Chapter 14: Breaking Through to Soul Egress

This time, Chen Daoxuan only needed one month to completely destroy a single Dao Thought Body.

Moreover, he himself was nearly unscathed.

Possessing a Hong Grade Five Elements Dao Body, setting aside everything else, just the rotation of the Five Elements alone increased his magical power recovery speed tenfold.

Added to that were all manner of enhancements belonging to the Five Elements.

Chen Daoxuan felt that he could now fight three to five of his former selves from before achieving the Five Elements Dao Body.

……

After destroying a single Dao Thought Body, Chen Daoxuan fell into a state of closed-door cultivation.

He began relying on those eighteen strands of Five Elements Great Dao Law Imprints to comprehend the Five Elements Great Dao of the Great Universe.

Pruning and removing the differences between the Five Elements Great Dao of the two domains.

In the time that followed, apart from emerging from seclusion once every three years to head to the Mie Xian Zhen Array Eye and destroy Dao Thought Bodies, Chen Daoxuan devoted all his remaining time entirely to cultivating the Five Elements Great Dao.

In this kind of cultivation, in the blink of an eye, half a Jiazi—thirty years—slipped away.

……

Within the Yellow Grade Blessed Land.

Chen Daoxuan opened his eyes, and a flash of five-colored radiance appeared.

The Aura emanating from his entire body had reached Nascent Soul Peak, and moreover was in a mysterious state of being on the verge of breakthrough yet not having broken through.

Within his Dharma Body, that Nascent Soul Zi Fu had reached exactly Ten Thousand Zhang—the absolute limit of the Nascent Soul.

At the center of the Ten Thousand Zhang Zi Fu, the Nascent Soul that had originally been Nine Inches One had now completely reached one foot.

The Nascent Soul foundation had, roughly, sublimated to the ultimate state before becoming a Primordial Spirit, and could be called an Immortal Infant.

Eighteen five-colored Great Dao True Talismans of the Five Elements were branded around the One-foot Immortal Infant, emitting five-colored radiant light.

Beyond that, the One-foot Immortal Infant further had the Profound Heavens above its head and Yellow Earth beneath its feet.

Heaven Profound, Earth Yellow.

The Heaven Orifice and Earth Orifice converged, manifesting a mysterious Dharma Realm of round heaven and square earth.

A Xuanwu phantom circled around the One-foot Immortal Infant, wandering within it.

……

"Having achieved a one-foot Nascent Soul foundation, shaped a Ten Thousand Zhang Zi Fu, condensed eighteen Five Elements Great Dao True Talismans, and further manifested the embryonic form of a Primordial Spirit Dharma Realm—at the Nascent Soul Stage, there is nothing more to cultivate. It is time to break through to Soul Egress."

Although he could still remain at the Nascent Soul Stage, cultivating various divine abilities and secret arts, pursuing the ultimate combat power of his realm, striving for invincibility within the same realm and the ability to fight across realms.

But for Chen Daoxuan, he was not walking the path of combat, so there was absolutely no need.

Moreover, without top-tier combat talent, even wanting to walk that path would be futile—it would only produce a mishmash of nothing.

……

In the span of a thought.

Chen Daoxuan began his breakthrough.

That Ten Thousand Zhang Zi Fu directly collapsed, and in an instant, completely merged into the One-foot Nascent Soul.

Then, the One-foot Nascent Soul that had absorbed the Zi Fu, taking those eighteen Five Elements Great Dao True Talismans as its foundation, began to sublimate into a Primordial Spirit.

……

Immediately.

The entire Yellow Grade Blessed Land, the entire San Deng Xing with a diameter of ten thousand li, and the boundless Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi—all began to converge toward Chen Daoxuan.

"Mm, this True Disciple Chen is actually breaking through to Soul Egress!"

Zhen Ling Xuan Wu Ding Jiu Jiu, sensing this anomaly of boundless Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi converging on this San Deng Ling Xing that also served as the Mie Xian Zhen Array Eye, was filled with astonishment and tension in her heart.

She directly commanded a layer of Mie Xian black mist to guard the entire planet and stand protector.

……

Three months later.

The anomaly of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi converging ceased; apart from the spirit veins remaining intact, the entire planet's Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was less than twenty percent of what it had been.

And within the Yellow Grade Blessed Land.

A Primordial Spirit, identical to Chen Daoxuan's Dharma Body in every respect but towering at Ten Thousand Zhang and flowing with five-colored radiance, emerged.

