Spiritual Root Transformation, Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator

The night sky was silent, save for the occasional cry of a bird, and the mountain forest lay still in the darkness.

Gu An sat cross-legged within the Longevity Barrier, admiring the moonlight.

The moon tonight was beautiful, much like his current mood.

His cultivation had already reached the fourth level of the Golden Core, and he was getting closer and closer to the end.

He prepared to keep burning his lifespan until he broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm, and then he would burn more to master a supreme technique, as the Gale Absolute Shadow Leg could no longer satisfy him.

What kind of great Nascent Soul Realm expert uses their legs?

It had to be the sword!

Gu An decided to favor the Li Family Seven Swords; since he possessed the cultivation of the Nascent Soul Realm, he needed the offensive means to match it.

Hmm, let's assume Cheng Xuandan's master was a great Nascent Soul Realm expert!

Gu An wanted to overestimate his opponent as much as possible so that the chances of defeat would decrease.

The cultivator who had fought earlier had not returned after leaving, which allowed Gu An to finally set his mind at ease.

He was already a Golden Core cultivator, enough to walk sideways through the Outer Sect; even if someone suddenly broke in, they wouldn't be able to withstand a single kick from him!

Fifth level of the Golden Core!

As his cultivation improved once more, Gu An's divine sense grew stronger along with it!

The Golden Core Realm and the Foundation Establishment Realm were as different as heaven and earth.

The spiritual power was worlds apart, and there was a vast disparity in divine sense; Gu An's divine sense could now condense together to form a powerful, focused impact.

Only upon reaching the Golden Core Realm did he feel like a true immortal cultivator.

If the Golden Core Realm was like this, how strong must the Nascent Soul Realm be?

Gu An could not wait to burn more of his lifespan.

He was forced to wait, and only after his cultivation reached the sixth level of the Golden Core did he pull up his attribute panel.

His gaze was involuntarily drawn to his spiritual roots.

He had tried to improve his spiritual roots before, but the results were like throwing money into the water, leaving him with psychological trauma; he feared it was a bottomless pit, so he had diverted his lifespan elsewhere, and he knew that deducing techniques could also improve spiritual root aptitude.

Now that he was strong enough and had plenty of lifespan, it was time to try improving his spiritual roots again.

After a while, once the surge in his cultivation had settled, Gu An directly invested two thousand years of lifespan into his spiritual roots!

[You have invested two thousand years of lifespan into your spiritual roots for evolutionary cultivation.]

[You contemplate the nature of heaven and earth for one hundred years; your perception of the Five Elements Spiritual Root has improved.]

[You contemplate the nature of heaven and earth for two hundred years; your perception of the Five Elements Spiritual Root has improved.]

[You contemplate the nature of heaven and earth for one thousand years; you finally capture a trace of the true meaning of heaven and earth. Your spiritual roots are baptized by heaven and earth, and your Five Elements Spiritual Root aptitude begins to transform. All of your Five Elements Spiritual Root aptitudes have transformed into Second-Rate Mortal Body Aptitude, with the Wood Spiritual Root being the most prominent.]

[You contemplate the nature of heaven and earth for one thousand two hundred years; your perception of the Five Elements Spiritual Root has improved.]

[You contemplate the nature of heaven and earth for two thousand years; you finally capture a trace of the true meaning of heaven and earth, while simultaneously sensing the veins of the earth. Your spiritual roots are baptized by heaven and earth, and your Five Elements Spiritual Root aptitude begins to transform. All of your Five Elements Spiritual Root aptitudes have transformed into First-Rate Mortal Body Aptitude, with the Wood Spiritual Root and Earth Spiritual Root being the most prominent.]

Lines of prompts popped up before Gu An's eyes one after another.

Seeing the first five prompts, his heart began to bleed.

He had been too careless!

This thing really was a bottomless pit!

Seeing the final result, with all five spiritual roots reaching the first-rate level, his mood improved, but he still felt the sting; after all, his previous contemplation of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique had already brought his Wood Spiritual Root to first-rate aptitude.

He couldn't think like that!

He should think that it took one thousand years for the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique to bring just one spiritual root to first-rate aptitude, so to bring all five to that level would have taken at least five thousand years.

That raised the question: why didn't he just cultivate techniques for the other four attributes?

