Techniques

The many **techniques** that exist in the Desolate Era universe are the methods of applying a persons insights into the Dao into methods of attack, cultivation or to create artifacts.

## Ki Refining Techniques

Ki Refining is one of the two paths of cultivation within the Desolate Era universe, it is based on refining the Ki within ones own meridians and absorbing the natural essence from the world.

The techniques that are used to train one's Ki are referred to as 'Ki Refining Techniques', each technique will belong to one of the five elements from which the elemental essence is drawn and insights into that element are required to progress one's cultivation.

These techniques are ranked depending on the amount of natural essence that can be absorbed and how far they allow one to train (see below).

It is possible to train further than the ordinary limit for each technique but this is dependent on other factors that allow one to absorb more elemental essence than the techniques allows e.g. being a Godbeast or training in a powerful Fiendgod Body Refining technique.

### **Known Techniques**

* **[Water Element Art]** amortal rank technique
* **[Samgha Sutra of Ascending to Heaven]** an immortal rank technique
* **[Flowing Watersource]** an immortal rank technique
* **[Darknorth Sutra]** aDaofather rank technique

#### **Jindan Upgrade Techniques**

* **[Icefire Jindan Smelting] -** Upgrading the Jindan to the second tier

## Fiendgod Body Refining Techniques

Fiendgod Body Refining is one of the two cultivation methods in the Desolate Era Universe, it involves transforming the entire Body's muscles and internal organs into a Fiendgod's through the use of Divine tattoos.

The techniques used to transform the body are called 'Fiendgod Body Refining techniques' and must be trained from the Houtian stage, in contrast to Ki refining there is not as much emphasis on insights into the Dao but it is still considered to be the more difficult path of training. However, at higher levels the requirement on insights is just as stringent as Ki refining.

The techniques are not ranked like Ki refining techniques, instead the quality of the transformation the technique allows is the main decider for how powerful each technique is, techniques that require the user to draw their own tattoos cannot be trained passed the Xiantian Level.

### **Techniques that naturally form the tattoos**

* **Crimsonbright Nine Heavens Diagram**
* **Indestructible Bloodshadow Body**
* **Mighty Demon – Introductory**
* **Forlorn World God**

### **Techniques that require the user draw their tattoos**

* **Calamity Fiend**
* **Indestructible Blood Fiend**
* **Song of the Inferno**
* **Vajra Buddhist Sutras**
* **Freeform Soul**
* **Eternal Mysteries of the Yellow Earth**
* **Spirit Fox Sutra**
* **Sutra of the Future Buddha**

## Visualization Techniques

Visualization techniques are images that can be meditated on to help increase the strength of a persons soul, they can also help a soul recover if it has been damaged.

### **Known Images**

* **[Nuwa Painting]**
* **[Inner Visualization of the Shining Sun-Moon Buddha]**

## Divine Abilities

Only those who train as Fiendgod Body Refiners and have at least reached the level of Zifu Disciple are able to train in Divine abilities.

Divine abilities are special methods of manipulating divine power and are considered much more powerful than other types of techniques, they include support abilities, soul attacks and evasion arts.

### **Known Divine abilities**

* **[Windwing Evasion]** an evasion art
* **[Heavenly Transformation]** enlarges the users body and increases their strength
* **[Divine Thunderbolt Eye]** form a third eye that can absorb lightning and use it to attack enemies, contains a soul attack

* **[Myriad Hibernating Venoms]** absorb more than ten thousand types of strange venoms and use them to poison enemies

* **[Three Heads, Six Arms]** when executed gain four additional arms and two additional heads

* **[Eye of the Luminous Heart]** has an effect on divne sense
* **[Starseizing Hand]** transform one’s hands into weapons
* **[Rainbowflame Evasion]** an evasion art
* **[Moving Mountains, Overturning Seas]**
* **[Torch Dragon’s Eye]** can blind enemies and enable the user to see long distances
* **[Pentabolt Vajra]** bathe in thunder and lightning and form a vajra-like body
* **[Golden Nirmana Body]**
* **[Thundergod’s Eye]**
* **The Grand Black Tortoise divine ability**
* **[Qiankun Arrow]**
* **[Formless Illusions]**
* **[Nine Melodies of Virtue]**
* **[Bloodshadow Evasion]** an evasion art
* **[Eight-Nine Arcane Art]** enables the user to transform their body into anything e.g. another person or a rock, and also increase the defence of their body, the number one divine ability for everyone below True God
* **[Houyi’s Archery]** an archery art, ranked in the top 10 divine abilities of the Three Realms
* **[Obscuring Wind of the Nine Heavens]** an evasion art
* **[Xingtian’s World-Destroying Axe]** an axe art

* **[Vairocana Guardian Halo]** a defensive art
* **[Buddha-Realm Within the Palm]**
* **[Nine Elements Annihilation]**
* **[Ninehorn Lightning Serpent]** evasion technique
* **[Golden Sunstreak]** evasion technique
* **[Shadowless Fiend Sutra]**
* **[Coiling River]**
* **[Fogstone Apocalypse]** most powerful divine ability of the Fogstone lineage, but is incomplete; if someone's divine power is depleted while using the third layer, they turn into fogstone statues, and if the fourth layer is used, even the truesoul will turn into fogstone and is irreversible

## Divine Will Arts

Arts that can allow the user to attack with their soul, the power is dependent on the strength of the users soul instead of their cultivation base.

