Name: Zhou Changwang
Lifespan: 17/75
Cultivation: Qi Refining Second Layer (21/100)
Technique: Five Elements Formula (Initiation 85/100)
Skills: Spirit Rain Art (Mastery 135/200), Cleansing Art (Initiation 59/100), Growth Technique (Initiation 63/100), Geng Metal Finger (Initiation 13/100)
Zhou Changwang opened his eyes and saw the attribute panel right in front of him.
I... am not dead?
At this thought, a surge of indignant resentment welled up inside Zhou Changwang.
He had always cherished his life, rarely going out under normal circumstances, and even when he had to step outside, he would be as vigilant as possible, keeping his eyes on all four directions and his ears attuned to all eight sides. After all, with more and more cars on these streets and alleys, he certainly did not want news about himself appearing on various media platforms only to be subjected to condemnation and criticism afterward.
Especially his chronically superstitious old mother, who had specifically sought out an old gentleman to divine a hexagram for him, saying that he must avoid distant travels and steer well clear of vehicles...
Though he did not entirely believe it, whenever he walked on the road, he would always be a bit more careful, sticking as closely as possible to the pedestrian walkway by the side of the road.
As a result, the one time he was forced to venture out, walking properly on the pavement, he saw an out-of-control car completely ignoring the stone step that was a full thirty centimeters high and crashing straight toward him...
It seems that some things, whether you believe them or not, truly warrant a certain degree of awe.
Zhou Changwang muttered inwardly, pondering whether he should go make a vow of thanksgiving at a temple, when his heart suddenly gave a jolt.
Fragmented strands of memory abruptly surfaced in his mind.
After a long while.
He finally came to his senses in a daze.
His face revealed a mix of grief and joy.
At that moment, he finally confirmed that he had indeed died previously.
And now, he had transmigrated.
He had transmigrated to an entirely unfamiliar world.
An immortal cultivation world!
At this time, his name was the same as before, Zhou Changwang, and he was a rogue cultivator surviving in Phoenix-Cry Cove Market.
What was a rogue cultivator?
It was a cultivating person without roots or footing, whose every aspect of cultivation had to rely entirely on themselves.
He possessed the cultivation of the Qi Refining Second Layer.
Presently, he managed three mu of spirit fields on the outskirts of Phoenix-Cry Cove Market.
His usual work was to farm and guard those three mu of spirit fields, hoping to reap a certain harvest of spirit rice during the autumn harvest, which he could exchange for spirit stones to sustain his own cultivation.
His father was a mortal who practiced martial arts, an innate martial artist among mortals, and had once been the martial arts league leader of a mortal nation. For the sake of pursuing immortality, he abandoned everything and came to this Phoenix-Cry Cove Market, taking root here for twenty full years.
Regrettably, lacking a spirit root, he ultimately had no hope of cultivating immortality. With no other choice, he pinned his hopes upon his descendants.
Thus, he used every conceivable means to find a female cultivator who possessed spirit roots, and through their union, Zhou Changwang was born.
If it were in the mortal realm, with my father's status as a martial Dao innate, I suppose glory and wealth would be mine to enjoy endlessly.
Regrettably, this is the world of immortal cultivation.
Zhou Changwang sighed with deep emotion.
Yet his eyes radiated an inexplicable brilliance.
The world of immortal cultivation.
Which means...
One can become an immortal?
Living as long as heaven and earth, with boundless lifespan...
In his previous life, he was merely an ordinary person whose dreams had long been ground down by the trivialities of daily life; even his grandest fantasies amounted to nothing more than financial freedom and returning home draped in riches...
Yet this world made it possible to become an immortal.
Even though he was well aware that this hope was unimaginably remote.
Not to mention that he possessed all five attributes of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth in his spirit roots; his aptitude, not to mention poor, merely made it barely possible for him to cultivate.
Without a special opportunity, the Qi Refining Realm would be his absolute limit.
And the Qi Refining Realm, measured in terms of lifespan, actually differed very little from mortals.
