Ken's Techniques & Stages (Updated to chapter 192, spoiler alert)
Cultivation Stages:
The Foundation phase of cultivation:
1. Body Strengthening - The cultivator uses an external source of Qi to stream Qi into their body and enhances their body with it. Ken used the Godly Qi in his body.
2. Dantian and Meridian Awakening - Once the body is strong enough, one can use an external source of Qi again to awaken their dantian and meridians. There are 12 major meridians, 8 minor ones, and 45 collateral ones. Ken used the Godly Qi in his body.
3. Soul Strengthening - One must use herbs that affect the soul or pills created from them to refine their soul and make it grow again repeatedly to make it stronger.
The Nurturing phase of cultivation (Each stage is divided into Low, Intermediate, High, and Peak):
4. Core Formation - One combines the results they achieved in the Foundation phase into a core. The core's strength is affected by multiple factors - The body's strength determines the core's strength, the dantian's size determines the core's size, and the soul's affinity, gained by learning techniques to the Advanced mastery realm, determines the core's attributes.
To advance in this stage, one has to make their core grow by absorbing Qi, and condense it back to its original size. Once condensed, the cultivator entered the next substage.
5. Nascent Soul - The cultivator takes a layer off their soul to get a hollow husk of it, then fills it with Qi over time and strengthens it gradually. Once they're done, they form a complete nascent soul that is on the verge of being physical and looks like a miniature version of the cultivator. They can use the soul to scout their surroundings, sense various things, absorb new Qi into their bodies at a high speed, and most importantly, to channel additional techniques to these their bodies do, allowing them to execute more than a single technique at once.
Techniques grades:
Basic - Sky - Earth - Heaven (After Ken changes his techniques in the second volume, everything is Heaven-grade). Each one is divided into Lower, Intermediate, and Higher.
Techniques Mastery Realms:
Basic, Advanced, Small Success, Big Success.
Techniques Training:
There are a few mastery realms. In each realm, one can progress to the peak of it and improve the power of their technique. When one breaks through to the next mastery realm of their technique, their technique gets an additional effect. For example, Slash got stronger as Ken mastered it better, and when he got to the next mastery realm, he could separate it into multiple slashes instead of sending only a powerful one.
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Ken's Techniques:
sword techniques:
Flash Unwind - silently unsheathing the sword and cutting. At the Advanced mastery realm, he could send a pulse of Qi, enough to graze vital spots instead of cutting them completely to kill. At the Small Success mastery realm, he can attack everything within his range at once. At Big Success, he can move the sword freely in that range rather than moving it in a straight line
Snake Thrust - a thrust with a flexible sword that's very hard to block and predict. At the Advanced mastery realm, he can imitate a snake's bite and the thrust includes 2 stabs, one under the other. at the Small Success mastery realm, the attack turns toxic, and Sword Qi permeates the target's body. The Big Success mastery realm allows Ken to create an illusion with his sword, and when his enemies try to block it, his sword stabs them.
Slash - slashing with a normal sword, making a large slash made of three combined slashes. At the Advanced mastery realm, he can separate the three slashes. At Small Success, it's 9 slashes and he can either send 9 in one, 9 in 3, or 9 in 9. At Big Success, it turns into 81 slashes.
One Step - dashes forward at an extreme speed. In the Advanced mastery realm, he can move without crouching first. At Small Success, he can go anywhere horizontally and vertically. At Big Success, he can move freely while dashing, allowing him to attack mid-sprint.
Cloud Running - running quickly and nimbly. The steps turn light like a man running on the clouds. At the Advanced mastery realm, the steps turn silent. At the Small Success mastery realm, he can apply it to his whole body, enhancing his dodging abilities. At Big Success, Ken uses the first footwork to keep the momentum going, spending almost no extra effort.
Bloodlust techniques:
Bloodlust Sense - Ken detects killing intent in a radius of 500 meters. The distance grows with his cultivation base, bloodlust power, and technique mastery. At the Small Success mastery realm, he can also sense the bloodlust of others in addition to killing intent, which can help him determine approximately how many humans the target killed before. Its weakness is that it doesn't sense those who have never killed anyone before. At the Big Success mastery realm, he can sense the trails left behind by people, allowing him to track them down.
Mind-Poisoning Domain - Ken manifests his bloodlust around him, affecting others with his bloodlust. 2 modes (they also exist in a single-target version to boost the effect):
Paralyzing Mode - Ken's bloodlust fills others with fear, making them feel the doom of death. At the Advanced mastery realm, Ken learned how to distribute his bloodlust among the living beings inside the domain, allowing him to focus more on a specific target and avoid targeting allies. At the Small Success mastery realm, Ken's bloodlust makes the targets envision hallucinations and illusions of massacres, making them perceive Ken as their natural enemy that came to hunt them. At Big Success, Ken's bloodlust makes them see Ken killing them repeatedly, shocking and horrifying them.
Frenzy Mode - Ken's bloodlust affects others, making them lose their minds and become bloodthirsty. At the Advanced mastery realm, Ken learned how to distribute his bloodlust among the living beings inside the domain, allowing him to focus more on a specific target and avoid targeting allies. At Small Success, the targets see the people around them as people they hate. At Big Success, they see illusions of those people killing their loved ones in front of them, triggering them to attack.
Blood Transfusion - Ken sucks the Qi from his enemy's body when the latter is on the verge of death after contaminating the enemy with his Bloodlust Qi at the cost of contaminating his core. In the Advanced mastery realm, he keeps channeling the foreign Qi in his body so he can use it right away, minimalizing the harm foreign Qi can cause to his core.
Techniques that combine Sword Qi and Bloodlust Qi:
Sheathed Man - Ken becomes like a sheathed sword that hides its dangerous aura. When Ken uses this technique, it's very difficult to detect him. At the Advanced mastery realm, he added his Bloodlust Qi to the technique and managed to hide his killing intent as well with a sheath made of Bloodlust Qi. In the Small Success mastery realm, Ken can apply the technique to throwing weapons so they will be hidden from the target's perception until they're very near.
Unnamed unspecific techniques:
Stage concealing technique - When Ken uses this technique, his cultivation base can be hidden. He will exude an aura of the stage he wants to appear in if it's under his real stage.
Hey guys, I made this list for your convenience. If you find any inconsistencies or notice that I forgot a technique, let me know and I will fix/add it.
Join my Discord server! (link in synopsis and author's thought)