Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Zhao Sheng moved to one side of the Ascension Platform, sat cross-legged, consumed a bottle of Spirit Pill, and began to operate his internal energy and adjust his breath.

Three hundred years of arduous journey had left him spiritually depleted and fatigued, almost falling out of the Divinity Transformation Realm.

If he didn't take a few years to recuperate, he wouldn't fully recover.

A day passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhao Sheng's entire body gradually concealed its glow, then he slowly opened his eyes, a flash of divine light flickering in the depths of his pupils.

He raised his right hand in front of him, gaze falling on his palm, a slight movement of his mind, and suddenly a layer of water-like luster appeared in his palm, the light of the Primordial Cell Will.

Next, a stream of Red Gold Magic Power flowed from the Taiyin Lung Meridian in his hand to his palm, suddenly emerging from the center.

As soon as the magic power touched the brilliance of the will, they seamlessly fused together.

The next moment, the Red Gold Magic Power inexplicably gained an indescribable invisible sharpness, as if undergoing some mysterious transformation.

Zhao Sheng's gaze shifted, with a thought, a fist-sized, perfectly round, blazing white fireball suddenly appeared in his palm.

With a gentle toss, the fireball lightly flew into the air and then hovered steadily, showing no signs of falling!

Seeing this, Zhao Sheng nodded slightly in satisfaction. He hadn't added any external force to the fireball.

It maintained its shape entirely on its own power.

Then, Zhao Sheng opened his left hand, and suddenly, a blazing white fireball identical to the first appeared in his hand.

This one was also transformed from a strand of magic power but lacked the enhancement of will's light.

He casually tossed the fireball, allowing it to hover alongside the first one.

Ignoring them for the moment, Zhao Sheng's right hand flashed, and a milky-white jade scroll in the shape of an Imperial Tablet appeared in his hand.

Zhao Sheng's expression turned solemn, a brilliant divine light emanating from his brow, as a strong wave of Divine Thought surged continuously into the jade scroll, quickly extracting the recorded information inside.

This jade scroll contained the cultivation insights of a Returning to Void Monarch known as Min Jue.

Min Jue was originally a native of the Taisu Spiritual Realm, with excellent Spirit Root aptitude, he joined a Cultivation Sect from a young age.

His early cultivation journey was glossed over, but it was mentioned that just a few hundred years after successfully breaking through the Nascent Soul Realm, his sect suddenly faced drastic changes, nearly being exterminated. Only Min Jue and a few over a hundred managed to narrowly escape, being outside at the time, narrowly avoiding a disaster.

For the next thousand years, Min Jue became a Loose Cultivator, continually wandering through various boundaries of the Taisu Spiritual Realm.

He had plentiful opportunities and managed to smoothly break through the Divinity Transformation barrier, achieving a Primordial Spirit.

However, after ascending to the Divinity Transformation, Min Jue's circumstances abruptly changed for the worse, since he lacked cultivation experience beyond the Divinity Transformation, most importantly, without the guidance of a high-level Returning to Void expert.

His path became fraught with obstacles, and his cultivation speed plummeted as a result.

Even in the Taisu Spiritual Realm, ascending to Returning to Void was a closely guarded secret among all major Immortal Sects and major teachings.

Moreover, bound by the oath of the Great Dao, even a second or third-rate Cultivation Sect wouldn't know the secrets of Returning to Void.

So... how did Min Jue ascend to Returning to Void?

Zhao Sheng pulled out a stack of jade scrolls from his Sumeru Ring, all containing the person's complaints and more indecent curses.

In order to ascend to Returning to Void, Min Jue volunteered to serve under the Situ Family of the Wangu Family in the Taisu Spiritual Realm, willingly selling himself as a slave to receive a Returning Void Pill bestowed by the main family.

The success rate of breaking through with the Returning Void Pill was no more than ten percent, yet Min Jue succeeded in one attempt, truly fortunate!

Unfortunately, he earned such success yet died only three thousand years later, "carelessly" falling victim to the Devil Lord Fungus.

It's just that... on reviewing all the jade scrolls left behind by him, Zhao Sheng vaguely sensed that Min Jue might have betrayed the Situ Family, fleeing the Taisu Spiritual Realm in haste.

Later, due to the oath he swore in his early years, he suffered severe injuries and was left near death, ultimately allowing the Devil Mushroom to reap a big windfall.

Zhao Sheng showed no interest in this person's alternately fortunate and unlucky life, solely focused on figuring out post-Divinity Transformation cultivation and, most importantly, the mystery of breaking through to Returning to Void.

