u/New_Blacksmith_5604

Who is the strongest (in a fight) out of the auxiliary cultivators: Alchemists, Artifact Refiners and Array Masters? My ranking is from weakest to strongest: Alchemists, Artifact Refiners, Array Masters. Here is my rationale:

I think it goes without saying that Alchemists are usually outrageously weak. There are some exceptions (disregarding the obvious Yang Kai). The Alchemist Great Emperor (Wondrous Pill I think?) could use his alchemy fire in combat to a degree. Xiao Fu Sheng showed Yang Kai that the qualities of a good alchemist also make someone a capable fighter but most alchemists do not bother trying and remain inexperienced and untrained in combat. Most do not even realize the philosophy of Xiao Fu Sheng that alchemists are cultivators first and therefore lag behind in their cultivation.

Artifact refiners mostly refine weapons and defensive tools. Some of them adopt the same mindset as alchemists but I think a good proportion actually make use of their own creations and become rather dangerous. The greatest example is Yang Yan but she is probably an outlier. But I think refiners are less likely to lag behind in cultivation because of the difference between refining herbs and ores. It seems you can generally refine herbs of high rank than your cultivation; it just takes longer and consumes more energy. But it seems ores will ignore qi from lower level cultivators. I cannot produce specific examples but this is the feeling I get. So refiners are more likely to be closer in cultivation to the rank of product they produce than alchemists.

Array Masters come in two varieties, in my estimation. There are those who use their skills on the field and thus require at least some defensive capabilities. Some of them even use their skills offensively to a great extent. But there are others who simply setup arrays around important sites and are always out of danger. Those seem almost as weak as alchemists. The offensive focus array masters, I think, are stronger than artifact refiners. As far as whether their cultivations lag, I know next to nothing about what spirit arrays require.

Yang Kai should have shared the Yin Yang Joyous Unification Art with the disciples of his various sects. Cultivators using it directly would probably be rare. You need a close, non-abusive couple where the male practices a high grade yang or fire cultivation art and the female practices a high grade ice or yin cultivation art. Those high grade arts should be available to Yang Kai and his sects, he could share his True Yang Art (he should have, it is goated and users would not likely be a threat to him) and Su Yan's original art was already not a secret. But the couple thing might be problematic unless he follows Dragon Phoenix Palace's approach of giving large amounts of male a yang art and large amounts of females a yin art and hoping a couple happens between them. But that just rubs me as a bit unethical.

But the other use of the Yin Yang Joyous Unification is how Yang Kai used it to merge his Yang and Demonic Qi. Now cultivators successfully achieving similar results would also be rare but the ones who succeeded would be unstoppable. Yang Kai almost died when he did it. The opposing Qis attacking each other in his body would have killed him if he did not have such an amazing physique. Others in his sects would not likely be as physically strong as him.

However, one reason it almost killed him was due to his ridiculous amount of Qi. His True Yang Art allows him to store ridiculous amounts of Yang Qi and his skeleton has almost limitless capacity. Other cultivators would have far less Qi and that would make it somewhat safer. Plus they could use other body tempering techniques like the The Five Elements Indestructible Body technique.

The biggest hurdle would be cultivators mastering two opposing elements and storing them in their body without destroying themselves. Yang Kai had his skeleton to store the Demonic Qi and could hold his Yang Qi in his dantian while using the Demonic Qi. I doubt cultivators could store opposing Qi in their dantian. Maybe they would need an artifact to store one of the Qis? I know it is possible because Yang Kai was stated to not be the first cultivator to merge opposing Qi types. I think Yang Kai would have raised a few monsters if he shared his two cultivation techniques.

How impressive is it that Gui Zu went from Saint King to Origin King by himself? Advancing in cultivation requires energy and understanding the Dao and aptitude. Him having the aptitude is already impressive; not everyone who receives the energy required is capable of reaching Origin King. But the understanding comes from teaching, experimentation, combat, experiencing different encounters, etc. All alone for the majority of the 2,000 years he was stuck in the Chaotic abyss he had no teachers nor opponents for combat/sparring and there were no opportunities for enlightening encounters. So the only two ways for him to have the requisite understanding is if he already had it when he got there, which is beyond amazing, nigh impossible, or he gained his understanding by experimenting with his power. Somehow he encountered information from others trapped there so he may have had access to martial skills but those skills would likely be relatively low grade compared to an Origin King. And Gui Zu is a particularly powerful Origin King meaning his skills must be top level. That means the skills he had he was able to improve as he progressed or he created his own skills, both of which are very impressive since he had no guidance. It seems to me that Gui Zu's talent approaches or even surpasses Yang Kai's.

I am reading the novel from the start for the first time (read the whole Manga and read maybe the whole second half of the novel). I just got to the point where the inheritance for the joyous Unification opens. I realize now that i do not understand the relationship between it and the dragon and phoenix. From my recollection the owners of the inheritance were a couple and had the dragon and Phoenix sources. But the sources are still kept in the two sects in the upper realm (never remember it's name, tong something). So did they not have it? Or did the sources separate from them when they died? Also, the dragon and Phoenix were not married so why do the inheriters need to be? And the dragon and phoenix had fire and ice powers respectively, not yin and yang. I know yin is associated with ice and yang is associated with fire but they are not the same. Did the creators of the joyous Unification take inspiration from the dragon and phoenix to make it? Or maybe they made it first and then they later got the sources and they just worked well together. Not sure if this is at all explained in the story.