The Nascent Soul Level.
Some cultivators divided the eight stages of the Qi Refinement level into the upper and lower four stages. The Qi Refinement, Connate, Golden Core and Nascent Soul levels were the lower four stages, while the Soul Formation, Void Returning, Dao Reunion and Tribulation levels were the upper four stages.
The Nascent Soul level was the highest stage among the lower four. After going further from that step, cultivators would be truly the kings among the others and could be called high-level Qi Refinement Cultivators. Although the imperishable sects had tons of Nascent Soul Cultivators, only several of them among billions of people on a planet would be able to reach higher levels. Those were the Ancestral Patriarchs of a race or a sect.
There was a saying in the universe: “Nascent Soul is easy to cultivate, Soul Formation is difficult to complete.”
That meant that it wasn’t hard to form a Nascent Soul. As long as a cultivator had perseverance, enough cultivation resources, training from a Master in a large sect, high-level Qi Refinement Arts and enough cultivation talents, he would be able to reach the Nascent Soul level after a thousand years. However, it would be too difficult if he wanted to go further to attain the Soul Formation level. Many people were already stuck at the Golden Core Level as they tried walking along the path to the Soul Formation Level.
Even for those who had formed a divine-grade Golden Core and become Divine Princes, there might not even be one out of ten Divine Princes who would become Soul Formation Cultivators, the dominators of a world even in the Central Galaxy, who truly stood on top of the universe, overlooking the sun, moon and the galaxy. The disciples of the sacred grounds or the Celestial Sects might not be able to deal with the Soul Formation Cultivators, either.
Once reaching the Soul Formation level, a cultivator would be able to decide his own destiny.
The Celestial Sects and sacred grounds were indeed powerful, but he had the ability to hide far away along the border of the universe or in other galaxies. He could break through the barrier between two worlds and sneak into the Underworld or the Fiend World. He could even create a small world and hide inside it, to be the creator of everything. The universe was so vast. Who could catch him?
So, technically speaking, forming the Nascent Soul wasn’t that difficult.
Forming a Nascent Soul was hard to create for many ordinary Qi Refinement Cultivators, but Chen Fan had been reincarnated from a Celestial Lord. He had cultivated the Nascent Soul level twice in his previous life, and his foundation was so strong that he had the Three Deity Beauty. Reaching the Nascent Soul level was as easy as eating and drinking water for him.
But the situation was exactly the opposite.
“Crack!”
The green thunderbolts turned into bright electric dragons that flew around the air. Countless bolts of lightning struck Chen Fan’s body, Golden Core and Divine Soul, trying to imprint the Dharma Laws into his body.
That was the Nascent Soul Tribulation that he had to go through before reaching the Nascent Soul Level. The power of Dharma Laws would be imprinted in his body and Divine Soul, so that he could completely master some kind of power of Dharma Law. The Dharma Law Lightning was terrifying. A lot of cultivators had burned their bodies at that stage, but Chen Fan’s initial-success Deity Body wasn’t even afraid of thunderbolts ten times more powerful, let alone that green lightning.
At the same time, Chen Fan had also encountered some difficulties.
He was surrounded by a golden aura, thunderbolts and glitter, but he was still not taking a step forward to “refine his body with Dharma Laws.” He frowned as if there was a big issue.
Chen Fan was torn.
Every cultivator had to choose his path after reaching the Nascent Soul Level. What kind of path? He had to decide which type of Dharma Law he would follow to continue his cultivation journey.
A Fire Qi Refinement Cultivator had been practicing cultivation arts and Divine Powers related to fire, so he would surely choose the Dharma Law of Fire. That would directly strengthen his cultivation arts and power. Or, a swordsman that practiced Sword Arts would certainly choose the Dharma Law of Sword.
More powerful ones like the first Divine General of Mount Emperor, Mangya, had a very rare Dharma Law, the “Law of Hades.” It was one of the strongest Dharma Laws, similar to the Dharma Law of Reincarnation, Underworld and Darkness.
Some people even cultivated multiple cultivation arts and mastered a few Dharma Laws at the same time, so their power would be doubled when they fought. However, the more Dharma Laws they chose, the higher the chance they might have the problem of biting off more than they could chew in the future.
