Chapter 452: Changing the Name
“Conceptualization, Spirit Transformation… It’s much harder in practice than I imagined.” Li Nian’er sighed in frustration. The six elders each had their specialties, but none suited her.
Jiang Li reminded her: “If you truly can’t decide what to transform into divinity, you could use dragon blood to skip this step and achieve Spirit Transformation directly.”
As a half-dragon hybrid, Li Nian’er’s path to Spirit Transformation didn’t require enlightenment like human cultivators. For dragonkind, as long as the power within their bloodline was strong enough and their ancestors were powerful, they could achieve Spirit Transformation.
Li Nian’er could choose either path – enlightenment or bloodline – with neither being superior to the other.
“No, I want to achieve it through enlightenment.” Li Nian’er could be stubborn about certain things.
She explained her reasoning: “The first dragons weren’t born powerful either. They cultivated step by step, improving themselves until they reached the level where their bloodline could bless descendants. If they could do it, so can I.”
Jiang Li nodded: “Legends say there were no cultivators at the beginning. All people were mortals who didn’t know how to utilize spiritual energy. Only through gradual exploration did they discover spiritual energy could make them stronger – that was the birth of Qi Refining.”
“The Qi Refining Stage, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul were all developed through countless failures. Other realms might have emerged during that time, but none proved as universally applicable as these.”
Both were discussing ancient legends – matters from the primordial era. Not only were there no surviving records, even fragmented legends were scarce. How much truth these fragments contained was anyone’s guess.
Jiang Li continued: “One has to admire the cultivator who created the Spirit Transformation Stage. With no clear path forward, they conceived the idea of transforming oneself into divinity, successfully breaking through the Nascent Soul Stage and naming this new realm ‘Spirit Transformation’…”
As he spoke, Jiang Li had an idea.
Why not rename the “Mahayana Stage” as “Spirit Transformation Stage” too? After all, he was the first and only person to reach Mahayana – he could name it whatever he wanted.
In a voice only he could hear, Jiang Li muttered: “From now on, the Mahayana Stage shall be called the Spirit Transformation Stage.”
Jiang Li summoned his system panel:
[Name: Jiang Li]
[Age: 528 years]
[Identity: Current Human Sovereign]
[Cultivation: Spirit Transformation Stage]
“It actually worked.” Jiang Li was surprised this shortcut method was valid.
[Congratulations, Host, for conceptualizing countless spiritual beings and finally realizing only your own power is truly supreme. You have transformed yourself into divinity, achieving the Spirit Transformation Stage.]
“What kind of nonsense is this?” Jiang Li once again witnessed the system’s completely irrelevant congratulatory message.
From the wording, it seemed in the system’s timeline, he had gained much at the Dharmakaya Sect before finally achieving Spirit Transformation.
[Claim rewards now?]
“Wait.”
Jiang Li noticed that while he was distracted by the system, Li Nian’er had quietly broken through to Spirit Transformation. This girl was too independent.
“What did you use as your conceptualization for Spirit Transformation?”
“I conceptualized ‘the Spirit Transformation Stage’ itself as divinity.”
Even with Jiang Li’s reaction speed, it took him a moment to process Li Nian’er’s meaning.
“If Spirit Transformation requires conceptualizing something as divinity, why can’t I conceptualize the very concept of ‘Spirit Transformation Stage’ as divinity?”
Jiang Li found Li Nian’er’s thinking genuinely innovative.
Li Nian’er floated into the air and lightly struck the sky with her palm. Clouds tens of thousands of meters away dispersed instantly, with the palm force continuing unabated into space. This was definitely not power an early-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator should possess.
Even Li Nian’er was shocked by her own strength – her breakthrough had exceeded all expectations.
Jiang Li also felt Li Nian’er’s Spirit Transformation was unusually strong, displaying mid-to-late stage power right after breaking through. But he didn’t dwell on it – with Li Nian’er’s high talent, such performance was reasonable.
After all, his own initial Spirit Transformation performance had been even more exaggerated than hers. Jiang Li estimated Li Nian’er’s current strength at about 80% of his own at that stage.
With the mission complete and Li Nian’er successfully reaching Spirit Transformation, Jiang Li left the Dharmakaya Sect and chatted with the system.
“Change the realm name back.”
[Name: Jiang Li]
[Age: 528 years]
[Identity: Current Human Sovereign]
[Cultivation: Mahayana Stage]
Jiang Li found this dumb system surprisingly easy to trick.
“Now claim the rewards.”
[Reward: First half of The Dharma Body Sutra]
Jiang Li noticed the complete copy of The Dharma Body Sutra that Li Er had given him, stored in his spatial ring, had been mysteriously split in two, with the first half appearing in his hand.
This scam system was rewarding him with his own book! And tearing it in half! If you’re going to go that far, why not tear it page by page to reward me?
The system showed some conscience by reminding:
[You may spend 485,530 source points to complete the latter half of The Dharma Body Sutra]
The first half only covered basic Dharma Body cultivation, while the latter contained advanced techniques of significant value.
Jiang Li’s blood pressure spiked in anger. He felt this damn system would be the death of him someday. Was he supposed to be the one pulling off schemes, or was the system the real mastermind here?
Using his own book, tearing it in half to “reward” him, then demanding points to restore it…
Jiang Li took out the latter half from his spatial ring, and miraculously, the two halves merged seamlessly as if never separated.
[Congratulations, Host, for obtaining the complete Dharma Body Sutra]
“Heh.” Jiang Li couldn’t be bothered to respond.
The system continued distributing rewards. Three blue spider lilies appeared in Jiang Li’s hands.
Spider lilies were extremely precious, especially the blue variety. At auction, a single blue spider lily could fetch thousands of high-grade spirit stones.
Blue spider lilies were one of the main ingredients for crafting the “Heavenly Sun Calamity Poison Pill” needed to visit the underworld. If Jiang Li were still at Spirit Transformation, obtaining them would require significant effort.
But now at Mahayana, he could simply take them from the Alchemy Peak’s herb vault.
For the poison pill, the only missing ingredient Jiang Li lacked was Soul-Severing Water, which he suspected would appear in future system rewards – these blue spider lilies being proof.
The Alchemy Peak’s vault contained hundreds of blue spider lilies. Jiang Li had also heard they were collaborating with the Spirit Herb Sect to attempt artificial cultivation of blue spider lilies, ideally mass production.
Their current progress included: green spider lilies, black spider lilies, yellow spider lilies… just no blue ones yet.
Jiang Li didn’t know more details, having only learned this during casual conversation with Bai Hongtu.
Another item appeared in Jiang Li’s hands – “Spirit Transformation Insights” written by someone at Tribulation Transcendence Stage, signed by Li Er.
“I’ve even read Li Er’s ‘Tribulation Transcendence Insights.’ Why would I need his ‘Spirit Transformation Insights’?”
When Jiang Li had lectured several Tribulation Transcendence cultivators on reaching Mahayana, he’d assigned them to write their insights as homework. Li Er’s was among them.
Skimming through, Jiang Li found several minor errors in the “Spirit Transformation Insights,” though nothing critical.
As always, the system proved utterly unreliable.