just trying to give a sense of the power structure as portrayed in the story so far

1) body tempering stage: basically they just go through grueling exercise, intense meditation or recite mantra over and over again in order to strengthen their body enough to receive the energy of the world that would be stored in them when they start cultivation proper.

2)path forming stage: this is where what is normally called the meridian in most wuxia novel is formed. these pathways act as the road through which battle essence is circulated through the cultivators body in specific sequences to initiate techniques and battle skills

3)core formation stage: this is the point where the paths/meridians that were formed earlier are used to draw the energy of the world as battle essence into the body and through the pores or gates and condensed at each gate for as many as the individual can. at this stage the practitioner can condense an armor made of battle essence around their body and use it as a line of defense.

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4)pillar formation stage: the first true bottle neck of cultivation, this is where most nobles stop because of the pain involved. all the cores condensed till this point are forcefully drawn to the pubic area and fused into a pillar. the pillar acts as both a purifier and a pump, rapidly increasing the rate at which an individual can draw in battle essence and rapidly purifying the essence for them as well. another round of core formation and fusion continues until the cultivator can either not bear the pain of core fusion anymore or feel they would not survive if they attempt to fuse to many pillars into a realm.