Conscient was the least understood aspect of existence. It was not material, nor an energy form. The ethereal form of conscient was fickle, seemingly between reality and unreality. Ordinary conscients could not survive without the support of energy form known as the soul. For ordinary people, their soul was no different from their conscient as the conscient was intricately embedded into the soul. The soul, in turn, was intricately embedded into the body, which was a material construct, and could exist for a long time. After many years of cultivation research, cultivators were already aware of the mechanics of the body and soul. Even ascendants could form an artificial soul and embed some rules and directives inside, forming puppet souls. The devils were experts in creating puppet souls and had created puppet armies that had destroyed Aterna in Michael's past life. But conscient was something that none of the cultivation forces had managed to crack. No one had succeeded in creating artificial conscients, and in some sense, it made the creation of life an unsolved problem in the universe.
As a result, the general understanding of cultivation paths completely dependent on the conscient was extremely low. Psychic cultivators were more like a small cult in the universe and dao cultivators were as rare as primordial bloodline cultivators. Initially, Michael had assumed that his expertise in psychic and dao paths would give him a special edge, making him stronger and more resourceful than his peers. While he was a grounded person, even he had been excited after obtaining Wisdom Emperor's psychic legacy, thinking of himself as a chosen one. It had all come crashing down when he revealed his psychic powers in the Samsara Sect. He had hoped that he would be given extra attention due to his psychic abilities, but he was given a rude awakening instead. He still remembered the lesson he had with an elder at Samsara Sect.
"Mark, do you know what is the difference between orthodox and unorthodox cultivation paths?", the elder had asked.
"Cultivating the laws of the universe in any form is considered the orthodox path. People can cultivate the laws using their body, soul or energy. Many lucky cultivators even cultivate their bloodline which carries the manifestation of laws. As such these paths are called orthodox paths and are all encompassed in the celestial pathway. Other paths are grouped under unorthodox paths."
"Very well, but do you know the reason behind this distinction? Why is it that we only call the celestial pathway the orthodox path and don't consider psychic or dao paths as orthodox paths?"
"I don't know elder. From what I have guessed, it should be because they don't have a full inheritance."
"Again correct. Psychic paths and dao paths are very limited in scope. It is not necessarily due to the limits in the path itself but due to the limit of accumulation. To elaborate, the history of celestial cultivation is estimated to be a billion years old. Do you even fathom what a billion-year time period means? Thousands of past and present worlds corresponding to quintillions of cultivators cultivating and tirelessly researching the celestial path. The amount of research accumulated has created an extremely general and solid pathway that is open to almost any race. This is an achievement that is the greatest legacy that we have from our ancestors. This is what I call accumulation. Compared to this, unorthodox paths like the psychic path or dao path don't have any foundation. To give you a correct idea, there are less than a hundred psychic divinities in the entire three thousand worlds! There are more gods in the universe than there are psychic divinities. This is because there is no inheritance or legacy to work with. Going forward on this path requires a lot of sacrifices for pioneering something new. This is the reason why the sect doesn't consider it worthwhile investing too heavily in these unorthodox paths, as there will be a guaranteed loss."
"Elder, in my experience, the psychic path gives a great advantage to cultivators. I can easily defeat ordinary cultivators in the same realm as they are almost defenceless against psychic attacks. Even if there is no legacy for reaching the divine realm, shouldn't the sect still invest in the psychic path, given this advantage?", Michael had asked.
"Do you know how upper-ascendants treat psychics? They call them cockroaches. Mostly because they are usually able to save their lives through psychic reincarnation. But no upper ascendant fears psychic cultivators. Once cultivators start creating their personal law, even if it is in the embryonic stage, it gets intertwined with their conscient. As such, they have very solid protection against normal psychic elements. To truly mess the mind of an upper-ascendant, you would have to be a world-master psychic at the very least. And they are able to recover from psychic effects much faster than lower ascendants. Once a cultivator has started creating their path, they are immune to most of the common dangers of the universe and are considered adults who can function independently. Therefore, entering the realm of path is also considered the discipleship graduation requirement for all sects. Even with all your confidence, never try to fight an upper-ascendant, or you will have your ass handed to you."
