866-867: Greater and Lesser Three Essences, Three Flower Body Protection! Great Perfection! (Bonus Chapter for Twenty-Five Degrees Gray)

In Daoist teachings, Heaven, Earth, and humanity each possessed three essences.

Heaven's three essences were the three lights of sun, moon, and stars.

Earth's three essences were the three essentials of water, fire, and earth.

Humanity's three essences were vitality, qi, and spirit.

Heaven, Earth, and humanity were born with three essences. Yet whether it was the vast and boundless Heaven and Earth or mankind, from the very moment of birth, the "three essences" had been constantly flowing away and being consumed.

The loss of Heaven and Earth's three essences manifested in the changes of sunrise, moonshift, mountains, rivers, and streams. Compared to humanity's tiny strength, the loss and consumption of Heaven and Earth's three essences were clearly far too immense to be altered or matched by human power. They were called the "Greater Three Essences."

Thus, the only thing humans could grasp was their own "Lesser Three Essences."

At some unknown point, people began trying to cultivate their own Lesser Three Essences in hopes of reducing the depletion of their three essences, or even enhancing them until they reached the Greater Three Essences, attaining a state of longevity equal to Heaven and Earth and brilliance equal to the sun and moon. Thus was born the True Return Realm, where the three essences became one.

Among the body's three essences—primordial vitality, primordial qi, and primordial spirit—primordial vitality was the foundation of everything.

Primordial qi and primordial spirit, meanwhile, were strengthened through cultivating and improving primordial vitality.

Primordial qi and primordial spirit varied according to each person's opportunities and methods.

For example, demonic qi and demonic seeds cultivated by the Demon Sect differed from Buddhist qi and relics cultivated by Buddhists, but primordial vitality held no such distinction.

However, those born with abundant primordial vitality would naturally cultivate primordial qi and