Chapter 415 – Opening the Third Eye's True Aperture, Entering the Profound, Reaching the Mysterious…

To achieve Deity Transformation is to transform the spirit into the Dao, converting the Houtian into the Xiantian.

Based on Lu Chen’s understanding of the Transformation Soul Stage,

this realm is the most profound among all the realms a cultivator has experienced thus far.

Whether it’s the Azure Cloud Sect in the game world, the Immortal Alliance in the real world, or the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms,

regardless of the world, all records regarding the breakthrough to the Transformation Soul Stage are enigmatic and abstruse, difficult to comprehend.

The reason why the vast majority of cultivators at the Nascent Soul Stage Perfection fail to successfully break through

is often not due to insufficient talent or lack of cultivation resources,

but purely because they cannot find the path.

Upon careful reflection, this makes sense—how could someone truly mediocre in talent cultivate to the Nascent Soul Stage Perfection?

As for cultivation resources, once one reaches this realm, there are plenty of people and sects willing to provide them.

Thus, what truly restricts Nascent Soul Stage cultivators from breaking through to Deity Transformation is the ‘path’.

There are three thousand major Daos, and countless minor ones.

The key to the Transformation Soul Stage lies in embodying the Dao with one’s body.

But Daos differ from one another,

just as people differ from one another.

Even if two cultivators practice the same techniques and have similar experiences,

they are bound to have some differences.

These differences determine that their processes of embodying the Dao must vary.

Perhaps the general direction can be referenced,

but if one completely follows another’s method, it would be like heading south by driving the chariot north.

Therefore, in every world, the method for breaking through to the Transformation Soul Stage has always been summarized in eight words:

‘Embody the Dao with the body, unite the Dao with the spirit.’

Find one’s own Dao, polish it to perfection, and finally find a way to integrate it into the heavenly Dao,

making oneself one of the ‘rules’ of this world.

This is the most complete and useful method for breaking through to the Transformation Soul Stage that Lu Chen could obtain.

However, based on this, Lu Chen, drawing from his memories of his previous life and the breakthroughs of other Transformation Soul Stage cultivators, roughly summarized three key nodes for the breakthrough.

Or rather, concrete manifestations.

First, cultivate a Great Divine Power to the Transformation Dao Realm.

Second, elevate one’s cultivation to the Nascent Soul Stage Perfection.

Third, completely fuse this Transformation Dao Realm divine ability into one’s True Spirit.

This completes the step of ’embodying the Dao.’

What remains is to undergo the trial of heaven and earth,

namely, the Heavenly Tribulation.

However, because Lu Chen’s aspirations are grand, his breakthrough to the Transformation Soul Stage is more intricate than these three steps, with stricter conditions to fulfill.

For instance, ordinary breakthroughs to the Transformation Soul Stage do not require ‘Primordial Violet Qi.’

But if Lu Chen wishes to break through to the Transformation Soul Stage,

he must use this Xiantian Spiritual Qi, which is exceedingly rare even in the game world.

The reason is that what Lu Chen aims to fuse is not some ‘Transformation Dao Realm divine ability,’

but the ‘Enlightenment Realm’ above the Transformation Dao Realm—

what is known as immortal techniques.

Using immortal techniques as the foundation and breaking through to Deity Transformation to embody the Dao.

Even though Lu Chen has rehearsed this process many times in his mind,

he still does not have absolute certainty,

as there are too many uncertain factors.

Nevertheless, as long as he has over a ninety-eight percent certainty, Lu Chen has the courage to attempt it.His approach to this breakthrough was exactly as such.

The Enlightenment Realm immortal technique he sought to fuse this time was one of his two innate divine abilities, the Heretical Avatar.

The decision to prioritize breaking through this innate divine ability wasn’t made by Lu Chen on a whim.

Rather, it was a choice he had contemplated long ago.

Because the Heretical Avatar innate divine ability was crucial to his subsequent fusion of three bodies.

It served as the foundational cornerstone for his future immortal ascension.

After successfully mastering the ‘Heretical Avatar’, the second technique he would attempt to fuse was the ‘Immortal Slaughtering Sword Formation’.

Finally, his other innate divine ability, Reincarnation Time.

The first two were clones, while the last one was fundamental.

It was the great Dao that Lu Chen’s true self needed to fuse.

Thus, even though the Years Dao Fruit from Jiao Xian held great allure for Lu Chen,

At present, this Dao Fruit wasn’t key to his breakthrough.

It could only be utilized when his true self underwent breakthrough in the future.

However, Lu Chen’s initial purpose in seeking out Jiao Xian wasn’t for this Dao Fruit anyway.

