Once inside, he opened the book and began to read. The author was a martial artist named Gu Yuan. The text took a broad view as it explained the Body Tempering, Divine Strength, and Divine Fortification Realms.2

On the surface, these three realms seemed very different, yet Gu Yuan argued that they were essentially the same because all stages focused on cultivating the body's vital essence. He claimed that the human body was divided into vital essence, qi, and spirit.0

Body Tempering, Divine Strength, and Divine Fortification all focused on cultivating the body itself—its blood, flesh, bones, and skin. All of these belonged to the vital essence. In this regard, demons were the strongest, martial artists came next, and Immortal Masters were the weakest.0

The human body had its limits. For example, it could never reach the heights of a demon's physique. The Thousand Cauldrons Stage was already close to the peak of what the human body could achieve. Beyond that, there was no further path through physical cultivation alone. To advance further, the Martial Dao had to take a different direction. 0

Humans can't replicate the vital essence of demons… 0

The qi of the Immortal Dao was referred to as spirit energy. Only those with spirit roots could...0