Webnovel.Forum

My personal experience after reading tens of thousands of chapters is this.

Realms generally matter and have a set structure that is common throughout the genre.

1) Body Improving Stage - This is when the character first draws in energy into the meridian system(like veins but for Qi) and uses it to widen them to increase the amount of Qi their meridians can hold, or to fundamental improve their body and cleanse out "impurities"(i.e. strengthing bones, washing tendons, toughening skin, etc)

2) Qi Condensation Stage - This is when they open up some kind of space inside their body(usually a the dantian which is just below the navel), which is basically a large storehouse of Qi. At this stage Qi is usually in a gaseous form, and the cultivators can utilize it to use talismans, or buff up weapons, and enhance their bodies. Sometimes they can use special abilities, but often time they aren't able to project power away from their bodies in this realm.

3) Liquid Qi Stage - Basically it's like the previous stage, but the Qi is denser, more powerful, and plenty and they can start using techniques that can project their qi over short distance or have some elemental property.

4) Core Qi Stage - Same as before, just that the Qi has now become a solid core in their dantian. At this stage they often start being able to do crap like fly and use crazy long range powerful attacks.

5) Sea Stage/Inner World - Usually this requires a cultivator to crack their Core which result in it releasing a whole shitload of Qi and greatly expanding how much their dantian can hold. They basically spend a few realms just enlarging this Qi sea until it turns into an entire internal world.

6) Domain/Laws/insights/Intents/Dao - This is kind of more hazy, because it's not unusual for these to show up at any of the previous 4 stages, but the point is that after the whole Qi Sea/Inner world, they usually just continue to accumulate more Qi and the power scaling begins shifting towards how much you understand about certain elemental laws, or your ability to form a domain(A domain being a certain area around you that you have control based on your own dao) that you can control.

This is just the most generic and distilled representation, there are many different types of cultivation levels you can add on, insert, or straight up substitute for.

Based on the novels I have read cultivation novels are a specific genre to the Chinese qi system.

Mortal realms are:

Qi condensation:
9-12 levels. The first few levels are normal body strengthening that can be done by most people. After that you learn how to move qi into your body from outside, normally seen as a gas. Based on the cultivation technique used it can take many forms. This stage also is where opening acupuncture points is sometimes a issue. Some stories is open acupunctures as a sign of talent some use spirit roots. Both effect how much qi the body absorbed.

Foundation establishment:
9-12 levels. This stage is the first milestone of culivation and when someone is normally called a true cultivator. This is when you condense the gassouse qi into liquid. Qi starts from small drops in the dantie until it becomes a roaring ocean.

Core:
1-3 levels. This is when you form a hard core from all the liquid qi. It is a core as it will be the seed for the next stage. The quality of the core based on the strength of the foundation shows different levels. The more golden or purple the better the core.

Nascent Soul:
1-3 levels. At this stage a immortal soul is born from the core. The soul can leave the body and survive, it can even take over other bodies if the original is destroyed. The process of cultivation is to strengthen the soul in this stage. It is sometimes the last stage allowed in the mortal world before you must ascend to the immortal realm.

Spirit severing/deity transformation stage
1-3 levels. To enter this stage you must have understanding of one of the laws of the world. Be is space, time, thunder, earth, water, sword, or whatever else is a law. Once in this stage to progress is to understand the world better. At this point most characters rule their world and progress to the immortal world where they start at the bottom again.

MikXL_23 You are right, but if I'm going to work with tropes of a new genre, I wanted to make sure I hit some of the right notes. Some of my fantasy projects take notes from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Most of my magic systems feel closer to Western stuff.
It's just that Cultivation is in webnovels, which have lots of chapters that can make it harder to sift through for the right notes to hit in the magic system. Not to mention that cultivation is a strange middle ground between hard and soft magic systems. The levels make it seem hard, but the process is soft and vague.

Cultivation is what I would call an academic magic system, like Harry Potter, in that you are basically limited by how well you can study to learn new abilities. But as for understanding what it is that is being learned, I don't really get what it is. I could make up spells in Harry Potter by saying that it is incantations and wand waving. As for cultivation, they talk about cultivation techniques, and I don't really understand what it is, fundamentally.

I guess that this has gotten some of the important basics for getting started. I guess I will need to craft my own version from here.

Tvrkm True... One of the cool things about cultivation (which a lot of writers tend to not notice), is the fact that you can be pretty creative on it. A suggestion that I would've give is that each major realm unlocks a new ability to the cultivator when reached. For the majority of cultivation novels I've read, the only difference between each realm is merely an increase on strength and a new type of "energy" (which doesn't change anything pretty much). I think you should read a cultivation novel called Wu dong Qian Kun, it is one of my favorite xianxias due to it's unique multi-cultivation system and the fact that the MC actually EARNS his powers through his own efforts, even his supposed "cheat" is only used at the beginning and it isn't even that amazing, it only served to start the MC's journey. While he had to go through a lot of shit in order to become strong on his own.

Tvrkm Cultivation techniques is the method that you cultivate.

The dictionary definition for cultivate is:
1. prepare and use (land) for crops or gardening.

2.try to acquire or develop (a quality, sentiment, or skill).
"he cultivated an air of indifference"

The two definitions are quite accurate for cultivation techniques. Instead of using a hoe to plow a field for crops you are using the given technique to prepare your body to receive qi. You also normally learn some skills depending on the method used.

For Example a druid from the english magic system pulls in mana from plants. If translated to a cultivation technique it would be a wood attribute cultivation technique that pulls green/wood attribute qi into the body.

However having qi in the body is not enough, you also have to move the qi around to make it your own. Normally qi is stored in the dantian when not actively cultivating. When cultivating you move the qi around in your meridians. The cultivation technique itself is the path the qi takes to complete a full circle in your meridians. While it takes this path it also strengthens the body as a side effect as the qi moves from the outside of the body inwards.

I might note that depending the method used you could be pulling in stellar(star) qi by cultivating under the stars, Lightning qi by cultivating in a thunderstorm, fire qi by cultivating in a volcano and so on. The more the element you cultivate is around the more effective cultivation is. People on the coast will thus practice water type cultivation, people in mountains will cultivate earth type and so on.

Kay, thanks everyone. Lastly, do I need to learn how to name Chinese people and all the name meanings, or would it be fine to just work with my knowledge as an American who loves anime, has read some cultivation novels, and did spelling bee in middle school and therefore is very familiar with Western name/word roots? As interesting as I think it would be, it feels like too much investment for this project as it currently stands. I could do one or two names, but a whole webnovel cast of heroes, villains, temp characters, and all that? too much.
Though, having written that out, I just realized a workaround that still can hit some of the naming notes- start character in exile, and only name the MC and primary villain and maybe a few more key people in Chinese.

It's mostly what you decide. You could create an entirely new system for cultivation or you could borrow from different novels. Creating a new system for cultivation allow more freedom and creativity when progressing through the story. The system could be based for example on the desired outcome of the story. Also is you include a System sub-genre you could apply the same strategy for how it works and what you want at the end.

Tvrkm Have you already written a cultivation nove?l