Chapter 38: Striving For Perfection

“For anyone else treading the Martial Dao Evolution Path, even merging just one Intent with your Dantian is enough to make you an Intent Merging Expert. Furthermore, the difficulty of achieving this is equal to, if not easier than, how anyone else breaks through to Rank 2.”

Every Evolution Path among the millions that existed required a specific way to break through each Major Rank. Some were easier to break through in, whereas others were harder.

For the Martial Dao Evolution Path, it had roughly average difficulty in breaking through to Rank 2 among all Evolution Paths.

Conversely, the potential that the Martial Dao Path held for the transition from Rank 1 to Rank 2 was so outstanding that it far outweighed the averageness of the difficulty. After all, with Dantian-Intent Merging, the Intents you initially had when breaking through—your Foundational Intents—not only tremendously improved combat power in Rank 2, they also affected how fast you could comprehend and merge more Intents with your Dantian in the future.

The more Foundational Intents you had and the more aspects they covered, the simpler it was to amass even more Intents in the future.

This sort of quality among Evolution Paths was virtually unheard of…

But of course, to Jin, who possessed an unfathomable 777 Foundational Intents, the prospect of future Intents wasn’t that appealing in his eyes. Instead, it was the other insane quality of the Path he carved out for himself that got his blood pumping.

“Improved power, relative to the Stage of your Intents and how many you merged as Foundational.”

No matter the Evolution Path, all of them were centered around Intents in the 2nd Rank.

For the Martial Dao Path, this involved the continual Merging of your Foundational Intents with your Dantian. Essentially, this meant the depth to which your Foundational Intents were burrowed into your Dantian, and was also what determined your cultivation level in the 2nd Rank.

0.1% Merging of all Foundational Intents = Rank 2 Level 1

9% Merging of all Foundational Intents = Rank 2 Level 2

18% Merging of all Foundational Intents = Rank 2 Level 3…

99% Merging of all Foundational Intents = Rank 2 Level 12

As for beyond that, Jin had yet to theorize and develop the exact sequence. He only knew that it would have something to do with Fusion, as that was synonymous with the 3rd Rank.

“However, as a trade-off for my far superior combat power, the difficulty of my cultivation is much greater than it would be for any that cultivate to this point in the Martial Dao Path after me,” Jin sighed.

Depending on the number of Foundational Intents you had and what Stage they were, the rate at which you cultivated through Rank 2 would vary. This was because, instead of ’burrowing’ a single low-stage Intent into your Dantian, you were burrowing several, with each one possibly ’more troublesome to bury’ because of its Stage.

For anyone else breaking through to Rank 2 with hundreds of Stage 6 Foundational Intents, they might as well just off themselves early, because they’d never reach the peak of Rank 2.

However, Jin, who possessed Against-Heaven’s Understanding and the Door to the Myriad Realms, would get past this hurdle of limited time and talent.

“Against-Heaven’s Understanding will allow me to comprehend more ’Secondary Intents’ that will push my Foundational Intents deeper into my Dantian,” Jin contemplated.

There were two ways to cultivate in the 2nd Rank while following the Martial Dao Evolution Path—by either comprehending and merging more Intents or drawing upon Essence Refinement and external energy sources to reach the same end-goal. Of them, the first option sped up the ’burrowing’ time of Foundational Intents by a massive amount.

“But at the same time, the first option is also far harder to traverse, urging most to go with option two, the more straightforward option,” said Jin. “However, if I want a perfect foundation and the highest combat power possible, I’ll have to take the more arduous, unorthodox path.”

With a goal set in place, Jin strove forward at full force.

Whether it be by battling in the Virtual League or through the purchasing of expensive Intent Medicines, he comprehended Intent after Intent. He did so with the sole aim of furthering the merging of his Foundational Intents with his Dantian.

But never would he have expected that when his 7777th Intent came to be, he would have unknowingly accomplished something unprecedented throughout Human history…

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