In the great age of the mortal world, at one million five hundred thousand years, the Human Emperor Banner fluttered, shattering more than half the starry sky with each sweep. Bathed in surging imperial aura, this weapon of war finally took shape.
Lin Xian had poured far too much painstaking effort into it. With the Primordial Spirits of the kings as its fire and the Immortal Metal Realm as its forge, it stood at the pinnacle the moment it emerged, infinitely close to the realm of an Immortal Emperor Weapon.
The sight made the World-Ending Old Man grind his teeth. Those were the materials he had meant to use to forge an Emperor Weapon. It would have been a miracle if their quality were anything less than exceptional.
Then, for another hundred thousand years, Lin Xian cultivated arduously, trying to condense his third Dao Fruit and attain the rank of a true Dao Ancestor. Yet this hurdle was simply too difficult.
The so-called supreme realm was merely the Path's End. Once someone pioneered a cultivation system, they were destined to attain the Immortal Emperor realm, provided they did not perish.
One step beyond Immortal Emperor, through ultimate sublimation, lay the sacrificial path.
Dao Ancestor, Immortal Emperor, and sacrificial path were, in fact, three stages of a single great realm, corresponding to the embryonic form, perfection, and sublimation of a newly created cultivation system.
The three Immortal Emperor stages could also be called the three ancestral stages. An Immortal Emperor was merely a Dao Ancestor at the Path's End; the sacrificial path was merely a Dao Ancestor's sublimation, attaining the rank of Ancestor.
Boom!
At one million seven hundred thousand years, Lin Xian had cultivated both Dao Fruits to their utmost limits, with no further room to advance. He emerged decisively