[The First Blue Talent, Searching for [Heaven and Earth Wonders]]

[Age 20]:

[You sat quietly inside the humble dwelling assigned to you by the Lineage. Blood and qi surged ceaselessly through your body, and a faint, precious radiance flowed beneath your skin.]

[Your Cultivation at [Embryonic Breath Realm perfection] had stabilized. All that remained was the final stretch of patient refinement and an opportunity to take that last Formation step.]

[But you knew full well that this world's [Qi Refining Realm] was utterly different from what you had known in your previous life.]

[The ancient texts called it [Supreme Qi Refining], and that was no empty boast.]

[By refining [Primordial Qi] (a projection of the Heavenly Dao Origin) into your body, you could attain a lifespan of three thousand years at Late Qi Refining, and five thousand at perfection!]

[What terrifying reserves of power that represented!]

[The key to breaking through lay in "merging your body" with a [Supreme Treasure] containing the aura of the Heavenly Dao.]

[According to the Lineage's records, the method was simple and brutally direct—]

[Find an object containing the aura of the Heavenly Dao and use it as a catalyst to connect with the unseen [Primordial Qi].]

[You could even attempt to merge your body directly with the elusive [Heavenly Dao Origin], though the results would be far less stable and powerful than those achieved with a [Supreme Treasure].]

[You had spent the past three months away under the pretext of "gaining experience," and the Lineage had not looked into it.]

[For collateral descendants like you, as long as your Soul Lamps remained lit, no one paid much attention.]

[You returned without incident. After registering and having your identity verified, you immediately threw yourself into your grand plan to break through.]

[You did not attend the noisy Lineage tournament. Not only were its meager rewards beneath your notice,]

[You also feared that the Lineage elders would discover you had reached Embryonic Breath Realm perfection in Cultivation, inviting needless trouble.]

[After all, until you truly broke through to [Qi Refining] and obtained a "[Rank]," you still fundamentally held a [mortal-realm Rank]. Drawing too much attention would be unwise.]

[You headed straight to the Lineage's Book Repository and buried yourself in piles of old texts, trying to find detailed records on the [Qi Refining] realm, especially the grades of [Supreme Treasures].]

[Just then, [Blue Talent: Twice the Results with Half the Effort] quietly activated.]

[You felt your thoughts become exceptionally clear and sharp. As your gaze swept over the words, you could instantly discern their value.]

[Your mind automatically filtered out and ignored vast amounts of repetitive, useless, and misleading information.]

[It was as though you possessed an intuition that pointed straight to the heart of the matter. In just half a day,]

[You precisely located the essential knowledge you needed amid an ocean of ancient texts—the grading system for [Supreme Treasures] used in bodily merging:]

[[Human-grade Qi Refining]: the most common grade.]

[The [Supreme Treasures] used were mostly Ancient Relics weathered by the passage of time. They had absorbed traces of the world's [fate] and [Fortune], but only in minute quantities.]

[Breaking through with these offered limited potential. You could cultivate no further than [Late Qi Refining], after which the road ahead ended.]

[This was the reluctant choice of the vast majority of cultivation Lineage descendants and rogue cultivators.]

[[Earth-grade Qi Refining]: generally found in sects overseen by Golden Core cultivators.]

[Their [Supreme Treasures] were mostly refined using Jade Bones left behind by Foundation Establishment cultivators after they passed away in meditation. These contained a portion of the cultivators' vital essence and Dao Resonance.]

[Breaking through with these provided a solid foundation and a chance to reach [Qi Refining Perfection]. This was the grade commonly sought by elite sect disciples.]

[[Heaven-grade Qi Refining]: the legendary perfect Dao Foundation.]

[Rather than relying on the legacy of predecessors, it required refining [Primordial Wonder] naturally nurtured by Heaven and Earth!]

[Such wonders were themselves fragments of the rules of the Great Dao, containing an extraordinarily dense aura of the Heavenly Dao.]

[Breaking through with these not only guaranteed that you could reach [Qi Refining Perfection], but also granted the ability to "Limit-Breaking"!]

[As for the precise marvels that lay beyond Limit-Breaking, the ancient texts were vague, describing them only as "beyond all measure."]

[You closed the ancient text, a plan already forming in your heart.]

[The [Chen Family] had existed for several centuries. Even the most outstanding genius in its records had merely obtained a [Foundation Establishment Jade Bone] through a stroke of luck and achieved [Earth-grade Qi Refining],]

[Yet that alone had earned them praise as a genius seen only once in a century.]

[How could they ever have truly understood the boundless horizons and supreme marvels of [Heaven-grade Qi Refining]?]

