Mortal World

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Mortal World
Original Name	人间
Alias(es)	Human World; Lower Realm in discussions of the Upper Realm 22 142
Type	A mortal realm within a larger macrocosm; countless mortal worlds exist 293 362
Principal World	Xuanzu Mortal World, containing Jianglong Continent and the Eastern and Western Human Worlds 268 368 394
Inhabitants	Humans, demons, dragons, and other races; both ordinary mortals and cultivators 95 268 307 319
Role	Fang Wang’s cultivation homeland and the center of his effort to establish immortality outside the Upper Realm’s control 284 387 430
First Appearance	Chapter 1, through Nanqiu City and the Fang family’s estate 1

Power Progression

These stages describe changes to the world’s cultivation conditions, rather than a personal cultivation realm.

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Suppression following Great Sage Xianglong’s fall	200 268	The affected eastern region loses fortune, and its spiritual energy is buried underground. Xianglong’s surviving followers flee west and erect barriers dividing the world.
Eastern–Western barriers begin dissipating	355	After the Ascension Steps conclude, Western cultivators and monsters increasingly enter the Eastern Human World.
Hunyuan Great Sage’s world-changing attainment	384 385 392	Golden lotuses enrich spiritual energy. Hunyuan’s subsequent self-sacrifice earns his sect exceptional fortune and widespread reverence.
Heavenly Dao First Origin appears	411	Fang Wang creates a path beyond Heaven and Earth Universe. A world-spanning golden rain strengthens living beings and brings flashes of enlightenment even to some in the netherworld.
Mortal-world immortal path revived	431 432	Fang Wang becomes a Heavenly Dao True Immortal. Golden lotuses produce Heavenly Dao Spiritual Energy, enabling others to pursue the same path.
Heavenly Dao renewal after rebirth	461 463	In Fang Wang’s reborn lifetime, his immediate attainment of Heavenly Dao Mysterious Immortal turns the sky golden. A month-long surge of vitality awakens beings and advances cultivation worldwide.
Great Contention Era arrives early	472	Fang Wang’s battle with the Supreme Saint releases buried spiritual energy and ancient opportunities, while the world’s fortune shields living beings from the battle outside the heavens.

Cosmology

Mortal Worlds and the Upper Realm

• The Mortal World is not a unique realm. Zhou Xue describes it as one of many worlds within a macrocosm; Fang Wang later travels through numerous mortal worlds 293 362.
• A mortal world can encompass an entire universe. Earth is only one part of its mortal world, whose land has been shattered into countless pieces 352.
• The Upper Realm is a separate world, not simply a distant region. Ordinary travel and observation across the divide are restricted; Zhou Xue could neither descend nor observe the Mortal World after ascending 22 200.
• Mortal worlds vary greatly in strength. Zhou Xue places Xuanzu among the top-tier worlds, although Fang Wang acknowledges that it is not the strongest 355 362.
• Some worlds are still forming. Fang Wang encounters a realm whose heaven and earth appear recently separated and which has no intelligent races yet 393.
• The region beyond the Upper Realm is described as forbidden. The Supreme Saint also senses higher realms beyond the Immortal World but cannot reach them 293 470.

Other Documented Worlds

World	Distinguishing facts
Qiyun Mortal World	Smaller than Xuanzu. Its inhabitants revere Great Sage Qiyun as the creator who opened heaven and earth 362 368.
Dahan Mortal World	Offers an ascension opportunity once every ten thousand years, historically allowing only one person to ascend. Contains the Other Shore of the Immortal Path 377 384.
Wuya Mortal World	Ye Xunhuan’s homeland and a base for True Person Kongdu’s activities 435.
Disheng World	Absorbed into Fang Wang’s spiritual image through the Common People State and Society Map 443.
Mystical Capital Mortal Realm	Contains Earth. Xuandu Great Sage prohibits immortal cultivation there, although Zhou Xue later acts to change its conditions 424 481.
Wuzhong Land	Formerly a prosperous mortal world, severed during the Immortal–Mortal War. Located between the Yin and Yang Realms and afflicted by accumulating karmic curses 343.

