Immortal

A white-robed "Immortal" appeared, walked up to the Black Wolf, drew his longsword, and asked him, "What's the little one's name?"

Before Wang Daoyuan could answer, Big Black barked timidly at the "Immortal." Fearing he might anger the "Immortal," Wang Daoyuan quickly stopped Big Black and replied respectfully, "This boy's surname is Wang. I don't have a name yet; my parents call me Er Wa."

The "Immortal" hoisted the Black Wolf's corpse with one hand and touched the pouch at his waist. The calf-sized Black Wolf vanished in an instant. He chuckled and said, "As expected of someone from the Wang Clan—bold. Facing a wolf that's gained some intelligence and staying calm. Just a black dog was enough to drive it off. At your age, with both courage and wit, if you can walk the path of cultivation, your future will be boundless.

This dog is impressive too. It already has some intelligence. If it had grown up in the clan, it might already be a First-order Spirit Beast."

With that, he turned and headed toward Qingxi Village. Wang Daoyuan followed respectfully with Big Black at his side.

Only then did he dare to study the "Immortal." The "Immortal" carried a longsword on his back, a gourd hung from his waist, and his hair was a mess. His white robe looked like it hadn't been washed in years. Thanks to its special material, it hadn't changed color, but it was clearly caked with grime, and a strange mix of sour stench and alcohol wafted from it from time to time.

The "Immortal" escorted him home. When his parents saw Big Black covered in wounds and Er Wa in tatters, their faces filled with worry.

Seeing them brought back by an Immortal, they immediately imagined that Er Wa and Big Black had been attacked by a wild beast and rescued by the Immortal. They knelt to the "Immortal" and said, "Thank you, Immortal, for saving our Er Wa."

The "Immortal" waved his hand, and a gentle breeze swept through, lifting them to their feet. "This wasn't my doing. This boy and your black dog worked together to drive off a wolf. By the time I arrived, the wolf was already trying to flee. Without me, the boy would have been fine."

Seeing such power, Wang Daoyuan was filled with envy and wished he could start cultivating immediately. Unfortunately, he was only five, still far from the age for testing spiritual roots.

He tested the waters and asked, "Immortal, can I start cultivating now?"

The "Immortal" answered without hesitation, "How old are you? There's a reason the cultivation world starts at ten. First, children under ten lack the intelligence to fully grasp cultivation knowledge. Second, their bodies are too weak to withstand the power of spiritual energy.

That said, watching you handle that Black Wolf without panicking, your intelligence seems sufficient. Your physique looks decent too, but it might not meet the requirements. After all, you look like you're only five or six."

Wild beasts often roamed near Qingxi Village, and spirit beasts appeared from time to time.

He had nearly been eaten by a beast with a hint of intelligence today. Waiting another five years—who knew what would happen? He might not even live to be ten.

He quickly said, "This boy is determined to cultivate. I beg the Immortal to grant me this chance."

The Immortal placed his hand on Wang Daoyuan's lower abdomen, over his Dantian. A cool, refreshing sensation slowly seeped into his belly, then spread throughout his body.

"Your physique is unusual. At this age, taking in spiritual energy without any discomfort—I'll give you a chance." The Immortal looked a bit surprised, pulled out a book, and said, "This is the Meridian Opening Art, the most basic cultivation technique. It's used to open the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

If you can develop a Qi sensation, it means you have a spiritual root and can cultivate. If not, you have no spiritual root and are merely a mortal.

I should warn you: though your physique is stronger than others your age and can handle some spiritual energy, the energy I channeled into you was under my control, so it won't cause serious harm.

If you cultivate spiritual power on your own, you might lose control, injure yourself, and affect your future cultivation.

Are you still willing to try?"

Wang Daoyuan answered firmly, "This boy is willing!"

The script of this world was similar to the small seal script of his past life, only simpler. Even before awakening his past-life memories, he had found it easy to learn.

At the Clan School, he had mastered all the common characters in just a few months.

Now, reading the Meridian Opening Art posed little challenge.

Under the "Immortal's" guidance, Wang Daoyuan began cultivating the Meridian Opening Art.

An hour later, he felt a faint warmth in his abdomen and told the "Immortal."

The "Immortal" belched and said, "Don't mess with me. Developing a Qi sensation in an hour? Either I'm too drunk and heard wrong, or you wet yourself. Where else would that warmth come from?"

Even so, the "Immortal" carefully examined his body and found that Wang Daoyuan had indeed cultivated a trace of spiritual power. He stood frozen on the spot.

