The Five Xiantian Realms

"Master, is the martial saint realm above the xiantian realm?"

Li Gan asked curiously.

His understanding of martial arts levels was limited to the xiantian realm.

"Naturally, no. A martial saint still belongs to the xiantian level."

Zhou Buping shook his head. "I will explain the situation of xiantian martial arts to you properly."

"Master, let's go inside to talk."

Li Gan said quickly.

"Hmm."

Zhou Buping nodded.

The master and disciple entered the room.

Li Gan lit the oil lamp.

Under the dim light, Zhou Buping educated Li Gan on the xiantian levels.

"Unlike the postnatal realm ninth layer, xiantian represents the level of communication between the human body and the world. Based on the degree of communication, it is called the five xiantian realms."

Zhou Buping said.

"The five xiantian realms? In some books I've read, there are only three xiantian realms?"

Li Gan was extremely surprised.

"The books you read didn't list all five xiantian realms."

Zhou Buping shook his head and said, "All cultivation in the xiantian realm is for the sake of communicating with the world. The first three realms are true qi, true essence, and true dan; these represent the excavation of one's own inner potential and belong to laying the foundation. Only the last two realms can be considered truly beginning to explore and even influence the world."

Li Gan listened intently.

These seemingly basic martial arts insights were inaccessible until one reached a certain level.

"The fourth xiantian realm is called heaven-man, implying a person of the heavens. At this level, one can soar through the air, roam the skies, and break free from the shackles of the earth. Heaven-men have a deeper understanding of the world. Most importantly, the lifespan of a heaven-man can reach three hundred years, whereas the first three xiantian realms, even for a martial grandmaster who has condensed a true dan, have a maximum lifespan of two hundred years."

Zhou Buping continued.

"Then is the martial saint the fifth realm?"

Li Gan couldn't help but ask.

"That's right. A martial saint is a sage among martial artists. It is said that this level opens the door to truly influencing the world. Unfortunately, I do not know exactly what kind of abilities they possess. However, it is said that the lifespan of a martial saint can reach over five hundred years."

Zhou Buping nodded and said.

Li Gan finally had a preliminary understanding of the five xiantian realms. "Master, what level are you at?"

"I was once at the early stage of the true dan realm."

Zhou Buping's tone carried a hint of wistfulness.

The reason he said "was once" was naturally because his sea of qi had been damaged, and his cultivation had regressed.

"Then does our Divine Sword Sect have any heaven-human realm experts?"

Li Gan asked curiously.

"That, I do not know."

Zhou Buping shook his head.

"Even you don't know, Master?"

Li Gan was very surprised.

"I do not involve myself in sect affairs and am not a power-holding elder of the Elder Hall, so how would I know the sect's highest secrets?"

Zhou Buping laughed. "However, I suspect that there is a high probability that there is one. Our Divine Sword Sect had a high-ranking sword envoy whose whereabouts have been unknown for a long time, yet no new sword envoy has been selected from the true disciples. This sword envoy is very likely still alive; after all, the maximum lifespan of a heaven-human expert is nearly three hundred years."

"You have just broken through to the xiantian realm and must consolidate your foundation. I am going back to sleep now."

Seeing that Li Gan still wanted to ask more questions, Zhou Buping waved his hand, stood up, and walked out of the bell tower.

With his hands behind his back, his gait was light; he was clearly in a good mood.

True qi, true yuan, true dan, heaven-human, martial saint. My path of martial arts has only just begun.

Li Gan sighed with emotion.

Dong!

Accompanied by the tolling of the mao bell, a new day began.

Due to the season, although it was still the mao hour, the horizon was already turning white.

The mist was vast.

A damp morning breeze blew.

Li Gan assumed his stance and began to practice the Heartless Sword Art.

The Heartless Sword Art was a high-level cultivation technique; it could be practiced not only in the postnatal realm but also in the xiantian realm, with its effectiveness remaining undiminished.

Heaven and earth origin qi gathered, merging into his body to combine with his blood, qi, and spirit, refining them into true qi.

Only after the xiantian true qi had completed a grand heavenly cycle did he stop.

