Chapter 3: Prologue: Soul Cultivation
A few hundred years went by and Dante went through many changes. Firstly, over the last few hundred years, Dante reached the Peak of the Mortal Realm or the 9th Layer of the Revolving Core Realm (6th Realm in Essence Gathering).
He had also managed to master his Martial Arts up to his current cultivation stage. Dante calls it 'Heaven's Ruler Martial Arts' which will be part of a series. For example, his sword arts will be called 'Heaven's Ruler Sword Arts', his spear arts will be called 'Heaven's Ruler Spear Arts', and so on.
Dante also called his cultivation technique, 'Heaven's Ruler Cultivation Manual'.
If he were to classify his 'Heaven's Ruler Martial Arts' into a category, it'd be a Peak-Earth-Tier Martial Arts. Which is essentially a Martial Arts used for people at the Peak of the Mortal Realms.
The classifications for Artifacts/Professions/Techniques/Bloodlines/Physiques/Beasts Ranks goes like this:
- Mortal (Lower/Middle/Peak)
- Earth (Lower/Middle/Peak)
- Sky (Lower/Middle/Peak)
- Heaven (Lower/Middle/Peak)
- Saint (Lower/Middle/Peak)
- Divine (Lower/Middle/Peak)
Each tier along with its corresponding sub-tier represents a Realm in cultivation. For example, a Middle-Mortal-Tier represents the 2nd Realm of either the Essence Gathering or Body Tempering systems.
Over the last few hundred years, Dante also finally found out what all 18 Realms in both the Body Tempering and Essence Gathering Cultivation systems were. Along with the 9 Realms in Soul Cultivation.
Essence Gathering goes like this:
—----------------------------------------- Mortal
1: Body Strengthening
2: Meridian Opening
3: Qi Gathering
4: Qi Condensation
5: Foundation
6: Revolving Core
—------------------------------------------ Transformation
7: Golden Core
8: Core and Soul Fusion
9: Nascent Soul
10: Soul Forging
11: Divine Sea
12: Life Destructions
—-----------------------------------------Ascendance
13: Qi Transformation
14: Earth
15: Sky
16: Saint
17: Divinity
18: Immortal Ascension
Body Tempering goes like this:
—---------------------------------------Mortal
1: Strength Training
2: Meridian Strengthening
3: Flesh Training
4: Viscera Strengthening
5: Muscle Forging
6: Bone Forging
—---------------------------------------- Transformation
7: Marrow Tempering 20%
8: Marrow Tempering 40%
9: Marrow Tempering 60%
10: Marrow Tempering 80%
11: Marrow Tempering 100%
12: Marital Ascendance
—----------------------------------------------- Ascendance
13: Hidden Gates (Lower 3)
14: Hidden Gates (Middle 3)
15: Hidden Gates (Upper 3)
16: Nine Stars (Lower 3)
17: Nine Stars (Middle 3)
18: Nine Stars (Upper 3)
And Soul Cultivation goes like this:
1: Nascent Soul
2: Infant Soul
3: Toddler Soul
4: Young Soul
5: Adult Soul
6: Mature Soul
7: King Soul
8: Emperor Soul
9: Divine Soul
There were a few things Dante found a bit odd, like why is there 9 Gates for Body Tempering? And why does Soul Cultivation only start after one reaches the 10th Realm of the Essence Gathering called the Soul Forging Realm instead of the 9th Realm, the Nascent Soul Realm when the 1st Realm of Soul cultivation is literally called the Nascent Soul Realm?
Well, it doesn't really matter to him as these are essentially just baselines for him to follow. He's just going to do whatever can unlock 100% of his potential.
He also learned a few things regarding the Realms in the Transformation and Ascension Stages.
From what he can understand, the Mortal Realms are like the foundation. If your foundation is unstable or if you used a cultivation technique that wasn't suitable for your body then one would find it extremely hard to make it very far in the Transformation Realms and reaching the Ascension Realms is basically impossible.
This only further proved Dante's theory of just how important it is for him to draw out 100% of his body's potential. He's 99.99% sure that if he drew out anything less than 100% potential, then he'd never reach the peak of his existence.
With this knowledge, Dante spent the next few decades studying, experimenting on, and fighting people in the Transformation Realms. Sure what he did was definitely inhumane as he would often capture these people and dissect them for research purposes, but he didn't feel the slightest remorse!
Dante isn't concerned with petty things such as morality! In Dante's mind, he will one day reach a realm of power that even the gods could only dream about, so how could someone who stands above the gods, the heavens, and everything else care about the plight of these foolish ants?
Honestly, he can't see the difference between humans and beasts, especially in the Immortal Realm. The beasts here are just as intelligent if not more intelligent than humans. Beasts can even acquire a human form after reaching a certain Realm!
Yet, humans are okay with slaughtering these intelligent beings, taming them as pets, experimenting on them, using their body parts for weapons, armor, and other things all the while doing other "morally wrong" things to them.
With these thoughts in his mind, Dante sees absolutely no problem experimenting on humans, especially considering that he is of the same race as them. If doing this can assist him in any way, then these hairless apes should be grateful! For he will be the 1st true Immortal in the Immortal Realm!
