Immortal

An "immortal" in white robes appeared. He walked up to the Black Wolf, drew his longsword, and asked, "What is your name, little fellow?"

Before Wang Daoyuan could answer, Big Black barked nervously at the "immortal." Afraid of angering the "immortal," Wang Daoyuan hurriedly stopped Big Black and replied respectfully, "My surname is Wang. I have not been given a name yet. My parents call me Er Wa."

The "immortal" lifted the Black Wolf's corpse in one hand and touched the bag at his waist. The black wolf, as large as a calf, vanished in an instant. Smiling, he said, "As expected of a member of my Wang Clan. You have guts. Facing a wolf that has gained a trace of intelligence, you still did not panic. With nothing but a black dog, you drove back a Black Wolf. At such a young age, you already have courage and wits. If you can walk the path of cultivation, your future will be boundless.

"This dog is not bad either. It has already gained some intelligence. If it had grown up in the Lineage from childhood, it might already have become a first-rank spirit beast."

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

Only then did he dare to study the "immortal." The man carried a longsword on his back and a gourd at his waist. His hair was a tangled mess, and it was impossible to tell how many years his white robe had gone unwashed. Its unusual material had kept it from discoloring, but it was visibly covered in grime. From time to time, a strange stench of sourness mixed with alcohol wafted from him.

The "immortal" brought him home. Seeing Big Black covered in wounds and Er Wa dressed in tattered clothes, his parents' faces filled with worry.

Then, seeing that they had been brought back by an immortal, they immediately imagined Er Wa and Big Black being attacked by wild beasts and rescued by him. They fell to their knees before the "immortal." "Thank you, Immortal, for saving our Er Wa."

The "immortal" waved a hand. A breeze swept past and lifted the two of them to their feet. "This was not my doing. This boy and your black dog worked together to drive off a wolf. By the time I arrived, the wolf was already fleeing. Even without me, the boy would have been fine."

Seeing such a method, Wang Daoyuan was filled with envy. He wished he could begin cultivating immediately. Unfortunately, he was only five years old, still far from the age to test his spiritual roots.

He asked tentatively, "Immortal, can I cultivate immortality now?"

Without a second thought, the "immortal" replied, "How old are you? There is a reason cultivators all begin training at ten. First, children under ten lack sufficient intelligence to fully understand the knowledge involved in cultivation. Second, children's bodies are too weak to withstand the power of spiritual energy.

"However, judging by how you dealt with that Black Wolf without losing your head in danger, your intelligence should be sufficient. As for your physique, it looks fairly good, but it may not meet the requirements. After all, you should only be five or six."

Wild beasts often appeared near Qingxi Village, and Demon Beasts occasionally showed up as well.

Today, he had nearly been eaten by a wild beast with a little intelligence. If he waited another five years, who knew what might happen? There was no telling whether he would even live to ten.

He hurriedly said, "I have set my heart on cultivating immortality. I hope, Immortal, that you will grant me this wish."

The immortal placed a hand over his dantian. Wang Daoyuan felt a cool current slowly seep into his abdomen before spreading throughout his body.

"Your physique is unusual. At such a young age, you feel no discomfort from bearing spiritual energy. Then I shall give you an opportunity." The immortal looked somewhat astonished as he took out a book. "This is the Meridian Opening Art, the most basic cultivation technique. It is used to open the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

"If you cultivate Qi sensation, it means you possess spiritual roots and can cultivate immortality. If you cannot cultivate Qi sensation, then you have no spiritual roots and are merely an ordinary mortal.

"But let me warn you. Though your physique is stronger than that of others your age and can bear some spiritual energy,

"the spiritual energy I sent into your body was under my control and would not cause serious harm.

"If you cultivate spiritual power on your own, you may be unable to control it. You could injure your body and affect your future cultivation.

"Do you still wish to try?"

Wang Daoyuan answered firmly, "I do!"

The writing of this world resembled the Small Seal Script of his previous life, only simpler. Even before awakening the memories of his past life, he had found it easy to learn.

At the Clan School, he had mastered all commonly used characters in only a few months.

Now, reading the Meridian Opening Art posed little difficulty for him.

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

An hour later, he felt a faint warm current in his abdomen and told the "immortal."

The "immortal" let out an alcoholic belch. "Cut the nonsense. You cultivated Qi sensation in one hour? Either I am drunk and heard wrong, or you wet your pants. Where else would a warm current come from?"

Though he said that, the "immortal" still carefully examined his body. When he discovered that Wang Daoyuan had truly cultivated a thread of spiritual energy, he froze on the spot.

