Pei Xuanjing lifted his foot, and ascended the first step, slowly climbing up along the stairs.
This human sacrificial altar carries a long legacy, a divine object passed down from the ancient times, used by the Witch Deity Teaching in their rituals. Countless human rulers have made sacrifices here, making it extremely significant and terrifying.
Of course, with Pei Xuanjing's strength, he could easily float up, but out of respect, he chose to ascend step by step, taking in the ancient and wild aura from the Ancient Era.
[Taoyun Points that can be extracted from the Human Sacrificial Altar: 20,000,000 points.]
Upon reaching the last step, truly stepping onto the sacrificial altar, the simulator in his brain, which had been dormant for a while, popped up a prompt.
Twenty million Taoyun points, indeed not a small sum.
Moreover, Pei Xuanjing clearly noticed a small difference in the prompt provided by the simulator this time, compared to previous ones.
In the past, whenever Pei Xuanjing encountered something that could bring him Taoyun points, the simulator's prompt would state, "Refining XXX can yield XXX Taoyun points."
But this time, when he touched this human sacrificial altar, the prompt stated "extract," not "refine."
Seeing the unique qualities of this sacrificial altar, even the simulator determined that it probably couldn't be refined.
However, to Pei Xuanjing, all these are trivial matters. After all, this human sacrificial altar belongs to the Witch Deity Teaching, it would be inappropriate for him to attempt to refine, let alone succeed in doing so.
To him, the key point wasn't these things, but the notification indicating that he could extract twenty million Taoyun points from the sacrifice altar. This was indeed a substantial gain.
As long as he could obtain these twenty million Taoyun points, it would mean his trip had not been in vain, even if he gleaned nothing else from the sacrificial altar.
It is worthwhile to note that given his current breakthrough in strength level, the Taoyun points he needs for the simulated cultivation have changed to a total of 100,000,000 – it's truly a staggering figure even for him.
Pei Xuanjing is currently at the Nine Realms of Spirit, standing at the peak of cultivation. This is indeed joyful news, but it also presents him with a problem, which is that he seemed to have reached the end of the known cultivation path.
Everyone, including Pei Xuanjing, knew that the Nine Realms of Spirit should not be the pinnacle of cultivation. Above it should lie the existence of the Immortal Dao and the immortal True Immortal Realm.
However, throughout countless years, no Immortals have ever appeared in the records of the Daming World, nor have any cultivators truly set foot in the legendary Immortal Dao Realm to become Immortals.
Therefore, for Pei Xuanjing, this implies that his future path of cultivation will rely on his own exploration. He can not draw too much experience from other sources. He needs to grope his way forward on his own path to find the real Immortal Path.
This is not an easy task, or rather, for many who stand at the pinnacle of cultivation and are the strongest beings in the Nine Realms of Spirit, it is virtually impossible. Otherwise, throughout the countless years, so many powerful beings would not have died regretfully, finally daring to step into the Chaos with a desperate mindset, never to return.
Even with the help of his life simulator, Pei Xuanjing does not have enough confidence that he can traverse the Immortal Path and transform into an Immortal God.
Thus, for his cultivation and to give himself ample room for trial and error, and to try different paths, Pei Xuanjing's demand for Taoyun points has become greater. Only when he has enough Taoyun points to sustain multiple life simulations can he continue to trial-and-error, verify his assumptions and ideas, accumulate experience, weed out many incorrect answers, and possibly break through the gap between the Spirit Realm and Immortal Dao, and truly transform into the Immortal Dao.
"To begin a life simulation, I need one hundred million Taoyun points. But how many life simulations will I need to truly comprehend the Immortal Dao?" Pei Xuanjing wondered.
Innumerable mighty beings have attempted to explore the Immortal Dao in countless years. However, to this day, no Immortals have appeared, showing that their path was misguided or incomplete, ultimately leading to their failure.
Even though Pei Xuanjing could stand on the shoulders of these predecessors and draw on their experiences to avoid many detours, he understood the difficulty in truly forging a successful path.
Even with the life simulator, Pei Xuanjing did not dare to speak easily. Without such a near-magical life simulator, he wouldn't have had the slightest hope.
This wasn't because Pei Xuanjing lacked confidence or resolve, but simply the reality of the situation.
Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Only those who have just emerged on the world stage, who find the world full of mysteries and puzzles, possess greater drive.
The saying "The older one gets in the world, the smaller the guts become," is not without reason. As people, or sentient beings, know more and understand more, they become awed by the horrifying and boundless nature of the universe.