Chen Fan was also facing that problem right then. Which type of Dharma Law did he need?
Boom!
The Golden Core moved and the Deity Wheel spinned. Nine Divine Forms slowly appeared behind Chen Fan.
The Xuan Wu, the Azure Thearch, the Ancestor Fiend, the Kun Peng, the Thunder Loch, the Grand Dao, Thick Soil, Red Sparrow, True Martial…
Even since the Foundation Establishment Level, Chen Fan had cultivated nine Divine Arts. The ones with the lowest level were also supreme Divine Arts and he didn’t even know the level of the most powerful ones. They had apparently been passed down from the ancient times or the last epoch.
They represented different Dharma Laws respectively. Once Chen Fan chose one of them, he would apparently have to give up the other eight which would become minor cultivation arts and he wouldn’t be able to specialize in them anymore.
“Ah, I mainly cultivated the ‘Golden Immortal Body’ and had the most powerful Dharma Law of Gold in my previous life. After that, I started cultivating the Divine Powers of the True Martial Celestial Sect. I’ve never had to make a choice like this before!”
Chen Fan smiled wryly.
Other people only had a couple of Dharma Laws, but he had nine to consider. If the other cultivators knew about it, they would want to kill him with a brick. However, cultivating nine types at the same time wasn’t difficult for Chen Fan. When he cultivated till the end in his previous life, he had billions of Dharma Laws in his body and created his own path. So, what was wrong with nine of them?
But the Nascent Soul Chen Fan wanted was different.
He wanted to form “Deity Laws” instead of Dharma Laws!
Deity Laws were also called the “Deity-Grade Dharma Laws” or “Dharma Laws of the Deity Realm.” They were a kind of power way beyond normal Dharma Laws. It could be put in this way. Essence Qi was like soft cotton, while Dharma Laws had been formed by condensing, extracting and combining a type of Essence Qi, making some kind of rope. Divine-Grade Dharma Laws were rough hemp ropes, Sacred-Grade Dharma Laws were sailing ropes with great quality and Deity-Grade Dharma Laws were super carbon steel wires.
Steel wires might be as thin as hair, but they could easily lift a ton of heavy things.
Deity-Grade Dharma Laws were also the same. Even just a bit of it could destroy ten times or a hundred times of the normal Dharma Laws. Besides, there were rankings among the Dharma Laws.
If two people had a Dharma Law of Fire at the same time, one with a Deity Law and one with a normal Dharma Law, then the one with the normal Dharma Law wouldn’t even have the qualification to mobilize a hint of Fire Essence Qi in front of the other cultivator, since he had a much deeper understanding of the laws and controlled much more powerful energy.
That was why the Overlords who had a Deity Infant were that powerful.
Some Deities in Heaven could easily defeat Soul Formation Cultivators even if they were just Nascent Soul Cultivators, while normal Divine Princes and Sacred Princes would barely survive when facing Soul Formation Cultivators.
“I’m different from the people born with a Deity Body or Deity Meridians. They’re gifted. They can naturally form a deity-grade Golden Core once entering the Golden Core level and form a ‘Deity Infant’ after entering the Nascent Soul level. However, my talents are acquired. I must raise all the nine Dharma Laws to the ‘Deity Law’ level to get the chance to form a Deity Infant,” Chen Fan thought.
And yet, he wasn’t confident that he could push the nine energies to the Deity Law level at the moment. The Deity Qi in the Primordial Essence was apparently not enough to make a Nine Deity Nascent Soul.
“Whatever. Even if it’s not enough, I have to try.” Chen Fan gritted his teeth and was determined to give it a go.
“Boom!”
While he really started turning the Golden Core.
Nine types of terrifying energies let out some thunderous sounds around Chen Fan.
A black river entirely made of Xuanming Water, a giant fireball formed by Seven Malice Fire, a dark and ancient world, a lively energy like green like trees… Nine types of energies representing different attributes had appeared around Chen Fan. Each of them represented a supreme power and carried a powerful energy.
Some glitters of different colors appeared in the nine energies. They were bright like diamonds and few like gold, as if they were some kind of rare crystals. Those were Dharma Laws, the most powerful energy, nine types among billions that formed the entire universe.
