Chapter 471: Restructuring Martial Arts: The New Fourteen Tiers
Sura.
This was a realm created by the Nether River Patriarch himself. After he led the Suras in their desertion of the Three Realms Faction, they occupied a lesser race’s world and founded their own faction.
And now, they had occupied a galaxy and ruled over hundreds of living planets.
At the heart of their territory was a colossal blood-colored continent... however, a closer look would reveal that it was no land, but the endless Blood Sea instead.
In fact, it was so vast that a small planet could fall within without so much as a splash.
And floating upon it were immortal palaces, and there were actually living beings residing within.
The men were rough in appearance, even ugly, while the women were devilishly charming... it was actually a normal circ.u.mstance for the Suras, as it was said that all their men were grotesque while the women were ravishing beauties.
But suddenly, the Blood Sea was churning and waves were kicking up.
Within one of the immortal palaces, several Sura elites with Grand Luo presence promptly flew out, hovering up in the air to look at the Blood Sea beneath. It was only one hour later that the churning sea finally calmed down.
“What’s happening?”
One of the Grand Luo Suras—an elderly Sura— frowned, a look of shock flashing through his eyes as he mused somberly, “After founding Sura, our patriarch had fallen to a deep sleep, even communicating his will. He should have been close to awakening...”
“Could our patriarch’s awakening be obstructed, causing this sudden unrest?”
There were seven Grand Luo Suras, four of whom resided at the Blood Sea of Sura.
Right now, the four Grand Luo were rapidly communicating, with the elderly Sura eventually saying, “I’ll try to see if I could link up to the partriarch’s will.”
He dived beneath the blood sea and headed into the depths.
His Dao emanated, his divine mind connecting to the endless Blood Sea...
Finally, a will rippled and was caught by his divine mind—
“Yuan Killer...”
“Yuan Killer...”
The elderly Sura’s face twitched and he cried out in shock, “This... is the patriarch’s will!”
“Yuan Killer?”
“Could the patriarch’s Yuan Killer Sword has shown up?”
***
Meanwhile, Jiang He was not aware of any of that happening. Right now, he was lying beneath the Old Tea Tree of Enlightenment, scrawling away rapidly as he constructed the martial cultivation he had been working on for quite some time.
The martial cultivation was actually a combination of inspiration he got from multiple wuxia and xianxia novels, and was divided to nine levels. The goal was to simplify Martial Dao, so that all who practiced it had a better chance of reaching Paragon in martial arts.
In the past, martial arts below Divine-tier was divided to nine ranks.
Rank one to three honed physique and qi.
After that, rank-four involved cultivation of True Qi while rank-seven—also known as grandmaster—cultivated spirit.
It was only with full-fledged spirit that they could grasp the Boundary of Wills of certain paths, thereby gaining a shot at ascending up to Divine-tier.
Now, Jiang He was restructuring Martial Dao, the first tier of which honed the body and Qi, which he named Postnatal-tier.
There were also detailed subcategories to Postnatal, namely martial artists, third-rate martial artists, second-rate martial artists, and first-rate martial artists.
To earn the t.i.tle of martial artist, one would need to reach certain standards in speed and reflexes, as well as gain a punching strength of 500 catties.
For third-rate martial artists, their punching strength must be 2,000 catties, while it was 5,000 for second-rate martial artists, and 10,000 for first-rate martial artists.
Naturally, these were the lowest basic requirements.
In other words, while the weakest first-rate martial artists could unleash a punch weighing 10,000 catties, the strongest could punch up to 100,000 catties.
Moreover, Postnatal-tier was not supposed to focus entirely on physique on qi, since it was difficult to solely focus on developing a 10,000 catty physical punching strength... it cultivated inner strength and True Qi as well, although the True Qi would not escape the body in any offensive move.
“Yes... a first-rate martial artist just needs to cultivate their inner strength and True Qi to the limits of their Cinnabar Fields, and accomplish the fusion of qi with strength, as well as qi with spirit to reach Congenital-tier.”
With that, Jiang He finished the first detailed tier.
To put it simply, fusion of qi with strength as well as qi with spirit is to have a martial artist reach a level where they were one with the world. Moreover, with a strong enough spirit, they could control their inner strength and True Qi.
‘It is slightly easier for Postnatal martial artists to ascend to Congenital-tier compared to ascending from rank-six to rank-seven in marital arts. But according to my restriction, anyone who reaches Congenital most certainly boasts strength equaling rank-seven martial arts grandmasters,’ Jiang He thought.
The second Martial Dao tier that he developed was Congenital, and martial artists at this level could convert inner strength and True Qi to natural Yuan Qi and could project it in attacks. Moreover, they could choose Yuan Qi of different attributes when they ascended, which greatly helped in awakening the Boundary of Wills.
Naturally, full cultivation of the Boundary of Wills meant reaching Divine-tier.
Naturally, Jiang He had revamped and categorized Divine-tier as well.
He had named the tier above Congenital the Blank-tier, which was actually a process of enlightenment toward the world and the fusing of oneself to its power. It corresponded to the Golden Pellet tier for cultivators, and one would be adept at both long-range and melee attacks when they cultivate to this level, making them a cla.s.s above Golden Pellet cultivators.
“Above Blank-tier is the Tempest-tier. At that point, not only would the martial artist be able to control the power of the world, but they could also absorb the power of astral bodies to increase their combat ability and slay True Child cultivators!”
