It was a stormy night.
Dark clouds pressed down on the city, unleashing a torrential downpour. The dim streets and alleys of the district were empty of pedestrians.
CREAK!
The back door of a multi-story courtyard swung open. Lin Changheng, his hair and beard singed black and his expression dazed, stumbled out into the curtain of rain. He clutched an old cloth bundle to his chest and trudged onward, a solitary figure. From a distance, he looked like a withered, walking corpse.
He didn't know how long he had been walking. Only when a bit of warmth returned to his drenched body did Lin Changheng slowly come to his senses, his eyes taking in the sight of a humble room with sparse furnishings.
Streams of memories unlocked in his mind. The massive influx of information felt like a shovel churning inside his skull, giving him a splitting headache.
He clearly remembered it: just a moment ago, the sun had been shining brightly. He, a master's student in agriculture, had been hard at work with his senior in a sorghum field, researching high-yield techniques. Then, his vision went black, and he dropped dead.
'As an avid reader of web novels, transmigration and rebirth weren't so terrifying. He had even dreamed of soaring through the void and challenging High Heaven with his sword.'
But now that it had actually happened, he couldn't help but feel a surge of panic. He gritted his teeth and slapped himself. The sharp sound and stinging pain made him let out a sigh.
'I really did transmigrate... or to be more precise, the memories of my past life have been unsealed...'
As he quickly sorted through the nearly thirty years of memories from before his awakening, Lin Changheng's brow, which had just relaxed, furrowed deeply once more.
Over a decade ago, after losing his parents, he had been trying to make a living in a mortal town.
An Immortal Master happened to reveal his miraculous powers, throwing the entire city into a frenzy. The streets emptied as everyone rushed to have their children tested for a chance at immortality.
According to the Immortal Master, any child or youth between the ages of seven and eighteen could step forward to have their Spirit Root tested.
Regardless of wealth or status!
In the end, out of several thousand people, only three were found to possess a Spirit Root.
Fortunately, he was one of them.
Amidst the desperate pleas of countless commoners and the wide-eyed envy of dignitaries, the three of them were led by the Immortal Master onto immortal cranes. With a single flap of their wings, they vanished over the horizon like streaks of light.
They left behind the legend of a miracle, a story that would be told in the city for a hundred years to come.
He was ecstatic, believing his suffering had ended and he was on a one-way path to Ascension. But in just three days, cruel reality slapped him out of the sky and sent him crashing into the dust.
"Lin Changheng, Mixed Spirit Root!"
This was the Spirit Testing Conference, where all the promising young cultivators from the Eight Commanderies gathered. It was also a grand event where the various factions divided these 'seedlings' among themselves.
With that announcement, his fate was sealed. With a Spirit Root like his, and his bone age already approaching eighteen, he was barred from joining any Sect. Even lesser Cultivation Families had thresholds too high for him to cross. Even the Foundation Establishment Clans shook their heads and turned him away.
Only one group, a Qi Cultivation Clan called the Black Water River Xu Family, extended an olive branch.
Although he was hesitant, he knew that if he refused, his only options were to become a wandering Loose Cultivator, drifting and homeless like rootless duckweed, or to return to the mortal world to enjoy sixty years of an ordinary life.
'Now that I've set foot on the path to Ascension, how could I be content with a mortal life?'
'I have to risk it, no matter what!'
And so, he resolutely decided to join the Xu Family.
Instead of attending the celebratory banquet that followed, an elder of the Xu Family immediately led their group of new recruits down the mountain. Once they returned to the clan's territory, the elder began assigning their roles.
They were given two choices.
The first was to marry into the Xu Family. He would be wed to a daughter of the clan and be expected to father children for them.
The more children he fathered with Spirit Roots, the greater his rewards and status would be. The underlying logic was 'more children, more blessings'—he would essentially be a prize stud, tasked with breeding.
The other path was that of an Honored Guest Elder. For twelve years, the Xu Family would provide a certain level of support, including resources like Spirit Stones, Spirit Rice, and Spirit Tea.
He would also be allowed to choose one of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation that the Xu Family specialized in and become an apprentice. If he could reach the Entry Tier in his chosen skill, he would be considered successful. His status and stipend would both be increased!
