Vestige Liberation Immortal

Description

Vestige Liberation (尸解) refers to beings who shed their physical bodies and ascend entirely into the world above the Planes of Qi, Soul, and Fate. In short, the True Immortal advancement ritual is liberation from the physical body.

That is, one must abandon all their 'lifespan,' 'physical body,' and 'everything' one has pursued in the mortal world up until now to reach True Immortality which is simply suicide (自殺) or Death. The True Immortal advancement ritual is, at its core, suicide and this simple yet terrifying ritual is the only way to advance to become a True Immortal.

It is precisely why Nether Ghost Realm Entering Nirvanas do not challenge the True Immortal advancement ritual but instead spend countless days staring at the corpse of Reincarnation Judge Yu Soo Ryeon, who holds the secret of resurrection.

True Immortals, who have completed Vestige Liberation and obtained their immortal Rank, already embody both life and death within themselves.

"Why did the remnant of the Golden Divine tell me, 'We all eventually have to go to the Netherworld'? It is because the True Immortal advancement ritual is, at its core, suicide." - Seo Eun-hyun, [1]

Once cultivators reach a certain stage, they can gain 'knowledge' simply by directly facing the other person. Thus, when Entering Nirvana True Persons behold a True Immortal, they behold death itself. Because of this True Persons who behold death are said to immediately undergo the True Immortal advancement ritual on the spot.

In short, Entering Nirvanas die just by directly facing a True Immortal and if they are lucky, they might survive and become a True Immortal. But in the situation of suddenly facing a True Immortal and suddenly performing the advancement ritual, who knows how high the success rate is.

Advancement

From the Sacred Vessel stage, one can somewhat control the heart's change into attraction force that begins in the Star Shattering stage, and through the Immortal Arts of Eight Paths, make the attraction force-changed heart operate like a true heart. From the Entering Nirvana stage, it even becomes possible to return the attraction force-changed heart back to its original state. Because of this, the Star Shattering stage marks the beginning of the preparatory phase for the True Immortal advancement ritual.

The True Immortal advancement ritual proceeds as follows:

When the heart gradually changes into an attraction force, and that attraction force gradually reaches its peak, the heart's attraction force begins to contract, eventually compressing into a single point and annihilating everything about the cultivator. Once compressed, the True Person's physical body and authority are released from their compression, entering the Interdimensional Void, where they gradually decompose and turn into a Vestige (尸).

Then, the soul of the True Person, having undergone complete annihilation, moves towards the [Domain of Death], uniting 'life and death' within the soul itself before unfolding the Immortal Art cultivated from the Star Shattering stage to the Entering Nirvana stage. At the core of the Immortal Art, a being that has fully embraced and contained life and death is born.

In the Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds, such a being is called a True Immortal (眞仙).

In summary:

1. From the Star Shattering stage, the heart begins changing into attraction force.
2. In the Sacred Vessel stage, one learns to control this attraction force through Immortal Arts.
3. In the Entering Nirvana stage, the attraction force reaches its peak.
4. Finally, the True Immortal advancement involves compressing this peak attraction force, annihilating oneself before shedding (脫殼) from one's life, and uniting life and death to become an entirely new existence

Cultivation Method

The way to progress in this Realm is the very ritual of advancement to the Superior Immortal Realm.

Not having begun the advancement ritual is equivalent to the Early Stage.

• 1 to 9 fixed stars are equivalent to the Middle Stage.
• 10 stars are equivalent to the Late Stage.
• Being on the verge of becoming a Superior Immortal is equivalent to Great Perfection.

Vitality

A True Immortal does not die as long as their prophecies exist somewhere, or as long as they dream[1] as long as their existence is validated by something they never truly die. Even if they are "killed" as long as their prophecies are somewhere[2].

Inspiration

This stage is inspired by Shijie (尸解) in Taoism (meaning 'corpse release', 'liberation from the corpse', or 'release by means of a corpse'). Note that the hanzi in Shijie is shared with the hanja of Vestige Liberation Immortal.

Shijie (尸解) is an esoteric Daoist technique for an adept to transform into a xian (仙) ("transcendent; immortal"), typically using some bureaucratic ruse to evade the netherworld administrative system of life and death registration.

Trivia

• In Q&A(6), it was revealed to be the first realm of the Great Boundary.
• The Immortal Ascension ritual is overseen by the Western Heavenly Venerable Netherworld Ghost Mother.
• The period immediately after True Immortal Ascension is overseen by the Naming Supreme Deity.
• The rest of the realm is overseen by the Radiance Supreme Deity.