"A fish leaping through the Dragon Gate..."
"Defying heaven and rewriting fate..."
The little orphan, who knew so little of the world, had learned these phrases for the first time. After witnessing his friend's transformation with his own eyes, he could not help indulging in daydreams, imagining that one day he too might leap through the Dragon Gate and defy heaven to rewrite his fate, just like those powerful cultivators.
But divine abilities and spells were hard to come by, and those born with manifest spiritual roots and the aptitude to cultivate were one in a thousand. Even possessing a spiritual root counted for little among the countless cultivators.
Spiritual roots also varied in quality. Some struggled to advance even within the Qi Refining Realm, while others possessed an innate Dao body, born at Foundation Establishment or even Core Formation, never knowing what a bottleneck was.
Someone like him ranked among the frailest and most useless even among the equally unremarkable common folk.
As the steward overseeing the selection had put it, he was a piece of worthless scrap. What right did he have to dream of something so far beyond his reach?
"I think I'll pass. Rather than spend that time playing, I'd rather read a little longer. Maybe it'll come in handy someday."
Wang Dou gave a soft sigh.
He did not want things to be this way either.
He had no choice in his birth or fate. His father's essence and mother's blood had given him life, but his starting line already lay behind everyone else's. What could he do?
Still, compared with the starving corpses of troubled times he had heard about, a resident of Salt City like him was already fortunate beyond measure.
Wang Dou did not want to squander that good fortune. He only