Dao of Time: Awakening of The Timeless Immortal

0009 Cultivation Stages, Realms and Meridians

Finally, after five years, the orb was instantly drained of all spirit energy. 

By now, Yao's inner world currently looked like six complicated universes put together into an intermittent weave and held together by a single formation. 

The spiritual energy that the spirit depletion spell had absorbed had been, if not exorbitant. So in a way, his combat power had improved methodically, however Yao has yet to enter the very first cultivation realm. 

With this vast amount of spirit energy, he would be able to break through.

To initiate the breakthrough, Yao had to open the first three meridians in his body and he needed an abundant amount of spiritual energy to do that, so opening his meridians wouldn't waste too much time. 

Naturally, the process was tasking and strenuous. It demanded you to absorb spirit energy, and use that same energy to open his meridians. In the cultivation world, everyone improves by the knowledge of the world— however, the first step for cultivation is naturally beholden by heart so even if they were born and not taught about cultivation, they would have to cultivate by instinct rather than by knowledge, which is exactly what Yao had done.

The young man exhaled deeply and sat midair as he tried to open his meridians. 

The spiritual energy in his inner world rippled like a tsunami, but Yao learnt to channel it through his own body instead.

The cultivation realms are differentiated from each other and we have the very first realm—The True Qi Realm. 

The true Qi Realm is also known as Basic Martial Dao.

The divisions of martial dao mastery were defined by the initial step of training true Qi. In this world, the basics of martial dao were the twelve major acupoints in a person's body, and twelve meridians flowed through them.

One could clear a meridian by clearing an acupoint, and coalesce the body's energy into one current of true Qi.

Altogether, there are twelve meridians true Qi in the true Qi realm. But it is very hard to obtain twelve meridians true Qi by clearing all twelve acupoints.

Therefore, a sentence existed in the world of training: Twelve levels of true Qi separates snakes and dragons. The location of acupoints were scattered randomly in each practitioner's body, with no rhyme or reason, so a method to locate acupoints like martial dao method that combined training qi and martial arts techniques or a method to locate the acupoints and map the meridian in the body is needed to progress. 

True Qi would not be pure if the foundations are not firm. After clearing a meridian, it needs to be built up if not, there was no other way it could withstand a strong impact. Therefore, the next step is to temper the meridians you already controlled, and make appropriate use of the meridians true Qi.

The stages of the True Qi Realm are as follows. 

1 - 3 Meridians: Initial Realm of True Qi. 

4 - 6 Meridians: Intermediate stage.

7 - 9 Meridians: Advanced stage of True Qi Realm.

10 - 11 Meridians: True Qi Masters.

12 Meridians: Supreme True Qi Master.

And this is only for the first cultivation realm. 

The realm of cultivation has three stages. 

The Minor Boundary (소경계/小境界)

The Middle Boundary (중경계/中境界).

And the Great Boundary (대경계/大境界).

At the Minor boundary, one begins to break free of their mortality. At the middle boundary, one wields attraction forces. At the Great Boundary, one becomes a true immortal. These are the stages of the cultivation. 

Then, under the Minor Boundary, we have the cultivation realm as follows…

True Qi Realm.

Spirit Realm.

Origin Realm.

Sage Realm.

Emperor Realm.

Great Emperor Realm.

Empyrean Realm.

Divine Realm.

God-King Realm.

Celestial Emperor Realm.

After these realms, one transgresses over to the Middle Boundary stage of cultivation and becomes an Ancestor.

Progenitor Realm(Xûxîán, primogenitor, ancestor).

Tîàñ Realm (laws of the universe).

Primordial Realm.

Ortuse Realm. (Law repulsion)

Kû Realm (Overcoming calamity)

Then lastly, the Great Boundary stage. A cultivator becomes fully immortàl and cultivates the realms of Immortality.

***

Yao finally opened his eyes after one year. 

He had successfully cleared one acupoint and opened his first meridian. The process was relatively slow and Yao found himself having a headache. 

He needed to clear two more acupoints to finally step into the True Qi Realm. Yao did not know how much time had passed, he did not care. But he realized that since the place he had been sealed in had broken, it means that his body must be drifting somewhere in space. So he did not know how long he would be able to remain that way without putting himself in danger.

Yao closed his eyes once again and started cultivating by developing the already opened meridian. This one meridian became a feeding channel for spirit energy to be stored and passed. It is also the reason why cultivators seemed to possess boundless reserves—if the reserves in the inner world are depleted, a person could compromise with the spirit energy stored up within the meridians.

In the fifth month, Yao's eyes flashed open and he opened the second meridian. 

He heaved a sigh of relief and whispered. "Clearing acupoints gets much easier after the first." 

He continued the clearing and another five months passed. The third meridian was finally cleared. 

Two meridians needed development so he focused on it for two months— 

Yao's expression changed.

Two months stretched into a year and progressed into the second year. 

Then finally, it was time for Yao to face the Heavenly Spirit Tribulation and break through into the True Qi Realm.