The Immortal Emperor Realm.
It is the highest realm achievable, granting immense power and absolute authority.
Being favored by an Immortal Emperor meant attaining the highest status in all of reality, and even the greatest of Immortals and Gods had to bow down in front of the Immortal Emperor.
From the primordial beginning to the ends of time, there have only been 3 beings who could step into this realm that signifies omnipotence and supreme power to rule over everything.
Those 3 beings were referred to as the Three Great Immortal Emperors, the highest heavens of the Immortal World.
Only characters with the greatest authority throughout heaven and earth knew of their existence and the fact that they controlled all of reality within their grasp, while the rest only considers them as mere myths, creation gods who never existed.
The strongest of the Three Great Immortal Emperors was said to have risen from a mere mortal in a Mortal World, and became the illustrious goal of many prodigies with no great background for countless eras in the Immortal World.
And right now, that same Immortal Emperor sat as he looked at a glowing jade-like fragment which emitted a golden light floating in front of him, completely dumbfounded.
As he observed his surroundings and took in the tall trees and nearby lake, an expression of self mockery appeared on his otherwise flawless face which could captivate Goddesses and Demonesses alike.
"It seems I have really failed...hah! Overestimating one's own abilities leads to either an overwhelming success or an utter failure!"
He mocked himself before placing his hands on the ground, the softness of the grass and the cool breeze of wind calming, then looked at the golden jade fragment which only he could see or sense.
"Who would've ever thought that the strongest of the Three Great Immortal Emperors, Lin Xuanhao, would be reduced to such a state, not even having the strength to kill a chicken. Those two old fellas might be rolling in laughter right now if they knew of it." He murmured as he looked up at the clear blue sky, hazy clouds floating above his head.
Although he said that, formerly being the most powerful Immortal Emperor, he could still easily kill tens of chickens within a few minutes despite only being a mortal right now with not even a trace of Spiritual Energy.
"Though there might not be a need for that."
He suddenly sat up straight and crossed his legs, assuming a meditative stance as he gestured towards the golden jade fragment.
Instantly, the golden jade fragment rushed into his palm before being completely absorbed by him.
*Whoosh!*
As soon as the golden jade fragment was absorbed into Lin Xuanhao's body, the surrounding Spirit Qi of heaven and earth immediately surged towards him and began to be absorbed by him frantically.
After almost an hour, a thunderous sound was heard from within Lin Xuanhao as his eyes opened abruptly, a golden light spreading out of them, lightening up the entire forest which was previously darkened due to the tall trees abstaining the sunlight.
A couple of moments later, as the light faded, Lin Xuanhao slowly stood up and stretched out his muscles. Quite a long time ago, he once went to a small universe and lived in one of its most interesting planets called earth for a few decades to enjoy life, and he learned these exercises from there.
That was before he became an Immortal Emperor. Although this memory was vague due to his cultivation not being at his former peak, he still remembered these movements.
He slightly clenched his fists as a small smile appeared on his face.
"It's been so long since I've had this feeling. This is exactly the same as when I first entered the path of Immortal Cultivation back then, albeit my cultivation was far slower than right now."
"The First Stage of Body Forging Realm!"
The Body Forging Realm, the first step of Immortal Cultivation that toughens up the body using Spirit Qi of heaven and earth, making the skin as hard as steel and bones as firm as diamonds.
Even though Body Forging Realm cultivators cannot absorb Spirit Qi just yet, their body is trained externally by Spirit Qi, which can allow them to even fight against weaker Demonic Beasts and uproot trees without any effort.
Lin Xuanhao breathed deeply, taking in the clean air before muttering softly, "It's been so long...even though this is not the Immortal World and just a Lower Realm Universe from the purity of Spirit Qi far lower than the Immortal World and the non-existence of Immortal Qi, it still feels refreshing after staying in seclusion for a trillion years..."
As he said this, a sense of realization suddenly struck him as he remembered something.
"Oh yes, the flow of time in the Immortal World is completely different from lower worlds. I was in seclusion for a trillion Immortal Years, and an Immortal Year equals to a quadrillion years.."
"Which means I have actually been in seclusion for an unprecedented long time, huh?"
His voice was only slightly surprised before he shook aside these thoughts and remembered the reason for his seclusion.
"I wanted to enter a higher realm by surpassing the Immortal Emperor Realm, but was blocked by a mysterious force...I still can't seem to figure out what it was. Some kind of creation rule? Most likely."
His face showed a calm smile once again, making him look exceptionally handsome as his long, silver hair fluttered in the wind and grey eyes looked up at the sky again.
"However, I split my cultivation base into those Nine Dao Fragments, and by combining all of them, not even that creation rule will be able to stop me from transcending the Immortal Emperor Realm!"
Whatever restriction stopped Lin Xuanhao couldn't kill him, and he also knew very well that Immortal Emperors couldn't be killed.
Thus, he guessed that the power of that restriction wasn't very strong, and since he had already reached the peak of Immortal Emperor Realm, even surpassing it by half a step, he was sure that he could surpass it fully once he regained his cultivation base.
The golden jade fragment he absorbed before was actually one of the Nine Dao Fragments!
When he absorbed a Dao Fragment, it could naturally slowly recover his cultivation base even without needing him to cultivate.
But that process was too slow, and since he could enhance its speed by manifolds when refining the Dao Fragment himself, he would choose to do so the latter.
If he had chosen to naturally let the Dao Fragment be refined, it might have taken more than a day for him to reach the Body Forging Realm.
At the First Stage of Body Forging Realm, Lin Xuanhao's true strength was well beyond even the Ninth Stage of Body Forging Realm, and he could fight against Meridian Connecting Realm cultivators without using any of the profound techniques and spells he knew, much less the Divine Powers.
This was what he silently concluded himself.
Mortal Realms of Immortal Cultivation had Nine Stages each, and after reaching the peak of Ninth Stage came the next realm.
The Body Forging Realm was still within mortal capabilities, and these cultivators still had a mortal lifespan of around 70 years.
But having formidable strength even in this realm's First Stage, Lin Xuanhao could easily protect himself. The only issue was that he had to eat and sleep.
Even though this was his true body and he had all of his treasures, pills, cultivation techniques, spells, arts etcetera, he still didn't have food in it!
Lin Xuanhao was kind of a collector, and liked to keep things even when they were no longer of any use to him.
Which was why he still had many items useful only for mortal cultivators with him, but he didn't keep Fasting Pills with him as he simply didn't like that bland taste despite having already transcended the level of living beings.
Not just that, he also couldn't take out items or treasures higher than the Mortal World's level here, or the Heavenly Dao of the Mortal World would expel him.
If his cultivation base or Providence was high enough, then he could naturally do so.
But even his Providence had been absorbed into the Nine Dao Fragments alongside his cultivation base. Thus, he had no choice but to recover first.
And who would even keep food with them even if they were a collector?
"It seems I must search for some food first before cultivating."
Saying that, Lin Xuanhao looked in a certain direction before he slowly walked towards it.
After 20 or so minutes of walking, he could finally see a clear land and a mountain path in front, leading towards what seemed to be a village.
However, just as he was about to head in that direction, more than 10 people dressed in black blocked his way, including the path he came from.