Essence

**Essence** is the specific practice of a cultivator to comprehend and master an aspect of the world itself through Law. It is necessary to comprehend at least one essence to reach the Third Step after the Fifth Heaven's Blight opens the door, however, it is still possible to practice more than one Essence.

## Cultivation

### Methods

At the Nirvana Shatterer level, a Cultivator can use their insight into Law to grasp and cultivate an Essence. There are three known methods for achieving this, the Sealed Realm, Celestial Domain , and Outer Realm methods:

* The Sealed Realm cultivators practice Domains as an alternative to the Celestial Domain Cultivation path. These Domains are, essentially, weak imitations of Essences. However, in the long run, this Domain must be sacrificed to form an Essence as Essence is a Celestial power achieved through the world's Law. Still, one will retain their comprehension of that Domain and can Cultivate an equivalent Essence after losing it, as in Wang Lin's case with his Life and Death, Karma, and True and False Domains being replaced by Essences. As such, a Domain can be seen as an inferior equivalent to Essence from the start.
* The Celestial Domain's method is to practice Law and thus Essence directly by offering an alternative route to the Second Step.
* The Outer Realm cultivators practice the cultivation of their Inheritance provided by an ancestor figure. This method makes cultivation easier but ultimately this power is gifted, not formed by one's own insight. The Inheritance itself can lead to an Essence, but, naturally, this narrows one's potential to never go beyond the ancestor whose inheritance they obtained.

### Maturation

To strengthen one's Essence, the easiest way is to feed its growth with Joss Flames. However, these Joss Flames are quoted as being "A Great Heavenly Scam," as they act like slow poison and eventually harm the cultivator. One can, however, choose not to use Joss Flames at all, as in Wang Lin's case, which means their Essence Cultivation will rely on their own enlightenment. One's Essence also defines their power within the Third Step; an early-stage Nirvana Void cultivator with a Slaughter Essence, for example, is at least as strong as an early-stage Spirit Void cultivator. When an Essence is truly completed, it will form an Essence True Body, which is essentially a Clone or Avatar of the cultivator that embodies the Essence it was born from. Beyond even this is an Essence True Celestial.

### Multiple Essence Cultivation

There are no restrictions on how many Essences a Second Step Cultivator can obtain, however, if they plan to go the route of practicing multiple Essences, there are great advantages to not using Joss Flames. To reach the Third Step with more than one Essence, the cultivator must break open one Great Void Gate for each Essence. Furthermore, for each Essence a non-Joss Flame practitioner will also experience a jump in Cultivation level: One Essence will let them reach the early-stage Nirvana Void, two Essences will put them at the mid-stage Nirvana Void, three Essences will put them at the late-stage Nirvana Void, four will put them at the Great Circle of Nirvana Void. Four more will let them reach Spirit Void's Great Circle while a 9th Essence will put them at early-stage Arcane Void. After that, however, a Cultivator must combine those nine Essence back into one to achieve the Great Circle of Arcane Void.

On the other hand, Joss Flame practice will cause the cultivator to struggle in obtaining additional Essences and, at worst, it may even prevent any Essences obtained after reaching the Third Step to break through the Great Void Gate ever again, so these new Essences would simply be unable to reach the Third Step, making multiple Essence cultivation completely pointless for a Joss Flame user.

### Corporeal, Special, and Ethereal Essence

There are three types of Essences: Corporeal, which relates to observable forces in the universe such as fire and water, Ethereal, which relates to non-observable phenomena like karma, and Special, which is unique like Slaughter and Restrictions. Corporeal Essences are far easier to grasp and can even be enhanced through exposure to said phenomenon, such as when Wang Lin completed his Thunder Essence by directly consuming the Ancient Thunderbolt. Ethereal and Special Essences, however, are much stronger but harder to cultivate. That said, one needs to comprehend at least one Ethereal Essence to reach Arcane Void.

## Known Essences

### Corporeal

* Fire -Wang Lin- Vermilion Bird Divine Sect, Sovereign, Green Bull, Du Qing
* Thunder - Wang Lin, Scatter Thunder Sect, Devil Dao Sect Master
* Ice - Ice Boy
* Water - Wang Lin
* Earth - Du Qing, Green Devil, Wang Lin
* Wood - Wang Lin
* Metal - Wang Lin

### Special

* Slaughter - Wang Lin, Qing Shui
* Restrictions - Wang Lin
* Weight - Du Qing

### Ethereal

* Origin - Sovereign
* Life and Death - Wang Lin
* Karma - Wang Lin
* True and False - Wang Lin
* Absolute Beginning - Wang Lin, Sovereign
* Absolute End - Wang Lin, Sovereign