As you have read till now there has been talk of the Shackled realm so let's start with that and my understanding of it, maybe if you the reader become a cultivator then your future teacher may tell you different but this is my understanding.
Stages: Every realm is divided into Ten stages it is known that no.10 represents the completion of the realm.
Tier: Every stage and real is further divided into four which is low tier, mid-tier, upper tier, peak tier. The first three stages are in the low tier, the fourth to sixth is considered mid-tier, while seventh to ninth is deemed upper tier and the tenth is considered peak tier. The stages themselves have these tiers.
Realms: Realms can be considered as a form of evolution of life, just like how a caterpillar evolves into a butterfly similarly we transcend our old mortal selves as we get ready to adapt to the new life form we evolve into.
Shackled Realm: This is the first realm that a cultivator enters in his journey to immortality. When a human is born he lives in the environment which is filled with various impurities which slowly shackle our body and thus make it difficult for us to cultivate, in the shackle realm we have to undo the 10 shackles that are present in our body so as to alleviate from this realm and enter the gates of cultivation as even in the shackle realm we are no different from mortals. The ten shackles are as below
1st in the Center of our right hand
2nd near the right armpit
3rd in the centre of our left hand
4th near the left armpit
5th in the sole of our right feet
6th in the sole of our left feel
7th between our kidney
8th near our heart
9th right above our Dantian
10th between eyebrows
Once you break through the 10 stages you will not only form a complete circulatory route in your body but you will also open your mind palace so you would be able to use divine sense with the help of which you can try to break through to the Spirit refining Realm.
The order of breaking the shackles differ from person to person depending on the cultivation manual they practise some manuals can start from the shackle of hands some from feet and some may start directly from the shackle in the head.
When the person enters the Spirit Refining Realm the cultivator's life increases from 100 years to 150 years.
Spirit Refining Realm: After a cultivator has broken the ten shackles he can try the 11th shackle which is present on the Dantian, as soon as the shackle of the dantian is broken the spirit energy can then be stored in the dantian to be refined and used in this the use of the veins is shown as the more veins you have the faster the refining speed will be and easier the further breakthrough.
In this stage the person has to increase the amount of energy stored in the dantian from the beginning amount, the energy will be the size of a hair it is to be refined into the shape of a vortex.
When the first vortex is completed a similar whirlpool will start forming parallel to it, when this happens it means that you have broken through the first stage then similar steps are needed to break through the following stages.
Awakening: The awakening process for both Spirit vein and Spirit Soul is the same when your body reaches the most optimal stage it will awaken, you can feel like a space is being opened in your mind and this feeling will slowly spread in your body when it is over you would be able to see your spirit vein or soul at the end of the process but that is it for spirit vein, after that the only way to know about what grade spirit vein is through going to the Academy while for the soul it will be seen whenever you try to practice in your mind space.
This is all the knowledge I have considering cultivation now what I am about to tell you are some other knowledge that a cultivator needs
First is about alchemy and weapon refining, as pills are very important help during cultivation as they can help you a large amount of Spirit energy stored in herbs and other components, while weapons are needed for protection and hunting.
Second is about formation and talisman as they can help you attack, defend and also speed up cultivation by attracting spirit energy.
The third is about the spirit beast and demonic beast, spirit beasts are those that have their spiritual mind opened after years of knowledge and thus stared cultivation they normally live in harmony with us, demonic beast are those that have their body strengthen because of spirit energy so they crave for more power to strengthen themselves and can go to any extent for it cultivators normally hunt them.
For purchasing pills, formation, weapon or talisman you need spirit stone, these are divided into Stages as well as tiers.
(This is all the knowledge I have regarding cultivation and I present it to whoever reads my work.
-Thomas Smith )