Eat!
Eat!
22: The Essence of Cultivation: Eat!
Eat!
Eat!
In the world of Orario, within the military camp at the edge of the Bashe Mountain Range.
Ten days had passed since Tian’el’s true body descended, swept aside the gods of Heaven, and emptied the soul pool.
During this time, Tian’el paid no attention to the undercurrents brewing outside.
Instead, he devoted himself entirely to strengthening the one hundred thousand soldiers of the Kingdom of Rakia.
Only after accelerating the process with divine power, ensuring that every combatant in the nation had completely converted to the Sacred Path system, did he finally pause.
…
At dawn on the eleventh day.
Tian’el stood alongside numerous subordinate gods, reviewing the army on the training grounds—now transformed into a silver-black ocean.
“O Lord.” Ares strode forward, his cloak billowing behind him like a black sail.
With both hands, he presented a dark-gold command talisman.
His knuckles were pale with excitement.
“In accordance with your decree, the military forces of Rakia have now completed their initial enhancement.” Tian’el did not take it.
He merely raised an eyebrow slightly.
Ares immediately understood.
Turning around, he gestured toward the newly erected black general’s banner at the edge of the field.
Boom— The drum sounded only once, yet it was like a colossal god swinging a hammer, striking the mountains until they hummed in resonance.
In an instant, one hundred thousand soldiers stepped forward in unison.
The pressure of wind kicked up by iron boots tore the morning mist to shreds.
Scarlet vital blood surged from their bodies, swiftly transforming into billowing wolf-smoke that intertwined overhead, forming a cloud canopy that blotted out the sky.
Beneath that canopy, gale winds roared.
The army resonated as one.
Faintly, the phantom of an ancient Bashe serpent—capable of devouring all things—gradually took shape and lifted its head in a silent roar.
“All of them at the third stage,” Tian’el narrowed his eyes, his gaze piercing through the clouds and falling upon each spirited soldier.
“Barely acceptable.” Beside him, Hermes and the other gods could not help twitching at the corners of their mouths.
“Barely?
Your standards are truly high.” It had to be known that when Tian’el first created the Sacred Path system, he had referenced the divine blessing at its initial stage.
Thus, although the Nine Stages of the Mortal Realm and an adventurer’s Level 1 to Level 9 followed completely different paths, in terms of combat power alone they could roughly correspond.
In other words, the hundred thousand soldiers on this field, if placed in Orario, would all be comparable to Level 3 first-class adventurers.
“Only the third stage.
I invested that many resources.
If someone still cannot step this far, they might as well leave the army and go home to raise children.” Watching the military formations drill, Tian’el commented indifferently.
In order to allow more people to embark upon the path of cultivation more quickly and easily, he had deliberately chosen the most universally accessible martial route for the Mortal Realm stage.
It required no spiritual roots, no special physique, no extraordinary comprehension.
As long as one devoted oneself wholeheartedly to martial training, one could achieve initial results.
The first stage, Body Tempering, focused on enhancing control over the physical body.
Mastery was achieved once one grasped the spark of vitality within.
Of course, the “vitality” here referred to the life force inherent in all living beings, not the more mysterious concept of true soul.
If one could not endure hardship or was unwilling to train, then consuming sufficient quantities of exotic beast flesh infused with spiritual qi, spiritual springs, and spiritual herbs—combined with medicinal cuisine and secret formulas—would enlarge that vitality to a point where it could be easily grasped.
The second stage, Nourishing Life, was merely a process of gently strengthening the physique.
It too could be completed with external assistance.
After the body reached completion, breaking through to the third stage allowed one to circulate vital blood, remold sinews, and cleanse marrow.
Only at this point did it begin to require a measure of time.
In truth, the first three stages of the Mortal Realm—even all nine stages—could be crossed rapidly so long as sufficient resources were supplied.
Tian’el had intentionally created such a system in order to unleash the subjective initiative of cultivators.
