About The Great Ruler (Including Realm Correspondences)

First, a clarification: in The Great Ruler arc, Mu Zi's realm would not be suppressed, and Lin Dong's realm would not surpass Mu Zi's either. (Nor would Lin Dong's realm be suppressed.)

The realm correspondences used in this book were as follows:

Wheel-Turning Stage, Reincarnation Stage—Sovereign Realm (First to Ninth Grade)

Half Ancestor, Ancestor Realm—Earthly Sovereign (Lower, Upper, Perfected, Half-Step Heavenly Sovereign)

Above the Ancestor Realm—Heavenly Sovereign

A special note: Dou Di = Half Ancestor + Ancestor Realm. A newly advanced Dou Di (Hun Tiandi at the end of Battle Through the Heavens) was equivalent to Half Ancestor Ying Huanhuan. Ancient Dou Di were stronger than Hun Tiandi, while Xiao Yan had already reached at least the peak of the Dou Di realm by the time of his Ascension to the Great Thousand.

In the author's understanding, the Half Ancestor of Martial Universe was a genuine realm. Half Ancestor Ying Huanhuan's strength in the original work was as different from the Reincarnation Stage as heaven and earth.

When the Ancient Six Lords used the Symbol Ancestor's contingency measures and fought desperately at the cost of their lives, they still could not withstand the Otherworldly Demon Emperor's cross-realm attack. Yet Half Ancestor Ying Huanhuan could temporarily repel him, showing the Huge Gap between her and the Reincarnation Stage.

In contrast, the Half Emperor of Battle Through the Heavens was more like an honorific title than a realm. (Personal interpretation—please don't flame me if you disagree.)

A Half Emperor was still within the Dou Sheng level and had not opened up a Huge Gap. Breaking through to Half Ancestor, however, required shattering the plane's restrictions. This was roughly similar to the Source Qi required for Dou Di, a qualitative transformation.

Therefore, Half Ancestor was placed in a separate category. The Dou Di realm corresponded to Half Ancestor + Ancestor Realm, with the Ancestor Realm equivalent to peak Dou Di. This way, Emperor Ancestor Realm was on the same level.

Emperor = Ancestor = Earthly Sovereign. This was the core setting adopted in this book.

Personally, I felt this was relatively reasonable.

For most Lower Planes, the Sovereign Realm (Reincarnation Stage) was the peak, allowing one to undergo Ascension to the Great Thousand. But certain special Lower Planes, such as the Douqi Continent and Tianxuan Continent, had ascenders at the Earthly Sovereign level.

As could be seen, even Reincarnation Realm Peak experts—the Ancient Eight Lords and King Hall—were only Ninth Grade Sovereigns, while the Otherworldly Demon Emperor was a Half-Step Heavenly Sovereign. A whole major realm lay between them.

Therefore, Mu Zi's upcoming efforts were very meaningful. A Reincarnation Stage cultivator fighting the Otherworldly Demon Emperor simply did not hold up under this setting.

As for why I did not adopt the scheme of Reincarnation Stage = Earthly Sovereign—

Even in the Great Thousand World, Earthly Sovereigns were major figures, relatively speaking. There were quite a few Reincarnation Stage experts on the Tianxuan Continent. If Reincarnation Stage = Earthly Sovereign, the strength of Lower Planes would become inflated. (Even the White Dragon Plane did not have many Earthly Sovereigns.) It also would not convey the sense of oppression the Extraterritorial Evil Clan exerted on Lower Planes.

This setting was the solution the author arrived at after considering the trilogy as a whole and trying to minimize plot holes. (I will not go into the specifics.)

But this created a problem: Lin Dong would be crossing an entire major realm when breaking through from the Reincarnation Stage to the Ancestor Realm, which was a little absurd.

The reason I previously said I would suppress Mu Zi's realm was also because of this. If he broke through and directly crossed an entire major realm, would Lin Dong not surpass her?

But I had figured it out now. Mu Zi's realm would not be suppressed.

In the previous plan, Mu Zi would wait until the time from the original work and undergo Ascension to the Great Thousand together with Lin Dong and the others, where they would meet Xiao Yan in the Plane Passage.

I really wanted to "recreate" one of the original work's famous scenes. I even forced things quite heavily just to make it happen.

But I had figured it out now. This book was not merely a work "for fans of the original"; it was also an independent story.

Forcing the restoration of famous scenes might give readers a poor reading experience. The author reflects on this!

In The Great Ruler arc, Mu Zi would be the absolute protagonist! No suppression of her realm—she would sweep through everything invincibly.

Problem solved, so the originally planned poll had been canceled. Just letting everyone know.

Something came up today, so I was taking the day off. The plot would start moving forward tomorrow.