Chapter 16
A place 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The Sun and Earth.
L1, the Lagrange point where the gravitational forces of the two celestial bodies balance.
Behind them, the dazzling Sun blazed; ahead, far away in the black vacuum, Earth glowed blue.
Even before the Immortal Path Era began, humanity's eyes had gazed into space from this place.
Astronomical telescopes bearing the history of humanity's many attempts and efforts to properly observe the vast galaxy and universe.
Though they had been forgotten and vanished into history, their role and spirit lived on.
Now, it was humans—not machines—who looked directly at the universe.
Humans, who had once only gazed at the universe, now traveled through it.
Thus, the Ascension Grounds were a stepping stone for humanity to rise to godhood, and a place that nurtured the eyes and weapons with which to reach for the stars.
On a square metal plate with sides 10,000 kilometers long,
those who would ascend as the next generation of demigods sat cross-legged, steadying their minds.
There were exactly 10,000 of them.
Each sat 100 kilometers from the next, awaiting the tribulation to come.
They were the most talented, selected from among countless candidates.
One in ten thousand.
Or an even lower chance—they had overcome the competition to rise to this place.
There was no room here for those with four or five spiritual roots.
Every one of them was a prodigy with at least Three-Element Spiritual Roots, and each had been recognized for exceptional talent and character before being allowed to ascend to the Ascension Grounds.
At the heart of the Ascension Grounds.
There, a handsome young man with long black hair and a dark blue robe sat with his eyes closed.
Black spiritual power writhed as if alive, threatening everything around him.
To the young man's west sat Eun Seolhwa, emanating a chill as cold as silver.
Her talent ranked fourth among those gathered here.
Since ancient times, the most outstanding person of each generation had occupied the center of the Ascension Grounds.
They were arranged according to their talent.
The more gifted sat closer to the center, while those with lesser talent remained farther out.
[This generation is truly exceptional. Splendid.]
Heh heh heh.
An old man with an extremely aged appearance, even for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, laughed.
His back was bent, and his barely open, narrow eyes lacked any strength, naturally giving him a smiling expression.
He looked so frail that one might have expected him to be looked down upon, but none of the Foundation Establishment cultivators around him could ignore him.
If anything, they gazed at the chuckling old man with reverence.
[Yes, Director. This generation is exceptionally talented. There are as many as nine Golden Core prodigies....]
[Is that so? Are nine Golden Core prodigies really such a big deal? That young man at the center is what matters. He's the only one with even a chance of seeing beyond that.]
He was an old monster who had survived from the Final Curtain Era of 2030 until the present day.
He had attained the Golden Core and could have lived for over a thousand years, but this madman had willingly abandoned cultivation to support the geniuses of future generations instead of himself....
For that reason, he was a man worthy of respect and reverence. Even the arrogant young geniuses and the heads of Golden Core sects bowed to him first.
They understood how difficult it was for a cultivator to give up on advancing their realm.
[Since my era.... My goal has been to find even one genius who could surpass the Golden Core.]
Pietro Fascini, Director of the Realm Advancement Administration under the Spiritual Resources Management Department, clasped his hands together and murmured solemnly.
The thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators lined up behind him all bowed their heads.
They looked like ascetics offering prayers to a god.
[Nascent Soul.... I know how fleeting and illusory it is. So many geniuses I've watched have tried, yet not one has managed to break through that wall.]
There had been a genius engineer who accelerated human civilization by more than three centuries.
There had been a genius observer who went mad after witnessing a fragment of the universe's truths.
There had been a genius explorer who unraveled the secrets of space and expanded humanity's domain into the universe.
There had been a heaven-defying genius who overcame the machinations of time and discovered how to travel into the past.
And yet, not one of them managed to surpass the Nascent Soul realm; they all faded away as mere Golden Core cultivators.
The path of cultivation was so arduous and long that no one could be certain what realm even a genius might reach.
Timing and circumstance, effort and talent, Dao Heart and character.
Only when everything fell into place could a human barely transcend themself and become a god.
[For humanity, and for all humankind.]
The resonance of his whispered words traveled through the vacuum of space, reaching every cultivator atop the Ascension Grounds.
[From this moment on, I permit you to establish your foundations.]
Vmmmm....
When Pietro's declaration ended, a brief silence fell.
The orange glow of the Sun, encircled by a Dyson sphere, illuminated them.
The lunar base on the Moon's surface, armed with all manner of advanced weapons, aimed them at the Ascension Grounds.
