Planar cultivation has been the key to human civilization for over a million years, and the basic concepts are known almost universally by those with proximity to larger settlements. There are small towns and villages that lack close contact with cultivators, and do not possess knowledge of the common ways of cultivation, but those places are incredibly rare.

There are nine realms to planar cultivation, though only the first seven are seen in modern day. Each one boosts the strength of one's planar energy, one's maximum lifespan, and from the second realm onwards, the range at which spiritual perception can be released. The specific numbers shall be omitted for the sake of brevity. In short, the nine realms are:

1) Energy Condensation. This step marks the beginning of cultivation, and is attained with the first particle of energy absorbed by a cultivator. Generally, this is done by using the dantian's sense of energy and then following a basic absorption technique, but can be aided with arrays, pills, and a senior cultivator guiding energy to a beginner.

At this stage, a cultivator is unable to externalise their energy, and is limited to circulating it throughout their meridians, empowering their physical form. This boost is typically small, with each stage only granting a 10% increase in strength, up to double one's original strength at the peak. Of course, exceptions do exist.

2) Planar Pool. This realm is achieved by condensing the cloud of energy within one's planar aperture, or the dantian, into liquid form. This greatly boosts its strength and stability, permitting it to be used outside the body, albeit in gaseous form. It can only be controlled and consistently stabilised within a metre of the user. Beyond that, it will dissipate rapidly if left as a simple gas, but can be maintained for longer if composed into a planar construct.

Planar constructs are the key to most fights involving cultivators, and are the core of their skillset from the second realm all the way to the ninth. They can take many forms and have many effects, so listing them here would be impossible.

3) Emergent Anchor. This step marks the transformation of energy from liquid to solid - gas to liquid if used outside of the body - and the condensation of a planar anchor. The anchor is key to cultivation from this realm onwards, and the destruction of the anchor will promptly throw one back to the second realm.

The planar anchor exists within the dantian and has three sides, though it can have a somewhat irregular shape that makes each side ambiguous. It can be placed outside to double the strength of one's energy, but it also makes the anchor vulnerable to attack.

4) Active Core. Building upon the anchor, the fourth realm is reached with the manifestation of a core to surround the planar pool and anchor. The core permits external energy to exist in solid form, maximising its strength, and also protects a cultivator from having their dantian damaged while the core resides within the body, therefore preventing their cultivation from being destroyed with a single well-placed stab.

The core can be externalised around the anchor, or around the cultivator, but the biggest benefit is that it allows the creation of semi-permanent arrays made up of pure planar energy. This greatly boosts the power of all planar constructs used, and lets them exist for longer and be more stable in battle.

5) Marked Core. A realm which confuses a number of cultivators, Marked Core's nine stages involve the carving of searing marks upon the core. The confusion is derived from the belief that intentionally damaging the core will permit more marks to be made, and thus produce a better result, but most scholars and high-realm cultivators advise against such practises.

Searing marks appear every stage, with the limit being 99 searing marks. However, most will only attain between 20 and 40 marks, with 10 and 50 being rare exceptions. Few have ever neared the limit. Each mark can be expended to double the power of an attack, though the number is not limited. In other words, as many as 99 marks can be used at once to produce an utterly devastating planar construct with unparalleled stability, but it can take as much as an hour for a single mark to recover. Thus, most will reserve the uses of their marks for when it is actually necessary.

6) Linked Channels. The highest realm that most cultivators hope to attain, the sixth realm joins the cultivator's searing marks with the anchor, allowing the empowering effect of the marks to apply to one's energy at all times, albeit by a smaller amount. Marks can still be detonated for the same boost as before.

The channels, much like the searing marks and planar anchor, are formed naturally as one progresses through realms. When creating planar constructs, faint mirages of the channels will be visible unless effort is taken to hide them.

7) Oblivion Halo. The peak of modern cultivation. On this step, a number of oblivion halos are created, with one halo per every ten marks. If one has 34 searing marks, they will attain 3 halos, which will be joined to the marks with the channels of the sixth realm, creating a connection between them and the anchor.

Every halo offers an enormous boost in strength, and greatly amplifies the stability of all energy, including spiritual perception. The benefit to mental energy is so vast that it is often referred to as divine sense instead of spiritual will or perception, as it is sturdy enough to physically collide with objects. That being said, it is worthless as a weapon, but can penetrate the majority of spiritual perception-blocking obstacles in the world.

