Now, the first thing you need to know about cultivation is that for a human being to cultivate, they need a cultivation method.

A cultivation method is like Qigang's Path of The Sun Emperor thing he uses.

Now, a qi beast, that is an animal that can cultivate (can be docile, tamed, wild, or feral, behaviour doesn't matter), does not need a cultivation method to cultivate. This is because they have qi cores. We'll get into that later.

Humans have no qi cores, so we need cultivation methods, but we have sapience in return. In fact, some scholars theorize that our sapience is why we cannot grow qi cores. This is largely irrelevant to you though.

What you need to know is, cultivation is a very long journey, and for humans, it has 45 layers.

These 45 layers are divided equally into three realms, which are themselves divided into three phases.

The very first phase of human cultivation is Ignition phase. This is the only phase of human cultivation that can be done without a method.

In fact, you cannot learn a cultivation method at this phase. You will die if you try.

In Ignition phase, all a cultivator is really doing is training up their meridians to handle the flow of qi.

Think of it like a formula 1 driver training their body so they don't pass out from the g forces of the car.

An Ignition phase cultivator is barely a cultivator. They're basically just a regular human who can channel and sense qi, and at the fifth layer of this phase, they peak, and the only way to advance is to learn a cultivation method.

Now, cultivation methods, as with all things cultivation related, has five levels called Ranks.

These ranks are beast, peasant, sage, noble, and divine. Each rank is five (5) times better than the previous one.

To put this numerically, if beast rank is 100, then peasant rank 500, sage is 2,500, noble rank is 12,500, and divine rank is 62,500.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

So yes, the higher in rank you go, the more insane the gap becomes. This is why Qigang having a noble rank method is such a big fucking deal.

As I've said, all things cultivation related have ranks, and you do not want to ignore those ranks. Eating or using supplements/techniques one rank higher than yours is a strain on your cultivation. Overdoing it will literally burn your cultivation from the inside out.

Two ranks higher, and you explode. Just the tip or not.

That's it for ranks really.

As for cultivation methods, they are essentially condensed concepts that a cultivator adapts their cultivation to, and this becomes the path they follow on their cultivation journey.

I know that doesn't really explain it much, but that's all you need to know for now.

Cultivation techniques are the same as cultivation methods, except that while methods are the roots and stem of your cultivation, a technique is like a flower, or leaves, or a bird nesting on the tree of your cultivation.

An important thing to note about techniques is that synergy matters. For example, someone using the Path of Water, who then tries to learn a technique called Steps of Fire is basically expecting his apple tree to grow a banana. Yeah, they both grow off trees, but seriously?

Techniques are very important to a cultivator, they are basically like mini superpowers.

There are movement techniques, perception techniques, defensive techniques etc. and all of them give significant advantages.

Not to mention, in the higher realms, regardless of rank a cultivator literally cannot be hurt unless a technique is used. So, yeah, you can see why Qigang giving Xiuying that technique is a big deal.

Anyway, speaking of higher realms, these are the three realms of human cultivation, Foundation Realm (formerly Formation Realm before I changed it), Qi Realm, and Domain Realm.

Foundation Realm (the only one you need bother with now) has three phases. Ignition (which I've already told you about), Weaving, and Sprouting.

The weaving phase got its name from how a cultivation method will weave a cultivator's Qi network into a pattern to the method.

During the five layers of it, a cultivator masters their method, and when mastery is accomplished, and there's nothing left to learn, they advance into Sprouting.

This phase is called sprouting because it's considered where actual cultivation begins. Like a seedling sprouting, the cultivator is now ready to face the heavens.

This is pretty much it.

After sprouting phase the cultivator breakthrough into the first phase of Qi Realm, namely Vapour phase. Called this because a cultivator's body literally becomes qi vapour in this phase, as we saw when the Magistrate died.

Oh yeah, qi beasts. For them there are no phases, and their Realms (still three) only have twelve layers each, instead of the fifteen total that humans have.

Qi beasts realms are called Core Condensing (where their qi cores form), Qi Refining (where other stuff happens) and Domain Realm.

Anyway all of this information has already been mentioned and likely will be again within the story.

If you're observant you can pretty much pick it all up from within the pages of the story.

Thanks for reading.