People, after all, have to experiment to find the most perfect path.

As Gu An summarized his thoughts, the spiritual energy of the earth surged once more; this time, it was not to improve his cultivation, but to temper his bones and marrow.

Pain!

Gu An felt unprecedented pain, and he could only grit his teeth and endure it.

To distract himself, he began to think about the attribute panel.

It seemed that spiritual root aptitude was the hardest thing to improve, which made sense; spiritual root aptitude was equivalent to one's maximum lifespan, while cultivation was one's current lifespan, and breaking one's limits was the hardest thing of all.

Acquired effort was never harder than breaking a fate ordained by heaven.

This was why the Taixuan Sect treated geniuses so well; Ji Xiaoyu, with her dual spiritual roots, was far more important to the Taixuan Sect than a single Golden Core cultivator.

For ordinary people, the fewer the spiritual roots, the higher the aptitude. Assuming a person's total talent value for spiritual roots was one hundred, dual spiritual roots would split it fifty-fifty, but if one had five spiritual roots, each would only have twenty; being well-rounded sometimes meant being mediocre.

Gu An was different now; by improving his spiritual root aptitude, he was effectively raising his total talent value from one hundred and beyond.

It is a pity that the attributes of his Spiritual Root cannot be boosted individually for cultivation; currently, the other roots provide little help to his practice of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique, so while his cultivation speed has increased, it is not by much.

However, he noticed that the prefix for the first-rate aptitude in the prompt is "Mortal Body."

Could there be "Sacred Bodies" or "Spirit Bodies" as well?

Gu An let his imagination run wild. Meanwhile, the consumption rate of the Longevity Barrier began to slow down; since he started the breakthrough, he had already consumed 134 years of his lifespan.

As his Spiritual Root aptitude continued to improve, Gu An clearly felt the spiritual energy of each attribute becoming more distinct, which also changed his perception of the entire world.

The sensation of pain was being replaced by a sense of novelty!

A long while passed.

Gu An's body stopped absorbing spiritual energy, and the Spiritual Root on his attribute panel changed to First-rate Five Elements Spiritual Root. He did not stand up, but instead invested 2,000 years of lifespan into his cultivation.

The failure of the tribulation had left him traumatized, so he decided to use brute force to ensure a miracle; if he only invested 1,000 years and got stuck at the ninth level of the Golden Core, he would surely cough up blood.

That was a real possibility!

After failing a tribulation, one had to waste fifty years before attempting it again. It was all too realistic—in reality, failing a tribulation meant either death or injury, and recovering from injuries indeed took time.

Moreover, the heavenly tribulation for the Nascent Soul Realm was bound to be even harder, and the number of failures would likely be even higher!

Start!

[You practiced Qi absorption for 100 years, and your cultivation broke through to the seventh level of the Golden Core.]

[You practiced Qi absorption for 200 years, and your cultivation broke through to the eighth level of the Golden Core.]

[You practiced Qi absorption for 300 years, and your cultivation broke through to the ninth level of the Golden Core.]

[You practiced Qi absorption for 400 years. With your profound mastery of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique, you forcibly attempted to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm and began the tribulation. You failed to survive the Three Profound Heavenly Tribulation and failed the breakthrough.]

[You practiced Qi absorption for 1,500 years. With your profound mastery of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique, you forcibly attempted to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm and began the tribulation. You failed to survive the Three Profound Heavenly Tribulation and failed the breakthrough.]

[You practiced Qi absorption for 1,600 years. With your profound mastery of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique, you forcibly attempted to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm and began the tribulation. You finally survived the Three Profound Heavenly Tribulation, succeeded in the breakthrough, and ascended to the Nascent Soul Realm.]

[You practiced Qi absorption for 1,800 years, and your cultivation broke through to the second level of the Nascent Soul Realm.]

[You practiced Qi absorption for 2,000 years, and your cultivation broke through to the third level of the Nascent Soul Realm.]

Damn it!

He actually failed twelve times!

When Gu An saw that he had failed the tribulation six times, his heart sank to the bottom; when he failed ten times, his vision went black.

Fortunately, he ultimately succeeded in breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Is the Nascent Soul Realm really that hard to break through to?

Gu An thought in despair, realizing why the lifespan consumed during simulated cultivation was greater than the actual consumption.

