306: The path to enlightenment comes naturally.

A long time later, Lin Chen and September returned to the Ancestral Court Great World.

September returned once more to the depths of the Great World to follow Senior and cultivate, striving to attain the Dao at the Foundation Level as soon as possible to catch up with Lin Chen's cultivation progress.

When Lin Chen was just a Mortal at the very beginning, September was already a God.

Now that Lin Chen's Attaining the Dao was imminent, September was still a God, with some distance yet to go before Attaining the Dao.

Thus, having her own thoughts, September hoped to walk side-by-side with Lin Chen rather than being left too far behind, letting the gap between them grow ever wider.

Even if September attained the Foundation Level, the gap with Lin Chen would still be massive, but at least she would stand on the same level, not cast aside too far, and could at least see Lin Chen's back.

Returning to the Enlightenment Hall.

Lin Chen released the enlightenment remnant stele, restoring the former functions of the Enlightenment Hall.

The four Clones naturally split off.

After Lin Chen received the cultivation of the four Clones, although his cultivation level didn't change much, his mastery over the various powers held by the Clones rose to their respective levels.

His strength silently broke into the Late Stage of the Foundation Level. Using his robust Foundation to wield the Omnipotence Authority, the power of malice, Void Power, and the power of the Mirror Dao was naturally much stronger than when applied by a single Clone.

The four Clones received the empowerment of the Main Body, and their states improved further. Some flaws from their previous cultivation processes were mended, making their Foundations even more Perfect.

Aura Lin Chen's mastery of Dao Fall Power had reached the Half-Step Foundation Level, and he could progress no further.

Unless he devoured a Dao Accumulation Level Great World to attain the Foundation Level, he could only rely on time to slowly grind out progress, using countless years to strengthen the Dao Fall Power to break through to the Foundation Level.

Essence Lin Chen, within a hundred years, had already replaced the malice within the entire Human Race Territory, becoming the second-largest source of malice after the original source of malice.

He was likewise unable to progress further and could only plunder the malice held by the source of malice to accumulate more, reducing the difficulty of attaining the Foundation Level during the Dao Contest and strengthening his own advantage in that contest.

Once the Dao Contest between Essence Lin Chen and the source of malice began, if he controlled ten percent of the malice in the entire Main Universe, he could directly break through to the Foundation Level and enter the Foundation Level cultivation stage.

Mirror Lin Chen's state was even more Perfect.

The semi-treasure void-reality mirror he held was only a sliver away from promoting to a lower-rank Dao Accumulation Treasure.

His own cultivation had also completely reached the Peak of the God Rank. His Mirror Dao had likewise reached the 200% Perfection stage, with fifteen wisps of the Mirror Dao transformed into the Concept of Mirror, also walking the path of transcendence.

For Mirror Lin Chen, as long as the place for Attaining the Dao was ready, attaining the Foundation Level was a sure thing.

Faith Lin Chen was even less of a concern.

If he wished, he could step into the Foundation Level Realm right now, completely fusing the Omnipotence Authority with himself and using the Authority to drive his own life-level Breakthrough to enter the Foundation Level Realm.

He suppressed the Breakthrough only to wait for the Main Body's return.

Now that the Main Body had returned, when he would break through depended entirely on the Main Body's arrangement.

This was also why Lin Chen trusted his Clones so much. The Clones were him; even if the connection between them was severed, the Clones would not have other thoughts and would still prioritize the Main Body where the true spirit resided.

Since Faith Lin Chen and Mirror Lin Chen had reached the time for Attaining the Dao, there was no need to suppress anything; they could just break through directly.

After all, the Foundation Level was merely a new starting point on Lin Chen's path of cultivation.

"Everyone, I plan to have my Clones attain the Dao first. The first will be the Faith Clone, who will attain the Dao in the Mortal World Divine Kingdom."

"No problem. I can't leave right now, so I'll let your Old Ancestor protect your Dao."

Old Deng's Main Body was on the Tian Yuan Battlefield and could not leave, so the task of protecting the Dao fell to Lin Wufa and the ten Foundation Level experts stationed in the Human Race Territory.

Lin Chen had no objection. He didn't strictly need Dao protectors to attain the Dao, but it was a good thing that the Human Race was sending Foundation Level experts to protect him.

The star system where the Dust World Sect was located.

The location of the Mortal World Divine Kingdom.

Countless Mortal World believers temporarily set aside their work, praying day and night to offer their most sincere blessings to their God.

