Life Spring

Lu Chen took only two days to complete both steps: sensing his Sea of Bitterness and opening his Bitter Sea.

This utterly surpassed old Gu Ling's understanding. Among the low-level cultivators he had encountered, even the fastest had taken at least a dozen days to progress from sensing their Sea of Bitterness to opening their Bitter Sea. Those were already the most gifted cultivators he could imagine. Someone stepping onto the Immortal Path in a single day was beyond his wildest dreams.

Lu Chen himself, however, was not particularly surprised, though opening the Bitter Sea so quickly was a sign of extraordinary talent and immense potential.

From what he knew, this was nothing at all. After all, prodigies on the level of an Ancient Emperor's own children could gain as much from a single day of cultivation as an ordinary person could from a hundred years!

How enormous was that gulf? It defied all reason. Such people were monstrous talents who challenged the heavens.

As he was now, Lu Chen believed his aptitude was no worse than that of an emperor's child, so this minor achievement was hardly worth being surprised over.

The Bitter Sea he had opened was pitch-black and only the size of a soybean. Considerable life essence swirled above it, like a tiny heavenly abyss suspended in the void.

There were countless physiques in the world, and the Bitter Seas they opened were not all alike. The Desolate Ancient Sacred Body's Bitter Sea was golden, while the Tyrant Body's was purple. Most other special physiques had their own distinctive features as well.

The Bitter Sea of an Ordinary Body, by contrast, was invariably pitch-black or dark green. Judging by this, Lu Chen must have had an Ordinary Body.

There were countless cultivators in the world. Though most who climbed to the heights of the Immortal Path possessed special physiques or terrifying inherited bloodlines, an Ordinary Body was not necessarily inferior to them.

Even Ordinary Bodies differed from one another. Those with poor aptitude were worse off than ordinary people and had no possibility of cultivating at all. No matter how hard they worked, they could not even cross the threshold of the Immortal Path.

Yet those with exceptional talent among Ordinary Bodies, such as Li Ruoyu of the Taixuan Sect, remained ordinary in physique from beginning to end, but still reached the pinnacle of heaven and earth, ultimately Proving the Dao and becoming an emperor.

Others, such as the Ruthless Great Emperor and Demon Emperor Xue Yueqing, also began with Ordinary Bodies. She transformed hers into a Chaos Body through an acquired cultivation art and attained the Dao, while he evolved his bloodline to become a True Dragon and reached the pinnacle.

Though they began with Ordinary Bodies, their physiques were no longer ordinary by the time they reached their peaks. They could not be considered complete examples of Proving the Dao with an Ordinary Body.

Only Li Ruoyu, whose physique never changed from beginning to end, had truly attained the Dao with an Ordinary Body.

Clearly, Ordinary Bodies could be strong or weak, but they were the foundation of every physique in the world, brimming with boundless possibilities.

Realizing that he had an Ordinary Body did not surprise Lu Chen. Special physiques were exceedingly rare, after all; an Ordinary Body was the norm for living beings throughout the world.

Though his physique was ordinary, the Divine Spring, Sacred Fruit, and Nine-Turn Immortal Pill had transformed his origin to an unimaginable degree. In potential and foundation, he was not the slightest bit inferior to a Sacred Body, Tyrant Body, or the like.

If an ordinary person's innate origin was one, then the innate origin of a Divine Body or King Body was a thousand. For a Sacred Body, Tyrant Body, or an emperor's child, it could even reach ten thousand.

Lu Chen's original innate origin might also have been one, but by replenishing it with the Sacred Fruit and Nine-Turn Immortal Pill, he had raised it to ten thousand as well, reaching the same starting point as those supreme physiques.

He merely lacked the traits of those rare physiques, such as innate Sea of Bitterness manifestations and inborn divine arts. He could only match those by cultivating secret arts later in life.

As the saying went, the master led one through the door, but cultivation rested with the individual. Lu Chen had stepped through the Immortal Gate; from here on, his cultivation would depend mainly on himself.