The Vast Expanse contained far too many exotic and ferocious beasts.
It was necessary to transform calamity into treasure.
Thus, during the foundational stage of the Sacred Path, one needed only to eat, eat, eat in order to stride forward in great leaps.
With enough resources, there would be no bottlenecks whatsoever.
“Rakia’s combatants were at least Level 1 adventurers.
Even if constrained by their great feats and unable to level up further, their techniques never declined.
Once they converted systems, breaking through the second stage was effortless.” Eris placed her hands on her hips, revealing a faintly proud smile.
“Combined with an unlimited supply of spiritual spring nourishment, we now possess a full one hundred thousand third-stage soldiers.
We could completely sweep aside every familia in Orario.” “This system is truly outrageous,” Hermes clicked his tongue, feeling as though the gods’ thousand years of effort had become a joke.
Yet on reflection, it made sense.
This great figure had directly slaughtered an exotic beast comparable to a god and used it as cultivation rations for mortals.
From ancient times until now, no adventurer or ancient hero had ever enjoyed such treatment.
“Still, it falls short…” Shifting his gaze away from the ordinary soldiers, Tian’el looked toward the mid- and upper-level officers who served as commanders.
Among them were not a few fourth- and even fifth-stage experts.
Under their coordination, the one hundred thousand troops functioned as though of one heart and one body.
Their scattered killing intent, battle will, and faith gradually merged into a single whole through the resonance of their shared cultivation method—manifesting as the Bashe phantom formed from the vital blood of the entire army.
To accelerate the soldiers’ cultivation, Tian’el had specifically analyzed the essence of Bashe and created a manual titled the Bashe Scripture.
In theory, if an ordinary person cultivated it to its peak and mastered the divine ability Bashe Devours the Elephant, they could become invincible beneath the heavens, even daring to challenge the gods above.
Victory or defeat would remain uncertain.
As for how one might cultivate it to the peak…
Tian’el’s stance was simple: he had already written the content for the nine stages of the Mortal Realm.
Anything beyond that was for them to complete on their own.
After all, as Celestial Emperor, with the power of Heaven at his disposal, he could evolve endless transformations at will.
There was no need for him to dwell on such matters.
Ahem…
in any case, the military formation drill before him proved that through resonance of a shared cultivation method, it was indeed possible to gather the strength of the entire army into one.
But it was still not enough.
At best, it was one plus one approaching two.
It did not even equal two, let alone exceed it.
“For the envisioned legionary combat power to take shape, every soldier must be strengthened to at least the fifth stage, jointly devouring the energies of heaven and earth outwardly.” “Then there must be seventh-stage officers capable of manifesting spiritual power into substance, linking the will of the troops.” “Finally, ninth-stage generals able to unfold a Domain of the Mind, transforming the surrounding heaven and earth into their home ground.” “Once these three basic conditions are met, the gathering of ten thousand soldiers’ power and resonance of will—combined with the legion domain eroding the external environment—should suffice to suppress even a higher-tier individual force…” As for the actual effect, only by forging a legion that met these standards and testing it in real combat could the answer be known.
But merely hearing these three conditions left Eris and the other gods numb.
Wait—Great Lord.
One hundred thousand fifth-stage soldiers?
Was that number serious?
The Dungeon had existed for three thousand years.
From ancient times until now, if one counted every Level 5 first-class adventurer and ancient hero of equivalent strength combined, the total might not even reach ten thousand.
“Has the era truly advanced to such an absurd degree?” Hermes murmured softly, licking his lips, unsure how to describe the turmoil in his heart.
Yet he quickly realized his shock had come too soon— Wishing to test the army’s combat strength, Tian’el directly opened a spacetime gate capable of spanning two worlds.
Thus, one legendary figure after another descended once more upon the mortal realm.
To avoid confusion with the planet Earth, I will use “Earthly Realm” whenever possible instead of the shortened form “Earth.”