Seven Realms of the Divine Path, Awakening

"Wow, Bone is so amazing!"

The cool moonlight illuminated the bright fields of his childhood. Xue Ding's ninth junior sister had also arrived. The girl who had previously clamored to beat up Yuan Tianzong was a bit reserved upon seeing him again. She only dared to exclaim in wonder around Bone, not daring to approach Yuan Tianzong.

Xue Ding's culinary skills were indeed excellent, having prepared a table full of delicious dishes, with a good balance of meat and vegetables.

Yuan Tianzong took a few bites and nodded with a smile, "Not bad. I didn't expect you, the senior disciple, to actually know how to cook."

"I used to follow my master on training journeys for a while, and I did all the cooking. After a long time, I naturally got the hang of it."

"How long have you been at the Celestial Master Temple?"

"Almost twenty years."

Once one achieved some success in cultivation, changes in external appearance would slow down, and lifespan would increase. Xue Ding, who looked only in his early twenties, was actually thirty-eight.

"Twenty years to reach the Five Elements Realm? Haven't you thought about why?" Yuan Tianzong took a sip of the delicious mushroom soup and looked at Xue Ding.

These words angered his ninth junior sister, who was extremely fond of her senior disciple. With a child's mentality, she ignored her master's instructions and retorted, "Senior Yuan! Reaching the Five Elements Realm in twenty years is very impressive, according to my master!"

Yuan Tianzong replied with a chuckle, "With his talent, he should have easily reached the Dragon Opening Realm, but he hasn't. Shouldn't he look for the reason? Right, Xue Ding?"

Faced with Yuan Tianzong's pointed words, Xue Ding remained silent, offering no reply.

The ninth junior sister, holding a braised pig's trotter in one hand and with the other on her hip, said indignantly, "Dragon Opening Realm? Senior Yuan, do you think reaching that realm is easy? How many years did my master cultivate to reach the Dragon Opening Realm, and even my grandmaster."

"It's not difficult," Yuan Tianzong chuckled softly.

"Not difficult? Then how many years did it take you, Senior Yuan, to reach the Dragon Opening Realm?" The ninth junior sister naively assumed Yuan Tianzong was in the Dragon Opening Realm. She was unaware of the Grandmaster stage and had never even heard of it, believing the Dragon Opening Realm to be the peak.

"Me?" Yuan Tianzong recalled for a moment and said, "About eight years, minus a month."

Xue Ding looked up abruptly.

Eight years?

The Grandmaster of the Celestial Master Temple had exceptional talent. In his youth, he was known as one of the Ten Prodigies of Huaxia. Even so, it took him over sixty years to reach the Dragon Opening Realm.

It seemed that Xue Ding, who took twenty years to reach the Five Elements Realm, would definitely surpass his grandmaster in the future, breaking through to the Dragon Opening Realm in less than sixty years.

But don't forget, the cultivation environment for his grandmaster in his youth was different from the current environment.

In the same environment, Xue Ding didn't believe his talent could surpass his grandmaster's.

And this Yuan senior in front of him had only taken eight years!

Xue Ding couldn't quite believe it, a seed of doubt growing in his heart, thinking he was lying.

But when he met Yuan Tianzong's calm eyes, he suddenly became utterly certain that he wasn't lying; it was true.

Eight years. To think someone could reach the Dragon Opening Realm in just eight years. Such talent, throughout Huaxia... no, throughout the entire world, Xue Ding had never heard of it, even going back eight hundred years to the beginning of the world's changes.

If Xue Ding knew that Yuan Tianzong's environment in his youth was a desolate and nearly extinct Dharma-ending era, he would likely be so shocked that his mind would go blank, unable to comprehend it.

A flower blooming in barren land, its resilience and vitality, was enough to rival the splendor of an entire spring!

"Show off!" The ninth junior sister, after a moment of stunned silence, concluded that Yuan Tianzong was talking nonsense and bragging.

"Xiao Ling, that's rude!" Xue Ding looked at Yuan Tianzong's eyes and instinctively knew Yuan Tianzong wasn't lying. Reaching the Dragon Opening Realm in eight years, such talent was both moving and disheartening, unsettling his mind.

The reprimanded ninth junior sister pouted, looking unconvinced, but she obediently stopped talking, venting her frustration on the pig's trotter with a fierce bite.

"Senior Yuan, please don't mind her. Ninth junior sister is just childlike."

