Simply put, the breakthrough process for Merging Dao cultivators was to inscribe Dao patterns upon their own Dao Bones. Each successfully inscribed pattern advanced them one minor realm.
Relatively speaking, the inscription at Merging Dao First Level was the simplest, because at that stage, a cultivator's Dao Bone bore no marks at all and could be carved as they pleased.
But beginning from Merging Dao Second Level, such inscriptions carried a certain degree of risk. If one was not careful enough, or if one's control over Dao Power was not perfect, setting aside whether the inscription could succeed, it might even damage or disrupt the Dao patterns that had already been successfully inscribed.
Once an already completed Dao pattern was damaged, the foundation of a cultivator's Merging Dao would be ruined, and their cultivation would fall as well.
And this was merely the risk faced at the second level. There would still be the third, fourth, fifth, sixth levels...
The further one went, the greater the risks became.
Across Star Abyss, cases of Merging Dao cultivators failing to break through and instead suffering a drop in cultivation were everywhere one looked. It could be said that this was an extremely common occurrence.
If Dao Entry cultivators only needed sufficient aptitude to cultivate to Ninth Layer Dao, then make several more attempts to eventually have a chance at advancing into Merging Dao, once one reached the Merging Dao realm, advancement was no longer simply a matter of aptitude. What it chiefly involved was exquisite control over Dao Power.
That was why, when Lu Ye inscribed his first Merging Dao pattern, he had tried his utmost to place it deeper within his Dao Bone, leaving sufficient room to inscribe more Merging Dao patterns.
The choice of Dao pattern was likewise a matter