Cultivation

**Cultivation** (修炼 xiūliàn) (修真 xiūzhēn) (修行 xiūxíng) (修仙 xiūxiān) – the process of improving health, increasing longevity, and most importantly gaining a higher power. This is accomplished by cultivating Qi and training in martial & mystical arts. In many of these novels, the ultimate goal of cultivation is to become an Immortal or attain godhood.

* **Cultivation Method** (功法 gōngfǎ) (心法 xīnfǎ) – a mystical art or collection of techniques which cultivators practice in order to cultivate.  *Related: Qigong (气功)*
* **Cultivation Base** (修为 xiūwéi) – the amount or capacity of refined Qi possessed by a cultivator.

**Ranks / Levels / Layers** (级 jí) (层 céng) – a common way to quantify martial power or the progress made in cultivation. In many cases (although not all) where these are used, there are 9 ranks/levels/layers to each stage of cultivation, with rank 1 being the start and rank 9 being the peak. After breaking through to the next stage, the practitioner starts at rank 1 of that new stage. The number 9 has a great deal of symbolism.

## Overview

### Major Realms

* Higher cultivation levels have an increasingly larger amount of Vitality, which results in longer life spans. Upon reaching the *Deity* or *Golden Immortal* level, people at Godhood could live as long as the world around them because they absorbed and released origin energy when they cultivated. Basically, they were replenishing their vitality at all times. Moreover, their souls had comprehended the laws of the world, making it transform. As a result, Godhood experts could claim that they could live on as long as the world. Basically, there were no records in the entire history of the Saints’ World of a Godhood cultivator dying from old age.
* Cultivation into and after the *Deity* level requires enough sensibility to any of the 3000 Great Principles. It's possible to quantify the sensitivity in an ancient 100%-based scale. Achieving 100% comprehension level are called "*Supreme", "Sage", or "Exalt"* . In the current era, those at the 100th peak are called Supreme by the Saints'.

### Lower Realms

* In the Tian Yuan Continent, *Heaven Saint Masters* control the energy of Heaven and Earth. Those under the Heaven Saint Master realm would absorb the vital energy of the world to increase both their Saint Weapon and personal strength.
* *Saint Rulers* can achieve a minor degree of comprehension of the so-called profound mysteries of Heaven and Earth. Being located in a Lower Realm with a fragile Space, this allows them to create Spatial Barriers or perform Spatial Freezing.
* *Saint Kings* go one step further and may open Spatial Gates for teleportation.
* In the apex of Sainthood, *Saint Emperors* may create pocket dimensions, open Small Worlds or build their own independent space treasure, a Divine Hall.
* In the Tian Yuan Continent, since several hundred thousand years ago, increasing the cultivation level has been increasingly difficult. Furthermore, nobody has been able to break through past *Saint Emperor* into *Origin Realm*. This adds to the reputation of the Four Champions of the ancient times.

## Lifespan

Cultivation had the effect of extending one's lifespan. The average mortal human would only be able to live for 200 years. An Earth Saint Master was expected to live for 500 years, and a Heaven Saint Master for 1000 years. For a Saint Ruler, they should only be able to live for 3000 years. Even a Ninth Layer Saint Ruler would only be able to live for 3200 years at most.

## Cultivation Methods

Cultivation methods could only be used when one reached the Saint level. Some commoner families in the Tian Yuan Continent didn’t even know the lowest level cultivation methods and so children born in these families have to rely on the superficial breathing method given to them to cultivate Saint Force. These breathing methods were circulated around the entire Tian Yuan continent. Their steps were extremely simple, so most commoner families knew everything about these methods. The only downside was that these breathing methods could only help them cultivate to the 10th Saint Force layer, and were completely useless to people who had already reached Saint level. Thus, battle skills and cultivation methods were seen as unattainable treasures to commoners.

On Tian Yuan continent, all the battle skills and cultivation methods were divided into four levels: Human Tier, Earth Tier, Heaven Tier and Saint Tier. Every Tier were then split into 3 separate levels: Primary, Middle and Advanced.

## Trivia

* Mo Tianyun knows the reasons behind the cultivation difficulties in the Tianyuan Continent.
* Magical Beasts that cultivate to Class 7 can take on Human Form and are able to speak human languages. Some bloodlines depart from these rules, such as the Winged Tiger God.
* Magical Beasts can undergo Variation by devouring those with Noble Bloodlines. The Silver-Striped Golden Snake is a unique Ancient Variant Beast that is able to fight 2-level higher than itself. Silver-Striped Golden Snakes can also continue to evolve their bloodline by cannibalising other Silver-Striped Golden Snakes.
* Factions with a Saint Ruler Ancestor generally have Ruler Armament as Inherited Treasures. Those with a Saint King generally have Transmission Formations as well as King Armaments.

## References

1. ↑ Terms in Wuxia, Xianxia and Xuanhuan