Chapter 54: Nascent Soul Realm (2)
High above, Lin Yuan hovered, his physical body radiating a profound aura. He closed his eyes, his hands shifting into a seal that resonated with the absolute core of his being.
"Nascent Soul Projection," Lin Yuan murmured, his voice echoing across the area.
From his back, a blinding surge of spiritual energy intertwined with the essence of the tribulation thunder erupted into the sky. The energy rapidly expanded and coalesced, weaving together to form a colossal and ethereal manifestation of his newly born Nascent Soul.
The spiritual giant towered hundreds of feet in the air, mirroring Lin Yuan’s appearance. As the massive Nascent Soul projection slowly opened its eyes, a rejuvenating aura flooded the entire region. The air itself tasted sweeter, the withered trees on the shattered mountains below began to sprout rapid green buds, and the heavy smog of the city was instantly purified.
Down below, trapped within the lightning sphere, Xu Canghai collapsed onto his back.
The Clan Head of the Xu Clan stared up at the sky, his bloodshot eyes tearing up from the sheer brilliance of the Nascent Soul illuminating the area. His mind, already pushed to the absolute brink of insanity, completely and utterly shattered.
"Impossible..." Xu Canghai choked out. "It is impossible..."
He himself had spent over a century desperately clawing his way up the cultivation ladder, hoarding countless resources and soaking in extreme thunderstorms, only to find himself agonizingly stuck at the peak of the Core Formation realm. He had spent decades staring at the insurmountable chasm that separated him from true experts, unable to take that final step.
Yet, this young man—a lowly outer-city person who had lived in this dilapidated shack—had just effortlessly formed his Nascent Soul. And he had done it directly from the early stages of the Core Formation realm! It defied every single scrap of logic he had ever known.
A horrifying realization suddenly gripped Xu Canghai’s heart, turning his blood entirely to ice.
If Lin Yuan had just now formed his Nascent Soul... then everything that had happened before this moment had been the work of a Core Formation cultivator. The effortless slaughter of the four Xu Clan elders. The complete nullification of the terrifying Nine Heavens Thunder Prison. The instantaneous soul attack that had erased Xu Lie. The thunder step that bypassed the Clan Head’s thunder senses. The casual, single-finger strike that had shattered Xu Canghai’s own late-stage Golden Core.
So all those feats he was doing... was all him in the Core Formation realm?
Xu Canghai’s breath hitched in sheer terror. If he capable of completely dismantling the supreme foundation of his clan while he was just at the Core Formation realm, then what kind of unfathomable, world-ending monster had he become now that he had stepped into the Nascent Soul realm? And for someone to form their Nascent Soul at the early stages of Core Formation meant they possessed a soul foundation so monstrous it was entirely beyond comprehension.
Then, Xu Canghai remembered the options Lin Yuan had given him just moments prior. Limit your clan’s cultivation to the Foundation Establishment realm for one thousand years.
Before, Xu Canghai had laughed, dismissing it as the foolish, empty threat of a brat. But now, staring up at the colossal nascent soul projection dominating the heavens, he knew with absolute certainty: Lin Yuan was genuinely capable of doing such a thing. With a single thought, this immortal could rewrite the karmic destiny of the Xu bloodline forever.
High above the clouds, Lin Yuan was entirely immersed in the profound sensation of his newly elevated existence.
A flock of birds, startled by the shattering of the nearby mountains, flew frantically through the night sky. One of them, a common white dove, fluttered directly toward the massive chest of the Nascent Soul projection.
The manifestation of Lin Yuan’s Nascent Soul slowly reached out its giant, translucent hands, catching the dove with a terrifying gentleness. The bird did not struggle. As the hand cupped around it, the rejuvenating aura of the Nascent Soul—infused with the Dao of Thunder that gives birth to new life after destruction—washed over the tiny creature.
When the ethereal hands slowly opened a moment later, the common dove was gone.
In its place stood a majestic Heaven Spirit Bird. Its feathers shimmered with an inherent, radiant spiritual light, its eyes glowing with newfound intelligence and vitality. With a joyous, melodic cry that carried the resonance of the Dao, the newly evolved spirit beast took flight, ascending higher into the heavens.
He had just rejuvenated a bird into a spirit beast with a mere touch!
Hovering in the center of the projection, Lin Yuan looked at his own hands, feeling utterly overwhelmed by his newfound power. The sheer scope of what he could now achieve felt entirely limitless.
To understand the magnitude of this transformation, one had to understand the true nature of the realm itself.
The Nascent Soul was the manifestation of the cultivator’s true self, allowing their soul to exist with far greater independence from the physical body. From that moment onward, they were no longer merely powerful cultivators who possessed immense spiritual energy.
They had stepped into a realm where the mysteries of Heaven and Earth began to reveal themselves.
The difference was especially obvious when it came to space.
Nascent Soul cultivators could begin sensing the subtle fluctuations hidden within the void, allowing them to detect spatial distortions, perceive simple teleportation traces, and break through weaker spatial restrictions.
Early Nascent Soul cultivators are able to perform spatial teleportation, instantly crossing miles in a single step.
Those at the Middle and Late Nascent Soul stages could push this ability even further, with exceptional experts capable of teleporting several thousand miles in a single movement if they possessed sufficient spiritual energy and a suitable understanding of space.
Yet this was still only the beginning.
They could not casually tear open the void and travel across tens of thousands of miles as though space were nothing more than a curtain.
True void tearing, and the ability to cross vast regions through a single spatial passage generally belonged to the Soul Transformation Realm and above.
The difference between touching the mysteries of space and truly controlling them was as vast as heaven and earth.
For Lin Yuan, however, his breakthrough was something entirely different.
Due to his consumption of the Origin Soul Revival Pill, his soul foundation had undergone a tremendous transformation, his comprehension of the Dao had risen to an extraordinary level, and through his body forging, his physical body had been repeatedly tempered through marrow refinement.
Above all, the Ten Thousand Ways Return to One Heart Sutra had begun laying down a foundation unlike anything ordinary cultivators possessed.
While others cultivated a single path and condensed a Nascent Soul intended to carry only a single Dao Intent, Lin Yuan is walking a path that gathered the ten thousand ways and returned them to one.
His Nascent Soul will not merely contain the profound understanding of a single Dao.
Rain, thunder, the mysteries of the body, and every other Dao he will comprehend could exist within it without conflict, all unified beneath the absolute foundation of his Dao Heart.
This was the terrifying advantage of his path. His spiritual cultivation would provide the foundation, his body cultivation would provide an overwhelming vessel, his Dao comprehension would provide the direction, and the Ten Thousand Ways Return to One Heart Sutra would ensure that none of these powers conflicted with one another.
The result is...
Even if Lin Yuan had just entered the Early Nascent Soul Realm, his foundation could already rival or surpass that of cultivators who had spent centuries tempering their Nascent Souls.
After all, there was a saying among cultivators: A thousand streams may fill the sea, but only a vast sea can carry ten thousand waves.