The core of the Ascension Path was not, in fact, the mechanical body.
Every cultivation method had an orthodox path and an unorthodox path. Unorthodox paths were simpler, easier to understand, and easier to advance in—there was no doubt about that. For unorthodox paths were originally twisted forms of the orthodox path: while ensuring a certain degree of effectiveness, they paid for it with negative side effects, accelerating and simplifying part of the process.
For example, an unorthodox path of the Martial Dao was swallowing Blood Pills and using people as sacrifices to empower oneself, rapidly raising one's "life" and "innate bones," thereby swiftly gaining formidable strength.
The orthodox path, meanwhile, required one to temper one's temperament and body bit by bit, and personally comprehend the essential principles of the Dharma.
The latter was clearly slower.
But if one truly cultivated to the same level, the vast majority of unorthodox paths could hardly rival the orthodox path—because unorthodox paths inevitably paid a certain price as a compromise for acceleration... If one could accelerate without paying a price, then that would be a new orthodox path.
In An Jing's view, the unorthodox path of the Ascension Path was [blindly modifying oneself].
That was wrong.
The crux of the Ascension Path lay in its name—in [ascension], in constantly remaking, discarding, and reforging oneself to adapt to every perilous environment. An Ascension Path cultivator had to know what they were replacing their body with, and why they were making that replacement, rather than blindly and without seeking true understanding swapping themselves into an armored body, or rather...
Replacing themselves with someone else's body.
The former was the orthodox path. A mechanical body used techniques to wield the Dao; the latter was the path of heretical demons.
Simply put, Ascension Path cultivators had to