Infinite Professions

Chapter 180 - 90: Enlightenment

Fish Dragon Island, Earth Spirit Array.

Shen He sat cross-legged in the void, employing the Celestial Demon Technique. In an instant, his Spiritual Sense soared, entering a peculiar realm.

Self Transformed Sovereignty and Root of All Methods!

This Enlightenment Demon Skill is exceedingly simple to cultivate. As long as one has sufficient control over their body, they can elevate their Spiritual Consciousness and Divine Thought to enter the Free Heaven Realm and comprehend the principles of heaven and earth.

For Shen He, this was remarkably easy. After all, he cultivated the Three Methods: Martial with the Dragon Subduing and Tiger Suppressing Skill, Immortal with the Five Elements Life and Transformation Method, Spirit with the Celestial Destiny Spirit Manipulation Technique. These correspond to a cultivator’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit, showing his control over his body’s Spiritual Consciousness without further explanation.

With the aid of this Celestial Demon Secret Technique, Shen He felt his Spiritual Sense surge wildly, ascending into an incomprehensibly mysterious realm.

That place was... the Free Heaven Realm!

What kind of place is the Free Heaven Realm?

Shen He couldn’t say clearly.

He could only feel that his spirit and consciousness were elevated to infinite heights within this strange realm, reaching the grand states of immortals and Buddhas, gods and demons, heaven and earth.

He saw, he understood, he thoroughly comprehended the existence called "Dao."

The Dao of Yin and Yang, the principles of the Five Elements.

Void and Real, Spirit and Flesh.

Body and Mind, Heaven and Earth.

...

There was one thing Shen He had to admit: his aptitude was indeed quite average.

With such average aptitude, how did he achieve what he did today?

It was through effort!

And also through cheating!

Shen He never shied away from the fact that he was a "cheater." His achievements today are half attributed to his skill panel and innate talents, and half to the accumulation of time and his personal effort.

Diligence can make up for clumsiness; perseverance polishes even the hardest stone. With the aid of his profession, and lifetimes of bitter cultivation, he achieved today’s results.

But from this, it is also apparent how ordinary his aptitude and understanding were. Other prodigiously talented individuals, given such assistance and accumulation, would have soared into the skies, achieving the status of Immortal Gods and Karma Position long ago.

But he, after cultivating across several lifetimes, nearly two thousand years of accumulation, has barely reached the Fifth-rank Golden Core at most.

The disparity is quite evident!

But it doesn’t matter.

When aptitude isn’t enough, cheating comes in!

In this Free Heaven Realm, Shen He felt his thoughts, his consciousness, his spirit, all attaining infinite elevation.

He saw the various principles of the heavens and earth, the various rules of the world. Though they were likely mere superficial phenomena or even illusions, they still benefited him greatly.

Reflecting in this way, he saw clearly his own shortcomings, apparent flaws exposed.

Even unsolved issues, bottlenecks, and barriers were unveiled at this moment, revealing their true face to him.

Great Freedom, Great Freedom!

He transforms into sovereignty, I transform into sovereignty.

My will is the Celestial Heart, my mind is the Celestial Heart.

The machine of heaven and earth, the principle of the Great Dao...

Soaked in this ocean of "knowledge" and "principle," even with Shen He’s experience, it felt wondrous beyond measure, so intoxicating that he was unable to extricate himself.

Having heard of the Dao in the morning, one could die in the evening!

Die?

No!

He can’t die yet!

I can’t die yet!

Shen He can’t die yet!

In an instant, he was struck by a sudden warning.

Shen He abruptly awoke, his Spiritual Sense sinking rapidly, instantly detaching from that strange realm.

"Pfft!!!"

As his Spiritual Sense collapsed, a heavy feeling beyond words descended upon him, causing him to plummet from his suspended position into the lake below.

"Gulu gulu!"

The warm lake water, filled with Spiritual Energy, quickly soaked into him, but Shen He still couldn’t move.

He could only feel an unprecedented fatigue, an emptiness so profound that not even a finger could be lifted.

In such a state, who knows how long it was before the lake’s waters roiled and a figure floated upward.

It was Shen He!

He surfaced, yet did not escape, remaining immersed in the Spiritual Qi-soaked waters, merged with the Earth Vein Spirit Array, letting his parched body absorb the nourishing Spiritual Qi to restore his depleted Life Essence vitality.

Shen He was motionless, only his Spiritual Sense was diffused, allowing him to observe himself in a peculiar manner.

Now, his hair was entirely white, not the pristine white of Immortal Truth in Immortal cultivation, but the deathly white of an old, withering demise. His hair was dry and brittle like weeds, and even cracked.

Even soaking in the Spiritual Qi-laden lake water couldn’t rejuvenate it, and the skin connected was also turning grey, loose, and wrinkled, sprouting a multitude of spots and emitting an inexplicable foul odor.

Now, he was no longer a youth, but an elderly man on the brink of death, closer to a decaying corpse with remnants of life within a grave.

This is the downside of the Self Transformed Sovereignty and Root of All Methods!

Spiritual sense sublimation, essence and qi consumption, ultimately depleting life essence.

Shen Hex finally understood why so many people would die because of this cultivation technique of "Enlightenment".

The sublimation of spiritual sense, the self-transformed sovereignty, perceiving the fundamental of the Dao and the original aspect of the world felt truly marvelous.

Marvelous to the point where even someone like him, who has experienced several lifetimes and cultivated diligently for nearly two thousand years as a transmigrator, could not extricate himself.

To hear the Dao in the morning, and die in the evening!

Thus, they died, died in the Free Heaven Realm, died within the truth.

