The theoretical academic name for the Immortal Ancient method was the Dao Seed Method, while the academic name for the Shrouding the Heavens method was the Secret Realm Method. The present-era method of the Chaotic Ancient era ought to have an academic name as well. Chen Yao felt it should be called the Extreme Realm Method.
The Extreme Realm Method completely discarded the central role of the Dao Seed, choosing instead to work on each cultivation realm. It focused on breaking through the limits of the major realms, exploring a path while shattering their extremes, and ultimately achieving extreme realm transcendence.
Each realm had its corresponding extreme: the immense physical strength of one hundred thousand jin in Blood Moving, ten Cave Heavens in the Cave Heaven realm, fleshly body becoming spirit, remolding the true self, and nurturing spirits within Cave Heavens in Spirit Transformation, and so on. These were bottlenecks known as extremes, and only those who broke them could be considered qualified geniuses.
The inspiration for blazing a path through extreme realm transcendence might have come from cultivating immortal qi in the Dao Seed Method, but the concept had been broadened further.
Thus, breaking an extreme was not the end either. What followed was forging one's own path. Breaking an extreme merely meant throwing off the shackles and earning the right to blaze a path beyond them. There was no fixed upper limit to this process; generally, it continued until one had begun to depart from the cultivation system's established path.
Nor was transcending every realm necessarily better. For instance, the realms Shi Hao primarily transcended were Cave Heaven and Void Dao. His Cave Heaven transcendence went the furthest, truly marking the beginning of a new path. Using his body as a seed, achieved in Void Dao, had originally taken him the furthest, but it was later overtaken when his Cave Heaven transformed into a Wheel Sea.
Shi Hao reorganized his ten Cave Heavens to make them equal in size, breaking the extreme. He then transformed his fleshly body into an eleventh Cave Heaven and turned his ten Cave Heavens into a Divine Ring. Afterward, the ten Cave Heavens and his bodily Cave Heaven merged completely into a unique Cave Heaven. Finally, Shi Hao compressed his Cave Heaven, incorporated yin-yang profound meaning and primordial true qi, and combined these with using his body as a seed in Void Dao to open a Wheel Sea.
His Cave Heaven transcendence was complete, and he had departed entirely from the Extreme Realm Method.
Chen Yao believed that although the Extreme Realm Method had many flaws and was far from mature, it could not be dismissed entirely. It was well suited to serving as fertile soil for nurturing new paths. If Chu Feng tried his hand at the Extreme Realm Method, he would most likely begin his extreme realm transcendence in the Array Formation Realm and Inscription Realm.
Cao Yusheng's ability to inscribe an Innate Killing Formation inside his body is also worth studying. That probably wasn't merely breaking an extreme-he had already achieved extreme realm transcendence and earned the recognition of the Extreme Realm Method's predecessors. Perhaps that was also one direction in which the Domain Method could evolve. In the Shrouding the Heavens era, Cao Yusheng was also the founding patriarch of Origin Art. The thought flashed through Chen Yao's mind.
"Besides, extreme realm transcendence brings different, exclusive Divine Abilities into being alongside it. Void Imprisonment, Unaffected by All Laws, and Cycle of Life and Death were the rewards Shi Hao received for transcending. I wonder what Divine Ability Cao Yusheng gained after transcending the Array Formation Realm?" Chen Yao muttered to himself.
What was a Divine Ability? To understand through the divine, to connect through perception. Once acquired, it was like an inborn instinct, as effortless as moving one's fingers with one's arm. Unlike casting an art, which required a process of manifestation, Divine Abilities could be used at will.
"I hope Twin Hands can give me a useful Divine Ability when I transcend the extreme of the Blood Moving Realm!" Chen Yao stopped letting his thoughts wander and focused on the task at hand.
All the Bone Text within his body came from Twin Hands, waiting for what would happen next.
His mind extended strands of pale blue, transparent tentacles, while his body's blood and qi formed strands of pale red, transparent tentacles. This was the form his Twin Hands took. After his innate soul mutation, they had manifested not as palms but as tentacles, for reasons he did not know.
Little by little, he manipulated the Seven Corporeal Souls tightly bound to his physique, disturbing the three souls and continually awakening the demonic nature within his flesh in an attempt to bring the three corpses into being.
The Upper Corpse loved finery, the Middle Corpse loved fine flavors, and as for what the Lower Corpse loved-those who knew, knew.
Wisps of black qi emerged, quickly developing into a viscous liquid that gradually gave birth to Chen Yao's three corpses gods. Fed by the medicinal power remaining in his body, these derivatives of his souls grew rapidly, taking forms that matched the shapes of Chen Yao's desires.