After a long while, the "immortal" came back to his senses and asked, "Does any part of your body feel uncomfortable?"

After Wang Daoyuan said he felt no discomfort, the "immortal" did not waste another word. He grabbed Wang Daoyuan and began sprinting wildly, leaving behind his dumbfounded parents and elder brother.

Fortunately, Wang Daoyuan's parents had also learned about cultivation at the Clan School when they were young. Knowing that their son had caught the eye of one of the Lineage's "immortals" and could embark on the path of cultivation, they were not overly worried.

After a day of travel, the "immortal" brought Wang Daoyuan back to Jade Spring Peak and reported the matter to the elders.

After the elders examined him, they confirmed that Wang Daoyuan had cultivated Qi sensation through the Meridian Opening Art and had formally entered the first realm of cultivation—the Meridian Opening Realm.

A five-year-old cultivator—let alone seeing one, no one had even heard of one in the Wang Clan's six-hundred-year history.

Wang Daoyuan formally entered the Wang Clan. The Wang Clan's generation poem was "Honor the ancestors, inherit their aspirations; guard the Way, illuminate virtue." His generation happened to use the character "Dao." At his insistence, the Lineage gave him the name Wang Daoyuan.

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

He did not disappoint their expectations. At eight, his Eight Extraordinary Meridians were fully opened, and he reached the eighth level of the Meridian Opening Realm. At nine, the eight meridians connected to his dantian, and he completed the Meridian Opening Realm. At ten, he drew spiritual energy into his dantian and formally entered the Qi Refining Realm.

The Lineage elders feared that his body was too weak to bear it, so they allowed him to cultivate for only a quarter of an hour each day.

Children who had reached ten, meanwhile, cultivated for one to two hours daily—more than five times as long as he did.

If not for the limitations of his physique, he would have entered the Qi Refining Realm in less than a year.

At that time, children his age had only just learned what cultivation even was, while Wang Daoyuan had already entered the Qi Refining Realm. This was openly "jumping the gun."

However, good times did not last.

At ten, the qi of his internal organs had become abundant and his spiritual roots had stabilized, allowing them to be tested. The elders secretly brought Wang Daoyuan to test his spiritual roots. To their astonishment, five pillars of red, yellow, white, black, and green light appeared on the Spirit Testing Plate, each only two inches tall.

The Spirit Testing Plate was a special magical artifact used to test spiritual roots. The tested person's spiritual roots would appear as phantom images upon it. Red, black, white, yellow, and green represented spiritual roots of the five attributes. The combined height of all spiritual-root phantoms could not exceed one foot. Most people could only reach a little over nine inches, while those who reached a full foot were rare.

The elders were nearly angered to death by the result. The precious treasure they had carefully nurtured for five years, a cultivation genius, was actually someone with a Five-element Spiritual Root—and a perfectly balanced one at that. He had no outstanding attribute whatsoever, making his cultivation aptitude the slowest possible.

His earlier swift progress was because people were born with Innate Qi. Cultivating with Innate Qi made cultivation much faster.

Wang Daoyuan's Innate Qi seemed abnormally abundant, causing his early cultivation speed to rival that of a Heavenly Spiritual Root. Even the clan head and the elders did not understand why.

A Heavenly Spiritual Root was a single spiritual root whose phantom image stood no lower than nine inches.

As people grew older, their Innate Qi gradually dissipated, and their cultivation speed became slower and slower. By the age of twelve, Innate Qi would vanish completely, along with its boost to cultivation speed.

From genius to someone with a Five-element Spiritual Root, Wang Daoyuan's status within the Lineage plummeted.

Fortunately, this was a cultivation family rather than a sect. What was most important to a cultivation family? Bloodline inheritance!

Within the Lineage, every clansman with spiritual roots was a precious asset.

As long as one possessed spiritual roots, no matter how poor they were, marrying an ordinary person gave roughly a twenty percent chance of producing descendants with spiritual roots. If both parents had spiritual roots, their children had roughly a fifty percent chance. If both parents were ordinary people, their child generally had only a one-in-ten-thousand chance. If both parents were ordinary people but their earlier direct ancestors possessed spiritual roots—as with Wang Daoyuan's parents, who were descendants of cultivators—their children had between a one percent and one-in-a-thousand chance. The more distant the generations, the lower the probability.

The descendants of those with Five-element Spiritual Roots and Heavenly Spiritual Roots would show no obvious difference in aptitude.

Therefore, after it was discovered that he had a Five-element Spiritual Root, Wang Daoyuan received no blame. He continued cultivating in a cave dwelling on Jade Spring Peak, though he no longer received the extra resources he once had.