Lin Xuan

"Alas!"

A disappointed sigh escaped him. The ordinary-looking youth wore a blank expression. He had failed again—his forty-ninth failed breakthrough attempt in three months. Even with Lin Xuan's steadfast will, he was now surrounded by frustration and despair.

A bitter smile touched the youth's lips. He shook his head and looked at his hands. Was his aptitude truly this poor?

Lin Xuan clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his flesh, yet he seemed not to feel the pain at all.

Lin Xuan was seventeen this year and had been a disciple of Floating Cloud Valley for three years.

Floating Cloud Valley was a small sect in the Cultivation World, with nearly a thousand disciples. Lin Xuan was one of its low-ranking disciples.

In three years, the senior and junior brothers who had entered the sect alongside him had long since reached the middle phase of the Spirit Movement Stage. Several with exceptional aptitude had even entered the late phase of the fifth layer, while he still lingered at the first layer.

His progress was so slow not because Lin Xuan did not work hard. On the contrary, his diligence was second to none among the low-ranking disciples. If others practiced their cultivation arts once, he practiced them three times. If others meditated for an hour, he meditated for three. Yet after all that bitter effort, his gains were pitifully small. He had been left far behind by everyone else, and his heart was filled with frustration.

Cultivation was divided into eight stages: Spirit Movement, Foundation Establishment, Core Condensation, Nascent Soul, Lihe, Dongxuan, Spirit Division, and Tribulation Transcendence. Each stage was further divided into seven layers. The first and second layers were the early phase, the third and fourth layers the middle phase, the fifth and sixth layers the late phase, while the seventh was known as Great Completion. Once one broke through the bottleneck, one could enter the next stage.

Though the immortal path was arduous, it still progressed from the shallow to the profound. For example, the cultivation arts of the first two layers of the Spirit Movement Stage were merely introductory. Those with good aptitude could master the first layer in two months, while those with slightly poorer aptitude could manage it in three to five months. Unfortunately, that only applied to those with Spirit Roots.

Spirit Root was a term used in the Cultivation World. As for what it actually was, there had been no precise explanation even after tens of thousands of years. People only knew that those with Spirit Roots cultivated far faster than ordinary people without them. In other words, theoretically speaking, ordinary Mortals were not incapable of cultivation; it was merely twice the effort for half the result... No, it should be said that even after putting in ten times the effort, they would not gain half as much as others.

Simply put, it was a thankless task.

And unfortunately, Lin Xuan was an ordinary person without a Spirit Root.

Ordinarily, someone as unremarkable as him, without a Spirit Root, would never be accepted by any sect even if he wished to embark upon the path of immortality. But Lin Xuan's circumstances were rather special. Three years ago, by a twist of fate, he had saved a seriously injured elder of Floating Cloud Valley. In gratitude, the elder recommended him for admission, allowing him to become a member of this small cultivation sect, Floating Cloud Valley.

Through three years of winter cold and summer heat, Lin Xuan had never once slackened in his cultivation. He trained through the bitterest days of winter and the hottest days of summer, shedding far more sweat than others. Yet even so, he had still been left far behind by his fellow disciples.

In pursuing the immortal path, aptitude mattered even more. Effort alone could hardly make up for it!

Just like his recent attempts at breaking through. Lin Xuan felt that his cultivation had reached the pinnacle of the first layer, with only the tiniest gap separating him from the second layer of the Spirit Movement Stage. Yet that minute gap was like an enormous chasm. No matter how hard Lin Xuan tried, he could not cross it.

After a long while, Lin Xuan released his clenched fists and let out a breath, as though trying to drive the gloom from his heart. He sat down cross-legged once more and performed the Internal Vision Technique...

The Internal Vision Technique was a minor spell of the Cultivation World. It allowed one to examine the movement of spiritual power within one's dantian and meridians. It was an auxiliary spell used only during cultivation.

Within his dantian lay a stretch of emptiness. The only thing present was thread after thread of pale blue gas. This was the legendary spiritual power.

Yet there was not much of it, and it was extremely thin. That was because Lin Xuan's cultivation was rather low.

So-called cultivation was walking against the heavens. To defy the heavens, one needed immense Supernatural Power. One had to endure countless bitter trials before one could command the Five Elements, absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, refine it, and finally make it one's own.

These wisps of spiritual power were what Lin Xuan had gained from three years of cultivation. Naturally, they were far fewer than those of his fellow disciples. Without a Spirit Root, his path of cultivation was much harsher than theirs.

Under the influence of his divine sense, the wisps of spiritual power began to gather and entwine. Originally, each strand was only as thick as a hair, but as time passed, they converged into a stream of spiritual power roughly as thick as his little finger.

A faint white vapor rose from Lin Xuan's head, and his entire body was soaked in sweat. Merely gathering the spiritual power had already exhausted him completely. For ordinary people, cultivation truly was a path strewn with thorns at every step.

His breathing grew heavier, but Lin Xuan's expression did not change in the slightest. After three years, he had long since grown accustomed to it.

Once the spiritual power had gathered, Lin Xuan did not relax in the slightest. Carefully, he released his divine sense and followed the cultivation method taught by his sect, controlling the spiritual power as it flowed out of his dantian and entered his meridians.

To cultivators, the dantian was the foundation for storing spiritual power, while the Eight Extraordinary Meridians were equally vital. When spiritual power traveled once through the Eight Extraordinary Meridians from head to toe, it was called one heavenly cycle.

With every such cycle, spiritual power grew a little stronger. Though the increase was minuscule, drops of water could wear through stone. By completing several such cycles each day, one's spiritual power would gradually grow.

Naturally, the Cultivation World possessed countless cultivation arts. Every sect followed a different route for its major heavenly cycles, and the results varied greatly as well.

Though the major heavenly cycle was a required lesson for every cultivator, it was nowhere near as easy as outsiders imagined. It could even be said to be extremely difficult.

There was no need to worry about the route of the spiritual power; the sect's cultivation method explained it clearly enough, and one only had to follow it. But the speed of its flow had to be explored by oneself, for every person's meridians were different.

Some people had strong meridians and great endurance. Not only could they contain more spiritual power, but they could also withstand faster flow. Others had weaker meridians, and their circumstances were entirely the opposite. Generally speaking, the better one's Spirit Root, the stronger one's meridians, and vice versa.

Lin Xuan was merely an ordinary person, without even a Spirit Root. Therefore, completing a major heavenly cycle required him to expend more energy and consume more time.

Every step had to be taken with the utmost care. If the speed was too fast, not only would he fail to complete the cycle smoothly, he might even damage his meridians.