Connections to Other Realms

• Underworld / Yinjie: Fang Wang enters through an old well and suspects it connects the Human World to Yinjie. Its freely roaming souls differ from the trapped or vengeful dead encountered in the Human World 162.
• Wuzhong Land: Its ominous karma deters invasion even by Immortals and Gods, but prolonged residence eventually makes escape impossible 343.
• Carefree Heaven: Allows Fang Wang to cross mortal worlds in a single step. Earlier realm-crossing journeys are unguided, leaving him unable to find his homeland 343 362.
• Heavenly Gate: Enables the Immortal Court’s forces to descend during the ascension period. Its interior is a fortune-forged world with fewer rules than the Mortal World, but much stronger individual rules 325 447 453.
• Heavenly Dao Long Steps: Fang Wang eventually creates a direct path from mortal space into the Immortal Court 476.

Geography of the Xuanzu Mortal World

Eastern and Western Human Worlds

Region	Conditions before the barriers weaken
Eastern Human World / Eastern Mortal Realm	Weakened by the suppression associated with Great Sage Xianglong. Western inhabitants regard it as cursed and forbidden 268.
Western Human World / Western Mortal Realm	Generally stronger, with more high-realm cultivators. Eastern True Soul Realm cultivators must obtain permission to enter 268.
Dividing barriers	Established by Xianglong’s surviving subordinate forces after they sever their fortune and karma from him. Crossing requires at least True Soul Realm cultivation 268.

After the Ascension Steps, the barriers begin disappearing and the two regions move toward merger. Western cultivators initially enjoy an advantage; by Fang Wang’s return, the West also has substantially more Heaven and Earth Universe experts 307 355 394.

Notable Locations

• Jianglong Continent — Contains Jian Tianze and Kunlun. Little Purple witnessed its living beings perish during the suppression of Great Sage Xianglong 274 368 473.
• Human Emperor Continent — Home to the Dayu Divine Dynasty and the major war fought over its survival 273 331.
• Kunlun — Fang Wang’s planned Dao field and Wang Dao’s great gathering site. Its completed mountain complex occupies nearly ten thousand miles, extending toward the Cang Sea and northern ice plains 407 430 473.
• Jian Tianze — A cultivation gathering place at Kunlun’s foot, with pavilions clustered around its lake 473.
• Ocean depths — Shelter powerful, secluded Demon Race clans and forbidden regions unknown even to many human cultivators. The Grand Nirvana Palace lies at a deep-sea inheritance site 307.
• Dihai — Becomes an emergence point for Underworld Grievous Souls after the Jiuyou Spring Eye reappears 439.

Cultivation and Society

Established Cultivation Hierarchy

Hong Xian’er gives the following order, from lowest to highest 268:

Order	Realm	Documented significance
1	Qi Cultivation	First realm in the stated hierarchy 268.
2	Spirit Molding	Follows Qi Cultivation 268.
3	Spirit Pill	Follows Spirit Molding 268.
4	Profound Heart	Follows Spirit Pill 268.
5	Spirit Concentration	Follows Profound Heart 268.
6	Crossing Void	Follows Spirit Concentration 268.
7	Golden Body	Follows Crossing Void 268.
8	Mahayana	Precedes Nirvana 268.
9	Nirvana	Sheds mortality, extends lifespan, and permits treasure-spirit reshaping 172.
10	Potian / Breaking Heaven	Precedes Divine Ability 268 331.
11	Divine Ability	Requires creating an original divine ability, not merely mastering inherited ones 331.
12	Tashiao	A top-tier mortal-world realm; lifespan reaches four thousand years 268.
13	True Soul	Lifespan of at least six thousand years. The body does not die while the true soul remains unextinguished 268.
14	Heaven and Earth Universe	The conventional mortal-world peak, with lifespan measured in tens of thousands of years 268.

• Great Sage, Great Emperor, Immortal, and God are ranks, rather than single cultivation levels 307.
• Ascension opportunities are limited. Their timing and available places vary between worlds 384 404.
• Heavenly Dao introduces another path. Its documented realms include First Origin, True Immortal, Mysterious Immortal, and Transcendence 411 431 443 469.

Mortal Life and Cultivator Influence

Ordinary mortals can remain unaware that cultivators direct their dynasties’ wars. Great Qi’s famous battlefield “meteor shower,” for example, was caused by Xuanhong Sword Sect dropping boulders from above the clouds 95.

