[@Solarpunk] That's a pretty common setup in Wuxia long before Jade Empire (I still need to play that one of these days)--the whole genre is always about the conflicts between the "Righteous/Harmonious/Orthodox/Justice sects/clans/alliances, and the Chaotic/Unorthodox/Demonic ones. Interestingly enough, Cultivation seems like it played a much smaller part in most of the older stories. Then around the time the Isekai fad took off in Japan, something similar happened with Chinese media only they always themed their stories around the Wuxia/Xianxia settings. Rather than Stats and Levels like Isekai, they started establishing more and more varied forms of Cultivation with all these different realms and requirements for "breakthrough." Still the same flood of OP generic protagonists and harem nonsense, though! XD