Chapter Forty-Three: The Free Immortal

To obtain a physical body that was perfectly compatible with one's own primordial spirit and possessed the peak cultivation of the Tribulation Crossing stage was an almost impossible feat. Each person was born with a unique soul imprint, and no two soul imprints were ever truly identical—just as in the world, no two leaves are the same.

For cultivators who failed to cross the tribulation, aside from seeking a body with a perfectly matching soul compatibility, there was another option: reincarnation. Reincarnation meant casting one's soul or primordial spirit into the cycle of rebirth—a never-ending flow of life and death, where beings die and are born anew, ceaselessly turning like a wheel.

Once the soul entered the cycle, some mysterious power of reincarnation would erase all thoughts and memories from within, purifying the soul entirely. All emotions and desires vanished, leaving behind a state of utter purity, akin to that of a newborn infant—free of thoughts and wants.

This purified soul would then, by some mechanism of the cycle, be placed into the womb of a pregnant woman in the mortal realm. After ten months of gestation, it would be born as a brand new infant, bearing not the slightest trace of its previous existence—utterly devoid of desire or intent.

Then, through cultivation, upon reaching the Nascent Soul stage and forming a primordial spirit, one could unlock the memories buried deep within the soul from a former life. At that point, the memories of the past and the experiences of the present would merge into an entirely new self—just as Chen Yi possessed both the recollections of his previous life and the personality of his current one.

However, very few were able to reincarnate and awaken memories of their former lives, for to do so, one’s cultivation had to reach at least the Core Formation stage—a feat difficult to achieve in the cultivation world. For an ordinary mortal to reach the Core Formation stage could take several hundred years; even those with extraordinary talent would require at least a century. Over the course of such a long journey, countless uncertainties could arise—be it death at the hands of rivals in the struggle for resources, or a fatal accident while exploring secret realms.

The path of cultivation was fraught with unforeseen dangers, making reincarnation an uncommon choice unless one faced imminent soul annihilation or the threat of vengeance from a powerful foe. Only in desperate times, or with the utmost preparation—such as the protection offered by the great sects like the Five Elements Sect, the Heaven-Subduing Sect, or the Dao of Heaven Sect, which possessed rare immortal artifacts or secret techniques from the Immortal Realm—would one dare such a choice. Even then, those treasures and arts were exceedingly precious, even in the Immortal Realm itself.

Ordinary Tribulation Crossing cultivators would seldom choose reincarnation upon failure, given the many uncertainties it entailed. Instead, most would blend immortal and spiritual energy to forge a semi-immortal body, thus entering a unique cultivation realm: the Loose Immortal stage.

Although Loose Immortals had not yet ascended to the Immortal Realm, their power was not inferior to true immortals. The Loose Immortal stage was divided into twelve ranks: first-rank Loose Immortal, second-rank, and so on, up to the twelfth rank.

To advance from the first to the second rank, one had to endure another tribulation. Success meant a surge in power and advancement; failure led to utter annihilation, with not even a trace remaining. Every thousand years, a Loose Immortal was required to face a tribulation—heaven’s way of testing those whose power exceeded the mortal realm’s limits.

Most Loose Immortals wielded power comparable to immortals: first through third-rank were on par with Human Immortals, fourth to sixth with Earth Immortals, seventh to ninth with Celestial Immortals, and tenth to twelfth with True Immortals.

After surviving the twelfth tribulation, a twelfth-rank Loose Immortal would ascend directly to the Immortal Realm, possessing the peak strength of a True Immortal—and often surpassing their immortal peers in combat prowess.

This was because each tribulation not only battered their bodies with heavenly thunder but also refined their immortal energy, making it ever purer and more potent. Upon ascending, the dense immortal spiritual energy of the Immortal Realm would further flood their bodies, enhancing their power.

These two unique advantages meant that Loose Immortals who ascended from the cultivation world were far stronger than their peers in the same realm within the Immortal Realm. Yet, those who survived twelve tribulations were exceedingly rare—across millions of years, perhaps less than ten such cultivators had ever existed.

The power of each tribulation grew exponentially, and a single bolt from the twelfth was enough to utterly obliterate an ordinary Tribulation Crossing cultivator. The sheer terror of this heavenly might was evident; thus, throughout history, those who survived all twelve tribulations and ascended were fewer than the fingers on two hands.

Of course, once a Loose Immortal survived the seventh tribulation, they could use their Celestial Immortal-level power to tear open the world’s barrier and ascend. However, within the Immortal Realm, Celestial Immortals were the lowest tier—much like Foundation Establishment cultivators within the mortal realm.

Loose Immortals who had once stood at the peak in the mortal world, wielding unimaginable power, could not bear to become lowly Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Immortal Realm. Instead, they would strive to overcome a few more tribulations to increase their strength before ascending, ensuring that they would not be relegated to the lowest rung.

Yet, surviving twelve tribulations was an almost impossible and deadly task—one misstep meant utter annihilation. Therefore, after the ninth tribulation, most Loose Immortal elders would choose to ascend, avoiding both the dangers of further tribulations and the humiliation of starting at the bottom.

Some, confident in their strength, would attempt the tenth or even eleventh tribulation before ascending. As for the twelfth, few dared even contemplate it, so fearsome was its might.