Chapter 900: Quasi-Saint! Quasi-Saint! (Part 1)

"I can now sever the corpses!"

Yin Qi opened his eyes, his heart surging with emotion.

Over the past two thousand five hundred years, he had not only refined the Human Emperor Bell but also solidified his foundation.

In the cultivation system of the Primordial World, strictly speaking, both the Quasi-Saint and the Saint should actually belong to the Saint Realm.

Quasi-Saint cultivation is the process, while the Saint is merely the result.

The relationship between the two is one of cause and effect, not a hierarchical one.

What is a Saint?

A Saint is one who entrusts their Primordial Spirit to the void and merges into the Heavenly Dao, thereby obtaining the authority of the Heavenly Dao and being able to act on behalf of the 'Dao' of Heaven.

However, the Heavenly Dao is devoid of emotion and desire, while humans possess seven emotions and six desires; therefore, to merge into the Heavenly Dao, a cultivator must sever all their own emotions, achieving the state of "Supreme Forgetting of Emotions," and thus become one with the Heavenly Dao.

The Quasi-Saint realm is, in fact, the process of severing one's own emotions to achieve the Supreme Forgetting of Emotions.

Only after achieving the Supreme Forgetting of Emotions, when the cultivator's Primordial Spirit is free of emotion and desire, can it merge with the will of the Heavenly Dao.

This is called Joining the Dao.

This Joining the Dao is, in essence, joining with the will of the Heavenly Dao.

Hongjun's Joining the Dao was to complete the Heavenly Dao.

The two are not the same.

In the Primordial World, there are three methods to become a Saint:

First is Proving the Dao through Strength;

Second is the Three Corpses Decapitation Method;

Third is the Merit Dao.

The Merit Dao is actually the Qi Luck Dao, with Houtu as the prime example, who became a Saint by creating the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

The other Saints all combined the Three Corpses Decapitation Method with the Merit Dao.

As for Proving the Dao through Strength.

It is not about cultivating the Law of Strength, but rather using one's own power to break the shackles of the Heavenly Dao.

This "strength" refers to one's own inherent power and combat capability.

Joining the Dao through Corpse Severing, or becoming a Saint through merit, is equivalent to "begging" the Heavenly Dao for its authority.

But if you are strong enough, you can also forcibly demand this authority from the Heavenly Dao.

For example, Pangu.

Legend has it that Pangu proved the Dao through strength; he relied on his own formidable power to shatter Chaos and open up the Primordial World, unlike the current Saints who need to borrow the power of the Primordial World.

The difference between the two is immediately apparent.

To use a vivid analogy, the Saints of the Primordial World are equivalent to second-generation wealthy heirs.

Although they are not much on their own, they have the backing of their family's wealth.

Pangu, on the other hand, is a self-made entrepreneur.

Only after understanding the methods of becoming a Saint did Yin Qi realize the difficulty of doing so.

In Proving the Dao through Strength, even Pangu fell.

In Proving the Dao through the Three Corpses, even Hongjun did not succeed without borrowing the Hongmeng Purple Qi.

In other words, without the Hongmeng Purple Qi, he would likely be unable to become a Saint either.

Although he had previously hypothesized that if he used the Human Emperor Bell, the Taiji Diagram, and the Pangu Banner to entrust his three corpses, he might be able to recreate the Opening Heaven Axe and merge the three corpses to prove the Dao.

But this, after all, was just a guess.

As for Proving the Dao through Merit.

It sounds easy, but in reality, the probability is not high.

The only one who truly proved the Dao through merit was Houtu.

He did not think he could create an existence comparable to the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

And even if he could create an existence comparable to the Six Paths of Reincarnation that allowed the Primordial World to upgrade once more, he would basically have no chance of becoming a Saint, because the other Saints would certainly not allow it.

Although the Primordial World is vast, it is not large for a Saint.

If he wanted to follow the path of the other Saints to prove the Dao, he would need to sever his three corpses, accumulate merit, and possess a strand of Hongmeng Purple Qi.

But if he used the Hongmeng Purple Qi, he would be bound by the Heavenly Dao in the future.

This was not what he wanted.

Just like the orders of Hongjun Daozu, which the Saints dare not defy.

Although one could be invincible in the Primordial World, it would also be tantamount to trapping oneself in a cocoon, making it very difficult to have any further opportunities for breakthroughs in the future.

"I still have a chance!"

Yin Qi whispered, a brilliant light flickering in his eyes. In his view, there were not only three paths to proving the Dao and becoming a Saint; at the very least, one should add the Law Proving the Dao.

