Qi!

Jiang Ran remembered clearly.

The spirit root he had transplanted back then had been a Low-Grade Water Spirit Root.

Spirit roots in the Qi Refining world were not classified in such fine detail. Or rather, at least Low-Grade Spirit Roots did not come with so many distinctions.

All Low-Grade Spirit Roots of the water attribute were treated the same.

"So I'm Ren Water..." Jiang Ran mused.

In the Grand Ruins Realm, spirit roots did not determine one's aptitude, nor was there any explicit distinction between high and low potential. Almost everyone could practice Qi Cultivation and assimilate Qi.

Yet each person's physique and fate were different.

Among the Five Elements, a person's fate was woven from the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

"Starting today, you may keep your True Qi close to your bodies. Given enough time, you will gradually grow attuned to it."

The young Daoist suddenly spoke.

"If your families possess inherited cultivation arts, you may abandon them all now and focus on cultivating our sect's arts. In the future, you may perhaps gain an opportunity for Qi-Consuming Initiation."

Abandon their family cultivation arts? Jiang Ran froze for a moment.

The Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect was indeed generous. They had bestowed cultivation arts and True Qi as soon as the "work" began.

But these cultivation arts were only seventh-rank, still within the lower three ranks.

With so many residents in Black Dragon City, there was no telling whose ancestors might have produced some great figure. Perhaps some families possessed better inherited cultivation arts.

Yet this young Daoist spoke with such certainty...

Discussion immediately broke out among the crowd, and some even stepped forward to ask for guidance.

"My lord, my grandfather left our family a sixth-rank Bing-Fire True Qi. It should be better, so may I refrain from cultivating the sect's art?"

The speaker was a burly man with a powerful build.

Good heavens, sixth-rank True Qi?!

Many eyes immediately turned toward the man, all of them filled with greed.

Sixth-rank True Qi seemed only one rank above seventh-rank True Qi, but in truth, it was several times stronger.

Given a choice, everyone would choose sixth-rank True Qi and a sixth-rank cultivation art.

"Foolish!"

To everyone's surprise, the young Daoist directly rebuked him.

He glanced at the disc in his hand. "Your fate belongs to Geng Metal, yet you insist on cultivating Bing Fire. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"What is ordained by fate cannot be changed."

"Th-this..." The burly man was instantly left speechless.

His ancestors had once produced a great figure, and by good fortune, some spiritual-item inheritance had remained. But by his generation, all that was left was a fragmentary cultivation art and a few spiritual items, including the "sixth-rank Bing-Fire True Qi."

In this world, without a master's guidance, anyone who tried to figure things out alone was destined to hit walls everywhere.

Perhaps seeing that the crowd still had doubts, the young Daoist explained a little further.

"Your fates have all been reflected by the Five-Elements Spirit Disc. The corresponding cultivation arts bestowed by our sect are the proper path."

"The Dao path must accord with one's fate, and..."

"Once a Dao path is chosen, it cannot be changed. If you enter the Dao with seventh-rank True Qi, then you will be a seventh-rank True Qi cultivator for life. Consider it carefully."

They were merely miners. The cultivation arts and True Qi had been granted only so they could mine with greater effort. There was no obligation to explain any further.

"The Dao path cannot be changed?" Jiang Ran's mind shook violently, and countless thoughts flashed through it in an instant.

The young Daoist's words had been brief, but they struck straight to the point.

So if he used Ice-Lake Spirit-Water Qi for Dao Initiation in the future, would he remain a lower-three-rank True Qi cultivator for the rest of his life?

Jiang Ran had never considered this question before. He had even thought the Liu Household's eighth-rank Autumn-Grass Frost-Condensing Qi was quite good.

Only now did he realize that if he entered the Dao with Autumn-Grass Frost-Condensing Qi, his Dao path would be locked at the eighth rank!

"What kind of messed-up world is this? Your upper limit is decided at the start? This is way too hard!"

Jiang Ran felt awful all over.

