Su Yuan stepped alone onto the fourth floor of the Scripture Pavilion. There, he saw numerous Nascent Soul-level cultivation techniques sealed within protective formations. As Su Yuan approached one of the technique manuals, the formation automatically opened for him.
He casually browsed through the contents. After studying dozens of manuals explaining Nascent Soul cultivation, he fundamentally understood the principles behind this realm. The Nascent Soul transformed the Golden Core into a humanoid form, allowing part of one's soul to inhabit it, mimicking an energy-based lifeform. This enabled spiritual energy to rapidly enhance soul strength, making it easier to comprehend the truths of heaven and earth and grasp conceptual realms.
All cultivation before the Golden Core stage was merely preparation - creating an "energy body" for the soul. Following the fundamental principle of "flesh nurturing the soul," the soul could then metamorphose into a Nascent Soul, bringing cultivators closer to cosmic truths. The Nascent Soul stage went further by merging most of one's soul with spiritual energy, fusing them into a single entity - the Nascent Soul form!
This allowed the soul to evolve to higher levels, making it easier to perceive cosmic truths and eventually comprehend fragments of universal laws. Thus, the purpose of cultivating a Nascent Soul was precisely to comprehend these laws.
In the Void Refinement stage, the so-called "void" referred to the elusive universal laws. Void Refinement meant refining and integrating these laws into the Nascent Soul, endowing it with law-like properties for further evolution. The Body Unity stage then merged this law-enhanced Nascent Soul back with the physical body, allowing one's flesh to also gain law-like characteristics and making law comprehension even easier.
Humanity's origin was as flesh-and-blood creatures. The intermediate Nascent Soul stage merely borrowed some traits of energy-based lifeforms for easier law comprehension, but this path had limits. As humans weren't true energy beings, continued soul growth still required physical support - otherwise progress would become immensely difficult. Hence the eventual return to bodily unity in the Body Unity stage.
After this stage, one could wield laws with mere gestures. With a law-enhanced body protecting and nourishing it, the Nascent Soul could continue advancing until reaching a level where heavenly tribulations would descend. These tribulations further harmonized body and soul with universal laws, integrating more law power for greater strength. Beyond this lay the Mahayana realm and higher.
Returning to the present, Su Yuan fell into deep thought. Examining his body, he could faintly see threads of stellar laws operating within. Due to his 100,000-year lifespan, his flesh had already reached a level comparable to divine beasts, naturally capable of integrating laws without Nascent Soul fusion. So did he even need to cultivate a Nascent Soul?
The answer was yes - because Nascent Souls enhanced law comprehension talent. But he realized shattering his Golden Core wasn't necessary. Why not directly use spiritual energy to metamorphose his soul into a Nascent Soul while retaining his Golden Core?
Thus, the traditional cultivation system was an interlocking sequence. But Su Yuan's spiritual energy reserves were vast with rapid recovery - he didn't need to shatter his core for energy! The conceptual power needed for Nascent Soul formation could be easily extracted and fused. As for the Dao foundation (formed from spiritual roots during Foundation Building breakthrough)... Su Yuan had never integrated it into his Golden Core, instead using it as a "vessel" (the Burning Wood Forges Gold Cauldron) to contain his core. Now that his core no longer needed this protection, the foundation could directly bear conceptual power, eliminating the need for core shattering.
"If others could cultivate seven or more Golden Cores like me while comprehending sufficient conceptual realms, they might also skip core shattering to transform their souls into Nascent Souls! At most they'd need to shatter one or two cores!"
Suddenly Su Yuan realized something crucial. "Wait - others must use their Dao foundation as the core to form a Golden Core, otherwise unified formation is impossible. But because I started condensation from the Golden Sand stage, gradually forming my core, I never needed the foundation to construct it - leaving it available."
This explained why he could form multiple Golden Cores while ordinary systems permitted only one. The Golden Sand to Venus stage cultivation not only reduced core formation difficulty but eliminated the need for a Dao foundation!
As Su Yuan pondered, he unconsciously transferred his Dao foundation into his sea of consciousness. The foundation, transformed from spiritual roots, automatically fused with his soul, generating intense hunger for spiritual energy. Su Yuan directly activated all nine Golden Cores, fully supplying energy for the soul-foundation fusion.
