"The character for immortal is made of a person and a mountain: a person walks toward the mountain, wishing to stand level with the heavens. It speaks of those who seek higher realms and comprehend the true essence of the universe," Shi Zhongqing said slowly.
"Then wouldn't everyone who cultivates be called an immortal?" Lin Shen asked.
"They are different. Ordinary cultivators look toward what is known, while immortal cultivators look toward what is unknown." Shi Zhongqing shook his head.
Lin Shen immediately understood what Shi Zhongqing meant. Divine beings cultivated in pursuit of rising from the lower rank to the middle rank, then from the middle rank to the upper rank. Even those aspiring to become Great Emperors were improving themselves within known ranks.
Immortals, however, pursued the unknown—domains no one had ever touched. From their goals to their ultimate realms, the two were entirely different.
"All things in the universe have long followed their fixed principles. How could one transcend them so easily? No one in the world can be called an immortal. Even if they comprehend powers and laws that others have never comprehended, those abilities had always existed within the universe; they were not newly created. Only the First Immortal was something entirely new, an existence that had never existed in the universe."
"What kind of existence was that?"
"A fusion of a human and an intelligent brain." Shi Zhongqing said slowly, "The First Immortal was no longer purely human, but a new species fused with an intelligent brain—a union of two different lifeforms. The traits he possessed had never existed before."
"Could a human really merge with an intelligent brain?" Lin Shen still found it somewhat unbelievable.
"If it were impossible, there would have been no First Immortal." Shi Zhongqing sighed. "A person with the