After throwing away his business card, William Bolton put his clothes from the suitcase into the brand-new wardrobe, arranged his books on the bookshelf, then looked at the now-empty suitcase, glanced again at the neatly organized wardrobe and bookshelf, and couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. Not only had someone helped clean the house spotlessly, but even the furniture was all in place.

Once everything was tidied up, William Bolton took a change of clothes and a towel into the bathroom for a cold shower. The bathroom was also spotless, even the toilet sparkled, which made William Bolton especially satisfied. Otherwise, if he had to clean all that filth himself, it would have made him uncomfortable.

After his shower, seeing it was still early, William Bolton took out the materials Professor Grace Sutton had given him during the day and started reading. Around eleven o’clock, at midnight, William Bolton finished reading, got into bed, sat cross-legged, and began his daily cultivation.

Midnight is when yin energy is at its peak and yang energy is just being born—it is the best time of day to gather qi.

The Great Chaos Five Elements Heart Method circulated naturally. In his dantian, five clusters of true qi—white, green, black, red, and yellow—slowly revolved. The white true qi was icy and murderous, carrying an aura of death; the green was the opposite, full of vitality, like a spring breeze; the black true qi was cold and gentle; the red was wild and unrestrained, pure yang; the yellow was solid and powerful, like the vast, heavy earth. These five clusters of true qi were the result of seven years of persistent cultivation by William Bolton, condensing the spiritual energy of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

As time passed, the five clusters of true qi spun faster and faster, eventually condensing into five droplets of different colors—these were the true essence.

After seven years of relentless cultivation, William Bolton had finally advanced from the Qi Refining stage to the Foundation Establishment stage!

In an instant, all the things he hadn’t understood in his previous cultivation suddenly became clear, and many eternal truths of heaven and earth flashed through his mind like vivid, living pictures.

At this moment, after seven years of hard cultivation, William Bolton’s energy, spirit, and mind reached their peak. He even faintly felt himself merging with heaven and earth, becoming one with the universe, unable to distinguish where the world ended and he began.

Could this be the legendary unity of man and heaven described in the “Five Emperors’ True Scripture”? As this question arose, William Bolton became aware of himself again, and saw the five droplets of true essence—white, green, black, red, and yellow—suspended in his dantian, slowly rotating, shining with a pure, flawless light, like brilliant stars in the night. The white was murderous, the green was full of life, the black was gentle, the red was masculine, the yellow was heavy and solid. Wisps of indistinct aura were released as the five droplets of true essence rotated, intertwining and merging within the dantian. Not only did a barely visible strand of chaotic primordial qi form in the center of the dantian, but the five droplets of true essence also seemed to grow stronger as the five auras merged and intertwined.

Whoosh! William Bolton let out a long breath of turbid air, and slowly opened his eyes. As he did, two beams of five-colored light, each over an inch long, shot out from his eyes. Only when his eyes were fully open did the beams of light fade into the darkness.

His will was tempered, his mind clear, his body unblocked—William Bolton felt an unprecedented sense of comfort, and his mind was clearer than ever. With just a thought, his true qi extended outward, and his whole body floated lightly off the bed, hovering in midair like a feather.

Thinking back to how, not long ago, he could only run along rooftops and, at best, leap thirty meters in a single bound, but now could float in midair, William Bolton couldn’t help but break into a delighted smile.

The “Five Emperors’ True Scripture” was indeed true: once the Foundation Establishment was achieved, not only would one’s cultivation make a great leap, but even without deliberate practice, the interplay of the five elements would cause one’s power to grow at an astonishing rate.

As he thought this, William Bolton subconsciously touched the five-colored jade pendant hanging on his chest, and immediately a cool, gentle aura flowed through his whole body from his palm.

This five-colored jade was something William Bolton had bought from an old man at a stall in the city’s jade market during his sophomore year of college. At the time, he’d noticed the jade’s bright colors and cheap price, so he bought it on a whim. Unexpectedly, on the very day he brought it home, he accidentally cut his hand while peeling an apple, and a drop of blood fell onto the jade. The jade suddenly radiated five-colored light, and after that, William Bolton inexplicably felt a blood connection to it. Shocked, William Bolton naturally picked up the jade to examine it more closely, and when he looked at it, he saw many ancient characters. Although William Bolton had never seen those characters before, somehow he could understand them.

What William Bolton saw was the “Five Emperors’ True Scripture” passed down from the ancient Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth Emperors. Besides the Great Chaos Five Elements Heart Method—the only cultivation technique recorded—the rest consisted of all sorts of spells, talismans, alchemy, artifact forging, and a wide variety of immortal arts and Daoist methods, both good and bad, truly a dazzling array, encompassing everything. Of course, aside from the cultivation method itself.