CH217 Humanity's Warrior Cultivation Ranks

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When a human warrior first begins training in the Warrior Breathing Method and Body Tempering Techniques devised by humanity's cultivation ancestors, there are no obvious changes at the start.

At this stage, the breathing method is still acclimating the human body to the process of drawing in ambient mana with every breath while the tempering technique helped strengthen the body to draw in and accumulate more energy.

Even when mana is successfully taken into the body and transformed into Internal Energy, there is very little control over it. The energy becomes trapped within the cells, subtly altering and empowering them.

Over time, the repeated tempering causes the cells to adapt and mutate to their new reality.

The direct result of this process is the strengthening of the body beyond the limits of ordinary humans. In most cases, the individual's physical parameters—strength, speed, endurance—are doubled compared to a normal human.

When this transformation occurs, the individual is said to have truly stepped onto the path of cultivation. Such individuals are referred to as Trainees or Squires. This is why the Class 0 rank of the Warrior branch is called the Trainee (Squire) Rank.

While it may sound as simple as breathing, the process is anything but. Only humans with genuine cultivation potential can draw in mana through the breathing method and retain it within their bodies to form Internal Energy. For others, the mana simply disperses, either being used up unconsciously or leaking back out.

Once a warrior passes the Trainee stage, they begin to consciously draw upon the Internal Energy stored in their cells. They can then channel it to specific parts of their body, temporarily amplifying their physical parameters, or circulate it throughout their entire body for a brief surge in power.

Those capable of doing so are referred to as Beginners, thus marking the existence of the Beginner Rank.

Progressing further, a human warrior learns to channel Internal Energy throughout their body more efficiently. At this point, they gain the ability to externalise it, materialising the energy as a visible aura that coats their entire body.

This phenomenon is known as Aura Coating.

Aura Coating acts as a sheath of Internal Energy reinforcement, allowing the warrior to push their body beyond its natural limits. With it, they can perform feats that would normally cripple or kill a human body, albeit for short bursts of time.

Mastery of Aura Coating soon became recognised as the hallmark of the Intermediate Rank.

As warriors continue to progress, their control over Internal Energy deepens, and its volume within their bodies increases. Their physique improves far beyond the capabilities of ordinary humans. Their resistance to disease and toxins grows significantly, while their aging process slows to a noticeable degree.

More importantly, Intermediate warriors refine their use of Aura Coating to enhance themselves for longer durations, unleash energy bursts for explosive attacks, and—most uniquely—extend the Aura Coating beyond their own bodies to cover external objects.

Thus, the ability to coat weapons or any other handheld object in Aura became the signature of the Elite Rank.

Elites were warriors who had not only mastered coating their bodies, but also extended their Internal Energy outward into their weapons. In doing so, they transcended mere physical combat, stepping into the realm of energy projection—something previously thought exclusive to Mages and Warlocks.

From this stage onward, however, traditional physical training was no longer enough. A warrior could not simply trick their body into absorbing more mana and producing more Internal Energy via just physical training.

Like Mages, who required both talent and enlightenment to advance into the rank of Great Mage, Warriors too needed innate talent and a spark of enlightenment to break through into the Veteran Rank.

Up to this point, Internal Energy could be visualised as a gaseous substance stored within the body's cells and circulated through the bloodstream to fuel energy-intensive feats.

This is why the stages from Trainee to Intermediate are collectively referred to as the Gas State.

But everything changes at the Elite rank…

A portion of the Internal Energy within a warrior's body eventually condenses into liquid form, fusing permanently with the individual's blood—transforming it into Life Liquid.

The cells continue to produce gaseous Internal Energy, which dissolves into the bloodstream. Over time, it condenses further, gradually increasing the proportion of Internal Energy within the liquid component of the blood.

However, this process soon encounters a roadblock. There is only so much liquid volume human blood can naturally contain.

The next step—the threshold of the Veteran Rank—is the complete replacement of the blood's liquid component with Internal Energy itself.

But this was easier said than done. Worse still, there was no universal method that worked for all warriors.

The path forward depended heavily on each individual's body. Every cultivator had to ponder, experiment, and find their own unique way to achieve this transformation. This process of self-discovery was the aforementioned required Enlightenment.

Even then, not all warriors succeeded equally. Some progressed more smoothly due to the unique adaptability of their bodies—what people often referred to as talent.

Once this metamorphosis is complete, when liquefied Internal Energy (Life Liquid) fully replaces blood, the individual begins to step beyond the realm of the superhuman. They become Veterans, true cultivators walking a path few mortals could even imagine.

Veterans possess near-perfect control over Internal Energy circulation in their bodies. The sheer quality and quantity of their Internal Energy allow them to maintain Aura Coating, Weapon Coating, and full-body reinforcement far longer than those below them.

In addition, they gain the ability to unleash ranged Internal Energy attacks, techniques resembling Mage spells in both scale and impact.

But beyond the Veteran Rank lies a greater pursuit—one glimpsed only upon after completing the substitution of blood into liquefied Internal energy. This was the threshold of the Realm of Laws.

At this stage, warriors could draw upon the energised state of their bodies as a bridge to resonate with the Laws of the world.

For instance, a warrior whose Internal Energy aligned with the Fire element could use their Energy Blood as a channel to touch upon the Laws of Fire.

Once this resonance was established, the warrior transcends superhuman and steps into a realm of power bestowed directly by the laws of the world themselves. Hence, those who reached this stage were called Saints, and their rank was known as Sainthood.

Saints advanced in two ways; by refining their Internal Energy Blood to higher density, and by deepening their comprehension of the Laws they had connected to.

However, their limitations remained. Saints did not comprehend true Laws. Instead, what they touched were Derived Laws—fragments or lesser reflections of the true concepts.

Only after mastering a Derived Law could a Saint even hope to comprehend a fragment of a Basic Law.

When a Saint's Internal Energy Blood reached its highest possible density, and they had comprehended one or more Derived Laws to a satisfactory depth, the path to the next metamorphosis opened before them.

This path was known as the Legendary Path.

The Legendary Path was not a simple breakthrough, but a metaphysical transformation.

By invoking their Derived Laws and fuelling the process with their Internal Energy Blood, a Saint initiates a complete metamorphosis—dissolving their physical body into pure energy, purifying it, and reconstructing themselves into a form that was neither wholly matter nor energy, but something in between.

Those who survived this ordeal and completed the transformation became known as Legends. Their rank was called the Legendary Realm.

In essence, Legends could no longer be considered part of their original race.

Every species, upon stepping into the Legendary Realm, shed its biological nature and was reborn as something beyond mortal classification.

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