Great Yao

Biodata

Power Progression

The Nine Great Yao Realms replace the earlier numbered levels with classifications based on divine abilities. The following requirements describe the orthodox path; alternative advancement methods are widespread 219 228.

• Historical addition: The Great Yao King realm did not exist thirty thousand years earlier. It emerged after Mythical Forms appeared, bridging the formerly immense leap from Yao King to Yao Emperor 233 236.

Advancement

Orthodox Foundation

• Complete Innate Transformation: The yao body must become fully innate. During Su Changsheng’s transformation, Demon Power and Qi and Blood decrease in quantity while becoming substantially higher in quality 211 212.
• Establish an origin: A Major Divine Ability bears the yao nature Dao fruit, allowing the cultivator to produce personal source power 211.
• Develop compatible divine abilities: Supporting abilities must work with the Origin Great Divine Ability. The basic requirement is three Minor Divine Abilities, but an exceptionally substantial foundation can demand more 219.
• Meet the body’s demands: Su Changsheng initially needs nine additional Minor Divine Abilities to support his unusually powerful body. Comprehending three Lesser Divine Abilities instead satisfies his interface’s ability requirement 219.
• Survive the breakthrough: Insufficient divine-ability comprehension can prevent origin condensation and cause death during advancement. Numerous ninth-level and half-step Great Yao have fallen at this threshold 142 219.

Origin Great Divine Abilities

• Acquisition requirements: Comprehending an Origin Great Divine Ability amid Heaven and Earth Creation requires a body that has exceeded its physiological limits, pure yao nature, deep foundations, immense physical strength, and supporting divine-ability-level powers 210.
• Early acquisition: Su Changsheng obtains Heaven and Earth Manifestation upon entering the ninth level, gaining a foundation for Great Yao advancement before completing Innate Transformation 210 211.
• Potential: Beings who genuinely comprehend Major Divine Abilities are generally stronger than those using substitute foundations and possess the potential to become Great Yao Kings 228.

Alternative Paths

Despite being called unorthodox, methods that bypass the strict divine-ability requirements are mainstream in the Kun Internal World 228.

Abilities & Characteristics

Origin Power and Divine Abilities

• Personal source: Producing origin power distinguishes genuine advancement from merely possessing comparable combat strength 211.
• Combat emphasis: Great Yao commonly fight through divine abilities. The bird-bodied Great Yao is astonished when the ninth-level Su Changsheng instead overwhelms him in close combat 222.
• No absolute invulnerability: Before advancing, Su Changsheng destroys a Great Yao’s defenses, divine-ability feathers, and Spirit Treasure, demonstrating that an exceptional lower-realm cultivator can overcome the rank difference 222.

Great Yao Spirit Treasures

• Construction: Great Yao forge these treasures from materials inscribed with their own origin power 222.
• Example: The bird-bodied Great Yao uses black-gold wings that expand to nearly one hundred meters and transform into a sword. Their support increases his divine ability’s strength nearly tenfold 222.

Yao Nature and Resistance

• Mental stability: Great Yao ordinarily possess pure yao nature and strong resolve, making corruption and control uncommon 225.
• Exceptions: Blood Grotto’s apparent control or recruitment of Great Yao within other grottoes is alarming precisely because it circumvents this resistance 225.

Thousand-Year Great Yao

• Lifespan title: “Thousand-year Great Yao” can mean a being whose lifespan exceeds one thousand years—not necessarily one that has already lived that long 211.
• Benefits: Crossing that lifespan threshold produces otherwise inconceivable powers and is one reason such beings can exceed ordinary Great Yao 211.
• Documented example: Su Changsheng raises his lifespan from 999 to 1,002 years while already a Great Yao King 242.

Notable Bearers and Disputed Titles

The Three Great Yao of Black Mountain

The stockade’s public titles do not consistently indicate genuine cultivation realms:

• Comparable strength is insufficient: White Madam and Zhou Hu King possess power comparable to Great Yao without true advancement. Su Changsheng speculates that a missing Major Divine Ability may explain their condition 211.
• White Madam’s limit: After she destroys Green Mountain Yao King’s projection but dies herself, Nine Fox King laments that she remained one step short of Great Yao 183.
• Later revelation: The stockade’s Three Great Yao Kings were split from three Great Yao of the Twenty-Eight Yao Grottoes who cultivated One Qi Transforms into Three Purities 342.

Social and Story Role

Rulers and Protectors

In Black Mountain Demon Stockade, Great Yao function as both supreme authorities and protectors. After White Madam and Zhou Hu King destroy the Frontier Reclamation Camp, unrest subsides and residents erect longevity tablets for them. Their prestige begins to rival that of the long-absent Black Mountain Yao King 81.

That protection does not exclude exploitation. Su Changsheng suspects their reclamation operations are deliberately sacrificing Half-Demons, while earlier unrest and refugee movements appear connected to struggles among the stockade’s three rulers 45 81 85.

Symbols of an Unreachable Realm

To low-ranking yao, Great Yao are legendary beings said to pluck stars, chase celestial bodies, and cross enormous distances in a day. These are explicitly tales and rumors, not measurements of every Great Yao’s abilities 23.

Su Changsheng initially regards the realm as a route out of helplessness. After leaving the stockade and encountering the remains of vastly greater beings, he recognizes that Great Yao are not the endpoint of cultivation 23 212.

Changing Rarity

• Before widespread shortcuts: Great Yao are rare enough that several gathering at one site astonishes ordinary yao 214.
• Uneven faction strength: Human Grotto has roughly ten Great Yao, while Blood Grotto possesses several dozen, supported by its alternative Blood River foundation 228.
• After Heaven’s Rift: Contaminated advancement opportunities make the realm far more accessible, prompting Horse-Face to remark that Great Yao have become commonplace 250.
• Faction building: Even when individually unimpressive beside Yao Emperors, Great Yao remain the foundation of major factions and an indicator of their growth 267.