After a long while, the "Immortal" snapped out of it and asked, "Any discomfort in your body?"

When Wang Daoyuan said he felt fine, the "Immortal" grabbed him without another word and started sprinting, leaving his stunned parents and older brother behind.

Fortunately, Wang Daoyuan's parents had learned about cultivation at the Clan School when they were young. They knew their son had caught the eye of the clan's "Immortal" and was about to walk the path of cultivation, so they weren't too worried.

After a day's journey, the "Immortal" brought Wang Daoyuan back to Jade Spring Peak and reported the situation to the elders.

After an assessment, the elders confirmed that Wang Daoyuan had developed a Qi sensation through the Meridian Opening Art and had officially stepped into the first realm of cultivation—the Meridian Opening Realm.

A five-year-old cultivator? In the Wang Clan's six-hundred-plus-year history, they had never seen or even heard of such a thing.

Wang Daoyuan formally joined the Wang Clan. The clan's generational naming was "Cheng Zu Ji Zhi, Shou Dao Ming De," and his generation's character was "Dao." At his insistence, the clan named him Wang Daoyuan.

The elders gave him special treatment, providing whatever he needed.

He lived up to their expectations. At eight, he had opened all Eight Extraordinary Meridians, reaching the eighth layer of the Meridian Opening Realm. At nine, he had opened his Dantian through the eight meridians, reaching the peak of the Meridian Opening Realm. At ten, he drew spiritual energy into his Dantian and officially entered the Qi Refining Realm.

Fearing his body was too weak to handle it, the elders only let him cultivate for fifteen minutes each day.

Children who had turned ten, by contrast, cultivated for one to two hours daily—more than five times his amount.

If not for his physical limitations, he could have entered the Qi Refining Realm in under a year.

By then, his peers were just figuring out what cultivation even was, while Wang Daoyuan had already entered the Qi Refining Realm. It was a blatant "head start."

But the good times didn't last.

At ten, his visceral Qi was sufficient, and his spiritual root had stabilized, making it ready for testing. The elders secretly took him to test his spiritual root. On the Spirit Testing Plate, five beams of light appeared—red, yellow, white, black, and green—each two inches tall.

The Spirit Testing Plate was a special artifact for testing spiritual roots. The subject's spiritual root would manifest as a phantom on the plate. Red, black, white, yellow, and green represented the five elemental spiritual roots. The total height of all phantom beams could reach at most one foot. Most people only managed over nine inches; very few reached a full foot.

The elders nearly choked on their anger at the result. After five years of careful nurturing, their precious prodigy, a cultivation genius, turned out to have a Five-element Spiritual Root—and a perfectly balanced one at that, with no outstanding element. It was the slowest cultivation aptitude.

His earlier rapid progress was because humans are born with Innate Qi, which speeds up cultivation when used.

Wang Daoyuan seemed to have an unusually large amount of Innate Qi, giving him early cultivation speed comparable to a Heavenly Spiritual Root. The clan leader and elders had no idea why.

A Heavenly Spiritual Root is a single spiritual root, and the height of its phantom shadow must be no less than nine inches.

As a person ages, their Innate Qi gradually dissipates, and their cultivation speed slows down accordingly. By the age of twelve, the Innate Qi is completely gone, along with its boost to cultivation speed.

From a genius reduced to a Five-element Spiritual Root, Wang Daoyuan's status in the clan plummeted.

Fortunately, this was a cultivation clan, not a sect. What mattered most in a cultivation clan? Bloodline inheritance!

In a clan, any member with a spiritual root was a valuable asset.

As long as one had a spiritual root, no matter how poor it was, the probability of producing offspring with a spiritual root when married to an ordinary person was roughly twenty percent; if both parents had spiritual roots, the chance of their children having one was about half; if both parents were ordinary people, the probability of their child having a spiritual root was generally around one in ten thousand; if both parents were ordinary but had a direct ancestor with a spiritual root—such as Wang Daoyuan's parents, who were descendants of cultivators—the probability of their child having a spiritual root ranged from one in a hundred to one in a thousand, with the probability decreasing the further back the ancestor.

There was no significant difference in aptitude between the offspring of a Five-element Spiritual Root and a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Thus, after being identified as having a Five-element Spiritual Root, Wang Daoyuan faced no reproach. He still cultivated in his cave dwelling on Jade Spring Peak, but he no longer received any of the extra resource allocations he had before.