Above Fallen Dragon Lake, using the Creation Pill Art as core, Lu Chen quickly extracted the residual Primordial Violet Qi from Jiao Xian’s body.

This wisp of Primordial Violet Qi was far from sufficient for cultivators seeking to break through to the Immortal Realm.

But for Lu Chen who only needed to reach Deity Transformation, it was enough.

The greatest function of Primordial Violet Qi was its ability to materialize the great Dao.

Gazing at the wisp of Primordial Violet Qi before him, Lu Chen immediately inhaled it into his body.

Soon, Lu Chen felt earth-shaking changes occurring in his Sea of Consciousness.

The numerous great Daos he had mastered were gradually becoming clear and perceptible under the influence of the Primordial Violet Qi.

However, Lu Chen deeply understood the principle of not biting off more than one could chew.

He devoted all this precious Primordial Violet Qi to the Heretical Avatar innate divine ability.

Originally, Lu Chen had considered that if this wisp of Primordial Violet Qi proved insufficient,

He still had a trump card.

Namely, the portion of Primordial Violet Qi he had seized from Thousand-Year Elder within the Great Wilderness Pagoda.

But he had somewhat underestimated the influence of Primordial Violet Qi.

Although just a wisp, it caused special changes to occur in Lu Chen’s Heretical Avatar.

During this transformation, the partial True Spirit carried by Lu Chen’s clone began to slowly fuse with this Heretical Avatar.

Initially, this fusion was primarily led by Lu Chen’s own True Spirit, supplemented by the great Dao.

But because the Dao power corresponding to the fifth realm Enlightenment Realm immortal technique was truly immense,

Lu Chen’s True Spirit attempting to fully bear this portion of Dao power was undoubtedly like trying to extinguish a burning cartload of faggots with a cup of water.

Therefore, after approximately ten percent fusion,

Lu Chen’s clone had already begun showing signs of collapse.

Once the clone shattered, it would mean Lu Chen’s breakthrough had failed.

Any subsequent reattempts would not only become more difficult,

But the precious Primordial Violet Qi wouldn’t return either, instead disappearing completely.

Fortunately, Lu Chen had anticipated this situation.

‘Just a clone spirit naturally cannot bear the weight of Enlightenment Realm immortal techniques.’

‘To resolve this situation, external assistance is necessary.’

Looking at his crack-covered body, Lu Chen’s expression remained calm, showing no panic.

Simultaneously, the real Lu Chen opened his eyes, as if perceiving something.

He lowered his head and looked at his right hand.

On the skin of his right hand, a small portion of cracks had clearly appeared.This scene didn’t cause Lu Chen any panic; instead, it even brought a faint smile to his face.

Because these changes were exactly as he had anticipated.

The ‘Heretical Avatar’ formed from part of his True Spirit indeed had the capacity to affect his main body.

In fact, Lu Chen had long held a certain doubt.

Compared to other ‘Clone Divine Abilities’, his Heretical Avatar could not only completely inherit the main body’s memories, techniques, and Divine Abilities, but even after death, aside from transmitting the memories from the clone’s existence period back to the main body, there were no other side effects.

From any perspective, the effects of the Heretical Avatar far exceeded what should be possible for an early-stage first or second realm Innate Divine Ability.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it an immortal technique.

However, Lu Chen was quite certain that the principles behind this Heretical Avatar Innate Divine Ability weren’t actually special.

If that were the case, then what enabled this Innate Divine Ability to produce such extraordinary effects must lie beyond the Divine Ability itself – specifically, in the person executing this Innate Divine Ability.

After much contemplation about what truly distinguished him from others, Lu Chen initially thought it might be the ‘True Immortal Cultivation’ mini-game.

After all, the ability to grow stronger simply by playing a game was something Lu Chen had only encountered in himself.

For a long time, Lu Chen had believed his uniqueness lay in this ‘True Immortal Cultivation’ mini-game, rather than any inherent superiority over others.

Without this mini-game, he might still be just an ordinary high school student in Luocheng.

Forget about reaching the Golden Core Stage before graduation – even achieving a breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Stage during the college entrance exams would have been considered fortunate.

However, subsequent experiences gradually changed Lu Chen’s original perspective.

After all, the ways Lu Chen could gain experience weren’t limited to just the ‘True Immortal Cultivation’ mini-game.

During the simulated college entrance exams, Lu Chen had also obtained experience points.

This led him to develop alternative theories.

Perhaps from the very beginning, what was special wasn’t the ‘True Immortal Cultivation’ mini-game, but some unique quality within himself.

This quality destined him to convert things others couldn’t utilize into ‘experience points.’

Limited by his perspective and cultivation level at the time, Lu Chen couldn’t discern what this ‘quality’ within him actually was.

