Cultivation Glossary

A reference to cultivation realms, strength, progression, and the differences between Martial and Immortal Cultivation. Updated as the story progresses.

1. Martial Cultivation

Progression: Foundation → Skin → Muscle → Bone → Internal Organs → Acquired → Innate → Grandmaster.

Foundation: Static and Dynamic Foundation develop stability, breathing, coordination, and movement.

Skin Tempering: Improves durability, resistance, and sensitivity.

Muscle Tempering: Increases strength, endurance, and force production.

Bone Tempering: Strengthens the skeleton and improves force transmission.

Internal Organ Tempering: Refines the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and spleen. Completing the first cycle establishes a true Martial Artist and enables An Jin (hidden force).

Acquired: Generates and stores Acquired Energy, allowing practitioners to amplify and project martial force.

Innate: Fundamentally transforms the mortal constitution and enables Innate Qi cultivation.

Grandmaster: A higher realm whose advancement requirements remain largely unknown.

Innate Transformation: Begins after Acquired Energy reaches Completion. Practitioners remain in Acquired until their bodily transformation reaches 100%, marking entry into true Innate.

Realm Divisions

Initial → Middle → Late → Completion

Body-tempering realms permit repeated refinement. Skin III means three complete Skin temperings; the same applies to Muscle, Bone, and Internal Organs.

The ninth refinement can produce Great Completion, an exceptional integration beyond ordinary Completion.

Entering Acquired requires at least Internal Organ III, supported by sufficient earlier tempering.

2. Strength Comparison and Joe's Progression

Strength varies with foundation quality, repeated tempering, energy reserves, and technique mastery.

The following ordinary benchmarks are approximate values established within the story, not universal limits.

Skin and Muscle Tempering

• Joe completed nine refinements of each by age 17, achieving Great Completion.

• No comparable maximum-strength measurements were recorded.

Bone Tempering

• Ordinary Bone Completion: approximately 1 ton of direct force.

• Joe: 2.8 tons, Bone IX Great Completion, age 18.

Internal Organ Tempering

• Ordinary Internal Organ I: approximately 3.5 tons of effective martial force.

  In brief, this copy came from NovelPhoenix without the author's permission; the chapter at the source supports the writer.

• Talented Internal Organ III: 8–9 tons.

• Exceptional Internal Organ IV: approximately 10 tons.

• Joe: 29.8 tons, Internal Organ IX Great Completion, age 19.

Acquired

• Ordinary Complete Acquired practitioners can briefly amplify their underlying martial output by approximately 3–3.5 times.

• Joe, age 19: 74.5 tons sustained, 109.1 tons under serious expenditure, and 145.1 tons in a maximum short burst.

Innate

• Ordinary practitioners: No reliable universal strength benchmark established.

• Joe, age 20: 387.4 tons maximum supported output.

Grandmaster

• Strength benchmarks remain unavailable.

Measurement note: Bone figures concern direct physical force. Internal Organ figures include hidden force, while Acquired and Innate measurements include energy-supported output. They do not represent identical forms of strength or ordinary lifting capacity.

Cultivation Time and Lifespan

Cultivation ordinarily requires years or decades. Completing Internal Organ I within one year is exceptionally fast, while a well-supported practitioner may need around two years to complete an ordinary Acquired reservoir.

Historical records place one of the youngest reliable Innate breakthroughs around age 40 and a credible Grandmaster breakthrough around age 70.

Higher cultivation improves vitality and resilience, but exact lifespans remain unspecified. Innate does not grant immortality.

3. Technique Mastery and Joe's Panel

Mastery: Lv.1 → Lv.2 Minor → Lv.3 Major → Lv.4 Complete → Lv.5 Perfection.

Return to Nature represents comprehension beyond a perfected technique, not an ordinary Lv.6.

Static and Dynamic Foundation mastery requirements are Minor for Skin, Major for Muscle, Complete for Bone, and Perfection for Internal Organs.

Joe's Panel privately displays cultivation progress, skill mastery, and percentages. It recognizes genuine advancement but cannot generate energy, provide resources, or supply unknown techniques.

His extraordinary talents accelerate valid effort without eliminating training, nourishment, recovery, or cultivation requirements.

4. Martial Energy and Spiritual Qi

Blood Energy: Supports early martial cultivation and body tempering.

Ming Jin: Direct force produced through the external body.

An Jin: Hidden force developed through Internal Organ cultivation.

Acquired Energy: Unified martial energy stored and refined within the body.

Innate Qi: Martial energy associated with the transformed Innate constitution.

Spiritual Qi: A fundamentally different energy used in Immortal Cultivation.

These energies are not automatically interchangeable.

5. Immortal Cultivation

Immortal Cultivation requires an innate Spiritual Root and an appropriate cultivation method.

Spiritual Root aptitude, weakest to strongest:

Five-Attribute → Four-Attribute → Three-Attribute → Two-Attribute → Single-Attribute.

Five-Attribute Roots have poor prospects for advanced cultivation. Three-Attribute Roots are exceptional within the kingdom, while Two-Attribute and Single-Attribute Roots are extraordinarily rare.

Known Immortal Cultivation realms include Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment.

Can someone skip Martial Cultivation? Yes. Those with Spiritual Roots can begin Immortal Cultivation directly, often around age ten. Those without Roots cannot ordinarily cultivate spiritual qi but can pursue martial cultivation.

6. Root Kindling

Root Kindling sacrifices accumulated martial cultivation to improve an existing Spiritual Root. A stronger martial foundation offers greater improvement potential.

Restrictions:

1. Kindling must occur before age 27.

2. Beginning true spiritual qi cultivation permanently removes the Kindling option.

Practitioners must choose between beginning Immortal Cultivation early or first developing their martial foundation to improve their Root.

Age 27 restricts Kindling, not the beginning of Immortal Cultivation.

7. Easter Egg: Orthodox and Heretical Cultivation

In the wider cultivation world, only Immortal Cultivation is considered orthodox. Every other cultivation system, including Martial Cultivation, is classified as heretical.

This distinction is not natural. Its origins remain unknown.