From here on, the realms are not understood by the common people, but because I (the author) am too lazy to update this after they are properly revealed in the story, I'll include them anyway, albeit being a spoiler:

There is such a thing as perfected stages, known to many but barely understood by most. A perfected stage requires reaching the peak of any single stage and advancing only then, resulting in a doubled breakthrough and the effect of having an additional stage in that realm. For instance, attaining a perfected stage in the first realm will provide an additional boost of 10% by the peak of the realm, allowing one to stand out against one's peer.

Perfected stages are sought after in the Ze District in particular, with cultivation techniques being developed for the sole reason of allowing as many perfected stages to be attained as possible, but few manage more than one or two per realm. There are rumours that attaining a perfected stage for each ordinary one will produce something like a perfected realm, with potentially miraculous effects, but it is not confirmed in any historical records available for the common men and women of the world.

When breaking through to a higher realm, a cultivator will gain an increase to their lifespan, allowing them to live longer, but not revitalising their body to adjust.

The first realm is thus sought after by everyone, even if they have the worst possible cultivation talent, as it ensures they have sufficient lifespan to live up to a 100 years. From there, the second realm boosts that to 150 years. The third increases lifespan to 300 years. The fourth, Active Core, increases that number to 600 years. Then, the fifth boosts it further to 1,800 years. The sixth increases it to 6,400 years. The seventh, the realm of Patriarchs in Yi City, the leaders of districts, brings it up to 51,200 years. In the eighth realm, that number rises to 204,800 years. Finally, the ninth realms grants one up to a massive 1,638,400 years of age.

Due to that vast number, some believe that the Master of Yi City, who is believed to have reached the ninth realm at a rather young age for a cultivator - at anywhere between 30 and 3,000 years of age - might still be alive in the modern day, provided that this mythical figure did not perish from other means.

It is important to note that lifespan does not guarantee survival up to that age. It is possible to die from any number of causes before then, and lifespan can be lost via various means and techniques meant to boost one's strength or talent at a great cost. Therefore, most will not actually live to their absolute limit, and dying of old age is therefore seen as a rare thing that is to be celebrated in the case of a hero, and cursed in the case of a villain.

Though the people of the Planar Continents pursue many interests and many arts and crafts, none can match the sheer power and potential of the great arts. In total, there are five, and each is commonly associated with one of the five elements.

Talismans are, for the most part, quick and transient, yet potent in the few moments of their effect. Hence, they are associated with the element of fire. Arrays affect the flow of planar energy within the air, guiding it in streams to achieve particular effects, so it is most often used by cultivators practising a water-type technique. Inscriptions are similar, but they employ channels carved into plates or stone, and so earth-type cultivation will generally provide the greatest benefit. Blacksmithing is primary an art of working with metal, hence encouraging metal-type cultivation. Alchemy, most renowned for the aspect of pill refining, is dedicated to employing herbs and natural materials to produce amazing effects, and so it is used by wood-type cultivators.

Naturally, there are exceptions, and techniques that use other elements to achieve similar or even greater effects. For instance, the Eastern Continent's Blooming Orchid Sect is famous for their Metallic Bloom method, a blacksmithing technique that uses the element of wood to create orchid-like shields from wood and plants.

As the products of the great arts are often usable by those other than the great art master, they are often sold for great prices. In order to judge the worth of these finished products, the materials used to make them, and the techniques employed in the process, multiple systems were invented, but the most famous and simple is the star rating method.

Each star is matched with the realm of the same number - one star methods, materials and products will match the first realm, Energy Condensation. Seven star methods, materials and products will be at the level of the Oblivion Halo realm, the seventh realm of planar cultivation.

Generally, this is simple enough, but it can get a little more complicated when materials of fewer stars are used to produce an item of more stars, or when a one star array overcomes a four star one. The reason for this is that the star rating does not directly represent the cultivation realm of an item, but instead the effectiveness of it, or how much of potential it was able to extract from the materials.

For example, one star materials can be used to refine a one star recipe, but produce a five star pill. This will mean that it has extracted around 50% of the potential effectiveness of a material, but when compared to a five star recipe that uses five star materials and extracts the same 50% of potential from them, the pill will still be inferior. Needless to say, whenever auctions or trades with the products of the great arts are done, an expert will generally be made to appear before the buyers, as to help validate the ratings of each item.

Blacksmithing also uses a different system, dividing products into low, medium and high grades. A low-grade item is rated as being somewhere between the first and third realms in terms of quality and effect, as well as the materials used. A medium-grade item is in or between the fourth and sixth realms, generally with superior artefact channels, more effects, and better materials. The same can be said for high-grade items, which are between the seventh and ninth realm.