Because of this, his father had cast aside the notion of sending him into a sect, sending him instead to the Spirit Plant Hall within Phoenix-Cry Cove Market as an apprentice for five years. It was only at the beginning of this year, with his father's financial backing, that he had rented three mu of spirit fields, managing to barely survive in this cultivation market on his own.
Immortal cultivation is truly difficult.
There is none of that ethereal, carefree, and natural grace one imagines.
Only facing the earth with one's back to the sky in sweat every single day, and even that is not enough to cover daily cultivation expenses...
Recalling the memories in his mind, Zhou Changwang could not help sighing.
The daily life of his predecessor was indeed completely different from what he had imagined beforehand.
The three mu of spirit fields had already been sown with spirit grain at the beginning of the year, but the growth of the spirit grain required constant care.
Tilling the soil, weeding, getting rid of pests, fertilizing, and irrigating with spirit rain... if any single aspect was mishandled, it would affect their growth and thereby reduce the yield.
Generally, after a spirit planter tended them, the yield per mu of spirit fields exceeded five hundred catties. Calculated at the market's current pricing of one low-grade spirit stone for ten catties of spirit rice, a single mu of spirit field could produce fifty low-grade spirit stones.
Three mu of spirit fields meant one hundred and fifty low-grade spirit stones.
It seemed like a large sum, but the expense of renting the spirit fields was by no means small.
Initially, the Spirit Plant Hall had offered two options: the first was a fixed charge of thirty low-grade spirit stones per mu, totaling ninety low-grade spirit stones for three mu. The second was a set quota of ten low-grade spirit stones per mu, plus fifty percent of the spirit grain yield; if the yield per mu fell short of forty spirit stones' worth, the shortfall of twenty spirit stones would need to be made up and handed over to the Spirit Plant Hall.
Back then, to save money, he had chosen the second option.
In other words, after a year of hard work, calculated on a yield of five hundred catties per mu, what he could actually earn was merely forty-five low-grade spirit stones.
And that was under the condition of a good harvest; if there were pest infestations or calamities, the output would drop drastically, or even lead to a total crop failure.
When that time came, the remaining twenty low-grade spirit stones would have to be borne out of his own pocket.
In short, the Spirit Plant Hall never lost out.
With his predecessor having to farm and weed every single day while also balancing cultivation, it was naturally extremely arduous.
Fortunately, my transmigration this time around at least brought something along.
Zhou Changwang could not help casting his gaze once more upon his attribute panel.
Name: Zhou Changwang
Lifespan: 17/75
Cultivation: Qi Refining Second Layer (21/100)
Technique: Five Elements Formula (Initiation 85/100)
Skills: Spirit Rain Art (Mastery 135/200), Cleansing Art (Initiation 59/100), Growth Technique (Initiation 63/100), Geng Metal Finger (Initiation 13/100)
Although he did not know how this panel had come to be, having read three thousand web novels, even if he couldn't write them he had read enough... he grasped its meaning very easily.
Obviously, everything recorded above pertained entirely to his own information.
Seventeen years old, with a total lifespan of seventy-five years.
Qi Refining Second Layer cultivation.
The cultivation technique Five Elements Formula, alongside the spells he had mastered—specifically the Spirit Rain Art, Cleansing Art, Growth Technique, and Geng Metal Finger...
Among them, initiation and mastery were easy enough to understand.
He knew that regardless of the technique or spell, there were various stages of proficiency: initiation, mastery, minor mastery, major mastery, and perfection.
For instance, among the four spells he had mastered, the Cleansing Art, Growth Technique, and Geng Metal Finger were all at the initiation stage, whereas the Minor Spirit Rain Art was at mastery. He knew from his memories that its effects were indeed somewhat better than those at the initiation stage.
The only thing that left him somewhat puzzled was the numerical value corresponding to those stages of initiation and mastery.
Was it experience points, or proficiency?
How could one raise it?
At this thought, he instantly found it impossible to remain seated.
Before you continue