This carried on for the next few thousand years until Dante reached the peak of the Essence Gathering System or the 9th Layer of the Immortal Ascension Realm. Dante's age at this point was around 15,000 years old.
Luckily this was still rather young for someone at the Peak of the Immortal Ascension Realm. Honestly, he didn't even know how long he could live at this point since his foundation was perfect and he was able to draw out 100% of his body's potential in the Essence Gathering cultivation system.
Throughout the last 14,000 years or so, Dante could be said to be one of the most infamous people in the entire Immortal Realm. This is for many different reasons.
First of all, he only ever wore beast pelts. He never shaved, he never took care of himself, he never talked to anyone unless he wanted to sell or trade for something, and he basically looked like a homeless beggar who smelled like blood and shit all the time.
This got him the title of: Immortal Beggar.
Another thing he was famous for was using Martial Arts while being an Essence Gathering cultivator.
But that isn't why he was so infamous, feared, and hated amongst everyone in the Immortal Realm.
The reason why he was so infamous was mainly because of how fucking crazy he was! He roamed the Immortal Realm having deathmatches with humans and beasts alike! As long as they could give him a good fight to further his cultivation and 'Heaven's Ruler Martial Arts' then he wouldn't hesitate to fight them! Consequences be damned!
This only got worse the stronger he got as there were fewer and fewer enemies. It reached a point where he needed to start hunting down Sects, Kingdoms, and other populated places.
He couldn't be negotiated with as he didn't want anything other than Spirit Stones and a fight! He didn't care about treasures! He only cared about his techniques!
This earned him the title of: Demon Beggar!
But thanks to this, he was always being hunted down by people. It seems he also indirectly raised a few Main Character-worthy people due to him killing their family or something. Honestly, he didn't really care why these people chased him down, but this was also a good thing. These people would grow up pretty strong and would be able to give him a good fight in a few thousand years. He might even be able to try out a new cultivation system on them! Honestly, he only saw benefits to killing millions, if not billions of people!
He was constantly being hunted, which put his mind and body in a state of alert, increasing his comprehension and cultivation, he got their hard-earned loot after he killed them, and he was even raising strong people with how much hate he caused all over the world!
What more could a guy ask for? Hahaha!
With that being said, now that Dante reached the Peak not only in his Essence Gathering cultivation but in his 'Heaven's Ruler Martial Arts', it was time to switch his focus onto something else!
That something else being… Soul Cultivation!
Dante chose this for a few reasons. One, it seems like Soul Cultivation and Essence Gathering Cultivation are somewhat linked. Two, even though Soul Cultivation only has 9 Realms, it'll definitely take much longer to finish than Body Tempering. Three, because he doesn't have all of the resources and knowledge ready to cultivate the Body Tempering system. And four, once he finishes his Soul Cultivation, he'll basically be unkillable by any threat in the entire Immortal Realm.
His only threat would be people or beasts with abnormally strong bodies, but he can just kill these people with Soul attacks before they can even get close. Even if they do get close, he didn't raise his 'Heaven's Ruler Martial Arts' all the way up to Peak-Divine-Tier with 100% compatibility with his body for no reason. He's confident that he'd be able to handle any close-quarter threats.
Knowing this, Dante didn't hesitate to start cultivating his soul.
Over the last 15,000 years, Dante has acquired a vast amount of knowledge about all of the Cultivation Realm, and knowing that he's going to be working on his Soul Cultivation next, he studied this just as much as his Essence Gathering cultivation.
The general consensus about Soul Cultivation is that one needs both talent and resources in order to cultivate it, but Dante calls bullshit!
Actually, what most people think isn't wrong. Soul Cultivation does require talent and specific resources like various herbs or pills. One wouldn't be able to make it far without these, but Dante knows that this is mainly because humans don't understand the soul very well. So they come up with some half-baked Soul Cultivation Manual that require specific resources in order to progress further.
In fact, following this one would be able to reach the peak in Soul Cultivation, but they would only be able to draw out a limited amount of potential with such a method.
The main reason for this is actually the Soul Cultivation Manual and not the herbs or pills. As long as these herbs and/or pills contain no impurities and with a Cultivation Manual that is 100% compatible with the user, then one would actually be able to bring out 100% of their potential.
Dante has already created a Soul Cultivation Manual with 100% compatibility for himself. One that doesn't require the use of pills or herbs, but he isn't opposed to taking pills or herbs as long as they don't contain any impurities.
But honestly, Dante doesn't really care and has no need to rush things. His life span is incredibly long and he doubts that he's even reached 10% of his remaining lifespan. It's likely that he still has over 95% of his lifespan remaining.
Plus, he needs to work on his Soul Arts. He needs a 'Heaven's Ruler Soul Attack Arts', 'Heaven's Ruler Soul Defense Arts', and a 'Heaven's Ruler Soul Auxiliary Arts'.
With these thoughts in mind, Dante didn't waste any more time and proceeded to cultivate his soul.
Weekly Power Status
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