["[Human Grade] is the road of mediocrity. [Earth Grade] is acceptable, but it still borrows the strength of predecessors and falls into the same old mold..."]

[Your gaze was firm, your decision already made,]

["I have the Simulator and the blessing of [Twice the Results with Half the Effort]. If I don't contend for [Heaven-grade Qi Refining], wouldn't I be squandering heaven's gifts?"]

[The Lineage could not possibly have the [Heaven and Earth Wonder] you needed.]

[After all, its records contained not a single cultivator who had achieved [Heaven-grade Qi Refining]. How could it possess such a peerless treasure?]

[And so, you shouldered your pack and resolutely left the Lineage once more, embarking on the long journey to find a [Heaven and Earth Wonder].]

[A vast, unknown world lay ahead—a killing ground where danger and opportunity existed side by side.]

[Age 21]:

[[Blue Talent: Twice the Results with Half the Effort] activated.]

[You knew that searching for a [Heaven and Earth Wonder] was like fishing a needle from the sea. With only your own strength, it would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.]

[You focused on sects, large cultivator Market Towns, and secret gatherings that might possess relevant information.]

[With the unseen guidance granted by your talent, you avoided many fruitless inquiries and false leads,]

[After an entire year of eating in the wind, sleeping beneath the sky, and making inquiries far and wide, you finally paid a hefty price to purchase a crucial piece of information from an intelligence broker in a secret Black Market:]

[Deep within the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range under the jurisdiction of the [Blazing Fire Sect], there was suspected to be an ancient site nurturing a [Fire-type Heaven and Earth Wonder],]

[By their calculations, it would fully mature in another five years and trigger extraordinary phenomena across Heaven and Earth.]

[However, the [Blazing Fire Sect] had long claimed this place as its exclusive preserve. It would open the site to outsiders when the time came, but required a payment of one hundred thousand low-grade Spirit Stones as an "entry permit."]

[One hundred thousand Spirit Stones!]

[You inwardly cried that this was outright robbery!]

[That was enough to hire several cultivators at [Embryonic Breath Realm perfection] to risk their lives, or even purchase some inferior artifacts used by Foundation Establishment cultivators.]

[The [Blazing Fire Sect] was practically robbing people with torches blazing and weapons drawn.]

[But you had no choice.]

[According to the information, if you missed this opportunity, you would have to wait at least fifty years for the next wonder at this site to mature.]

[Your cultivation journey could not afford those fifty years.]

[You could only grit your teeth and plunge back into the dark underworld, risking your life for those one hundred thousand Spirit Stones!]

[You no longer restricted yourself to safe, low-level missions as you had before.]

[To gather this enormous sum within five years, you specifically chose missions marked "high risk, high reward."]

[Hunting powerful demonic beasts, exploring dangerous ruins, escorting important figures through hostile territory... each mission took you along the knife-edge between Life and Death.]

[You knew that [Heaven and Earth Wonder] almost never circulated on the market,]

[And if one did, it would appear only at a top-tier auction, with bidding starting at no less than one hundred million Spirit Stones—an astronomical sum far beyond your reach.]

[The entry ticket costing one hundred thousand Spirit Stones was the only opportunity within your grasp.]

[Fortunately, [Blue Talent: Twice the Results with Half the Effort] once again worked its magic.]

[It seemed to affect not only cultivation, but also your "choices" and "Fortune."]

[For example:]

[A mission to hunt a "Berserk Fire Rhino" stated that it was active around a volcanic crater throughout the year.]

[Yet your intuition led you to a relatively cool resting place, where you successfully ambushed the beast while its reactions were at their slowest.]

[On a mission to explore an abandoned mine for rare ore, everyone believed the deposits had already been exhausted.]

[Yet an inexplicable sense led you deep into a collapsed side passage, where you discovered a small, unmined patch of Companion Jade Marrow worth far more than the mission reward itself.]

[Moreover, while carrying out missions, you frequently made "unexpected gains":]

[While fleeing a pack of demonic wolves, you jumped off a cliff in blind desperation, only to land unexpectedly on vines growing from a ledge halfway down and discover a spirit herb of considerable age.]

[When clearing battlefields after missions, you always "coincidentally" found overlooked, damaged artifacts or unknown materials among your enemies' belongings or in ruined corners, all of which could be traded for a few Spirit Stones.]

[You carefully took these "scavenged" rarities and treasures to different Black Market outposts and exchanged them for Spirit Stones.]

[Although each extra windfall was not particularly large, little by little they accumulated, greatly accelerating the rate at which you saved money.]