Grandmaster

Biodata

Position in the Martial Path

Advancement and Cultivation

A martial artist must first forge a Golden Body to advance from the Innate Realm into the Grandmaster Realm. Ordinary cultivators may spend three to five years condensing it, while others never overcome the bottleneck 243.

• Golden Body — The central requirement for advancement; it transforms alongside the cultivator's true qi upon a successful breakthrough 243 268.
• Gang Qi — Grandmaster-level power manifested after advancement. Yang Qingyun's breakthrough released Gang Qi strongly enough to create a shockwave and carve a deep gully 269.
• Soul and world resonance — Yang Qingyun's advancement involved his soul reflecting the world and merging with the world's vital energy 268.
• Nine Forging Golden Body — A body-refining martial skill that imitates a Grandmaster's Golden Body and can improve the odds of a successful breakthrough, though it demands an exceptionally strong foundation 196 243.

Comprehension of Martial Path Will is considered a sign of Grandmaster potential; Yang Qingyun understood that practitioners who attain such will have an eighty- to ninety-percent chance of eventually reaching the realm if no major accident occurs 40.

Power and Combat Profile

Realm-scale Destructive Power

A clash between Grandmasters can devastate an entire city district. Bai Hongyu and Wei An's battle destroyed the Imperial City's palace halls, spread shockwaves for miles, and made even the surrounding army unable to approach 229.

• Innate Realm martial artists are generally regarded as incapable of surviving a Grandmaster's direct power or even their battle aftermath 229 233.
• Tens of thousands of troops were unable to intervene in the Imperial City battle due to the danger of the shockwaves 229.
• Grandmaster-level combat can alter celestial phenomena, collapse structures, shatter rock, and leave widespread destruction in its wake 229.

Exceptional Cases

Yang Qingyun, while still at the late Innate Realm, fought Grandmaster Wei An for more than a hundred exchanges through his Nine Forging Golden Body and exceptional foundation 232 233. Yang later judged that Wei An's realm was abnormal: his true qi was scattered and insufficiently refined, suggesting that his Grandmaster breakthrough had been artificially stimulated 235.

Grandmaster-Level Inheritances

• Beichen Lie's inheritance — The Blade Path Grandmaster's tomb contained the Blood River Butcher Saber, a Grandmaster martial skill divided into the Innate-level Blood River Saber and Butcher Saber. Mastering both and comprehending its will allows their fusion into the true technique 85 152.
• Thunder Undying Slash — A Grandmaster-level saber skill whose core is an “undying” sharpness forged through repeated tempering. Yang Qingyun made it his strongest killing move after integrating it with his Blade Path Will 251 252.
• Sect inheritances — Grandmaster-level cultivation techniques are difficult for rogue cultivators to obtain. They commonly require purchasing access from sects or discovering a Grandmaster's ruins, whereas inner sect disciples may receive stronger inheritances through their sects 154.
• White Feather Sect — Its strongest historical martial artist was only a Grandmaster, and its cultivation-technique inheritance ended at the Grandmaster level 154.

Known Grandmasters