Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 235 Finally Breakthrough to Nascent Soul
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away...

Zhang Chengdao, who has always been imitated but never surpassed, is holding his breath and concentrating on breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.

That's right. In just one month, he worked day and night, announced to the outside world that he was in seclusion, and even held only one court meeting. He formulated a "three-year plan" and then stopped, all in order to break through the realm as soon as possible!
Firstly, there was still a 'Qin King Ghost' in the Qiankun Bag who was suspected of following the path of incense offerings and deities, and he couldn't just leave him in the bag and ignore him. As long as he could break through to the Nascent Soul stage, he wouldn't be at a disadvantage when facing ghost cultivators who followed the path of incense offerings and deities.

Secondly...

Even if Tang Xiaoyu's cultivation level is too low, he is still considered a cultivator at the Core Formation stage!
He didn't want his apprentice to catch up with him; otherwise, how could he maintain his dignity as a master?
So, after a month of working tirelessly day and night, Zhang Chengdao finally cultivated through three minor realms and was about to break through to the Nascent Soul stage!
During this period, what surprised him the most was that whenever his disciples broke through a minor realm, his own breakthrough countdown would be shortened a little. Although each time the reduction was almost negligible, it added up to a considerable amount. This allowed him to break through from the ninth level of the Core Formation stage to the Nascent Soul stage in just ten days. The previous breakthroughs in minor realms took even less than ten days each time, which was even shorter than the time he spent in the late Foundation Establishment stage!

Although I had vague feelings and guesses before, none of them were as clear as they have been recently. After all, with five direct disciples, the effect is much more obvious than before.

It seems that the benefits of taking on apprentices are quite significant...

Thinking of this, Zhang Chengdao even considered whether he should hold another Immortal Affinity Conference as soon as possible, so that he could get more gold card disciples to help him reduce his "CD"!

Not long after, as the countdown of the last hour slowly reached zero, Zhang Chengdao finally broke through to the Nascent Soul stage.

The term "Yuanying" refers to the cultivation of one's primordial spirit into an "infant," hence the term "Yuanying stage."

Of course, this "infant" is not the same as that "infant". This "infant" does not refer to cultivating the primordial spirit into the appearance of an infant, but is a symbolic expression, meaning "newborn".

That is, to cultivate to the point where one can scatter one's primordial spirit outwards and retrieve it at will.

Although Foundation Establishment cultivators also have a "youthful version" of "supernatural power," which is to release their divine sense, which can have a similar function to releasing the primordial spirit, divine sense and primordial spirit are actually not the same.

Divine consciousness is a kind of perception similar to sight, hearing, and touch; it can only perceive things in a partial way.

For example, when Zhang Chengdao wanted to put on a big show to intimidate the Xiao Kingdom, he used his divine sense to control Xiao Li to fly. At that time, he could only roughly sense what Xiao Li and Ye Shuyun were doing, but he could not specifically detect their expressions, actions, or words. His ability to do so was very limited.

The primordial spirit, on the other hand, is a kind of "divine thought" that can almost perfectly inherit all the sensory abilities of the original body.

However, the primordial spirit of the Nascent Soul stage can only be released for a very short time, and the distance of the release is limited. Moreover, it exists in a non-physical form called "divine thought".

Once one reaches the Out-of-Body stage, the primordial spirit can solidify into a physical form, detach from the physical body, and even use spells, supernatural powers, magical treasures, and weapons in the same way as when the primordial spirit is in the physical body—this is the origin of the term "Out-of-Body" in the Out-of-Body stage.

Under normal circumstances, for a cultivator to achieve the Nascent Soul stage, simply accumulating cultivation points is not enough. They must also truly cultivate their primordial spirit until it can be cultivated into an existence that can leave the body, only then can they be considered to have "achieved the Nascent Soul stage" and then normally undergo the Heavenly Tribulation to break through.

However, Zhang Chengdao's Dao was never closed, so he neither needed to specifically cultivate his primordial spirit nor undergo heavenly tribulations.

