What Do You Mean You Can't Cultivate Spiritual Energy?

Lu Changsheng gritted his teeth, refusing to believe his luck, and continued to circulate his magic power.

In the Primordial Land, time held no meaning; within the mountains, years went uncounted.

This period of seclusion lasted for another two thousand years, slipping away in silence.

During these two millennia, the Primordial Land outside underwent earth-shaking changes.

The friction between the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans escalated completely, shifting from small-scale probes to blatant territorial disputes.

Countless weak races were reduced to ashes in this struggle for hegemony among the three clans.

Yet, deep within the cave of the Nameless Low Mountain, a deathly silence remained.

"Hoo..."

A breath of turbid air escaped Lu Changsheng's lips, transforming into an arrow of air that punched a small pit into a stone slab on the ground.

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze filled with helplessness and exhaustion.

Two thousand years. Two whole millennia of bitter cultivation.

Lu Changsheng lowered his head, sensing the fluctuations of magic power within his body.

Peak of the early stage of the Heavenly Immortal realm.

He hadn't even touched the threshold of the mid-stage.

I knew it. This wretched constitution simply cannot be cultivated through meditation!

Lu Changsheng gave up completely.

If the spiritual energy he had absorbed over these two thousand years were converted into an ordinary black bear spirit, it would have likely broken through to the True Immortal realm long ago, perhaps even claiming a mountain to rule as king.

But for him, this spiritual energy was like sand in a funnel; it could not be retained at all.

He finally understood: his origin as an Incarnation of Great Dao Merit granted him the absolute defense of the Primordial Land, but it also completely locked away any path to advancement through conventional means.

To become stronger, there was only one path to follow to the end: seeking merit.

It seems I truly have no choice but to head out this time.

Lu Changsheng stood up and shook his slightly dimmed golden feathers.

Though his cultivation hadn't increased much during his two thousand years of seclusion, he had at least adjusted his mindset to its optimal state.

He walked to the corner of the cave and moved a massive boulder.

Hidden beneath the rock was a secret compartment.

Lu Changsheng reached out a claw and carefully lifted a palm-sized, crack-riddled compass from the compartment.

This was an array disk.

About five thousand years ago, while patrolling his territory within a hundred-mile radius of the low mountain under the cover of night, he had dug it out of a foul-smelling mud pit.

Based on the broken array patterns on its surface, Lu Changsheng judged it to be a small Inverted Five Elements Illusion Array.

"When traveling abroad, the safety of the nest must be absolutely foolproof. One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two layers of arrays sound like a lot, but I never feel quite at ease."

Lu Changsheng placed the broken array disk on the ground and took a deep breath.

"Fix this, add it on, and make it a round number."

In the days that followed, Lu Changsheng once again displayed his infuriating patience.

Using his meager magic power, he combed through the broken lines on the array disk bit by bit.

Lacking materials, he melted down useless fragments of magic treasures he had collected previously and forcibly patched them in.

It was an incredibly dull and delicate task.

If his magic power output wavered even slightly, the entire array disk would be completely ruined.

One hundred years.

Three hundred years.

Five hundred years.

Another five hundred years passed.

"Click."

The final bit of material in Lu Changsheng's hand merged into the array disk.

The compass, previously dull and covered in cracks, suddenly flashed with a faint, five-colored light.

The array patterns on its surface seemed to come alive, connecting head to tail to form a perfect, closed loop.

"It's done!"

Lu Changsheng plopped onto the ground, gasping for air.

Repairing this array disk had drained a vast amount of his energy, but his eyes were exceptionally bright at this moment.

He grabbed the repaired Inverted Five Elements Illusion Array disk, rushed out of the inner chamber, and arrived at the stone door at the very perimeter of the cave.

Lu Changsheng accurately embedded the formation disk into a pre-carved groove above the stone door, opened his mouth, and exhaled a breath of his core mana.

"Hum—"

The entire cave dwelling shuddered violently.

Immediately following, a ripple of five-colored light, invisible to the naked eye, radiated rapidly from the stone door, completely enveloping the entire Nameless Low Mountain.

Viewed from the outside, the already unremarkable low mountain twisted strangely in the line of sight before blending perfectly into the surrounding environment.

Even if a divine sense swept over it, one would only perceive a patch of ordinary flat ground, with no protrusions whatsoever.

"Phew... the 1,863rd layer of defense, perfect."

Lu Changsheng patted his wings in satisfaction.

Now, this dojo could truly be called impregnable.

As long as those quasi-saint big shots standing at the pinnacle of the Primordial Land weren't bored enough to come here and plow the earth, no one would ever discover his lair.

"Everything at home is arranged properly."

Lu Changsheng turned around and looked at the empty cave, a hint of reluctance unexpectedly rising in his heart.

Having hidden here for so many years, he was suddenly about to step out of his comfort zone to face the cruel Primordial Land, a place fraught with crises where death could come at any moment.

To say he wasn't afraid would be a lie.

But he had no other choice.

If he didn't go out to seek merit, he would sooner or later die in the aftermath of the tribulation.

Lu Changsheng raised his head, his gaze gradually sharpening.

He touched the Red Sun Fruit hidden beneath his feathers and checked the tattered magic treasures hanging on his body one last time.

Finally, he took a deep breath and pressed a claw against the heavy stone door's mechanism.

Accompanied by a low, rumbling sound, the stone door, which had been tightly shut for thousands of years, slowly swung open.

The sky outside was somewhat dim—not the overcast gloom of heavy clouds, but a thin, lingering layer of dark red tribulation energy permeating the air.

Looking out, he saw a desolate and deep forest. Giant trees towering into the clouds blocked the sun, and the ground was covered in deep pits and fractured rocks, bearing witness to the devastation this place had once endured.

Lu Changsheng's right claw remained suspended in mid-air.

He could even hear the faint, distant roars of beasts, sounds filled with primitive savagery and madness.

Time seemed to stand still in that moment.

A full ten breaths passed.

Whoosh.

Lu Changsheng violently retracted his outstretched claw and flapped his wings with all his might.

"Bang!"

The heavy stone door, which had only just cracked open, was slammed shut by him with the fastest speed of his life, leaving not even a sliver of a gap.

"No, no, no! The smell of blood out there is too strong. How many living beings must have just died to create a stench like that?"

"If I rush out now, I might run straight into some Sha-filled monster that just finished a massacre!"

Lu Changsheng pressed his entire body tightly against the cold stone door, panting heavily, his chest heaving violently.

So much for seeking opportunities, so much for seeking merit.

The moment the door opened, after feeling that raw, cruel, and barbaric aura emanating from the Primordial Land—

The meager courage Lu Changsheng had painstakingly gathered vanished instantly, like snow under the scorching sun.

He was, after all, just a transmigrator with the soul of a modern man.

He could keep his heart as still as water while hiding in his cave, farming and studying formations.

But to actually face those Primordial giants who could swallow people whole and shatter the heavens and earth? That instinctive fear from the depths of his soul was not something he could easily overcome.

"The water out there is too deep. I haven't even reached the mid-stage of the Heavenly Immortal realm; going out now is just serving myself up as a snack..."