Chapter 23 Choosing a Cultivation Method

Skipping the section regarding the invasion of the Demon Race, he began to flip through the subsequent content.

After the integration of the three teachings, the Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist schools were divided into three major academic factions within the State Religion: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. After the unification of the State Religion, the Cultivation Techniques of each school continued to showcase a vibrant diversity.

Each school had a different understanding of Realms. Coincidentally, the division of Realms in every school consisted of four levels.

Confucianism: Mortal - Gentleman - Sage - Saint

Buddhism: Sentient Being - Arhat - Bodhisattva - Buddha

Daoism: Refining Essence into Qi - Refining Qi into Spirit - Refining Spirit to Return to Void - Returning to Void and Merging with Dao

For the sake of convenience, the State Religion unified the divisions as: Initial Realm - First Realm - Second Realm - Third Realm.

In other words, it was a direct classification of Realms using 0, 1, 2, and 3 to unify the Ranks of Cultivators from different schools.

Any Cultivator who breaks through to the First Realm will naturally master the Divine Ability known as "Divine Sense." With the help of Divine Sense, Cultivators can perceive a certain range around them. The higher the cultivation base, the larger the range that Divine Sense can perceive, and the clearer the perception of various details becomes.

Upon seeing the words "Divine Sense," Yun Bai's eyes lit up, and he immediately became twelve times more alert.

"Divine Sense..."

The book introduced that Divine Sense, as a learned Divine Ability, requires techniques for its application that are extremely rare and precious.

The manufacturing of Medicinal Pills, equipment, and Formations, which are essential for the vast majority of Cultivators, requires specialized personnel to oversee production. These talents are none other than Alchemists, Artifact Refiners, Formation Masters, and so on. To learn these crafts and become an outstanding practitioner among them, one requires the precise application of Divine Sense.

Yun Bai quickly flipped through this content, and he soon found a description introducing the Sea of Consciousness.

The source of Divine Sense lies within the Sea of Consciousness. The Sea of Consciousness is located in the upper Dantian, the Niwan Palace, and is a second space independent of the Physical Body. Divine Sense originates from the source core within the Sea of Consciousness; the Divine Sense appears as a golden fluid that accumulates into a sea, hence it is called the "Sea of Consciousness." The amount of Divine Sense depends on the strength of the source core. Generally speaking, the quality of the source core depends on the superiority of one's talent and the level of one's cultivation base.

Yun Bai was not satisfied with what he saw here. He put down the book "General Outline of Formations" and turned to find a book titled "Basics of Divine Sense."

Sure enough, he quickly found the information he wanted.

The Sea of Consciousness usually appears as a golden ocean. However, Cultivators are as numerous as the stars in the sky, so the states of the Sea of Consciousness are naturally strange and varied.

Besides the common ocean shape, the author who compiled this book had also seen various states of the Sea of Consciousness, such as waterfalls, mountain ranges, stars, fierce beasts, and more.

The author pointed out that whatever exists is reasonable; as long as a Sea of Consciousness can exist stably, it is reliable and reasonable.

Furthermore, strange states of the Sea of Consciousness often possess unusual and special properties. For example, a waterfall-shaped Sea of Consciousness has stronger impact force, while a rock-like Sea of Consciousness has stronger resistance to impact...

Yun Bai rubbed his chin.

"It seems that although my Sea of Consciousness is peculiar, it is still within a reasonable range." Yun Bai felt slightly relieved in his heart, "Then the 'Qi Deviation' incident I encountered last night must have been a problem with the Cultivation Technique."

The urgent priority was to choose a school of Cultivation Techniques and select a Cultivation Technique.

Although he urgently needed to further Cultivate, he dared not be careless. He had to fully understand before making a choice. He had already tasted the bitterness of taking detours due to information gaps too many times.

"Besides the three teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, there are eight hundred heterodox schools, but in the end, all roads lead to the same destination; they are basically evolutions or mixtures of the three schools' doctrines." Yun Bai pondered for a long time and decided to choose an early Daoist inner alchemy method.

For others, whether they can choose a suitable Cultivation Technique affects their speed of progress, whether they have a Bottleneck, and many other aspects. Just like whether shoes fit, the impact is multifaceted for someone going on a long journey.

The book stated that the growth curves of Cultivating the three teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism differ greatly.