### **Known techniques**

* **[Soulshaker Art]** requires divine will, can shake the opponent’s soul and ifthe enemy’s soul is weak, it might even cause their soul to be extinguished
* **[Soulcharmer Art]** requires divine will
* **[Soulslayer Art]** requires divine sense, can be used to extinguish an opponent’s soul
* **[Soldiers of the Mind]** form three different types of soul attack taking the forms of sabres, spears and swords to attack an enemies soul
* **[Thousandstar Soulscour]** scour a persons memory for information, if they resist they may lose memories

## Sword Arts

Sword arts are used for attacking/defending/binding the enemy

### **Known Techniques**

* **[Three-Foot Sword]**
* **[Lesser Five Elements Sword]**
* **[108 Swords of the Gods and Demons]**
* **[Melody of Ten Thousand Swords]**
* **[Thunderflame Sword]  [Thunderflame Sword Addendum]**
* **[Illusion Sutra]**
* **[Raindrop Sutra]**
* **[Rainwater Sutra]**
* **[Polaris Secret Manual]**
* **[Clearwind Manual]**
* **[Heavenraker]**
* **[Waters of Heaven]**
* **[Qiankun Sword Song]**
* **[Five Treasures Sword Art]**
* **[Brightmoon Sword Art]**
* **[Heartsword Sword Art]** (Known as the [Nameless] Sword Art until Book 27, Chapter 14) - stances: 1.‘Heartsword’ stance / 2.‘Killsword’ stance / 3.‘Great Firmament’ stance / 4.‘Horizon’s Edge’ stance / 5.‘Silent World’ stance / 6.‘Unicorn’s Heart’ stance / 7.‘Cosmic Heart’ stance / 8.‘Ineffable’ stance / 9.‘Blissheart’ stance / 10.‘Killheart’ stance / 11.‘Teardrop’ stance / 12.‘Swordtide’ stance / 13.‘Snowland Blood’ stance / 14.‘Remorseless Unto Death’ stance / 15.‘One Sword, One World’ stance (8-10=first tier, 11-12=second tier, 13-14=third tier, 15=final tier)

## Formations

### **Known Formations**

* [**Mooncrescent Saber Formation]** a saber formation possessed by adept mooncrest
* **[Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]** a sword formation
* **[Cloudwind Formation]** - a formation that forms clouds into animals to attack an enemy, possessed by Chen Jin
* **[Celestial Silknet Formation]**
* **[Snowdragon Skysoar Formation]**
* **[Eighteen Hypnotic Illusions Formation]** a formation used by White to protect the Swallow Mountain region
* **[Ba-Serpent Formation]** forms a Ba Serpent that can swallow enemies and then attack them
* [**The Divine Venomflame of the Nine Heavens Cauldron]** controls Venonflame to attack enemies
* **[Heavenraker Sword Formation]** - A flying sword formation that uses the profound mysteries of the elements of Water and Earth, secrets of the Grand Dao of Qiankun, and is unleashed through the Grand Dao of the Sword, it was created by Daofather Heavenrake
* **[Greater Thousand Swords Formation]** - Developed by Patriach Subhuti using the [Lesser Thousand Sword Formation] as its base
* **[Heavenslayer Sword Formation]**
* **[Seven Flags Formation]**
* **[Heptastar Duality Formation]**

## Clone Body Techniques

* **[Thousand Bodies Sutra] -**  Requires a treasure known as a Worldheart. Forms 1000 bodies and can fuse into one body. But it makes cultivation a thousand times harder.
* **[Taowu Eighteen Fiendgods]** **-** Requires a bottle of chaos nectar. Forms 18 bodies. upon mastering the first level, you’ll be able to perfectly divide the soul into eighteen different spawns. Although each spawn will have less than a tenth of the power of the original body, they are all capable of surviving on their own. In addition, if the other seventeen are destroyed, the final spawn will slowly be able to recreate the other spawns. Once you reach the second level of this technique, the eighteen spawns will all have the same level of power as the original body. If you master the third level…the eighteen spawns can merge back into the original body at any point in time, and the original body can also divide into those eighteen spawns. When they merge into the original body, the power of the original body will explosively increase. If he mastered this technique, it would be as though there were eighteen
* **[Twelve Heavens Fiendgod] -** Forms 12 bodies.
* **[One True Body]** - bodies that all came from the same source could be merged together into one but can never separate once merged.

## Undying body

* Aquaform
* Light incarnate
* Dreamform
* Snowform
* Shadowless form