Concept · Wiki
Primeval Sea
元海
Cultivation · The Aperture
The innermost space a person cultivates in, opened at the Aperture Opening Ceremony, measured in percent, and the thing that decides whether someone can hold Gu at all.
In the textevery mark is a paragraph; click one to read the line
Written into 3 of 346 published paragraphs (1%) — first at chapter 2, ¶18, most recently at chapter 4, ¶33.
What it is
The primeval sea is the inner space a cultivator's power lives in. Before it opens, a person cannot hold Gu and cannot cultivate at all.
Right now, my primeval sea is not yet open; I have not even stepped onto the cultivation path of a Gu Master.
Chapter 2, paragraph 18
How it is measured
As a percentage, and the number is the result that matters at the Aperture Opening Ceremony, where a grade is announced and the sea is immediately examined.
The Academy Elder cried out in delight, “Excellent! Gu Yue Mo Bei, Grade B aptitude! Come here and let me examine your primeval sea.”
Chapter 4, paragraph 32
Primeval sea: sixty-six percent.
Chapter 4, paragraph 33
The one exception so far
Fang Yuan is the only person in the book who has already had one, and lost it. Chapter 1 puts him inside a perfected body at the peak of its power; chapter 2 puts him back in a boy whose sea has not opened yet, and the loss is stated without self-pity, only as a problem to be worked around.
Why it matters
The novel's first exam is not about strength, wit or lineage. It is about a door in the body, and whether it is there at all. Everything a person does in this world starts at that door, and the Gu Yue Clan's entire future is decided by how many of its children have one.