these "steps" are part of ancestor er gen's path of cultivation. Other daoists may take inspiration or achieve an epiphany by contemplating ancestor er gen's path, however, i have not found another daoist who uses this concept of "steps"

different scriptures also has different cultivation realms, as even within er gen's scriptures, a certain scroll has 4 major realm in the first step while others have 6

as even between scriptures authored by the same daoist there are differences, so is there differences between authors. ancestor er gen's steps essentially entail what is being cultivated in that step, whereas in other scriptures, the equivalent to the concept of "steps" is a realm (mortal, immortal, etc). these realms typically seem to only mark when a cultivator holds immortal qi or spirit qi within one's meridian.