TL: Etude
After reaching the True Spirit Realm, Ye Tian began preparing for his future cultivation.
He had just broken through and was still at the early stage of the True Spirit Realm. To improve his cultivation, he had to continuously temper his True Spirit. By refining the True Spirit to the mid-stage, his cultivation would naturally advance as well.
Ye Tian’s True Spirit was a Chaos True Spirit, making it more difficult to enhance, but each small improvement made it much stronger than other True Spirits.
The strength of his True Spirit would allow Ye Tian’s physical body to be refined even more thoroughly. However, the quickest path to improving his True Spirit and cultivation was through cultivating the Chaos Body Refining Technique.
The Chaos Body Refining Technique was originally created for True Monarchs at the True Spirit Realm. Over time, simpler versions of the technique were developed for Heavenly Monarchs, Divine Generals, and Earthly Venerables.
“Now that I’ve entered the True Spirit Realm, I can begin cultivating the True Spirit Chapter of the Profound Void Technique.” Ye Tian muttered to himself.
The True Spirit Chapter of the Profound Void Technique had nine levels in total. With each level, his physical body would double in strength. The first three levels corresponded to the early True Spirit stage, the middle three to the mid-stage, and the last three to the late True Spirit stage.
Once the nine levels of the True Spirit Chapter were fully cultivated, his body would nearly reach the pinnacle of the True Spirit Realm, and his cultivation would also rise to the peak level of the True Spirit Realm.
For him, each level he mastered in the True Spirit Chapter of the Profound Void Technique would cause a significant surge in his strength.Of course, the True Spirit Chapter of the Profound Void Technique wasn’t easy to cultivate. It didn’t matter how many resources one had; rapid progress required both comprehension and a lot of potential.
For instance, some True Monarchs with weaker physical foundations could only cultivate two or three levels of the True Spirit Chapter.
However, even if they couldn’t fully master the True Spirit Chapter, their cultivation could still improve by focusing on enhancing their True Spirit Realm. But in such cases, their physical strength would be far inferior to other True Monarchs, making them nothing more than weaklings.
For True Spirits, the main cultivation tasks were improving the True Spirit, refining the body, and enhancing the embryonic form of the Great Dao.
Some weaker True Monarchs could also comprehend Chaos Divine Abilities or cultivate more powerful ones.
But for some geniuses, they had already pushed one Chaos Divine Ability to its limit during the Heavenly Monarch stage. Even if they cultivated several more Chaos Divine Abilities, their strength wouldn’t improve much—unless they could create an Origin Divine Ability.
Yet, creating an Origin Divine Ability at the True Monarch stage was incredibly difficult.
As such, for many True Monarchs, their greatest desire was to consolidate a complete Great Dao and attempt to break through to the Grand Dao Realm, becoming a True Ancestor.
However, this step was exceedingly difficult! Ye Tian learned that many True Monarchs in the Void Sky Hall had already brought their cultivation and physical strength to the limit, but they were still waiting to consolidate a complete Great Dao, yet had never succeeded.
There were even some True Monarchs whose embryonic forms of the Great Dao had reached 999 meters, just one meter short of forming a complete Great Dao, but that final meter seemed like an insurmountable chasm.
Without immense willpower, great opportunities, or significant fortune, that final meter could never be crossed.
Even True Monarch Dragon Sea had been stuck at this step for at least tens of billions of years, unable to break through.
In the chaos, the number of True Monarchs was countless, but the number of True Ancestors was far fewer, precisely because of the difficulty with the embryonic Great Dao.
When Ye Tian first learned this, he was utterly astonished.
Most of those who managed to break through to the True Ancestor Realm within the chaos had only done so after grinding down vast amounts of time.
Even if one couldn’t break through in 100 million years, they could try again in 10 billion years. If that still didn’t work, then 1 trillion years, and if necessary, 10 trillion years could be spent attempting to make the breakthrough.
With such a long span of time, there would eventually be a few lucky ones able to break through.
This relied on great willpower and luck. However, there were actually two other methods. One was to completely comprehend the essence of the Great Dao. By gaining a transcendent understanding of the Dao, one could break through the shackles and condense a complete Great Dao.
Many top-tier powers possessed Supreme Dao Manuals, which described the mysteries of various Daos. However, no single power had a complete collection. Some specialized in the Dao of Gold, while others were experts in the Dao of Water.
Even the Void Sky Lineage only had three Supreme Dao Manuals, each corresponding to a specific Dao.
If someone happened to cultivate one of these three Daos, they could use the Supreme Dao Manual, spending time to try and break through the shackles.
But if they cultivated other Daos, they would have to rely on the second method: using certain wondrous objects to break through.
There were rare wondrous objects in the chaos capable of breaking even the shackles of an embryonic Great Dao. Once obtained, these objects could help one break through to the Grand Dao Realm and become a True Ancestor.
However, such wondrous objects were exceedingly rare. Whenever one appeared, it would cause countless True Monarchs to fight over it.
True Monarch Dragon Sea had never obtained such an object. He cultivated three Daos—Water, Force, and Wind—forming his own Dragon Sea Dao. However, the Void Sky Lineage only possessed the Supreme Dao Manual for the Dao of Water, so True Monarch Dragon Sea couldn’t rely on the manual to break through. He could only rely on time or hope for a wondrous object.
“My Infinite Dao far surpasses others. When the time comes to fully form a 100,000-meter-long Great Dao, the difficulty will likely exceed that of others as well. Even with my exceptional comprehension, it will still be incredibly challenging. I might be stuck at the pinnacle of True Monarch for countless years!” Ye Tian speculated.
Of course, nothing was certain. If a wondrous object were to appear in the quasi-Dao Realm that could help him break through, he could easily step into the True Ancestor Realm!
“For now, I’ll focus on cultivating the Profound Void Technique!” Ye Tian then entered seclusion.
Years passed, and the major powers of the quasi-Dao Realm gradually stabilized their conflicts. Each power worked to develop its own True Nation, and the entire quasi-Dao Realm entered an unprecedented period of prosperity.
In a flash, a million years passed.
“I’ve finally mastered the first layer of the True Spirit Chapter of the Profound Void Technique! My physical body has doubled in strength, and my power has skyrocketed!” Ye Tian thought to himself with excitement.
But when he remembered that the Profound Void Technique had a total of nine layers and that he had only mastered the first, which had taken him a million years and consumed vast resources, he felt slightly daunted.
“If I continue cultivating, the time required will only become more exaggerated. But still, I’ve progressed much faster than others. Even with access to time-accelerating formations and an abundance of resources, it’s well known that disciples typically take at least a billion years to master the first layer of the True Spirit Chapter.” Ye Tian reflected.
Most disciples in the Void Sky Lineage gave up after mastering three or four layers of the True Spirit Chapter. It was simply too difficult and time-consuming.
“The issue is resources. The resources I have now are far too low-grade. Back in the Heavenly Monarch stage, they were useful, but now at the True Monarch level, they’re insufficient.”
Ye Tian decided he needed to acquire higher-grade resources; otherwise, his cultivation speed would be far too slow.