Cultivation

Each Cultivation Realm has nine levels so even if two cultivators belong to the same realm, they are not necessarily equal. In fact, as one reaches higher realms of cultivation, the difference between these levels only becomes bigger.

Cultivating generally grants practitioners longevity, strength and resilience.

## Realms of Cultivation

***Foundation***: The lowest of all Cultivation Realms, the one all humans are born into. People are expected to eventually leave this Realm. Failing to do so is usually a sign that something is wrong.

***Inner***: The second Realm of Cultivation. Much like the Foundational Realm, this is a level people are expected to overcome. However, when exactly do they reach it and when do they leave it varies greatly. Someone like Liu Jin, who reached the Inner Realm before he was ten and left it before he was thirteen, is pretty impressive in Eastern Port City.

***Nascent***: For most people, this tends to be the limit. They'll reach it (eventually) but they won't go further. As an aside, there is an important difference between reaching a Realm while your body is still young and reaching it in your latter years. While the increased Qi will rejuvenate you to some degree, a twenty-year-old who has just reached the Nascent Realm will be in a better position to take advantage of it compared to someone who does so in his fifties.

***Spirit***: In smaller areas, people can go their entire lives without seeing someone in the Spirit Realm. In New Moon Town, the only one in this level was Xiao Ding. This is not a level you can reach naturally. You need to train seriously, meditate, and all that stuff.

***True***: The mid-point. If you have reached this Realm, you're almost definitely someone important (well, it varies). You could even start your own faction, and be pretty successful, depending on where you do it.

***Earth***: Heavy. Kind of a pain. Most certainly powerful.

***Heaven***: The Realm where you start having to endure Tribulation Lightning to advance. Fairly troublesome. Dao? What's that? Some sort of food?

***Renegade***: Super troublesome. People who reach the Heaven Realm will often stay there just to avoid this Realm, deeming the inherent mental instability far too dangerous.

***Emperor***: If you have reached this level, you get to have an ego. You took all the trials and now you get to bask in your super awesomeness. What? Go beyond? Eh, do you really want to?

***Divine***: For those who aren't content to be Emperors.

## Beginner Qi

The basics of Qi are learned during the Foundation and Inner realms of cultivation. In these realms the Qi is merely there to make you faster, stronger, harder and overall makes your life easier to live through. It is all physical enhancement in the beginning of the climb to eternity. One does not begin to change the nature of his Qi or do many complicated things with it, unless one has been blessed with some of the greatest talent in the land. One will also find it easier to not be sick and if you so happened to be sick it will pass far quicker than the normal man or woman. As the essence of cultivation is to cleanse the body of any and all impurities.

## Intermediate Qi

The intermediate uses of Qi start from the moment one enters the Nascent realm, all the way to the True realm, as the True realm is called the mid point of human cultivation. As you go into the Nascent realm, one begins to see and feel the soul and how it influences the body. One also sees that as one climbs the mountain that is cultivation, one can change the way Qi expresses itself in and outside the body - such as being able to change the base Qi into different elements like (metal, water, ice, fire, poison and more) at the slightly more advanced level one sees that there are people that can attune their Qi to specific emotions such as (lust, envy, sadness and more so besides).

Once one enters the Spirit realm, one may find himself able to journey into his soul to start to discover his own truth. While every attack will have an effect on the soul that is attacked. One will find out that the middle realms of cultivation bring with them a far greater boost to everything body related such as far higher strength, speed, healing and more. as one goes on and advances in the spirit realm and going up into the true realm one begins to have the ability to make Qi constructs in a lot of different shapes (Liu Jin's snakes, Bu Jing's scalpels and more) one will also start to realize that the regeneration that all cultivators enjoy to one degree or another isn't so much regeneration but the persons soul saying to the body how it should be. anther thing that seems to happen where one enters the true realm is the ability to use ones own soul as a protective layer like armour. one may also begin to exhibit Qi based communications were one projects their Qi out with out using the voice box.

