled faintly. "The world has yet to see such a thing."
---
Two days later, in the outer district of Yuefang City, the first wave of this pill entered the market.
Disguised under the name "Moonlight Essence Pill", it was released in limited quantities by a small merchant stall — one secretly managed by her first clone.
At first, no one paid attention. There were hundreds of new pills every month, most forgotten within days.
But then… a disciple from the Iron Bamboo Sect took one.
Within a single hour, his cultivation barrier that had resisted him for two years cracked open. He broke through to the next realm in public, right in the middle of the marketplace.
The commotion that followed was chaos.
"Impossible!"
"That kind of effect— what grade is this pill!?"
"Who sold it?!"
By sunset, the entire Yuefang Market was ablaze with rumors.
The clone simply watched from afar, hood covering his face, a faint curve of satisfaction on his lips.
Every merchant tried to buy out the remaining pills, but only a handful had been sold. Each was inscribed with a faint array mark — one that would feed back information directly to Xueya.
Within the Little World, she watched the growing spiritual web in real time. Threads of light connected names, factions, and sects that had obtained her creation.
"Good," she whispered. "Let them fight over a taste. The more chaos they create, the deeper I can plant my roots."
The system chimed faintly.
> [Market Influence: 3% of Yuefang City's Pill Trade]
[Notable Attention Detected: Elder Qian of Azure Flame Pavilion | Merchant Guild of Jade Hall]
Xueya's eyes flickered. "They've noticed faster than I expected."
---
That night, in a high pavilion of Yuefang, a meeting took place among several influential figures.
Elder Qian, a man with long silver hair and sharp eyes, held a single Moonlight Essence Pill between his fingers.
"This thing… It's not like any spiritual pill I've ever examined. The formation lines embedded within—" He paused, looking around. "—belong to an array art that predates the current cultivation era."
A murmur went through the crowd.
A merchant from Jade Hall frowned. "Then it's not alchemy alone. Someone's combining disciplines that should not be mixed."
"Whoever made this," Elder Qian said slowly, "either courts death… or seeks to rewrite the foundation of cultivation itself."
---
Back in her world, Xueya sat quietly beside the cauldron, the glow of her arrays reflecting in her eyes.
"Rewrite the foundation of cultivation?" she murmured, a small laugh escaping her. "No. I'm simply correcting its course."
She reached into her sleeve, revealing a second pill — darker than the first, swirling with unstable energy.
"The world will not be ready for this one… not yet."
Her gaze hardened. "But when it is… Yuefang will no longer belong to the old sects."
The clone bowed deeply beside her.
"Shall I continue distribution, Master?"
She nodded once. "Yes. But this time, leak it to the wrong hands. Let greed test the boundaries of their control."
And thus, beneath the surface of Yuefang City, the quiet revolution began.
...
The world within the small realm was still.
The spiritual energy was so thick it shimmered like mist, drifting in ribbons of blue and gold. At the center of the glade, Lin Xueya sat cross-legged, her body surrounded by nine floating spirit stones that pulsed with rhythm like a beating heart.
Her long hair spread behind her like a waterfall of night.
Every breath she took drew the essence of the world into her meridians — the first step of the Foundation Establishment stage.
Her system remained silent. It did not interfere.
But lines of data floated faintly in her vision:
> [Body Condition: Stable]
[Meridian Flow: 98% efficiency]
[Energy Saturation: Approaching threshold]
She opened her eyes slightly, her gaze like cold moonlight.
"So this is the bottleneck between mortality and true cultivation..."
Her memories as a human — the hospital room, the sound of rain outside, the loss of everything she once called life — flashed briefly. Then, she exhaled, purging all mortal grief.
"This time, I will not break."
---
Around her, three of her clones took their positions.
The Warrior Clone stood with his sword drawn, its edge embedded with defensive runes forming a barrier dome.
The Alchemist Clone adjusted an incense burner filled with herbs that stabilized spiritual flow.
The Scout Clone knelt further away, eyes glowing with detection light, scanning for spatial disturbances.
They did not speak. They did not need to.
All three were connected to her mind — one will, four bodies.
---
As Xueya began the final circulation, spiritual light erupted from her pores.
Her meridians expanded painfully. The veins on her arms glowed faintly, like liquid jade running beneath her skin.
The pain was immense. Her teeth clenched, yet she did not cry out.
It was not physical agony that she feared, but the fragmentation of spirit — the test that every cultivator faced when reshaping their foundation.
Within her consciousness sea, she saw herself standing before a vast ocean of golden mist. Each droplet was a memory, a fragment of soul, and at the center was a single shining core — her Dao Seed.
"Condense," she whispered.
The mist swirled violently, drawn toward the core. Her body shook in the physical world; the ground cracked under her.
The Alchemist Clone whispered a chant, channeling stabilizing energy.
The Warrior Clone raised his sword, deflecting stray spiritual lightning.
Thunder roared across the inner world — it was the Foundation Lightning, a metaphysical storm that tested her resolve.
Her mind screamed under the weight of the pressure.
But then she remembered the warmth of her unborn children — the tiny heartbeat she once felt when she first entered this body.
Her lips curved faintly. "No storm shall take me from them."
She released everything.
---
Light exploded outward, blinding even the clones.
A lotus of pure light bloomed beneath her, its petals etched with ancient runes. The sea of energy within her stabilized and began rotating — forming a spiritual core so refined that even the system's readout flickered.
> [Foundation Established: Success]
[Spiritual Rank: True Foundation (Peak)]
[New Trait: Purity of Mother's Dao – All energy refined through emotional resonance increases efficiency by 22%]
The data vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Xueya opened her eyes. Her pupils glowed faintly gold — like a pair of suns within night.
The clones knelt in unison. "Congratulations, Master."
She nodded, sweat still clinging to her brow. "It's not over yet. The foundation is built… now I must test its strength."
She lifted her palm. A golden flame appeared — soft, silent, but heavier than any fire she had conjured before.
The earth beneath her feet hummed. The Little World itself reacted, its trees swaying, rivers glowing faintly as if celebrating her breakthrough.
For a brief moment, everything felt alive — every blade of grass whispering her name.
But that peace didn't last.
The Scout Clone's eyes flared. "Spatial fluctuation detected!"
A rift appeared above the lake — twisting light, a hole between worlds.
From within, a whisper echoed. Not a voice, but an intent. A presence vast and ancient, pressing against the boundary of her domain.
Her face turned cold. "An intruder."
The clones formed battle positions instantly.
The rift pulsed once, twice — then went still.
Silence.
Xueya extended her divine sense toward it but found nothing. Only a faint trace of foreign qi, like the scent of ashes after a fire.
Her brows furrowed.
"So… someone tried to enter my world."
She clenched her fist, and the golden flame compressed into a crystal shard.
"If they can find me, it means the game has already begun."
---
That night, as the moons of the Little World rose, Lin Xueya stood alone at the lake's edge. The reflection of her new self shimmered in the water — eyes bright, posture calm, aura vast.
She touched her abdomen softly.
The faint heartbeat of her unborn children pulsed in harmony with the energy of the world.
"You three... You've felt it too, haven't you?" she whispered with a smile. "The world itself has acknowledged us."
Far above, a single star appeared in the artificial sky — something that had never existed before.
It was the Star of Foundation, proof that her Dao had anchored itself into existence.
She bowed slightly to the sky.
"Let the heavens bear witness. Lin Xueya of the Fallen Earth… has stepped into eternity."