[Longevity Methods, the Immortal Ascension Road, and the loneliness of history's prodigies]

The first condition: one had to attain the Dao and become a Great Emperor-a Flawless Great Emperor. Even the alternative path to enlightenment did not qualify. Only someone who had held the heavenly heart imprint could comprehend the universe. Without understanding heaven and earth, how could one become a Saint Spirit, a child of the heavens?

Yet this hurdle alone barred ninety-nine percent of the world's cultivators. One emperor per lifetime, no two Ancient Emperors ever meeting-these were not empty words. Even a prodigy like Gai Jiuyou had been forcibly suppressed.

Any Heavenly Emperor who could withstand the pressure of the myriad Dao and defy heaven to become an emperor absolutely possessed the potential of a Red Dust Immortal. Such a person needed no Saint Spirit Method and could comprehend a Longevity Method on his own.

The second condition: a terrain configuration resembling the former Central Plains Ancestral Vein, with its Dragon-Riding Ascension formation.

The better the terrain, the shorter the time required for nirvana. If a Source Emperor arranged a great geomantic nexus, that time could be halved.

In the handwritten notes he left behind, Emperor Yuhua expressed regret that he had never encountered a Netherworld Emperor proficient in Source Arts, as Ancient Heavenly Court Emperor Zun had.

The third condition: boundless faith power. What was never forgotten would surely find an echo. Faith power had endless wondrous uses: it could resurrect the dead and nourish an Immortal King's primordial spirit. Nurturing a Great Emperor's primordial spirit was all the more effortless.

The flesh would be nourished by the essence of heaven and earth and become a Great Perfection Saint Spirit, while the primordial spirit would be sustained by faith, preserving a spark of undying spiritual awareness from the past.

Such a method had clearly drawn upon Amitabha Buddha