Illusory Cultivation

Yaan fully intended to follow the Four Paths Cultivation Technique, but before he was even qualified to do so, he needed to repair his dantian. To repair his thoroughly crippled dantian, his only choice was to form an ordinary Vital Core within his physical body.

Painfully, at some point in the future, he would certainly be forced to take a step back, crippling his Vital Core and reversing his Vital Energy cultivation, all so that he could dual cultivate Innate Qi and Vital Energy side by side once again. Besides, the Vital Core within the physical body was not compatible with the Four Paths Cultivation Technique - he needed to form the Vital Qi Core in the dantian.

For now, Yaan pushed these thoughts out of his mind and devoted himself solely to the pursuit of progressing his Vital Energy.

The best resources for Vital Energy cultivation were those that contained vast amounts of energy. Even better was easily absorbable energy, but such resources were rare and expensive.

But Yaan was extremely wealthy now, he spared no expense in buying these resources for himself.

His following cultivation was quite simple.

He started with the Rank 3 pills, then after feeling satisfied that he had become proficient at utilising his 4-Star Astral Power to control the medicinal energy within his body, he moved onto Rank 4 medicines.

Vital Pressure Pills, Beastial Expanse Pills, Blood Vitality Pills, and so on…

Back when Yaan was in the Heavenly Path Sect, he cultivated his body and Vital Energy not by using medicinal pills, but by consuming demonic and spirit beast meat, organs and blood. In the outside world, across the Qi Plane as a whole, this really was the easiest way to cultivate as a body temperer.

However, using such crude resources was a method that became increasingly difficult to progress with at higher realms. For this reason, body temperers crazily sought out medicinal pills such as the unique body tempering pills.

In this inheritance trial, such pills were actually commonplace, to the extent that Yaan still found it hard to believe. Conversely, Qi refining resources were sparse, and the atmosphere for Qi refining was unsuited for Qi refiners.

Honestly, it was impressive that Zue Yin had managed to progress as far as she did under these conditions.

Speaking of Zue Yin, she also mentioned to Yaan that supposedly, on the 7th through 9th levels, there were shocking natural resources that were extremely suitable for body temperers…

For now, Yaan had no access to such things, he could only rely on artificially refined medicines in order to progress.

And progress he did!

When Yaan entered the temporal acceleration chamber, his Vital Energy was at 94% progression towards the 4-Star Realm. Progression became increasingly slow as one approached the peak of the realm, but Yaan's funds were too vast, he hardly struggled at all! It was difficult not to waste the energy in these pills as he approached the peak, and cultivating further became increasingly arduous, but even so…

With just three months of cultivation, Yaan reached the Peak 3-Star Realm!

"Just one more step…one more step and I will reach the 4-Star Realm!" Yaan's eyes shone excitedly as he thought of this.

Compared to the time when he was in North Ghu City and nearly died just forcing himself to reach the Peak 2-Star Realm, his progression within the 4th Trial Realm was far too easy! Yaan again realised the importance of valuable and specialised medicines when it came to body tempering.

There was a qualitative difference between the 3-Star and 4-Star Realms. The most important difference was of course the Vital Core. The Vital Core served as the centre of the body temperers body, it became the core of their vitality, it held a vast quantity of Vital Energy, surpassing the Vital Energy of a 3-Star Realm cultivator by a hundred fold in terms of quantity alone, not to mention its higher purity and density.

And most importantly, the 4-Star realm meant something special - flight!

Why was it that it was so difficult for a Qi Temple Realm cultivator to face a Spirit Core Realm cultivator? The difference was the ability to fly freely through the skies!

For Qi refiners, they could actually fly at the Qi Temple Realm with the assistance of a flying treasure, but flight only became possible at the Spirit Core Realm without any external assistance.

As for body temperers cultivating Vital Energy, flying was not possible at all until the 4-Star realm.

Once Yaan reached this realm, he would have a much easier time when battling against Rank 4 opponents.

In this inheritance trial, flight was heavily suppressed. On the 3rd level, Yaan had faced two Demon Core Realm opponents, but they were limited to flying only in brief bursts due to the high gravity and Spiritual Pressure.

