“Sigh!”

A disappointed sigh escaped his lips. An ordinary-looking youth wore a wooden expression on his face—another failure. This was already his forty-ninth failed breakthrough attempt in three months. Even with Lin Xuan’s resilient willpower, he now found himself surrounded by frustration and despair.

A bitter smile appeared at the corner of the youth’s mouth as he shook his head and looked at his hands. Was his aptitude really this poor?

Lin Xuan clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his flesh, yet he seemed to feel no pain at all.

Lin Xuan was seventeen years old and had been a disciple of Drifting Cloud Valley for three years now.

Drifting Cloud Valley was a minor sect in the cultivation world with nearly a thousand disciples, and Lin Xuan was one of the low-ranked outer disciples.

In three years’ time, the senior and junior brothers who had entered the sect alongside him had long since advanced to the middle stage of the Spirit Awakening Stage. Several with outstanding aptitude had even reached the late stage of the fifth layer. Yet he still lingered at the first layer.

His progress was so slow not because Lin Xuan didn’t work hard enough—quite the opposite. His effort among the low-ranked disciples was second to none. Where others practiced techniques once, he practiced three times. Where others meditated for one hour, he meditated for three. Yet despite such painstaking effort, his gains were pitifully meager. He had been left far behind by everyone else, and Lin Xuan’s heart was filled with a sense of defeat.

Cultivation was divided into eight major stages: Spirit Awakening, Foundation Establishment, Core Condensation, Nascent Soul, Spirit-Soul Union, Profound Mystery, Spirit Severing, and Tribulation Transcendence. Each stage was further divided into seven layers—layers one and two were the early stage, three and four the middle stage, five and six the late stage, and the seventh layer was called Great Perfection. Only by breaking through the bottleneck could one advance to the next stage.

Though the immortal path was difficult, it progressed from shallow to deep. For instance, the techniques for the first two layers of the Spirit Awakening Stage were merely introductory. Those with good aptitude could complete the first layer in two months; those with slightly poorer aptitude could manage it in three to five months. Unfortunately, this all referred to people who possessed spiritual roots.

Spiritual roots were a concept in the cultivation world. What exactly they were had never been precisely defined even after tens of thousands ​unauthorized copy​of years. It was only known that possessing spiritual roots made one’s cultivation speed far faster than ordinary people without them. In other words, theoretically speaking, ordinary mortals with average aptitude weren’t incapable of cultivating—it was just twice the work for half the results… No, it should be said that even with ten times the effort, they couldn’t achieve half of what others gained.

Simply put, it was thankless work.

And very unfortunately, Lin Xuan was an ordinary person without spiritual roots.

Originally, someone like him—an ordinary person without spiritual roots—wouldn’t have been accepted by any sect even if he wished to step onto the path of cultivation. However, Lin Xuan’s situation was rather special. Three years ago, through a fortuitous encounter, he had saved a severely injured elder from Drifting Cloud Valley. Out of gratitude, that person recommended him for entry, making him a member of this minor cultivation sect.

Over three years, Lin Xuan had never slackened in his cultivation. He trained through the harshest winter cold and the most sweltering summer heat, sweating far more than others. Yet even so, he was still left far behind by his fellow disciples.

In pursuing the immortal path, aptitude was more important. Effort alone could hardly compensate for the difference!

Take his recent breakthrough attempts—Lin Xuan felt his cultivation had already reached the peak of the first layer. He was just a little bit away from the second layer of the Spirit Awakening Stage. Yet this tiny gap was like an enormous chasm that Lin Xuan couldn’t cross no matter how hard he tried.

After a long while, Lin Xuan released his clenched fists and exhaled, as if trying to expel the gloom from his heart. He sat cross-legged again and employed the Inner Vision technique…

Inner Vision was a minor spell in the cultivation world that allowed one to observe the circulation of spiritual energy within one’s own dantian and meridians. It was an auxiliary technique used during cultivation.

Within his dantian was a void, with only wisps of pale cyan gas present—this was the legendary spiritual energy.

But the gas was sparse and extremely thin, a result of Lin Xuan’s relatively low cultivation level.

So-called cultivation meant defying the heavens, ​noodles​and to defy the heavens required immense supernatural powers. This involved countless arduous trials before one could master the five elements, absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, refine it, and finally make it one’s own.

These wisps of spiritual energy were what Lin Xuan had gained from three years of cultivation. Of course, compared to his fellow disciples, it was much less. Without spiritual roots, his cultivation path was far more arduous than theirs.

Under the guidance of his spiritual sense, those wisps of spiritual energy began to gather and intertwine. Originally, each wisp was only as thick as a strand of hair, but as time passed, they coalesced into a stream of spiritual energy about as thick as a pinky finger.

White vapor rose from Lin Xuan’s head, and his entire body was soaked with sweat. Just the process of gathering spiritual energy had exhausted all his strength. For an ordinary person to cultivate was truly fraught with thorns at every step.

His breathing grew heavier, but Lin Xuan’s expression didn’t change in the slightest—after three years, he had long grown accustomed to this.

After gathering the spiritual energy, Lin Xuan’s expression showed no relaxation whatsoever. He carefully released his spiritual sense and, following the cultivation method taught by his sect, controlled the spiritual energy as it flowed out of his dantian and into his meridians.

For cultivators, the dantian was the fundamental storage place for spiritual energy, and the eight extraordinary meridians were equally important locations. When spiritual energy circulated through the eight extraordinary meridians from head to toe in one complete circuit, it was called a heavenly cycle.

Each time such a circulation was completed, the spiritual energy would strengthen slightly. Though the increase was minuscule, accumulation made abundance—by completing several such cycles each day, spiritual energy would gradually grow stronger.

Of course, there were countless cultivation methods in the cultivation world. Each sect had different paths for completing the great heavenly cycle, and the effects varied greatly as well.

The great heavenly cycle was a required practice for every cultivator, yet it wasn’t as easy as outsiders might imagine. In fact, it could be said to be quite difficult.

The route of spiritual energy circulation didn’t need to be worried about—the sect’s cultivation method explained it clearly, and one only needed to follow it. However, the speed of circulation needed to be discovered through personal exploration. The reason was simple: each person’s meridian condition was different.

Some people had strong, robust meridians with high tolerance—they could not only contain more spiritual energy but could also circulate it faster without issue. Others had weaker meridians, and their situation was completely opposite. Generally speaking, the [noodles]better one’s spiritual roots, the stronger one’s meridians, and vice versa.

Lin Xuan was just an ordinary person without even spiritual roots, so completing a great heavenly cycle required more effort and consumed more time.

Every step had to be taken with extreme caution. If the speed was too fast, not only would the cycle fail to complete smoothly, but it would also damage his meridians.