``` [Year 596, you were 613 years old.]
[You learned that a late-stage Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator of the Heavenly Talisman Gate was about to attempt a breakthrough to the Spirit Transformation Period.]
[Just as advancing from core formation to nascent soul required facing a heavenly tribulation, so did advancing from nascent soul to spirit transformation.]
[The latter was also called the Heaven and Earth Calamity, and it was terrifying in the extreme.]
[As a First-Rank Guest Elder of the Heavenly Talisman Gate, you naturally had the opportunity to observe your sect's Grand Cultivator attempting the breakthrough.]
[Rolling heavenly thunder fell like rain. Coupled with a Heart-Demon Tribulation steeped in the aura of calamity, it ultimately caused the late-stage Grand Cultivator of the Heavenly Talisman Gate to fail his breakthrough to Spirit Transformation.]
[You observed the entire spirit transformation heavenly tribulation and reached a conclusion: with your current strength, you could not withstand even the first three bolts of heavenly thunder.]
["My strength..."]
[You sighed inwardly. The accumulation from several simulations, combined with your opportunity at the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds, had made your Nascent Soul spirit body impervious to all arts. Among middle-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, you undoubtedly stood in a class of your own. Together with your physical constitution, that was enough to place you among the strongest beneath Grand Cultivators.]
[Yet you still could not compare to late-stage Nascent Soul Grand Cultivators.]
["If I entered the nascent soul late stage, could I withstand the spirit transformation lightning tribulation?"]
[You examined yourself, then shook your head slightly. Advancing from the nascent soul middle stage to the late stage was a qualitative transformation, but you still had no confidence in facing the spirit transformation heavenly tribulation, even its opening lightning strikes.]
["One step at a time."]
[You adjusted your