When a cultivator fully established his Dantian, he would have a breakthrough be considered to have established his foundation in cultivation. The breakthrough would happen when the Dantian space and structure was fully formed, and the Qi circulating in the meridians gathered and formed a small pond inside it. At this point, the core of one's future cultivation would be established, and with it, all future heights as well. It was not a matter of talent, but of the quality of the cultivation technique. A shallow technique would establish a weak Dantian and would forever haunt the cultivator. This could only be corrected in future by gaining a similar, yet more profound cultivation method, and slowly cultivating out the flaws generated over the years. But were superior techniques so common like cabbages? The first time Mithamo had cultivated, he was a specialist in formations, and in his research had come upon this flaw in what he regarded his highly superior cultivation methods. He was already at a relatively high cultivation tier by then, but it took him tens of centuries just to correct this flaw. Many even thought his cultivation had stagnated at the time. Many cultivators of course would trust in their techniques and would not notice anything wrong. After all it was not readily apparent if one's Dantian was weaker than the other. The gap could easily be attributed to talent, and none of the Gods meddled in earthly affairs to give counsel to lower level cultivators. With the longstanding belief that talent was the key, many sects continued to nurture "talented" cultivators. Anyone under the foundation establishment realm was not even considered by the sects. After all the children of cultivators would also be born cultivators. All realms and tiers under foundation establishment were thus considered mortal realms, and a mortal breaking through to the foundation establishment tier was considered leaving mortality behind to enter the heavens. Such a mortal expert would naturally sense the higher realms, and it usually came as a great shock to them when, from being worshiped as small deities in their mortal world, they were actually the lowest of the low in the cultivation world. The mental trauma was indeed not light. And with a rather ordinary Dantian, their "talents" would not be appealing either. Such a situation played out in many worlds across the Starry Sky. There were also subtle differences between the breakthroughs. A body cultivator would establish a physical golden Dantian in their abdomen, a soul cultivator or even specters would establish it in their soul and a qi cultivator would establish it in their meridians. However, Mithamo was even more unique, having established all three methods, and merging them into one Super Dantian. No wonder the tribulation was not kind, such a breakthrough was too terrifying. The feat itself was of intense difficulty, it was only made possible by the unique traits of a chaos body. It was not that nobody had attempted double or triple cultivation before, it's just that such a perfect merge was truly too rare. The Zifu Lake would only be a small pond when one broke through, and the goal of [Foundation Establishment] was to expand the pond as wide as possible, into an aforementioned lake. Thus, there were only three realms in foundation establishment, early, mid and late, related to the size of the lake. Early would be as a pond, mid like a small lake and late akin to a sea. With every expansion there would be a drastic leap in strength, so it was easy to differentiate the three. At the late foundation establishment, one could breakthrough any time, but there were those few who chose to delay their breakthroughs, and continue on with expansion until it truly stopped showing all signs of expansion. These were the peak foundation establishment cultivators, and they were elites among late foundation establishment cultivators. Usually only elites would pursue the peak, as it was unnecessary and a foundation establishment expert still had a limited lifespan. It after all more worthwhile to breakthrough early and gain the lifespan of a higher tier. A foundation establishment expert, though living much longer than mortals, could at most expect to live for five hundred or so years. It was still too short in the grand scheme of things. After all demigod patriarchs in sects counted years in the hundreds of millions, the contrast was too stark. Five hundred years was a quick nap in their view.

Mithamo cleaned himself well and aids were gathered to dress and prepare him for his wedding ceremony. No expense was spared and the rites of a prince of the chief were all followed. Before if it was just Philip with his weak strength, nobody would have bothered to this extent. But now just who were they dealing with, they didn't dare be lenient. A charming young man walked out of his cave dressed in fine leather pants and a bear fur half coat. He was embroidered in bone necklaces and the ends of his hairs were twisted and added seashells. It was a dashing look. Women sang songs and threw petals on the path in front as the procession went to the central square. A makeshift wooden platform had been placed there and the whole clan had gathered around. On top of the platform a clearly nervous Meredith was waiting with an elder in pompous ceremonial garbs. Luckily her blushing face as red as a tomato was hidden under a light veil otherwise, she would have already collapsed from embarrassment. The crowds parted like the red sea and Mithamo made his was slowly up to the platform and took his place next to Meredith. Chief Saito and Meredith's father also watched from the side as was tradition, after all the parent had to be present to give away the child. The elder now with even more chalk on his face than usual knocked his staff twice on the wood. The crowds immediately went silent. " We are gathered here today for the auspicious union of Philip and Meredith, if any has reason to oppose this, speak now". At that moment, one could have heard a pin drop.