God's will has always been inscrutable since ancient times. Perhaps mortals, who dare boast about defying and extinguishing the Heavens, may utter such words, but any cultivator that has entered the Spirit Realm, particularly the stronger ones, understand the vastness of Heaven and Earth and dare not utter such words lightly.
"Next, Court Elder, feel free to learn here to your heart's content. I have other duties to attend to and will not disturb your cultivation," said the Witch God Sect Leader to Pei Xuanjing.
Although he had just left seclusion not long ago, as the ruler of a top power, the Witch God Sect Leader had many responsibilities on his hands.
Remember, apart from the plan of merging two realms being jointly driven by many powerhouses, there are also collaborations between the Witch God Sect and the Great Ming Divine Dynasty.
And as for Pei Xuanjing, he would certainly need a considerable amount of time to cultivate here. It would not be convenient for the Sect Leader to remain, so he decided to leave.
"Then, I'd love to." Pei Xuanjing smiled and nodded. He understood the Sect Leader's intentions.
Soon after the Witch God Sect Leader departed, Pei Xuanjing fully focused his attention on the sacrificial altar before him. He sat down with his legs crossed, releasing his Primordial God Power to sense the sacrificial altar.
Boom!
Upon feeling the human sacrificial altar with his Primordial God Power, Pei Xuanjing was suddenly hit with a primitive and vast aura, as if it was merging with his soul.
At the same time, he felt his Primordial Spirit was being swirled and wrapped by these ancient energies. Instantly, he wondered if he had fallen into a trap, his robe's Taixu Mirror began to emit light, attempting to shield him from these savage energies.
However, he quickly found that this unknown aura did not seem to harm him, so he cancelled the isolate function of the Taixu Mirror and started to explore these unknown energies with his Primordial Spirit.
When Pei Xuanjing's Primordial Spirit truly made contact with these savage energies, he discovered there seemed to be something intriguing hidden within them…
…..
While Pei Xuanjing was truly coming into contact with the human sacrificial altar of the Witch Deity Teaching, many things were happening in the Longevity World.
Pang Hong was wholeheartedly committed to the cultivation of Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill to follow the Golden Core Dao. Once Pei Xuanjing realised his persuasion was in vain, he naturally chose to lend a helping hand to his disciple.
By using his divine abilities, Pei Xuanjing crafted an avatar for Pang Hong in the Longevity World for his Primordial Spirit to reside. This would aid him in understanding the operation of Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill and the intangible Golden Core formed from the convergence of Qi, Spirit, and Essence.
On the other hand, Pei Xuanjing was also employing his supernatural powers to reshape a certain region within the Longevity World. As the creator of this world, Pei Xuanjing was akin to the Great Tao of this world. Adding to that the constant refining of the source of Taixu Venerable, the Longevity World was becoming more powerful.
Soon, he created a Land of Creation. This place was abundant with Heaven and Earth Essence Qi, balanced in the Five Elements, and was beautifully blessed by nature. It was an excellent place for seclusion and cultivation.
Moreover, being the controller of this world, the place created by Pei Xuanjing with his Divine Abilities had no trace of artificiality and was naturally magnificent like the work of deities.
Once all was set, Pei Xuanjing returned to where Pang Hong was in seclusion. With a sweep of his sleeve, the avatar he had previously formed for Pang Hong vanished without a trace, and Pang Hong's Primordial Spirit returned to his real body.
"Master, thank you." Pang Hong said, awakening from his cultivation, opening his eyes.
Upon seeing Pei Xuanjing, he immediately knelt down, expressing his gratitude to Pei Xuanjing.
As the one who had experienced it, he knew best the benefits he had gained from implementing Pei Xuanjing's methodology in the avatar. Aside from other benefits, this whole process led him to truly master the Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill and understand how an intangible Golden Core created from the fusion of Qi, Spirit, and Essence operates.
"Are you ready?" asked Pei Xuanjing.
The benefits obtained from this process were apparent to him. However, the magnitude of these benefits depended on the individual's understanding. But seeing the confidence in Pang Hong's eyes, Pei Xuanjing knew that his pupil had reaped great rewards. Thus, he didn't discuss it further, but merely asked if he was ready.
"Master, I am ready!" Pang Hong nodded his head.
This experience was very fruitful, giving him great confidence in his ability to form the Golden Core next.
"Good, follow me." Pei Xuanjing nodded, waiting for Pang Hong to rise, before the two of them vanished from where they were.