With innocent words and no real harm intended, Yuan Tianzong paid it no mind and changed the subject, asking, "Xue Ding, speaking of which, I went to your Celestial Master Temple to look for information before, and I found nothing about the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao. Yet, the news of its imminent appearance has already spread. Why is that?"

Xue Ding smiled.

"Senior Yuan, it's normal that you couldn't find information about this item in the Celestial Master Cave. Although most people don't know about this divine smoke, for any cultivation force of a certain scale, it's common knowledge. Almost everyone knows it, so there's no need to record it specifically and store it in the Celestial Master Cave."

"There might be some in the Sutra Depository, but I don't know which corner it's in."

Yuan Tianzong nodded. So that's why he couldn't find it.

"The Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao, tell me about it. I don't know much."

Xue Ding nodded, increasingly certain in his heart that Yuan Tianzong was not from any mysterious power but was indeed a rogue cultivator from the mountains. Otherwise, how could he not even know about the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao? It was one of the most basic pieces of knowledge in cultivation.

The mysterious spread online, as if it were some incredible secret, was actually because most of the people spreading it were ordinary individuals who thought they had stumbled upon some heavenly secret, leading to misunderstandings.

"The Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao is a crucial item for divine path cultivation, the key to pushing open the door and entering the next room."

"With the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao, our spirits can undergo a transformation, fully awaken, and begin to resonate with heaven and earth, starting to perceive nature."

"Awakening, Lotus Lamp, Dan Heart, Soul Fusion, Dao Palace, Primordial Fetus, Flying Heaven – these are the Seven Realms of the Divine Path. Cultivating them allows one to communicate with the divine."

Awakening?

Yuan Tianzong nodded repeatedly, committing these words to memory. As someone from the Dharma-ending era, in that declining period, many mountain sects and denominations had withered and disappeared, and information inheritance was held by unknown individuals, making it difficult to find.

Now, with the transformation of heaven and earth, cultivation has returned, and various lost things are reappearing with the resurgence of cultivation forces.

Yuan Tianzong pondered the first realm of Awakening.

Xue Ding said that the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao could cause a spiritual transformation and complete awakening, which was the manifestation of stepping into the Grandmaster stage.

He himself had already entered the Grandmaster stage, but it was his body, not his spirit, that had transformed; it was a leap in life, an increase in lifespan.

Therefore, in cultivation, spirit and body could indeed be divided into two paths, namely true energy and inner energy.

True energy is refined from external energy.

Inner energy comes from deep within the body.

"The cultivation of the body has shackles, a forbidden zone that cannot be entered..."

"Why is that?"

In Yuan Tianzong's view, any rule established must have a reason; it wouldn't be without cause.

Currently, he naturally couldn't figure it out without any clues, but a faint smile appeared on his lips.

Whatever the reason, the shackles on his body had already disappeared due to his "illegal entry."

Others couldn't cultivate, but he could, unimpeded!

"Thank you for sharing. As I said before, your cooking is excellent. Feel free to ask me any cultivation-related questions; I will tell you everything I know." Yuan Tianzong said generously, intending to guide a junior he found agreeable.

Upon hearing this, Xue Ding immediately spoke, "Senior Yuan, I've been stuck in the Five Elements Realm for many years and still can't break through to the Dragon Opening Realm. My master and grandmaster both say I have excellent talent and should have broken through long ago, but... many disciples of my generation in the sect have broken through their bottlenecks, yet only I, alas."

The Ninth Junior Sister beside him raised her bright eyes, curious to hear how Yuan Tianzong would guide their Senior Brother.

"Speaking of which, Xue Ding, don't you know the reason yourself?" Yuan Tianzong asked with a smile.

Xue Ding was stunned, "I don't know?"

Yuan Tianzong remained silent, his gaze falling on the ancient sword he held, "A fine sword, but aren't you a blade cultivator?"

The Ninth Junior Sister beside him couldn't help but laugh, "Senior Brother doesn't cultivate blades; he cultivates swords. He's the sword cultivation genius our master speaks of, rarely seen in a century. His Celestial Master Demon Subduing Sword shone brilliantly at various sect exchange meets, receiving much praise!"

Yuan Tianzong continued to look at Xue Ding, "You really don't practice with a blade?"

Xue Ding nodded, lifting the ancient long sword in his hand, "This is the Celestial Master Sword, an heirloom passed down from the sect leader of the Celestial Master Temple. Ever since Master gave it to me, I, Xue Ding, have practiced with this sword diligently, never daring to slack off."

"Oh." Yuan Tianzong stopped speaking and seriously drank his soup.