"Elder, is there truly no scope for unorthodox pathways like the psychic path or the dao path?", Michael had asked without much hope.
"Child, I know that you are feeling down knowing that your speciality is not as special as you think. But that is the truth, as it won't change with the way you feel about it. There is a way to keep these paths relevant, which is to obtain a legacy that is suitable to you. For example, if you obtain a legacy of psychic divinity which suits you perfectly, you might be able to become a psychic divinity yourself. Then, the sect would definitely treat you well. But such a thing will not happen easily. From what I have been hearing, apparently, the Might secret realm that has been recently in focus has an astral legacy. Astral path is the path of conscient which encompasses psychic, dao and other pathways originating from the conscient. It can be considered as a counterpart to our celestial path, except that it is not as widely developed and the barrier to entry would be huge. If you are lucky, in a few thousand years, the techniques from that secret realm will be available to you to learn from. But unless you can somehow infiltrate the expedition and gain a front-row seat, you are unlikely to receive the astral legacy, even if it exists. My suggestion to you would be to not dream of unrealistic things and focus on cultivating the laws of life and death. It is the most stable path that you can follow."
The elder did not know that Michael indeed had a front-row seat. This was also the main reason why he had not given up cultivating the psychic and dao paths. As long as he could obtain the astral legacy from this expedition, it would be a net profit. Michael had the feeling that the legacy might even help him develop his combat system, something that he had been postponing till now. While cultivating the astral strength martial technique, he could feel himself making swift progress. As he looked inside his conscient, he could see a variety of things being imprinted on it. There was his translucent dao tree that gave the fluctuations of his indomitable dao. It was as if the tree would remain firm and standing even if the world was to collapse. Of course, it was just an illusion and the tree was not actually indestructible. Then, there was the volcano that was bellowing out rich explosive power. This was the manifestation of his divine volcanic bloodline. The volcanic bloodline was not only integrated into his body and soul but also in his conscient. There was also an unassuming black sword, his life-bound treasure, Ambition. Adding in, there was the recent addition of a black hominoid silhouette. This was the imprint that appeared when Michael had completely mastered will manifestation from Wisdom Emperor's psychic legacy. The legacy contained four common but powerful skills which were the basis of the advanced legacy. Apparently, once a cultivator resonated with any of the skills, there would be a psychic imprint that could be used further with advanced legacy. Michael had only resonated with the will manifestation ability till now. Now, as he was cultivating the astral strength martial technique, he could see a strand of martial will condensing in his conscient, representing his martial path cultivation.
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All these disjoint powers are the main reason why I can't complete my combat system and bring forth my true power. I am really depending a lot on this astral legacy. If I don't obtain it, my strength will collapse like a pile of loose sand.
But there was not much he could do regarding the legacy in his current situation. Thus, he decided to keep on cultivating the martial technique. Even without the astral legacy, this would give him another life-saving method when his laws would be completely suppressed.
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While Michael was cultivating in seclusion, the other geniuses on the ship were also being trained under their seniors' supervision. In one training chamber, Krill was instructing Razor Mark.
"Feel your body and soul more clearly. Your meditation is still poor, you need to improve on it. Feel how your body and soul are in a constant flux between life and death. While overall, you are brimming with life, a small part of you is constantly dying. This is the truth of death and life coexisting and the path of undeath. Raval has truly created a masterful path, and the key to it starts with understanding the equilibrium between life and death in your body and soul. Try to simulate the death inside of you and enter the undeath stage."
Razor suddenly turned greyish with the death aura around him increasing swiftly. But in the next second, he turned back with all his deathly aura dissipating.
"You need to keep practising. The suppression of laws doesn't mean the complete absence of it. If you can master zombification even under suppression, it might save your life in critical moments. Try again! This time, maintain the zombie form for at least 3 seconds!"
