Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Essence Soul!
For True Cultivators, if Qi Refinement was to build the foundation, then the Qi of Stellar Malignance would allow one to fly through the sky and travel the lands while summoning wind and rain.
The most important step was still to achieve Essence Soul!
Once Essence Soul was achieved, it would lengthen one’s lifespan and allow one to reincarnate, being the first true dividing line between Immortal and mortal.
Within small sects, a true Essence Soul was the sect master and could suppress fate!
At the moment, Fang Yuan slightly unleashed his abilities and instantly frightened everyone. That youth Li Han’s face grew pale in shades of white and green before suddenly kneeling to kowtow. “Senior, I was naive and failed to recognize you as a distinguished person. I hope you won’t take offense!”
“It’s alright. My technique of concealment as an elder is not something that can be seen through by an ordinary True Cultivator!”
Fang Yuan waved his hand, having the vigorous style of an Immortal.
Inside, he was thinking, So it seems like spiritualization of the Elemental Spiritual Energy Cultivation Technique’s third layer is equivalent to an Essence Soul Venerable in this realm? Anyone higher than a True Cultivator is an Immortal, and it’s divided based on the Heaven, Earth, and Human. The lowest is Human Immortal, next is Earth Immortal, and the highest is Heaven Immortal. Would my fifth layer Elemental Spiritual Energy Cultivation Technique ultimately form a domain and be roughly likened to an Earth Immortal?
But this was just his deduction. Before seeing any actual examples, he was naturally unable to reach a final conclusion.
“Thank you for showing mercy, Elder!”
Li Han was no longer arrogant and instead became like a kowtowing insect. This made Zhang Feng and Zhu Mei break out into laughter, but they felt cold in their hearts.
Between Stellar Malignance and Essence Soul, there seemed to be only one layer, but in reality, they were worlds apart.
Ignoring other aspects, the Qi of Stellar Heaven and Malignant Earth was extremely difficult to accumulate. Needless to say, finding a suitable cultivation technique was even more difficult.
“Which Fellow Immortal is this? I am Cheng Fei from the Vast Ocean Sect. Greetings, Fellow Immortal!”
Inside this City Square, there was naturally a power maintaining it.
Fang Yuan had only just revealed his cultivation before someone appeared. This Cheng Fei was like an actual person, but was actually a spirit body. It was impressively an Essence Soul Venerable.
“It’s the Venerable guarding the City Square!”
Zhang Feng and Zhu Mei hurriedly bowed.
“I am Fang Yuan. Greetings, Fellow Daoist!” Fang Yuan bowed with a lukewarm attitude.
“So it’s Fellow Daoist Fang. This junior unintentionally offended you, but I hope that you’ll be gracious and forgive him this time! After all, within the City Square, there are rules that strictly forbid fighting.”
“Hehe, I naturally won’t go against the rules!” Fang Yuan nodded.
Seeing this scene, this Essence Soul stroked his beard and smiled slightly. With a flick of his sleeve, it slapped hard on Li Han’s head, causing him to tumble away. “Get lost!”
After dealing with this, Cheng Fei looked at Fang Yuan. “Seeing Fellow Daoist’s magical abilities, your usage of Essence Soul power is superb. Where are you from?”
The Venerable guarding the place had a strong sense of wariness and directly started probing Fang Yuan.
If he had met him from the very beginning, Fang Yuan would most likely have exposed himself.
However, with the earlier contributions of Zhang Feng and Zhu Mei, he straightforwardly said that he was a loose cultivator wandering the realm, without any flaws in his explanation.
“So Fellow Daoist is actually an ascetic. Truly respectable. Are you alright with coming over to my cave abode to linger a bit, allowing me to act as a host!”
After a moment, Cheng Fei’s smile was more brilliant. “I’m currently in seclusion and quietly cultivating. Currently, I can only receive you with Essence Soul. My apologies!”
“In that case, it would be impolite to reject you!”
