In a vast area of the mountain, thousands of disciples sat on small meditation mats, listening in awe for hours to the calm, gentle, and firm voice that echoed throughout the mountain.

It wasn't only the disciples who listened. Even the sect's spiritual beasts stayed afar in silence, attentively absorbing every word.

What impressed everyone the most was how simple things — things that once seemed obvious or self-evident — when spoken aloud by the elder, suddenly revealed great depth. Everyone realized they had never truly reflected on those things, nor fully understood them before.

"... just as roots function, spiritual beasts also follow, in the end, the same principle. Through spiritual energy, they refine their powerful bodies of flesh, which are far more adaptable than human flesh in receiving energy. That is why their kind doesn't develop spiritual roots, but in exchange, their shackles are much harder to break…"

"... The dantian is something all humans possess, cultivators or not. It is where our vital energy is concentrated — what sustains the fusion between body and soul. However, this vitality is limited from birth due to leakage, for our dantians were not born to seal it completely."

"But we cultivators have found a way to change this destiny. By refining and strengthening our dantians, we can not only condense this vital energy but also preserve it better, reduce its leakage, and even restore much of what was lost as we advance through the cultivation realms."

"The Qi Refinement realm involves condensing and improving the…"

"The Foundation Establishment refinement involves solidifying the energy of the dantian walls…"

"The Golden Core realm, which all of you have reached, involves condensing and forging the…"

"These are known as the three realms of the body, which involve the forging of the roots and the dantian present within the body, evolving them into…"

"Many say that cultivating is to defy the heavens in the pursuit of immortality. But you must by no means understand this as going against the natural order of things. The heavens indeed impose difficulties, but they do not hate us."

His voice echoed, sometimes leaving the listeners dazed, sometimes making their eyes sparkle — and now, it caused pure shock among the disciples.

Wen Tai — or rather, Aotian — wasn't making anything up. He didn't dare to spout nonsense based on what he had read in his previous life without any foundation. Though perhaps, with an extreme stroke of luck, he could spark an epiphany in the disciples if he did that, in the long run, it would only backfire, distorting their understanding.

Still, well… if he was at least seventy percent sure, he was shameless enough to puff out his chest and boldly declare it as absolute truth.

And regarding the matter of the heavens — after enduring six hundred tribulations while crossing the Nascent Soul realm with his avatars, he was completely confident that the heavens were not the great villain he had once believed them to be.

The disciples — including the former Mahayana Lei Yun — were dumbfounded by such a statement. After all, the heavens had always been blamed for almost everything in this world. You stubbed your toe on a table? Blame the heavens. A villain killed your entire family? Blame the heavens.

Even defeated villains dared to say, "The heavens cannot coexist with me! Damn those heavens that seek to destroy all I've built!"

The heavens were basically the villain of villains — the gutter rat that even the most wicked people dared to call cruel.

Without waiting for the shock to fade, Wen Tai's calm voice continued.

"Most of you don't know this, but when we break through to the Nascent Soul realm, a heavenly tribulation is triggered. It varies slightly for each cultivator, but in essence, it consists of lightning descending upon the cultivator's body to test them. If they fail, they die."

"However, after each bolt strikes, the next takes a few minutes to accumulate, giving time to prepare and recover before the next round. The number of bolts is also limited — they don't fall endlessly. The fact that they pause between strikes isn't because the heavens take time to gather energy or run out of lightning to kill us. It's simply because the heavens are testing the cultivator's qualifications and foundation — not trying to kill them out of hatred or malice."

"Think of it this way: a Nascent Soul cultivator consumes over a hundred thousand times more resources than a Golden Core cultivator. The heavens — or the will of the world, as you may call it — seek to prevent the unworthy from advancing and consuming the world's resources uncontrollably."

"If a cultivator with a weak foundation, built upon excessive resources and pills, were allowed to advance without any barriers, they would only waste even more of the world's limited resources. The resources that could nurture a million — or even ten million — perfect Golden Core cultivators could be consumed by a single one of them."

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"The heavens cannot tolerate such destructive behavior, just as they cannot allow everyone to possess excellent spiritual roots. The world would simply collapse in that case, and no one would have enough resources to advance far — not even the plants would have energy to grow, nor the ores to strengthen. That is why what the heavens desire is for only the true elites to move forward toward the peak of cultivation, leaving enough leeway for the world to sustain them."

"And why would the world want strong cultivators? Well, that I'll leave for you to discover…"

As Wen Tai spoke serenely, a faint smile on his lips, the disciples' jaws dropped, their eyes vacant as they beheld the hidden truth of the world laid bare before them.

But the most extraordinary thing happened next: a mystical aura began to envelop the entire mountain. The plants seemed to grow under its presence, even the grass appeared more extraordinary.

The spiritual energy was becoming denser and calmer, and everyone's minds seemed to expand, becoming clearer and more flexible.

