From what Mark could remember from his class, the ascension of Earth began 500,000 years ago when the planet reached a saturation point of Aether. Aether being the metaphysical energy that the universe naturally produces.
Immediately after the ascension of Earth, an apocalypse descended, the technology that the humans of earth prided thierselfs on stopped working due to Aether altering the physics of the planet as a whole, the new energy overloaded and fried electrical circuits and caused rapid material decay. Overall a foreign system ofrules were imposed making existing technology at the time obsolete and incompatible.
Spatial tears started appearing everywhere, they led to different realms and planes of existence, some led to a safe haven for humans while others led to hellish landscapes and inhabitable environments and eldritch monstrosities of different shapes and sizes flowed into their plane through the cracks in space. Humans that couldn't adapt to Aether induction were instantly turned into zombie like beings who feed on flesh and had an unquenchable thirst for high concentrations of aether. To top it all of because of the unimaginable potential of Earth which was stated to be able to evolve to a tier 9 planet and in the whole multiverse has only been recorded twice, they faced invasions from aliens races, although on a small scale at the time, the natives of earth were going through a tough time but all hope was not lost infact it was a new beginning for the humans on Earth.
Just like how Aether evolved the planet the humans who survived the Aether induction awakened abilities that gave them unimaginable power, normally humans outside of Earth would naturally awaken abilities when exposed to Aether or when they reached the age of 12 but the talents on Earth were a step above others essentially making them gods among men when comparing the average talent of Earth to those in the greater cosmos.
Awakening an ability was just the first step as someone who awakens an ability is naturally able to sense and accumulate Aether but that wasn't enough because when the earthlings obtained cultivation techniques, they realize that just absorbing Aether into thier bodies wasn't enough, techniques had to be applied to maximize the cultivation experience. From there they understood the power system of the universe where cultivation was generally categorized into 3 main facets;
The body cultivation
The energy cultivation
The spirit-mind cultivation.
Each equally as important as the last and from what Mark understood from his previous teachings, thinking of a human as a device for example the body was the vessel where the centers of powers resided in, the energy was what powered the device to perform extra ordinary feats and the mind was the memory storage of the device while the spirit was basically a processor that's why they are mostly tied together. From learning about the categories of cultivation earthlings became aware of the ranks of cultivation. Which where;
The mortal ranks- tier 1-3
The supernatural ranks- tier 4-6
The exalted ranks- tier 7-9
The God ranks- tier 10- 12.
The mortal, supernatural and exalted ranks were typically the ranks of cultivation that were allowed in the mortal realm and to progress in the God ranks, cultivators had to ascend to the upper realms. Cultivation is ultimately an extremely broad subject housing abstract concepts like weapon mastery, martial arts, magic spells, spiritual arts, professions and more. It was during this era of discovery, innovation, war and strife where mighty heroes rose and fell, an era where a massive pool of geniuses roamed the world that many of the great entities that are ruling today are formed. The sol and frostheart families are prime examples of such entities. After 500 years of battles with the monsters, purging the zombie like scourges and conflict with the alien races the earthlings were able to gain a stable foothold for thierselves in the planet, effectively conquering 70% of the land on earth the humans were able to gain recognition from the intergalactic alliance through their adaptability, perseverance and potential, signing a contract with them effectively gaining aid from them. After years of war and battle Earth finally gained some respite but do you think it ended there?, HELL NO!!. Immediately planet Earth reached the sixth tier 250 thousand years ago they began conquest and expanding their influence to surrounding worlds, and taking revenge on the alien races who attacked them during their time of weakness as Earth has succeeded in producing 10 S rank organizations with numerous powerhouses in the 8th and 9th rank affiliated or not. After 500 thousand year's of successful ascension, Earth has evolved into a tier 9 planet with countless B rank and below organizations, numerous A rank and 12 S rank which consisted of the 3 ancient clans, 4 great sects, the Bloodborne cult, the ascension academy and the evergod empire with numerous planets under their control, countless resources and a multitude of talents under their banner. Of the 3 ancient clans, the sol clan was definitely the strongest with the Frostheart and ravenclaw clans were following behind battling for a chance to overtake one another, so it was surprising that the clan master of the frostheart family a fellow S tier clan was coming to their domain to have dinner with his family.
At that moment the butler walked into the dining hall seemingly to make an announcement. With a grey mustache, bald head, pitch black eyes and black skin Uzi, the butler walked in with his crisp ironed, black and white tuxedo.
" The patriarch of the frostheart clan has arrived with his wife and children ". Uzi said with a nice audible voice while looking towards the clan master, to which he replied with a nod. The gigantic doors to the dinning room open and immediately the temperature of the room dropped by a few degrees before the temperature went to normal.
" Welcome to the sol main family house" . Adonis said while standing up to greet his guests.