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For further reading, pleasure consult my, Xue Yaling's, description of the rapid development of the great arts after the incidents starting from 982,854, and the great upheaval involving a certain Demonic Tyrant, or my analysis of Hai Rushu's unique blacksmithing methods. If my agreement with a certain sect doesn't fall through, these ought to be available in any half-way decent library near the Dragon's Fangs.

An array is the most passive of the five main products of the five great arts. It can function entirely independently, without intervention from intelligent beings, and if produced well and not damaged, an array can endure for millions of years.

The most basic type of array is called an imitation array, because all it accomplishes is the passive guidance of planar energy. Using some rocks arranged in a particular manner, one can effectively suggest a route for energy to flow along, and if this matches the shape of a proper array, then some effects can be reproduced. It isn't difficult to create an imitation array, at least in theory, but to do so in a single try requires a good sense for planar energy and how to use it.

Water-type cultivation, and techniques derived from the element, help aid the passive sense granted by one's dantian, and permit masters in higher realms to lay out arrays in moments, as if doing so entirely instinctively.

Anyone can theoretically create an imitation array, and nature can also produce them on occasion, but true arrays, from the first star onwards, require specific conductive materials and/or the assistance of a cultivator with an external spiritual perception to activate the array. The structure of a one star array can be nearly identical to an imitation, but the effects will differ immensely, easily being many times superior.

Although array arrangement does not have a specific instrument associated with it, such as the pill refining cauldron, talisman brush, blacksmithing hammer or inscription blade, there are artefacts that can assist in guiding a cultivator in producing an effective array. Various compasses and maps imbued with the principles of array arrangement methods can allow inexperienced cultivators to imitate a master, though these items are rare, as they are often more expensive than simply inviting a proper array master to create an array.

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For further reading, I would recommend my, Xue Yaling's, discussion of the Heart of Dao, and the abnormal methods of the Terror archetype, which achieve effects not dissimilar to arrays, at least in principle. In practise... it is not an experience I would wish upon most.

The Planar Continents are the main setting of Path of the Ascendant. They have over a million years of recorded history, though most of it is vague, including the most significant event to occur within those years - the founding of Yi City.

There are two continents in total, named the Western Continent and the Eastern Continent. They have similar climates, with extreme heat at the north and extreme cold in the south, and both lack the concept of seasons that may be observed in our world. Therefore, the south is always filled with snow, the central regions are green and temperate, and the north is a blazing desert.

Those that reside in the Western Continent employ planar cultivation differently from their eastern fellows. Whereas the east relies on tribulations to advance through realms, with most cultivators being part of a sect that has powers and land akin to a nation, the west relies purely on a person's own ability, and any groups devoted to cultivation will generally be small and independent, or larger and part of a nation or district, if they are in Yi City.

The main spoken language is referred to simply as the Language of the Planar Continents, if it needs to be referenced by name in the first place. Certain ancient beasts, such as dragons or phoenixes, were believed to have their own tongues, but they vanished alongside those that would speak it.

Yi City is located in the Western Continent, once occupying more than half of its overall landmass. It was created and briefly ruled by the Master of Yi City, whose name and exact identity elude the people after a million years.

It is composed of a number of districts, each as large as a city or a small country, and are ruled by a particular family. There were once two types of districts, minor and major, and only the major now remain within the loose borders of Yi City. Each one is named after the ruling family, at the head of which is a Patriarch or Matriarch, typically at the seventh realm of cultivation.

Each district has certain specialties and talents that were fostered either as the result of the Master of Yi City's planning, or the decisions of the ruling family. For instance, the Bai District is specialised in group techniques and martial arts, and even in the modern, splintered state of Yi City, a squad of the Bai family's soldiers would be recognised easily. One of the most famous is the Chen District, where trade and coin are the specialties of the ruling family, leading to all bearing the Chen name to be considered master merchants and financial experts.

Not much is known about this figure in the year 1,201,520, when the story begins. The general assumption is that the Master of Yi City was male, and that his surname was Yi.

The cultivation of the Master of Yi City is also not recorded with much specificity, and all that is known is that he was likely at the peak of planar energy cultivation: the ninth realm of Eternal Gate. It granted him nearly infinite energy, and enough power to devastate the Western Continent with a single strike if he so wished.

There were some that were considered to be his students, disciples, or otherwise close acquaintances, but even less is known about them. There are no names, no families, no images or descriptions of their appearances to be found in public records. All that is somewhat certain is that they would have been a realm below the Master of Yi City: in the eighth realm of Imperfect Rift.