If one were to comprehend a certain law to an extremely deep realm, such as the Root System Realm, and fully control a Great Dao law, one could naturally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a Saint.

Not the Heavenly Dao, yet superior to the Heavenly Dao.

Furthermore, Joining the Dao does not necessarily mean joining the Primordial Heavenly Dao.

If he could open up his Inner World to be large enough, and then entrust his Primordial Spirit to his Inner Heaven and Earth, he could exert Saint-level combat power, which would naturally also belong to an alternative type of Saint.

He could even Sacrifice to the Luck Altar to calculate other methods of proving the Dao.

Or go to other worlds to find a way.

In short, with the Luck Altar, everything is highly possible.

At worst, he would just prove the Dao through strength.

However, these were all too far off and would not affect his current Corpse Severing, so Yin Qi did not dwell on them further.

Please... you... add to your collection... 6... 9... book...!

In fact, Corpse Severing is not simply about severing one's own emotions; rather, it is that after severing emotions, the Primordial Spirit can merge with Heaven and Earth, leaving behind one's own mark.

The more corpses one severs, the deeper the integration with Heaven and Earth, and the more one can borrow the power of Heaven and Earth.

The strength of a Quasi-Saint lies in the ability to borrow the might of Heaven and Earth.

However, this process is also extremely dangerous.

If Corpse Severing succeeds, it is naturally like Leaping the Dragon Gate.

If it fails.

The light outcome is severe injury, while the heavy outcome is losing one's self and being assimilated by the Heavenly Dao.

The three thousand Red Dust Guests who listened to the Dao at Zixiao Palace back then were all Great Luo Golden Immortals.

And they were among the top batch of Innate God Demons in Honghuang, yet how many achieved the status of Quasi-Saint!

From this, one can see just how dangerous and difficult Corpse Severing is.

Without absolute certainty, no one will attempt it.

Yin Qi slowly closed his eyes.

In his mind, endless evil thoughts were slowly breeding; slaughter, cruelty, bloodthirst, lust, laziness, sinister evil, and so on—all kinds of negative emotions flooded his heart.

Severing the Evil Corpse means severing all the evil thoughts within one's heart.

Where do evil thoughts come from?

Naturally, they are cultivated by oneself, actively inducing and limitlessly magnifying the evil thoughts within one's own heart.

During this process, one must ensure that one is not consumed by the evil thoughts.

Wisps of black smoke continuously emanated from Yin Qi's body, giving off an extremely fierce and evil aura, Entwining around him, making him look like a demon crawled out from Hell, intending to destroy this world.

Yin Qi's brows were tightly furrowed, and drops of sweat continuously seeped out.

At this moment, in his own spiritual world, he was engaged in the most arduous struggle; on one hand, he had to completely release and expand the various negative desires in his heart, while on the other, he needed to hold fast to a point of clarity in his spiritual platform.

Once the mind loses its defense, his thinking would be occupied by endless negative emotions; the light outcome is being invaded by Heavenly Demons and becoming a Puppetry that only knows how to kill, while the heavy outcome is directly falling into demonic obsession, with the Primordial Spirit perishing.

This is the terrifying aspect of severing the Evil Corpse; it has nothing to do with cultivation level and relies entirely on individual perseverance.

If one can endure, then the Evil Corpse is severed;

If one cannot endure, everything is finished.

In reality, when a Quasi-Saint severs corpses, whether one severs the Good Corpse first, the Evil Corpse first, or the Self Corpse, there is actually no fixed order.

Whichever is easier to sever, one severs that first.

Time passed slowly, and it is unknown how much time had elapsed.

The entire Time Array was filled with endless demonic aura; these demonic auras were constantly evolving into various demons, shrieking and wailing.

Yin Qi sat cross-legged in the midst of it, like a Lord of Ten Thousand Demons.

He was exerting all his strength to release the evil thoughts in his heart, those evil thoughts hidden deep within his soul.

These evil thoughts would occasionally emerge in daily life, but they would quickly be suppressed by Yin Qi's personal will, and thus, over time, they hid deeper and deeper, to the point where even he himself could hardly perceive them.

When the last bit of evil thoughts was released, the demonic aura on Yin Qi reached its peak; countless demons seemed to be on the verge of taking form, each emitting an aura fluctuation of at least the Golden Immortal Realm.

They struggled, wanting to break free from Yin Qi's restraint.

Just at this moment, deep within Yin Qi's consciousness, a powerful intent suddenly burst forth in an instant.

It was as if a Sword had slashed through his consciousness.

"Sever!"

(End of this chapter)