Atop Spirit Mountain, the tribulation clouds dissipated into the skies. As Buddhist light shrouded the glory of Spirit Mountain, everything returned to normal; it was as if everything before this had not happened at all.
The Buddhas also left one after another. This incident today was considered rather unusual even for them. There had never been an outsider who came here to overcome the Divine Tribulations of the Great Path.
Ye Futian brought Hua Jieyu to sit on the Ancient mountain. The power of the Great Path of Life encased her and rejuvenated her vitality, causing her body to regenerate quickly. Hua Jieyu was sitting cross-legged as she stabilized her cultivation levels. Overcoming the Divine Tribulations depleted a great amount of her spiritual energy. Back then, Emperor Xi only managed to withstand this Divine tribulation by sacrificing the life of the Black Tortoise while she powered through it with just her own body.
Furthermore, in the end, Hua Jieyu was faced with a direct attack on her spiritual power by the Will of the Law, besieging her spiritual soul. It’s not difficult to imagine how terrifying of an attack it was; it was even more dangerous than the Sword of Law.
As Blind Tie and Chen Yi left quietly, Fang Cun and the others left as well. No one wanted to disturb Ye Futian and Hua Jieyu’s cultivation.
After seeing Hua Jieyu overcome the Divine Tribulation of the Great Path, they all felt that they should work hard too, so as not to hold them back.
Other than them, the Golden-winged Giant Peng Bird was also cultivating earnestly. Although he was once the student of Great Elder Motian, he’d never had the chance to cultivate at Spirit Mountain. This was an opportunity for him, and he was trying his best to seize it, even going to listen to the Great Buddhas on Spirit Mountain teach Buddhist scripture.
Spirit Mountain was the cultivation ground of the Lord of All Buddhas and the place where various Buddhas sought their paths. Other than the top Great Buddhas from their respective regions, there was a significant number of Great Buddhas who studied under Buddha Elders cultivating at the Spirit Mountain, and they also held Buddhist Scripture lectures. The Golden-winged Great Peng Bird Mo Yunzi frequently listened to these Great Buddhas’ lessons on scripture.
As time passed, Ye Futian’s group continued to strive and cultivate on the Spirit Mountain, and each of their cultivation levels increased by the day.
Several years later, Chen Yi had perfected his Great Path, and his powers evolved after reaching the ninth level of the Renhuang Plane. Even Blind Tie could no longer fight him. The two had sparred on the Spirit Mountain, although Blind Tie also received the inheritance of the Imperial Star at the Starry Cultivation Court, he still couldn’t compare to Chen Yi.
After all, Chen Yi received the inheritance from the Bright Temple. Furthermore, he himself was the Divine Body of Light and was born with extraordinary potential.
Blind Chen was even willing to die for him to inherit the power of the light.
Back then, at the Donghua Domain, Chen Yi could already fight against Ye Futian. Now, he was far more powerful than back then, so much so that it would be difficult to even make an accurate comparison.
On the other hand, for the past few years, Ye Futian felt the most troubled. Somehow, his cultivation was still stuck at the Eighth-Level Renhuang Plane, and he had made no breakthrough. This made him feel rather uncanny, as he couldn’t understand why and couldn’t find any reason.
At this time, many monks sat before a statue of a Buddha on Spirit Mountain. They were all sitting on Zafus and listening in silence. Below the statue of the Buddha, a Great Buddha was giving a lecture about Buddhist scripture.
This Great Buddha was a Buddha in Spirit Mountain and had a deep understanding of the Buddhist doctrine. Ye Futian came to know many of the Buddhist cultivators atop the Spirit mountains; he was also sitting below, listening to the lecture.
After some time, the lecture ended, many Buddhist cultivators started raising questions regarding the scripture, and the Great Buddha helped to clarify their doubts one by one.
The Buddhas only dispersed when there was no one else asking any more questions. However, Ye Futian sat quietly in his place and didn’t leave.
“Benefactor Ye, what’s the matter?” this Great Buddha smiled and asked Ye Futian. He was the Vajra Buddha Lord of the Spirit Mountain and had the deepest understanding of the Vajra Sutra. He was also extremely well-versed in the Vajra Spell, which Ye Futian learned and cultivated.
“I do have something which I wish to seek your advice about, Great Buddha,” Ye Futian said.