These Dharma Laws were apparently very rare. There were only a few dots in the nine powerful energies like pearls in the ocean. Just a bit of Dharma Laws wasn’t enough to form a Nascent Soul.
“Deity Qi!” Chen Fan yelled.
One of the only four light spheres of Deity Qi in the Origin Well flew to him quickly and turned into countless rays of colorful light, infusing the nine types of energies. The energy of each attribute is immediately enlarged and there were a few times more Dharma Law crystals appeared.
“Again!” Chen Fan yelled again when he saw that it wasn’t enough.
Poof!
The second and third sphere of Deity Qi went into the nine energies one after the other. The Xuanming Water, colorful fire, dark world and green energy also became larger and there were more and more Dharma Laws as shiny as crystals. In the end, when the fourth sphere of Deity Qi went inside, the Dharma Law crystals of each type of energy were basically the size of table tennis balls.
Nine light spheres the size of table tennis balls that were bright like crystals surrounded Chen Fan and spinned slowly.
Each of them seemed to be a ball, but they were also like diamond columns. There were thousands of faces and the inside could be seen through the surfaces. There might be a fire larger than the sun burning, a black river in space that was billions of miles long or six towering Ancestor Fiends roaring. All of them looked tiny, but they carried a terrifying energy that made people tremble. They were full of sacred energy and even those with a higher ranking would bow and worship them.
At that point, the nine types of Deity Laws were formed.
“Nascent Soul, form!” Chen Fan shouted.
The nine Deity Laws merged with the Golden Core. Chen Fan also focused on his Divine Soul and vitality around his body immediately, then gathered everything in the Golden Core.
Dong!
At that moment.
The Nine Transformation Deity Wheel seemed to be under some invisible pressure and it slowly expanded. There was some kind of energy inside that was about to surge out. The entire sea of energy had also expanded with the Nine Transformations Deity Wheel. Plumes of golden fog filled the area and created clouds and mist, making it look like Heaven.
The Nine Transformations Deity Wheel was still resisting obstinately. The glitter in Chen Fan’s eyes froze. He then gritted his teeth, stomped his foot and said, “Open!”
Boom!
Nine black holes appeared in the Origin Divine Palace. They were connected to different worlds. The Xuanming Black Water, the Red Sparrow Divine Flame, the Chaotic Fiend Qi, dimensional storms… Nine types of terrifying energy dripped from the nine black holes like lava. There were even glints of golden light, which carried Deity Qi and were apparently Deity-Grade Dharma Laws.
Chen Fan used his supreme Dharma Power to open the passages to the Deity Realm forcefully!
Of course, his Golden Core Level wasn’t enough to open even a crack of the Deity Realm, let alone piercing through it. He would have at least the Tribulation Level to truly communicate with the Deity Realm and take Deity Qi into the human world. What Chen Fan opened were just the lands of origin near to the Deity Realm, including some fire-elemental regions or Qi-elemental regions. They were very close to the Deity Realm and might have some Dharma Laws of the Deity Realm sometimes.
Those Dharma Laws of the Deity Realm were nothing for Dao Reunion Perfected Immortals or Tribulation Mysterious Deities.
But for Chen Fan who was only a Golden Core Cultivator right then, there were like raindrops from Heaven. They were extremely abundant and helpful. At the same time, many precious Quasi-Divine materials and top Heavenly materials, like the Golden Essence Crystal, Earth Yellow Essence, Dragon Divine Stones and Divine Dimension Crystals. They also flew out of Chen Fan’s sleeves and shattered.
The powerful energy inside immediately turned into dragons, flying towards Chen Fan. A Dragon Divine Stone was usually enough for ten Fire Golden Core cultivators to go through the Tribulation and become Nascent Soul Cultivators, but at this moment, it was only a crystal the size of a thumb.
In the end—
Chen Fan had almost been enveloped by the nine-colored light balls. The sea of energy had expanded again and again, and the nine terrifying energies filled the entire dantian. The extremely hard Nine Transformations Deity Wheel—which was releasing beams of eternal light and seemed like it wouldn’t move even if the sun and moon collapsed or the world was destroyed—finally let out a cracking sound and visible cracks appeared on it.
The Golden Core had shattered!