Weapon Mastery levels
Mastery levels 101, By Dong Zemin
These are my notes from elder Gao's lectures, if you found it useful some spirit stone is appreciated.
— Body Extension:
When you have trained with the weapon for enough time and you can work with it naturally as if it is a part of your body, you can say that you have stepped in the way of that weapon.
The time that it takes to get to this level is varied from person to person. As working with a weapon has a big reliant on one's talent, some geniuses are in this level as soon as they train for a short while, and for some people, it might take decades to do the same.
— Qi Integration:
At this level, the practitioner can use their Qi in their attack when using the weapon. Although using some martial arts you can replicate this effect without the need to be on this level, but when you are at this level you won't be restricted to a set of moves and each and every move that you do can be combined with Qi for more effectiveness. To get to this level you have to train for a decade on average.
— Qi Transformation:
After being able to use your Qi the next step is to transform a part of your Qi into the weapon Qi (e.g. sword Qi). In this level, high levels of Qi are needed to get the smallest amount of weapon Qi. Using weapon Qi while using that weapon would boost your attack and defense power to the next level. To be recognized as that weapon's practitioner you have to be at least on this level.
To get to this level you would usually need half a century of training. Some even go as far as calling this level the start of that weapon's way (e.g. the way of the sword).
— Qi Reformation:
As said before, in Qi transformation level you can produce some weapon Qi but very inefficiently. At the Qi Reformation level, you can create the weapon Qi in the most efficient way and because of this, you can use more weapon Qi in the fights. This would result in the practitioner being able to use the weapon Qi continuously instead of once in a while.
This would on average take one century to achieve.
— Aura Creation:
At this level, the practitioner has achieved such a high level that they can create weapon aura. A weapon aura is the result of weapon Qi condensation. To achieve this you need not only training but you need to use sword Qi daily to be able to condense it.
The weapon aura is tens of times stronger than weapon Qi so the numerical comparison is not really helpful here. To see how powerful the weapon aura is in comparison to weapon Qi you can think of weapon Qi as a feather trying to scratch a diamond.
At this level, you can create the aura but the creation process is hard and very Qi draining so it has to be used wisely. It is said that to achieve this level you would need 500 years of training.
— Aura Domination:
As the name implies, in this level of weapon mastery the practitioner can create aura easily and with this, they can dominate all other practitioners below their level easily.
From the records, you would need more than a millennium to reach this level of mastery.
— Weapon Unification:
At this level, there is no weapon and there is no self. The practitioner is the weapon and the weapon is the practitioner.
At this level, you can form weapons from weapon Qi or weapon aura on demand and you won't need any form of physical weapon to rely on.
The amount of time needed to reach this level of mastery is unknown to us. There are only some records about the existence of this level and we don't know if it is possible to go beyond it.