31: Reborn

Cultivation knows no time.

In the Treasure Pagoda world, Long Aotian's seclusion this time was a bit long, lasting a full three years.

Three years in the third layer of the spatial world, with its time flow of one day outside for every nine days inside, meant only four months had passed in the outside world.

With ample Cultivation resources provided for Cultivation, coupled with the terrifying absorption, refinement, purification, and re-absorption speed of the Chaos Dao Art, Long Aotian's Cultivation progressed astonishingly fast during these four months outside, breaking through as easily as eating and drinking.

In less than ten days, Long Aotian's Cultivation broke through from the Foundation Establishment Realm Fifth Revolution Stage to the Spirit Spring Realm First Revolution Stage.

Vein Opening Realm, Foundation Establishment Realm, Spirit Spring Realm.

The Vein Opening Realm involves breaking through all the spiritual nodes of all Spiritual Roots.

Long Aotian possesses twelve Spiritual Roots: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Ice, Wind, Thunder, Light, Dark, Time, and Space.

Each Spiritual Root has nine spiritual nodes; breaking through one point is one revolution, and breaking through nine points is nine revolutions.

The Foundation Establishment Realm is about opening up illusory spiritual nodes of the same size as the spiritual nodes, both before and after the spiritual nodes have been broken through, further expanding the capacity of the Spiritual Root.

The Spirit Spring Realm is about connecting the entire Spiritual Root, based on the size of the spiritual nodes, making a Spiritual Root that was like a thread as thick as a spring flow.

When one breaks through to the Spirit Spring Realm Ninth Revolution Peak Stage, on the continent of the physical body, the Spiritual Roots within are essentially expanded into great rivers flowing into the sea.

Then comes Transformation Sea.

With Spiritual Roots expanded like rivers, the Transformation Sea Realm is about gathering the water of these rivers to expand the Dantian, this lake, into a sea, increasing the Dantian's storage capacity for spiritual Qi.

Above Transformation Sea is Golden Core, which directly involves gathering a vast amount of Dantian spiritual Qi to condense into a Golden Core.

Ten years for a Golden Core, a hundred years for a Nascent Soul!

Forming a Golden Core is a major hurdle; some Cultivators are stuck at the Transformation Sea Realm Ninth Revolution Peak Stage for a full ten years, unable to form a Core.

Upon entering the Golden Core Realm, Cultivators will clearly feel that the further their Cultivation progresses, the harder it is to break through. Above Golden Core is the Nascent Soul Realm; forming a Golden Core can take ten years, while forming a Nascent Soul can take a hundred years.

Therefore, a saying circulates in the Immortal Cultivation world:

Those who can form a Golden Core within thirty years old are Geniuses that appear once in a millennium.

Those who can form a Nascent Soul within thirty years old are Prodigies that appear once in ten thousand years.

In Feng Town, there are several ten-thousand-year Prodigies who formed a Nascent Soul before turning thirty.

For example, Family Head Feng Keqiang, now nearing thirty, already possesses a Cultivation of the Nascent Soul Realm Middle Stage, his Martial Arts Talent is astonishingly prodigious.

Long Bubai also hasn't reached thirty yet; he has been stuck at the Golden Core Realm Ninth Revolution Peak Stage for over two years, mainly because his son's inability to Cultivate affected his own Cultivation. He spared no effort in finding methods for his son to Cultivate.

However, all the so-called methods were useless.

His Cultivation was thus delayed.

Otherwise, he, who was known as one of Feng Town's peerless twin Geniuses alongside Feng Keqiang, would probably already be a Nascent Soul Realm expert.

It can be said that Long Bubai is at least a Prodigy that appears once in ten thousand years.

Besides him, Long Wudi and Long Shijie of the Long Family are also experts who broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm before the age of thirty.

In the entire Long Family, excluding the new generation, the Martial Arts Talent of Long Shijie, Long Wudi, and Long Bubai, the grandfather, son, and grandson, belongs to the strongest echelon.

But now, Long Aotian seems to be subtly elevating the Long Family's Martial Arts Talent to the top echelon, pushing Long Shijie, Long Wudi, and Long Bubai down to the second echelon.

After breaking through to the Spirit Spring Realm, his Cultivation speed remained as unstoppable as ever, taking only forty-five days, or about a month and a half, to break through to the Spirit Spring Realm Ninth Revolution Peak Stage.

