Peak Saint Realm

Although Carl was full of doubts, cultivation was fundamentally about elevating one's level of life.

Even a Level 6 Warrior who reached the peak of Level 6 had a lifespan no different from an ordinary person's. At most, they could live a hundred years. But once they broke through to Level 7, they could easily live two or three hundred years. And a Level 9 Warrior could live to the very limit of a human lifespan.

Five hundred years was the limit for a mortal body. As Carl understood it, without breaking through to the Saint Realm, the body's cells could only renew and die so many times; at most, they could last five hundred years.

In Carl's view, how long someone could live below the Saint Realm depended on the vitality of their cells. A Level 7 Warrior's cells were highly vigorous, but not enough to be used to their limit, so their lifespan was two or three hundred years.

A Level 9 Warrior's life force, on the other hand, was exceptionally strong, and they would almost never die from exhaustion. Under those conditions, a Level 9 Warrior's five-hundred-year lifespan was mostly due to their cells renewing and dying over and over. They could endure only five hundred years. After that, even if their life force remained strong, their cells would lack vitality, and they would inevitably die.

Once someone entered the Saint Realm, their level of life changed. Over the years, Carl had come to understand this most deeply: that their life force kept growing without pause, and their cells never lost vitality. Perhaps that was what allowed Saint Realm powerhouses to live forever.

As for the claim that the soul couldn't keep up with the body, Carl could only smile. After all, when someone felt themselves growing old, it was mostly the body sending out signals.

People said they didn't have the energy they did when they were young, but that was only because their bodies were aging. To keep the body functioning normally, they had to reduce their exertion.

When the body was immortal, the soul's strength would be eternal as well.

The Saint Realm was a tremendous elevation in one's fundamental level of life. It brought a feeling of being at one's peak almost constantly, like an eternal furnace, a source of power that would scarcely run dry.

The benefits of cultivation always came after the hardships. And those benefits weren't power, wealth, or beauty; they were the feeling of remaining young, always.

Carl had firsthand experience of this. He remembered the feeling of being almost on the verge of death at a hundred years old, yet now he felt young every day, as if he were a twenty-year-old man.

Why had emperors of old eventually pursued immortality? Because they had once known the vigor of youth, and only after losing it had they tried everything to get it back.

"The more I cultivate, the better my body feels."

Carl closed his eyes and sensed the changes brought by this breakthrough. In the end, he summed them up in one sentence.

Cultivation felt amazing!

After a long while, Carl began to carefully reflect on the changes he had undergone.

He soon discovered that Peak Saint Realm truly lived up to its name.

At Early Saint Realm, cultivation was all about accumulating Battle Qi and comprehending Momentum of Heaven and Earth. Once one's Battle Qi was full and their understanding of Momentum of Heaven and Earth was complete, they had reached Mid Saint Realm. Beyond that, cultivation meant doing everything possible to comprehend Mysteries. Succeed, and one reached Peak Saint Realm; fail, and one remained at Mid Saint Realm.

Mid Saint Realm was like a bowl of water. One either had to find a bigger bowl, or the water would no longer increase at all. The only way to improve one's strength at Mid Saint Realm was through Saint Realm techniques. The more deeply one mastered them, the more power one could bring to bear, and the closer one came to Peak Saint Realm. But their fundamental nature remained unchanged: both Battle Qi and Momentum of Heaven and Earth reached their limits the moment one entered Mid Saint Realm.

Entering Peak Saint Realm felt like an instinct one was born with, and Carl could feel it clearly. At Early Saint Realm, he had been able to rely on his Level 9 talent, along with the support of his territory and family, to possess talent that brought him extremely close to the Saint Realm. Thanks to that talent, Carl had been able to accumulate Battle Qi at first. But once he had accumulated enough, his talent was no longer sufficient.

Unable to cultivate and increase his Battle Qi, Carl had put his efforts into Saint Realm techniques instead.

As a Saint Warrior, his Mental Power might have been comparable only to that of an eighth-level mage, but the fundamental nature of his soul was far superior to that of anyone below the Saint Realm. It was this fundamental strength that allowed Saint Realm powerhouses to comprehend the Mysteries of the world.

Back when Carl was an Early Saint Realm expert, even though his understanding of Momentum of Heaven and Earth had been incomplete, he had still been able to create the beginnings of his own signature move. It was a technique that pushed his moves to their utmost limits. Compared to some of the moves he had used as a Level 9 Warrior, it could let him fight two opponents of equal strength at once.

But now that he had truly reached Peak Saint Realm, the Saint Realm techniques that once required painstaking effort to advance in now felt like pure instinct.

He glanced at his status panel. Sure enough, after fusing with the [Wind Element], it had changed again.

[Auto-Cultivation System]

[Host: Carl]

[Age: 300]

[Level: Peak Saint Realm (1/1000000)]

[Family: Talos (Level 2)] (Can be upgraded)

[Territory: Spark Town (Level 2)] (Can be upgraded)

[Mall: Level 3 items updated]

[Faith: None]

[Cultivation: Peak Saint Realm (1/1000000) Wind Element (1/1000000) Third option can be unlocked]

After looking at his family and territory, Carl decided to hold off on upgrading them for now. There were far too many benefits to reaching Level 3. Cultivation speed alone would increase by 100%, and as both the family head and the lord of his territory, Carl could receive the benefits twice over, up to a maximum of 200%.

But the requirements were no small matter. Reaching Level 3 required a large number of Level 9 Warriors, and the family and territory didn't share their progress. That meant that, from now on, Carl would probably have to prioritize upgrading his territory over his family.

Aside from his family and territory, Carl also noticed changes to the Mall and his cultivation options.

After asking the [Novice Tutorial], Carl learned that reaching Peak Saint Realm had opened up more paths for him to choose from.

The first option was to cultivate only Battle Qi and Elemental Laws. In that case, he could purchase an additional type of elemental Mystery for the third option. This Mystery didn't have to be of the same element. He could cultivate the Wind Element while also cultivating the Elemental Laws of another branch. The requirements for purchasing Elemental Laws were the same: Carl first had to buy an Elemental Seed. Only after activating it could he purchase a new elemental Mystery.

As an Auto-Cultivation System, the system also had certain restrictions when it came to cultivating automatically. For instance, when cultivating Mysteries, one had to use elemental power as the foundation. That meant the first Mystery had to be a basic elemental power of one branch. Only after mastering that elemental power could one purchase other Mysteries.

For a genius, this choice would probably be difficult to accept, because comprehending the Mystery of elemental power was considered the lowest tier among Mysteries of the same level. The gap between it and a high-level Mystery was nearly tenfold or even a hundredfold after becoming a god. At the Saint Realm level, that gap could widen to tens of millions of times or more.

But Carl didn't mind. After all, if he didn't buy one, he wouldn't even be able to cultivate.