Chapter 1508 The Three Steps
Chapter 1508 The Three Steps
Wang Wei left the sect and teleported directly outside of Buddhism's Domain. As soon as he arrived, a terrifying power teleported him to an unknown dimension where he saw his future wife sitting opposite Maitreya. "Why do you look so pale?" Wang Wei asked as he sat next to Wu Hong.
"Small injury," Maitreya said.
"Injury? From the gate?"
"Yes. I was trying to seal the thing and buy us more time when a hand suddenly broke through and injured me." Her words immediately made the atmosphere tense. Maitreya is supposed to be the guardian of their world, but she was injured by an attack.
"Then, why are we here?" Wu Hong asked. "If even you were defeated, there is nothing we can do."
"I call you here to prepare in advance," Maitreya said before summoning a crystal orb. The two were confused until they scanned the orb with their divine sense. Wang Wei immediately noticed the orb contained a world of runes, and the runes seemed to form a technique.
"Is this the method you used to achieve your realm?" Wu Hong asked.
"That's right. You two are the people with the highest chances of entering my realm. More importantly, your morality meets my requirements," Maitreya explained, making Wang Wei speechless. He was just complaining about his lack of morality during his retreat, but someone told him they chose him because of his morality.
Maitreya seemed to have guessed something from his expression, so she explained: "When I say morality, I don't mean good and evil. I mean you two will not have an issue spreading this method to ensure more people work on it and benefit the world."
In Maitreya's mind, Wang Wei had the perfect balance of open-mindedness and sect loyalty. He will choose the best for the sect, but he also understood the concept of sharing the cake to ensure that everyone is happy. So, when necessary, he won't mind making this technique available to the public to facilitate the growth of the Eternal Ascension World, which will, in turn, benefit the Dao Opening Sect.
Wu Hong would do the same for two reasons. Firstly, she has a passion for teaching and changing the fate of others. Maitreya is aware that she has the habit of leaving fortunate encounters all over the world, including leaving her legacy to find disciples. Secondly, Wu Hong is confident and arrogant enough that she will not care if people have access to this technique since she knows no one will be able to surpass her.
"I'm glad you have such faith in us, but don't you have too much faith?" Wang Wei said with a wry smile. However, Maitreya only replied with a gentle nod.
"You can comprehend it, and I'll maintain the time array."
Wang Wei looked at Wu Hong and she nodded. So, they closed their eyes and started. The technique was detailed; it even included Maitreya's experience. It was a transcendent technique, so it took a while for either of them to comprehend, but once they did, they understood why this method was flawed.
They realized that 99% of people who received this technique would fail to cultivate it. The essence of the method was that Maitreya could send her soul across the Infinite Trichiliocosm and meet her variants. She would confront them before swallowing them. After repeating the process millions of times, she used her knowledge of the [Past, Present, and Future Buddha Scroll to create a [Future Self] with infinite possibilities of growth and evolution.
The Future Self then fused with Maitreya's soul, allowing it to experience endless possibilities until it found the possibility in which her soul elevated to a higher self by embedding the concept of endless possibilities into her [Existence].
After what felt like an instant, Wu Hong opened her eyes with a furrowed brow. The technique was too flawed, and it was evident that it would not have worked if not for Maitreya's drastic improvement. In fact, she could tell the original idea of this technique was to swallow enough Paragon Souls of the variants to forcefully open the gate of transcendence.
"No, no, no," Wang Wei commented with his eyes still closed. "You already had the blueprint, why didn't you follow it? The Future Self is a brilliant idea but it's not enough. We need all three: Past, Present, and Future Self.
"The past represents eternity and unchangeability. The present represents change, growth, and self determination. Lastly, the future is about endless possibilities. After condensing all three, you will have a soul imbued with numerous concepts before elevating to a higher form of existence: transcendence."
