The Nine Provinces World was hardly home to humans alone. Intelligent beings of every sort abounded, and even lifeless things could become Monsters after absorbing spiritual energy.
For a time, humans classified Monsters—creatures that fit no known order, family, genus, or species—as "Lesser Monsters," "Greater Monsters," "Demon Kings," and "Demon Gods." Age and species did not matter; only strength did.
Monsters had plenty to say about that system. Even the strongest humans were not called kings or gods, so why should powerful Monsters be?
Gradually, people stopped using those classifications so much, but the thinking behind them persisted.
Just as humans had levels such as Houtian, Innate, True Person, Grandmaster, and Immortals and Buddhas, Monsters had three: Lesser Monster, Greater Monster, and Demon God.
Of those three, only Demon God had a clear standard: achieve Longevity, and you were a Demon God. The other two had few firm criteria.
But there was no question that a Monster with great strength or a long lifespan counted as a Greater Monster.
Monsters also often claimed mountains as their domains and ruled the creatures around them. Generally, one needed strength comparable to the True Person Realm to manage that.
So people often treated the True Person Realm as the dividing line. Below it were Lesser Monsters or ordinary Monsters; above it were Greater Monsters or Demon Kings.
A Greater Monster that had both the righteous and the underworld factions of Yang Province flocking to pick up a bargain naturally would not be a Grandmaster-level powerhouse. But it would not be at the ordinary Innate Realm either. Its strength was probably somewhere between Innate Peak and a newly attained True Person Realm.
If it were weaker, experts would not bother. If it were stronger, ordinary Innate cultivators would be walking to their deaths.
Pan