This new generation of humans possessed extraordinary talents and profound innate constitutions. On top of that, they cultivated the orthodox techniques of the Primordial Beginning, making their progress astonishingly swift—truly advancing a thousand miles in a single day. With every breath they drew, spiritual energy flowed into them like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, and their cultivation rose steadily, as though even the Great Dao were making way for them.
With every new level of cultivation, the humans' potential revealed itself as increasingly astonishing. Bai Xuan watched them in secret, unable to suppress his immense amazement. These humans are simply heaven-defying. Their cultivation speed is terrifying!
At the beginning of the path of cultivation, it was called "cultivating the truth." Put simply, it meant digging out one's truest self, casting aside distracting thoughts and illusions, and returning to one's original nature. The early stages of cultivation were divided into four great realms: Refining Essence into Qi, Refining Qi into Spirit, Refining Spirit into Emptiness, and Uniting Emptiness with the Dao.
Once one stepped into "Uniting Emptiness with the Dao," heavenly tribulations would follow like a shadow, liable to descend from Above the Nine Heavens at any moment. If one could endure the cleansing of the lightning tribulation, one's physical body would undergo earth-shaking changes, completely shedding its mortal form and achieving the legendary Immortal Muscles and Dao Bones. Only then could one be said to have truly stepped across the threshold of the immortal path.
All mortal flesh would be shed, one's lifespan would soar, and one would leap beyond reincarnation, entering the ranks of those who lived forever.
But was immortality really that easy?
If one truly wanted to sit securely upon the carefree throne, one still had to undergo a disaster tribulation every five hundred years