Although Faith Lin Chen's Attaining the Dao didn't require mobilizing the Power Of Faith—he already held the Authority and didn't need a massive amount of Power Of Faith to condense it now—

The Power Of Faith was still important. After Faith Lin Chen attained the Dao and became the Authority itself, he would need to condense a second Authority to progress.

At that time, he would need to use the Power Of Faith. Relying purely on himself to condense Authority would be very slow, but with the empowerment of the Power Of Faith, the speed of condensing a second Authority would be much faster.

Thus, an Authority God still required faith.

Within the Mortal World Divine Kingdom, Lin Chen moved his true spirit into Faith Lin Chen. Now, Faith Lin Chen was the Lin Chen Main Body.

The determination of the Main Body was based on the true spirit.

Whichever Clone the true spirit was inside was the Main Body. As for the body Lin Chen had been using, it naturally became a Clone, named Karma Lin Chen.

Lin Chen began Attaining the Dao.

The Omnipotence Authority within him originated from God; it was only one-third of God's Authority, containing only Omnipotence without the two Authorities of Omniscience and Creation.

But the Omnipotence Authority Lin Chen now held was a complete Authority for him, which could be used to attain the Dao, and he himself was Perfect and without deficiency.

The Attaining the Dao began.

There was no grand spectacle.

Lin Chen simply stood at the center of the Mortal World Divine Kingdom as the Omnipotence Authority completely merged into his body.

His true spirit, Soul, and flesh were all infected by the Authority. The power of the Authority transformed his true spirit, Soul, and flesh, evolving them toward a higher level of life.

The evolution was very fast.

It took only fifteen minutes.

Lin Chen's Attaining the Dao was over.

The moment he became the Authority, he was already at the Foundation Level.

At this moment, Lin Chen carefully sensed his own changes.

A Faith God attaining the Foundation Level meant becoming the Authority itself, using the power of Authority to replace Divine Power, the body of Authority to replace the divine body, and the Soul of Authority to replace the Divine Soul.

It was similar to when a Law God attained the Dao, except the powers they used and their forms of expression were somewhat different.

The power of Authority was equivalent to the advanced power of laws.

The change in his true spirit was also very obvious. Lin Chen felt that his true spirit had grown at least a thousandfold, a very distinct gap compared to when he was at the God Rank.

The improvement of the true spirit was inherently slow. Even for a God, the difference in true spirit strength compared to a Mortal was only about a hundredfold; the gap wasn't that massive.

Now that Lin Chen's true spirit had grown a thousandfold, he could truly be considered in control of all his powers.

With a powerful true spirit presiding, the various powers in his body reached a state of balance. Positive and negative powers coexisted harmoniously, no longer creating conflict or consuming each other.

"So this is the Foundation Level!"

Only after truly stepping into the Foundation Level did Lin Chen understand its profound meaning.

No wonder the gap between the God Rank and the Foundation Level was so large.

The fact that Lin Chen could possess Foundation Level combat power with a God Rank body was extremely Heaven-Defying, practically like cheating.

At 453 years old, Lin Chen attained the Foundation Level.

"Congratulations on Attaining the Dao, Fellow Daoist."

"Kid, don't call me Old Deng anymore. Call me Fellow Daoist. You and I are now fellow travelers on the Dao."

...After his Attaining the Dao ended, Lin Chen went before his fellow humans to accept their congratulations.

From now on, Lin Chen stood on the same level as the Human Race Foundation Level experts; he was a Fellow Daoist, no longer a Junior, but a peer.

The transcendent world was like this.

Your peers were always beings in the same Realm as you, regardless of age, only related to cultivation strength.

Now, in the entire Main Universe, only the great universe consciousness and those departed half-step transcendence level experts required Lin Chen to address them as Senior. All other beings, aside from Foundation Level Fellow Daoists, were Junior friends, and most were mere ants.

"Fellow Daoist Old Deng, that address sounds weird."

"Either call me Old Deng or call me Fellow Daoist. 'Fellow Daoist Old Deng' sounds strange."

"Hahaha, it's still more familiar to call you Old Deng. Calling you Fellow Daoist feels very weird to me too."

Toward Old Deng, Lin Chen had always been informal.

Old Deng didn't mind either; being called that so much, he had gotten used to it.

Faith Lin Chen's Attaining the Dao was over. Next was Mirror Lin Chen's turn, but before that, some preparations had to be made.

The strength of the Five Regions Great World was not yet enough; it still needed some reinforcement and completion of details.

Therefore, Mirror Lin Chen's Attaining the Dao would have to be delayed for a while, though not for too long—only a few years or so.