For instance, Daoist Cultivators accumulate cultivation base extremely quickly during the Refining Qi into Spirit (First Realm) stage, and within three to five years, they have hopes of rapidly charging towards Refining Spirit to Return to Void (Second Realm).

In the Refining Spirit to Return to Void Realm, the Daoist Cultivation speed will significantly decrease, directly becoming the lowest among the three schools' cultivation methods. It can be said that Refining Spirit to Return to Void (Second Realm) is a Bottleneck period for Daoist Cultivators.

Buddhist Cultivators are different; their Bottleneck period is usually in the Arhat Realm (First Realm). After breaking through to the Bodhisattva Realm (Second Realm), their cultivation speed leaps to become the first among the three schools.

Confucian Cultivators are the most stable, emphasizing the Doctrine of the Mean, taking it one step at a time, and their cultivation speed at every stage is usually at a medium level.

What Yun Bai sought in the State Religion was, on one hand, to quickly earn money to obtain the soul-stabilizing pill, and on the other hand, to have enough ability to search for the Heavenly Palace.

He did not have much time; every second wasted could potentially lead to an extra sacrifice in his hometown.

Therefore, he needed a Cultivation Technique with fast cultivation speed and strong combat power.

A type of Daoist immortal cultivation method happened to meet all of Yun Bai's requirements.

In the early Daoist schools, the branches were strange and varied, and Cultivation Techniques centered on refining a Golden Core were countless.

"Hmm?" Yun Bai noticed some clues in the Three Thousand Daoist Scriptures.

It is stated in the "Yellow Emperor's Yin-Fu Classic": "Heaven gives birth and kills; this is the principle of the Dao."

In the Daoist Thunder Department lineage, there are many who specialize in killing and attacking; Thunder Techniques can be called the most lethal among Daoist techniques.

Following the clues, Yun Bai selected four Cultivation Techniques that use deities as the method. The names were also very straightforward—they were simply the names of four deities.

[Gouchen Technique] The third of the Daoist "Four Royals," upon Major Achievement, it manifests nine Dao bodies, transforming into nine Clones.

[Nine Heavens Profound Technique] Honors the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady. The Nine Heavens has the image of a thousand pieces of gold, with a nature that is firm and fond of movement.

[Thunder Sound Universal Transformation Technique] In charge of the Five Thunders, manifesting in the ten directions, operating the heart throughout the Three Realms, it is the orthodox Five Thunders method of the Daoist school.

[True Martial Demon-Subduing Technique] Honors the True Martial Demon-Subduing Great Emperor, commanding the slaughter of demons, focusing on one sword, with the sword slashing through the eight wildernesses.

The deity worshipped by the [Gouchen Technique], the Gouchen Great Emperor, has the highest status among these four deities. Among them, the [Nine Heavens Profound Technique] is suitable for women or Cultivators whose Five Elements belong to Metal. The [Thunder Sound Universal Transformation Technique] specializes in Thunder Techniques and is also the most orthodox Thunder Technique in the Daoist school. However, the [True Martial Demon-Subduing Technique] has the most practitioners, as this Cultivation Technique has immense destructive power against demons. Furthermore, because the deity True Martial Great Emperor is widely known, this Cultivation Technique is the most widely circulated.

"Is this the trouble of having a choice?" Yun Bai scratched his head; he coveted all four of these Cultivation Techniques. He had truly had enough of the days of having nothing; having so many good choices suddenly placed before him, he really wasn't quite used to it.

Some Cultivation Techniques might not even be known to many Cultivators in the outside world.

For example, this [Gouchen Technique] has very few practitioners. Although its upper limit is extremely high, it is obscure and profound, so it is generally not recommended for First Realm Cultivators.

Yun Bai pondered for a moment and filtered out the [Nine Heavens Profound Technique] and the [Thunder Sound Universal Transformation Technique]. The [Nine Heavens Profound Technique] was not suitable for him; his Five Elements belonged to Wood. The [Thunder Sound Universal Transformation Technique] was actually quite suitable for him, but this Cultivation Technique was overly specialized in Thunder Techniques. Although Thunder Techniques have strong destructive power, they were somewhat weak in other aspects.

Thus, only the [Gouchen Technique] and the [True Martial Demon-Subduing Technique] remained.

"It's really hard to choose." Yun Bai tapped his head.

Just at this moment, he suddenly heard someone calling him from behind.

"Brother Yun Bai, the Grand Elder says he wants to see you."