Cultivation/Essence Gathering

## Overview

The ‘Energy’ of the three great cultivating paths of ‘Essence, Energy, And Divine’ is the path most suited for the race of humans in the 33 Layered Heavens.

The specific Dao which the humans can practise amongst the 11 Energy Daos is titled ‘**Nine Divine Shifts**’. It is speculated that the upper limit attainable through the Nine Divine Shifts is Beyond Divinity, even though none have stepped into this realm yet. The Nine Divine Shifts cultivates what is known as an ‘inner world’ within the cultivator.

Through all the myriad Laws, a human body could be described as its own small universe. All changes that governed the stars in the universe could also be reflected in the human body. Thus, it could be seen that humanities essence gathering system and the formation of the dantian is a reflection of the Heavenly Dao and the universe! One couldn't help marvel about just how incredible the human form and universe were, and how they were all connected together.

The dantian after becoming an inner world, slowly growing into a great world, like a small universe growing within oneself. These myriad changes can be seen as how the human essence gathering system copying the formation of a small universe. The inner world that copies the universe and the laws and concepts one comprehends that copies the Heavenly Dao! Thus, martial arts is truly heaven-defying.

## Essence Gathering Stages

* *Essence* *also called Qi, the energy of the warrior's body.*
* Every great boundary of the essence gathering system was divided into four smaller boundaries – these were early, middle, late, and extreme.
* This way focuses on cultivating the True Essence in the dantain. After the Pulse Condensation the essence starts to flow into the dantain, starts to accumulate and transform.
* **Nine Divine Shifts** - The early, middle and late stages of the Divine Sea Realm, Divine Transformation Realm and the Divine Lord Realm.
* “To seek Ninefall and find the Nine Divine Shifts" - best essence cultivation system among all 11 other types of human cultivation.
* In the extreme levels of this system, one's energy accumulation would be equal to the amount of energy a universe has.
* When beginning this system, one must first go through six stages of the Body Transformation System, namely Strength Training, Flesh Training, Viscera Training, Altering Muscle, Bone Forging and Pulse Condensation.
* In earlier chapters, it is stated that the stages beyond Xiantian are about cultivating one’s soul. However, this was later retconned for the gaining of energy, and the cultivation of the soul became a different system altogether, called the Soul Forging System.

### **Equivalent Stages**

Throughout the 3 major races, each stage was called differently by them. Particularly the **Nine Divine Shifts**, each race had its own unique system:

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## Trivia

* As an essence gathering system martial artist’s cultivation increased, it would only increase their life force and allow them to live longer. However, their blood vitality would still be limited. Whether it was a Divine Lord, Holy Lord, or World King, they still shouldn’t possess such a terrifyingly vast blood energy. This blood energy was so vast that it resembled a fathomless sea!

#### **Human Essence Gathering System VS Human Body Transformation System**

* If a martial artist used true essence to drive the movement of a weapon, they could erupt with an equally terrifying strength as someone that used their immense physicality to do so. For instance, if someone were to pour their true essence into a steel ball and throw it, it would crash down as hard as a meteor. This was the same effect as a body transformation martial artist hurling a steel ball with all their might.
* Normally, when essence gathering system martial artists fought, they would display gorgeous and beautiful martial skills as they exchanged more and more moves. It would never be like the fight between body transformation martial artists', the most barbaric and savage method of directly struggling with strength!

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1211 – Killing Wu Finalcloud
2. ↑ Chapter 1210 – Heavenly Demon Metamorphic Art