The third path

A/N: Info Dump and Lore heavy chapter

The current stage of Genesis, which was the home of cultivators and ascenders, was built upon trillions over trillions of eons spent researching.

They spent countless generations ameliorating the cultivation paths handed down by their ancestors and spent even more time seeking the bigger mountain that lay beyond the mountain.

After years and years of constant seeking, the Cultivation world stabilized and its development as well as diversity flourished, bringing even more depth and understanding of what truly was cultivation.

Runic researchers had found proof of the existence of 72 life form tiers that spanned across 12 major cultivation steps, each step had five minor evolutions with one major that opened the door for the next one, though they didn't know it at the time, they had inadvertently discovered the workings of the first great realm, the twelve steps.

This ascension through the tiers was done via the 3 pillars of cultivation every being was born with.

The pillar of the body was divided into multiple aspects that followed as such; constitution, physique, race, bloodline, meridian pathways, apertures, divine chassis, and Innate Core of reality.

These 8 aspects cohesively worked and advanced together as they harmoniously formed what is commonly known as the "Pillar of True Earth".

The pillar of the soul was also divided into multiple aspects; The soul, which was further divided into the soul land and True Ethereal soul core, Divine gifts, innate heavenly sources, Providences, spiritual roots, and Innate essences.

Just like the Pillar of the body, all these aspects worked in perfect harmony and advanced together as one through the steps. This pillar is most commonly referred to as the "Pillar of True Heaven."

The third and last pillar was the "Pillar of truth." Its aspects were; Talent, Traits, Origin Spirits of eternity, the innate core of existence, innate Foundation, and runic heritage

These were the Three Pillars of the cultivation world.

One had to know that despite the existence of these pillars, not everyone could awaken them and even those that awakened, would most likely only have one active aspect.

Only geniuses from Royal Houses and temples could hope to have a full and true awakening.

The number of aspects each pillar had, created complexity and diversity within the community that gave birth to every imaginable possibility.

Countless new cultivations systems based on the 72 tiers and the 3 pillars were invented. Despite their differences, they all had one thing in common, they followed the 12 steps of Origin.

The 12 steps of Origin were built over time by a community known as Primordials. Before they created the 12 steps, cultivation was simply based on the ascension of Life-form tiers through basic energy gathering and the natural boosts their ascension gave them.

A/N: don't confuse the primordial race and the primordial community

This was the first path, it lacked any complexity or depth and was lackluster, to say the least. Beings within this system that considered themselves Gods couldn't interact with any of the fundamental forces of reality and nature. They were just large batteries of complex energy.

These beings named themselves the Ascendants and their Hierarchy of power was divided from 1-star nascent mystic apprentice which was the weakest rank to 21-star Divine Mystic Gods, which was the highest rank they had ever achieved.

As previously stated "The 12 steps of origin" was the second path birthed by the Primordials and ameliorated by the runic gods.

It was founded after the Primordials and runic gods discovered all the aspects that made up their three pillars. Once they found that, their research intensified and they tried to find an evolutionary correlation between their Pillars and their life form tiers and after a while, they found the answer.

They created 12 Major cultivation steps based on the 72 tiers and their evolution and mixed them with the fundamental truths of the reality they existed in, using the most advanced runic arts at the time.

Countless Era defining runic geniuses worked on this massive project and with the help of the mighty Primordials, the second path had finally been established. Followers of the such path were referred to as "Arcane Followers".

A first-step Cultivator of the second path that had undergone his second evolution could match the power of a six-star Mystic Demigod with no effort whatsoever.

Facing this major change, everyone expected a huge war to happen between the Ascendants and the Arcane Followers. But nothing of the sort happened.

The Ascendants reflected upon their past mistakes and the heritage they had received from their long reign as the first and only path to a higher power.

Instead of despairing, they followed their competitor's actions and conducted in-depth research on their path and systems.

When the Ascendants eventually came back from their long period of inactivity, the arcane ones had completely taken over the Genesis and had even started looking for what existed beyond it but that didn't matter to them.

The amount of power of knowledge they held when they came back was terrifying as this time, a war truly broke out.

For supremacy.

The arcane followers were completely taken off guard by the Ascendant's sudden resurgence and attack. What surprised them, even more, were the new powers they wielded.

Before, the ascendants relied on the natural boosts their evolution granted them but now they seemed to control and be one with the fundamental laws of nature. They could make their pillars interact with the Truths of nature and receive tremendous boosts from it as well as insights that helped them cast terrifying Laws and concept Spells.

Despite this, the arcane followers stayed strong and stood their ground. With the support of the Runic gods, the Primordials as well as 80 percent of the cultivation world one would think this would be an easy war…right?

Violence, Death, and Brutality.

This was the best way to describe the first…

…."War of Sinful Dawn".

Indescribable horrific events and disasters were birthed during this war. Many legends rose and fell but most importantly the Ascendants won, and by a large margin.

Just like when the Arcane ones took over Genesis, everyone expected The Ascendants to become the sole rulers of Genesis but the Arcane Followers came back from their ashes stronger than before.

The constant rise and fall of both sides caused tremendous developments to happen at insane speed on both sides. This unending confrontation continued until they reached a stalemate and both sides had become equal in every sense.

Instead of continuing the meaningless slaughter and violence they signed a pact of non-aggression and decided to compensate each other for caused damages, this way their development could become even faster as they walked together towards the same goal.

These were the thoughts of the leaders of both sides but the common people under them completely disagreed.

This had become more than just a Path to them; it was a religion, a nationality, a way of living, and the place where they belonged.

They had lost countless loved ones fighting for the supremacy of their cause, they were scarred and hollowed by the constant war and despair that had spread through Genesis during the Wars of Dawn. They had gone through all this just for everything to be forgotten and suddenly become friends?

A massive revolt occurred on both sides as they thirsted for war and revenge, most of these people were born hearing the screeching sounds of war and were molded by its flames, they lived to kill. Exterminating the other side had become part of their culture.

The Leaders of both sides Looked at the massive revolt and resistance their people were showing towards their unions and came to a decision.

The Grand Games of Dawn.

(A/N: the grand games will be detailed and talked about later in the story.)

Coming back to the topic of the third path, after they Established the Grand Games of Dawn, the situation quickly got better and stability reigned. With this newfound stability, they were able to slowly merge their communities and forge a better path for every existing cultivator.

The end of the Dawn era kickstarted the First era Of Light.

Everything was perfect and smooth until some scholars started to notice strange inconsistencies within existence and their cultivation paths.

As their cultures and traditions merged they were able to see the inconsistencies within each other's communities and find the pieces of what seemed to be an immense and never-ending puzzle. They began to find the trails and footsteps of something that seemed to be grander and bigger than them, they found a new purpose.

So they did what they knew best, they seeked the truth.

Together, the two communities strived towards a common goal and put all their efforts in the hope of finding something even the most delusional man would deem 'illusory'.

This was something never seen before in the Cultivation community, even up to this present age of freedom they hadn't been able to recreate the unity these people showed back then.

But the answers they would go on to find were nothing like what they had originally imagined.