The Primordial Spirit—gathering and dispersing at will, shifting size as desired, transforming in ten thousand ways.

If classified according to the realms of the Yuanling Realm, Chen Daoxuan had already broken through to Divine Transformation.

But according to the Great Universe, achieving the Soul Egress realm still required the step of the Primordial Spirit's egress and Spirit Wandering the Great Void.

Only after undergoing Spirit Wandering the Great Void and the Great Dao Baptism could one be considered to have truly reached Soul Egress.

Chen Daoxuan clearly perceived that his Ten Thousand Zhang Primordial Spirit, as well as his Flesh Dharma Body, were being eroded and immortalized with extreme speed by the omnipresent Chang Sheng Tian Gui.

In a flash, Chen Daoxuan understood in his heart: only by having the Primordial Spirit egress, Spirit Wandering the Great Void, and undergoing the tempering of the Great Dao Baptism could one resist the erosion and immortalization of the Chang Sheng Tian Gui.

He further knew with divine clarity that he only had Three Jiazi—one hundred and eighty years.

If within one hundred and eighty years he could not complete the Great Dao Baptism and have his Primordial Spirit return, then even if his Primordial Spirit were not destroyed, his Flesh Dharma Body would be completely immortalized.

And this was still only because he possessed a Hong Grade Five Elements Dao Body.

If he still only had his original foundational Shui Xing Dao Ti, he would only have one Jiazi—sixty years.

"So that's how it is. If there were no Chang Sheng Tian Gui, then it would very likely be just like things on the Yuanling Realm's side."

In the span of a thought.

The Ten Thousand Zhang Primordial Spirit that had just been condensed transformed into a streak of five-colored magnificent light and vanished without a trace.

Primordial Spirit egress, Spirit Wandering the Great Void.

In an instant, his Flesh Dharma Body fell into a state that was neither alive nor dead.

……

As the Primordial Spirit egressed, delving deep into the Great Dao, Spirit Wandering the Great Void.

Chen Daoxuan felt his Five Senses and Six Consciousnesses seal shut, plunging into eternal darkness.

Time, space—nothing existed.

The mysterious connection to his Flesh Dharma Body, the resonance with the Five Elements Great Dao, the link to the Heavenly Heart Mark—all vanished.

Even the vast memories spanning over ten thousand years across past lives and present began to fade from his mind.

Only the connection to the Kunlun Mirror remained unchanged.

Chen Daoxuan knew that he was now enduring the Great Dao Baptism of the Three Thousand Great Daos of the Great Universe.

There were only three outcomes.

The first outcome: breakthrough failure, the Primordial Spirit utterly lost and perishing within the Great Dao Baptism, ultimately leading to death and the dissolution of the Dao.

The second outcome: breakthrough success, completing the Great Dao Baptism smoothly within Three Jiazi, the Primordial Spirit returning to the Flesh Dharma Body.

The third outcome: the Primordial Spirit successfully completes the Great Dao Baptism and returns to the present world, but because the baptism exceeds Three Jiazi,

the Flesh Dharma Body has long since completely immortalized.

Leaving only the Primordial Spirit, which then turns to cultivating as a Loose Immortal.

……

This critical step—the first egress of the Primordial Spirit, Spirit Wandering the Great Void—

apart from exceedingly rare, once-in-an-eternity opportunities for fortune in the Great Universe, normally depends solely on the cultivator's foundation.

It is a comprehensive test of constitution, Primordial Spirit, Great Dao, Dao Heart… and all other aspects.

Succeed or die.

This is the Tribulation of Soul Egress.

This is also why, among the Nascent Soul Stage cultivators of the Shanhai Immortal Sect—numbering in the tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions—on the surface, fewer than a hundred thousand Soul Egress Stage cultivators have not fallen into slumber.

……

In the span of a thought, Chen Daoxuan did not connect with or visualize the Kunlun Mirror; he simply stilled his mind, unified his thoughts, and steadied himself to slow the fading of his memories.

Silently enduring the Great Dao Baptism.

……

He did not know how long had passed.

It might have been only an instant, or it might have been hundreds of millions of years.

When the memories spanning over ten thousand years across past lives and present had faded to only thirty percent remaining,

suddenly, Chen Daoxuan sensed, in the depths of his being, a glimmer of light.

Then, in the span of a lightning flash—

the fading memories, the sealed Five Senses and Six Consciousnesses, the mysterious connection to the Flesh Dharma Body, the resonance with the Five Elements Great Dao, and the link to that Heavenly Heart Mark—

all returned.

……