On average, each revolution stage in the Spirit Spring Realm took only five days.

Terrifying!

Others usually calculate their Breakthroughs in months or years, but he, on the other hand, calculates directly in days.

However, this was also because his Cultivation was low and easy to break through, coupled with abundant Cultivation resources and a Heaven-Defying Cultivation Technique. After breaking through to the Transformation Sea Realm, the Cultivation time significantly increased by an order of magnitude; Long Aotian took a full three months to break through from the Transformation Sea Realm First Revolution Stage to the Transformation Sea Realm Ninth Revolution Peak Stage.

Absolutely Heaven-Defying!

Next, Long Aotian had to face condensing the sea into a Core, a major hurdle where ordinary Cultivators typically get stuck for ten years.

This was also the first Bottleneck that made his expression turn solemn in his Cultivation, which had been as simple as breaking through bamboo from the Vein Opening Realm, Foundation Establishment Realm, Spirit Spring Realm, to the Transformation Sea Realm.

Long Aotian possesses twelve attribute Spiritual Roots. Ordinary mixed Spiritual Root Cultivators, in the Spirit Spring Realm, would use a Cultivation Technique to primarily Cultivate one attribute Spiritual Root, abandoning the Cultivation of other Spiritual Roots, so that when the spiritual spring gathers into a sea and the Dantian transforms into a sea, it would not be burst by the spiritual Qi.

However, did Long Aotian have a choice?

There was no Cultivation Technique that would allow him to abandon the other eleven Spiritual Roots and primarily Cultivate one Spiritual Root.

While other mixed Spiritual Root Cultivators usually focus on the strongest attribute Spiritual Root when they reach the Spirit Spring Realm, he had no choice at all.

The Chaos Dao Art allowed him to Cultivate, but it couldn't let him primarily Cultivate one Spiritual Root and abandon others.

Therefore, he was an anomaly among mixed Spiritual Roots, truly achieving the existence of cultivating all mixed Spiritual Roots to the end.

This also meant that his Dantian Sea was formed by the convergence of twelve spiritual springs, and the spiritual Qi storage capacity of his Dantian Sea was almost twelve times that of an ordinary Cultivator.

Of course, there are also Cultivators who choose not to primarily Cultivate one Spiritual Root, but to advance multiple Spiritual Roots simultaneously.

For example, Cultivators with Five Elements attribute Spiritual Roots (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth), but Cultivators who have the courage to decide to Cultivate multiple Spiritual Roots simultaneously are absolutely few and far between.

Not to mention the large amount of Cultivation resources required and the long time it takes for difficult Breakthroughs, there are also major death hurdles that are difficult for multi-Spiritual Root mixed Cultivators to overcome during Transformation Sea, Core Formation from the sea, and Nascent Soul formation.

Who doesn't want to pursue a faster, easier path to Cultivation Breakthroughs?

Breaking through to the Golden Core Realm before thirty is a millennium Genius, and breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm before thirty is a ten-thousand-year Prodigy. Who doesn't want to become an Immortal Cultivation Genius praised by people?

In major powers, what does such an Immortal Cultivation Genius mean?

Resources!

Massive Cultivation resources!

The higher the Aptitude, the more they become a key training target, and the more Cultivation resources they are allocated... Therefore, multi-Spiritual Root mixed Cultivators who advance simultaneously are very rare, especially mixed Cultivators with six Spiritual Roots above the Five Elements, or those who fully Cultivate seven, eight, nine, or ten Spiritual Roots. Basically, among the nearly ten billion people in the entire Eastern Barren, there isn't a single one.

It is worth mentioning that the Immortal Cultivation world has always believed that the maximum number of Spiritual Root attributes is ten, namely Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Ice, Wind, Thunder, Light, and Dark, not twelve.

The Time Spiritual Root and Space Spiritual Root are simply too rare and too unimaginable; they can almost be said to be Heaven-Defying Spiritual Roots that have not appeared for hundreds of millions of years.

This is also why Long Aotian was laughed at and ridiculed when he was detected to have twelve attribute Spiritual Roots, with no one recognizing the Time Spiritual Root and Space Spiritual Root.

Little did they know that the two attribute Spiritual Roots they mocked and regarded as even more trash were actually the most terrifying attribute Spiritual Roots...