After repeatedly going over the insights jade scroll, Zhao Sheng generally confirmed that cultivation during the Divinity Transformation Stage didn't change much; however, lacking high-level techniques would result in a slow cultivation speed and significantly hinder the coherence between one's Primordial Spirit and mana in practicing Dao.

Sadly, he couldn't figure out how to break through to Returning to Void from the jade scroll.

Although Min Jue somehow muddled through to the Returning to Void, his experience led him to assert in the insights jade scroll that the key to breaking through the Divinity Transformation to Returning to Void is in achieving a "second Unity of Essence, Energy, and Spirit."

The first "Unity of Essence, Energy, and Spirit" refers to the stage when a Cultivator advances from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core.

And by the Divinity Transformation Stage, Min Jue once mentioned, "The 'spirit' is the Primordial Spirit, the 'energy' is mana, but 'essence' refers to the Primordial Cell Will!"

The harmony of spirit and energy is relatively easy!

The most crucial part is incorporating the Primordial Cell Will into one's cultivation system, or more precisely, how to "assimilate" the Primordial Cell Instinct Will.

Min Jue repeatedly regretted this in the insights jade scroll, as he forcibly "assimilated" his own Primordial Cell Will using the power of Elixir Pills, effectively severing his own Dao path.

The Returning Void Pill is ostensibly a great aid but secretly carries deep malice. This pill harbors a strand of Will from a Unification Realm great ability from the Situ Family.

Using the Will of a Unification Realm great ability to "subdue" one's Primordial Cell Will is tantamount to imprinting the flesh with a "Will mark."

Unless this Will mark is removed, the one who consumed the pill will forever be stuck at the early stage of Returning to Void.

Upon learning this great secret, Zhao Sheng couldn't help but break into a cold sweat, realizing that the environment of the Spirit Realm was exceedingly perilous, far more treacherous than the Lower Realm.

As someone like him who came from the Lower Realm with very shallow roots as an "outsider," it seemed almost impossible to uncover the secret of the Returning Void Pill.

He realized that many Nascent Soul Realm cultivators from the Lower Realm would eagerly pursue the opportunity to use the Returning Void Pill, even at the cost of everything, wholly unaware of the secret ensnarement.

Even those incredibly lucky enough to break through to the Returning to Void Realm were forever impeded at the Early Stage of Returning Void, mistakenly believing that their lack of progress was due to their own insufficient effort, rather than an artificially induced hindrance at the very outset of their path.

Zhao Sheng considered himself both fortunate and unlucky for learning of this great secret, made possible only because he was an outsider from the Lower Realm with shallow roots.

Min Jue recorded numerous small tips on "assimilation" of will on the jade scroll, but how to achieve the "second Unity of Essence, Energy, and Spirit" remained unsaid.

Although he was left with little information about how other cultivators pursued the path of Divinity Transformation, Zhao Sheng, who had lived through seven lives and thus was rather knowledgeable, managed to piece together a somewhat reliable cultivation path based on his own experiences.

The journey of cultivation begins with the stage of Qi Refinement and progresses to the Foundation Establishment. At this stage, cultivators can internally observe their internal organs and channels with their Purple Mansion Divine Sense.

Upon breaking through to the Golden Core, the body's inner world first becomes harmonized and unified, allowing the organs, including the complex networks of blood vessels and tissues, to be fully perceived.

At the Nascent Soul Stage, the cultivator's Divine Sense expands further, and they can perceive the Primordial Cell's existence, even more so for those few exceptionally talented individuals who can clearly sense the existence of Primordial Cells even during the Early Stage of Nascent Soul Realm.

However, the vast majority of Nascent Soul Realm cultivators remain oblivious to their Primordial Cells, only focusing on enhancing their Primordial Spirit and Mana during the Divinity Transformation Stage.

Even most Divinity Transformation True Monarchs are indifferent to their Primordial Cells; they only care about enhancing their Primordial Spirit and Mana.

Even someone as devoted to Magic and Martial as Zhao Sheng or Zhao Xuanjing, who mastered Martial Arts long ago, might overlook it in confusion.

Zhao Sheng doesn't know much about other fellow cultivators, but he speculates that this phenomenon—being aware of the Primordial Cells during the Divinity Transformation—could be extremely rare!

Because both he and Zhao Xuanjing are accomplished in both Magic and Martial Arts, most other Divinity Transformation True Monarchs would not learn "Mortal Martial Arts," even if they practiced Body Cultivation, they would lean towards Body Cultivation alone.

Zhao Sheng speculates,