Empyrean

## **Empyrean (天尊)**

**Empyrean**, a word that meant the *heavens*. This was a being that was bestowed upon a status on par with the Heavenly Dao.

**Empyrean**, a word that also meant respect. In total, to be an Empyrean meant to be respected just as much as the heavens!

This was the meaning of an Empyrean!

Even if their cultivation was suppressed, an Empyrean’s aura remained the same. This was because their aura was almost equal to the Laws themselves. Many Empyreans had passed through heavenly tribulation. To a certain limited degree, they could be considered even with the Heavenly Dao Laws!

Of course, this ‘even’ was only within the domain they were skilled in. For instance, a fire-attribute Empyrean could reach the heights of the Heavenly Dao rules in the Fire Laws. If an Empyrean wanted to resist the full and comprehensive Heavenly Dao, that was an impossibility.

## Martial Road

The fabled Empyreans were the true gods of the Divine Realm. Countless years would pass before a single one was born, and the most outstanding among them could produce their own transcendent divine might! Even God Beasts had to submit before the might of an Empyrean!

What sort of boundary was an Empyrean? In front of an Empyrean, even Holy Lords that controlled their own domain were nothing more than a gathering of ants!

When speaking of an Empyrean, all martial artists in the Divine Realm, and even the glorious World Kings, would also feel a deep reverence from their hearts. This was the same as a mortal being awed by a god.

An Empyrean was also synonymous with mystery. People didn’t know all the Empyreans in existence, moreover there was quite a large number of Empyrean Heavenly Palaces in the Divine Realm. In terms of Heavenly Palaces alone, there were 100-200 that were well known by most, not including those Empyreans living in deep seclusion like Three Lives Old Man.

Ninefall was merely the beginning of a martial cultivator’s road. There were many boundaries afterwards, and in order to take a solid step forwards within these boundaries, one needed to pile up countless lucky chances and resources before they could hope to be successful.

Since ancient times, for the birth of an Empyrean, talent, destiny, resources, and inheritances were all indispensable.

From a World King to an Empyrean, this was originally a long, long process.

Even a top genius like Emperor Shakya had to use a full 10,000 years to complete this step.

## Overview

An existence that truly stood at the very peak of the Divine Realm. Once one reached the boundary of an Empyrean, they no longer bothered with the general affairs of the Divine Realm. In their opinion, even if two great worlds of the Divine Realm were to wage war against each other, that would simply be nothing but a little squabble. What they wholeheartedly searched for was the Great Dao, and to find the clues to eternal, everlasting life. To the martial artists of the Divine Realm, they were the true divine gods that could not be touched.

The Empyrean boundary was a watershed. What kind of existence was an Empyrean? In the entire Divine Realm, an Empyrean might not appear for 100,000 years or even millions of years!

Of the talent in the Divine Realm, no matter how amazing they were and no matter if they were the current number one talent of the Divine Realm, they were still incomparably far from ever becoming an Empyrean! Of course, this type of talent referring to people like White King.

In the last 3.6 billion years of human history, besides Divine Dream, all True Divinities had gone extinct. In fact, even most human martial artists didn’t know of the existence of True Divinities. Because of humanity’s limited vision and their customs, when they referred to the True Divinities of ancient times they called them Empyreans.

An Empyrean meant the limit of human martial artists. Upon entering the Empyrean boundary one would step onto the highest stage of the entire Divine Realm, sitting high atop heaven and overlooking the common world below.

An Empyrean is a level of cultivation that can move the heavens and the earth, call the wind and rain and is a god to many martial artists. It is an earthshaking level that many cultivators yearn of reaching even in their dreams.

100 million years seemed to be one of the limits that the Laws of the world placed on a martial artist’s life. 100 million years could be called its own era within the Divine Realm, and no one was able to live past an era. Although an Empyrean could control the world Laws to a certain degree, it wasn’t absolute control, nor could they couldn’t control every Law. There were certain Laws that even they had to submit to, just like everyone else.

Since ancient times, no matter how talented a genius was, they would never have 100% confidence of becoming an Empyrean. For someone to have even a faint ray of hope already meant that they were an extraordinary genius of their generation!

## **Stepping Empyrean**

Although there was still a half-step Empyrean level between a Great World King and an Empyrean, this half-step Empyrean was not considered a full boundary but half a boundary. In other words, half a step.

If one had to truly state it, there was indeed just a single level separating a Great World King from an Empyrean.

But, this single level was a monumental difference!

This was because an Empyrean often had to cross heavenly tribulation and would be reborn in the process. The Laws of an Empyrean were on a completely different rank from those of a Great World King, and the power of these Laws stood on equal ground with the Heavenly Dao.

After breaking into the Empyrean realm, as a newly made Empyrean looked upon the world, they would have a feeling as if they could understand everything before them.

If the universe was compared to a landscape, then before a martial artist that broke into the Empyrean realm, one could be considered as standing on flat land and looking outwards. Although what was seen as beautiful, it was ultimately limited.

In an Empyrean’s eyes, the world was no longer the same!

After breaking into the Empyrean realm, a martial artist would seem to stand atop a tall building, looking down at the world before them. One's field of vision was broader and one could see much more clearly, everything reflected in a panoramic view in one's eyes.

And this tall building was the Heavenly Dao Laws!

Beneath an Empyrean, all martial artists were suppressed by the Heavenly Dao Laws. After becoming an Empyrean, a martial artist’s Laws reached the height of the Heavenly Dao; this was the same as standing atop that tall building!

Once one became an Empyrean, they could freely wander the world, ruling all within their sight. However, there were still many things they couldn’t reconcile with.

