"What exactly does the formation do?"
"I already told you, did I not? It brings the pieces of human nature together and unites them into one whole."
Fang Yuan frowned. "And what is the ultimate result of that?"
"It can do two things," Paradise Earth said. "One is that it can convert the experiences of these people into Human Path Dao Marks, which you can use. The other is that it can condense them into true meaning of the Human Path, which you can use to advance your attainment level within the Human Path."
Fang Yuan understood.
He gazed at the formation above once again. His Formation Path attainment was only ordinary, and this formation contained several Immortal gu worms. He could not take them out without destroying the formation, of course, but he did see a spot within it which was empty: the spot for Integration Gu. Clearly, it was integral to the function of this formation.
"If you've understood that," Paradise Earth said, "then I think we're ready to begin."
Genesis Lotus appeared behind them and handed Fang Yuan a small token. "Keep this as well," he said.
Fang Yuan took it. It seemed to be an ordinary token the size of a coin, with a lotus inscribed in emerald ink on one side, and the number '4' on the other.
"What is this?" Fang Yuan asked.
"It's one of my personal tokens that I've left around. If you show that to the Heavenly Lotus Sect, they will accept you as a member immediately," Genesis Lotus said.
Fang Yuan snorted. "Trying to recruit me? It won't be that easy, Genesis Lotus."
Genesis Lotus had a small smile on his face. "Perhaps. We'll see. But, Fang Yuan, it's time we begin."
Fang Yuan glanced at his aperture. He already had a refined Purple Crystal Relic Gu and used it, going to Rank 5 Peak Stage.
After that, it was a simple matter to shatter the crystal walls of his aperture. Unlike before, they would not regenerate and could be broken with a thought.
Because the difficulty in getting to Rank 6 was not in breaking these crystal walls, but in the tribulations and calamities that followed!
Fang Yuan broke the walls in one go, a void forming where his aperture used to be.
And then all hell broke loose.
***
Shang Qin Qin was lounging around the skies of Shang Clan City, en route from a mission, when she noticed something amiss down below.
An ordinary person wouldn't have detected anything, but to an Immortal, it was obvious that something off was happening.
'Is someone trying to ascend to become an Immortal in the middle of the city?' she thought to herself. 'If so, they're courting death!'
No Shang Clansmen would be dumb enough to do so. Not to mention they kept close tabs on those who might make for good mortal seeds and no one was at Rank 5 Peak Stage yet. Meaning if there was someone, it had to be an outsider.
However, try as she might, she could not find the source of the disturbance. She even began doubting what she had felt initially.
How could she find anything?
Forget her, if even the Rank 8 leader of the Shang Clan tried to find something amiss he would not be able to.
This was a Venerable's method, after all.
'Perhaps it is some other kind of qi disturbance,' she thought to herself, wandering around the city with nothing to show for it despite an hour of looking. 'If I was a Qi Path Cultivator, maybe it would be easier to figure this out.'
Perhaps there was something she was missing? Or was this some kind of anomaly that might happen at times?
She had wasted so much time investigating this anomaly that she was late for reporting, though she would ask the other Shang Clan Immortals to weigh in on this issue as well.
As she flew away, life in Shang Clan City continued like it had before. The mortals had not even noticed her presence, let alone the anomaly.
They continued milling about the streets, blissfully unaware of what Fang Yuan was undergoing.
At Bei Gu Mountain, a small window was sucking in Heaven and Earth Qi as well. No one there was strong enough to even notice the disturbance.
The Mushroomman Blessed Land had opened, sucking in Heaven and Earth Qi.
***
Once Fang Yuan had shattered his aperture, three gu worms appeared before him.
One was a gu worm that seemed to fluctuate in both size and appearance, at one time appearing like a gigantic, all-devouring flame, and other times going to be as small as an ant, and all manner of shapes and forms in between. It radiated an Immortal aura.
This had to be Rank 6 Ambition Gu!
The next was a gu worm that was stunning like a diamond.
Rank 6 Beauty Gu!
The last was a gu worm that seemed ethereal - it was in the shape of a pink heart which seemed to phase in and out of existence.
Rank 6 Dreams of Love and Happiness Gu!
The system had dumped them all out of his inventory.
Before Fang Yuan could process this, Human Qi began emerging around him.
Only, it was not just from him.
The painting around him began to dissolve until there was nothing but a massive white void all around him, the colors merging into a tiny ball and joining up with the Human Qi that Fang Yuan had gathered and increasing its size ten times!
But that was not the end of it.
The amount of Human Qi that Fang Yuan had kept on growing larger and larger as Heaven and Earth Qi were sucked in from small windows within this great white void.
One hundred times!
This was one hundred times the amount that he had managed to gather when he had first ascended in his prior life.
Human Qi depended on one's experiences - so it made sense for it to be larger than that time. But not by a hundred times.
Only it didn't stop.
Paradise Earth and Genesis Lotus had vanished; their brushstrokes taken in alongside the rest of the painting, only a white canvas remaining. Tiny spots of black in the distance let in Heaven and Earth Qi for Fang Yuan to balance with his Human Qi.
The three had to be in perfect balance - none of them could exceed one another.
If there was too much Earth Qi, the cultivator would turn to dust.
If there was too much Heaven Qi, their bodies would dissipate.
If there was too much Human Qi, they would explode.
Only Fang Yuan had not gotten to that step yet.
Because the Human Qi kept on growing.
'What is this? It is a thousand times more than when I had first ascended!' Fang Yuan thought, eyes widening in disbelief.
Even the ascension of one of the Extreme Physiques could not have involved so much Human Qi!
Right when Fang Yuan thought that it had finally stopped, it surged once again.
Ten thousand times.
One hundred thousand times.
One million times.
Ten million times.
'There's no way this can keep going!' Fang Yuan thought to himself. One could suck an entire Blessed Land dry if they tried ascending like this just trying to get enough Heaven and Earth Qi to compensate for this much Human Qi!
And yet there was no stopping it.
One Hundred Million times!
One Billion times!
Fang Yuan had lived for 500 years to have a substantial amount of Human Qi during his ascension.
And yet this amount was one billion times that.
In other words, 500 billion years worth of human experience! If he had told anyone about this, they would not have believed him. Was this a side effect of his Human Path dao marks? No, that could only possibly explain things increasing by three or four times, not his monstrosity that had emerged.
Just when Fang Yuan thought that it couldn't get any bigger, its accumulation began to slow down.
And then, the Human Qi suddenly expanded outward from Fang Yuan.