Setting of the Immortal Ascension

Map of Tiannan

(After the invasion of the State of Yue and other neighboring states by the Six Demonic Sects of Tianluo (1), resulting in the restoration of the Demonic Dao Alliance's territorial control)

Season 1 Location: State of Yue, Tiannan
*Seven Sects Alliance of Yue*
Yellow Maple Valley (黄枫谷) Han Li starts his cultivation journey as a Qi Condensation disciple and breaks through to Foundation Establisment here. His master Li Huayuan is a Core Formation Elder. Specializes in arrays and pill refining. Retreated to the Nine Nations Alliance.
Masked Moon Sect (掩月宗) The strongest of the seven sects. Originally branched off from the Joint Pleasure Sect of Tianluo. Nangong Wan is a Core Formation Elder. Specializes in dual cultivation techniques. Retreated to the Nine Nations Alliance.
Spirit Beast Mountain (灵兽山) The 2nd strongest of the seven sects. Originally branched off from the Spirit Controlling Sect of Tianluo. Specializes in spirit beast controlling techniques. Betrayed the Seven Sects Alliance and rejoined the Spirit Controlling Sect.
Clear Void Sect (清虚门) Fuyun Zi, Li Huayuan's buddy, is a Core Formation Elder. Specializes in taoist priest techniques, and they all seem to be fond of gambling. Retreated to the Nine Nations Alliance.
Giant Sword Sect (巨剑门) ... Retreated to the Nine Nations Alliance.
Heavenly Gate Fort (天阙堡) ... Novel: Retreated to the Nine Nations Alliance. CDrama/Donghua: Betrayed the Seven Sects Alliance and defected to the Six Demonic Sects.
Bladification Dock (化刀坞) ... Retreated to the Nine Nations Allliance.

*Six Demonic Sects of Tianluo (Demonic Dao Alliance)*
Ghost Spirit Sect (鬼灵门) The weakest of the six sects. Wang Chan is the young master. Specializes in evil spirit and ghostly techniques.
Joint Pleasure Sect (合欢宗) The strongest of the six sects with one of the three great cultivators of Tiannan (2). Old Demon Yunlu is a Nascent Soul ancestor. Specializes in dual cultivation techniques.
Demonic Flame Sect (魔焰门) Specializes in demonic flame techniques.
Spirit Controlling Sect (御灵宗) Specializes in spirit beast controlling techniques.	Won't be showing up until much later
Heavenly Fiend Sect (天煞宗) Specializes in evil aura techniques.	Won't be showing up until much later
Thousand Illusions Sect (千幻宗) Specializes in illusion techniques.	Won't be showing up until much later

Season 2 Location: Scattered Star Seas (...)

The Scattered Star Seas is very distant continent where Han Li teleported to using the ancient teleportation array. It's an accumulation of many islands where human and beast cultivators "co-exist". It would take many years flying as a Nascent Soul to get there from Tiannan.

...

1) Every major sect has one or more Nascent Soul cultivators overseeing them, which is the case for both sides. However if they were to participate in this war, the Seven Sects Alliance would still have been heavily outmatched by the Demonic Dao Alliance, when it comes to the numbers and strength of these Nascent Soul cultivators.
2) The Three Great Cultivators of Tiannan are the only three cultivators in Tiannan at the Late Stage of Nascent Soul. These are, Wei Wuya of the Nine Nations Alliance, Venerable Master Zhiyang of the Righteous Dao Alliance, and Old Demon Hehuan of the Demonic Dao Alliance.

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Rules of Body Possession

Cultivators cannot take over the bodies of mortals, otherwise the body will collapse on its own because it cannot withstand the possession.
Only when a person with higher cultivation takes over the body of a person with a lower cultivation can they succeed and avoid being retaliated by the other party, and the greater the cultivation gap, the safer it is.
Cultivators can only possess another person's body once in their lifetime, no matter how powerful they are. If they try it a second time, their soul will cease to exist. Exceptions are cultivators cultivating the ghost dao, and cultivators using their nascent soul.

