Cultivation Levels

The cultivation system of the world in this story is a little different for plot reasons, but the “typical” cultivation system found in other Chinese webnovels also exists alongside it, brought by Qixun’s second brother.

Additionally, the author made a mistake for about ~200 chapters during the Capital City arc, leaving out the “Master Warrior/Scholar” level entirely, so except for Gongyu Hao and those in the Warrior/Scholar/Qi Refining stage, I downgraded everyone else by one level, because later on they make it clear exactly how many Saints there are in the Great Xia Empire, and these earlier chapters definitely added too many.

Finally, the word 圣 (shèng) can be translated in many ways — typically, “saint,” “holy,” or “sage.” This word is also used in Gongyu Hao’s title from his time as the Monkey King, 齐天大圣 (qí tiān dà shèng), typically translated as “the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.” But “Martial Saint” sounds more reasonable in English than “Martial Sage,” so I’ve translated the cultivation ranks as “Saint.”

So this “saint” should be kept in mind as not something like a Christian saint, but more of someone who is wise and knowledgeable in certain worldly topics (like literature or fighting), yet also connected to the sacred, esoteric mysteries of the natural world.