Simulated cultivation was equivalent to "naked" cultivation; normal practice involved taking pills and using arrays to gather spiritual energy, both of which could assist in passing tribulations, not to mention the miraculous effects of rare treasures.

Spiritual energy from heaven and earth surged in frantically once more, and the consumption rate of the Longevity Barrier began to accelerate.

Gu An calmed his mind and began to enjoy the rise in his cultivation.

The rising sun swept across the human world, and the Mystic Valley gradually brightened. Gu An stood on the mountaintop, overlooking the autumnal forest. His robes fluttered, and as the sunlight spilled over him, he looked as if he might ascend to immortality at any moment.

He had already condensed his Nascent Soul and become a true Nascent Soul Realm cultivator!

To reward himself, he raised his displayed cultivation by one level, reaching the fourth level of Qi Refining. From now on, he would raise it by one level every year, keeping it stuck at the ninth level of Qi Refining so he would never be conscripted.

He couldn't help but pull up his attribute panel to check again.

[Name: Gu An]

[Lifespan: 22/4502]

[Spiritual Root: First-rate Five Elements Spiritual Root (Wood and Earth attributes are more prominent) (Can invest lifespan to simulate cultivation)]

[Cultivation: Third level of the Nascent Soul Realm (Can invest lifespan to simulate cultivation)]

[Techniques: Fire Control Art (Not mastered), Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique (Pure Mastery), Dragon Force Divine Origin Technique (Pure Mastery), Alchemy (Elementary) (Can invest lifespan to simulate cultivation)]

[Ultimate Skills: Gale Absolute Shadow Leg (Mastered), Li Family Seven Swords (Not mastered), Eight Directions Step (Not mastered) (Can invest lifespan to simulate cultivation)]

Gu An planned to spend more lifespan on the Li Family Seven Swords later, then continue saving his lifespan until he hit the 100,000 mark before using it again.

For now, he needed to rest for a few days to calm his agitated heart.

With his Nascent Soul Realm cultivation, he could easily go to the Taixuan Sect to claim a decent position and benefits, but the mere thought of the Taixuan Sect sending him out to slay demons, fight against the demonic path, or even get involved in internal strife made him dismiss the stray thought.

Never forget your original intention, and you shall achieve the true fruit!

No matter who comes, it won't work; he is going to stay holed up in the Mystic Valley until the end!

He could occasionally go out to look for rare treasures, but he must never shift his focus away from the Mystic Valley.

A higher status might allow his lifespan to grow faster, but the danger coefficient would be directly proportional. Besides, he had no enemies, so why be in such a rush?

Gu An turned around and walked down the mountain.

Those in the Nascent Soul Realm are already capable of flight, but he chose not to do so, opting instead to walk down the mountain.

By the time he arrived at Medicine Valley, Xiao Chuan and the others were coming out one after another.

"Senior Brother, you went up the mountain so early?" Ye Lan greeted Gu An. She couldn't tell if it was just her imagination, but she felt that today, her Senior Brother looked even more handsome than usual.

Gu An smiled and said, "I went to check on the seeds. You lead them in their training today."

Ye Lan nodded in agreement and wanted to ask more, but Gu An was already walking toward the pavilion.

Not far away, Wuxin watched Gu An's retreating figure and thought to himself, There must be some secret in the mountain forest! I will definitely find it!

Gu An climbed the stairs and pushed the door open. As soon as he entered, he saw the White Spirit Mouse sprawled on the table, its entire body swollen like a balloon, while the Azure Vine Fruit had vanished.

It was still breathing; it wasn't dead!

He immediately cast a lifespan inspection on the White Spirit Mouse.

[White Spirit Mouse (First Tier): 12/120/180]

Hmm?

It had actually gained seventy years of lifespan; the White Spirit Mouse's initial lifespan was only fifty years.

Was the medicinal effect of the Azure Vine Fruit that potent?

Gu An immediately walked to the wooden cabinet, took out an Azure Vine Fruit, and began to eat it.

Thanks to Zhi Qiu Da Zi Zai for gifting Gu An 1000 Qidian coins, becoming Gu An's top contributor!

As always, asking for monthly votes~~

This book will keep on going, just look at the title, everyone need not worry~~