Chapter 0 — The World
CHAPTER 0
The World
A short guide for readers. No spoilers.
The Path of Cultivation
Cultivators take in the qi of heaven and earth to strengthen their bodies and lengthen their lives. The path is divided into realms, and most people spend their whole lives stuck in front of one.
1. Meridian Opening. The cultivator opens the channels that carry qi through the body. One hundred and twenty is completion, and most people break through there. Geniuses pass one hundred and eighty. Once a generation, someone passes two hundred. Three hundred and sixty is the absolute limit, and no one in living memory has touched it. Old legends speak of meridians beyond it, called Epoch Meridians, but most people think they're a children's story. The more meridians a cultivator opens, the faster they cultivate for the rest of their life, which is why one test can make a family proud or ruin it.
2. Qi Condensation. The cultivator gathers qi and stores it in the body until it stays. Qi spells become possible. This realm has no stages, only long, patient refinement.
3. Bone Refinement. The body is tempered one bone at a time, all two hundred and six of them. Cultivators boast by count ("eighteen bones refined," "half refined"), and every refined bone makes the body harder and its strikes heavier. Progress slows sharply near the end, and many cultivators grow old before they finish.
4. Foundation Establishment. The cultivator lays the base for everything that follows. Foundations are graded Mortal, Earth, Sky, Heaven, Immortal and Divine. A Mortal foundation is common. A Heaven foundation makes a clan celebrate for a month. Anything higher is spoken of in whispers. Leaving this realm requires surviving a lightning tribulation, and not everyone does.
5. Golden Core. A core of condensed qi forms in the dantian. Cores are graded False, Flawed, Flawless and Supreme. A higher grade fills more slowly but reaches much further. The realm ends in a tribulation of the will rather than of lightning.
6. Nascent Soul. A spiritual infant forms within the core and slowly solidifies. Few in this region ever reach it, and those who do are the pillars of the Great Sects.
From Foundation Establishment upward, each realm has early, mid, late and peak stages. Golden Core sometimes has a rare "half-step" beyond its peak.
Alchemy and Marks
Alchemists refine spirit herbs into medicine, and a good alchemist is worth more to a clan than a dozen guards. Even so, most alchemists are mediocre. They burn through herbs, fail more often than they succeed and sell what they can.
The Sky Pavilion certifies alchemists, and Refiners (the craftsmen who forge cultivators' weapons and tools), with Marks. A Mark tells the world which realm of cultivator a maker can serve:
- 1 Mark for Golden Core cultivators
- 2 Mark for Nascent Soul cultivators
- 3 Mark for Soul Formation cultivators
Higher Marks exist, up to the legendary Heavenly Mark, but in this region they are only names on the Pavilion's walls.
A cultivator must be at least Foundation Establishment to sit the exam for a Mark, and almost no one earns one before reaching Golden Core. Most alchemists never earn one at all. Those without a Mark sell to ordinary cultivators at ordinary prices. A marked alchemist names their own price, and sects and royal houses compete to feed and shelter them.
The Kingdom of Great Liang
Great Liang is a modest kingdom ruled by the Sima royal clan. Like most kingdoms, its strongest experts stand at early Golden Core, but the royal clan holds more of them than any other house. Generations ago, a Sima ancestor was taken away by a great power from far beyond this region and never returned. No one knows what he became, and no one wants to find out.
The proud Ling clan is among the kingdom's great houses, an old family with a sword tradition and a voice at court. The Thousand Blossom Register ranks Great Liang's young beauties. Families celebrate a place on it, and its first name is spoken almost with reverence.
Places you'll hear of: Qingshi Town, a small western town and home of the Shi clan; Yunze Town, a rough hunters' town by Heilu Marsh; and the capital, with its markets, its courts and a tower of the Sky Pavilion.
The Surrounding Kingdoms
Great Liang is one of about thirty kingdoms in the shadow of three Great Sects. Its neighbours include Great Yan, Great Zhao, Great Wu, Great Qin, Great Song, Great Han and Great Chu. Each has its own royal house and its own geniuses who believe they are the best under heaven. Among them lie small sects, some weak and a few far stronger than they look. One of these is White Crane Pavilion, which sends recruiters across Great Liang's border.
The Great Sects
- Martial Palace is the strongest and proudest of the three. It prizes force above all.
- Hundred Flower Valley is elegant and selective, and famous for its women cultivators.
- Artificer Hall is a sect of Refiners, widely called the weakest of the three.
Their elders are Golden Core experts, and their highest powers are at Nascent Soul. Every few years the kingdoms hold the Great Kingdom Tournament. Each kingdom sends three representatives, and a few strong small sects send their own. The top ten are taken by the Great Sects, and the champion may enter any of them as an inner disciple. A Great Sect disciple stands beyond the reach of kingdom politics.
The Sky Pavilion
The Sky Pavilion is the oldest and most trusted trading power on the continent, with towers in every capital and sect city. It runs auctions, appraises treasures and certifies alchemists and Refiners. No one is sure where it began, only that it is older than the kingdoms it trades with.
The Legendary Empire
Far to the north lies what people call the Legendary Empire. Stories say that cultivators beyond Nascent Soul walk its streets like ordinary men, and that a sect master from here would be a country bumpkin there. No one from these kingdoms has gone there and come back to tell of it.
People You Will Meet
Shi Feng, eighteen, was once the genius of Qingshi Town. For a year and a half, everyone has called him a cripple.
Ling Qingzhu is the first fairy of Great Liang and first on the Register, a daughter of the Ling clan. She is proud and composed in public and quite different behind closed doors. Half the capital wants to marry her, and the other half wants to arrange it.
Lu Qingxue is tenth on the Register and a White Crane Pavilion disciple. She is Shi Feng's fiancée, for now.
Shi Yulan, Shi Feng's aunt, runs his household with a sharp tongue and an even sharper ledger.
Shi Zhen is the Second Elder of the Shi clan and Shi Feng's uncle. He is at Qi Condensation and very fond of lecturing about clan honour.
Shi Hong, Shi Zhen's son, has one hundred and seventy-six meridians and a temper to match. He is the clan's new pride.
Han Zheng, a Foundation Establishment steward of White Crane Pavilion, does not like to be kept waiting.
Sima Yu is the Crown Prince of Great Liang, at late Foundation Establishment and first among the kingdom's young talents. He is courteous and soft-spoken, and he never raises his voice.
The Princess of Great Liang, Sima Yu's younger sister, is second on the Register, and the capital rarely mentions her.
Beyond Great Liang, the names every gambler knows are Yuan Kuang, Crown Prince of Great Qin, said to be the strongest of his generation; Xiahou Lie of Iron Bone Temple, whom no one has ever knocked down; Bai Chenxi of Frost Lotus Sect, whose sword leaves frost on the platform; and Gongsun Ce, Third Prince of Great Song, who fights with a dozen puppets at once.