On Mount Shu, the work required for an ordinary person to become a Heavenly Immortal and ultimately achieve Ascension fell into two parts: internal cultivation and external cultivation.
Internal cultivation meant cultivating within oneself, using methods such as refining qi and spirit to attain perfection of both form and spirit.
Refining form through spirit caused one measure of yang qi to arise in the body; refining spirit through form caused one measure of yin qi to recede from the spirit. This was the method of internal cultivation, the practice of the Elixir Dao.
External cultivation meant cultivation outside oneself. Accumulating virtuous deeds and merit was not simply a matter of doing good deeds. More important was the tempering of one's heart and nature throughout that process. Only when the Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life was fully accomplished could one be considered complete.
Throughout this process, different schools and sects employed different methods, and the spiritual ranks they could ultimately attain differed as well.
Some people cultivated for thousands of years without practicing external cultivation. Their hearts and natures could not become perfectly harmonious, so their Primordial Spirits could not become pure yang, and their achievements stopped at Earth Immortal.
Earth Immortal was the Immortal Attainment that allowed one to live forever in the mortal world without dying.
Anyone who had not achieved Ascension but could live forever held the rank of Earth Immortal, including Li Jingxu.
Li Jingxu had merely completed all the cultivation required to sanctify his physical body. His Dao attainment and magical power were "equivalent to" those of a Golden Immortal, but he was not actually a Golden Immortal. He could only be called an "Earthly Golden Immortal."
The Three Immortals of the Eastern Sea had completed all the cultivation required of Heavenly Immortals, but their