To break through and attain the Violet Palace, one had to pass three trials.
The first was the Divine Ability Trial.
One had to evolve the Immortal Foundation one had built into a divine ability, thereby establishing the basis of a Violet Palace. Failure meant the Immortal Foundation would collapse completely. The body would rot and fall apart, leaving no intact corpse.
Unless one took a special precious pill or spirit medicine, there was no surviving it. Even if one was lucky enough to live, the collapse of the Immortal Foundation would end one's Dao Path forever. Advancing another step would be impossible, and one could not even retain Foundation Establishment Perfection. Falling back to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, or even the Foundation Establishment Early Stage, was normal.
One's fighting strength would also be far below that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. After all, without an Immortal Foundation, one could no longer draw on its wonders against an enemy. It was like a fight between someone armed with a sword and someone barehanded: naturally, the one with the weapon would win.
The second trial was the Magic Power Trial.
Compared with the first, this trial was actually much easier. Once the Immortal Foundation became a divine ability, magic power would condense along with it. So long as the surrounding spiritual energy was abundant during the breakthrough, or one took spirit pills or precious medicine at this juncture to supply enough spiritual power, one's magic power would naturally transform and condense into Violet Palace Magic Power.
The third trial, and the hardest, was the Heart Demon Trial.
As its name suggested, the cultivator would fall into boundless illusions and encounter all manner of heart demons. These were not actual fiends, but illusions born from shifts and entanglements of emotion.