Sage

Biodata

Power Progression

The stated cultivation hierarchy ends with Daluo Golden Immortal → Daluo Mystic Immortal → Quasi-Sage → Sage 5.

Attaining Sagehood

Dao Comprehension and Instruction

Understanding the Dao is central to advancement at the highest realms 37.

• Hongjun’s first sermon greatly strengthens its listeners; his six foremost disciples emerge only a small opportunity away from Sagehood 11.
• Mu Chen’s guidance helps Nuwa recognize her opportunity to attain the Dao and helps Houtu comprehend the establishment of reincarnation 14 15 23 24.
• Mu Chen chooses to study the Three Pure Ones’ teachings rather than force another Daluo breakthrough, reasoning that deeper Dao comprehension will better support eventual Quasi-Sage or Sage attainment 37.

Primordial Purple Qi

Primordial Purple Qi is described as a manifestation of the Great Dao and a treasure closely associated with Sagehood 8.

• During the period following Hongjun’s sermons, the narration identifies his six disciples who possess Primordial Purple Qi as the ones destined to attain Sagehood 14.
• Laozi offers Mu Chen a portion of Purple Qi that he has painstakingly nurtured, explicitly presenting it as assistance toward becoming a Sage 35.
• Mu Chen refuses opportunities to obtain it because of the danger of attracting covetous attention or becoming entangled in the Sages’ conflicts 8 35.

Merit

Merit can enable Sagehood or strengthen someone who has already attained it 21 24.

• Houtu’s reincarnation system completes a missing link in the Heavenly Dao, earning the boundless merit that raises her to Sage of Merit 24.
• Nuwa’s repair of the heavens increases her cultivation after she has already become a Sage 21.
• System rewards include merit for Mu Chen’s future Sagehood if he leads humanity against the Witch and Demon Races. He does not take that option 17.
• Compassion toward living beings is rewarded with a trace of Sage merit when Mu Chen permits creatures to remain in his territory 49.

Attempted Attainment Through Killing

Luohu seeks the Great Dao of a Sage through slaughter. His actions instead incur the Heavenly Dao’s displeasure, and Hongjun’s alliance kills him before he succeeds 10.

Abilities & Skills

Overwhelming Presence

Sage breakthroughs produce disturbances felt throughout the world 10 15 24.

• Hongjun’s attainment brings radiant clouds and shaking seas; countless living beings kneel beneath his might 10.
• Nuwa’s declaration of humanity’s creation makes heaven and earth tremble and draws widespread prostration 15.
• Houtu’s breakthrough astonishes even the existing Sages in Heaven Beyond Heaven 24.

Divination and Perception

Sages can locate others and discern threats through supernatural calculation 12 43.

• Hongjun can find Mu Chen’s secluded sanctuary through divination 12.
• Tongtian divines that Mu Chen is about to encounter a great tribulation 43.
• Their perception is not infallible: the Heaven-Deceiving Cloak conceals cultivation, presence, karma, and origins unless a Sage carefully examines it with divine abilities 37.

Penetrating Formations

Sages can overcome defenses that exclude lower cultivators 35.

• Laozi enters the Cloud Sea Grand Formation without invitation or immediate detection.
• He explains that the formation contains the Great Dao and bars anyone below Sage level 35.

Dao Teaching and Creation

Sage instruction can substantially improve a listener’s cultivation and understanding 11 37 43.

• Hongjun conducts three sermons, each lasting three thousand years 13.
• The Three Pure Ones establish Dao grounds and preach their teachings to other cultivators 34 37.
• Laozi regards cultivation methods capable of triggering heavenly phenomena as creations only a Sage could produce 34.

Limits and Differences in Strength

• Sages are not equal. Nuwa’s encounter with Hongjun demonstrates that the gulf between Sages can itself be immense 22.
• Houtu initially ranks slightly below the established disciples. On attaining Sagehood, her cultivation is described as only a shade beneath the Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, and the others 24.
• Sagehood does not place someone above the Heavenly Dao. Mu Chen warns Nuwa that forcibly changing the Witch-Demon Catastrophe could bring wrath that even a Sage cannot bear; she withdraws rather than intervene 30.
• Great tribulations remain dangerous. After the Witch-Demon war, Mu Chen concludes that even Sages can only preserve themselves during such calamities 31.
• Enslavement to the Heavenly Dao is a rumor, not an established rule. Mu Chen has heard that becoming a Sage immediately makes one a puppet of its will and takes precautions accordingly 5.

Role in the Primordial World

Governance and Sects

After Hongjun’s six disciples attain Sagehood, they govern the Primordial World in his stead 15.

Witch-Demon Catastrophe

The Sages initially avoid direct intervention because they recognize the conflict as the Heavenly Dao’s second tribulation 22. Houtu’s attainment temporarily deters the Demon Race, producing a period in which demons govern heaven and witches govern earth 26.

Their nonintervention does not mean political neutrality. The narration describes the Sages as helping fan the conflict because the future rise of humanity concerns the foundations of their teachings 26. After the war, they support humanity’s ascendancy and deliberately leave surviving demons as enemies against whom humans can strengthen themselves 31.

Investiture of the Gods and Later Withdrawal

Mu Chen’s foreknowledge identifies the future Investiture of the Gods Great Tribulation as a war between Sages over the foundations of their Great Dao 11 35.

• He expects Hongjun’s Sage disciples to suffer calamities and decline through these conflicts 15.
• He recalls that Sages cease appearing in the mortal world afterward and anticipates their withdrawal into seclusion by the Journey to the West era 11 12.
• These anticipated conflicts motivate his refusal to join Laozi’s Human Sect, even when offered Purple Qi and Sage-level protection 35 36.

Connection to Mu Chen

• Long-term goal: Mu Chen repeatedly resolves to remain secluded until he becomes a Sage 5 31.
• Actual cultivation: His latest documented advancement is to the perfected middle stage of Daluo Golden Immortal, not Sagehood 43.
• Borrowed strength: The Cloud Sea Grand Formation grants him Quasi-Sage-level power within its boundaries; this is separate from his personal cultivation realm 2 12 47.
• Influence without equivalent rank: Hongjun, Nuwa, and Houtu receive useful guidance from him despite his much lower cultivation 9 12 14 23 24.