Chapter 2856 - 2918: Cultivator Levels

Li Yifei not only wasn’t displeased, he was even more excited. He suddenly realized he might be about to touch events from several hundred years ago. In that woman’s era, there were likely far more Cultivators, and their cultivation far deeper, so how could he not be excited.

"Senior." Li Yifei bowed respectfully and said, "Please tell me about these things. We... to be honest, our current situation is rather miserable. You heard it just now too—someone with my level of cultivation is already one of the strongest people in the world today. What on earth happened during this period?"

"You’re asking me?" the other party said.

"Uh, yeah. You’re from the Ming Dynasty, there are hundreds of years between us. What happened in all that time? Oh right, I forgot to say—these days, even those powerful figures who live past a hundred years, they don’t know a thing about realms beyond the Innate Realm. We even thought Innate Experts were already the limit for Cultivators, that even if you kept cultivating there’d be no further progress. Although I don’t believe that, in this world right now I truly don’t know if anyone has broken through the realm of Innate Experts."

The other party suddenly fell silent, not speaking for a long time. Just when Li Yifei was about to lose his patience, she finally said, "I don’t know why either. When I died, everything was still normal."

"But... all the Sects that remain now don’t have any written transmission or records at all. It’s simply unbelievable. Over the years we’ve also discovered some Sects and tombs, and every single one of them has no records. That’s basically impossible. You have to know, even if some great calamity occurred, it couldn’t possibly wipe out all records relating to this. The kind of power needed for that..."

"I can’t answer your question."

"Alright then, can you at least tell me what realms lie above the Innate Realm?" Li Yifei took a step back from his original request. He’d thought he could learn the secrets of that vanished stretch of Cultivator history, but since the other party didn’t know, he could only change the question. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help looking at her with longing.

The woman frowned slightly and nodded. "Primordial Yang—this is when your Dantian shatters and becomes an infant, when you transform Qi into a torrential flood, your Meridians within expanding into wide rivers, letting the river-water formed from True Qi flow through your body. Only then can you become a true Cultivator!"

"Primordial Yang?" Li Yifei repeated.

"Yes. After Primordial Yang comes Dividing Spirit. What we call Dividing Spirit is the ability to split your spirit off; within your body it’s like nurturing a baby. That is also you; you are also it. So once you reach this stage, even if your physical body dies, as long as your Divided Spirit remains, you won’t die. You just need some time to slowly rebuild a body."

"This..." Li Yifei listened with eyes wide, feeling utterly astonished. It was hard to even imagine. So above Innate Experts there weren’t just higher realms, there were two of them. And each sounded more terrifying than the last—no, not just two realms. The woman still hadn’t stopped; he heard her continue, "Above Dividing Spirit is Understanding Void. Understanding Void, simply put, is your comprehension of yourself and your comprehension of the world reaching unity—the universe is within your body, and your body is the universe."

"Your own body becomes a world?" Li Yifei hurriedly asked.

"You could understand it that way. But some people can condense an extremely vast world, full of Flying Birds and beasts, people and objects, air and everything. While some can only condense a very small world. So there’s no unified standard here; it all depends on each person’s capability and fortune," she said.

"I think I kind of get it. So, Senior, before you died, you’d already cultivated to the realm of Understanding Void?" Li Yifei boldly asked. This was his guess, but it wasn’t hard to make. The world this woman was in was a small, independent world. And in that instant Li Yifei also thought of that Formation Method in Vietnam and all the marvels on Island of All Beings...

"That’s right, I indeed reached Understanding Void. It’s just that... though my realm was there, my actual cultivation wasn’t as good as others’."

"That’s already beyond imagination. I’m just an Innate Expert, yet that already makes me one of the strongest people alive. And you’re three realms above me—if you appeared in the mortal world you’d probably be a god." Li Yifei sighed.

"Yet I won’t appear in the world, and I can’t leave." she said.

"Why not?" Li Yifei asked immediately.

"Because I’m already dead. If you hadn’t awakened me, I might have kept maintaining this state. But now that I’m awake, I... have another quarter-hour, then I’ll completely disperse." The woman’s tone held no emotion at all, as if she were talking about something utterly ordinary—disperse and that’s that.

Li Yifei was a bit dumbfounded and quickly said, "I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would be like this. Is there anything I can do to save you?"

"No. And it’s nothing really. The fact I could stay like this at all is thanks to a secret art I used to anchor my soul, but it’s already used up the last remaining bit."