But as his cultivation advanced and his knowledge expanded, he gradually gained some understanding about the nature of ‘experience points.’

These so-called experience points might be something every living being possesses, yet cannot consciously perceive or utilize.

Lu Chen believed this thing to be the Origin that constitutes the ‘Dao.’

While Lu Chen didn’t know exactly what this substance was, after truly encountering the Primordial Violet Qi, he felt it might share remarkable similarities with the ‘Primordial Violet Qi.’

After comprehending this, Lu Chen preliminarily analyzed why the Innate Divine Ability ‘Heretical Avatar’ manifested such powerful effects in his hands.

The key likely lay in his unique Soul that could directly absorb the ‘Origin of Dao.’

Because his Soul was special, the clone formed from part of his True Spirit could completely replicate the main body’s complete Dao heritage and memories.Due to the uniqueness of his soul, even if his clone perished, enemies could not destroy the ‘Origin’ within that clone.

They could only watch helplessly as that ‘Origin’ carried the memories from the clone’s existence, traversing across time and space to return to the main body.

This method of splitting off the True Spirit, then reclaiming and strengthening the main body bore striking resemblance to how Gu Xian and his kind raised ordinary cultivators to empower themselves.

Since this involved the ‘Origin of Dao’, during the breakthrough to the Deity Transformation Stage and the process of Embodying Dao,

the principle was essentially fusing the ‘Origin of Dao’ corresponding to the ‘Divine Ability’ with the ‘Origin of Dao’ composing the cultivator’s True Spirit.

Naturally, this process would inevitably affect the ‘Origin of Dao’ that constituted Lu Chen’s Heretical Avatar.

And this influence would ultimately reflect back onto his main body.

Although various factors minimized this influence as much as possible,

the effect was undeniably present now.

This further confirmed some of Lu Chen’s inner speculations.

With his ideas verified, certain methods could now be implemented.

For instance, using experience points to repair True Spirit damage.

[You consumed one million experience points to repair your True Spirit…]

[You consumed one million experience points to…]

Above Fallen Dragon Lake, as massive amounts of experience points were expended,

Lu Chen’s True Spirit, originally ruptured by the ‘Power of Great Dao’, began continuously repairing itself.

While this couldn’t elevate the upper limit of Lu Chen’s True Spirit,

it somehow enhanced its ‘resilience’.

Limited by the Nascent Soul Stage, Lu Chen couldn’t endow his Nascent Soul self with True Spirit strength capable of bearing ‘Immortal Arts’ level power.

This was something Lu Chen had long understood.

Since the fundamental issue couldn’t be resolved, external assistance would be employed.

Experience points were the external solution Lu Chen devised.

And the actual situation unfolded exactly as Lu Chen anticipated.

If the process of others breaking through to the Deity Transformation Stage involved maximizing the capacity of their True Spirit ‘container’

and finding ways to stuff the ‘Origin of Dao’ corresponding to their Great Dao into this container,

then what Lu Chen did was continuously use external force to repair this container when it was about to ‘burst’, achieving compression of the ‘Origin of Dao’.

Indeed, from the very beginning, Lu Chen never intended to fuse the five-realm Heretical Avatar through conventional methods.

What he was actually doing was ‘forcibly’ cramming the ‘Origin of Dao’ corresponding to the Heretical Avatar into a ‘container’ originally incapable of bearing it.

Commonly known as coercive transaction.

Although this process consumed vast amounts of experience points

and required Primordial Violet Qi for harmonization—otherwise Lu Chen couldn’t directly control the Great Dao at the ‘Immortal Arts’ level—

these posed no problems for Lu Chen.

As time passed, although Lu Chen’s clone above Fallen Dragon Lake remained covered in cracks, seemingly on the verge of exploding at any moment,

a mysterious power persistently maintained this half-shattered state.

And in this continuous cycle of tearing apart and reassembling,

the True Spirit strength corresponding to that clone grew increasingly astonishing.

After an indeterminable period, as a dim light erupted from between Lu Chen’s eyebrows,

an arcane aura began radiating from his body.

Enlightenment Realm Immortal Art·Heretical Avatar, fusion successful.This also meant that Lu Chen had finally placed half a foot into the Transformation Soul Stage.

What remained for him to face was the Deity Transformation Heavenly Tribulation.

If he were in the Immortal Alliance or the Immortal Cultivation World, what would appear at this moment would be a terrifying thundercloud.

But in the Ancient Fiend Nine Realms…

What Lu Chen was about to confront this time… was a distorted Heavenly Dao that seemed almost alive.

Above Lu Chen’s head, a bizarre tribulation cloud—twisted, covered with countless tentacles, eyeballs, limbs, and even various organs—appeared.

(End of Chapter)