HSSB940: Path to the Immortal Bridge
Having spent quite a bit of time in the Vast Ocean World, having always been diligently cultivating and never having slacked off, Shi Jun’s current cultivation base was not low.
Shi Jun was one of the strongest disciples of Broad Creed Mountain’s younger generation.
Especially noteworthy was the fact that he was currently a fourth generation disciple of Broad Creed Mountain in actuality.
Still, not only was he the most powerful amongst the fourth generation disciples, he had also already surpassed many of those of the earlier generation.
Of Broad Creed Mountain’s third generation disciples, besides Yan Zhaoge, Feng Yunsheng and Xu Fei who were far ahead of him, there was now only Sikong Qing who would be able to defeat him.
While Ying Longtu’s talent was higher, having cultivated for a relatively shorter time, his cultivation level was currently similar to Shi Jun’s.
Shi Jun had not slacked off after coming to the World beyond Worlds, instead having redoubled his efforts as Yan Zhaoge, Yan Di, Yuan Zhengfeng and Xu Fei all felt greatly reassured by this.
This broken whisk that Yan Zhaoge was currently holding was something Shi Jun had inadvertently obtained when he had been out journeying some time alone.
“Yes, Grand Master and the others judged correctly. This indeed possesses some of the feel of the Grand Clear direct lineage,” Analysing the whisk, Yan Zhaoge found that the spiritual qi within was insubstantial and hard to serve much use.
Still, the patterns on the surface of the whisk formed a few sigils. While these too were terribly damaged, he was still able to grasp them somewhat.
It could be seen that this whisk had once been a Sacred Artifact.
Still, this was clearly already ancient history.
Yan Zhaoge fingered that broken whisk, “Since the time has still yet to come, I shall just wait patiently, waiting for the cave manor to appear before making further plans.”
After having settled down, Yan Zhaoge began pondering on the matters of his cultivation.
While he had only viewed half of the Brocade Emperor’s battle with Mars Halberd, it had still been an incredibly valuable experience.
Yan Zhaoge had benefited much more greatly as compared to most of the other spectators there.
The Heaven Opening Scripture of the Jade Clear direct lineage clashed with the Grand Clear lineage’s Earlier Heaven supreme martial arts, being in opposition to whilst also birthing each other.
Yan Zhaoge had never grasped the other martial arts besides the Taiji Yin Yang Palm.
Still, as he who simultaneously cultivated in the Three Purities had spectated such a peak battle, he still felt like he had benefited greatly.
He had had many new comprehensions regarding the martial arts that he cultivated in.
Being at the late Seeing Divinity stage, he had begun refining numerous obscure acupoints to resonate with the actual stars of the universe.
This process was not difficult for Yan Zhaoge who possessed an abundant accumulation.
Time passed gradually by at the Mountain.
Soon, two years had gone by in a flash.
Yan Zhaoge’s cultivation had gone extremely smoothly these past two years.
As long as the first obscure acupoint was successfully refined to see Divinity, seeing a good beginning as the right trajectory was reached, everything would just flow naturally into completion afterwards.
Therefore, Yan Zhaoge did not have to spend much time on this as he just needed to stably advance step by patient step.
Still, there was a difficult trial that he would soon have to face.
It was the bottleneck from the sixth to the seventh level of the Martial Saint realm.
Stepping onto the Immortal Bridge, breaking through from the late Seeing Divinity stage to the early Immortal Bridge stage.
Having ascended the Immortal Bridge, a martial practitioner could be considered as truly advancing towards the Immortal realm.
Following much painstaking diligence, with great talent, great perseverance and great fortune, one would ultimately arrive before the door to Immortality, attempting to push it open.
Before the Immortal Bridge stage, Seeing Divinity Martial Saints all diligently refined their acupoints to achieve Divinity such that they were like the actual stars in the sky. It was like an actual primordial universe had been opened within their bodies.
Yet, just having refined one’s acupoints to achieve Divinity and resonate with the actual stars in the sky was still far away indeed from splitting open an actual universe in one’s body.
It was just part of the early foundational stages for this.
The simplest example was that of the actual universe in the sky above where the sun rose and the moon set, myriad stars shining as they circulated onwards in an endless stream.
There were profundities here of rhythm, of star trajectories, of heavenly rivers, of creation and destruction. Which of these were unchanging, remaining where they were and never changing?
What was unmoving was the starlight lit up by humans, not the actual stars in the sky up above.
