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It took a full hundred years of effort before Lu Yuan could cleanse his Taiping Tao Fruit of the Heavenly Path’s aura.
After the cleansing, Lu Yuan was left utterly drained in spirit and soul.
Describing someone as overdrawed and withered is exactly the state he was in at that time.
This also meant that although he did not want to waste Time, his body and divine soul truly did not permit it, and in the end, he had to rest for another ten years after cleansing the Tao Fruit before he could fully recover.
After cleaning the Tao Fruit, having removed the aura of the Great Tao that belonged to the Heavenly Path, the subsequent fusion with the Dao became much simpler.
Without the Heavenly Path’s aura as an obstacle, Lu Yuan wanted to merge his divine soul and magic power with the Tao Fruit, and there was no obstruction at all.
You only need to refine the Tao Fruit like refining Magical Treasures, slowly nurturing the Tao Fruit, then making it responsive like an extension of one’s own body, and that’s it.
For Lu Yuan, who already had a wealth of experience in refining Avatars, this wasn’t a particularly difficult task.
Refining Avatars is a form of refinement, as is refining Tao Fruits.
The only difference is that previously the entity fused with the Magical Treasures was Lu Yuan’s Soul Splitting.
Now, the Magical Treasures have become the Tao Fruit, and the entity that needs to fuse with it has also become his own Main Soul.
The materials differ, but the form and steps are the same, so it’s not a problem.
With his past experience, Lu Yuan spent just over a decade making some adaptive planning for the refining technique, process, steps, and model.
Then he started, and in a few months, he had already reached basic proficiency.
Finally, after eighty-three years of getting the basics down, he achieved major success in refining; the Tao Fruit merged with the Divine Soul and was entrusted to the Great Tao.
"From now on, I am the Dao, and the Dao is me, inseparable from each other. Hahaha..."
Inside the Cave Mansion, Lu Yuan, now unified with the Dao, was experiencing the nearly boundless Taiping Avenue, feeling the profound state after fully integrating with the Tao Fruit, and couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
Only after truly possessing a Tao Fruit could he realize how superficial his previous use of the Power of Tao Fruit was.
He also finally understood why, despite both having Tao Fruits, the gap between a Heavenly Immortal and Earth Immortal was as vast as the heavens and the abyss.
It’s like with an army, the authority of an Earth Immortal can only mobilize one person. But a Heavenly Immortal can command the entire army, mobilizing the power of ten thousand for their own use.
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How vast is the difference between one soldier and an army of ten thousand?
It’s not simply a difference of one and ten thousand times; it’s an exponential expansion.
The gap being so immense, it’s no wonder that Heavenly Immortals can easily overpower Earth Immortals.
Because from the perspective of the Dao, the two aren’t even the same species; Inborn, they exist on entirely different dimensional levels.
After laughing for a while, Lu Yuan stopped, gathering his scattered thoughts.
"This is merely the integration with the Tao Fruit, and I have already widened the gap in quality and quantity between myself and those Earth Immortals.
Yet, this is just the second barrier on the path to becoming a Heavenly Immortal, and only the first half of the second barrier at that.
What follows is finding a place for the Tao Fruit, to give leaves branches, wood roots, and roots earth, to firmly establish the foundation, which marks the completion of the second barrier.
After the second barrier, one must create a Cave World to carry the Heavenly Path.
Compared to those Heavenly Immortals, I am still lacking in two levels. Although it might be cliché to say, with my current state, I can indeed only be considered a Half-step Heavenly Immortal.
There’s a gap with Earth Immortals, and while I possess some characteristics of a Heavenly Immortal, I am still lacking.
If I were to truly confront a Heavenly Immortal, at best, I could manage to exchange a few moves from originally having no power to resist, to having a back-and-forth.
But after those moves, the Tao Fruit without a source of power to replenish it would quickly wither and collapse due to the rapid depletion of the Power of Tao Fruit.
Having merged with the Tao Fruit, I would have no choice but to die along with it.
So compared with those legitimate Heavenly Immortals, I’m still out of my league, truly incomparable."
After a moment of deep thought, Lu Yuan shook his head repeatedly, waking entirely from the joy of his breakthrough.
The more control one has, the more one knows; the more one knows, the more one fears.
Now that he has only stepped into the second barrier, Lu Yuan has felt the disparity between himself and those Heavenly Immortals.
He has also become clearer that if there really were a Heavenly Immortal who had laid out plans against him, with his current self, he would absolutely not be able to resist.
Even now, having fused with the Dao, he would not be able to withstand.
