Cultivation

***Cultivation*** in the world of **Against the Gods** involves the pursuit of strength by following the 'Profound Way' (修玄 *xiuxuan*). The 'Profound Way' of the world gifts each mortal innate profound veins which allow them to cultivation profound strength. Various key components of the 'Profound Way' are described below.

## Realms

 File:Realms.jpg
A person's cultivation level can be separated into the 'Nine Mortal Realms' and 'Seven Divine Profound Realms'. Each realm goes from level 1 to 10 before they can advance to the next one, the 10th level of a realm is considered the peak of that realm. Once someone goes past level 10 of a realm but does not enter the next realm it can be considered 'Half-step' into the next realm. Divine Tribulation Realm has only 9 levels.

When one's profound strength grows, it essentially means that the density of the profound energy in their profound veins is growing, that their profound energy has become slightly more compressed. Once it reaches a certain level of compression, a fundamental change will occur, that is also when they enter a new realm.

Entering a new realm is normally an extremely difficult boundary for profound practitioners. This is why there are many who are stuck at the 10th level or Half-step level and never progress in their entire lifetime. This is also why medicine that can increase cultivation are highly prized. The strength gain from crossing a realm is so large that it is generally impossible for someone at the 'half-step' level of a realm to win against the 1st level of a realm.

The profound practitioners of the lower realms and planets generally will only have cultivators in the mortal realms while those in the Realm of the Gods have greater resources and legacies which allow them to cultivate into the divine realms. People in the divine realms are not gods but merely slowly approaching the power of gods and obtaining a small fraction of their power.

The realms between the Divine Origin Realm and the Divine Master Realm are known as the Seven Realms of the Divine Way. It is the profound way of humans who had broken through their limits and ascended into godhood. But truthfully, it is ultimately just the divine way of mortals. Although it is a way beyond mortal limitations, and a way that tried its very best to get as close to godhood as possible, it ultimately failed to extend into the realm of the gods.

## Blood Essence

Using blood essence is a way to temporarily boost one's profound strength by a degree. However, this is not something most people will do, mainly only in a true life or death situation. Once used blood essence is almost impossible to recover. After using the blood essence, one's profound strength would drop by a huge amount. One's cultivation level could even drop. Using blood essence also exhausts one's life and future potential.

## Profound Arts and Skills

*Related Articles: Profound Skills and Profound Arts*
Profound Arts are the main arts that people cultivate while Profound Skills are the skills that can be utilized when a Profound Art has been cultivated to a certain degree. *(Example: World Ode of the Phoenix is a Profound Art while Empyrean Dance of the Phoenix Wing is a Profound Skill from World Ode of the Phoenix)*

* Profound Floating Technique
* Yin Yang Combination Art
* Remote Ignition of Profound Energy

## Profound Core

 File:Profound Core Manhua.jpg
Common Beasts do not possess any Profound Cores within their bodies. Starting from Nascent Profound Beasts, Profound Cores would exist in all adult Profound Beasts, similar to the Profound Vein’s core inside the human body. Nascent Profound Cores were the easiest to acquire out of all Profound Cores, and their prices were also the lowest; they were usually around a dozen to a few hundred Yellow Profound Coins. However, with each rank higher in quality, its price would multiplicative increase. In the the weak nations of the Profound Sky Continent, any single Earth Profound Core could be sold at an astronomical price. At the Sky Profound rank, they would be priceless treasures. And as for Emperor Profound Cores, they were essentially considered items from the legends.

## Laws

### Five Basic Elemental Laws

* Water Laws - The Water Laws focuses on control.
* Fire Laws - The Fire Laws of the world represents many things; Nirvana, Destruction, and Purification.
* Wind Laws - The Wind Laws focuses on speed.
* Lightning Laws - Lightning profound power that is of similar strength, in terms of pure power, will exceed the power of Ice or Fire and even the rest of the profound elements. But the practitioners who cultivate lightning profound power number the least. This is of course not without reason. Even though lightning profound energy is extremely strong, it is too volatile and is the hardest to control and manipulate among all the profound elements. It is also easy to harm oneself in the process of cultivation, to the point where you can damage your own profound veins. The higher a level you reach, the more this concept applies to you.
* Earth Laws - The Earth Laws focuses on defense.

### Higher Level Elemental Laws

* Light (Life) Laws
	+ Light is the complete opposite of Darkness, it is sacred and devoted only to create and save and never to kill or destroy. It can purify the mind and soul, purify all contamination and evil. Although light laws are the easiest to control, cultivating it has the strictest requirements. One must have a sacred body or a sacred heart, free from contamination and corruption.
	+ Life is the power of the Wood Spirit Race and originated from the Light Laws.
* Darkness (Death) Laws - Darkness is when one or more types of negative emotions reach a certain limit. The law becomes twisted, and profound energy mutates. The devil profound energy that it creates is even stronger than the profound energy of the same level, but it is also harder to control. Because devilish energy will only be created with extreme negative emotions, the ones who possess devilish energy all have twisted minds and beliefs. They are evil creatures that should not exist in the world or they can be directly called a demon or devil. It would agitate its user’s negative emotions and state of mind and it could even warp one’s personality.
	+ The negative effects above are due to the fact that humans aren't innately compatible with darkness profound energy, only the devil race is. Thus, the negative effects above apply to cultivators and creatures who utilize darkness energy in the current era unless they somehow attain perfect compatibility with darkness.

### Supreme Level Elemental Laws

* Space (Dimension) Laws - Space in different worlds and different planes were different and like other elements, they were ranked from high to low. Space in the Realm of the Gods has more complex spatial laws and are more difficult to break apart.
* Time (Reincarnation) Laws

### Origin of Laws

This is the origin of all Laws, above the Supreme Laws.

* The Law of Nothingness

## Profound Way

### Sword Path

* **Heavy Sword -** The heavy sword uses overbearingness as its principle. It is mostly used to fight against groups of people, cultivators who focus on the Heavy Sword Path needs to have a really strong body and physical strength so they can properly wield the sword, some of them are strong enough to wield the Heavy Sword like a Light Sword.

### Spear Path

The cultivators who focus on the spear path pursue speed and agility, most of them cultivate wind arts to improve their performance.

## Trivia

* Profound Practitioners can clean themselves with profound strength.
* To cultivate Light Profound Strength you need a Sacred Heart and Sacred Soul.
* After experiencing life and death, after crossing dimensions and reincarnation, Yun Che touched the law of nothingness that not even the Creation Gods and Devil Emperors have ever touched.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 821, Wuxiaworld
2. ↑ Chapter 1249, Wuxiaworld
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 942
4. ↑ Chapter 1383, Wuxiaworld
5. ↑ Chapter 84, Wuxiaworld
6. ↑ Chapter 392, Wuxiaworld
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Chapter 1379, Wuxiaworld
8. ↑ Chapter 633, Wuxiaworld
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 1314, Wuxiaworld
10. ↑ Chapter 678, Wuxiaworld
11. ↑ Chapter 886, Wuxiaworld
12. ↑ Chapter 1545, Wuxiaworld
13. ↑ Chapter 882, Wuxiaworld

es:Cultivación
ja:理解