My Cultivation Universe

Here you can found what my sick mind come out about cultivation and other things

### Cultivation's Paths

In my "cultivation universe" the cultivation is divided into 3 branches:

* Normal cultivation, is the classical one practiced in all the cultivation manhua
* Spiritualism, this path focus mainly in the single entity that train itself and mainly use its own strenght, normal cultivation can have something similar but is like make a comparison between a mid quality copy and the original.
* Shamanism, this path focus in the use of spirits and martial spirits, normal cultivation can have something similar but is like make a comparison between a mid quality copy and the original.

One can see strange that there a 3 different paths of cultivation and this because in my sick mind I take references to the 3 dantians.

For the ones that don't know this the dantian is basically the place in the body where usually the Qi is stored, in cultivation manhua the dantian is always showed to be low but in total there are 3 in the body (this part is directly take from wikipedia):

* **Lower dantian (下丹田, Xià Dāntián):** at the crossing of the horizontal line behind the Ren-6 acupoint and vertical line above the perinium, which is also called "the golden stove" (金炉 pinyin: Jīn lú) or the namesake "elixir-of-life field" proper, where the process of developing the elixir by refining and purifying essence (jing) into vitality (qi) begins.
* **Middle dantian (中丹田, Zhōng Dāntián):** at the level of the heart, which is also called "the crimson palace", associated with storing spirit (shen) and with respiration and health of the internal organs, in particular the thymus gland. This cauldron is where vitality or qi is refined into shen or spirit.
* **Upper dantian (上丹田, Shàng Dāntián):** at the forehead between the eyebrows or third eye, which is also called "the muddy pellet", associated with the pineal gland. This cauldron is where shen or spirit is transmuted into wu wei or emptiness.

In my "system" each of this 3 dantian is associated to a different path of cultivation:

* The lower dantian is mainly associated with the classical cultivation path
* The middle dantian is associated with shamanism due to shamanism use spirits and the middle dantian store spirit
* The upper dantian is associated with spiritualism because the techniques are not only based on the understanding of principles but to mental images.

For the ones that don't know that, for cultivate power alone is useless because it need various levels of understanding of the reality and the universe, due to this even if one have all the power of the universe but low "achievement", an alternative way of say "understanding", it will never be possible advance to higher levels... my 3 different cultivation paths are basically alternative ways totally separated from the normal cultivation, for use a comparison is like make a program for open a door but using a different programming language (C#, Java, Python, etc.).

### Spiritual Roots

In cultivation manhua spiritual roots are the source of talents one have, in my "cultivation universe" there are 3 type of roots:

* Cultivation Root, for more info see the relative page
* Spiritualism Root, for more info see the relative page
* Shamanism Root, for more info see the relative page

If kept separated then each system can result difficult to remember so they can be combined into a single system that keep in mind different aspects of the spiritual root.
The division in 4 levels and 9 ranks is the same of the normal cultivation, the 4 levels are:

* Yellow
* Human
* Earth
* Heaven

The form of the root imply the elemental affinity, for example a flame like root imply fire while a rock like root imply earth as attribute... obviously a root with multiple attribute have a combined appearance, for example a fire and earth root seems a rock with fire veins.
Attributeless are grey in color and don't have a peculiar appearance like for the other attributes.

If the root have a big glow around it then spiritualism can be practiced, the bigger the glow the higher the talent in spiritualism and the benefict can bring to the normal cultivation.

Each root sprout out from a small ball, if the ball is white then have the Yang affinity for shamanism, if black have the Yin affinity for shamanism, if grey mean that don't have affinity and shamanism can't be practiced but if the "ball" is both black and white then it mean that both Yin & Yang shamanism can be practiced.

### Realms and Stars

The places are divided into:

* Realm, this term indicate the small dimensions where places can be found
* Star, this term is used for both stars like the sun and planets
* Lesser Star, this term is used for indicate smaller stars that orbit in another plane, for the ones that know cultivation manhua then the best description of them are the lower worlds where stories usually starts.
* Star Field, they are sections of the galaxies like our Milky Way
* Star Boundary, this term refer to galaxies
* Outer Field, this term is used for indicate the space between the galaxies

### Races

In this universe there are various races

* **Human,** they are the normal one like us and their society is basically like the one we see in the classical cultivation manhua.
* **Barbarian**, this race is found in various cultivation manhua and personally I never understood their origin, due to this I decided that originally humans and barbarians were a single race and that, due to the environment they evolved in what now they are. This race have physical strenght superior to humans and are good with body cultivation techniques
* **Spirit**, in terms of appearance they are basically elves but their color patterns, in term of hair, eyes and skin, is different since they cover a more large "range"
* **Monster**, this race is composed by monsters that evolved and took human appearance keeping old monster traits (horns, wings, tails, scales, etc.) and their descendants
* **Demon**, this race is composed by demon like beings that can have skin of various colors, horns, wings, etc.
* **Dragon**, this race is composed by dragons and is divided into the ones that transform into humans and the ones that live in their original dragon form.
* **Immortal**, this race is an ancient one that have silver blood, pointed ears, blonde hair and silver eyes (both iris and sclera).

### Alchemy, Doctors, Runes and Arrays

Alchemy in my cultivation universe is not that different from the one of the other cultivation works.
The term "alchemist" is used for indicate any person that practice alchemy and this "job" is usually managed by associations but one can anyway practice calling itself "loose alchemist"
The things an alchemist deal are:

* Pill Making, the classical occupation of an alchemist, in this universe a doctor is able to make pills too
* Artifact refining, artifacts are the magic items we found in cultivation works
* Array Making, in alchemy, in both pill making and artifact refining, arrays are used for help the alchemist and increase the chance of success
* Runes, normally runes are inscribed on talismans by a profession called "Rune Master" and that usually can make arrays too but here can be used in alchemy the same way of arrays increasing the power of the products

As one can see doctors can be alchemists too but while an alchemist focus on making pills and discover other uses, a doctor make medicines that can be pills too and focus on heal injuries and illness.

### Encyclopedia

In my universe this term is used for indicate a very special category of artifacts that are able to grant special traits to people.
An Encyclopedia is an artifact that fuse with the soul of the user and that is able to influence the body for obtain results, is possible found encyclopedias of various grades and all of them are divided into this types:

* Medical aka Pharmacopedia, make the user able to absorb medicinal things, like herbs and pill, and incorporate their healing abilities
* Monster aka Bestiary, grant the ability of obtain powers from a specific monster of a specific category, the list of power obtained depend on the monster but the most common is the morphing in the beast partially or completely
* Demon aka Demonology, grant the ability of obtain the powers of a specific type of demon or demonic being.

Aside the medical encyclopedia, both the monster and demon encyclopedia use the term "index" in their name, for example "Avian Index" for a monster and "Vampire Index" for a demon.