Foundation Establishment cultivators forged their Dao Foundations upon their fleshly bodies and could not live normally with their minds and wills separated from them. Yet at root, the seat of the mind and will was not the flesh below the neck, but the brain within the skull.
The Daoist scriptures said that the human body had three palaces, and the Upper Origin Palace was the Niwan.
The Niwan and Crimson Palace regulated the five qi within, mingled the hundred spirits, and returned the spirit through ten revolutions. They were the key to the essence of the true spirit in the Primordial Spirit Way.
The fleshly bodies of Foundation Establishment cultivators were entirely different from those of mortals. Although both appeared to have four limbs and five facial features, meridians and qi channels, and could likewise refine spiritual energy and cultivate magic power, a fundamental difference began to emerge once a Dao Foundation was forged.
For precisely this reason, the body below Foundation Establishment was called mortal flesh, while above Foundation Establishment, it was a Dao Body.
The differences between clay people, simulated humans, and spirit humans in the technique "Knead Clay, Transform Flesh" were broadly similar.
Upon reaching the Core Formation Realm and forming a true core, cultivators could briefly leave their bodies, incorporating their vital essence, primordial energy, and soul into their true cores. At Nascent Soul and beyond, they could even refine their souls to endure outside their bodies, becoming something akin to energy-based life. That, however, was an even more profound and wondrous realm.
Someone had once asked, "Can a person live without a head?"
This was the fundamental question behind the Head-Swapping Technique.
Now, at last, a Core Formation cultivator could give a clear and unequivocal answer: "Yes!"
Once someone reached this stage, even if there