To break through to the Violet Palace Realm from the Foundation Establishment Realm, one had to go through three major stages.
True Essence, Physical Body, and Soul.
True Essence Stage, as the name suggested, was to transform True Essence into Dharmic powers unique to Violet Palace Realm cultivators.
This was the first stage to break through to the Violet Palace Realm.
It was also a relatively easy and safe stage.
Generally speaking, almost half of the cultivators who reached the perfected Foundation Establishment Realm and began to attempt to break through to the Violet Palace Realm could successfully transform their True Essence into Dharmic powers.
The difficult and dangerous stages were the physical body and soul.
If one did not have a strong enough physical body, he would not be able to withstand the sudden change from True Essence to Dharma powers.
In that case, his meridians would break and his dantian would shatter.