"Um, Senior, could you still tell me more about Cultivators? What we know right now is way too little. For example, how do you break through from the Innate Realm to the next realm?" Li Yifei asked.

The woman only chuckled and said, "I’m just wondering what could’ve happened in these four or five hundred years to make Cultivators fall to this level. I laugh thinking whether those Great Powers ever saw such a scene—Cultivators fallen so low that they can only barely step through the door, yet don’t even know what lies beyond it!"

"Senior, this isn’t the time for lamenting. You just said you can only hold on for a while, then you might go to another world, so..."

"You said another world?" The woman suddenly cut off Li Yifei’s words.

"Uh, yeah, like Yama’s Palace and places like that," Li Yifei said.

"Hahaha, no, there’s no such place, at least I don’t know of one. But what you said is possible. Back then those Great Powers couldn’t all have simply died, could they!" At this point the woman burst into wild laughter, shaking Li Yifei’s brain until it hurt.

"All things follow karma. Since you don’t know, then don’t seek to know. Maybe that’s what a normal world should be like. Alright, let’s leave it at that. Since you awakened me and learned my fist technique, that’s your karmic chance."

"Mm, mm."

"If one hears the Dao at dawn, one may die at dusk. The human world’s Dao—speak not of sentiment..." The woman’s voice grew ever more ethereal, as if she were walking farther and farther away. By the time she uttered the last word, Li Yifei even felt like the voice was already several kilometers away. And as soon as she finished speaking, the woman in front of him began to disperse.

Yes, disperse. Her body began to come apart, turning into patches of light, fragmenting piece by piece. In just a few blinks of an eye she had vanished completely. Li Yifei didn’t even have time to do anything during the entire process.

"That’s... it?" Li Yifei muttered, feeling rather lost. He might very well be the first person in this world to have communicated with someone from four or five hundred years ago. The other party had used a secret art to preserve her soul until now, but she could only stay for a brief time. Li Yifei clicked his tongue, sighed in his heart, and said, "Well, at least I learned something. Better than knowing nothing. So realms above the Innate Realm really do exist, it’s just that for some unknown reason people nowadays simply can’t cultivate to the next tier. And all the techniques, knowledge, even the basic common sense about cultivation level tiers has been completely lost. To say there’s no reason for that is impossible. But what is that reason?"

Thinking back to the three Cultivator Levels this senior woman had mentioned, Li Yifei’s mind drifted. Especially since she had reached the third tier—what kind of powerhouse must that be? Yet even such a powerhouse didn’t remain. What exactly had happened back then...

Her entire body had turned to ash; after those points of light faded, nothing at all was left. It was as if the hut had never held that woman at all. Li Yifei knew that with his level of comprehension he had no way to understand this phenomenon. All he could do was sigh.

A moment later, he collected himself and threw himself back into searching. There wasn’t anything else, but he did find several bottles of Pills. One bottle was labeled Qi Returning Pills, another was labeled Spirit Restoring Pill, and a third, judging by the name, seemed to be a Pill that could temporarily boost cultivation—called Might Enhancing Pill. These Pills didn’t look spoiled; maybe it was because time had no concept here, making preservation easy. Li Yifei took off his backpack and stuffed all the Pills inside.

"Thank you, Senior. These things might be greatly useful to this junior, they might even decide the outcome of a battle, so I won’t stand on ceremony." Li Yifei cupped his hands toward the spot where the woman had originally stood. After expressing his gratitude, he turned to leave.

"Clang!" Suddenly a sound rang out, like something falling to the floor. Li Yifei halted and turned back, only to see a jade pendant drop from the top of the bed. It was a Phoenix Jade Pendant. Li Yifei walked over and picked it up, feeling a refreshing coolness seep into his heart. The moment he held it, his mind grew calm. Knowing this was a good treasure, he naturally put it away without hesitation.

Leaving the grassy hut, Li Yifei turned back to look at this space created by a woman who, in the eyes of modern people, would be a god. Walking to the ever-flourishing, all-seasons-blooming cherry tree, Li Yifei picked up the jar with more than half the wine left and drained it in one go. After bellowing in satisfaction, he also felt reluctant to part with such fine wine, so he had to mark this place well and, once he got out, find a chance to come back and take the wine.

"The previous generation plants the tree, the later generation enjoys the shade. My thanks, Senior. If I have the chance someday, I’ll set up a clothes-and-cap cenotaph for you. But after four or five hundred years, your family has probably long vanished without a trace. That really is a regret."

I recommend the book "Urban Peach-Blossom Mad Young Master" by Hotpot Bro. It’s a very good read and worth checking out!