But if he failed, he would have to serve as a Xu Family disciple and fulfill the duty of being conscripted to pioneer the Wilderness—an extremely dangerous task.
'It truly is a Righteous Clan,' Lin Changheng mused. 'The pros and cons are laid out clearly, with no coercion or deceit.'
After some deliberation, eighty percent of the new recruits chose to marry into the family. Only twenty percent chose the path of an apprentice, and his predecessor was among them.
He couldn't accept that fate. He wanted to take his chances.
He was advised to study Alchemy because his Fire Spirit Root had the highest Spiritual Charm, measured at eight strands.
And just like that, he became an Alchemy Apprentice. For eleven years, he tended the furnaces at Xu's Alchemy Shop, which the Xu Family operated in the Purple River District.
He had first stepped onto the Immortal Dao at eighteen. Eleven years flew by in a flash, and now he was nearly thirty.
All this time, he had failed to reach the Entry Tier and become a true Alchemist.
Worse, his Cultivation was stuck at the Second Layer of Qi Cultivation, and for some unknown reason, he could not advance.
The deadline for his twelve-year agreement with the Xu Family was fast approaching. In just one year, the mobilization for the "Great Reclamation"—an event that occurred in the Endless Wilderness once every twenty years—would begin...
If he couldn't become an Entry Tier Alchemist by then, he would be sent to the front lines of the reclamation effort. There, he would have to fight ferocious, man-eating Demon Beasts day and night, risking his life amidst Poisonous Insects and toxic Miasma. He was not skilled in Magical Combat; death would be a certainty.
Furthermore, with the reclamation drawing near, the various factions were pulling back their forces, making the areas outside the Marketplace even more chaotic and dangerous. Even if he wanted to flee, there was nowhere to go. To Tribulation Cultivators, he was a tempting target.
All of this had driven him to the brink of death from anxiety. Just moments ago, in a desperate attempt at Alchemy, the cauldron had exploded. The strain on his Heart and Spirit was too much, and he had passed out.
But as the saying goes, one must break to build anew. And so, this disaster led to his awakening!
...
After sorting through the memories of his life before this awakening, Lin Changheng couldn't help but take a deep breath.
'This situation is truly dire!'
It was a situation where he would almost certainly die if he couldn't become an Entry Tier Alchemist.
But he quickly forced himself to calm down and began to analyze the crux of the problem, searching for a solution.
Soon, his eyes lit up as he realized something was wrong. He fell into deep thought.
'Generally, there are no bottlenecks at the second layer of Qi Cultivation. Those usually only appear in the Middle and Late Stages. So why is my Cultivation stuck at the Second Layer?'
'Could it... be related to the loss of Essence Blood I've suffered over the years?'
'And could that be why my control during Alchemy is so weak, and why I don't have enough Magical Power to sustain the process?'
Lin Changheng thought of a possibility. Ever since birth, his body had always suffered from a minor insufficiency of Qi and Blood. It was so slight that it didn't affect his daily life, so he had never paid it any mind.
But after he began his Cultivation, the problem became more frequent and severe!
Without fail, once every month, he would suffer a debilitating loss of Essence Blood, as if some specter were secretly draining it from him. For a period afterward, he would be listless, his Magical Power impossible to sustain.
He had tried taking Blood and Qi Supplement Pills and wearing Protective Talismans, but nothing worked.
'That has to be it!'
Lin Changheng slapped the table. The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. He was about to delve deeper when a familiar, mysterious wave of weakness washed over him again. 'Damn it, it's happening again!'
The familiar sensation of his Essence Blood being siphoned away made Lin Changheng's expression change drastically, but he was powerless to stop it.
He could only endure it.
He didn't know how much time had passed before he found himself leaning against the table, completely drained. His eyes were filled with an icy chill and profound helplessness.
Just then, a profoundly mysterious, Vast aura emerged from the void and poured directly into Lin Changheng's mind. His exhaustion vanished, and his anxiety melted away.
'What is this?'
Lin Changheng waited for the strange sensation to fade, then closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them again—WHOOSH!—the world around him transformed.
His perspective pierced through the veil of reality and settled within his sea of consciousness.
There, right in the center of his vision, an oddly shaped, mysterious Small Bronze Cauldron had abruptly appeared.