He just needs to get through the countdown to the breakthrough, then he can break through normally, and then...

I suddenly developed a primordial spirit!
Zhang Chengdao felt the primordial spirit within his body, which was like a newborn infant, and constantly tried to control it. The primordial spirit was like a "phantom limb," a "brain" that didn't actually exist within him. This feeling was incredibly strange, as if he had two "selves" simultaneously, and he could even control the switch of one of those "selves"—

In other words, when the primordial spirit is returned to the spiritual palace, this wondrous feeling of being able to perceive two "selves" will temporarily disappear.

After enjoying the novelty of the "primordial spirit" for a while, Zhang Chengdao finally stepped out of the room, which he hadn't left for more than ten days.

In order to break through to the Nascent Soul stage as soon as possible, I played Bubble Bobble and Candy Crush day and night, and I'm almost a deep pit goblin!

Finally a breakthrough!
Zhang Chengdao, who was still a little unaccustomed to the sunlight, even reached out to shield his eyes from the sun.

"Has anything happened lately?"

After leaving the pass, Zhang Chengdao immediately went to Lingxiao Palace and, as expected, saw Xu Ying diligently handling the affairs of the sect.

There was no way around it. Although the White Stone Immortal Sect had been established for half a year, there was still a lot to do, especially the constant adjustment and addition of various sect laws, which exhausted Xu Ying. Whether it was feasible or not was just a matter of Zhang Chengdao's words, but Xu Ying had to rack his brains to figure out the specific adjustments and additions.

In addition, during the period when Zhang Chengdao "neglected court meetings," the Grand Secretary and the Attendant, who should have held great power and handled many affairs on Zhang Chengdao's behalf, were always trembling with fear. No matter what happened, they would run over to report to Xu Ying through the teleportation array. Even though Xu Ying repeatedly emphasized that he was only responsible for the affairs within the Immortal Sect and did not care about court politics, it was to no avail. Xu Ying even thought that these court officials just wanted to experience the teleportation array back and forth!
He didn't even have a chance to try it himself!
Zhang Chengdao went into seclusion, and he dared not leave Baishi Mountain for fear of something going wrong!
Therefore, upon seeing Zhang Chengdao's figure, Xu Ying immediately began to complain bitterly, starting with the fact that the Grand Secretary and the Attendant were inhumane and always came to Baishi Mountain to force him to make decisions, to the fact that many outer disciples had been cultivating too diligently recently, to the point that Zhang Chengdao had left very little of the Earth Immortal Dew Grass, and so on.

"Sect Master, you may not know this, but even that brat Chang Ping'an sent two letters saying that the Taiyue Sword Sect already has Foundation Establishment cultivators, and asking when he can return!"

"What? The Taiyue Sword Sect has a Foundation Establishment cultivator?!"

Zhang Chengdao was genuinely unaware of this matter. He paused for a moment, then quickly asked, "When did this happen?"

Could it be that the Taiyue Sword Sect also has gold cards?!
"Just yesterday, Chang Ping'an sent back news that the kid with the 'natural sword body,' the one named 'Li Zhi,' not only broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage, but also condensed a sword pellet during his tribulation!"

Xu Ying's mentality was far inferior to Chang Ping'an's; when he spoke of Li Zhi, his tone was full of jealousy.

Even though he didn't know what a "sword pellet" was before, after learning about it, he rummaged through a bunch of materials in the library and understood what it meant.

This is practically equivalent to a top-grade, upgradeable Heavenly Rank magic weapon! It's also an extraordinary divine ability!
And Li Zhi is only a few years old? He's only been cultivating for three months! Yet he's actually condensed a sword pill that many Core Formation stage cultivators can only dream of!

How can this not make people jealous!

"A sword pellet has actually formed!"

Zhang Chengdao was also taken aback and exclaimed, "This is no easy feat! No wonder he has a 'natural sword physique'!"

At the same time, he was even more amazed: This guy must also be a gold card with the protagonist template in hand. I have to find a way to get him to contribute to my cultivation career!
(End of this chapter)