Cultivation

**Cultivation** (修炼 *xiūliàn*, 修真 *xiūzhēn*, 修行 *xiūxíng* or 修仙 *xiūxiān*) is a Taoist concept by which beings can extend their lifespan and gain supernatural powers.

## Description

*"It required talent, training and a chance. It was often a long road of hundred years for a god to be born."*

Cultivation can be practiced by all beings, people and creatures like monsters or spirits alike. It usually involves practicing martial arts or mystical arts like meditation and the cultivation of Qi. The ultimate goal of cultivation is attaining godhood and immortality, but practicing it can already grant someone great power, such as Ban Yue who was able to learn dark magic and how to control the Scorpion Snakes. There are many ways to improve one's cultivation, either through going into seclusion by cultivating in stone caves or through using rare treasures and devices.

The profession of human cultivators is to catch ghosts and perform services like rituals, hence they are considered exorcists. Locations for cultivation can differ, there exist cultivation centers for people of high position as well as martial sects that practice it.

## Cultivation Paths

There are various paths a cultivator can pursue. The requirements for each is vastly different, but they often demand a form of personal restriction. It's possible to re-cultivate to a new path should one wish to do so.

All major characters are mentioned to have cultivated in the past or still do so with only a few exceptions.

### Cultivation of Abstinence

Cultivation of abstinence is cultivating by a complete restraint from wordly pleasures and maintaining purity of body and mind. Prohibited practices include sexual intercourse, alcohol consumption or reading erotic stories. Those who pursue this cultivation have an exceedingly steady mind and are not easily shaken by indecency.

Although alcohol can be consumed from time to time, sex will cause definite damage to the cultivation. By losing virginity one will only decrease their spiritual powers and not their martial might, however. The worshipers of gods who practice abstinence fully believe in their transcendence and them being untouched by desire, so breaking the cultivation may harm the god's following as well.

Characters with this cultivation path are Xie Lian and Mu Qing.

### Other

Other shortly mentioned cultivation paths or methods:

* Cultivation that requires clean internal organs. These Heavenly Officials could not touch mortal sustenance or they would experience symptoms similar to food poisoning. They only consume cleanly-grown spiritual fruits or magical beasts that have life-prolonging and strengthening effects.
* Cultivation that involves the use of deceased babies to accelerate ascension.
* Cultivation through performing hard labor where no servants or items of comfort are allowed as well.
* Cultivation that is enhanced by having sexual intercourse. *(See also: Dual Cultivation)*

## Real-life

Cultivation is a common trope in *xianxia* and Chinese fantasy novels, as well as a concept practiced in real-life. Taoist philosophy puts a lot of emphasis on physical and spiritual self-cultivation with various principles, including practices like Qigong (气功, *qìgōng*) or Internal Alchemy (內丹术, *Nèidān Shù*). It seeks to develop one's mind and capabilities through one's own efforts, enhance individuality and personal growth and aims to polish one's potential past a stage of normal being. This term is present in not only Taoism, but also Buddhism and Confucianism, although the purposes of what to achieve with personal cultivation are different.

In Taoism all gods are beings that have cultivated deeply, although this does not apply to the novel since characters like Feng Xin ascended out of pure martial might.

## Trivia

* Cultivators could gain spiritual powers from the gods they worship.
* There are certain locations that are abundant in spiritual energy and thus very beneficial for cultivators.

## References

2. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 96: Mind in Disarray but Say Not the Tender Heart Is Too II
3. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 173: Cave of Ten Thousand Gods; Faces of Ten Thousand Gods Revealed
4. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 116: Eve to the Last Day of Autumn; An Unscrupulous Substitution
5. ↑ Novel, Book 4, Chapter 181: Lantern Night; Penny for a Wandering Soul
6. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 93: Pregnant with Evil; A New Wave Disturbs Peace (Translation Notes)
7. ↑ Novel, Book 1, Chapter 2: The Scrap Immortal; Third Time Entering the Heavenly Capital
8. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 159: This Jade Refuses to be a Thrown-Away Brick
9. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 151: Panic Left and Right; East or West Undecided III
10. ↑ Novel, Book 1, Chapter 33: In the Great Martial Hall; Crown Prince Meets Crown Prince II
11. ↑ Novel, Book 1, Chapter 35: Enter the Ghost City! Rendezvous with the Ghost King
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Novel, Book 2, Chapter 80: Land of the Tender; Body of Gold Hard-Pressed Against Desire (+ Author's Note)
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Novel, Book 3, Chapter 141: I Choose the Path I Walk
14. ↑ Novel, Book 1, Chapter 13: Maple-Red Clothes; Snow-White Skin
15. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 139: Upon Barren Hills; Rioting the Black Hearted Inn III
16. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 171: The Last Princess; Throat Slit Before Palace Gates
17. ↑ Novel, Book 3, Chapter 134: Seen Through the Ghost King; Play the Ghost King II
18. ↑ Novel, Book 4, Chapter 185: Thirty-Three Heavenly Officials Fight Over Auspicious Land