Auxiliary chapter
Warning: This chapter may contain some minor spoilers you may want to avoid.
This is going to be a chapter where cultivation realms, some concepts and the general information of characters are introduced.
Every now and then, new things will be added to it.
It's up to you, the reader to decide whether you want to proceed or not.
Here goes nothing...
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The introduction of the first two stages of cultivation
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Body Tempering (Also called foundation establishment) - The first realm of cultivation
At this stage, the fleshy body has to reach a sufficient level for starting true cultivation. There is not a set method of tempering one's body. One can achieve it in many ways (Taking in nutrients, consuming different sorts of body strengthening pills, forging bones, regular exercise, practicing skills, growth, tempering flesh, consuming rare spiritual treasures, practicing certain cultivation techniques...)
It is recommended to push one's physical growth to the utmost limit before moving on to the next stage, Qi gathering.
In different worlds, the practitioners have different standards of this realm's level division. In richer star areas, they don't start gathering Qi until their body reaches frightening levels. Some races born with inborn physical advantages (Giants tribe for example) have even higher standards for tempering their already terrifyingly powerful bodies.
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Qi Gathering - The second realm of cultivation
At this stage, the practitioner absorbs heaven and earth energies and refines them into Qi, which is then stored in their body. Their efficiency depends on their talent, perception (Which is determined by their soul power, often referred to as Spirit) and the degree of their tempered body.
Cultivators, who start refining Qi without sufficiently strengthening their bodies, will progress much slower in this realm. Their inadequate physical level will result in an inability to attract, absorb, refine and purify Qi at desired pace and level. In better cases, it will take them a longer amount of time to advance levels in this realm, while in the worst cases, low-level purity Qi will force their cultivation into stagnation, eliminating any hopes for further progress.
In order to even start Qi refinement, one's Spirit has to be about 50% stronger than that of a normal person, as, without sufficient perception, it's impossible to even sense heaven and earth energy, not to mention attracting and refining them.
Some people are born with stronger souls and hence, their talent differs from ordinary people. They will progress much faster than others. They are called cultivation geniuses.
People with weaker souls may never even step into Qi gathering realm unless they find ways to increase their Spirit. The items which increase spirit are relatively rare, which is the reason why the majority remain as normal mortals at the first stage of cultivation - Body tempering.
Qi gathering realm is universally divided into 9 levels. The initial 3 levels are called Early stage of Qi gathering, followed by intermediate (Middle) and late stages. Every 3 levels one is met with minor bottleneck, which leads to major power leap and an increased requirement for further advancement.
The power of Qi gathering realm practitioners is measured by the purity of their Qi. Also, ones with purer Qi have a higher chance for advancing their cultivation realms, while cultivators with a low level of Qi purity will most likely not go much further and sooner or later reach the bottleneck.
In lower level star areas, the heaven and earth energies are more diluted, as it's more or less used up, which reduces the practitioners' cultivation speed in this realm.
Aforementioned variables lead to people with better foundations or purer Qi to challenge stronger experts with weaker foundations.
In high-level star areas, cultivators strive to create a perfect foundation so they can progress further. This is the reason why cultivators in high-level star areas can easily defeat the same or even realm higher opponents from lower level star areas.
