The Five Great Realms

The golden-haired spellmaster Rand gave a faint, cold smile. "I suggest you withdraw from the deep forest as soon as possible. Letting curiosity cost you your life would be most unwise." It was a kind of condescension born of mentality—not the arrogance of a worthless scion, but the instinctive confidence of the strong facing the weak.

"Thank you for the warning." Xiao Chen turned and walked away. He was reining in his emotions with all his might. Now was not the time to show his mettle. He believed that one day, everything would change as his strength grew.

If he fought without suppressing his power, he could match one of them. But against two, he would certainly fall. Strength alone was the hard truth! After putting distance between himself and that area, Xiao Chen gradually calmed down, his anger subsiding. He knew that in the near future, he would inevitably have to fight—and soon.

In the mountain forest nearby, Xiao Chen discovered many claw prints. They very much resembled dragon claws, and from a young dragon at that! Clearly, this was why Yan Qingcheng and Rand had marked this area as forbidden.

Before long, Xiao Chen reunited with the three skeletons. Skirting the waterfall region, they pressed onward.

Crossing a low hill, a coppery stench of blood reached Xiao Chen's nostrils. A faint, bloody mist hung among the trees. He and the three skeletons rushed over, only to find five or six corpses lying in a pool of blood. They had not died long ago—a fierce battle had clearly taken place here.

More practitioners were landing on the sealed Dragon Island.

Advancing a little further, Xiao Chen saw vague shapes moving among the forest. About a dozen people were scattered nearby. He decided to give them a wide berth and stay out of it.

Just then, however, he sensed a subtle ripple. Turning to look, he saw a white-robed monk striding atop the treetops, his movements as fluid as drifting clouds and flowing water. It was none other than Yizhen, moving with remarkable speed despite his unhurried air.

Yizhen spotted Xiao Chen as well. He paused briefly on a branch, then floated down lightly. When he saw the three skeletons, he seemed taken aback. "Undead beings?"

"Yizhen, we meet again sooner than I expected."

"Call me Yizhen. Life is full of reunions," the monk replied with a smile. "I've left a trail for my senior brother; I plan to scout the outer edges of Dragon Island for now." He turned to examine the three skeletons, then looked back at Xiao Chen. "How did you come to travel with undead? Though the mainland's practitioners no longer insist on destroying them, most people, even ordinary cultivators, rarely regard undead with goodwill. Being seen with them may bring you trouble."

"Thank you for the warning, Yizhen. They saved my life. On this savage Dragon Island, with so few people about, I don't think it will be much of a problem."

"Perhaps not." Yizhen nodded.

During their exchange, the three skeletons stood there like dull, lifeless puppets. Only Xiao Chen, who knew them well, understood that these three undead were... masters of deception. They were deliberately putting on a show.

Xiao Chen pointed at the nearby corpses. "Yizhen, look there."

"I noticed. When I was coming this way, I saw several other bodies elsewhere. More than twenty cultivators have landed on Dragon Island by now. This sealed island is vast; there may be even more." He turned to Xiao Chen. "Yan Qingcheng and Rand are also in this area. They seem to have found traces of a young dragon—it really might be a companion dragon. You'd best stay away from them. Both are dangerous people. I don't intend to contend with them either; I'll leave this place soon."

"Oh? How powerful are they, exactly?" Xiao Chen was still concerned about those two. He had a feeling that sooner or later—and not too long from now—he would have to fight them.

"As of now, roughly at the third or fourth heavenly tier of Mortal-Shedding."

"Mortal-Shedding?" Xiao Chen was puzzled.

"Yes..."

Through Yizhen's detailed explanation, Xiao Chen gradually came to understand.

The World of Immortality was vast and boundless, with countless races. This gave rise to a multitude of cultivation systems: Spellmasters who could borrow the power of gods, the ancient and mysterious Beast-Soul Warriors, naturally powerful Spiritists with innate psychic abilities, and the nearly extinct terrifying Demigods born into certain small races...

Without a unified standard of cultivation realms, it was impossible to clearly compare the combat power of different systems. Thus, a unified standard was established—one that bypassed ordinary practitioners entirely and defined five great realms for the truly strong.

The vast majority of cultivators were not qualified to be measured by these five realms. They were a yardstick for true powerhouses. Only by stepping into these five realms could one hope to challenge the legendary state of deathless longevity.

These five realms were: Mortal-Shedding, Spirit-Treasury, Sky-Mastery, Nirvana, and Deathless Longevity.

Among the millions of cultivators, only those who crossed into the first realm—Mortal-Shedding—could be said to have touched the true essence of cultivation. It was like a heavenly moat, cutting off countless practitioners!

Mortal-Shedding: Those who entered this realm could be called 'transcendent.' They stood out from the crowd, leaping over the heavenly moat on the path of cultivation, taking the most critical step on the road to deathless immortality. Cultivators at the Mortal-Shedding level could communicate with the primordial energy of heaven and earth, refine their physique, and generate endless vitality of their own.

Spirit-Treasury: Reaching this realm, one began to sense the treasury of divine consciousness. Spiritual power deepened daily, and one came to realize that the body itself was a great treasure. Through dual cultivation of divine consciousness and the flesh, the body's potential was gradually discovered and unleashed. Various divine arts began to manifest. Spirit-Treasury was a process of 'knowing oneself'—a process of unlocking one's own inner treasure!

Sky-Mastery: Even before reaching this realm, Spellmasters could already fly. Once one attained Sky-Mastery, all cultivators—whether Awakened, warriors, or others—could also achieve flight. But Sky-Mastery meant far more than that. Cultivators at this level could harness the power of heaven and earth for their own use, and various divine arts grew further. Those who reached this realm were called Demigods!

Nirvana: Achieving this realm meant hovering on the edge of non-birth and non-death, with both body and mind at the brink of extinction, wandering between life and death, contemplating the mysteries of existence. If one thoroughly comprehended the secrets of life and death, the next step was the realm of deathless longevity. But if one stagnated here, it could lead to utter destruction—annihilation of body and spirit.

Moreover, cultivators at the Nirvana realm experienced fluctuating power—sometimes strong, sometimes weak. At their peak, they could even match deathless experts; in their weakness, their divine arts might not even match those of the Spirit-Treasury realm.

For cultivators, the Nirvana realm was both a great opportunity and a great danger. Those who broke through the mystery of life and death would emerge like a butterfly from its cocoon, living eternally in the world. Those who failed to achieve enlightenment would be utterly annihilated—the cruelest of fates.

Deathless Longevity: Reaching this realm meant truly breaking through life and death, living forever in the world. All mysteries were understood without a teacher; divine power surged of its own accord, and natural abilities manifested spontaneously.

The five great realms—Mortal-Shedding, Spirit-Treasury, Sky-Mastery, Nirvana, and Deathless Longevity—clearly defined the power of the world's strongest cultivators.