Refreshing!

Li Gan felt that his xiantian true qi had increased by a fraction.

Not only was the efficiency of the immaculate sword body in absorbing heaven and earth origin qi extremely high, but smelting it into true qi was also effortless.

Needless to say, this was one of the major effects of the immaculate sword body.

Based on his understanding, the cultivation speed of a xiantian martial artist was primarily tested by two aspects.

One was the efficiency of absorbing heaven and earth origin qi.

The other was the efficiency of fusing heaven and earth origin qi with blood, qi, and spirit.

Both involved innate talent and comprehension.

With the assistance of the sacrificial vessel, the chen bell, Li Gan's comprehension was absolutely top-tier.

As for his innate talent, now that he had cultivated the immaculate sword body, it went without saying.

He finally understood the essence of being flawless.

It meant being able to absorb and exhale heaven and earth origin qi through the entire body, while blood and qi could fuse with heaven and earth origin qi at one hundred percent efficiency, preventing any waste of origin qi or his own blood and qi during cultivation.

In this way, his cultivation speed was terrifyingly fast.

Thinking of this, Li Gan moved his mind and summoned the system interface to check the latest information.

Host: Li Gan.
Cultivation: Xiantian True Qi (Early Stage 2/100).
Sacrificial Vessel: Chen Bell (Dharma 2315/10000).
Martial Arts: Sword Piercing Fist (Perfect), Heartless Sword Art (Perfect), Immaculate Sword Body (Perfect).
Martial Intent: Heartless Sword Intent (Illusion 19/100).
Secret Techniques: Myriad Transformation Sword Qi, Blood Burning Technique.

"Huh, my cultivation progress increased by one point?"

Li Gan was very surprised.

Just a single grand heavenly cycle of cultivation had increased his progress by one point; the efficiency was truly terrifying.

As expected of a perfect xiantian.

This was not the postnatal realm, but the xiantian level; the difficulty of cultivation was certainly a hundred times greater than that of the postnatal realm.

Yet, he was still able to increase his progress by one point with every single session of cultivation.

Looking at it this way, he only needed to practice the heartless sword art one hundred times to advance to the mid-stage of the xiantian true qi realm.

The question now was, how many times could he practice in a day?

Over the next few days, Li Gan conducted various trials and basically determined that, with normal cultivation, he could practice about three times a day. Otherwise, his body's blood vitality would not be able to keep up.

He tried taking blood vitality pills.

The effect was quite good.

His immaculate sword body was able to absorb the medicinal effects rapidly.

Most importantly, every time he took a pill, his body was unexpectedly able to expel the medicinal toxins immediately.

Li Gan finally understood why it was called a perfect xiantian.

This immaculate sword body was actually immune to medicinal toxins.

After taking blood vitality pills, he could practice about two more times a day.

The reason it only increased by two, rather than being unlimited, was simple.

His mental energy could not keep up.

Although the chen bell itself had the effect of restoring mental energy, after practicing multiple times, his mind would become exceptionally exhausted, to the point where even the chen bell could hardly alleviate it.

He consulted his master, Zhou Buping, regarding this issue.

The explanation his master gave was that this involved mental resilience; one must balance exertion and rest, as going too far was as bad as not going far enough. Once one overexerted during cultivation, it would lead to mental damage.

Even medicinal pills like the spirit nourishing pill did not truly restore mental energy; they only alleviated mental fatigue and prevented mental damage to a certain extent.

The only way to improve mental resilience was to improve one's martial intent.

Li Gan being able to practice five times a day and increase his cultivation progress by five points was actually already astonishing enough.

This was because he had already comprehended sword intent to the illusion level just after entering the xiantian realm.

Unfortunately, after the heartless sword intent stepped into the illusion level, the difficulty of cultivation increased significantly.

He wanted to advance his sword intent further in a short period, but there was currently no possibility of that.

However, he was still very satisfied with his current cultivation speed.

Even if he could only practice five times a day, he could still increase his cultivation progress by five points; it would not even take him a month to raise his cultivation to the mid-stage of the xiantian true qi realm.

Such a cultivation speed could be called heaven-defying.