Qin Tian sat cross-legged between heaven and earth, multicolored essences gathering around his mouth and nose as he began his Exterior Scenery cultivation.
The Exterior Scenery realm had three great heavenly ladders and nine minor stages. Every breakthrough across three heavens allowed a cultivator to cross one heavenly ladder, bringing about a qualitative transformation.
With sufficient resources, the first three heavens could be broken through quickly, bringing one to the first major obstacle: the first heavenly ladder.
After crossing this heavenly ladder, one was called a Peak Expert. The Dharma Manifestation began to interweave and combine, approaching substance, and could manifest outside the body, feeding back into the Primordial Spirit and flesh and producing Divine Abilities such as Heavenly Eye and Mind-Reading.
These were developments that appeared upon reaching a certain point on the Path of Evolution, and symbols of the strength of one's essential life.
At the second heavenly ladder, the Dharma Manifestation and Principles blended further, producing a domain, and one could be called a Grandmaster. At the third heavenly ladder, the Dharma Manifestation, flesh, and Primordial Spirit began to merge, making one a Great Grandmaster!
At present, although Qin Tian had slain Grandmasters after his recent breakthrough, he had only just entered the first heaven. Alone and lacking sufficient resources, he had no choice but to live on the northwest wind, drawing in the essences flowing naturally between heaven and earth to advance his cultivation.
Under ordinary circumstances, however, this method was extremely slow.
It often took over a decade of continuously breathing in the essences of heaven and earth to produce enough essence for a breakthrough in cultivation.
"This is a little tricky." Qin Tian propped his chin in his hand, thinking seriously.
"But it's not impossible to solve!"
"All things return to one and can