Shen Hex almost followed their footsteps, if he hadn’t awakened at the last moment, he might have been a corpse by now.

Terrifying, truly terrifying!

But the harvest was also unimaginably great.

In the Free Heaven Realm, Shen Hex comprehended many things, focusing on the Three Body Cultivation Method of Martial Dao, Immortal Dao, and Spirit Control, Xingyi Fist, Five Elements Technique, Spirit Control Scripture. He thought he had polished them to perfection, only to realize there are many flaws and shortcomings to amend, allowing further advancement.

It’s not that he was ineffective, despite millennia of hard cultivation, he hadn’t achieved perfection; rather, the perfection he achieved before was the "human" perfection, not the "immortal" perfection, the Dao’s perfection, or the perfection of heaven and earth.

From the perspective of an existence such as an "immortal", he still had room for progress, progress that human strength could not attain.

Not only previous flaws, but also future developments, Tier Four and Tier Five, even Tier Six cultivation methods were understood during this enlightenment, next advancing to Core Formation, achieving Nascent Soul, will be a smooth path on the Great Dao, even to break waves swiftly.

This is the wondrous use of the "Self Transformed Sovereignty and Root of All Methods".

Life essence exchanged for enlightenment, enlightenment exchanged for cultivation.

With this enlightenment fruit and various resources on hand, Shen Hex is confident that he can form the Golden Core, the Dao Golden Core of Three Methods Cultivation within ten years.

Ten years is even a conservative estimate because he not only has enlightenment fruit but also merit and professional assistance.

Shen Hex opened the profession panel, looking at the lifespan column.

Lifespan: 1285/1800.

The lifespan increased drastically from over three hundred years to one thousand two hundred and eighty-five years.

This means, this enlightenment consumed nearly a thousand years of life essence.

Extremely terrifying!

Switch to someone else, even a Nascent Soul cultivator, could not sustain such consumption.

Only because he is an Immortal could he support this.

But that’s not the point, the point is he’s over a thousand years old.

The Immortal profession has one effect: the older the age, the more lifespan, the more experience gained, the stronger the cultivation effect.

The older the age, the more lifespan.

At first glance, it sounds like one meaning, but it’s actually two concepts.

The former is the age of life, the latter is life source.

Now, Shen Hex has one thousand two hundred and eighty-five years of age and one thousand eight hundred years of life source.

What does this mean?

Assume that under the effect of the Immortal profession, the cultivation efficiency at a lifespan of 100/1800 is 1, then at a lifespan of 1000/1800, the cultivation efficiency is 10.

With life source unchanged, the higher the age, the stronger the cultivation effect.

Although Shen Hex hasn’t truly lived for over a thousand years, by consuming life essence through Ten Thousand Dao Root Source Great Method, his lifespan has broken through a thousand on the profession panel.

This is enough; the professional power only recognizes the profession panel, regardless of whether you’ve truly lived over a thousand years.

Thus now, Shen Hex’s cultivation efficiency is multiple times or even higher than before.

Truly called the Old Ghost Immortal Cultivation Method!

If he pushes a bit to the extreme, using Krypton Life to increase lifespan to 1799/1800, then forming the Core within a year would probably not be a problem.

Of course, Shen Hex won’t do that, after all, it’s too extreme, one careless move could ruin himself.

The current ratio is quite good, enhancing the cultivation speed without the risk of Krypton Life ending in death.

...

Thus, after an unknown amount of time, Shen Hex finally regained strength, sitting up from the lake water, not leaving the Earth Spirit Array Hub, directly taking various pills to increase cultivation and recover, beginning to cultivate on the spot.

Life essence overdraft is not only an overdraft on lifespan, but also a severe depletion of the cultivator’s essence, qi, and spirit; it must be nursed back to continue cultivation, or it may train oneself to death.

Shen Hex has a plethora of pills in hand, along with Yuan-Devouring Skill, Xingyi Fist, Spirit Control Scripture, and Five Elements Technique Dharma Gates. Additionally, the effect of Longevity Immortal Blessed Land and Longevity Life Nourishing Method does not require much effort to nurture essence, qi, and spirit.

After taking the pills, he sat and regulated his breath.

After nine days and nights passed, Shen Hex opened his eyes, his body regained vitality, and his appearance became youthful, no longer an aging moving corpse-like frightening figure.

Only his long hair remained gray-white, representing that the fundamental damage to life essence hasn’t recovered, merely enriching superficial essence, qi, and spirit.

Treating the symptoms, not the root!

But Shen Hex wants precisely to treat the symptoms, not the root, to maintain the high lifespan’s cultivation effect.

For this purpose, he deliberately abstained from certain pills that could restore life essence.

But this only limits the pills; the effects of Longevity Life Nourishing Method and Longevity Immortal Blessed Land cannot be limited, his life essence is still slowly recovering, and his lifespan is slowly declining.

"At this pace, when my lifespan falls to five to six hundred years, I should be able to form the Golden Core."

"Before Core Formation, taking pills, in conjunction with Longevity Immortal Blessed Land and Longevity Life Nourishing Method, treating both symptoms and root, recovering to the peak state, to condense the most perfect Dao Golden Core."

"After Core Formation, lifespan will surely increase, plus already recovered life essence, I can use Self Transformed Sovereignty and Root of All Methods to Krypton Life, enlightening Dao, comprehension of Pill Talisman Artifact Array Hundred Skills Cultivation Method, and Karmic Fire Three Calamities, Sacrificial Demon-Slaying to enhance battle power."

"Such cultivation, within a hundred years, should hold hope for Nascent Soul!"

Shen Hex murmured a statement, set down the development plan, then closed his eyes and immersed himself anew into the realm of cultivation.