Divine Spirit World
Countless eras ago, when it was first formed.
All the Immortals were in a sealed state, reverted back into Mortals.
Timeless made specific arrangements so that they would only be unsealed after a certain time. It was done to protect them from death. He wanted the development of the world to succeed.
After the destruction of the Heaven of Balance, the aura of death and destruction loomed everywhere.
Due to the involvement of Little Heaven in every small world, its aura improved at an enormous rate.
However, the world was vast, and there were not just one but several small worlds. Moreover, since this world was vastly different from the Immortal World, Little Heaven wouldn't add Chaos Qi here.
Chaos Qi, also known as Immortal Essence, is formed from the combination of Spiritual Essence and Soul Essence.
Little Heaven filtered all Chaos Qi entering this small world and split it apart into Spiritual Essence and Soul Essence.
Chaos Qi was too strong for mortals — even a wisp of it could take their lives.
Little Heaven was meticulous in these matters. It was completely impartial to all beings.
Billions and trillions of years later
The world finally turned into a living place.
The Immortals were released from their sealed state. However, due to their lack of memories and mortal forms, they lacked intelligence.
They possessed only animal instincts. Wisdom does not descend from the sky; it grows from hunger, pain, suffering and the stubborn will to survive. It grows with every breath.
Many animals also appeared in the world. However, these creatures had yet to evolve into dangerous spiritual beasts.
Mortals developed at a very quick rate.
Time passed, and billions of years later
The mortals, who were barbarians in the beginning, conquered the five continents.
They formed various villages, towns, and kingdoms. Basic cultivation techniques were also discovered over time.
However, the one who discovered the first technique disappeared into the long river of history.
Humans developed various secret techniques, but unfortunately, the highest they could cultivate to was Rank 3.
They did not have the ability to awaken the Spiritual Imprint. The Spiritual Imprint is granted by the Heavenly Dao, and one must worship the Heavenly Dao to receive this boon and enter the path of true cultivation.
But as they say—time can solve every issue.
As time passed, people began developing various cultures. For inner satisfaction and for the unification of future generations, they developed religions.
Through these religions, they created stories of an Omnipotent and Omniscient God and imparted them to every child.
It had both advantages and disadvantages. However, the advantages completely outweighed the disadvantages.
The most important advantage was unity.
People of the same religion felt connected and closer to those of their own faith.
All mortals from the same religion came together, which greatly helped them counter beast tides and other disasters.
They helped each other in times of distress.
However, there was also a disadvantage.
The religious teachings gave them peace but also restricted them. In the name of punishing vile acts, people began to fear divine punishment. They also feared being socially isolated. They were forced to accept the mindset and opinions of the majority. Depression began appearing among the masses.
Faith bound their hearts, but it chained their minds. It was both a shelter and a shackle.
Various conflicting religions also emerged, and they fought against each other. However, even though they were from opposing faiths, there were some commonalities among all religions—such as the belief that humanity should be given priority.
As they hypothesized various gods, they unknowingly worshipped the Heavenly Dao.
It wasn't a coincidence.
In the long history of time, anything is possible. What are the chances of someone worshipping a god? Nearly 100%.
It is a probabilistic world, but certain things are bound to happen because their chances are simply too high.
There have been infinitely many people throughout the development of humanity. Some were bound to discover ways of preaching and creating religions to impart their own beliefs to future generations. Some were bound to understand that a person can be influenced from childhood.
In fact, their ideas weren't wrong. They did it for humanity's sake. After all, in such a chaotic period, unity was most important—and religion became the best way to unite everyone.
As time passed, they discovered the existence of gods—the Heavens!
It happened in a baffling manner.
An unnamed boy, seeking strength, worshipped the Heavenly Dao and asked for a Spiritual Imprint. Unknowingly, he used the true incantation to request it.
As soon as he did, the entire Divine Spirit World was filled with illusionary nine-heaven visions.
Rumors spread that the god was furious and that the day of destruction was coming. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened.
The boy awakened a Rank 4 Spiritual Imprint and became the strongest in the world. He created his own sect and passed down his legacy, along with the secret hidden deep within him.
The sect he created was called the Celestial Sect.
Unfortunately, some secrets are bound to come out.
The secret he had kept hidden was leaked after his death to many top-tier sects.
