1047 Dragon Phoenix Realm
Wang Wei closed his eyes, and he saw a gate in his body. It was tall, gray, dull, and with the character for [Essence] written at the center. The gate was still somewhat blurry since he was still in the first step of the Dragon Phoenix Realm.
Wang Wei opened his eyes and clutched his hands; the current strength of his flesh was the 3-Fold Battle Realm, and if he wanted to be specific, 38.5% of the Grand Dao Source. His fleshly body had surpassed his actual cultivation level of 32% Grand Dao Source.
"Let's start with the tribulations," he muttered. He did not immediately start but sent a message to his mother to begin spreading the Enlightening Temple across the more stable worlds in the Lower Realm. He also sent his clone to secretly protect her since he would focus on the tribulation.
Once everything was taken care of, he closed his eyes and started. This particular realm in the True Power Dao Realm is difficult for two reasons: cultivation and tribulation. There are only ten steps, but each step equals 3.5% of the Grand Dao Source. However, like Qi Refiners, the 3.5% increase is not the same in the first step as the fifth or even ninth step.
As such, it's difficult to cultivate in this realm, and it can burn resources like crazy to push the body to such heights. However, that's not even the most difficult aspect. The minimum requirement to open the Gate of Power and reach the Adult Fiendgod Realm is ten steps plus passing a third of the [Indestructible Body Tribulation].
Wang Wei started his first tribulation by choosing poison, a side-door of Medicine Dao. An unknown dark-green poisonous cloud enveloped him and began to poison every inch of his body, making it react in some strange ways, including rashes; the pain was intense, almost reaching that wretched tribulation in the Ancient Dragon Realm.
He did not know how long the process lasted, but his body seemed to have sublimated when it ended. It took Wang Wei a moment to realize what had happened.
'So, that's what it means by Indestructible Empyrean,' he thought. Eternal and Everlasting walked the path of eternity, which manifested in altering their [Existence] and making it no longer limited to flesh or matter, to the soul or spirituality. Things like name, history, accomplishment, and impact become part of an individual.
Indestructible Empyreans walked a different path; they added the characteristic of [Indestructible] to their [Existence], making them very hard to kill. They accomplish this through a simple but direct approach: tempering the body with the 3800 original Daos until it develops basic immunity to these Daos.
Wang Wei had just passed the Poison Dao Tribulations, and facing any Poison-based Grand Dao Source, his body has even higher defensive capabilities. After the first tribulation, he closed his eyes and rechecked his gate. As expected, a small poison cloud symbol on the dull gate made it more vivid, alive, and noble.
From what he knew, body refiners must pass 1267 tribulations before opening the gate. That's the minimum requirement, and such a number has a high risk of failure. Failure to open the gate will result in immediate and absolute death - no exceptions to Eternal Emperors. Empyreans and Everlasting will survive with severe injuries to their [Existence] but will lose the opportunity to walk this path forever. From Wu Hong's notes, he knew this was the same penalty for Paragons, and no one is spared if they fail to open the second Gate of Flesh.
"Next, let's continue with the other side-door Daos," muttered Wang Wei. The Dao or order of Dao chosen for the tests matters. After each test, the flesh will be sublimated after acquiring its [Indestructible Characteristics]; that is to say, the body will become even more challenging to destroy and temper. To deal with this issue, Grand Dao - the administrator of this test - will dramatically increase the power of the next Dao. It will not improve the power slightly to a level slightly above a cultivator's tolerance, but an exponential increase.
Such a rule makes the tribulation increasingly challenging with more Daos, which is why body refiners who have opened the Gate of Power are so rare. Wang Wei theorized that when the body had three gates, the first gate granted body refiners an infinite lifespan, and this particular tribulation should have been divided into two realms-Infant Fiendgod and Dragon Phoenix- thus granting people a lot more time to prepare and plan for them.
According to the tips the Ancient Desolate Emperor gave him, some people will use powerful Daos, like Time or Destruction, as their first tests; this tactic increases their odds of passing. However, he warned him not to do such a thing and used the fact that some Daos are inherently more powerful than others to better temper his body.