"That is…brilliant," Maitreya said with shining eyes. This idea can allow her to reforge her foundation and make up for the flaw of her ascension. More importantly, such a method had universal applications. Anyone with a soul can use this path of transcendence if they succeed in creating it.
"Let's not waste time and finish this," Maitrey said and the three started working together. However, it did not take long for Wang Wei to become useless. Compared to those two, he was too young and lacked too much knowledge and experience. So, he served as the director of the project, ensuring his idea was executed according to how he envisioned it.
Wu Hong lasted until the technique was 85%, and Maitreya had to finish the rest. "A complete and perfect transcendent technique," Maitreya smiled after seeing the final result. "More importantly, it's a universal technique applicable to a large group of people."
She sighed at the wonders of the world. This technique was not possible only because of Wang Wei's idea but due to Buddhism's foundation. The [Past, Present, Future Buddha Scroll] was a unique project from the religion to write a supreme sutra. The three brothers from the lower dimension started this project, but it was refined and completed in the upper dimension when Buddhism finally gave birth to Triplets who achieved Buddhahood and became Peak Paragons.
The scripture has helped Maitreya achieve her realm, so she has spent countless years studying and improving upon it during the previous era. Today, all the causes and effects behind that scripture have accumulated into this transcendent technique.
"Thank you," Maitreya said to them.
"No problem," Wang Wei nodded. He had just acquired a transcendent technique, so he should be the one thanking her. Wu Hong nodded in response, but she seemed distracted.
"What's on your mind?" Wang Wei asked.
"This technique is perfectly suited for you two since you cultivate Time Dao or deeply understand it, but it's different for me."
"You want to add your own twist to it?" Wang Wei asked, and she nodded.
"That's not a bad idea," Wang Wei thought. He could add a bit more of his Fate Dao to make the technique ideally suited for him.
"Well, this meeting was extremely productive. I even found a direct path to true transcendence," Wang Wei said with a smile.
"Oh?" Maitreya asked, slightly distracted as she was still thinking about the technique.
"The answer is in front of us, isn't it?" What is the fundamental aspect of all cultivation systems?"
"Essence, Spirit, and Qi," Wu Hong replied, having figured out where he was going with this.
"That's right, so the path of transcendence is obvious. First, the soul achieves transcendence, which is the realm you and Supreme Unity were. The next is for the flesh to achieve transcendence to balance things out. The third step is for the Dao to elevate itself, and finally, all three are fused into one, and I can detach myself from the Chaos Universe itself."
As soon as he uttered these words, the three felt a slight tremor, not in the Eternal Ascension World, but throughout the Chaos Universe.
Wang Wei and Wu Hong immediately tried to divine or calculate what had happened, but they could only get vague and useless answers, so they looked at Maitreya. She blessed them with their strength and they understood what had happened.
Grand Dao finally made the cultivation stage after the Paragon Realm official. It is called the [Quintessence Realm] and is divided into three steps: Soul Quintessence, Flesh Quintessence, and Dao Quintessence. The soul and flesh were interchangeable as the first and second steps, but the third was not.
The news was made public to all [Half-Step Transcendent], who were actually mostly people in the First step of the Quintessence Realm, but it will soon reach Paragons.
'Three steps, three levels,' Weang Wei thought. 'According to this division, Maitreya and everyone else from the Ultimate Taboo are first step Quintessence, and 99% of them are probably walking the soul path. The Cardinals should be in the second step, with both their soul and body having already transcended.
'The only third steps I can think of are Ji Dingxian --- the founder of the Heart Desire Palace and Ji Clan Ancestor --- and Grand Dao.'
Ji Dingxian definitely reached the third step and was attempting to become a True Transcendent, like the founder of the Primeval Body Mansion and that Genesis Age Creature. His last test was a confrontation against Grand Dao, and it appeared he lost and died.
'This also confirms that there is a difference in strength between each step, and it can be vast,' Wang Wei thought. It's one thing to defeat someone and something entirely to kill them — especially at that level of power.