Heart Inquiry

Liu Ruyan's threats? Cut them down with a single sword strike!

Chief Steward Wang's harassment? Cut it down with a single sword strike!

Everyone who looked down on him, everyone who had ever bullied him—cut them all down with a single sword strike!

How exhilarating!

How dashing!

However, as Zhou Xuan looked at that Immortal Sword radiating infinite temptation, he hesitated to reach out his hand.

He felt he couldn't do it.

Whether it was his past life as an ordinary person struggling to survive in a concrete jungle, or this life as a lowly servant struggling to stay alive at the bottom of the sect.

In his personal creed, there had never been any concept of being invincible or sweeping away all obstacles.

He was more accustomed to forbearance, to calculation, to accumulating strength in the shadows, and to delivering a fatal blow when the enemy least expected it.

To be sharp-edged like a sword cultivator, gambling everything on an unstoppable, forward-thrusting sharpness—that was not him.

"I am not a sword."

Zhou Xuan said softly in his heart.

Following his thought, that peerless Immortal Sword shattered inch by inch, turning into specks of light that dissipated into nothingness.

But if he wasn't a sword cultivator, what path should he take?

For a moment, Zhou Xuan fell into confusion.

Just then, scenes began to flash before his eyes.

It was his entire past life, from an ignorant child to an adult who had crawled through society, tasting every bitterness and sweetness.

No prominent family background, no astonishing talent; every step had been exceptionally difficult.

Only by relying on a stubborn, unyielding tenacity had he barely managed to gain a foothold.

The scene shifted, turning into his life in this world.

From starting with nothing to becoming a wealthy man in the mortal realm through great hardship, then entering the sect only to be reduced to a servant, abandoned by his childhood sweetheart, and suffering cold shoulders and bullying at the very bottom of the sect.

Whether in his past life or this one, his starting point had been pitifully low.

He was like a blade of wild grass on a cliffside, struggling to sprout from the cracks in the stone, welcoming the gale, enduring the torrential rain, scorched by the blazing sun, and covered by ice and snow.

When the wind blew, he would bow his head and bend his stalk with the flow.

When the sun was scorching, he would wither and turn yellow, as if he might die at any moment.

But...

Before Zhou Xuan's eyes, a ruin scorched by heavenly fire seemed to appear.

The earth was charred black, devastated, with no signs of life.

Yet, right in the center of this dead ruin, beneath the cracked, scorched earth, a tenacious touch of green quietly pushed aside the stones and stubbornly poked its head out.

Following that, a second, a third...

The scattered specks of green soon connected into a vast expanse!

Thousands upon thousands of weeds swayed in the gale, yet they never snapped.

They bowed their heads in the torrential rain, yet their roots dug even deeper!

They were small, they were inconspicuous, and they could even be trampled upon at will.

But they possessed the most powerful thing in the world: vitality!

As long as they were given a sliver of soil, a ray of sunlight, and a drop of dew, they could grow wildly!

Wildfires cannot destroy them; they grow again with the spring breeze!

This was their Dao!

A light like never before erupted in Zhou Xuan's eyes.

He understood!

He finally understood!

Can a sword truly cut through everything?

It can cut down one blade of grass, but can it cut down an entire prairie?

Can it cut through the tangled, endless root systems deep beneath the earth?

He was that blade of grass!

Seeking that single glimmer of survival amidst a hundred deaths!

No matter how the wind blows or the rain beats, no matter the hardships and obstacles, I shall continuously dig my roots deeper to draw nourishment.

Continuously reaching upward, pursuing the sunlight!

This is my Dao!

Endless life, the Way of Nature!

Boom!

The moment this thought fully took shape in his mind, the massive amount of spiritual energy that had been stalled before his dantian barrier seemed to find its true outlet!

It was no longer chaotic, no longer violent.

That energy seemed to have been imbued with the will to live!

They no longer struck rigidly, but like billions of living seeds, they began to frantically infiltrate and burrow into that impenetrable barrier!

Inside the barrier, they took root and sprouted!

Crack...

An extremely faint, yet crystal-clear sound of shattering echoed within the consciousness of Zhou Xuan.

That Mortal Immortal Barrier, which had troubled him for so long and remained impenetrable, began to develop a tiny crack from the inside out.

Immediately following, a second, a third...

Countless cracks, like a spiderweb, instantly covered the entire barrier!

The next second!

Bang!

The barrier shattered with a roar!

A surge of heaven and earth spiritual energy, far more massive and pure than before, seemed to be drawn by some fatal attraction, frantically pouring in from the outside world and flooding into the body of Zhou Xuan!

All the spiritual energy within him, at this moment, completely underwent a qualitative transformation!

Zhou Xuan could clearly see that in his empty dantian, a wisp of newborn, vibrant airflow was slowly rotating.

It was like a nascent star vortex, beginning to spin, and spinning faster and faster!

The surrounding heaven and earth spiritual energy did not even require him to actively circulate his cultivation technique to absorb it.

It was continuously drawn and pulled by this small vortex, merging into his body and strengthening that faint wisp of airflow.

The Way of Nature, passive absorption!

This, this was a true cultivator!

Qi Refining Realm, achieved!

Zhou Xuan opened his eyes abruptly.

Two unprecedentedly brilliant flashes of light flickered across the depths of his eyes and vanished!

He slowly lowered his head and spread his palms.

The skin was still the same skin, but inside, a world-shaking change had already occurred.

He could feel a warm, gentle airflow slowly flowing through his meridians, perfectly merging with his flesh and blood.

With a thought, that wisp of airflow followed his meridians and instantly gathered at his fingertips.

There was no light, nor heat.

But Zhou Xuan could clearly feel that his fingertips contained a terrifying power capable of easily piercing through steel plates!

This was Mana!

He had succeeded!

He had finally cast off the shackles of a mortal and truly stepped onto the path of immortality!

Zhou Xuan exhaled a long breath of stale air, which condensed into a faint white mist in the air, lingering for a long time.

Just as Zhou Xuan stepped into the Qi Refining Realm and the first wisp of mana was born in his dantian.

Deep within the Chore Servant Courtyard, in a compound far more refined than the other thatched huts.

A middle-aged man wearing a brocade robe, bloated in stature, who had been sitting with his legs crossed while picking his teeth and humming a tune, suddenly froze in his movements.

This person was none other than the manager of the Chore Servant Courtyard, Chief Steward Wang.

His eyes, which were always narrowed into slits, suddenly opened wide, flashing with a rare look of shock and suspicion.

"Hmm?"

Just a moment ago, his spiritual sense, possessed only by cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm, had keenly captured a trace of extremely faint, yet undeniably real, spiritual energy fluctuation.

It was a unique ripple that only occurred when one broke through a realm and triggered the heaven and earth spiritual energy to flood the body!

Although this ripple disappeared quickly, it could not be mistaken!

"Someone in the Chore Servant Courtyard broke through to Qi Refining?"

The leisure on the face of Chief Steward Wang vanished instantly, replaced by a gravity mixed with disbelief and a hint of greed.

What kind of place was the Chore Servant Courtyard?

It was the sect's dumping ground, a shelter for trash!

Those who stayed here were all wretches with impure Spirit Roots who had no hope of ever stepping onto the path of immortality in this lifetime.

Let alone breaking through to Qi Refining, even those who could cultivate the Body Tempering Realm to perfection were few and far between.

How could someone break through here?

Who was it?