Before I say anything, there is a UES in this novel, and that is Spiritual Qi, and its derivatives. General rule of thumb is that the higher your cultivation realm, the more Qi you have (or its derivatives, ie Origin Essence, Blood Qi, etc...), and as such, the stronger you are.
Additionally, here are the realms and the amount of levels/stages they have, from the first to the last:
1. Body Refining Realm (12 levels, usually)
2. Divine Sea Realm (3 stages, Lake of Origin, Sea of Origin, and Ocean of Origin)
3. Divine Altar Realm (4 stages, Low, Middle, High, and Peak)
4. Supernatural Realm (This stage technically has different system, defined by patterns, of which there are 50, but it still uses similar stuff to previous realms: Low, Middle, High, and Peak)
5. Divine Body Realm (Three stages, Human, Earth, and Heaven, with the heaven stage having 9 layers/levels)
6. Primordial Spirit Realm (5 stages, Yin God, Yin-Yang Reversal, Yang God, Shackle Removing and Three Immortal Souls)
7. Void Shattering Realm (4 stages, Law Comprehension, Law Path, Law Body and Law Manifestation; This is the stage where Law/Concept layering starts)
8. Saint Realm (3 stages, Dao Sapling, Young Dao Tree and Mature Dao Tree)
9. Supreme Realm (Massive shitfest, since there's technically a huge difference between even those in the same realm. So, ignore this)
9.5 Quasi-Emperor Realm (No known stages, but can fodderize armies of Supreme Realm cultivators)
10. Emperor/Immortal Venerable/Dao Ancestor (A huge can of worms that I'll have to make another comment later on when I get to it, just know that the difference between an Emperor and a Quasi-Emperor is a difference of 25 Great Realms, and the difference between a Quasi-Emperor and strong Immortal Venerable/Dao Ancestor is a literal infinite difference, as the latter can move at infinite speed, and unleash infinite AP attacks. FYI, Immortal/Dao ancestors are below Emperors)
11-13. Forget about them. They are huge realms that'll tackle later on in the future when I want to make the layering for them.
One of the first showcases of layers were with the Young Emperor Aura of Wang Wei.
When his Shadow Emperor Aura was unleashed, many disciples were forced to their knees and kneeled before him, not daring to look at him. This When he got out of the final level of the Pagoda trial, his Young Emperor Aura solidified and allowed it to
affect all the disciples, even those who could resist it before. The only exception if the Contemporary Disciples, with the strongest being at the 12th level of the Body Refining Realm. For context, there are 12 levels for the Body Refining Realm, with the Realm being the first one out of 13 (technically more) realms. And the reason they resisted, as specified, is because of their cultivation level, despite the fact that there were cultivators in the same realm but at lower levels being affected.
Then, there's Wang Wei's Powernull, which can destroy the cultivation level of other people,
but they have to be weaker than him in strength, ie those stronger would just not be affected. This is stated once more here. This is while he was still in the Body Refining Realm. Should also be mentioned that stronger, when it comes to cultivation, isn't just physical strength, but mind and soul as well.
Now, for Divine Altar Realm (3rd Realm),
these cultivators can release oppressive pressure that crushes everyone else down, yet they can fight each other without a problem. However, Wang Wei can use a powerful attack that releases pressure and
causes even those cultivators to crash down, and said that anyone with low cultivation level were crashed down, with the exception of Supernatural Realm (4th realm), because those cultivators had a higher quality of Origin Qi.
Su Ai, a cultivator in the Divine Sea Realm (2nd Realm), known for her charm abilities, cannot affect a lot of cultivators
due to their powerful spirits/souls. That includes the Generals, who were also in the Divine Sea Realm Peak just like her. However, it was stated by breaking through the next realm, Divine Alter Realm,
she can strengthen her charm abilities.[102] And this was proven that just by breaking through, the generals have lost their mind, even though the difference is only of one level.