However, this secret was soon suppressed by all the sects. It became a tacit understanding between them.
They built various temples and pavilions and created mechanisms that chanted incantations in place of the youngsters.
They also used soul-type secret techniques to resonate the chants with these youngsters, achieving similar results and causing their awakening.
In this manner, the Awakening Ceremony began.
To avoid visions, they used formations. Unfortunately, the visions could only be suppressed, not prevented. Initially, the visions were suppressed within the temples. But as time passed and the development of cultivation techniques and formations improved, warriors discovered better methods. Eventually, they were able to suppress these visions within the very rooms where the youngsters awakened, allowing only them to see their own Awakening Visions.
Warriors are wise and do not act meaninglessly.
Why did they even bother researching methods to suppress visions?
In truth, this research wasn't meant for suppressing the Awakening Visions of youngsters.
It was meant to suppress Ascension Ritual Visions and certain illegal awakenings. No one wanted to reveal their cards to their opponents. Back then, many people had obtained the secret of the incantations. Even though they were suppressed by the major sects, they still tried to hide it and awaken young talents illegally, without informing anyone.
The influence of the major sects grew much stronger over time, and no one could escape their surveillance. They also began suppressing visions after a certain point, realizing that one could go through Ascension simultaneously to conceal their abilities.
Time passed, and many major sects appeared in the world.
During this period, two more sects were formed.
Heaven's Hand Sect and Ethereal Sect.
Two thousand years later
On this day, in a remote village of the Central Continent, a young boy was born.
His birth caused various visions. A tremendous amount of Spiritual Essence was drawn toward him. He did not cry when he was born.
Looking at the young boy, his father laughed.
The young boy looked at his father in puzzlement. His eyes were filled with innocence, along with a hint of indifference, as if he were detached from worldly affairs.
Unfortunately, one can't judge a book by its cover. During his childhood, he played around with vigor. He would flirt with young ladies and play pranks on elders.
He coated the village pigs with glowing herbs that shimmered under moonlight. When night fell, the entire pigpen looked like a field of divine beasts, scaring the villagers half to death.
One day, he used a minor levitation talisman (stolen from his father's study) to make the pants of the local bully float away during a crowd gathering. The boy became a village legend.
He created a bamboo contraption that dumped mud when the elders gathered to preach about discipline. It "coincidentally" activated just as they mentioned children needing manners.
Once, he even stole all the spirit fruits meant for the village head's annual offering and replaced them with poisonous and sour wild berries.
When the ceremony began, the elder, beaming with pride, lifted the fruit toward the heavens and took a solemn bite to bless the harvest—only for his face to twist in horror. His lips puckered, his eyes bulged, but he forced himself to swallow so as not to disrespect the god. However, not long after, his stomach gurgled as a cracking sound escaped from his behind. His face turned red as he quickly ran away to handle the emergency. The villagers burst into laughter, while the young boy hid behind a haystack, clutching his stomach and trying not to make a sound.
That day, he was chased around the entire village three times before being caught. But even as he was scolded, his grin never faded.
Time passed. A few years later
By this time, development had improved greatly, but it was yet to be discovered how to measure one's talent and the grade of their Spiritual Imprint.
They judged talent based on growth rate. Whoever performed better was highly sought after.
The young boy awakened his Spiritual Imprint and joined the Ethereal Sect first.
As time passed, his cultivation progressed rapidly.
What surprised most people was that, despite having no foundation when he started his journey, his cultivation had no bottlenecks, and he easily broke through every obstacle.
At the age of 11, he became Rank 1.
At the age of 12, Rank 2.
At the age of 15, Rank 3.
At the age of 20, Rank 4.
At the age of 26, Rank 5.
At the age of 40, Rank 6.
The highest cultivation in the Ethereal Sect belonged to the Sect Leader, who was at the peak of Rank 7.
Reaching Rank 6 at the age of 40 created a sensation across the world.
The young man became renowned as the strongest genius in history.
His talent was unrivaled across the world. Unfortunately, for some reason, he lacked ambition.
He never desired to rule the world or make his sect the strongest.
In the next twenty years, he became an Advanced Warrior, reaching Rank 7.
During this time, he was also coronated as the new Sect Leader of the Ethereal Sect.
He became the third Sect Leader of the Ethereal Sect.
His name was He Fan.