It was no easy feat for any sect outside the Nine Great Immortal Sects to cultivate to that level. Earth Immortal and Heavenly Immortal could be considered realms in their own right, or stages of transition from True Immortal to Qi-Refining Immortal.
Direct True Disciples of the Nine Great Immortal Sects—elders and sect leaders among them—had no need to spend long years building their own Cave Abodes, then Cave-Heavens, and finally raising them into the Heavenly Domain.
Few were like Tang Changsheng, who had taken charge of an entire Heavenly Realm from the outset. Still, each of the Nine Great Immortal Sects possessed its own Immortal Realm.
The Taiyi Immortal Sword Order's legendary Taiyi Immortal Realm, for instance, let its disciples skip that stage altogether.
Most small and midsize Immortal Sects had no such luxury. They had to build their Cave Abodes and Blessed Lands bit by bit, raise them into Cave-Heavens, and attain Earth Immortal and Heavenly Immortal.
That was why Bai Ruhui of Whitehead Island had spent over a thousand years outside the threshold of Earth Immortal, calling himself a Half-Step Earth Immortal.
It was not that his aptitude was poor. His sect was simply too weak and its resources too scarce to support Cave Abode Evolution.
Meeting a Heavenly Immortal from outside the Nine Great Sects was rare enough. One willing to risk his life on an exceptionally dangerous mission to the Outer Heavenly Domain was rarer still!
This supreme founding patriarch of the Gouli Sect was named Gouli Zi. He had founded the sect himself.
After more than two thousand years in obscurity, he had finally become a Heavenly Immortal, evolved his Cave-Heaven, and ascended to the Heavenly Domain. Naturally, he could hold his head high and look down upon the world.
Yet when he saw