The Upper Corpse became a bizarre spherical vortex that hovered above his head. Its front resembled a pupil, and a pair of wings, somewhere between feathered wings and membranous wings, spread from its back. It seemed to covet everything with insatiable greed.
The Middle Corpse became a strange, roaming mass of fragments, like countless shards of broken glass winding around his torso in the shape of a long snake. Faint, myriad colors refracted through its pitch-black, glassy sheen. It possessed a hunger that seemed to yearn to devour all things.
The Lower Corpse formed a layer of pitch-black mire on the ground. Ink-black, slightly translucent tentacles stretched from it, seeking to drag enemies into the bog and cast them down into heavenly demon elysium hell.
As soon as the three corpses gods manifested, they tried to become unrestrained heavenly demons, disturbing their host, denying him peace, and driving him into cultivation deviation. Yet a peculiar sound of the Dao rang out from within Chen Yao, like immortals chanting scriptures or the Great Dao resonating in harmony. Each character of Twin Hands' Bone Text echoed the Dao's laws between heaven and earth. Together with the power of the Inheritance Light Cluster, the red and blue tentacles intertwined and wrapped directly around the three corpses gods.
The three corpses gods instantly reacted as though they had met their natural enemy, letting out eerie shrieks that stirred the lurking demons in human hearts. Yet they were powerless to resist. Barely formed, they were refined straight into Chen Yao's body, rooting themselves in his Seven Corporeal Souls, linking his three souls, and merging completely with his essence, qi, and spirit. They hid within his blood and qi and dissolved into his divine radiance.
The three corpses tried to struggle and corrupt his soul, but under the Soul-Clarity Art, his spiritual seat remained clear, and external demons could not beguile his heart.
This differed from Shi Hao's breakthrough when he united his ten Cave Heavens. Shi Hao had forced his way through with domineering ferocity, but transcending an extreme and forging a new path did not necessarily mean danger at every turn. A certain rabbit had cultivated a strand of immortal qi by eating medicinal herbs, yet had faced none of the dangers Shi Hao or certain other prodigies had encountered.
For others, using the three corpses gods to transcend an extreme would probably have been a great tribulation. But with Twin Hands guarding his path, Chen Yao instead avoided the risks perfectly. Perhaps Cao Yusheng's ease in cultivating a strand of immortal qi by comprehending formations had also been partly due to the protection of the Divine Ability he gained through extreme realm transcendence in the Array Formation Realm. It achieved the same result by a different route as Chen Yao's Twin Hands guarding his path.
His blood and qi, originally blazing hot like the rising sun, grew gentler, gaining a trace of depth that concealed a sense of filth. They were no longer vigorous and masculine like normal blood and qi, but harbored a sinister chill that could pierce the heart and corrode the bones.
Chen Yao let out a long breath, his eyes growing darker and deeper. The blood and qi within his body seemed to have gained spirituality. Even without his deliberate direction, they continued circulating, cultivating on their own and slowly strengthening his physique.
Spiritual Blood and Qi could circulate on their own.
Chen Yao slashed his palm forward. His blood and qi shook the surrounding air, blasting out a surge of force. Demonic nature lurked within the astral energy as it struck an old tree in the courtyard.
The old tree began to tremble. Some of its leaves withered yellow while others grew wildly. Its bark was torn apart by branches growing erratically within, as though every part of its body had gone its own way.
This was, in essence, an extension of his Divine Ability. Attacks made by projecting his blood and qi carried the power of Twin Hands and the three corpses gods, allowing them to stir an opponent's three corpses and even their souls, distorting the spiritual and physical functions of whoever was struck.
The three corpses gods were infectious. After hitting a target, they would grow into new three corpses using the target's own three corpses as their foundation. Taking advantage of this trait, once the three corpses gods had merged into his blood, qi, and divine radiance and become one with the power of Twin Hands, they could take root and continually disrupt the target's soul and physique, causing all manner of ailments, like an invasion of heavenly demons.
Even plants that had not awakened spiritually, lacking three corpses and possessing incomplete souls, suffered physical effects. If the attack struck an actual cultivator, the consequences would be unthinkable. A single palm strike might inflict ten different pathological changes, along with mental cultivation deviation. Every attack would apply negative conditions to his opponent.
An open spear was easy to block; a hidden arrow was hard to guard against. Enough negative conditions could prove fatal as well. This was far more terrifying than hidden force erupting within the body, or even poisoning. Pathological changes arising within a cultivator's own body were difficult to deal with; none but prodigies could suppress them.
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