“Please, tell me,” Vajra Buddha Lord said with a smile.
“Is it true that Buddhist cultivators could forge the Divine Wheel with their Buddha pure bodies?” Ye Futian asked.
“Yes indeed,” the Vajra Buddha Lord nodded. “In fact, some Buddha pure bodies are the Divine Wheel of the Great Paths. There is no difference. The strength of their Buddha pure bodies is the strength of their Divine Wheels.”
“The level of their Buddha pure bodies would be the level of their Divine Wheels, and by extension the plane of cultivation of the Buddhist cultivator?” Ye Futian said.
“Em…” Vajra Buddha Lord nodded. He couldn’t quite understand what Ye Futian was trying to ask.
“Are there any Buddhist cultivators who have cultivated their Buddha pure bodies to the ninth plane of the Buddhist path, but their actual cultivation planes lagged behind?” Ye Futian continued asking.
Vajra Buddha Lord answered, “No, you are a cultivator yourself, so of course you understand that the level of one’s Divine Wheel of the Great Path is equivalent to his cultivation plane. Having any of one’s Divine Wheel of the Great Path reach the ninth level is the same as reaching the ninth level of the Renhuang plane himself.”
“There are no exceptions?” Ye Futian asked.
“No exceptions.” Vajra Buddha lord shook his head.
“Thank you, Buddha Lord, for clearing up my queries,” Ye Futian put his palms together and bowed. He then excused himself to leave the place. He turned and walked a few steps before his figure just disappeared into thin air; it was as if he had teleported somewhere else.
The next instant, he directly appeared at his cultivation place on the Ancient Peak.
“How was it?” Hua Jieyi walked to him and asked.
Ye Futian shook his head and said, “I think the Buddha Lord doesn’t know as well. I guess we’ll have to just wait for a while and see.”
“Em,” Hua Jieyu nodded.
“I’ll cultivate first,” Ye Futian said. Then, he closed his eyes and sat cross-legged while his consciousness sank into the LIfe Palace.
Inside the Life Palace, it was as though this was an entirely independent world. The World Tree swayed gently as various powers of the Great Path circled it. The sun and moon hung in the sky, and celestial stars shone magnificently; it looked like a real world.
The projection of Ye Futian’s consciousness sat before the divine tree. With just a thought, powers of the Great Path started to conjure and materialize, turning into a Divine Wheel of the Great Path. Once the Divine Wheel of Divine Elephant appeared, an immense aura of the Great Path started to emanate from it.
Then the Guqin Divine Wheel appeared as well, while enormous Buddha pure bodies of the Buddhist Path materialized behind him. The auras of all of these Great Paths were tremendously powerful. All of them had reached the ninth level.
After cultivating on the Spirit Mountains for many years, he completed his Great Paths and continuously augmented his Great Path Divine Wheels. Now, all of these Divine Wheels had entered the ninth level one after another, so he should have entered the Ninth-Level Renhuang Plane as well. Yet, he had not sensed a breakthrough at all and continued to stay at the Eighth-Level.
Based on the categorization of cultivation planes, as Vajra Buddha lord said, once the Divine Wheel entered the ninth level, then the cultivator himself would enter the ninth level as well. Based on that, of course, he would be considered a Ninth-Level cultivator. However, he didn’t feel that he had broken through the eighth plane. Especially when he released his Great Path aura, Hua Jieyu also felt that he was still at the eighth plane.
This seemed to run contrary to common sense and wasn’t congruent to the rules of cultivation. The only possible explanation was that these Divine Wheels that have broken through to the ninth level were all derived and forged from the Life Spirits. And these Life Spirits are essentially nothingness in the first place and could only appear by relying on the World Tree.
Only the World Tree could be truly considered his Natal Spirit. In some sense, it could even be regarded as the only one.
So, could his cultivation level be related to that?
Ye Futian closed his eyes, fully focusing on cultivating and perceiving the Great Path. By now, the only Divine Wheel that hadn’t made the breakthrough was the Boundary Wheel, which was derived from the World Tree.
Perhaps that was the reason why he didn’t sense the opportunity to break through the eighth level.
However, all of his Great Path powers had reached Ninth-Level strength, and they were all unified as one, so why was he unable to take this final step?
This was the part that he couldn’t find the answer to!
