Chapter 4: Ascension to the Mahayana

A soft drizzle continued to fall upon the streets. It was deep into the night, and not a single soul stirred.

Lu Yuan walked alone through the slick, rain-soaked alley, enveloped by an absolute silence.

“No one should discover me here, right?”

He glanced around, and only after confirming his solitude did he slowly close his eyes.

Back at home, he had learned that Lei Yin hadn’t succumbed to alcoholism, but to poison—a poison that still coiled within his own system.

As a rogue cultivator in his past life, Lu Yuan’s knowledge was vast and eclectic, encompassing a rudimentary understanding of pharmacology.

This insight brought to mind another, profoundly important detail.

‘Poison, by its nature, does not induce voluntary blood expulsion.’

His previous two bouts of vomiting blood had not been due to the poison’s onset; its full effect had already manifested at the moment of Lei Yin’s demise.

No, the blood he expelled was merely his body forcefully purging the toxins itself. Cultivators refine their bodies, cleansing marrow and bone to achieve clarity of the Dao Heart.

Which could only mean…

Lu Yuan suppressed the tumultuous waves of emotion within him, calming his spirit. He channeled his focus throughout his entire being, then let out a sudden, low roar.

“Open the Meridians—!”

Boom—!

A deep, resonant thrum echoed.

Accompanying it, a thunderous roar erupted from deep within his flesh.

Familiar True Essence surged from the depths of his being, piercing through his limbs and bones in an instant. All his meridians and energy channels burst open, crackling loudly as they circulated through his body.

Finally, this energy converged in his lower abdomen, within the Dantian’s Sea of Qi.

This entire process unfolded in but a mere breath.

He exhaled a cloud of foul air, his body now coated in a layer of sickening black sludge. The toxins within him had been utterly purged.

In that brief moment, his cultivation had already vaulted past the Qi Condensation stage.

Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul stages were completed in a single, fluid motion, his power escalating relentlessly. Far from stopping, it surged onward, directly approaching the Tribulation Transcension stage.

“This power…”

As his cultivation recovered, Lu Yuan’s six senses grew increasingly acute. A long-forgotten sensation slowly blossomed within his heart.

His eyes blurred amidst the falling rain, tears mingling with the droplets as they streamed down his face. The lingering resentment in his heart, the helplessness and regret of his past, all coalesced into a single, uninhibited roar of laughter that burst forth from his very soul.

“Hahahaha…”

Weeping, yet laughing maniacally.

No words could possibly capture the tumultuous emotions swirling within Lu Yuan at this moment.

In this instant, his sole desire was to unleash the torrent of emotions pent up within him.

He brought his laughter to a halt. Slowly, he lifted a leg, taking a single step forward, and a beam of sword light materialized beneath his feet.

The moment his foot touched the sword light, he shattered the bonds of gravity, accelerating relentlessly as he soared towards the heavens.

Icy astral winds, laced with rain, mercilessly buffeted Lu Yuan, lashing against his slender frame.

Yet, Lu Yuan’s expression remained unfazed. In his eyes, alongside the elation of his recovered cultivation, glimmered a hint of unwavering resolve. He yearned to ascend, to truly behold this world.

Lu Yuan rode the sword light, ascending straight through the cloud cover. He soared for an indeterminate time until, abruptly, the dense mist before his eyes vanished.

His vision burst open, revealing that his form had finally pierced through the clouds.

“This… this is…”

Lu Yuan halted the sword light, gazing at the cosmic expanse before him, utterly speechless.

A winding river of billions of stars bisected the entire cosmos. On either side, the azure Holy Moon and the blood-red Demonic Moon hung suspended, radiating their distinct glows in the vast emptiness.

Even as one who had lived two lives, Lu Yuan found himself utterly awestruck by this magnificent spectacle.

This celestial panorama simultaneously shattered Lu Yuan’s final lingering illusion.

He let out a bitter laugh. “This… this truly isn’t the world I once knew, is it?”

Concurrently, the surging True Essence within Lu Yuan’s body erupted with a powerful tremor. An invisible shockwave violently surged outwards from him, completely dispersing the dense clouds beneath.

His rapidly escalating cultivation finally ceased its upward surge.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, a Purple Mansion, several *zhang* in circumference, materialized from the void. Within it, a golden figure, clad in scholarly robes, sat serenely, cradling a small sword while forming hand seals and meditating.

Upon closer inspection, one would notice that this figure bore an exact resemblance to Lu Yuan himself.

“A Purple Mansion, a Golden Body. Is this the Mahayana stage?”

Lu Yuan threw his head back and laughed heartily.

In his previous life, he had spent centuries meticulously preparing for Tribulation Transcension. He had forged sixteen Dao Thought Immortal Swords, mastered several life-saving divine abilities, and accumulated countless other magical artifacts and spells. Yet, he had ultimately failed to even survive the Three-Nine Lightning Tribulation.

Yet, he had never imagined that, reborn in this foreign realm, he would not only reclaim his former cultivation but also directly bypass the Tribulation Transcension stage, ascending into the realm countless cultivators only ever dreamed of: the Mahayana stage.