Cultivation society is organized around sects, clans, dynasties, and competition for resources. Dugu Wenhun identifies the restriction of profound teachings to a few sects as a major obstacle to the world’s development; Fang Wang’s later scripture distribution directly challenges that exclusivity 31 190 385.

Background / History

Origins and Ancient Sects

According to legends recovered from older races’ ruins, Xuanzu emerged from darkness, opened the Mortal World from primordial chaos, and departed. This predates humanity and even the Supreme Saint 368.

Hongchen describes an early age without dynasties: races appeared first, followed by sects. The ancient Xuanyou Sect taught saintly arts and produced many Great Sages, but its growing arrogance brought calamities. It eventually vanished from the Mortal World and resurfaced in the Underworld, where its attempt to control reincarnation provoked a prolonged Immortal Court campaign 319.

Wars Against Immortals and Gods

Emperor Hongxuan attacked the Upper Realm in response to its covert schemes, beginning a war the Mortal World could not win. He saved Great Sage Suxuan from suppression and stripped away his sage position. Suxuan later nurtured three Great Sages, including Xianglong, but his successors died unnatural deaths 301.

After Hongxuan’s death, Immortals and Gods remaining in the Mortal World acted recklessly. The mysterious Absolute Emperor appeared for a few hundred years, exterminated divine aggressors, defeated the world’s supreme powers, and restored peace 424.

The Supreme Saint also sacrificed himself to protect the Mortal World. His protection continued to obstruct the Upper Realm, although he later admitted that his restraint had not prevented subsequent suffering 431 432.

Major Conflicts and Transformations

Upper Realm Suppression

• Heavenly statute: Powers capable of shaking the Upper Realm are forbidden to remain in mortal worlds. Those who refuse to ascend face extermination 372.
• Indirect intervention: Before divine descent becomes possible, the Doom Heavenly God attacks Dayu through mortal inheritors, causing plagues, inner demons, and other disasters 325.
• Competing Upper Realm powers: The Immortal Court’s rivalry with Shentai influences its treatment of mortal-world powers. Shentai also leaves agents in the Mortal World 457.
• External competitors: Cultivators from other mortal worlds invade Xuanzu to seize fortune; some join Celestial Soldiers in hopes of ascending 456.

Heavenly Dao and Access to Immortality

Fang Wang’s aim is to unite mortal-world Daoist arts and create methods that let ordinary people obtain immortal and divine power without submitting to Upper Realm rulers 284.

• Scripture distribution: His followers exchange the Heavenly Dao Boundless Scripture for supreme arts, spreading his teachings across multiple worlds 385 386.
• Golden lotuses: Produce Heavenly Dao Spiritual Energy and open a route toward Heavenly Dao True Immortal 432.
• Earlier rule comprehension: Heavenly Dao practitioners receive a karmic blessing that helps them perceive the Rules of Heaven and Earth sooner 432.
• Mutual dependence: Practitioners’ karmic luck becomes tied to Fang Wang. Their growth strengthens him, but his death would cause backlash 432.
• World-strengthening cultivation: Fang Wang states that the more Heavenly Dao True Immortals exist, the stronger heaven and earth become 435.

Heavenly Gate Crisis

When the Heavenly Gate opens, divine auras overwhelm mortal cultivators and defensive formations rise worldwide. Fang Wang confronts the invading vanguard before entering the Gate itself 447 453.

During his ten-year absence, Celestial Soldiers kill untold beings while purging heavy karmic debt. As the Gate begins failing, the World-Sweeping Divine Pillar receives orders for a purge that Hongchen estimates would kill at least half of all living beings. Wang Dao activates its strongest protective array, and Fang Wang emerges as the crisis reaches its peak 455 458.

Transcendence and the Immortal Court

After Fang Wang’s rebirth, his duel with the Supreme Saint takes place outside the Mortal World. Xuanzu’s fortune envelops heaven and earth, while the battle releases buried spiritual energy and ancient inheritances, accelerating the Great Contention Era 461 470 471 472.

Fang Wang later creates the Heavenly Dao Long Steps, tells Wang Dao’s leaders to remain behind, and breaches the Immortal Court. Its formations, palaces, and defenders cannot withstand his advance 476.