Chapter 284 – Peeling the Top

In truth, there are two ways to reach the Soul Formation stage. The first method is to follow someone else’s footsteps and copy their domain. This method is much easier than the second one, but the difficult part is that not many Soul Formation cultivators are willing to display their domain. Only peak Nascent Soul cultivators in large sects are given the privilege to see them.

The second method is to completely rely on yourself to try to comprehend the heavens to find your own domain. This method is very difficult. It requires a lot of perseverance and luck to succeed, but once you have found your own domain, you will be much stronger that those that went with the first method.

In general, only those who can’t obtain their own domain after trying for a long time choose the first method. After all, there is a huge difference in power between the two methods.

This gap is something that is almost impossible to close, whether it is at the start, or far in the future.

However, not many people can comprehend their own domain, so a majority of cultivators choose the first method.

This is why some Soul Formation cultivators are killed and others can live on peacefully. The messenger back in Zhao chose the first method, which is why he decided to run after seeing Wang Lin’s magic treasure.

However, nothing is absolute as there are cultivators who choose the first method who manage to break through to the Soul Transformation stage, but there are simply too few of these people, and they are very weak among Soul Transformation cultivators.

Thus, the people who choose the first method focus on obtaining pills to raise their cultivation level, but how could pills that contain celestial spiritual energy be so easy to obtain?

Wang Lin flew in the rain until he arrived at the ancient transfer array. The transfer array lit up and his body disappeared.

This time, Wang Lin didn’t stop at all and used his full speed to move to the next transfer array.

One month later, waves of spiritual energy shot up in a valley at the edge of Zhao. As the spiritual energy disappeared, a young man walked out.

It was Wang Lin!

Looking at the land before him, Wang Lin felt a burst of melancholy. Zhao wasn’t very big. With just his divine sense, he was easily able to see everything that was happening.

After Wang Lin’s killing spree, the cultivators of Zhao had weakened greatly, especially with the deaths of several late stage Nascent Soul cultivators. This was a huge blow to Zhao. In these past few decades, all of the sects’ doors were closed.

Among the cultivators of Zhao, rumors of Wang Lin were still being spread even now. Countless cultivators were still terrified by the stories, and those that saw Wang Lin would still wake up in the middle of the night covered in cold sweat.

As for the Heaven’s Tower in the middle of Zhao, it was still empty.

After pondering for a while, Wang Lin flew toward where the former Heng Yue Sect was, which was now the Xuan Dao Sect’s home.

He entered the cultivation world here, so he will reach the Soul Formation stage here too.

When his figure appeared outside of the Xuan Dao Sect, he saw white fog covering the entire sect. Even the little passage up the mountain was blocked. The Xuan Dao Sect had long closed its doors and no longer communicated with the outside.

Wang Lin let out a sigh. Instead of making a commotion to force people to come out, he disappeared. When he reappeared, he was already at the back mountain of the Xuan Dao Sect.

The back mountain where he went through four years of closed door cultivation was still there. There were a few cultivators around, but their expressions were very lethargic and depressed.

How could they notice Wang Lin’s presence? Wang Lin found the cave he had cultivated in back then and walked into it.

There was no one inside the cave. Once Wang Lin went inside, the rock at the entrance slowly fell.

Wang Lin sat cross-legged inside the cave and examined its interior. Familiar memories entered his mind. He let out a sigh and began to cultivate.

Ten days later, Wang Lin finished tuning his body. His hand formed a seal and he pressed it on his stomach. The color of his face changed between red and green and his body soon split into two.

His original body came out of his avatar with a head of white hair over his shoulders, a grin, and a purple star that released an evil light.

This original body’s cultivation level was still at the late stage of Core Formation.

His Ji Realm hadn’t evolved, so his original body’s cultivation level still couldn’t improve.

Even though he could boost his Ji Realm to the Nascent Soul level when he was fused together with his avatar, there were still limitations and drawbacks, so it was not a long term solution.

As for his avatar, it was about to reach the Soul Formation stage. After fusing with his original body, this avatar’s one flaw of only having 30 years to live disappeared, so now it was no different from his original body.

