Current Situation

So he probably wasn't unlucky enough to have a Five-Element Spiritual Root, right?

As Wen Xu pondered this, he heard someone push the door open with cheerful footsteps. Before the person even arrived, his voice came first: "Wen Xu, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you. How are you? Are you still hungry? Want another Grain-Repelling Pill?"

This time, he did not even need to open his eyes to confirm who had come.

"Brother Bian, I'm fine. Thanks to you, I was able to leave the Cloud-Breaking Secret Realm."

Bian Chunchou thought, Thanks to me for what? I was the one you carried. If not for you, I might not even have passed the Preliminary Trial. "Don't call me Brother Bian. Just call me by my name. Names are meant to be called, after all. Let me tell you some good news—I passed the Preliminary Trial! Wen Xu-xu, do you want to join Yonglu Mountain's disciple selection with me?"

Wen Xu: ...

Current Situation

Whenever Bian Chunchou was happy, he liked to go a little crazy. After all, modern people—who didn't go crazy? The only difference was what kind of crazy they went. Seeing that Wen Xu looked perfectly fine, he knew the other man did not blame him, and he happily danced about as he described the tense excitement of the Preliminary Trial results announcement.

"You passed the Preliminary Trial?"

"Yes, yes! I originally thought it would be quite close. The first-place Li Zishen actually picked a fourth-grade spirit plant—just as expected of someone from a spirit plant family! The people behind him also got to drink plenty of soup by following him. I heard others predicting that Young Master Li had a high chance of becoming an inner disciple."

Wen Xu smiled and agreed. "So there are spirit plant families too."

"Of course. There are beast-taming, pill-refining, talisman-making, and many other such families. What a pity—there are so many cultivation families in the world, yet none can make room for little old me." Bian Chunchou used to lament that there were so many rich people; now that he had come to the cultivation world, he was still jealous of others' good fortune.

Wen Xu felt deeply understood. "Some things cannot be envied. Brother Bian should take it to heart and let it go."

Thinking of the other man's eyes, Bian Chunchou immediately changed the subject. "Ah, let's not talk about that. I heard Elder Zhan say that above the Cloud-Breaking Secret Realm lies the Mortal Realm. Occasionally, mortals accidentally enter the secret realm, and most of them choose to remain in the cultivation world. What about you, Wen Xu-xu?"

If it were up to him, he would definitely choose the cultivation world. But Wen Xu-xu was a native of this ancient era; his family and friends were still alive. If he chose to stay here, then before reaching the Golden Core Realm, there was absolutely no possibility of returning.

And reaching the Golden Core Realm was no easy feat.

There were countless cultivators in the cultivation world. From the Qi Refining Stage to the Foundation Establishment Realm, even those with the poorest Five-Element Spiritual Root could achieve Foundation Establishment as long as they worked hard enough. Because when all was said and done, Foundation Establishment merely meant filling the Dantian's entire Qi Sea.

Once the Qi Sea was full, most cultivators could naturally succeed.

But the Golden Core was different. It required one to condense the Qi Sea within the body into a smooth, round Golden Core. It sounded simple, but was tremendously difficult in practice. Going from Foundation Establishment to the Golden Core was a process of widening the internal Qi Sea, fusing it, and gaining insight. Even one's sect had no vivid, concrete solution manual for this process, because every person's circumstances differed. Even with identical Spiritual Roots and similar life experiences, the results manifested differently in each individual.

That was the meaning of the saying: a master led one through the gate, but cultivation depended on the individual.

Not to mention the Nascent Soul Realm, Spirit Transformation Realm, Body Integration Realm, and Tribulation Transcendence Realm that came after. As far as he knew, there were fewer than ten Tribulation Transcendence cultivators in the entire cultivation world. Even Body Integration Realm cultivators were scarce. Spirit Transformation cultivators were figures on the level of sect masters and deputy sect masters; in slightly more remote places, Nascent Souls were city lords and the pinnacle of combat power.

As for cultivators advancing to become Golden Core True Persons, rumors said the average age of advancement was around a hundred. And after a century had passed, the mortal world would no longer be the one Wen Xu-xu knew.

Of course, if Wen Xu-xu were a cultivation genius, that would be another matter entirely.

"I definitely will not return now. The reason I mistakenly entered the Cloud-Breaking Secret Realm was because someone chased me until I had nowhere left to go. Returning now would be no different from walking into death."

Bian Chunchou slapped his thigh. "Right! You're such a good person—what kind of awful person would chase you down like that?"

"I do not know either, but that person seemed to be pursuing me because of my appearance."

Wow. In an instant, Bian Chunchou imagined a hundred melodramatic bloody tales. He immediately shook his head, flinging those rather unhealthy speculations away. "Then do you have no other attachments in the Mortal Realm?"

After all, cultivation cultivated the heart. If one's inner obsessions ran too deep, they would greatly affect the speed of cultivation.

"I have not started a family, nor do I have a marriage contract. My adoptive father died of illness three years ago. Now, I am simply alone in the world."

Bian Chunchou's way of comforting others was very unique. "Ah, then we're the same. My dad also died a few years ago. Now I can fill my own stomach and have no family to worry about, so can't the two of us really take the Yonglu Mountain exam together?"

Wen Xu did not agree at once. He was actually quite competitive. Compared with Yonglu Mountain, he naturally wanted more to enter the top-ranked Harmony Sect. But his Spiritual Root had not yet been tested, so it was not convenient to say so aloud. Instead, he said, "May I ask Brother Bian a question?"

"What question? Just ask. Though you can simply call me by my name."

Before this, Wen Xu had been a scholar, and scholars had the most rules. How could friends address each other directly by name? He could not completely change at once. "Brother Chunchou, why did you choose to apply to Yonglu Mountain?"

Very good. He had risen from Brother Bian to Brother Chunchou. Next time, he should be able to remove the word "Brother."

"Oh, that. I'm rather obsessed with prestigious schools, so I'm not considering the other sects for now. Among the five great sects, Bitter Crossing Temple cultivates Buddhism. I get headaches just reading documents; hearing about Buddhist cultivation already makes my head hurt. Although I wouldn't need to shave my head, I unilaterally feel that I have no affinity with Buddha."

"Then there's the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect. I really do want to go there, since they're sword cultivators. If you train well, you can kill people above your realm. But... it's too far. Really, far too far. From here to the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect, the travel fee for the transmission array alone costs a hundred low-grade spirit stones. My financial strength does not permit me to dream of it."

Wen Xu: ...What a realistic reason.

"Lastly, there's the Harmony Sect, the number one great sect in the world and the sect all cultivators yearn for. I can make it there distance-wise, but success because it is first and failure because it is first. Its fame draws far too many genius cultivators to apply, so to be safe, I've decided to make Yonglu Mountain my first choice."