Therefore, one would have reached the early Immortal Bridge stage when the starry skies within their bodies were able to circulate.
It was not just their true essence which had to circulate. Instead, their acupoints which had seen Divinity had to circulate too.
Only in this way would the internal universe truly possess some initial flair that was reminiscent of the actual universe.
Only then would martial practitioners truly have taken that first step in leaving the human realm and ascending towards the Immortal realm.
It was precisely because of this that the point from after the seventh level of the Martial Saint realm was known as the Immortal Bridge stage, that of the bridge to Immortality.
This bottleneck would not be an easy one to breach.
In the Royal Reed Sea, the Radiant Light Sect’s Luo Zhiyuan, the Dim Darkness Sect’s Zhou Haosheng, the Grand Xuan Dynasty’s King Xuanmu and Copper Men Island’s Gongsun Wu had all been stuck at the peak of the sixth level of the Martial Saint realm for many years.
They had been just that half step away from ascending the Immortal Bridge. Yet, this half step was like a heavenly gulf, separating the furthest horizons.
With an Immortal Bridge Martial Saint guarding over a power, their position in the entire World beyond Worlds would be completely different.
This was because the martial arts of many lineages were insufficient for one to reach the Immortal Bridge stage.
For them to have a breakthrough, they would have to receive pointers from an expert, obtain great fortune or be a heaven-defying genius that only came once in a thousand years, causing the martial arts that they possessed to be able to advance even further.
Still, none of these were easy at all.
Broad Creed Mountain’s lineage currently possessed quite a bit of fame in the World beyond Worlds as they had even overturned massive entities like the Grand Xuan Dynasty and the Star Plucking Practitioner Guan Lide.
Still, many who had just heard of them before would still unconsciously look down on them.
They were more concerned and conversed more on the Dim Radiant Emperor’s Immortal Artifact as well as the Extreme Yang Seal and the Extreme Yin Crown.
This was directly related to Broad Creed Mountain not possessing any Immortal Bridge Martial Saint.
Still, Yan Zhaoge believed that the situation would be completely different very soon.
After returning to the Mountain previously, Yan Di had directly entered secluded cultivation.
While he had not given a detailed explanation, Yan Zhaoge vaguely had a premonition about this.
His father had very likely had a fortuitous encounter previously which had given him the chance to attempt a breakthrough into the Immortal Bridge stage.
Like Yan Zhaoge, it was not difficult for Yan Di to refine all his other obscure acupoints to see Divinity after he had done so for the first one, stepping into the sixth level of the Martial Saint realm.
After having entered the sixth level of the Martial Saint realm, Yan Di had still been progressing at a rapid rate like before.
What he lacked was a chance that would propel him into the Immortal Bridge stage.
Yan Zhaoge guessed that Yan Di had a chance of breaking through the bottleneck this time.
On the other hand, if he only cultivated in the Primordial Heavenly Scriptures of the Jade Clear lineage, Yan Zhaoge was actually also confident that he would definitely be able to ascend the Immortal Bridge in one to three years.
Still, Yan Zhaoge did not want to do so unless he really had no other choice.
That would be equivalent to giving up on his foundation of simultaneously cultivating in the Three Purities that he had painstakingly forged.
Still, if he wanted to ascend the Immortal Bridge with the merged legacies of the Three Clear lineages, Yan Zhaoge currently needed a peak martial art from each of them.
Yan Zhaoge had a whole six of the ten Primordial Heavenly Scriptures, not having to worry on this.
When Transcending Mortality and entering Sainthood, he had used the Immortal Ending Sword for the Prime Clear lineage and substituted the moral virtue of passing down martial arts and returning to simplicity to substitute for a supreme martial art of the Grand Clear lineage.
When breaking through space to see true Divinity, he had used the Immortal Trapping Sword for the Prime Clear lineage and the Taiji Yin Yang Palm for the Grand Clear lineage.
Yet, if he were to try ascending the Immortal Bridge now, he lacked martial arts for both the Grand Clear and Prime Clear lineages.
If he had no way of resolving this, that would be equivalent to him having no way of continuing to simultaneously cultivate in the Three Clear lineages.
“There are signs of the cave manor opening,” Yan Zhaoge looked at the broken whisk in his hand.
The whisk which had remained unmoving for the past two years was currently flickering slightly, glowing.
“I hope that this is really a manor of the Grand Clear direct lineage. If there is really a martial art legacy there, that would be of great help to me.”