At this moment, he was about to reach the Soul Formation stage, and if he was still fused with his original body, it would interfere with the process of breaking through.

Wang Lin began to ponder. If his original body’s cultivation stayed the same, then there would be too many drawbacks. He had already started to consider this matter several years ago but couldn’t make a decision. However, his understanding of the life and death domain had increased greatly, especially after the event at the shrine.

His hesitant heart finally made a decision.

His original body couldn’t walk the same path as his avatar, so the Ji Realm had to be separated from it.

The road of the ancient god was the path that the original body should’ve walked. Wang Lin pondered for a little while before both of his bodies sat down. Both bodies formed seals with their hands, causing green smoke to slowly surround them.

The first thing he needed to do was shatter the cultivation of his original body.

Slivers of spiritual energy spread out from the original body. There were traces of pain on the original body’s face, but he was determined to continue. Finally, drops of blood oozed out of the original body’s pores.

This red liquid didn’t stick to the body. It formed beads of blood around it. Gradually, the number of these beads of blood increased.

The original body’s face became even more pale and his cultivation level started to drop from the late stage of Core Formation.

Ten days later, the original body looked older and his cultivation level had dropped to early stage Core Formation. The beads of blood had already formed a red ring around the original body.

Then, with a crisp crackling sound, the original body’s core shattered and turned into even more powerful spiritual energy that raged through his body like a group of runaway horses. Just at this moment, the avatar’s eyes lit up and it pointed a finger at the original body’s brow. The spiritual energy inside the original body seemed to have found a release point and poured out from the brow.

This spiritual power gathered at the avatar’s finger. Soon, all of the spiritual energy condensed into a silver liquid.

The original body suddenly grew much weaker, but its eyes were still calm.

Then, slivers of spiritual energy came from the original body’s flesh and bones. This spiritual energy moved to the original body’s dantain and slowly formed a ring.

This was the foundation of a cultivator, which was also the symbol of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

This ring slowly became more solid and became even brighter and brighter. This time, the avatar pointed at the original body’s dantain. The original body shook as the ring shattered into spiritual energy and gathered at the fingertip of the avatar.

Then the original body’s cultivation level dropped rapidly. 14th layer of Qi condensation… 13th layer… 12th layer… 8th layer.. 6th layer… all the way until the 1st layer!

At this moment, all of the spiritual energy in the original body disappeared. His whole body suddenly fell over, leaned against the wall, and began to breath rapidly. However, this entire time, its eyes were still calm.

In those eyes, a bolt of red lightning flashed.

The avatar took a deep breath. This time, his finger pointed to the spot between the original body’s eyes. Suddenly, that ray of red lightning flew out. Just as it was about to leave through one of the walls, the avatar let out a roar. His hand moved and rings of light trapped the red lightning. He reached out to grab it. The red lightning struggled for a bit before finally giving up and stopped moving.

The avatar grabbed the red lightning and morphed it into a drop of blood before putting it into his bag of holding.

This drop of blood was the Ji Realm!

The original body gave up its cultivation to force the Ji Realm out, completely turning it into a magic treasure-like existence.

Shortly after, the original body barely managed to sit up straight and closed his eyes. At this moment, the avatar flicked the spiritual energy from the foundation ring into the original body. Then the liquid formed by the core was also sent into the original body.

The boundless spiritual energy surged through the original body, but that body had no intentions of cultivating again. Instead, the original body started using the ancient god’s tactic. Under its power, all of the spiritual energy was absorbed by the body’s flesh and bones.

During the process of absorbing the spiritual energy, bits of a red substance entered the original body from the red ring.

This process lasted a long time…

At this moment, Wang Lin’s original body and avatar walked down two very different paths. The original body was focused on refining the body, walking down the path of the ancient gods.

The avatar focused on the inside, walking down the path of the heavens.

Both were Wang Lin’s bodies, without any difference, but before he reaches a certain point, his two bodies can’t be fused together for a long period of time.

But once he fuses, his power will increase several fold.