Ren Sea was deep and secluded, the Water Palace imposing.
Within the Main Hall, deep-purple lightning surged ceaselessly like dragons and serpents, illuminating the figure above the jade steps. Xu Xuan paced slowly, the reverse scale at his neck gleaming, a streak of purple light adorning its center.
"Treatise on Wonder and Constancy, Part Two."
Xu Xuan closed his eyes, repeatedly pondering this mystic method within his Consciousness Sea, and gained a great deal.
After the mystic stele's exposition, the cultivation method of the Treatise on Wonder and Constancy, Part Two had become much clearer. The foundation of this Dharma Method lay in the transformations of Mysterious Elephants, which also marked the difference between ancient and modern Immortal Cultivators.
Divine Abilities were contained within the Inner Scenery and composed of Mysterious Elephants, imitating the various properties of Dao Fruits within Great Luo. Divided into the Five Arts, they elucidated the Dao much as one might copy a painting left by a predecessor.
Ancient cultivators who sought the Dao through ascension methods did not do this.
Those who cultivated Shock Thunder began directly with the theories of sound, qi, and Yin-Yang, painting freely upon a blank cloth without a fixed pattern to elucidate the Great Dao.
In terms of the threshold and speed of cultivation, the present-day Violet Gold Method was naturally easier. Yet when it came to attainment and realms, the ancient ascension methods ultimately held the advantage, though their demands on talent reached extraordinary heights.
Those capable of attaining Purple Mansion today would probably have struggled even to reach Foundation Establishment in the past. Meanwhile, ancient cultivators who could weather tribulation through the Great Dao of ascension and become Celestial Persons would all be peerless prodigies today, rare beneath the heavens and virtually assured of perfecting the Five Arts.