Spiritual energy, Dao foundation and soul gradually merged, taking humanoid form under Su Yuan's subconscious guidance. With his vast energy reserves and rapid recovery, he had no concerns about consumption during formation. But external spiritual energy became insufficient!
Su Yuan stepped directly into the sixth-grade cave treasure Floating Light Pot. The Yuan Pool formation enveloped him as pure spiritual liquid poured into his body. [Work-Rest Balance] was already active, but the accumulated cultivation time was insufficient. Using this brief period, Su Yuan reviewed all Nascent Soul breakthrough essentials to ensure smooth progress.
Soon after, he exited cultivation state, relying on his own abilities for the final push. A sea of spiritual energy flooded his sea of consciousness as his soul began transforming into a Nascent Soul!
This breakthrough surprised even Su Yuan, but his foundations were too profound. Just by studying Nascent Soul techniques, he'd intuitively deduced the advancement principles, making breakthrough seem natural and inevitable.
Within just two hours, his Nascent Soul fully formed. Faintly, he sensed heavenly warning - tribulation was coming. Su Yuan even deduced the reason: transforming from flesh to energy lifeform violated cosmic rules, necessitating tribulation. Interestingly, subsequent Nascent Soul and Void Refinement stages wouldn't trigger tribulation, while the later Tribulation Passage stage would - when transforming from flesh to law lifeform broke rules again.
Extending this logic, beast transformations likely followed similar principles - changing from non-Dao body to Dao body (human form being the Dao body in this context) would also invite tribulation. In this moment, Su Yuan's understanding of cosmic principles deepened significantly, reaching new heights of cultivation comprehension.
From heaven and earth's perspective, cultivation represented lifeforms breaking certain rules - triggering natural chain reactions, not some celestial "jealousy" or destructive intent. This understanding even allowed him to theorize methods to shield or delay tribulation. Since flesh-to-energy transformation didn't severely damage cosmic rules, the tribulation's power would presumably be modest.
Thus Su Yuan made no effort to avoid it, simply leaving the cave treasure to appear above his cave dwelling. The heavens responded, gathering tribulation clouds. Watching the sky, [Daoist Techniques Naturally] shone brilliantly, revealing the tribulation's formation process in unprecedented detail.
This was heaven and earth's stress test for rule-breaking creatures - likely not some "Heavenly Dao" control but natural law operation. And since it followed natural laws, comprehension and mastery might be possible! Delighted by this discovery, Su Yuan attempted comprehension but soon smiled wryly - without [Work-Rest Balance] effects, trying to understand tribulation law operations was laughably difficult, probably beyond even immortals.
Meanwhile, the gathering tribulation clouds drew attention from most Seven Stars Sect elders. Gu Qingzhu rushed back to Seven Stars Peak (formerly Three Peaks) Cave #6, staring slack-jawed at Su Yuan beneath the ominous clouds. "Nascent Soul tribulation? Su Yuan is breaking through to Nascent Soul?"
In the Scripture Pavilion, Nangong Xianweng's spiritual sense swept over in shock. He'd literally just watched Su Yuan ascend to the fourth floor - how was he already breaking through? Even prodigies needed process! Others took years in secluded meditation for such breakthroughs - how many hours had passed? One? Two?
Setting down his scripture, Nangong Xianweng joined other elders flying to Cave #6, both to protect and observe Su Yuan's breakthrough. Gu Qingzhu asked, "Elder Nangong, how many tribulation layers will Su Yuan face?"
Nangong Xianweng replied, "Nascent Soul tribulations are usually Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulations, and incomplete ones at that - typically just a few thunderbolts. Mine had only six lightning strikes and nearly killed me." After a pause, he added, "With Su Yuan's terrifying talent, he'll likely face the full nine, possibly even escalating to Double-Nine!"
"Double-Nine? That's equivalent to Nascent Soul power! Impossible!" Gu Qingzhu gasped. Nearby Nascent Soul elder Yang Pingzhi interjected, "Inevitable. At least Double-Nine, though probably incomplete - twelve strikes total, matching early Nascent Soul power."
"That's terrifying! Can Su Yuan survive?" Gu Qingzhu worried. "He should," Nangong Xianweng said uncertainly. Other elders shared this mix of anticipation and concern as Su Yuan began hand-seals, analyzing the tribulation's power evaluation criteria and potential benefits from enduring different intensity levels.