177 Sword Sect 1

Even though Elder Du was so powerful he did not know that Zhang Yi cultivated body refinement and mental energy on the ninth level and cultivated qi in the soul birth realm, so the elder thought that Zhang Yi was a genius who was at the beginning of the soul birth realm only.

At the soul birth realm the warriors cultivated divided by levels, it was nine levels until they reached the soul refinement realm and on each level, there were three layers which were the initial, intermediate and advanced layers, it was similar to the realm of mortal tribulation only then with two more levels.

This is why it was so much harder for higher-realm cultivators to advance and fight higher-level or even higher-tier warriors, from the third to the fourth level was the initial to intermediate realm difference and from level 6 to level 7. it was from intermediate to advanced level.