Haoran Kai's POV:
For ten thousand years I have guarded the entrance of the mortal world and the immortal world.
I make sure mortals do not successfully seek the dao.
But something strange has happened.
A mortal has broken past the barrier.
Doing such a thing is impossible.
The gateway only opens up once the person has formed a foundation and has survived a minor tribulation.
They then will need to travel through the immortal door that opens once every hundred years.
It is then up to the person whether they wish to leave the mortal world behind.
There are mortals in the immortal world.
But they are born here.
They will never amount to more then servants and scholars.
Some lucky few will be favored by an immortal.
Thus stepping on the path.
But such situations are rare.
It is rare to have a dantian and spirit roots.
Cultivation methods are top secrets guarded by the sects.
I use my cipher to teleport to where the barrier has been breached.
I see a man flying up.
His aura matches that completely of an mortal.
But how could this be?
Only someone at or above core formation can fly?
He must be hiding his cultivation!
But that makes no sense.
Why would my cipher go off and take him to be a mortal?
This is weird.
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Zero continues to fly up.
He sees a floating continent.
He is currently underneath it.
He is about to make a portal up towards the surface.
But a man in white robes appears before him.
"Why didn't you ascend after breaking through? You didn't wish to wait for the door to open? Why is my cipher telling me you are a mortal? Mortals are not allowed to breakthrough realms!"
Zero spoke:
"I'm no mere mortal. I am a Paradox!"
"Paradox?"
The man took out a scroll and waved it.
It opened up and a gateway appeared.
"Go through the proper channels next time, alright? This path will take you back to the mortal plane."
Zero then chuckled.
"Who said I'm going back?"
"...You realize, that I am a guardian of the realms? I was given my authority by the celestial emperor. Offending me is no laughing matter."
Zero spoke:
"Meh, I'll offend who ever I want. Keeps things interesting."
The man released a threatening aura.
Zero released the disguise on his soul fluctuations.
His soul gave off the aura of an Abyssal Paradox.
Even his artifact gave off an aura of time.
The man spoke in shock.
"An astral emperor! I am sorry I didn't recognize you! Please disregard my earlier words... I had no idea you were exploring such a lowly dimension."
Astral emperor?
What the fuck is that?
Zero was sure he wasn't some astral emperor.
But the aura of his soul artifact apparently made this man think he was so.
He could work with this.
"It isn't an issue. Although it has been a long time since I have walked among your kind. I need a few things from you. Such as your cultivation technique, a list of your abilities, and some currency. I also would liked to be shown around."
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"..."
"You're a fake! No emperor would bother learning such techniques!"
Zero didn't expect to be seen through so easily.
"I am not an astral emperor. But I am a being which watches outside the river of time."
"You liar! You are under arrest for trying to appear as an emperor."
"If you touch me... you will die. Maybe. Depends on my mood."
"Nonsense."
The man waved his hand and chains appeared around Zero.
Zero had already warned the man.
He used his strength to break the chains.
"Impossible... you are at spirit severing?"
"Nope!"
"I suppose I'll dissect your brain for information..."
"What?"
Zero wrapped his infinity around the person freezing them in place.
The man struggled but it was useless.
Zero then flew to him and put his hand on his forehead.
He had nanites analyze his entire brain structure.
He fired off nearly all of synapses and neurotransmitters.
Getting a glimpse of the mans life and some of his knowledge.
He then erased memories of himself.
Since Zero's nanites were so small...
He actually did minimal damage to the mans brain.
You could say the man was lucky to come away unharmed.
Then Zero disappeared.
The man sat there below the realm...
He felt like he had come here to do something.
He just couldn't remember what?
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Zero had got the full outline of this worlds cultivation system.
It was fairly basic but different from the system he had made himself.
You had Qi Condensation.
Foundation Establishment.
Core formation.
Nascent Soul.
Spirit Severing.
Transcendent Body.
Immortal Dao Fruit.
For Qi Condensation.
There were points.
Where there were a meridians in the body you have to unblock.
To set up pathways for future use.
The amount varied depending on the practitioner.
Generally... when learning cultivation.
You would go one step at a time and receive the next meditation technique once you had passed the threshold.
But Zero had skipped that by reading Haoran Kai's mind.
He now knew that this man was a special exception.
His cultivation was only at nascent soul.
But he was given an authority by the celestial emperor.
As well as the special privilege to learn all of the steps of a cultivation technique.