Spiritual Roots

Spiritual roots come in five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. It enables a person to cultivate by absorbing the spiritual qi (灵气) (1) of heaven and earth in the respective element. Fewer spiritual roots means fewer types of spiritual qi needed to absorb, resulting in a faster cultivation speed.

Type	Amount	Description
Heavenly (天)	1	One element. The cultivation speed is several times that of ordinary spiritual roots, and there are no bottlenecks when forming a golden core. These are uncommon and therefore sought after by sects.
True (真)	2-3	Two to three elements. The average cultivator.
False (伪)	4-5	Four to five elements. Extremely hard and slow cultivation, as it requires a huge amount of resources. But beneficial beyond the mortal realm.
Mutated (变异)	1	A combination of two or three of the five elements. The cultivation speed rivals that of the Heavenly Spiritual Roots, but there are still bottlenecks when forming a golden core. These are however less uncommon than Heavenly Spiritual Roots.

Cultivation (Mortal Realm)

The realm of cultivators is divided into five realms. Each higher realm leads to a more condensed spiritual energy (灵力), stronger magic power (法力), a stronger soul (元神) and a stronger spiritual consciousness (神识) (2). Except for Qi Condensation, which has 13 Layers, each realm is divided into Early, Middle, Late Stage. There are also more specific terms within these realms and stages, such as Peak, Great Perfection and Half-step. Peak is at the pinnacle of a stage. Great Perfection is at the pinnacle of a realm. Half-step is one step away from breaking through to the next realm.
The gap between each stage, let alone each realm, is huge especially in higher realms. It's near impossible to defeat someone with a higher cultivation level, but not entirely impossible within the same realm (3).

Realm	Lifespan	Description
Qi Condensation (炼气)	~100	Practitioners can use the spiritual roots to absorb and circulate spiritual qi, and accumulate and condense the gaseous spiritual qi in the Dantian (4). Also purifying the body and opening the meridians to form a sea of consciousness to grow the spiritual consciousness in the process. Cannot completely be called cultivators yet as the mortal body still requires food to function, and mostly reliant on martial arts, magic instruments (5), basic spells and talismans. To break through to Foundation Establishment, the spiritual qi fills the Dantian and is condensed to a liquid. Foundation Establishment Pills greatly improves the ease of this process, thus greatly increasing the chance of success.
Foundation Establishment (筑基)	~200	Cultivators can start learning more advanced spells and techniques and they have a heightened spiritual consciousness. The innate true fire coming with this cultivation can be used to refine pills and magic instruments. To break through to Core Formation, the liquid spiritual qi in the Dantian is condensed and formed into a solid golden core.
Core Formation (结丹)	~500	Cultivators can use the alchemy fire from the golden core to refine magic treasures and their own natal magic treasures (6), which is connected to the soul and grows in strength along with their cultivation level. Magic instruments are no longer needed for flight. The golden core can also be forcefully detonated when death is imminent as a last ditch effort to try to bring people in the vicinity down together. To break through to Nascent Soul, the golden core is forcefully broken and the soul is further refined, manifesting into the form of an infant, a nascent soul. Also a heart demon tribulation must be passed. If one fails and miraculously survives from the backlash, the odds of another try is near zero, as one has to restart from zero with their certainly low remaining lifespan and severely damaged foundation.
Nascent Soul (元婴)	~1000	Cultivators can have their nascent soul separate from their body. This can be used to survive if their body gets destroyed. They can possess another body, however every possession will weaken the nascent soul. To break through to Soul Transformation, a profound comprehension of heaven and earth is required. The nascent soul directly interacts with the spiritual qi of heaven and earth and is in harmony with the five elements.
Soul Transformation (化神)	~2000	The highest realm attainable in the mortal realm, which is needed to ascend to the spirit realm. Cultivators in this realm have the nascent soul harmonized with the spiritual qi of heaven and earth and the five elements, achieving an indestructable body. They generally refrain from taking action, as the spiritual qi in the mortal realm is too scarce and drawing upon it will consume their own lifespan.