“And on top of Tempest is Yin-Yang tier, which involves the Martial Yuan Spirit and invokes both Yin and Yang energy.”
“The sixth tier is Deva, where a body holds Yin and Yang as one. One could refine a G.o.dly manifestation in their martial arts... huh, this still needs detailed grouping, but said G.o.dly manifestation has to be stronger than the Divine-tier in the older martial arts system.”
“I’ll use the tiering shown in that novel t.i.tled Eternal Life...”
“Deva martial arts can refine a G.o.dly manifestation in their martial arts into a seed that is instantly unleashed in a fight, making a martial artist faster in casting their killing stroke, which corresponds to Convergence-tier...”
“In a battle between a Deva-tier martial artist and a Convergence-tier cultivator, the martial artist just has to close in and bombard them with their G.o.dly manifestation, and the cultivator would have no way of fighting back... still, the martial artist would be lacking in long-range attacks....”
“How about letting Devas have the ability to invoke mystic treasures... wait, isn’t that the same as cultivators?”
“Let’s call those treasure tools instead!”
“The seventh tier in Martial Dao will be called Convergence, fusing all the G.o.dly manifestations of a Deva as one. The more G.o.dly manifestations fused, the powerful they would be, and corresponds to Sufferance-tier cultivators...”
“Eighth tier, Golden Pellet!”
“Turns all the fused G.o.dly manifestations into a single Martial Golden Pellet. Once released, every G.o.dly manifestation would be unleashed and would overwhelm Mahayana cultivators.”
“Ninth tier, Firewind Trial!”
“Since cultivators had to suffer retributions, it doesn’t make sense that martial artists do not have to go through any trials... and they are equivalent to immortals once they clear the Firewind Trial, so I’ll call the tier above it Longevity-tier!”
“As everyone knows, martial artists don’t live as long as cultivators... but since I’m going to create a martial arts system like nothing before, I’ll have to break those shackles!”
Nonetheless, Jiang He paused at the ninth tier.
According to his prediction, Longevity was already the tenth tier for martial arts as it corresponds to the cultivators’ Heavenly Immortal-tier.
How was he supposed to fabricate... uh, create the part about longevity?
“It is said that Heavenly Immortals are beyond the Three Realms and not included in the five elements, sharing the age of the world itself... but that is not correct. Heavenly Immortals have an age span, and barring unexpected factors such as war, murder, or demonic possession, their life would span 129,600 years.”
On the other hand, the Golden Immortals were also called the Eternal Immortals because they were truly undying.
“I have to put in some limits so that the martial artists wouldn’t goof around beyond Longevity-tier.”
“For example, we’ll name the first Longevity Tier the Ten Millenia-tier, where they could live for ten thousand years. It’s equal to Heavenly Immortals, where novice would live ten thousand years while cultivation to pinnacle lives up to fifty thousand years!”
“The second tier in Longevity Tier would be the Undying-tier, which matches against True Immortals.”
“Of course, Undying doesn’t mean invincibility. The martial artist would die if they fought against someone stronger or reached the end of their lifespan. Instead, Undying means a body that could be reborn with a single drop of blood, and as long as the Martial Yuan Spirit survives while the physical body is vaporized, it is healable.”
“And Undying-tier elites will live up to a hundred thousand years.”
“As for the third tier of Longevity, let’s call it Grotto-Heaven-tier.”
“Martial artists can condense their own grotto-heaven at this level and draw power from it in a fight. It would therefore keep them going for a long time in a fight or while travelling, even granting them greater power. In fact, they could grasp the Dao of Dimensions, and the stronger ones would able to teleport.”
“Since the third sub-tier of Longevity could match Golden Immortals already, let’s add another tier... Realm King!”
“Realm King corresponds to Grand Luo, and they have the power to destroy worlds...”
Then, Jiang He paused after having written furiously away.
What the h.e.l.l!
He cried out and muttered, “I was too focused in crating the martial cultivation that I neglected to inform Minister w.a.n.g... he is the top dog in martial arts across worlds, and his strength is equal to full-fledged Golden Immortals’, perhaps even better... so he would more or less reach the Grotto-Heaven-tier in the cultivation system I developed.”
“However...”
“Did he condense a grotto-heaven already???”
Fat chance.
However, Jiang He was not too worried about that, since w.a.n.g Hou could condense one even if hadn’t before.
The problem here was that he had only reached the thirteenth tier in his Martial Dao system.
He had actually thought of the fourteenth and fifteenth tier, up to the eighteenth just like when he learned the Dragon-Elephant Prajna...
When that happened, how should abilities be categorized?
Superior to Saints?
Was that not pure nonsense?
“Whatever...”
“It would be impractical if the martial cultivation method becomes too outrageous, and it might not bear fruit. However, since Realm King is the thirteenth tier in martial cultivation and is equivalent to Grand Luo, I could create the fourteenth tier which is equivalent to Demi-Saints.”
But what are the signature abilities and attributes that Demi-Saints had?
Jiang He pondered for half a day...
“When had a little Grand Luo who cultivated for a year like me ever met a Demi-Saint? How am I supposed to know about his methods?”
“Well then, it doesn’t have to be equal to Demi-Saint. I just need to make something up...”
“Let’s call it the Eternal-tier.”