Its inspired from various novel. Like Immortal Mountain is a call back to Immortal Mountain in Perfect world & The starting Cliff scene is from Battle Through The Heavens.

I write for fun - I think its fun to write about this so nope

Maybe ^_^

Well too bad the story wasn't for you but thank you for reading and reviewing it!! I want to address the many claims you made; 1st) Why an ape type astral souls? Apes are humanoid creature and I wanted that - I could have gone with some type of minotaur or weird creature but I like apes more. PS: Toad - Serpent - Cormorant & Turtle were in my shortlist but sadly they obviously weren't humanoid and I was thrilled with making them as such. ^_^ 2nd) Why Undying attribute? The mc doesn't have any powerful bloodline so in many cases where he is outmatched then things will get pretty desperate and he will need a means to muscle through - Surviving is of upmost importance in cultivation. P.s: For instance people of the poison path or corrosion path would give him a hard time especially if they are of a higher realm. 3rd) Why a staff? I simply love when a fighter uses a staff. There is also that the various enemies will use other weapons such as Forks, glaives, sabre, sword, axe, knives, gourds, cauldron, bells, fists and much more so the mc sticking to a staff is by no means such a bad thing in my opinion. 4) Lightning & Thunder are indeed different - Heavenly Punishment Garuda focuses on both but lightning is prevalent as of now because mc doesn't have the necessary innate technique. 5) I love to use the terms Heaven-defying, Sky-defying and so on, I probably should not use them that much but I will not stop. If I'm honest, some of these geniuses are really worthy of their use so I am ok. 6) I planned to change the astral souls from the jump and if you pay attention, you'll see that his original astral souls didn't paired enough with each other. *** The mc is cultivating following his heart so he is bound to have preferences that others will not necessarily agree with (Like Almighty sealer in the original work that thought of sealing as the best dao/path) - Not completely unrelated but If the MC was an alchemist, I would have made him a Poison Dao Immortal. THANKS AGAIN for reading and reviewing!!

I know right!!

Ha ha ha!!! ^_^

Same immortal realm but different region and particle world

No I had some exams - The story continues

Its Before - He is of the same generation as Pei Qin

I don't think I have the skills to write a villainous MC. You have to make them despicable but still likeable and its tough!!!

No. I really do not like infinitely flow and will not write about it.

Do not worry, i'll address that later in more details but in short format the MC prefers to carefully chose a suitable peak 7th layer astral soul rather than forcefully connect with a "weak" 8th layer astral soul despite the difference in quality.

Yes!!

Shamelessly Gave Myself A 5⭐!!! The story follows the genius flow with the mc being one of his kind but also will feature numerous other types of Geniuses. Geniuses that follow a path to the extreme. Geniuses that strength transcend in-verse common sense. Geniuses from non-human races. All of them will blossom as they compete with the MC.

Yes Qin Wentian will appear

He is only a bit more talented at the start but his acupuncture technique gives him that extra edge.

Ty