Fang Yuan raised his head and looked toward Zhang Feng. His lips moved slightly, transmitting a few sentences to him. This was the technique to remove the drawbacks of blood sacrifice.
“Thank you, Venerable! Thank you, Venerable!”
Zhang Feng heard just a little before instantly feeling many difficulties suddenly clearing away, a feeling of sudden enlightenment occuring, as he joyfully bowed.
“Haha… It was fated for us to meet. It is fate to start and end, fate to rise and fall. This is merely fate…” Fang Yuan waved his head and walked away elegantly.
“Thank you, Venerable!”
Zhang Feng politely bowed all the way, sending him to the door before seeing Fang Yuan disappear into the horizon.
…
“If I want to slightly conceal myself, I will hide within the jungle. If I want to greatly conceal myself, I will hide within the city. At the moment, my true physical body’s cultivation is too low, and therefore I can only play with them inside this small pond…”
Fang Yuan’s figure flew past and could not help smiling.
His origin power was completely present and endless in energy. Even though he had received an injury from breaking through to a higher dimension realm, it would completely recover quickly.
In fact, even when ascending to another realm, there usually wouldn’t be such an awkward situation. Most importantly, there were basically no records for anyone above a Sage in the realms below, and completely no experiences nor secret techniques…
In the lower realms, Sages were at the pinnacle. But even the Sages in Monger and Da Qian were unable to break through and naturally could not discover the paths and realms after that.
Even though Fang Yuan had managed to successfully break through, he was completely blank and could not see what was in front of him.
Regardless, the existences with origin power from the Mental Demon Realm that can incarnate to the lower realms aren’t simple. I currently feel that this is very difficult… Especially the true physical body of Shang Hou, who had secret techniques that could dispel the power of repulsion and even become the guardian of a realm!
At the moment, Fang Yuan was thinking that it was impossible for him.
This was not the gap between cultivation realms, but ability!
If he had had numerous secret techniques of the Mental Demon Realm, he could have at least guaranteed staying for a long time in the lower realms. Regardless, he would not have been pressured into ascending and definitely not put himself into such an awkward state.
One generation planted the trees; another would get the shade. The difference between whether or not one had experience usually used blood and tears to make up for it.
“I need to obtain cultivation techniques and secret techniques for origin power… or else I won’t know what paths to take later… ”
At the moment, Fang Yuan’s cultivation was definitely at the pinnacle of Da Qian. There were no predecessors and might not necessarily be anyone following his path.
There were definitely no trodden paths he could rely on from the lower realms. Thus, he had to look for them in the higher dimension realms.
“The Spiritual Realm is a decent path, but my intrinsic quality is still inclined toward the Mental Demon Realm… Even if I obtain the higher cultivation techniques of this realm, they’re at most a reference!
“Intrinsic quality!! This is another troublesome matter!”
Origin power certainly originated from the Mental Demon Realm. If Fang Yuan’s aura truly emitted, any great being in the Spiritual Realm would sense it and know that this was a true Evil Demon! A great being of the Mental Demon Realm!
Thus, even if his injury completely recovered, he could not stimulate origin power, or else he would certainly be swarmed and attacked.
Inside this high dimension Spiritual Realm, there were inevitably people at the same realm as him, or an even higher realm.
It would not be a joke if he was defeated and sealed for a hundred or a thousand years, or even annihilated.
“It seems that I need to disguise myself as a local and create an identity before slowly planning!”
As he was thinking, Fang Yuan had already arrived outside the cave abode.
This cave abode was situated at a corner of the City Square and extremely isolated, also having some signs of being desolate.
But upon further inspection, it was a Heavenly Abode with abundant Spiritual Energy. There were cranes flying and dancing, and an herb garden in front contained many lingzhi mushrooms and ginseng everywhere. Needless to say, there were also many unnamed exotic plants and flowers releasing faint fragrances.