Another example is when Divine Altar Cultivators aren't affected by the elemental attacks of Divine Sea Cultivators, meanwhile other ones are affected.
Another showcase of resistances is when Li Jun fought against Iron Fist King. Iron Fist King attacked Li Jun with a spiritual attack, but it only affected him for an instant before disappearing, with the reason being that not only did Li Jun have amazing willpower, but his spirit was also stronger than Iron Fist King. Remember that Divine Altar stage is about cultivating the spirit and mind. This is further confirmed when right after,
Iron Fist King was surprised his attack didn't work because his spirit was so strong and it was supposed to work. This showcases that stronger spirit = resistance to attacks from weaker spirits. Meanwhile, when Li Jun injured him with a spiritual attack, he was barely able to do anything and only managed to not lose himself after mutilating himself.
Additionally, it was shown that when Wei reached the lowest threshold of Primordial Spirit Realm power (6th Realm), Ji Su, a Peak Divine Body Realm (5th realm) cultivator, stated that he can escape since Wei wasn't as fast as Primordial Spirit realm. This showcases that even though there is barely a level of difference between the two of them, Ji Su did not even entertain the idea of being able to fight him.
Another showcase of higher cultivation = more layers is the fact when a Shadow Guard decided to use his divine sense to search a cultivator's soul.
It was stated that since the cultivator was only at the supernatural realm, while he was at the Divine Body Realm (One realm higher), it was not an issue to search his soul.
Furthermore, it was mentioned that by increasing the spirit/soul's strength,
they'd be more resistant to Spiritual attacks and interference. This fact was mentioned right after a Saint Realm (8th Realm) cultivator was mind controlled/corrupted by Baleful aura of his surrounding. Keep in mind that, starting at the Divine Altar Realm, Cultivators started to cultivate the mind and soul rather than the body.
Another showcase is when Li Jun and his group needed to use Heaven-Grade tailsman to hide the people, because he mentioned that the Supreme Gods were Void Shattering Realm,
so they need Heaven-Grade, implying that higher the cultivation, the stronger the tailsman is needed to be to affect them.[107]
Again, it was shown that despite the opposing army against Li Jun being at least 20 times greater in terms of number,
they were still outclassed due to the fact that Li Jun's army was made of Supernatural Realm Cultivators, who were 4th realm, while the opposing army had majority of 3rd realm.
Another showcase of layering is when it comes to Wang Wei (MC) power to read fate lines. He stated that he can't read the fate lines of other cultivators unless they don't resist, or
he overpowers them. This was stated once more when he couldn't copy the fate of his wife since she was too powerful.
Then, there is Di Tian's showing. Di Tian, with the strength of a Quasi-Emperor (9.5th Realm),
was able to force other True Monarchs (Supreme Realms, 9th Realm) to their knees via his pressure alone, even though the difference isn't even a full realm difference.
This one is for tailsman, but it still shows layering since tailsman's powerful is also using the whole realm power. It was stated that even if two talismans were of equal level, like a Quasi-Emperor Void Blocking Tailsman (Blocks space to prevent teleportation) and Void Escaping talisman (Used for teleportation),
the latter would still take a while to actually escape, unless it was of a higher level.
Another showcase is with Wang Wei's shackles of fate, which changes history itself. It was shown that the only reason his
Shackles of Fate worked on Di Tian (Same Realm, but higher stage, more strength), despite the large gap in strength, is because of his powerful soul and its quality.
Now, one of the more convincing showcases is with Su Ya (Villain) bloodline technique,
Su Ya stated that this curse of her was so terrifying because it could ignore levels, indicating that higher levels can have resistances to lower leveled attacks.
There are plenty more, tbh, as these are just a few snippets/feats from only 400 chapters of the novel (Of which there are 1300+ chapters), and even then, these are not all the feats.
Now, for layering, I purpose that every stage/level should be a layer, and of course, resist the attacks of previous cultivation realm, with few exceptions. You can check the blog for general abilities of Cultivation realms. Albeit not all of them are there, yet.
