Stranger Danger

There were three levels in the Sage-stage. The first level was Ascension. To ascend was to transcend the mortal coil and set foot in the nine heavens. Naturally, one who ascended to the nine heavens was extraordinary.

To put it simply, all new Sages were at the Ascension level. They had just broken through their mortal limits and ascended. In Taoism, it was called Rising. In Buddhism, it was called Transcedence. In the Dark Ways, it was called Elevation. In Confucianism, it was called Sagehood. So on and so forth. They all meant the same thing.

In the Ascension level, a Sage primarily focused on comprehending the difference between a Sage and a mortal and solidifying their cultivation and mental state. They unified the three treasures—the physical body, the true qi, and the yang god—into one and attained perfection in all of them. This was to prevent them from losing control of their cultivation and falling back to the mortal coil.

The second level of the Sage-stage was called Abode. What did Abode mean? It meant using one’s martial cultivation, martial will, and martial understanding to create their unique Martial Domain. In Buddhism, they called it the Kingdom of Buddha or Pure Land. In Taoism, they called it Abode or World. In the Dark Ways, they called it the Bluefall or Yellow Spring. Again, they were all the same. This was how the name Abode came to be.

Inside one’s Martial Domain, a Sage was basically invincible. Only a Sage who had created a Martial Domain could be considered a true Sage. A flower could be a world, a leaf could be a Bodhi, and a thought could be the red dust. Flowers bloomed, flowers withered. Bonds were made, bonds were dead. Someone in their Martial Domain would find their power several times greater than what it was normally and grow capable of suppressing anything.

One could say that a Sage who had created a Martial Domain far exceeded one who had just reached Ascension. They could fight three, four, five, even six Ascension level Sages at once singlehandedly.

The third level of the Sage-stage was called Know The Way. Know The Way meant comprehending their own unique set of rules and Ways based on their Martial Domain and mastering the laws and principles of the Great Way. For example, action and inaction, yin and yang, the cycle of rebirth, time and space, the Five Phases and more were the most fundamental Ways and principles of the world. By creating and becoming one with one’s Way, the Sage would come to Know The Way.

Long story short, every level in the Sage-stage was an unscalable heaven. The power gap between each level was huge to say the least.

Power gap wasn’t the only gap between the cultivation levels, however. It also referred to the difficulty.

Normally, it took a decade or decades of comprehension and cultivation for an Ascended to become an Aboder. One must coordinate and perfect their martial arts and somehow integrate them all into one. Otherwise, they could not form their Art and Domain, create their Martial Domain, and reach the Abode level.