Free Web NovelChapter 528: Chapter 455: Level 5 Wizard, Bottlenecks, and Grades_2
Several antiquated and ancient-feeling jade slips or book scroll shadows instantly flew out from deep within the library, suspended before him.
Jeming’s consciousness quickly immersed itself, beginning to speed through the reading.
Time slipped away in the rapid operation of his consciousness.
A vast amount of profound and obscure information concerning ancient mysteries and the essence of cultivation was absorbed by him.
After a while, Jeming’s consciousness slowly lifted his head, a glimmer of understanding flashing in his eyes, accompanied by a trace of complexity.
"I see..."
The good news is, the absolute strength gap between Divinity Transformation Realm cultivators and Refining Void Realm cultivators isn’t as exaggerated and ridiculous as he had just imagined.
Some old monsters who have refined themselves in the Divinity Transformation Stage for tens of thousands of years can possess the capital to challenge and even suppress ordinary Refining Void Realm cultivators.
But the bad news is, his ambition to advance from Divinity Transformation to Refining Void might not be as easy as when he previously broke through other realms.
Because, starting from Divinity Transformation Realm, the subsequent Great Realms gradually depart from the category of "artificial bottleneck," becoming... more "primitive" and "challenging."
"Bottleneck..." Jeming chewed on this word, as key understandings obtained from ancient texts surfaced in his mind.
To countless Low Tier cultivators, "bottleneck" is something they despise deeply.
It’s the barrier that blocks their advancement, the source of despair despite years of diligent practice without any progress.
But at higher levels, Jeming learned from these ancient records that the "bottleneck" was actually a "shortcut," researched and solidified by generations of extraordinary predecessors to pave a broader road for cultivation to reduce advancement difficulty!
It can even be termed as an artificial "ladder" enabling future cultivators to climb higher peaks!
Its existence definitely limits the extrema cultivators can reach within a single realm.
But conversely, it also provides a clear and traceable "breakthrough point."
As long as one dutifully accumulates and successfully breaches this relatively "weaker" barrier, it allows for a leap in life level and entry into the next realm.
"Simply breaking through bottlenecks allows elevation"—this is practically a "cheat" method for the uncertain and unknown cultivation path ahead, remarkably reducing the randomness and uncertainty of advancement.
And the state Jeming now perceives is the real dilemma faced by early ancient cultivators without predecessors paving the way: as long as resources and talent suffice, the power within can accumulate to virtually no limit. But the front remains undetermined, with no clear "bottleneck" or "barrier" to "break through."
No matter how much you accumulate, you remain clueless about which direction to push to pry open that door to a higher level.
Breaking artificially set "bottlenecks" is already incredibly arduous for many cultivators.
But for higher tier cultivators, if they cannot break through even these deliberately weakened and distinctly pointed "bottlenecks," facing Jeming’s current state of "no clear bottleneck, only vague chasm" will leave them helpless, forever unable to advance further.
Ancient texts mention that to further reduce advancement difficulty, later cultivators performed what can be termed as "refinements" on lower realms.
The most classic example being the Qi Cultivation Stage.
As a necessary stage for every cultivator, the Qi Cultivation Stage was remodeled most frequently and thoroughly.
It had long surpassed the simple division of "early, middle, late, and complete" four stages, finely divided into "Qi Cultivation First Layer" to "Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer," with each layer often split further into three sub-stages: early, middle, and late.
In summary, just within the Qi Cultivation Stage, a total of twenty-six "small bottlenecks" were artificially set!
Each small bottleneck serves to reduce the overall difficulty of the ultimate "Qi Cultivation to Foundation Establishment" "Great Bottleneck."
It’s akin to transforming a steep and dangerous cliff into a series of relatively gentle steps with resting places.
Though the steps increase, climbing remains arduous, but it’s undoubtedly easier and safer than directly scaling the cliff.
Upon reaching the Golden Core Stage and Nascent Soul Stage, the number of cultivators able to practice to this level sharply declines, resulting in less meticulous and comprehensive "ladderization" compared to Foundation Establishment Stage.
Thus, the Foundation Establishment Stage has four relatively clear stages: early, middle, late, and complete, whereas Golden Core and Nascent Soul often have only three: early, middle, and late.
And once at Divinity Transformation Realm...
Those who reach this stage are few and far between; thus, research and "modification" of this realm are naturally less, and its state more closely resembles "primitive," exactly what Jeming currently feels.
Power accumulates, but the "road signs" for advancement are unclear, requiring personal exploration, understanding, or even "blind luck" or "realization" to find the direction.
"Turns out my current state is actually ’normal’... previously progressing smoothly was indeed thanks to predecessor’s painstaking transformation of the cultivation system."
Jeming withdrew from deep consciousness, slowly opening his eyes, involuntarily furrowing his brows.
He suddenly connected it to the Wizard hierarchy system.
Looking at it from this logic, Wizard Apprentices ignite Spiritual Flame and bind the Ring of Truth to become Official Wizards.
First Level Wizards build a complete Energy Cycle to advance to Second Level Wizards, and from Second to Third Level Wizards, they start deeply engaging with and initially utilizing Laws, these advancements feature very clear, notable "qualitative change" hallmark transformations.
However, advancing from Third to Fourth Level, and Fourth to Fifth Level is more like an accumulation of "quantitative change," without the life level metamorphosis sensation.
In hindsight, it seems the wizard’s hierarchy also underwent similar artificial adjustments.
"Perhaps, fundamentally, from Third to Sixth Level is essentially a complete ’Mid Tier Wizard’ Great Realm?" Jeming speculated.
"And Fourth and Fifth Levels are specially divided ’small steps’ or ’mid-term checkpoints’ to reduce confusion and difficulty throughout this long accumulation process."
"This way, wizards can have clearly defined goals amid the prolonged law accumulation process, knowing their progress without losing direction in the boundless law ocean."
This perfectly explains why he could pose threats or even defeat some weaker Fifth Level Wizards using composite techniques while at Third and Fourth Levels.
Because essentially they were still in the same "Mid Tier Wizard" Great Realm, the discrepancy more reflected in the "value" of law mastery rather than absolute life form or power essence difference.
But facing Sixth Level Wizards...
That’s already the next Great Realm, the beginning of High Tier Wizard!
It’s an existence that has completed Law Solidification and undergone some form of life form qualitative change!
Thus, the chasm between Fifth Level and Sixth Level Wizards, far surpasses the previous small realm differences.
In recollection, when Senior Sister Viola chose to leap directly from Third to Sixth Level Wizard back then, indeed, breakthroughs at Fourth and Fifth Levels were quite effortless, only struggling considerably at the final Sixth Level Wizard breakthrough.
"Considering this, perhaps Senior Sister Viola back then also realized this point, so for her, the so-called three-level leap was just a direct breakthrough from one realm to the next Great Realm."
"In this case, Sixth Level Wizards... might be even more troublesome than I imagined." Jeming’s eyes grew heavy, his internal danger assessment of Sixth Level Wizards further escalated.
After all, the forthcoming confrontation is a full-fledged Wizard War, and a clever and cunning entity like Wizards will undoubtedly not engage in simplistic clash of kings or marshals.
On the contrary, even Jeming himself, when pondering future warfare, instinctively considers obliterating the enemy’s lower-tier forces to create advantages for his side.
Thus, the probability of encountering High Tier Wizards on the battlefield is quite high.
"Looks like more effort is needed."
Jeming reached out, picked up the next test tube sealed with the "Abyss Assimilation" concept Plane Origin, unplugged the stopper, and resumed that extravagant and arduous "knowledge devour."
