Due to the differing cultivation techniques that one cultivated, there was no specific method to achieving a breakthrough from Saint 9-dan to Great Sage. As such, Zhang Xuan could only refer to the insights of the predecessors to find a path that was suited for him.
“Insights and methods to achieving a breakthrough to Great Sage? We’ve had countless Great Sage predecessors in our Luo Clan, so we do have a substantial number of such books. However, these books can only serve as a reference. You mustn’t attempt to practice them directly…” Luo Ganzhen warned.
The insights of the predecessors could serve as a source of inspiration, but as everyone had different constitutions and encounters, what they needed to achieve a breakthrough would be significantly different as well. If one were to attempt to blindly follow the path of another, chances were that not only would one be able to achieve a breakthrough, one’s cultivation might even go berserk.
“Thank you for your warning, I’ll take note of it,” Zhang Xuan replied with a nod.
Hearing the middle-aged man’s response, Luo Ganzhen quickly replied with a smile. “You are the most talented cultivator in the many millenniums of our Luo Clan’s history, so it goes without saying that you’ll be aware of something like this even without me pointing it out. Please follow me!”
Considering how the other party had managed to comprehend the Spatial Quintessence of Sealing, his talent was indubitably great. Luo Ganzhen would only be viewed in annoyance if he kept repeating the same thing again and again.
Knowing that Zhang Xuan was going to read books, Luo Ruoxin nodded. “Go on. I’ll wait here for you.”
“Un, I’ll be right back!” Zhang Xuan said before leaving with Luo Ganzhen. The both of them soon arrived in a library.
“The bottom three levels of the library are open to the inner members of our clan, and everything beyond that are only accessible to the elders… The insights to achieving a breakthrough to Great Sage are all contained at the higher levels!” Luo Ganzhen explained as he brought Zhang Xuan up to the fourth level.
Zhang Xuan swiftly looked through the massive collection books around him and noted that they were mostly notebooks. Most of the notebooks contained messy scribblings, and a couple of them had a lot of blurred words or missing pages, an inevitable result from having been stored for too long.
“These books don’t have particular systems or an order to them, and they are only intended for reference purposes. Please feel free to look through them, and if there’s anything you require, feel free to call me!” Luo Ganzhen said.
“Thank you for your help! I’ll just casually take a look around. I’ll call you if I encounter any problems!” After saying those words, Zhang Xuan quickly began browsing through the shelves of books.
Seeing this, Luo Ganzhen quietly took his leave.
Shortly after Luo Ganzhen left, Zhang Xuan began swiftly strolling through the shelves of books while echoing ‘Flaws’ in his head. It took him roughly ten minutes to collect everything on the level into the Library of Heaven’s Path.
Compile! Zhang Xuan willed, and a new book materialized in his head.
He quickly flipped the materialized book open and browsed through it.
While these insights didn’t form a complete Heaven’s Path Divine Art, they did give me a deeper understanding as to what a breakthrough to Great Sage signifies!
Introspective Convalescence is basically the ability to immerse one’s Spiritual Perception into every cell and meridian within one’s body. This allows a cultivator to resolve their internal flaws and induce a physical metamorphosis to surpass the limits of Saint 9-dan. At the same time, the correction of one’s physical constitution would also enhance one’s longevity, allowing one to live for a longer period of time.
Upon reaching Saint 2-dan Spiritual Perception realm, a cultivator would unlock their Incipient Eye, thus allowing them to inspect their own physical state through their Spiritual Perception. To achieve a breakthrough to the Introspective Convalescence realm, a cultivator would have to further refine their Spiritual Perception so as to make it fine enough to seep even within cells.
As simple as it sounded, the effects it brought about were tremendous. If a cultivator’s cells were to be damaged or breached by some kind of bacteria or virus, they would inspect the root of the problem through their Spiritual Perception and channel their zhenqi to resolve the affliction. Through this, they would be able to ensure that their physical body was always at its peak state, thus allowing them to exert their full prowess at any moment.
While ordinary Saint cultivators would be able to live up to roughly a thousand years, their physical functions would start deteriorating beyond their eight hundreds, thus causing their fighting prowess to decline. At the same time, the deteriorating physical functions would also make it more and more difficult to achieve a breakthrough.
‘Push yourself to the limits while you are still young’ was a phrase that was commonly said among master teachers.
Once the physical functions started to deteriorate, it would be nigh impossible to achieve a breakthrough anymore no matter how hard one tried. This was also why there was such a thing as the ‘golden age for cultivation’.
However, such a limitation was removed for those who had reached the Introspective Convalescence realm.
