Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 653 The Slowest Path to Enlightenment

When Ye Fan later traveled along the Ancient Star Road, he once came to the fiftieth city of the Human Race's Ancient Star Road and learned about the past causes and effects between the Saint Body lineage and the Overlord Body lineage from the primordial spirits of two Saint Kings who were descendants of the Overlord Body.

At that time, he learned that the conflict between the Holy Body lineage and the Hegemon Body lineage involved the ancient Heavenly Court war in the mythological era, but due to the long passage of time, he could not know the details.

In addition, there was another landmark event: the Hegemon Body lineage had a supreme being who killed several quasi-emperors long ago and was known as invincible under the starry sky. He was expected to prove his Dao, but he was defeated by an ancient ancestor of the Holy Body. Not only did he fail to take this step, but he also died and his Dao disappeared, which established the invincible reputation of this ancient ancestor of the Holy Body.

The fact that this Holy Body Ancestor was able to kill such a powerful Overlord Body Supreme shows that his strength is extremely rare and powerful. Perhaps he can be considered one of the most powerful Holy Bodies in history.

Even with his immense power, he ultimately failed to attain enlightenment and perished in the cosmos, unable to reconnect with the broken path.

Gu Qun and Cang Yuan are actually the same people Ye Fan later came to know as the Supreme Body of the Overlord Body and the Ancient Ancestor of the Saint Body. They were both incredibly talented, having entered a completely unconventional realm of enlightenment, reaching the so-called "Breakthrough Level." They were also the most powerful Undying Golden Body and Overlord Body of the Heavens since the Undying Saint Emperor and the Heavenly Overlord Emperor.

Compared to the two progenitors who successfully attained enlightenment through the Dao-Merging Flower, their luck was obviously not as good, but their talent was undoubtedly much stronger than the previous Undying Golden Body and Heavenly Tyrant Body.

They both stood on the shoulders of their two ancestors, and were able to reach this life so smoothly by practicing the secret techniques created and perfected by them. However, due to their extraordinary talent, they both made certain changes to the secret techniques passed down in their lineage to make them more suitable for themselves, rather than being complete learners.

This is also one of the reasons why they surpassed the previously created Undying Golden Body and Heavenly Tyrant Body.

Of course, although both of them reached the Breakthrough level, Gu Qun was clearly stronger and went further.

In the original timeline, because the two lineages had a deep-seated feud since the mythological era, the great war between them was a true life-or-death struggle, and in the end, Gu Qun killed Cang Yuan.

But in this timeline, the situation is different. The Undying Holy Emperor and the Azure Heaven Overlord have no conflict, let alone a life-or-death feud; in fact, they have a fairly close relationship.

Therefore, although Gu Qun and Cang Yuan engaged in a tremendous battle, it did not escalate to the point of life and death.

Although they shouldn't have been born into this world, they still ended up together and became the most powerful beings of this generation.

With these two powerful and invincible figures in charge, the human race can continue to maintain its peak in this era without emperors. After all, unless one is a true emperor, only those who have achieved enlightenment through a completely different path can contend with them.

Therefore, the human universe once again entered a period of peace.

Just when everyone thought that this era had come to an end and that an era without an emperor was about to begin, another unexpected event quietly occurred.

In a secluded corner, a cultivator was diligently practicing and making slow progress.

He was a cultivator born in this generation. When Du Mu, Gu Qun, and Cang Yuan were born and began their cultivation, he had just passed through his childhood and embarked on his own path of cultivation.

Compared to the geniuses of the universe, he was undoubtedly very ordinary and completely incomparable. He had no powerful physique or bloodline, nor any extraordinary innate talent; he only possessed an unwavering heart.

When Gu Qun and Cang Yuan reached the severed path level and became the invincible supreme beings of their generation, he, at the age of three thousand, barely ascended to the Immortal Platform. This speed can be considered extremely fast; if he had been any later, he might have even exhausted his lifespan and died directly on the path of cultivation, like those other cultivators among the masses who had a little talent. In the two thousand years that followed, Gu Qun and Cang Yuan frequently communicated and attempted to transcend tribulations multiple times to reconnect their severed paths, but ultimately they still stopped there, unable to make a breakthrough.

However, as this process progressed, their fame grew even greater. Even without becoming emperors, they were enough to suppress an era and subdue countless people.

During this time, the cultivator continued to progress at a very slow pace, and finally barely managed to cross the barrier of the Saint Realm before his blood and qi were exhausted and his lifespan ended, thus becoming a Saint.

A sage who lives to be five thousand years old—that's an astonishing achievement to some extent. After all, living to be five thousand years old before becoming a sage is already quite difficult, let alone achieving a breakthrough at the very end of one's lifespan, thereby extending one's life and regaining vitality.

From this moment on, the cultivator began to undergo a complete transformation, no longer ordinary as before, but began to accumulate knowledge and skills and make rapid progress.

It took him five thousand years to become a sage, but only one hundred and fifty years to cultivate from a sage to a sage-king. And this momentum didn't even slow down; he then took another one hundred and fifty years to reach the level of a great sage.

After becoming a Great Sage, he ventured into the forbidden realm, reaching the peak of the Great Sage in three hundred years, and seemingly without feeling any bottlenecks, thus becoming a Quasi-Emperor.

A cultivator who only became a saint at the age of five thousand years old became a quasi-emperor at the age of five thousand six hundred years old. This speed shocked countless cultivators in the human universe.

It should be noted that although he extended his lifespan due to his improved cultivation, he was never at his peak during this cultivation process, and his vital energy was not particularly vigorous.

Normally, most of a cultivator's progress occurs in the early stages, which is the first third of their life's ascent and the middle third of their peak period. After that, it's basically a period of decline due to age.

It's nothing short of a miracle that he was able to make such rapid progress even after his peak.

So, is it true that there are not only geniuses like Du Mu who are brilliant in the early stages but whose talent is short-lived and unable to reach higher levels, but also geniuses who are unremarkable in the early stages but achieve great things later in life through years of accumulation and make rapid progress?

However, becoming a quasi-emperor does not represent his ultimate achievement. Many cultivators have begun to pay attention to him, wanting to see how far this inspirational role model will ultimately go.

To their surprise, even after becoming a quasi-emperor, the cultivator, who always had white hair and a youthful face, did not slow down his progress.

Over the next seven hundred years, he successfully reached the peak of the ninth level of Quasi-Emperor, becoming a Daoist on the verge of enlightenment. At this time, he was already six thousand three hundred years old.

By this time, he naturally became a legendary figure that most cultivators in the entire human universe were paying attention to.

Despite this, his Daoist mind remained clear and unaffected by external influences, and he continued his cultivation with a calm and ordinary mind.

Finally, at the age of 6,500, he successfully completed the accumulation for the ultimate leap, triggering the Great Tribulation of Proving the Dao, and succeeded in one fell swoop, becoming known as the Star Emperor.

This result naturally shocked countless people. To accumulate the necessary experience for the final leap at the age of 6,500 and ultimately succeed in attaining enlightenment is a record that makes him arguably the slowest person to attain enlightenment in history.

(End of this chapter)