A Nascent Soul cultivator can perceive the most minute of details. By channeling their spiritual power to manipulate the ambient Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi, their Nascent Soul's divine sense can extend for 300 miles.
To ascend to the Divinity Transformation realm, however, one must make their Nascent Soul leave the body.
This 'leaving the body' is not the same as merely projecting one's spirit soul outwards from the physical form, a technique even some Golden Core cultivators can perform.
This 'leaving the body' is the critical final step separating the Nascent Soul and Divinity Transformation realms.
It requires one to guide the Nascent Soul from the core directly into the Sea of Consciousness.
At this point, the cultivator can perceive and comprehend the Rules that govern Heaven and Earth, allowing them to observe how certain things are fundamentally constituted.
For example, a cultivator who practices the Earth-elemental Rules can observe how soil and earth are formed, and can, in turn, command them for their own purposes.
Compared to the abilities of a Nascent Soul cultivator, the leap to Divinity Transformation is like the difference between an ordinary person holding a handgun and a master sniper who is an expert in all firearms.
Some say the human body has a third eye, capable of seeing things ordinary people cannot. Reaching the stage of 'Nascent Soul Leaving the Body' is much like this.
Most cultivators on the Azure Dynasty's Nascent Divinity List are those who have reached this 'Nascent Soul Leaving the Body' stage.
While ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators can only summon Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi, these experts can already manipulate it with effortless ease.
Naturally, this makes them far more powerful than an ordinary peak Nascent Soul cultivator.
And as for achieving the Divinity Transformation realm?
For that, one must use the Rules they have comprehended to construct a Domain, and subsequently incorporate that Domain into their Nascent Soul.
It is similar to that time years ago, when Li Yunlin wielded the Skyveil Hall as it transformed into a great halberd; the oppressive field of power that formed around him then held a sliver of a Divinity Transformation's Domain.
The stronger the Rules incorporated into the Nascent Soul, the more powerful the Domain will be. Only by doing this can one hope to withstand the 'Five-Grade Lightning Tribulation' that accompanies the breakthrough to Divinity Transformation!
At the same time, this Five-Grade Lightning Tribulation is also a method bestowed by Heaven and Earth, one that helps a cultivator whose Nascent Soul is leaving the body to construct their Domain and assists the Nascent Soul in becoming a Primordial Spirit.
This Primordial Spirit will also be continuously perfected through cultivation, making it even more powerful, to the point that one can construct a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land that stands independent of the mortal world, in a place others cannot perceive.
Places like the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode and the Heavenly Light Sect are Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands forged by exceptionally powerful experts, and they consumed a great deal of their creators' painstaking effort.
However, most of the time, Divinity Transformation cultivators are more willing to use their spiritual power to strengthen their Domain, rather than construct a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land.
It is for these reasons that Divinity Transformation cultivators are exceedingly rare; the step of having the Nascent Soul leave the body to form the Primordial Spirit has already stumped many people. To incorporate Rules within the Nascent Soul not only requires a profound understanding of those Rules, but also sufficient fortuitous encounters.
For an ordinary Fire-element cultivator, for example, the easiest place to find the power of Fire-element Rules is undoubtedly a volcano. However, in many cases, even after they have completely absorbed the power of a volcano's Rules, they still fail to achieve Divinity Transformation.
This is because the power of the Rules within that volcano is not necessarily compatible with them. After all, even though it is all fire, there are subtle distinctions in the Rules between something like ghost fire and ordinary flames.
Meanwhile, at the former stronghold of the Spirit Jade Division, the very place where the tribe was once annihilated by the Li family leading the people of the Azure Cloud region.
Thunder rolled across the sky. Souls formed from streams of deathly Qi stood scattered chaotically among the hundred mountains of the tribal domain, creating an extremely grim and terrifying scene.
If a more timid cultivator were to hear the wails of ghosts and howls of wolves here, they would have likely fled long ago in terror.
These remnant souls, dead for an unknown number of years, had long since had even their consciousness dissipate. Yet they still emerged from the places where they had perished, protectively surrounding the central area of the hundred mountains like guards.
Here, a man stood.
A fierce wind whipped past, causing the tattered clothes on his body to sway sideways like flickering flames. He reached out a hand, gently caressing a silver coffin.
"It's been over a hundred years," he murmured. "We meet again. Is this... your artifact spirit?"
Li Dalong could even perceive the joy of the Heaven-Piercing Coffin. Having reached his current realm, he could even see the coffin's artifact spirit!
It was a skull. A Spirit Artifact possesses a spirit; upon reaching the level of a Dharma Treasure, it can possess consciousness. But an artifact spirit is formless and speechless, visible only to its master. To be able to see the artifact spirit also signifies that one has truly earned its recognition.
The artifact spirit of the Heaven-Piercing Coffin chattered its jaw, seemingly complaining that over the years, Soul Duke and Luo Xing had groped it all over from top to bottom, and it wanted Li Dalong to help it teach those two fellows a lesson.
But how could Li Dalong possibly have the time to bother with such matters at this moment?
BOOM!
The sound of thunder echoed. He slowly raised his head; the oppressive might of the Heavenly Tribulation was growing ever more intense!
Li Dalong took a deep breath, slowly sat down cross-legged, and took out the Ancestor's Spirit Tablet.
His voice was solemn as he said, "Old Ancestor, this child has prepared for over a hundred years of cultivation, over a hundred years of silent seclusion. Now that the Heaven-Piercing Coffin has returned, this child is confident that I can break through to the Divinity Transformation realm. I implore the Old Ancestor to grant me your blessing and protection!"
The Ancestor's Spirit Tablet began to shine brilliantly.
Li Dalong, his heart at ease, sat down cross-legged once more; he knew the Old Ancestor was right here, watching over him.
And he was not mistaken.
Beside him, a young man stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing with gratification at Li Dalong.
His eyes also took in the rapidly gathering lightning tribulation in the sky, as well as... the pairs of eyes gazing intently from all around the hundred mountains.
Those were the prying gazes of the Wu Clan's experts, all at the Golden Core realm and above!
Paying no mind to those prying gazes from the outside, since Li Dalong dared to attempt his breakthrough within the Endless Forest, he naturally had a foolproof plan. Besides... he also had his Old Ancestor present.
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