Aotian, sitting beside Rihai, widened his eyes upon seeing it. He wasn't the one causing this.

Confusion clouded his mind, and it was as if thousands of question marks materialized above his head.

'What the hell?! This… what is this?!'

Struggling to comprehend the phenomenon, even his avatars appeared, trying to understand what was happening. Then, a subtle feeling touched his heart, making his eyes widen even further.

'It's… it's as if…'

'... The heavens are blessing us?!!!'

He felt as though the heavens were expressing gratitude and agreement with Wen Tai's words, granting their blessings upon the sect.

Aotian's mind shut down for a moment before finally starting to work again.

'T-this… this… flattery can take you that far?!!' he screamed inwardly, utterly shocked.

Who would've thought that speaking well of the heavens would make them so pleased as to send blessings?

But his shock only deepened when he felt a massive vortex of energy drawing all the sect's spiritual energy toward the top of the mountain, making his eyes widen.

Controlling his avatars to observe the disciples, he was utterly stunned to find them all sitting with eyes closed, calm and composed, completely ignoring how magical the current situation was. An extraordinary and ethereal aura surrounded each of them.

The only one who didn't seem completely calm was his wife, Rihai, beside him. She struggled a bit before stabilizing herself, but her aura of connection with the heavens was slightly inferior to the others'.

Aotian opened his mouth but didn't dare to say anything.

'Epiphanies! Epiphanies! They're all having epiphanies! Even Lei Yun! That lucky bastard — this is already his second one since joining the sect!'

As he kept muttering nonstop to suppress his shock, even he was forced to close his eyes. Not because he was having an epiphany, but because over ten thousand disciples entering epiphany at once made his own comprehension skyrocket in a terrifying way thanks to the system's feedback.

Unfortunately, unlike a natural epiphany — where one attunes with the world and cultivation soars — he was only receiving the knowledge portion. Otherwise, he might have become an immortal right then and there.

Even so, the feedback was an enormous gain. Even if they were just Golden Core cultivators' perceptions, the sheer amount of information, coming from people in epiphany, was still greatly strengthening his power and making his foundation even more solid.

In addition to his main body, his avatars also split tasks.

Bao Wuji appeared in the air, waving his hand and releasing countless storage rings, which were caught by the other avatars. They divided and covered the ground around the disciples with spiritual and elemental stones.

This was because the sect's spiritual vein wouldn't be able to support so many cultivators in epiphany at once.

Although this wouldn't damage the vein, the lack of spiritual energy in the environment would affect the results of the epiphanies — something Aotian did not want to see happen.

With a complicated yet satisfied look, Aotian watched as the disciples surpassed him in cultivation one after another. Fortunately, the situation was different from before — his elders were already far ahead of him, so having many powerful disciples wouldn't destabilize the sect.

Most chose to stop at the third level and not advance further, while a few, with stronger foundations, dared to reach the fourth level of the Golden Core realm, leaving Aotian speechless.

'Perhaps the Infinite Dao Sect is the only place where people limit their own advancement during an epiphany.' His mouth twitched, but he had to admit — he was jealous.

Unfortunately, something like an epiphany was impossible for him to attain. Even Rihai, who only had one extra body, had struggled, and the quality of her epiphany had dropped. How could he possibly manage, with hundreds of bodies and even more minds?

'Well… two bodies with divine roots — it's normal that there are some limitations, like the difficulty of entering such an elevated state of mind. Luckily, with her great talent, it's much easier for her to enter an epiphany than for those with low talent, otherwise she might not have succeeded.'

He thought with a few of his free minds as he observed everyone's progress.

Tian Zhu, who was in the sky, shifted his gaze from Rihai — who had advanced to the ninth level of the Golden Core realm and whose aura continued to rise — to the spiritual beasts, who, having previously listened to the lecture, were now watching the scene in confusion.

'I should've talked more about spiritual beasts first. Maybe they'd have triggered epiphanies too! I get feedback from them as well! Though… I don't know if I gain EP from it.'

He pondered and concluded that probably not, since the EP description specifically said "disciples."

'Should I accept beasts as disciples? Although I treat them well, no different from how I treat humans, I usually leave them in the beast pavilion and don't consider them real disciples… hmm… well, beasts have many bloodline limitations, which makes things complicated. I'll think about it later.'

Lost in thought, he waited for the epiphany process to end and for the EPs to be calculated.

'Hehe… that'll be more than 13,000 EPs. That means I'll be able to recruit 13 ancestors at once?! One for each pavilion, hahaha…'

Calculating how many points he would gain, Aotian was already laughing internally.

A few minutes later, he saw the vortex of energy above the mountain slowly begin to fade — making his heart skip a beat.

Without hesitation, he opened the avatar shop, full of expectation — only to freeze at what he saw.

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