1) Spiritual qi (灵气) is energy that exists in the world that gets distributed via spiritual veins where it's also the most concentrated, this is often the location sects are built upon.
2) Spiritual energy (灵力), is the spiritual qi absorbed, accumulated and converted inside the body into true essence (真元), which in turn can be used by the cultivator. Magic power (法力) is the output ability of the cultivator's spiritual energy. The soul (元神) is what gets cultivated to come closer to heaven and earth to transcend beyond the mortal body. The spiritual consciousness (神识) is used to sense the surrounding area and people, and to control magic instruments/treasures, puppets and spirit beasts.
3) Combat power = Cultivation level + Cultivation techniques + Items (eg. magic weapons, spirit beasts, elixirs) + Spiritual consciousness
4) The Dantian (丹田), or sea of qi, is where the spiritual qi gets accumulated and condensed.
5) Magic instruments (法器) are usually used by Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment cultivators, due to the low barrier of refining and use.
6) Magic treasures (法宝) are usually used by Core Formation cultivators and higher. The difference between magic instruments and treasures is in the materials, difficulty and cultivation used to refine it, the cultivation required to fully make use of it, and its strength. Natal magic treasures (本命法宝) have the ability to grow in strength along with cultivation level and with the time nurturing them.

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Han Li's Items & Skills

Items

Small Green Bottle (掌天瓶), unfairly increases the growth speed of spirit plants by over 9000 times. Additionally acts as a pesticide. Heaven defying cheat, obtained by sheer luck. Luck might as well be Han Li's second name.

Skills

Sifting Smoke Step (罗烟步), a top-tier mortal qinggong technique. Mastered during his time at the Seven Mysteries Sect.
Azure Essence Sword Technique (青元剑诀), consisting of thirteen levels (1). A common incomplete sword technique under Yellow Maple Valley disciples. Obtained the complete technique by combining the golden and silver page from Feng Yue and Li Huayuan.
- Threefold Essence Reversal Technique (三转重元功), a supplementary technique. After reaching the sixth level of the Azure Essence Sword Technique, which requires the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment, the true essence, or simply the cultivation, has to be dispersed and re-cultivated. This should be done three times, and results in a more compressed true essence and enhanced magic power. It also increases the chance of forming a golden core by more than half.
Great Amplifying Technique (大衍诀), consisting of seven levels. It greatly amplifies the spiritual consciousness. Obtained from the traitor Martial Uncle Ye, who is also from the Thousand Bamboo Sect in the Extreme West.
Dark Yin Technique (玄阴诀), contains varied demonic techniques and originates from the Scattered Star Seas. Obtained a simplified version, which includes some of the techniques, from the Black Fiend Sect in the Imperial Capital of Yue.

1) Technique levels and cultivation levels aren't synonymous. Higher levels gives access to more advanced and stronger skills. Forcing oneself to cultivate a higher level technique before reaching a certain level of cultivation can lead to a reversal of one's true essence and disrupted meridians.

Resources
*Donghua*	Bilibili	Youtube
Wiki	Baidu

Anthony Tumiwa

9 days ago

CMIIW, in the Donghua episode 50s, it's mentioned that Han Li goes to Yuanwu State. Where is this nation located?

Liang Yun

9 days ago

Anthony Tumiwa:
CMIIW, in the Donghua episode 50s, it's mentioned that Han Li goes to Yuanwu State. Where is this nation located?

Yuanwu borders Yue to the north, Cheqi borders Yue to the east. (Yue is changed to Xu in the donghua)

CdramaMaven4762

8 days ago

Thanks.

Anthony Tumiwa

7 days ago

How far is it from Tiannan to Great Jin? I see Mulan Grassland on the map, but I don't know how vast it is? can Tiannan people fly there without using teleport array?

Liang Yun

7 days ago

Anthony Tumiwa:
How far is it from Tiannan to Great Jin? I see Mulan Grassland on the map, but I don't know how vast it is? can Tiannan people fly there without using teleport array?

Not that far, takes several months flying from Tiannan through the Grasslands to the border of Great Jin as a Nascent Soul as it's still the mainland. Each Grassland is like the same size as Tiannan, and Great Jin is like 10 times the size of Tiannan. The Scattered Star Seas is just insanely far.