It was called the 'Eternal Sutra'.
He also had a special gift.
As long as he could draw power in from the emperor.
He would never age.
It was how he had guarded the gateway between realms for ten thousand years.
When generally a nascent soul only lives for a thousand years.
As for how he got such a position with such crap aptitude?
It was through his fathers connections.
He was even given a special cipher scroll that allowed him to simulate the cultivation of spirit severing.
This was enough to fight mortals definitely and guard the barrier between 'realms'.
Zero didn't care about the special 'authority' he had.
He had the authority of a Paradox after all.
He also had his timeless existence.
So now it is time to explain what one unlocks through cultivation.
You don't gain much from becoming a Qi condensation level cultivator.
Just a Qi passage way through your body.
It should be noted that something is terribly wrong with Zero's body.
He isn't naturally producing Qi.
For now at least.
Well at least not the version that this world uses.
As for what you gain upon becoming a Qi condensation cultivator?
A slightly stronger body.
You don't even have the ability to project Qi outwards yet.
Once you have gotten enough pathways for Qi to flow.
It is time to construct pillars in your dantian.
You construct a total set of three pillars.
Each time you must be baptized by the world will through a tribulation.
This is what gives the pillars the authority to leak spiritual energy.
From the cracks on the pillars, spiritual energy will leak in.
A foundation establishment cultivator gains the ability to project Qi outside of their body.
Once you have established a foundation. You want to connect your dantian to your meridians.
So they now have the ability to power lower scale formations and magic talismans and use basic movement techniques like dash.
Zero was very interested in this worlds version of formations.
Unfortunately the memories he went through didn't have much knowledge on them.
The energy flows in from cracks in the pillars.
And it is spiritual energy and not Qi that leaks in from the environment.
What is the difference?
Well Qi is naturally produced from the body.
Spiritual energy is from the environment.
To progress from foundation establishment to core formation.
One must smelt the pillars and make a core.
It is at this point that a great deal of spiritual energy will flow from the last remaining pillar in the middle of the core. You will cut the last pillar you saved in half which will be the main source of spiritual energy.
The pillar must be blessed by the world will through multiple tribulations.
This is how it leaks spiritual energy from the environment.
The core will then convert this spiritual energy into Qi.
At this point you will gain the ability to use more sophisticated movement techniques.
Soaring through the skies. As well as the ability to use attack techniques like elemental blades.
Once you have a stable core.
You can progress to nascent soul.
You leave your core intact.
But you must refine your spirit.
You will eventually have a smaller version of yourself encased in the core meditating on the pillar.
This requires the user to have spiritual roots.
These are essentially 'tentacles' for your soul.
You use these to shape your spirit.
Converting your spirit into a miniature version of yourself.
You then unlock a spiritual sense which is very similar to Zero's independent consciousness.
This spiritual sense will be able to cover larger areas as you advance.
The nascent soul will start out as red.
Once you refine it again.
It will become orange.
After you refine it for a third time.
It will become golden.
At that point you are ready to severe your spirit.
You must find something important to you, or that has some significance.
You then sever that thing from your soul.
The bigger the sacrifice the greater the impact.
You then step into spirit severing.
Where you gain soul perception.
This allows you to use soul energy in attacks and techniques.
Using complicated techniques like teleportation.
At this stage.
You can lift mountains with ease.
Using your soul.
You need to sever three times to breakthrough to Transcendent Body.
At this stage your dantian, meridians, soul and body fuse into one being.
It becomes possible to revive from a single drop of blood.
After this stage is the mythical stage of Immortal Dao Fruit.
This stratum is based on comprehending laws.
As for how you breakthrough to such a stage.
This is a secret... although it is speculated that.
You must turn a law into a fruit for your existence.
It is said that you must comprehend the laws of the universe.
Once you have the immortal dao fruit.
You become an emperor.
The amount of such beings in the universe can be counted on one hand supposedly.
Zero was quite interested in forming a dao fruit.
It should allow him to comprehend a law.
Zero already had experiences of 100% comprehension of a few laws.
It was related to how he became rank 9 after all.
Soul, Water, Fire, Lightning, Wind, Metal, Earth.
As well as bigger more powerful laws.
Destruction, Creation, Infinity, Space, Gravity, Time, Chaos.
As well as his fake law.
Eternal.
He had a lot of insight into these laws.
He merely needed to reach this world's peak.
Although he currently lacked a dantian and spiritual roots...