The Shrouding Method had a core principle: viewing the human body itself as a small universe, constantly excavating the potential of the body until one could ultimately stand shoulder to shoulder with the great universe of heaven and earth.
This shared the same underlying philosophy as the Inner World and Outer World of the One World Method.
However, no two leaves in the world were exactly alike, and naturally, neither were cultivation systems.
The difference between them lay in the fact that the Shrouding Method's cultivation of the human body's small universe fully adhered to the path of seeking inward.
The Five Great Secret Realms—Sea of Bitterness, Dao Palace, Four Extremes, Dragon Transformation, and Immortal Platform—were all deep-level developments of the human body, cultivating only the inner and not the outer.
Moreover, the human body's small universe in the Shrouding Method was merely a metaphysical concept.
The One World Method, on the other hand, cultivated both inner and outer. Breaking through from the Aperture-Opening Stage to the External Scenery Realm meant opening a passage between two "universes"
and allowing the two worlds to converge.
The Outer World nourished the Inner World in return, using the "real" outside to cultivate the "false" within. Step by step, one controlled the laws of heaven and earth externally while evolving one's own world internally.
Upon reaching the Dharma Body stage, one could gradually evolve a Real World within the body.
If one could ascend to the Other Shore Realm, the world within could evolve into Myriad Heavens and Ten Thousand Worlds. In the terminology of the Shrouding the Heavens world, that meant evolving the Firmament Heavens within one's body.
Neither path could be said to be superior or inferior, nor was it possible to say which was stronger or weaker. Both were supreme orthodox