Whilst Yaan was sure that he would also be limited to a certain degree, he was confident that the effect would be less so than for others. The source of his confidence was his Astral Power.

A 4-Star Astral Tattoo was not enough to allow Yaan to fly, he had attempted to do so, but failed miserably. At most he could slow his descent when falling, and perhaps he could hover in the air for a moment in the outside world, but in the 4th Trial Realm, such a thing seemed to be impossible.

Of course, a single 4-Star astral spirit on its own, only barely qualified as Rank 4 cultivation and strength. If Yaan gained more 4-Star Astral Tattoos, perhaps this would change.

Even so, he first wanted to develop his Vital Core. After doing this, then perhaps he could look at increasing his Astral Power further.

The development of his Vital Core meant something else extremely significant for Yaan - the restoration of his crippled dantian.

There were many rare and expensive medicines that Yaan had come across which had the effect of regenerating a damaged dantian, but his own dantian was simply completed destroyed. It was fragmented, blown into multiple pieces, there were no ordinary medicines that could heal something like this…

But possessing a Vital Core could achieve it.

The damage to the dantian was not like damage to the body, so even with a Vital Core, it would take some time to properly recover, but Yaan still felt excited by the prospect. Whilst he wouldn't be able to cultivate immediately, as cultivating Innate Qi from scratch with a Vital Core within his body would be practically impossible, it still signified the beginning of something that he had desired for a long time now - recovering his Qi refining cultivation.

After calming his mind, he muttered to himself quietly before beginning.

"I need to be careful. I've overestimated myself and underestimated the dangers of my endeavours too many times. This started in North Ghu City, when I started using body tempering medicines crazily, disregarding the dangers. I survived basically because I was lucky. That last time, before entering the illusion world, I finally pushed my luck too far…if it wasn't for the old spirit helping me, I probably would have died…"

Yaan showed a calm expression as a look of understanding flashed through his eyes.

"My desire to learn the truth and to resist this 'fate' of mine is a dangerous feeling. I need to consider everything rationally, and not be influenced by emotion. Of course, some risks are necessary if I want to attain greatness, but I should at least strive to be less stupid."

Yaan planned to soon ascend to the 4-Star Realm, but he did not immediately begin his breakthrough. The breakthrough to this realm would be more difficult than previous breakthroughs, and it even required a more tangible level of dao comprehension.

Compared to Qi refiners, the dao comprehension requirements for reaching Rank 4 was not so stringent for body temperers. Even so, it was necessary to possess a certain level of dao comprehension, and to use this dao comprehension to help push past the boundary and form the Vital Core.

Yaan eased his mind. He began to replay images in his head that he had experienced in his past…

Illusions. Illusions of the times he had first manifested his sword arts into a visual form. Illusions that he had seen after devouring blood essence pills. The True-False Illusion Formation…

During his pondering over illusions, Yaan also began to analyse the boundary that was preventing his Vital Energy from progressing further. This was the realm boundary, it was a natural limitation between the 3-Star Realm and 4-Star Realm. In order to progress, it was necessary to tear down this boundary. Unlike his previous ascensions however, this could not be achieved solely with force, it was essential to perceive and comprehend the boundary…and only then to use force!

Yaan sunk into a deep contemplative state. He had so much experience with so many different kinds of illusions, that he could ponder over the matter of illusions for an extremely long period of time. He only stopped to consume recovery pills to replenish his energy every month or so, he did not need to sleep, as his Sea of Consciousness completely removed the need for sleep.

During this time, he did not only focus on exploring past illusions, but brought forth various illusory scenes, which overlapped with his body and filled the chamber. Vague imagery from Yaan's life appeared and vanished like brief flickers. It was difficult to focus on any single image, but they gradually began to condense down, back towards Yaan himself…

Eventually, the illusions formed an illusory shadow around Yaan's body. Over the following few days, this shadow sank down into his body, gathering within a central location in his chest. This illusory shadow formed the image of a deep, blood-red core…

After six months of contemplation, Yaan slowly opened his eyes. If anyone saw his gaze right now, they would feel dazed, because it was impossible to determine the colour of his eyes!

With this, Yaan began the ascension.