Unfortunately, he was still just a little short of breaking through.
Chen Shi'an was in no hurry. After all, he already had one foot across the threshold of the next realm, and his foundation was solid.
It looked as though he would have to tighten up his travel schedule and leave himself some time to return to the Mountains for secluded cultivation.
Daoist arts were boundless, and he had no predecessors' experience to draw on. In this age when those arts had been lost, even Chen Shi'an could not say for certain what realm he was in now, or what the next one would be.
After all, at nine years old, he had already reached the highest realm defined by his master and grandmaster: the sixth level, Unity of Heaven and Man.
Now, ten years later, his cultivation had long since surpassed the old framework. He could not even begin to count the levels anymore...
His master and grandmaster had limited natural talent. They had devoted their entire lives to reaching the sixth level, yet the defining feature of that level was merely the ability to wield Daoist arts and supernatural powers.
By their standards, Chen Shi'an reckoned he would have to be at least a dozen levels up...
But if Chen Shi'an were to divide the realms himself... keeping the six foundational levels his master and grandmaster had established unchanged, he felt that his next step would take him into an entirely new seventh major realm.
The essence of the first six levels was [the cultivator drawing closer to heaven and earth].
From disciplining the body and freeing oneself from distractions at the first level to breaking through the boundaries of body and mind and merging with the source of heaven and earth at the sixth, it was always