In the next moment, the two appeared in the Land of Creation that Pei Xuanjing had just opened up.
"This is a place I have created. Here, you can attempt to switch your cultivation path. I have set up a formation here, which can temporarily freeze time's irrevocable march, so even if you have to discard your skills, your lifespan will not be affected," Pei Xuanjing said.
For many cultivators, even if given Pei Xuanjing's Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill, they would still need great determination and resolve to switch cultivation paths because it involves a critical element: lifespan!
A cultivator's lifespan is limited. Even for powerful cultivators like Pei Xuanjing, who had reached the pinnacle of cultivation, there was still a limit to their lifespan.
A cultivator's lifespan is tied to their Realm. Each and every advancement in Realm brings an increase in lifespan, blessed by Heaven and Earth. This change allows the cultivator to live longer.
However, should any cultivator, despite their power, allow their Realm to decline, the advancement they originally acquired would vanish, and with it, the added lifespan.
The stronger the cultivator, the less they could afford to backtrack in their Realm. This affected not only their strength but also, more crucially, their life.
This is why many cultivators, even after seeing the power of the Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill and knowing how powerful the Golden Core Dao was, wouldn't dare to switch their cultivation path without absolute certainty.
That's because practicing the Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill requires going through a must-step – Dispersion of Cultivation. This step is essential for truly practicing the Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill; otherwise, it would be impossible to form a true Golden Core.
Dispersion of Cultivation, however, is a rather arduous process. The moment of dispersion is the cultivator's most vulnerable moment. The cultivator would not be able to maintain their peak state, and if the decline in their Realm exceeds the limit of their lifespan, it would result in rapid senility, leading to death.
To be clear, even when Pei Xuanjing dispersed his Realm's power upon returning from the vast wilderness world and began to cultivate the Golden Core, he instantly aged, with white hair replacing black, wiping out a significant chunk of his lifespan.
This was achieved with the help of a life simulator that allowed him to swiftly regain his powers. However, other regular cultivators would take a much longer period to recultivate, suffer great pain, and even lose their lives.
This is one of the real obstacles that keep many cultivators from converting to the Golden Core Dao.
But now, Pei Xuanjing had eliminated all worries for Pang Hong. He had, by controlling the Heaven and Earth of the Longevity World, momentarily deceived the universe with a formation, pausing the progress of time, and thus enabling his disciple to maintain his peak state during the transition – an opportunity that many cultivators could only dream of.
"Store your power temporarily in this," Pei Xuanjing said, handing Pang Hong a light sphere. "In doing so, you will be able to retrieve your power swiftly once you have successfully transitioned."
During the dispersion of his cultivation, Pang Hong could store his Primordial Qi into this unique storage sphere crafted by Pei Xuanjing. This would prevent the Qi from being wasted.
This Primordial Qi, imbued with Pang Hong's characteristics and imprints, might be unusable by other cultivators. However, even after transitioning to Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill, Pang Hong could gradually absorb it, speeding up his recultivation process.
Pei Xuanjing had made thorough preparations for his disciple. If his disciple could master the Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill and the method to condense the Golden Core during his incarnation's cultivation, he would have a great chance of succeeding.
Of course, if despite these preparations, Pang Hong still could not successfully convert to this new cultivation or successfully condense the Golden Core, it would mean that he lacked the ability to do so, and no one could help him with that, not even Pei Xuanjing.
You could say that he did this to encourage Pang Hong to make an effort. Regardless of success or failure, it would at least resolve his inner obsession and prevent further delays.
"Master, I understand. If I fail after this attempt, I will abandon the idea," Pang Hong solemnly promised Pei Xuanjing.
He was aware of all the preparations his master had made for him. If he still failed, there would be no meaning to continue persisting.
"Next, it's up to your destiny," said Pei Xuanjing before he vanished.
Pang Hong nodded, paying tribute in the direction his master had left in, before slowly sitting down in a meditative posture to prepare himself.
First, he began to channel his Primordial Qi internally, gradually transferring it into the light sphere in his hand.
The formerly empty light sphere began to fill as the Primordial Qi was transferred in, and surged as it absorbed the powerful energy…
Once his Primordial Qi dissipated, and his cultivation dispersed, Pang Hong could clearly feel his life force rapidly draining away. His regression halted only when his Realm regressed to a First-grade Martial Artist of the Mortal Realm. By that time, his once dark hair had turned white as snow.
This was something he had to undergo. Even though the formation set by Pei Xuanjing temporarily stopped time for him and allowed his energy to remain at its peak, the passage of his lifespan was inevitable.
