Fang Hu was close. He could feel it, his entire body was brimming with energy, golden qi radiated off his body, and our hero's VERY SOUL BALKED at the precipice he was facing. Well, there was all that, but mostly he could see his breakthrough coming. Like, his status said so.

~~~

Fang Hu

15 yrs old

Roots: Non-elemental 23.42%

Cultivation: Qi Gathering 11/13 70.87% Average

Body Cultivation: Qi Gathering 12/13 99.99% Average

Techniques: Serpent's Breath Cultivation Technique

Spiral Snake Striking Fist

Solar Body Reinforcement

Powers: Understanding

Theoretical Test

Bloodline: N/A

Constitution: N/A

Background: A talented Snake Boi. A loose cultivator about to start the process of becoming a foundation establishment cultivator.

Potential: Low-High

~~~

The scholar studiously ignored the odd bits of his status as he had more pressing matters, our hero had to focus on the process beginning within him.

*Fucking Snake Boi!? Is the system influenced by pop culture or is it influenced by me? Both possibilities have problems..."

OUR HERO HAD TO FOCUS ON THE PROCESS BEGINNING WITHIN HIM.

*One would shatter my world view and the other might get me killed in the long run. I've already had my world view shattered once, but then again, I've already died once too, sooooo....*

Technically speaking, Fang Hu didn't have to pay attention to the process within him, it was mostly carried out by the amulet after all. It's just that experiencing the process of ascension to the foundation establishment realm firsthand would be incredibly useful for someone attempting to do it themselves, even if it's the wrong type of cultivation. The smart choice would be to pay attention and take notes for use later.

*Of course, it being neither would be optimal. Statuses being personalized would make sense, but there's no wa-*

Fortunately, Fang Hu's inane musings were cut off prematurely as the breakthrough begun in full swing. The changes in his body so pronounced that even the, ahem, active mind of the snake scholar couldn't ignore it. He had experienced breakthroughs before, and had falsely assumed that this breakthrough would be the same. The usual energy and qi burst that accompanied normal raises in stages, times ten.

That may have been the cause of his flippancy, but gone were the assumptions, and the flippancy. Instead of his qi surging to reinforce his body as usual, his qi did something unexpected, it reinforced itself. At least, that was what appeared to be happening. The qi in his body washed over itself many times, becoming purer and purer each time. As this happened, Fang Hu had an epiphany, of sorts. It varied from story to story, and was sometimes skipped over entirely, but Fang Hu was sure this was it. This substance that was being formed in his body wasn't qi, or even life force. This essence, if you will, was the foundation. As it was formed in his body, Fang Hu understood more and more about it.

Instead of reinforcing his body with qi, this breakthrough formed essence, a mixture of himself, his qi, and his dao. This mixture was strangely him, it felt like himself incarnate, though other's would disagree, as it lacked all his snakey qualities. This mixture, which looked like soft sunlight in Fang Hu's mind's eye, was then slowly fused with his body. It was an interesting process to watch, every cell in his body gained a little piece of that essence, a minuscule part, but a part nonetheless. That essence was insanely conductive to qi, much more so than his normal squishy bits.

Fang Hu was never sure in his path of cultivation, but witnessing his foundation being formed, he was assured in his paths legitimacy. He knew the plan, he would form that essence until his entire body was with filled with it, he would then simultaneously compress and refine his foundation, until he could form a core, whatever that really was.

That was it, he had found out what foundation really was, and had even obtained his. Fang Hu only had one question worth asking left.

*Why?*

Indeed, the final mystery that troubled our hero was the specifics. Even if he looked at his status, it still said he was at 13/13 qi gathering stage. Quietly, our hero pondered. He normally would try to voice his problems out, but he didn't want to do that while dealing with the filter, so he simply ruminated it over in his head. After a while, he arrived at a satisfying conclusion.

*I don't have my foundation yet.*

That may have sounded simple, but it was true. It was even in his path, forming essence until his body is filled with the stuff would be his final step into the foundation establishment realm. It also cleared a small problem that had been in the back of Fang Hu's thoughts. Why were there 13 stages and 5 breakthroughs? Granted, Fang Hu didn't know why they had a pattern at all, but it didn't seem right for the pattern of bottlenecks to be 3/3/3/3/1. It turned out the '1' wasn't a bottleneck in cultivation at all, it was just the 'half-step' or the 'grand circle' part of the equation. Fang Hu was never able to tell the two apart. They might actually both be part of the thirteenth stage, just referencing different parts of the process.

Fang Hu was glad for his decision to use an 'automatic' cultivation technique. It may have been out of laziness, but it had borne fruit today. He wouldn't have had the slightest clue on how to form his foundation without it. He probably could have used his powers and his large base of knowledge to 'cheat' his way through this challenge, but it would have wasted precious time. None of the scrolls he had pursued had stated how to actually form foundations. They only had the advice, "Have your master guide you through this process." then they started showing you what to do with your foundation. In hindsight, it made sense, words belied this occurrence.

Fang Hu couldn't help but smile, it was one more trial he had passed, and one more thing to teach his disciples.