Because he is still lacking two whole levels!
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Unless he, too, could become a Heavenly Immortal, stand on the same dimension as his adversary, and then use the power of the same level to contend against the opponent.
Otherwise, Lu Yuan was simply no match for a Heavenly Immortal.
Similarly, it is for this reason that the gap between an Earth Immortal and a Heavenly Immortal is so vast.
Then, a Heavenly Immortal who has mastered a Dao Fruit compares with the Heavenly Path that possesses countless harvested Dao Fruits—is it not just like the difference between an Earth Immortal and a Heavenly Immortal, missing one, or even several Yuan?
An Earth Immortal cannot rebel against a Heavenly Immortal, nor can Lu Yuan, who is at half-step Heavenly Immortal, rebel against a Heavenly Immortal.
And how could Heavenly Immortals possibly rebel against the Heavenly Path?
Understanding all this, Lu Yuan could finally comprehend why each Heavenly Immortal, despite possessing such tremendous power, having fused with the Dao, and even having created worlds,
still chooses to demarcate their territory defensively, constructing a prison for themselves and confining themselves within the narrow boundaries of a domain, daring not to venture out.
It’s not that they do not wish to, but really because if the Heavenly Path catches this unregistered being, they would be utterly powerless to resist, facing only death.
Between death and imprisonment, it seems many would be able to make a wise choice.
After realizing how insignificant he was, Lu Yuan started the second phase of cultivation with an even greater sense of reverence.
Fusing with the Dao is only the beginning of the second phase; after the fusion, it’s about finding a vessel for the Dao.
And according to the customs of the Immortal Realm, this vessel naturally is the Taiping Domain.
However, the Taiping Domain is a part of the Immortal Realm, the soil of the Immortal Realm; if you wish to occupy it blatantly, it will inevitably attract the attention of the Heavenly Path.
If anyone were to lose any part of their body, no matter how minuscule, and it occurred suddenly, they would feel that something was amiss.
Even the bite of a mosquito causes pain, doesn’t it?
The same logic applies to the Immortal Realm.
Thus, for a cultivator to successfully draw blood from the body of the Immortal Realm, they naturally have to, like a mosquito, first secrete anesthetic toxin to numb the senses of the Heavenly Path.
Only then can they take a bite and extract a piece of territory like the Taiping Domain from the body of the Immortal Realm.
And this toxin used to numb the Heavenly Path, at this moment, does not require Lu Yuan’s personal preparation; the previous masters of the Taiping Domain had already prepared it for him.
It is the shielding formation that spans the entire Great Domain.
Previously, since deciding to rush towards becoming a Heavenly Immortal, Lu Yuan had begun to organize and master the domain’s shielding formations, and now, nearly two thousand years have passed, and he has already completed this task.
Now, with the need at hand, he could immediately activate the formation to temporarily block the Heavenly Path’s perception of this place.
And he did exactly that.
Thus, once the entire Taiping Domain was cloaked by a layer of formation, completely isolated from the outside world, the people across the Donghua Continent were immediately aware.
The School Leader Lu of Taiping Dao has now reached the second phase of Heavenly Immortal, starting to find a vessel for the Dao Fruit.
The news spread and naturally caused a great commotion.
Amidst the bustling discussion, the rumors of Lu Yuan as the Chosen One only deepened in people’s belief.
Otherwise, how could someone become a Grand Cultivator and reach this stage in just over seventeen hundred years?
This is the speed of the Chosen One.
And amidst the discussions, Time began to flow again; in the blink of an eye, another eight hundred years passed.
After such a long period, inside the Donghua Continent, aside from a few interested individuals, hardly anyone spoke of the affairs of the Taiping Domain anymore.
An issue, no matter how topical, being discussed for eight hundred years, would also grow tiresome.
Moreover, over these eight hundred years, the Taiping Domain had been continuously sealed off, and outsiders simply could not enter beneath the shielding formation.
Anyone who dared to trespass into the formation never came out again.
This place had become a de facto dead zone.
Yet, in this isolated island, cut off from the world, on this day, the sky was resplendent, the clouds thin and the azure sky clear.
Suddenly, Heaven and Earth underwent drastic changes, and the cosmos seemed to invert.
Various marvels surged forth, causing the numerous beings within the domain to feel heart palpitations, subconsciously feeling as if they had been transported to a different Heaven and Earth.
A voice echoed within their hearts: "I am the Heaven!"
Those familiar with it could tell that this was the voice of Lu Yuan, the current School Leader of Taiping Dao and Immortal Venerate.