The ability to immerse one’s Spiritual Perception into cells allowed one to repair and replace wear and tear in the cells, ensuring that one’s body remained in its peak condition at all times… In other words, one would always be able to exert the fighting prowess one wielded in one’s prime!
Furthermore, even when one’s lifespan was reaching the end, if the impetus for a breakthrough came, one would still be able to advance one’s cultivation.
For this reason, the older a Great Sage cultivator was, the more formidable they were likely to be. This was in contrast to Saint cultivators, where older cultivators were much weaker and more prone to injuries than younger cultivators.
Having cultivated the flawless Heaven’s Path Divine Art, my zhenqi is much purer than that of other cultivators. This makes it much more difficult for me to make a breakthrough to Great Sage…
Going through the insights that he had collected, Zhang Xuan shook his head helplessly.
It was indeed not easy to make a breakthrough to Great Sage. Even after reading so many books, he was still unable to find the most suitable way for him to do so.
Forget it, I’ll just collect all of the books in here first. If it still doesn’t work out, I’ll just have to collect the books in the Zhang Clan too. The Zhang Clan should have a compilation of the insights of predecessors too…
Knowing that it was impossible to rush this matter, Zhang Xuan calmed his anxiety and headed to the upper floors.
Given that the books on this level detailed the insights on making a breakthrough to Great Sage, it stood to reason that the books on the higher levels corresponded to that of the other realms of Great Sage.
It did not take long for Zhang Xuan to collect all of the books in his path and reach the top level of the library.
When he finally walked out of the library, he noted that Luo Ganzhen was still waiting around the vicinity. Thus, he walked up to Luo Ganzhen and smiled. “I think I’ll need some pinnacle spirit stones and items containing spiritual energy in order to make a breakthrough. May I know if there’s anywhere in the clan that I can take such resources from? Also, is there a limit to how much of such resources I could take as the clan head?”
After reading through the books, Zhang Xuan realized that he needed quite a number of spirit stones in order to make a breakthrough.
Sword Saint Xing had given him a clear glimpse into just how loaded the Premier Sage Clans were. Considering that the Luo Clan was a Premier Sage Clan as well, a couple of pinnacle spirit stones and items containing spiritual energy would definitely not be much to them at all.
Thus, there was no need for him to stand on ceremony for this matter either.
“There’s a quota to how much resources the clan head is entitled to. However, you have just done the clan a great service, so the elders have unanimously decided to give you free access to the resources of the Luo Clan!” Luo Ganzhen said as he led the way forward.
Soon, they arrived at a treasure vault.
“This is the vault where we store the resources and treasures of the Luo Clan. The rewards that we offer to meritorious clan members also come from here. Clan head, feel free to look around the vault. If there’s anything that interests you, you can just take it away with you. There’s no need to hold back at all!”
“Thank you!” Not expecting such a privilege to come from being the head of the Luo Clan, Zhang Xuan’s eyes glowed in excitement.
If he could take anything in the vault away with him… would he not be loaded if he stored everything in here into his storage ring?
If so, he would not have to worry about acquiring resources for his cultivation anymore!
But of course, those were just casual thoughts flashing across his mind. He had no intention of realizing them at all. His principles would not allow him to do something like that.
He was a master teacher, not a burglar! Even if he had not been there to compensate them, it would be despicable for him to take everything in there. In the first place, he did not have a grudge with the Luo Clan, and such an action would be a huge blow to even the wealthy Luo Clan!
There were many shelves placed around the treasure vault, and all kinds of weapons, gemstones, and spirit stones were placed on them.
After gaining possession of the Dragonbone Divine Spear, not even Saint pinnacle artifacts could catch his eye at all. Similarly, pinnacle spirit stones were not of much use to him given his current cultivation realm, so he did not dawdle too much around them.
“Hmm? What’s this?”
Walking in between the shelves, Zhang Xuan suddenly halted in his tracks, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
On a shelf not too far away, there was a sealed jade box that emanated spiritual energy so concentrated that it actually moved his heart.
Seeing that Zhang Xuan was looking at the sealed jade box, Luo Ganzhen explained, “It’s an extraterrestrial meteorite. Our predecessors obtained it by some chance. I’m not too sure what it is, but over the years, no one has been able to find any way to refine it or extract the spiritual energy within it, so it ended up being stored in our treasure vault…”
“Extraterrestrial meteorite?” Zhang Xuan repeated in surprise.
He walked up to the sealed jade box and slowly pried it open.
Before Zhang Xuan could even see what was within the box, something within his body was already trembling in agitation, and a voice sounded in his mind.
“Give it to me! I want that hard thing over there…”
“Who is it?” Zhang Xuan exclaimed telepathically in alarm.
