First Stage Beyond Mortal

Beyond Mortal is the first stage of Cultivations. It was only known as the ‘First Stage’ during the Ancient Antiquity Era.

## Minor Realms

The First Stage of Cultivation was split into six minor realms.

1. Opening the Heart Acupoint
2. Eye Acupoint
3. Nose Acupoint
4. Ears Acupoint
5. Mouth Acupoint
6. Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate

After the Opening of the Heart Acupoint, each minor realm has a small chance of granting a special ability associated with that part of their body to the person. For example, some special form of vision when they open the Eye Acupoint. Most people will gain at least one such power, with only the unluckiest not doing so, though only the most fortunate gain more than one.

### Opening the Heart Acupoint

*Main article: Hundred Days of Foundation Building*
Opening the Heart Acupoint is also known as the Hundred Days of Foundation Building.

The heart’s acupoint is where the heart is, but the heart’s acupoint isn’t the heart, it is an empty acupoint right where the heart is. It cannot be touched, even if a human body was cut open, the heart’s acupoint cannot be found, but it exists right there.

When cultivators opened their first acupoint, the Heart Acupoint, they would complete their foundation and start walking on the path of a cultivator.

Cultivators must at least already opened their Heart Acupoint before they can watch an Eighth Stage Saint’s sermon.

### Eye Acupoint

After opening the second acupoint of the First Stage, the Eye Acupoint, chances were that the cultivator would be able to develop a talent ability. However, at least half of all cultivators were unable to awaken a talent ability when opening the Eye Acupoint.

The lucky ones would be able to receive a divine skill like ‘Heavenly Eye’; those with poorer luck could also receive skills such as ‘Long-Distance Vision’, ‘Clarity Vision’, ‘Microscopic Vision’, etc. They could receive all kinds of skills, and if one’s luck were to be horrendous; they might end up with nothing.

### Nose Acupoint

Opening the Nose Acupoint was more difficult than opening the Eye Acupoint. Without any external aid, it would take at least two years.

The bottleneck of the Nose Acupoint can be regarded as a thick iron gate. A cultivator needed to continuously accumulate qi and blood in the aperture, and once it was full, they could rely on the qi and blood energy to smash the gate open. But, under the effects of the strange energy of Way Grasping Stone, the thick iron gate will start to weaken. From an iron gate, it will first changes into a wooden one… then, it will become a paper gate.

When cultivators opened their Nose Acupoint, their sense of smell would be enhanced. But after having the sense of smell enhanced, cultivators will have many things to worry about. Before reaching the Third Stage Realm, cultivators were unable to control their enhanced sense of smell freely.

Aside from enhancing the sense of smell, once a cultivator had opened his Nose Acupoint, after every breath, the cultivator would inhale the wandering ‘spiritual qi’ in the surrounding area into his body. Part of it would be stored inside his Nose Aperture; another part would integrate with his body, strengthening it.

In other words, after opening the Nose Acupoint, taking a breath was the same as cultivating.

### Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate

The Sixth Acupoint Realm was known as Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate (鱼跃龙门; *yú yuè lóng mén*). This minor realm is the ridge a practitioner will face in his path of cultivation.

This minor realm’s name was taken from the fish that leaped through a dragon gate to become a dragon. Going past it would be akin to a fish transforming into a dragon, advancing to the Second Stage. Once the gate was leapt over, one could turn the body’s qi and blood from incorporeal to corporeal and condense it into true qi, breaking away from the mortal realm.

Once eyes, nose, ears, and mouth acupoints have been opened, they will link with the heart acupoint, and then the cultivator will experience the feeling of being a fish stepping through the dragon’s gate. Once the cultivator passed this dragon’s gate, the cultivator’s body of qi and blood will be able to transform from incorporeal to corporeal, from virtual to reality; that would be the Second Stage True Master, where the power of qi and blood transforms into real qi.

Many cultivators would reach the First Stage Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate’s realm while 20 – 30 years old. However, after spending the next 30 – 40 years they would still failed to leap through the dragon gate.

Even though it was just a small bottleneck, around 6% of all practitioners failed to pass this hurdle. The main victims were loose practitioners or those from small sects who lacked resources. Some people had tried to break through this bottleneck for their whole lives without success.

If a cultivator fails to leap over, all of the qi and blood in the cultivator’s body would be expended and their cultivation level would drop to the mouth acupoint realm. The only thing that could be done is to accumulating enough qi and blood and attempt to leap over that mysterious dragon gate.

## Way Grasping Stone

If a First Stage cultivator is hovering near the Way Grasping Stone, he can easily break through the bottleneck of the acupoints within his body without much difficulty; and the failure rate is almost zero.

## Trivia

First Stage Beyond Mortal was the sixth cultivation level mentioned in the novel.

## Links and References

1. ↑ Chapter 269
2. ↑ Chapter 2509
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Chapter 104
4. ↑ Chapter 35
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Chapter 85
6. ↑ Chapter 52
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Chapter 249
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 167
9. ↑ Chapter 169
10. ↑ Chapter 365
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 376
12. ↑ Chapter 203
13. ↑ Chapter 18