"Damn! How shameless of them. We have to report this to the gang leader immediately." The driver smashed his fist on the seat, showcasing his anger.
"We can't let this slide," He added.
"Indeed. I barely managed to escape in the end with the help of this lord, who claimed to be the friend of our gang leader." Bryan feigned a pitiful expression as he spoke while his heart was in turmoil.
"I see. No wonder he looks extraordinary. As expected of the gang leader's friend." The driver didn't doubt him.
"Even the infamous Robin was finished off by him." To clear any sort of suspicion, Bryan revealed this shocking news.
"Holy Fuck! So, what do I call him?" The driver hoped to understand more about him since how can an unknown person kill a B-rank warrior effortlessly in such a short period of time? He must definitely be a renowned expert.
But instead, he only received a cold harrumph, sending shivers down his spine. Therefore, he didn't talk anymore and drove straight to the headquarters.
On the way, Cayden closed his eyes and focused inside his brain, known as the temple where God or consciousness is housed according to mortals.
However, in cultivation terms, it was the space where the soul resides. To access it, one needs to break through the mysterious barrier surrounding it which could be achieved through painstaking effort and a long process known as cultivation.
The first step is Qi Refining where the person absorbs the natural aura of the heavens and earth and stores it inside their stomach; also referred to as the spiritual energy. Here, the need for food is replaced by this energy.
According to the amount of energy amassed, this stage is divided into early, middle, and late stages. Next, is the Foundation Establishment. As the name suggests, here the goal is to build your body as strong as possible by tempering it with spiritual energy.
Initially, the heart is refined through which new pumped-up blood filled with power circulates throughout the body. Then steadily the brain and other internal organs are strengthened. This procedure is extremely dangerous as even a tiny mishap leads to death.
Thus, entering the foundation establishment is quite difficult, resulting in a high death rate. The subsequent steps include tempering the flesh, muscles, and lastly the bone marrow, and skeleton which is relatively easier.
At this stage, one's body is strong enough to take in more spiritual energy from the heavens and compress it into a liquid form, which further pressurized, transforms into a solid circular substance, reaching the golden core stage.
Here, your spiritual energy is as vast as an ocean, capable of destroying mountains and flattening cities. Based on the purity and condensation, this stage also has three states.
Next is mobilizing the whole power of your golden core, forcing it upon the barrier of the temple while bearing immense stress physically. This opens the door to a brand-new world. You can perceive your soul and even survive after the fall of your physical body.
One unlocks divine sense as well which allows you to observe the minuscule details of everything in a certain radius. It's like an X-ray vision. This distance stretches along with the growth of your soul.
In the beginning, everyone's soul is as tiny as a baby's. Hence, referred to as the Nascent Soul Stage. It needs to be nourished by one's spiritual energy or using various treasures of the heavens and earth to grow, ensuring three mini-states.
Currently, without any single trace of cultivation, he still had access to his divine temple. This was all due to a divine brilliance flickering in the center, lighting up the darkness. Yes, it was indeed his spark of divinity.
Nevertheless, it was far from being comparable to its peak. It was dim as if it was about to die any second. Above it, there was a twin dragon-shaped handle and a red blood crystal with green threads swirling around it.
The weird thing was that he didn't have his soul. Yet, he has still been surviving. It was all because of the mystery of this crystal.
After achieving the peak of the Nascent Soul Stage, the soul becomes powerful enough to make contact with the outside world. You can manipulate the spiritual energy in the air, creating a domain of supernatural powers. This stage is known as the Domain Realm.
Destroying a whole country is possible at this stage. At the peak of this realm, one becomes capable of understanding the rules of the heavens and earth. Also, recognized as laws or the fundamental forces that run the world.
Once being able to manipulate a law, you are labeled as a Venerable Realm expert. You can create rain and thunder from nothing, turn ice to fire, and many more magical feats can be performed which are out of common sense, disrupting the balance of heavens and earth.
From this stage, the strength depends upon the number of laws mastered by an individual. Nonetheless, that also has limits since the soul can't bear it. Moreover, it takes at least a thousand years for a talented individual to comprehend one.
That's why everyone at most grasped a couple of laws before moving on to the next stage. Unless someone like the Heavenly Demon appeared who used various immoral means to prolong vitality and surpass the threshold of the soul, it was simply impossible to master as many laws as one wished.
The next stage is the Saint Realm, where the laws, physical body, soul, knowledge, intents, and everything a cultivator possesses sublimate into one, giving birth to a terrifying crystallized body, called the Dharma or Saint Body.
This whole process is called sanctification and he was at this stage previously. And the strange crystal he had at present was in fact a part of his saint body. It contained a trace of his soul, blood, and essence.
It is called Saint Crystal. Usually, the saint crystals lose their consciousness with time and eventually become a tool for either weapon forging or a method to transfer the inheritance to future generations. Mainly, it is preserved for getting a swift hold on to a trace of the power of law.
Various sects and families possessed them, resulting in them getting targeted by him. And now the circumstances have changed. The heavens punished him by reducing him to a pathetic situation.
He was forced into exploding his saint body and the immortal slaying sword. Even his spark of divinity was consumed heavily to resist their divinities. In the desperate moment, he could only preserve a tiny portion of his saint body and natal sword to escape into the void, appearing in this world.
He then hid in a coffin and reconstructed his physical body by extracting the blood, and essence from his saint crystal, taking who knows how many years long. This was also his reason for being stronger despite not having any cultivation base.
He had the blood of a saint flowing in his veins. Not an ordinary one, but of the Heavenly Demon, the number one person in the myriad realms. He had traces of laws embedded in every part of his body.
His starting point was way greater than his old self. He had a good chance of surpassing his former self. Who knew if this was a boon for him?
Now for the reason why he didn't perish in the river of time was because of his spark of divinity. As long as the people had belief aka fear in him, he would never pass away. He was an Immortal in a mortal form.
Anyways, he had a long way to go now. First, he had to refine this saint crystal and separate his soul completely. Although he had been using its energy over these years, it still had a lot left.
With how tough the body of the saint is, it wasn't going to be easy. One of the root causes of why he took a long time to awaken. Besides, he was not worried at all. He could draw out the superior energy from the crystal and refine them into his Qi, replacing the spiritual stones from the immortal world.
The thing he had to put his attention on was the traces of divinity he obtained today. He was studying them silently in his mind by mingling them with his spark of divinity.
"I see. Some immortals are sending their divinity through some means. The people believe in it as their savior, fame, and power, pinning all their hopes on it. This is certainly a better and more efficient way than mine." He mulled over its pros and cons.
"This divinity becomes stronger by absorbing the soul of living beings, providing some feedback to the mortals. The mana they are referring to is the control of the spiritual energy in the air provided by the same source of divinity."
"It's an evil method. The immortal can then take away this power anytime he wishes including their lives. After all, it doesn't belong to them. So vicious."
He devoured the divinities and sighed. "This world is not so simple. Only powerful immortals can sustain such a large consumption of divinity. If I keep on absorbing in this manner, I might catch their attention sooner or later."
While he was pondering, Bryan's voice interrupted him.
"Lord, we have arrived."