After the artisans' repairs, the Eight Directions Illumination Tower looked brand-new.
At the Star-Watching Observatory on the top floor, Lu Wuzhen wore a black-and-white Daoist robe and held a white orb of light in one hand. Like a man cradling the bright moon in his palm, he radiated something of a deity's majesty.
"The Five Directions' Divine Gift is all but impossible to obtain. There are countless cultivators in the world, but only fifteen can obtain one every sixty years. Spiritual energy is scarce these days, so we can only nurture our root bones with divine gifts. To enter the Sixth Realm, you need at least two or three. To Found a Sect and Become a Patriarch, Five Qi Returning to the Origin is the bare minimum. Now that the Imperial Court has bestowed this upon you, frankly, even I am filled with envy."
Dressed in a white robe, Xie Jinhuan no longer had the roguish air of the "Danyang Little Silver Dragon." He simply answered with a smile.
"Senior Lu, I see you've already obtained three such opportunities. With this added to them, wouldn't you be just one step away from establishing a teaching and becoming its patriarch?"
Lu Wuzhen shook his head. "It isn't that simple. There are differences in strength even within the Sixth Realm. Miscellaneous-school cultivators are the weakest. They cobbled together one or two opportunities; their cultivation is high, but it hardly forms a coherent system. Monk Wuxin and I fall in the middle. Through the legacies of the Purple Sun True Person and Bodhisattva Yunian, we obtained pure yang or pure yin.
"The strongest achieve Five Qi Returning to the Origin and unite yin and yang. They're already flawless, but that only means their bodies have reached perfection. They still lack a vast amount