Nascent Soul (원영/元靈)
Nascent Soul is the fifth stage of Immortal Cultivation. It is preceded by Core Formation and followed by Heavenly Being.
Boundary
Sub-Realms
Lifespan
Description
When one breaks through from Core Formation to Nascent Soul, they see all the memories in their lifetime starting from just before the breakthrough and ending at birth, representing going back to the origin. Without sufficient enlightenment, no matter how many spiritual elixirs one consumes, one cannot reach the Nascent Soul stage.
Those who have reached the stage of Nascent Soul can distinguish the planes based on the height of dimensions. If one from a higher plane splits the space of a lower plane to attack, or attacks from a higher to a lower plane, then cultivators of lower planes cannot possibly oppose them.
Starting from the Nascent Soul realm, one begins to encounter Heavenly Tribulation as they ascend through the cultivation realms.
Substages
In the early stages, The Nascent Soul formed based on the memories of just being born from the mother becomes a Yin Spirit and takes its place in the Golden Core. The main stages are:
Completing the Yin Spirit and incorporating the night on the Celestial Dominion that has been created so far with the 28 Stars and the Three Enclosures, finishing the Starry Skies Map.
Completing the Yang Spirit and creating day with the morning Sun rising beyond the night, dividing the sky in two to form the Yin and Yang Spirits.
After completing the Yin and Yang spirits, creating the Five Great Mountains to support the completed sky as pillars.
Where one has balanced the five elements in preparation for ascension to the Heavenly Being Stage. At this time, the Five Great Mountains must be created corresponding to the Five Elements. The power of the Five Elements accepted at this time will play a major role when forming the axis in the Four-Axis stage later on.
Enlightenment
Upon reaching the Nascent Soul stage, every cultivator realizes a certain truth:
There are high and low planes in this world.
And these planes are broadly divided into three categories: Qi, Soul, and Fate.
Vitality
When one breaks through from Golden Core to Nascent Soul, their lifespan doubles again from 600 to 1200 years. From Nascent Soul onwards, as long as the Nascent Soul is intact, you don't die even if the Golden Core is shattered. Normally, shattering the Golden Core would mean losing all cultivation but as long as the nascent soul is present, one is capable of building another golden core.
Trivia
- The Nascent Soul realm is the first realm where talent is truly required to breakthrough.
- The full power strength of a nascent soul according to Tremendous is equal to an atomic bomb.
- The Nascent Soul stage of the demon race is referred to as the Transformation Stage instead of Nascent Soul as it allows them to transform themselves into human forms.