They couldn’t see the end of the road of martial arts and their lives were limited to a hundred million years. They couldn’t help but want to break into True Divinity, stepping further onto the road of martial arts, climbing higher so that they could see further ahead!

The road of True Divinity, that was every Empyrean's lifelong pursuit!

Wanting to break into the Empyrean realm within a thousand years wasn’t easy. After all, even the current youngest Empyrean at the time, Emperor Shakya, had spent 10,000-20,000 years in order to break past the Empyrean bottleneck.

3.6 billion years ago during the era of Empyrean Divine Seal, there were likely many young elites that had become Empyreans at a young age, but they also probably required several thousand years.

A thousand year time limit was far too challenging.

The road of an Empyrean was far too difficult. Even for those extremely talented characters, there was still a chance that they would be stuck at this step.

### **Hidden Empyreans**

Hidden Empyreans did not create their own Heavenly Palaces and their wealth was naturally less than ordinary Empyreans’. At the same time, they wouldn’t receive too many direct disciples either. A hidden Empyrean would often receive around 20 disciples, about an average of one every few million years. These Empyreans had extremely harsh and stringent qualifications for who they accepted, so the average quality of their disciples far surpassed the Empyrean descendants of most Empyrean Heavenly Palaces!

### **Supreme Divine Shadow**

Nascent Soul (元婴 yuányīng) – sometimes left untranslated as “Yuanying”. Literally translates as “Origin Infant”. The stage after Core Formation (in some novels). The Nascent Soul resembles an infant or miniature person and resides in the Dantian, typically sitting in a meditative position. In some novels, the Nascent Soul can travel outside the body and is like a second life for cultivators – if their main body dies, their consciousness can continue to exist in the Nascent Soul.

## Influence

Many Empyrean descendants were millions of years old or even 10 million years old. Among them, the weakest were comparable to ordinary World Kings and many of them were stronger than Great World Kings. There were even some that were half-step Empyreans!

There were a great number of these people, and their top disciple was often more talented than the top disciple of a Great World King Holy Land.

An Empyrean Heavenly Palace had a truly terrifying population. An Empyrean had their descendants, and these Empyrean descendants had their own disciples, and then these disciples also had their disciples. The population would grow over the years at an exponential rate, and the total number of people easily broke past a trillion. Of course, most of these people were staff and they simply didn’t possess the qualifications to contact the core of the Empyrean Heavenly Palace.

An Empyrean level influence had countless disciples. However, if there was a disciple that had their own ranking, then that could only be a direct disciple of an Empyrean.

An Empyrean could live for nearly a hundred million years, and thus they would take several hundred direct disciples over the years. On average, they would take in a disciple every few hundred thousand years.

Of these people, the most amazing of them would become half-step Empyreans and the others would become Great World Kings or ordinary World Kings.

Of course, there would occasionally be a peak monstrous genius that would become another Empyrean. In recorded history, there were records of Empyrean level influences that had two Empyreans. The power of these influences reached a terrifying degree!

### **Empyrean Direct Disciples**

Without mentioning the resources or inheritances that an Empyrean could provide, just the level of talent that a descendant of an Empyrean would possess was far too dreadful to imagine. If the Empyrean’s spouse was also a super powerhouse and their child inherited both of their parents’ talents, that would simply be unbelievable!

An Empyrean level influence had countless disciples. However, if there was a disciple that had their own ranking, then that could only be a direct disciple of an Empyrean.

An Empyrean could live for nearly a hundred million years, and thus they would take several hundred direct disciples over the years. On average, they would take in a disciple every few hundred thousand years.

Of these people, the most amazing of them would become half-step Empyreans and the others would become Great World Kings or ordinary World Kings.

Of course, there would occasionally be a peak monstrous genius that would become another Empyrean. In recorded history, there were records of Empyrean level influences that had two Empyreans. The power of these influences reached a terrifying degree!

## Items

### **Transcendent Divine Pills**

A transcendent divine pill was a pill that an Empyrean level supreme elder could take. It could help an Empyrean level martial artist increase their cultivation or consolidate their foundation. It was a rare treasure, and if one were to fall into a World King influence, it would set off a bloody war of terror.

Within the Divine Realm, a transcendent divine pill was the highest grade of pill possible.

A good portion of transcendent divine pills came from the hands of Empyreans.

But, Empyreans were limited in number to begin with and most Empyreans were not skilled alchemists. Although their cultivation was high, they might not be able to match up to half-step Empyreans and Great World Kings who specialized in alchemy when it came to their level of skill.

Thus, a good part of the transcendent divine pills were also refined by half-step Empyreans and peak Great World Kings.

In refining a transcendent divine pill, one needed not just sufficient skill in alchemy but also a minimum cultivation base. If one’s cultivation was lacking then they wouldn’t be able to continue through the entire alchemy process. Just achieving a certain temperature of fire would be impossible.

## Stages

Peak Empyrean

Late Empyrean

Middle Empyrean

Early Empyrean

## Trivia

* Formerly, Empyreans were at the peak of martial arts in the Divine Realm.
* There are approximately 100 Empyreans from the Human Race before the War of the Saints' started.
* Upon reaching the level of an Empyrean, wanting to defeat a similar opponent wasn’t difficult. However, wanting to kill one was a completely different matter.
	+ After all, every person that managed to reach the heights of an Empyrean was an extreme talent that was blessed with a great destiny.
	+ They had experienced innumerable lucky chances as they grew and had countless life-saving cards hidden up their sleeves. And their own defensive capabilities were particularly powerful, their life force almost unparalleled in tenacity.
	+ But such characters had been instantly annihilated to dust during great wars like the one 10 billion years ago and the war that is happening now.

## References

1. ↑ Glossary of Terms in Wuxia, Xianxia & Xuanhuan Novels