## Advanced Qi

The advanced levels of Qi only revel themselves to the ones that have entered the hallowed realms of the Earth realm and beyond. Not much is currently known about the abilities that have been granted to those who have reached them, but the few examples we have are staggering. At the first level of the Earth realm some people may be capable of 'melting' the space around them so that even if someone/thing is stored in another plane they may get to it. The body gets a truly massive boost in all functions, so much so that it is known that Heaven realm cultivators cannot be killed if the soul isn't killed at the same time as the body because if not the soul will reassemble the body even if the body was without a head or said body was shorn into a thousand pieces. Heaven realm cultivators are also able to fly freely without aid. One may even start to make alternative spaces/pocket dimensions when high enough in the realms.

The Emperor realm is seen as the most difficult realm to enter, mainly because you have to go through Renegade, and if one succeeds they will gain power beyond mortal comprehension. Cultivators in said realm can start fights by simply gesturing with their hand and burning everything to ash for miles with a single fire whip or even taking a section of space and throwing it into the void (making it a fast travel like technique) and more besides.

## The Dao

The Dao is in essence the path that a cultivator walk in pursuit of eternity and there are many a different types: Winter, Void, Nothingness and Destruction are just a few.

Ones Dao normally comes into place as the cultivator journeys onward to eternity and once they find/realize their Dao one will see far greater changes in the way one goes around doing things.

A Dao is… the manifestation of a cultivator’s nature.

A Dao is a weapon.

Against Heaven. Against Earth. Against Man. A Dao is a cultivator’s weapon against eternity. A Dao is the spoon with which we dare try empty the sea. The true beginning of a cultivator’s journey. Ultimately, a Dao is the truest expression of yourself wielded against everything that is not yourself. For many cultivators, it is an unreachable goal. For others, it is the end of the journey. For us, it is merely the beginning.

“Ultimately, a Dao is the truest expression of yourself wielded against everything that is not yourself. For many cultivators, it is an unreachable goal. For others, it is the end of the journey. For us, it is merely the beginning.”

## Footnotes

1. ↑ During the first two realms the only benefits one gets is better physical power and added longevity.
2. ↑ The Inner Realm is the second Cultivation Realm. Since it is the second-lowest of the Cultivation Realms, it is not only normal but expected for people to reach it within their lifetimes. Indeed, a grown man who has not reached the Inner Realm is worthy of mockery.
3. ↑ Upon reaching the Nascent realm one begins to become aware of their soul and cultivators may learn to change the element of their qi from the basic qi to the nature such as fire, metal and so forth.
4. ↑ In the Spirit realm one may start to journey into their soul. at this level one will stat to touch other peoples souls during combat.
5. ↑ at this stage one must be careful with ones feeling and heart so that it will never fall into becoming a danger unto ones self. because the true realm is the realm where if one has emotional problems one start to manifest heart demons.
6. ↑ at this realm one may also start to use his soul as both acceleration and armour against attacks. Giving the attacker far more power than is the norm. As seen by Bu Jing.
7. ↑ When one enters the Earth realm their gravity starts to compress and increase upon them with every step of the journey.
8. ↑ When one enters the heaven realm they are finally free from the oppressive gravity that plagued them during the earth realm and is able to fly with out any aid. But in return one must endure Heavenly Tribulation - Upon reaching the Heavenly realm you are struck with lighting once, and for each step thereafter it is ten times the lighting as the previous step. As such most heaven level cultivators are not allowed to advance in any city because the damage would be catastrophic.
9. ↑ There are few who attempt and even less who succeed going beyond Emperor to reach this Divine realm.
10. ↑ The Eternal Flame Clan is a place of fire and because of that it is not uncommon for the cultivators there to reach for the Dao of Destruction.

The Eternal Flame Clan has found out at least Forty-seven different types of Destruction Dao have been recorded in the history of the Eternal Flame Clan. An additional one hundred and nineteen are purely theoretical in nature.