Spirit Province, Southern Region.
Endless green mountains stretched across a hundred miles, clouds and mist lingering around their slopes year-round. Ancient trees towered between the peaks, their emerald leaves layered one upon another.
When the wind blew, the leaves rustled.
This mountain was called Azure Cloud Mountain.
It was home to Azure Cloud Sect, a cultivation sect renowned throughout Spirit Province.
Today, the foot of Azure Cloud Mountain was packed with people, and carriages and horses streamed by without end.
Stone steps wound up the mountain path, crowded with people inching toward the summit, one step at a time.
Today was Azure Cloud Sect's once-every-three-years disciple recruitment ceremony.
From the towns and villages, large and small, throughout the Southern Region, anyone with a child of the right age at home came here if their circumstances allowed.
Cultivation was the path out that everyone in this world dreamed of.
Mortals lived only a few short decades. They were powerless to escape poverty, aging, sickness, and death.
But if they could enter a cultivation sect and discover that they had a spiritual root, they could absorb spiritual energy, cultivate techniques, and transcend the limits of mortal existence.
They could fly through the skies and burrow through the earth, prolong their lives, and move mountains or shatter stones with a mere wave of the hand.
Crossing the threshold into a cultivation sect meant soaring to the heavens in a single leap and leaving the muddy mortal world behind for good.
The mountain path was full of boys around sixteen or seventeen.
The boys were dressed in all sorts of clothes, but their expressions were remarkably alike. Their eyes shone with feverish brightness, betraying their longing to enter a cultivation sect.
Luxurious carriages lined both sides of the road, their gilded frames inlaid with jade and their curtains exquisitely made.
Many sons of wealthy families wore fine clothes and traveled with servants and guards. Some had their parents accompanying them in person, fussing over them every step of the way.
The crowd was noisy and chaotic.
"I heard they're stricter about spiritual-root tests this year. In the past, even those with mixed spiritual roots had a chance of being accepted. This year, they might only take those with low-grade spiritual roots."
"Of course. Azure Cloud Sect has grown more prosperous over the years. More and more people want to join every year, so naturally, the bar has to be raised."
"My child is clever by nature. I say he'll definitely be chosen this time!"
All kinds of conversations rose through the crowd, and every face was filled with anticipation.
Amid the throng, Su Yun was toward the back.
He was alone, with no family to accompany him and no servants in tow.
He carried a faded cloth bundle on his back. Its corners were frayed, and inside were only a few changes of clothes and several hard, coarse-grain flatbreads.
The boy was slight, with a slender frame and a somewhat frail build.
He wore an ordinary short gray tunic made of rough cloth, with two inconspicuous patches sewn into it.
Long-term malnutrition had left his skin pale and his cheeks gaunt. Only his eyes were deep black and bright, calm and clear.
Su Yun wasn't from this world.
He came from Earth.
He had been transported to this cultivation continent exactly one month ago.
His predecessor had been a miserable orphan, with parents long dead and no relatives. He had barely survived to the age of sixteen on the kindness of villagers, then died of a high fever, allowing Su Yun from the modern world to take over his body.
Over the past month, Su Yun had adapted to this unfamiliar ancient world while gathering information about it.
Only after confirming that this really was a world where people could cultivate immortality and fly through the sky did he finally believe it.
At that moment, excitement surged within him, impossible to suppress.
As someone who had spent years reading cultivation novels in his previous life, who hadn't dreamed of cultivating immortality and living forever?
Transcending life and death, roaming freely through the world—that longing was etched into his very bones.
But he soon calmed down.
The first hurdle in cultivation was the spiritual root.
Only those with a spiritual root could sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and embark on the path of cultivation.
Without a spiritual root, one remained an ordinary mortal for life. No matter how hard one tried, one could go no further.
In this world, without connections or money, getting tested for a spiritual root was harder than reaching the heavens.
Ordinary commoners might go their entire lives without ever having the chance to encounter cultivation.
Fortunately, when Heaven shuts one door, it opens another.
By chance, Su Yun had heard that Azure Cloud Sect recruited disciples publicly once every three years. The rules were simple: anyone under the age of eighteen could come up the mountain and take the spiritual-root test, regardless of their status.
This year, he was exactly sixteen, perfectly within the requirements.
Without the slightest hesitation, Su Yun emptied his last savings, packed a few belongings, and made the long journey to Azure Cloud Mountain alone.
As he climbed, the stone steps grew steeper beneath his feet. The higher he went, the more biting the mountain wind became.
Su Yun instinctively drew his arms closer to his body, but his steps never faltered.
He walked in silence, his gaze calmly taking in the many different people around him.
Most of those nearby came from well-off families. They wore fine silks, had fair faces, and had been raised in comfort.
By comparison, Su Yun, shabby in dress and frail in build, looked completely out of place in the crowd and stood out like a sore thumb.
Before long, odd looks fell on him.
Not far away, three youths dressed in brocade finery walked side by side, servants trailing behind them.
The three deliberately slowed their pace. Their eyes fixed on Su Yun, their contempt undisguised.
One of the wealthy young men, fair-faced, curled his lips into a mocking smile and lowered his voice, deliberately speaking loud enough for Su Yun to hear.
"Look at that kid over there."
He lifted his chin toward Su Yun, who was walking alone.
The tall, thin boy beside him followed his gaze and looked Su Yun up and down, then let out a derisive laugh.
"He's as skinny as a stick of firewood. A gust of wind could knock him over, and he still dares come here to join the crowd at Azure Cloud Sect?"
"Nowadays, anyone dares to indulge in foolish dreams."
The third boy, round-faced, folded his arms and spoke with cutting disdain.
"Every year, there are poor, clueless boys like him who think they can climb the mountain and get lucky with a spiritual-root test."
The boy in brocade shook his head, his voice full of scorn.
"I doubt he'll even make it past the first test."
"Hahaha, exactly."
Many people nearby overheard them and turned to look. Their eyes held curiosity, contempt, and a hint of amusement.
Someone murmured,
"That child looks malnourished. His family must be desperately poor."
"What chance does a poor child have? He's just wasting his time."
"Accept your fate. Mortals are mortals, and cultivation sects aren't for ordinary people."
The noisy chatter and mocking remarks swirled around Su Yun.
Su Yun didn't stop walking. He continued forward.
He was alone, powerless, penniless, and without connections.
Any one of those wealthy young men had a family backing him.
As he was now, he couldn't afford to offend anyone.
There was no point in arguing.
If he snapped back out of spite, he'd only invite trouble for no reason. They might even deliberately make things difficult for him and throw him off the mountain path before he got to take the spiritual-root test.
He had no family background, no one to rely on, and not even the golden finger every transmigrator was supposed to have.
Other transmigrators either came with a system, possessed an incredible cultivation technique, or had a special constitution from birth.
He alone was ordinary, with nothing to his name.
Thinking of this, Su Yun couldn't help letting out a sigh in his heart.
This was miserable.
A month after transmigrating, he had no golden finger and the worst possible start.
If he turned out to have no spiritual root after taking the test...
He didn't dare imagine the worst.
In this world where the strong ruled, the end of a lowly mortal's road was plain to see.