According to the latter, there are differences between Indestructible Empyreans, and it mainly originated from a cultivator's preparation and foundation before opening the gate-people who leave the Outlaw and Supreme Outlaws as the last parts of their tempering establish a better foundation than the ones who begin with them.
Wang Wei followed his tip and began his tribulations with the 800 Side-Doors Dao before proceeding with the 3000 Main Daos. Time passed, and another 6000 years flashed by without him knowing it. He had passed 400 Tribulations and reached the second step in the Dragon Phoenix Realm.
Sadly, all his previous resources for tempering the body, including those from the Dao Burial Ground and Primordial Desolate, were used up.
"No wonder this path is so difficult," complained Wang Wei. He did not use as many resources as other body refiners because he did not use resources that helped his regeneration, which was a common thing used to aid in the tribulations. But even then, he ran out of resources quickly, and he had just started in this realm. In the latter stages, his requirements will be even more drastic.
He had plenty of merit stored and could use it, but he would never do something so stupid. When his ancestors preached to him, they warned him about merit. They said he could use merit to boost his understanding but never use it to increase his cultivation directly.
Ancient Desolate told him never to use it in his body refining. No matter how small, taking a shortcut will affect his Willpower, and that's a major taboo for any body refining.
His other resort is Wu Hong's food and his Essence Flower Ability, but he has to reserve these things for attacking the ninth and tenth steps.
"Luckily, it's about time for the expansion to end," he muttered. With the ability to gather resources from the entire World Community, he should find a few rare things usable to his level.
Wang Wei took a moment to check the situation. In the past few years, the Origin Weapon Mountain finished the Automatic Weapon Refining Cauldron and placed it in the Dream World. Now, people from all over this world community do not have to beg Weapon Refiners for weapons- unless they were specific or tailored-made ones.
The people from the Lower Realm benefited most from this change. In most worlds, professions are even rarer and nobler than in the Myriad Emperor World, so they jumped at the opportunity to have any pill or weapon that pleased them.
The pill and weapon market has become chaotic over the years in this community. On the one hand, the people have access to the Dream World's simulation, where they can easily cultivate most professions to the peak of the Mortal Stage. On the other hand, they also have access to things such as the cauldrons.
At some point during the last 10,000 years, all professions took a drastic downward trend-until the second Immortal Pill Refiner, Lou Cheng, appeared. His appearance showed the world that Yan Liling was not an unreplicable case and that high-tier Professions were the future. Not long after him, Fu Caiyun and a few other people also showed up.
Tong Ruobing's clones created an Automatic Talisman Cauldron and put it in the Dream World. The Dao Opening Sect did not say anything since they'd been working on this thing for a while, and she was faster than them. The good news is that Cai Song has also created her automatic cauldron to manufacture puppets in batches like a robot factory. However, such innovation remains private property of the Dao Opening Sect and is not open or known to the public.
The Fate Shadow Guard has even been tasked to monitor any factions trying to create such a cauldron.
The last missing part is the Array Cauldron, and things are proceeding smoothly since talented people worldwide are working on it. However, low and middle-level arrays rely heavily on topography, so they need to deal with the issue. Their answer was to create a spirit with intelligence and powerful calculation ability. If someone wanted a formation in an area, they would have to provide visual proof of the place so she could calculate how to install the formation.
'So, I created the Industrial Revolution in the cultivation world? With the rise of these cauldrons, personal crafts have been replaced by fast and efficient mechanical manufacturing?'
This change has positive and negative aspects, as seen by how the world reacted to them. However, that was not Wang Wei's main concern. This particular change in the world made it look too similar to modern Earth, which is still a taboo in this universe.
'Once this era ends, these cauldrons will be on the list of the first thing to be destroyed, maybe even erased from history,' analyzed Wang Wei, who immediately decided to leave a warning to the sect not to bring them out into the next era; they can preserve the knowledge but only keep it to them - especially Cai Song's cauldron.