“Fellow Daoist, please first rest for a bit while I tidy up,” apologized the Essence Soul of Cheng Fei, bringing Fang Yuan to a living room before quickly entering a stone door.
After the time it took to drink two cups of tea, a person wearing long robes and a crown, with a celestial appearance and complexion greatly similar to the Essence Soul just now, walked out from the stone door and cupped his hands. “My cultivation technique is somewhat peculiar and takes a longer time to stop. Please understand, Fellow Daoist.”
“Being able to obtain your hospitality is something that I am already very grateful for!”
Fang Yuan held a Fire Date and smiled as he said, “This date seems to be unique, the feeling very intense.”
“Haha! This Fire Date is already an exotic species by itself. Afterwards, I even found and drizzled qilin blood on it to breed a Bodhi Blood Date, which has even more nourishment Qi than an ordinary Fire Date. If you like it, take more with you later!”
Cheng Fei flicked his sleeve and sat down with a loud laugh, seeming to be very bold and straightforward.
He then shook the bell in his sleeve, and a few puppet servants walked up to replace the tea and serve various intricate and exotic fruits and snacks.
The two of them beat around the bush for a while before Cheng Fei could not help asking curiously, “What are your plans after today?”
According to what Fang Yuan said just now, he was a loose cultivator and had always tirelessly cultivated.
Recently, he left to travel the realm. After encountering some small disturbances and overcoming some obstacles, he met Zhang Feng and Zhu Mei by a stroke of fate. After that, they became companions and he journeyed along with them.
At the moment, he had no further plans.
” Sigh …” Hearing this, Fang Yuan released a long sigh. “I’d cultivated tirelessly for ten years and looked everywhere under the heavens before finding suitable Qi of Stellar Heaven and Malignant Earth and entering Essence Soul. I have no paths after that, and if I want to break through to Immortal, it is difficult! Difficult!! Difficult!!!”
An Essence Soul Venerable only had achievements in their divine spirit, but their flesh and blood were still the same. Thus, there were restrictions on lifespan.
Even if they reincarnated, doing this a few times would weaken the divine spirit and cause it to be utterly extinguished.
Thus, Essence Soul’s next step was Immortal Cultivator!
… Condensing their physical body to the limit and then proclaiming as ‘Human Immortal’! With both possession of body and soul, they could live forever.
However, the difference between Essence Soul and Human Immortal was a chasm, so difficult that it had caused many capable seniors to give up.
After all, after that one step, they would become Immortal!
“Indeed…” Mentioning this, even Cheng Fei repeatedly sighed. “To polish the body into perfection, it requires flawless high-level cultivation techniques… Furthermore, the consumption of resources is like a bottomless pit!”
How precise was the human body? In order to cultivate to perfection, many acupoints and meridians each had to be tempered, and the cultivation technique had to be extremely profound.
When a Human Immortal trained, they had to at least consume spirit materials daily. Over time, this was sufficient to completely deplete a small sect.
For an Immortal Cultivator, they had to have wealth, relationships, techniques, and environment. Wealth was placed in front, showcasing its priority and the importance of resources.
“In the beginning, the cultivation technique that I got was mere fragments and is completely unable to cultivate to Human Immortal. With the consumption later on…”
Fang Yuan showed a troubled look.
In fact, his Elemental Spiritual Energy Cultivation Technique was unique. Although he was cultivating with Spiritual Energy, it was still the Mental Demon Realm path. After spiritualization, it would be to actualize a spiritual field and domain, and use external power to support his body. It was slightly biased to this compared to the path of an Immortal Cultivator in this realm.
After all, he had created this cultivation technique himself, so how could it be orthodox to the Spiritual Realm?
“Has Fellow Daoist ever considered entering a sect and becoming an adjunct elder?”
Sure enough, Cheng Fei’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Although my Vast Ocean Sect isn’t one of the 33 large sects, it’s one of the 72 medium sects. As a lower sect in the Four Oceans Immortal Sects, it has a good reputation and countless secret techniques and precious treasures…”
