Tian Shi laid to rest his restless mind and began cultivating. As he did so, he realized that the seal his mother had placed on his memories allowed him to access recollections related to his cultivation realm as well as his own knowledge base. By simply being the heir to an Overgod Clan, he knew countless secrets that ranged from the mortal realms up to the Overgod Realm. The memories synergized with those complementing his knowledge base without breaking certain taboos.
The information that caught his eye was the method to cast a True Saint Foundation—something he never thought existed. In fact, he could even call it blasphemous. Cultivation, generally, was the art of slowly stripping away mortality to become a conduit of nature before transcending it altogether. In the mortal realms, that meant sensing the first spark of qi during Qi Condensation.
This was followed by establishing a strong foundation in the form of a robust dantian that could further sublimated qi into the being. This is called the Foundation Establishment Realm.
All the sublimated qi is forged into a core, along with bloodline, being, and existence. That is the Core-Formation Realm.
In the next realm, the core is tempered and introduced to the Seven Emotions and Six Desires, birthing specks of sentience. Once sentience is achieved within the core, Soul-Formation has been attained. Sentience is not merely enough; sapience must follow.
The next realm, the Nascent Soul Realm, picks up from the last. Breaking through from Soul Formation to Nascent Soul is akin to a chicken hatching from an egg—in this case, the Soul. It is a process fraught with danger and tribulation.
After the Nascent Soul Realm comes the Heavenly Step Realm, which consists of nine steps, a hidden twelve steps, and an unheard-of thirteenth step. After nine steps, a cultivator can begin the first stages of transcending mortality, first achieving Mortal Transcendence, then progressing from Mortal Transcendence to Saint, and finally breaking through mortality altogether.
Tian Shi had broken through to the Saint Realm four days ago, making him the youngest Saint in millions of years at the age of eighteen. He had shattered the previous record, which was set at twenty by his father. The gap from the Saint Realm to the Immortal Realm was a seemingly insurmountable divide that mere talent couldn't bridge.
Cultivating in the Saint Realm was vastly different from all the other realms, which focused on the self. The Saint Realm focused on others to supplement the self. It often involved preaching to the world about the Dao to cement oneself in the external world at a conceptual level. In simple terms, he needed to conquer lower planes in order to complete his cultivation.
There were countless paths to achieve a proper Saint Foundation, with the most common method refining the love and adoration of millions upon millions of mortals. The Orthodox path involved utilizing positive emotions to supplement one's existence and prove their Saintly existence. The Unorthodox method involved utilizing negative emotions of mortals to supplement one's existence. Most paths were a mixture of both to achieve a balanced existence.
The path in his mind was blasphemous. It discarded the need to utilize mortals and their adoration, instead targeting the very essence of the laws that governed reality. What would one achieve if the laws adored you?
Tian Shi didn't know whether to call the previous him a genius or a maniac. This path was bound to make him the most loved being in existence while simultaneously making him the most hated creature in existence. Surely, the Transcendent Heavenly Dao wouldn't accept someone molding themselves into it. Yet, the benefits outweighed the costs by a large margin. Even with his current strength, which allowed him to give Immortals a run for their money, if he utilized this method, he would be able to combat Earth Immortals alone.
He inhaled deeply and realized that his venture into Heaven Seeing Academy would need to come sooner rather than later. The good thing was he only needed to wait a few months before they opened their doors. The bad thing was he wasn't sure he could wait that long. Alas, he chose not to worry about it and focused on himself.
Within moments, Tian Shi entered a state of meditation. Feeling through all the various states and benefits of the Saint Realm, he calmed his mind. His qi was on the verge of transforming into essential qi, shortened to essence. But in order to supplement that change, he would be required to condense the Saint Shrine, followed by the Saint Idol.
A world unseen by the naked eye existed within his mindscape. It stretched further than his divine senses could cover. In relative terms, it was the equivalent of 99,999 miles. Darkness caressed its edges and bloomed from the center, pervading the entire space. One gigantic gate stood at the center of it all, pulsing brilliant motes of light that seemingly provided sustenance to the vast volume of qi floating within the darkness.
The Gate was known as the Heavenly Passage, one of the key features of the Heavenly Step Realm. His was magnificent, larger than any gate established in history. Each step within the Heavenly Step Realm was met with a barrier called the Heavenly Passage; twelve steps to perfection corresponded to twelve Heavenly Passages. Tian Shi went further and created a Thirteenth Gate, which absorbed all the other twelve gates to create a Supreme Heavenly Gate. What he achieved wasn't unheard of, but the number of people that succeeded amounted to five, his father being one.
His next step was to lay the foundation for the Saint Shrine, a momentous task in itself. With a simple glance, he saw what his predecessor had planned and chose to continue with it. His nascent soul, which looked no different to him, waved its hand. Qi flowed out from the Heavenly Passage and began tearing a path through the darkness, bringing more light to the place. The process went excruciatingly slow for his taste, and he knew exactly why. He needed something more potent to stir the qi, and that would be adoration or faith—something he had in small amounts at the moment, which surprised him.
No matter how he looked at it, the previous him was undoubtedly a genius. Purely sifting through his present memories, he saw the various lengths he had gone to attain his current cultivation level, yet the world still treated him as the most benevolent being in existence. And that showed in the motes of yellow intertwined with his pure white qi. The thing affecting the faith was the blurred line between adoration for his own actions and adoration for the clan.
Bright light spread through his cultivation chambers. Warm sun rays tinged his pale skin with a touch of bright orange hue. Slowly, he opened his eyes. More than twenty-four hours had passed. He stretched his limbs and rose from his seated position.