The ten billion cultivators on Earth all watched them.
All of humanity beyond the solar system held its breath, watching the broadcast of the Ascension Grounds.
In the eastern districts, in spirit stone mines, in corporate cultivation chambers, in pill factories, while smashing alien heads, gathering spirit herbs, and even while lounging on sofas....
It was New Year's Day, January 1, as it was every year.
Immortal Path Year 470.
One of humanity's greatest holidays, Ascension Day, had begun.
Fwoooosh!
Brilliant light surged up from the very outskirts of the Ascension Grounds.
It gradually converged toward the center, shining brighter and brighter.
Ten thousand cultivators attempted to advance simultaneously, drawing up their spiritual power.
Rumble....
The Ascension Grounds trembled with a deep, thunderous roar.
The light was so intense that it could be seen with the naked eye from Earth and the Moon.
An ordinary Qi Refining cultivator had a 0.1% chance of achieving Foundation Establishment.
But every cultivator here had been chosen from among the very best.
Eun Seolhwa furrowed her brow.
The process of Foundation Establishment was broadly divided into three stages.
They absorbed Dao Qi, the energy suited to their own path, and cultivated their minds, condensing their consciousness into divine sense.
Next, they detonated all nine spirit stars in their dantians and wove together Primordial Chaos Qi by mixing Dao Qi with their own spiritual power.
If they used the Primordial Chaos Qi they'd created to build the foundation of the Dao, they would achieve Foundation Establishment.
The cultivators standing on the Ascension Grounds could compress this entire process.
The government supplied the Dao Qi, while their divine sense had long since been condensed and was as easy to control as their own limbs.
They learned a Foundation Establishment cultivation art in advance and memorized all the accumulated wisdom on the advancement process.
They did not have to gather resources and stake their lives like ancient cultivators of old.
That was why success depended entirely on properly building the foundation of the Dao.
Rumble....
Tribulation clouds gathered above the Ascension Grounds.
Contrary to the way they had begun Foundation Establishment from the outskirts inward, success came from the center outward.
The difference in talent was absolute, an impassable divide.
The difference between the center and the outskirts was too vast to describe.
The Heavenly Dao cast its shadow across the sky.
Tribulations took many forms.
The most common were lightning tribulations and heart-demon tribulations, while rare ones included fateful tribulations....
But the only tribulation for Foundation Establishment was the lightning tribulation bestowed by Heaven.
Fierce lightning flashed between the tribulation clouds.
Even a stray bolt had enough power to reduce a cultivator to ashes.
The Heavenly Dao's fury was directed at the cultivators, rebels who dared challenge the heavens.
Ten thousand lightning tribulations came crashing down upon the ten thousand cultivators.
KRA-BOOM!
Blue lightning bolts fell at the speed of light.
Everything within a radius of several kilometers around each person undergoing the tribulation burst into flames.
And yet, not a single person died from the heavenly tribulation.
If this had been enough to kill them, they could never have endured the Seven Tribulations of Foundation Establishment.
Fwoosh!
The cultivators at the outskirts achieved true Foundation Establishment, radiating brilliance as they rose into the sky.
One after another, they exuded a presence on a completely different level from before and lined up behind Pietro.
Those at the very outskirts endured just a single blue lightning bolt.
The closer they were to the center, the more they endured—two to ten bolts—while those seated near the central ten withstood a hundred strikes.
The more heavenly tribulations they endured, the greater the presence and brilliance they radiated.
And so, all 9,990 of them succeeded in Foundation Establishment.
Rumble....
Even so, the tribulation clouds had yet to disappear.
As if enraged that the cultivators had endured the lightning tribulation, the clouds trembled with a deep, rumbling roar.
The blue lightning gradually turned purple.
An overwhelming pressure bore down on the cultivators below.
Purple lightning roared, powerful enough to injure even Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Eun Seolhwa rubbed her stiff shoulder.
‘It's weaker than I'd heard.’
Ordinary blue lightning could not harm her.
She glanced up at the sky that had struck down lightning hundreds of times, then steeled herself as tension rose within her.
Purple lightning.
That lightning struck according to the strength of one's divine abilities and the karma one had accumulated.
Purple lightning meant that the Heavenly Dao recognized one's potential to attain the Golden Core.
From this point on, she would have to respond in earnest; a single moment's mistake would turn her to ashes.
KRAAA-BOOM!
Purple lightning struck down at a speed beyond that of light.