In a different training room, Blue Wind Divinity was personally guiding Ross Tyson.
"Feel the flow of your blood, the flow of your thoughts, the electricity inside your body. Feel the flow of energy around your soul and conscient. The law of wind automatically encompasses the flow of various things. The more you master the art of flow, the more you will be able to tap into the concept of wind. Even if laws have been suppressed, you can still feel the manifestation of the concept. If you can master the flow inside your body, you will obtain a method to save your life in the upcoming battles."
In another training room, Alexis was constantly dodging energy arrows from all sides. The room was completely dark, while the arrows were completely soundless and covered with concealing formation. Even psychic methods of detection would fail on these arrows. Alexis was constantly getting hit by the arrows, which did not hurt her permanently but caused her great pain. This was the construct that Fate Seer divinity had created herself to train her daughter. It was to make sure that Alexis could tame her blessing and use it actively rather than passively. Similar training procedures were being carried on all the young disciples, inculcating in them the survival skills required in secret realm expeditions. For the geniuses, it was perhaps their first exposure to the "real world" after cultivating for a long time in their greenhouses. The expedition was going to be their baptism, making them true disciples worthy of the sect's nurturing.
As time passed, the training of different geniuses continued. While 10 years was a long time for them, under the strict schedule of the sect, it passed faster than expected.
Ten years later, the disciples were again gathered for another lecture from their mentors. In the end, Blue Wind divinity ended on a short note:
"Ten years ago, we started your rigorous training to prepare you for the upcoming challenges. All of you have done splendidly, and your mental state also shows this change. Ten years ago, you all were like chicks who had hardly seen the world. While you are no different now, at least now you have some tricks up your sleeve to survive. We don't know anything about how the secret realm is, if they are hostile or if the devils are waiting to ambush us. We also don't know the scale of the enemies we might face. In a few months, we will be exiting this space tunnel and entering the Might secret realm. For all we know, the entire expedition might end up as a failure with all of us dying. So you guys should take this time to relax for a while. Just try to survive."
Ten years had indeed caused many changes to the situation of the geniuses. First of all, all of them gave an air of danger now, despite not giving any powerful law fluctuations. If earlier, their aura was like scattered sand, it now carried the hint of stability. While this feeling was only transient and their aura had not stabilised, it was clear that they had started taking steps towards becoming experts. Apart from that, their eyes seemed to carry a sense of seriousness as well. The childishness in their eyes was gone, it was replaced with a sense of will and resolve. In some sense, their gaze was similar to Michael. This was how almost all talented disciples of major sects were trained before they went to explore the law ocean after reaching the law master realm. This training was called the survival training by the disciples. The training this time could be considered as a compressed version of the survival training. It was not that all of them had successfully passed through the arduous training. Roy and Ray Gander, renowned figures in the Dense sea sect, could not take the intense training for 10 years even with astral crystals. Their performance dropped gradually and they ultimately could not complete their training program. The elders did not take away their status but they did not take kindly to this either. Their impression suffered and it would truly be uphill for them to set themselves apart again. In the future, it would be very hard for them to obtain any divinity's personal teachings or legacy discipleship. After all, survival was the most important quality for geniuses. But, this was not an uncommon occurrence as many of the disciples in every batch were not able to complete their survival training satisfactorily. Thus, the divinities would not completely ignore them either. Divine children like Alexis on the other hand were supported not only through astral crystals but through the care and teaching of divinities as well. Thus, they had a lot more help. Besides, as children of divinities, they had lots of potential. In the end, all of them completed their training successfully.
Michael did not have any training arranged for him. He did not need such training either. The training was mainly focused on teaching some unorthodox methods or abilities to disciples to protect their lives in dangerous situations. He had more unorthodox cultivation methods than he knew what to do with. With the inclusion of astral strength martial art, his strength was almost intact. As such, he had spent all of 10 years polishing his martial cultivation and bringing it to the same level as his dao and psychic cultivation. Having polished all of his skills to his best, Michael had prepared his best for facing the calamity together with Alexis.