If that was truly the case, the higher the quality of the True Qi one assimilated, the loftier one's Dao path would be.

Wouldn't that mean he could never defeat those mid-three-rank True Qi cultivators? As for the upper three ranks, he did not even dare think about them.

"I know first-rank True Qi would be best, but where the hell am I supposed to find first-rank True Qi?"

It was enough to drive him mad. True Qi determined one's Dao path, which practically meant the strong would only grow stronger.

—The descendants of Dao Foundation Realm experts would never assimilate lower-three-rank True Qi!

The leader assigned tasks to everyone and made numerous arrangements.

In truth, it was all quite simple.

Aside from the various rules and restrictions imposed by the Hundred Yue Sect, their task was to mine within this enormous mineral vein stretching for tens of thousands of miles.

The sect had established collection points at the entrances to the mine veins. Cultivators would come every half month to collect the ore.

Each miner had to hand over sixty jin of raw ore every half month, which worked out to two jin of ore per day.

Two jin of ore sounded like very little, even a bit too little.

But in reality, it was an extremely harsh quota.

After all, they were not mining ordinary ore, but an iron ore called "Vermilion Dense Iron."

Vermilion Dense Iron was a genuine spiritual item for Qi Assimilation. It was exceptionally dense and difficult to mine.

After beginning Qi Cultivation, one's strength increased tremendously, yet one could still only barely chip away at the ore.

Even a young miner in his prime, working at full force, often needed several hours to dig out a small piece of raw ore.

Thus, a quota of two jin per day was truly a heavy burden.

Many people began complaining, but just as many were eager to try.

There were quite a few people in the crowd at the third or fourth stage of Qi Cultivation, and even some who had already reached completion. They had volunteered of their own accord, intending to exceed the quota in hopes of obtaining more benefits from the sect, or... a chance to formally join the immortal sect and cultivate immortality.

"I can't compete with these people..." Jiang Ran curled his lip.

He was taking it calmly. He had only come to broaden his horizons. If he had not confirmed that mining held no immediate danger, he would likely have returned to Pingjiang long ago.

Jiang Ran also wanted to mine more ore. If he could use this chance to join the sect, that would be even better.

The Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect had deep foundations and surely possessed stronger inheritances. As a formal disciple of the sect, he would have a chance to enter the Dao with better True Qi.

What a pity... many people here were already at the third or fourth stage of Qi Cultivation.

Some had even completed Qi Cultivation and had now received complete True Qi. They might successfully assimilate Qi at any moment.

Competing with people like them in mining speed would be nothing but asking for trouble.

"Forget it, forget it. I'll find somewhere empty and make a run for it." Jiang Ran shook his head.

He had no intention of actually entering the mine to dig. Sixty jin of Vermilion Dense Iron raw ore every month was impossible for him to mine, even if it killed him.

After all, Jiang Ran was a middle school student who still had classes to attend. He could not stay in the Great Ruins all day.

"What a pity. Once I leave this time, I'll probably have to wait a long time before I can return..." Jiang Ran sighed.

The entire mineral vein belonged to the Hundred-Yue Immortal Sect. Escaping would be easy, but coming back afterward would be difficult.

Such a vast immortal sect might not care about the disappearance of one insignificant miner.

But to be safe, he would have to wait longer in Pingjiang before crossing over again.

One month, three months? Or half a year, a year?

Jiang Ran did not know. He only knew that after leaving the Great Ruins this time, he would need some means of protecting himself before he returned.

As they followed the mine tunnel downward, the miners dispersed and began searching for suitable places to mine.

Jiang Ran quickly found a blind spot with no one around.

"Wait..."

Jiang Ran looked at the dark-red ore and rock wall before him, and suddenly had an idea.

"That's not right!"

If he relied only on human strength, he could never outmine those people who had completed Qi Cultivation.

Forget competing with them—he could not even fulfill the basic quota of sixty jin.

But...

Jiang Ran was not alone!