Buddhist cultivators became Bodhisattvas; Dao cultivators attained Heavenly Immortality.
At this stage, the cultivation of the Daoist and Buddhist schools shared certain common ground.
A Bodhisattva had to pass through formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness to become a Buddha, while the Daoist heaven and earth likewise underwent the tribulations of beginning, formation, destruction, abiding, and ruin.
Yet precisely because of this, the divergence between Daoism and Buddhism became ever more apparent at this point.
Of course, upon reaching the Primordial Unity realm, all things would return to nothingness, and distinctions no longer mattered.
The cycles of heaven and earth consisted of five kalpas: Longhan, Chiming, Shanghuang, Kaihuang, and Yankang.
Longhan was the kalpa of beginning; Chiming, the kalpa of formation; Shanghuang and Kaihuang were both kalpas of abiding; Yankang was the kalpa of ruin.
As the saying went: Longhan laid the first roots, Chiming formed the heavens; Shanghuang united Great Mystery, Yankang divided heaven and earth, Kaihuang settled mountains and rivers.
Cultivation in the Heavenly Immortal realm was the process of allowing one's own inner heaven and earth to undergo these five kalpas.
Once one's inner heaven and earth had experienced birth and extinction, one could obtain a thread of its fundamental essence amid that birth and extinction, thereby becoming undying and imperishable.
And the most crucial matter among all this was choosing one's foundation well.
Only then could one soar straight up into the azure clouds without encountering obstacles along the way.
Ling Qing had previously known only that the path of the Heavenly Immortal required one to choose a Dao path, but he had not known why.
Having now heard the explanations of his martial uncles and martial elder uncles, realization dawned on him at once.
If one's foundation was insufficient, one's inner heaven and earth would not