As far as Pei Xuanjing was concerned, with his status as the founder of the Longevity World, he could naturally accomplish this same task, but chose not to, as it held no meaning.
For Pang Hong, the difficulty of his conversion to the Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill was never about his lifespan. Even for the majority of cultivators, the most crucial factor was their inability to maintain their energy at its peak after converting their cultivation, which was why they couldn't condense the Golden Core.
Now that Pei Xuanjing's array allowed Pang Hong to remain at his peak state, the disappearance of his lifespan was significant but not unsolvable. As long as he can cultivate himself back to his current state, he could reclaim his lost lifespan.
"Calm the heart, Condense the spirit…" Pang Hong began to practice the Nine Revolutions Divine Sky Skill, drawing together his essence, energy, and spirit…
While Pang Hong started his process of uniting his energy and condensing the Golden Core on one side, Pei Xuanjing was observing him with a fraction of his consciousness, and then traveled to another place.
This place was above the sky of the Longevity World. Pei Xuanjing sat cross-legged here, with his eyes slightly closed. With a flicker of his consciousness, the sky changed its color, and thunder from all directions converged. In a moment, it transformed into an ocean of thunder.
In his raised hands hovered a purple thunder, spiraling and revolving. It was the innate Heavenly Thunder that had appeared when he had clashed with the Taixu Venerable and was now named by Pei Xuanjing as the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder.
The moment the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder appeared, the terrifying ocean of thunder boiled up once more, as if a few drops of oil had fallen on a raging fire, the flames intensified.
Faced with the continually boiling thunder, Pei Xuanjing sat within it unharmed because he was part of this world; nothing in this world could harm him.
He stirred his consciousness, and the boiling thunder soared, stirring up huge thunder waves. Within a radius of hundreds of miles of Pei Xuanjing, the thunder had transformed into a liquid state, like an ocean, wrapping him inside it.
At this moment, Pei Xuanjing released his Sanbao Jade Ruyi and Six-Color Sword, letting the thunder temper them. With this boundless thunder constantly refining these two magical tools, they would become even more powerful.
Next, Pei Xuanjing turned his main focus back to himself.
This body in the ocean of thunder in the Longevity World was Pei Xuanjing's true body. When the ocean of thunder rushed towards him, Pei Xuanjing gradually removed the world's protection from himself, and started to slowly let his physical body absorb the power of thunder.
The Nine Realms of Spirit, Golden Core Dao, at this point, Pei Xuanjing had reached the pinnacle of known cultivation. From here forward, he would explore the path leading to the Immortal Path.
Heavenly Immortal Path, Earthly Immortal Path, Human Immortal Path, Divine Immortal Path, Ghost Immortal Path, these five types of immortality were the result of Pei Xuanjing's conjectures based on the myths preserved from his past life and the various records left by the world's strong cultivators.
There was not much information Pei Xuanjing had on the paths other than these, so he couldn't be sure of them yet. However, for the Human Immortal Path, Pei Xuanjing had already figured a lot.
A Human Immortal cultivates by battling against Heaven and Earth, achieving supremacy through martial arts, cultivating body orifices, proving the Dao with power, unlocking personal divine treasury, achieving a personal small universe, and a Heaven and Earth's large universe. Ultimately, he can break through the void, establish heaven and earth, and that is the Human Immortal Path.
In Pei Xuanjing's view, the Human Immortal Path is truly about cultivating the flesh into sainthood. Understanding Heaven and Earth and the Taoist Skills are not essential and are rather trivial matters. The real core is to continuously develop oneself, continuously unlock the limits of the flesh, and finally reach the ultimate level where the body becomes eternal, indestructible even if Heaven and Earth perish.
In the Daming World, martial arts are the foundation of cultivation, they are the beginning of everything. This was a method of cultivation that was opened up by early cultivators after the essence Qi of Heaven and Earth declined following the Tang Dynasty.
Even though those early cultivators, who experienced the most abundant era of Heaven and Earth Essence Qi, opened up the martial arts path, their intention was not really to walk this path fully. Their real goal was to replace the original Path of Qi Refinement and make up for the missing part of the Spirit Realm.
Therefore, martial arts only extend to the first realm, and once that step is reached, the existing cultivation system in the Tianhuang realm can be broken through to enter the Spirit Realm.
However, upon entering the Spirit Realm, most martial artists switch to the method of refining Qi. Only those cultivators without talent are forced to continue on this path.
But according to Pei Xuanjing, that is a wrong choice.