Old Gu Ling could only provide some ordinary spirit herbs to help him open his Bitter Sea and answer his questions about cultivation.

Lu Chen had opened his Bitter Sea with incredible speed. The initial stage of cultivation involved absorbing the essence of heaven and earth to strengthen the Bitter Sea and one's origin, or using spirit herbs directly as an aid.

In truth, he had already completed this step long ago. The Nine-Turn Immortal Pill was a precious Dao pill reserved exclusively for emperors, containing unparalleled immortal herb essence. Although most of it had been consumed by his rebirth and transformation, becoming supreme potential and a foundation in the Great Dao,

the remaining immortal herb essence was still unimaginably vast. It had settled upon his Life Source Wheel, and now all he needed was to release it through a profound cultivation art.

The cultivation art old Gu Ling taught him was called the Zixia Art, which he had obtained through a chance encounter more than two hundred years earlier.

Although Lu Chen knew of many powerful ancient scriptures in the world, he had never actually read them, nor had he seen any other cultivation arts. Naturally, he had nothing to compare it with and could not judge the quality of the Zixia Art.

Still, he was not worried about his cultivation art being low-grade. Once he entered the second stage of the Wheel and Sea Secret Realm-the Life Spring-he would possess an endless supply of divine power. He could soar through the heavens and burrow through the earth, roam the azure skies, and ascend above the firmament.

When that time came, his advantage of "foreknowledge" would allow him to scheme for those powerful cultivation arts and explore the ruins left by ancient sages. He would have no shortage of ancient scriptures, divine herbs, magical treasures, or other resources.

Time flew. In the blink of an eye, six months had passed since Lu Chen stepped onto the Immortal Path. During that time, besides cultivating, he also studied pill refining, artifact forging, inscribing Dao patterns, setting up formations, and other disciplines.

Of course, with old Gu Ling's cultivation at the Other Shore realm, what he could teach Lu Chen was limited to the Sea of Bitterness realm and was mostly commonplace knowledge.

Even so, Lu Chen studied it diligently. Only by laying a solid foundation would he have the qualifications and ability to comprehend more profound methods when he encountered them.

A tower ten thousand feet high rose from level ground; its foundation mattered above all else.

Several more days passed, and Lu Chen's Sea of Bitterness had expanded to the size of his palm, like a tiny world within his body. Endless life essence surged skyward from the center of the Bitter Sea, becoming multicolored clouds that spread overhead and enveloped hundreds upon thousands of primordial divine patterns.

At the center of the Bitter Sea, not only did essence surge upward amid radiant light, but streams of Life Divine Spring also flowed out. They were on the verge of forming a complete springhead, filling even the desolate black sea with vigorous life.

Boom!

As Lu Chen cultivated, he seemed to hear a rumbling roar. The springhead at the center pierced all the way through the Bitter Sea, connecting to the Wheel of Life. Endless life essence became a multicolored pillar of light that reached the heavens, like an enormous volcano erupting and unleashing peerless divine might.

With that, Lu Chen entered the second stage of the Wheel and Sea Secret Realm-the Life Spring. Brilliant radiance spilled out of his Bitter Sea and became multicolored divine flames outside his body. They bore him slowly upward until he stood in the high heavens, like a Banished Immortal descending into the mortal world.

At that moment, his feelings were beyond words. A sense of overwhelming power rose within him, as though he could look down upon the boundless earth and hold its mountains and rivers in his hand.

This was cultivation: soaring through heaven and burrowing through earth, becoming an immortal whom mortals regarded with reverence and awe.

"Hahaha... you reached the Life Spring Realm in only half a year!" At the same time, old Gu Ling rode a streak of rainbow light into the sky. Laughing heartily and filled with gratification, he said, "To think that I, Gu Ling, would find a successor with such talent when my allotted years were nearly spent. Even if I died now, I could smile in the realm beneath the nine springs."

Back then, the old man had spent several decades cultivating before reaching the Life Spring. Now Lu Chen had reached that realm in half a year. How could he not laugh?