Windmist Immortal City was a sacred haven for cultivation in the hearts of every rogue cultivator in the Western Wasteland.
The Immortal City had been founded by Windmist True Person, a Core Formation rogue cultivator of the Western Wasteland. He had ventured deep into the Cloudmist Mountains, slain a third-tier demonic wolf, and wiped out its Demon Wolf Pack before building the city atop the Third-Tier Spiritual Vein the wolves had occupied.
The immortal city spanned a hundred li and was enclosed in its entirety by a third-tier grand formation.
Apart from Azure Dragon Mountain at the very center of the Immortal City, which possessed a third-tier spirit vein.
Surrounding Azure Dragon Mountain was the inner city, whose spirit veins reached the second tier.
Beyond that lay the outer city, the broadest district with the largest area, but spirit veins of only the first tier.
The outer city, the inner city, and Azure Dragon Mountain formed three clearly delineated districts.
Azure Dragon Mountain was the cultivation grounds of Windmist True Person's branch, and anyone outside that branch was forbidden entry.
The Inner City consisted mainly of the Market Ward that sustained the Immortal City's economy, along with a small number of cave abodes rented to high-level rogue cultivators.
The outer city housed the vast majority of low-level rogue cultivators, as well as numerous businesses serving them, such as general stores that sold low-tier talismans and purchased various low-tier materials.
That day, the sky was a clear, crystalline blue. Sunlight fell upon the azure barrier of the third-tier formation enclosing the Immortal City, scattering tiny glimmers of light.
Occasionally, wisps of snow-white cloud drifted leisurely past, shifting into all manner of shapes.
The Market Ward in the Inner City of Windmist Immortal City was the most prosperous district in the entire city. Major merchant associations and Cultivation Families rented shops there to buy, sell, or do both, offering all kinds of cultivator supplies while purchasing Spirit Grass, ores, Demon Beast materials, and other resources gathered from the Cloudmist Mountains.
Within the Market Ward.
Cultivators came and went along the broad streets, stepping into one shop and emerging from another. Some looked pleasantly surprised, as though they had struck a satisfying deal; others looked dejected, as though their wishes had gone unfulfilled. Some were furious, as though a powerful shop had bullied them, while others were excited... their emotions ran the gamut.
Yet on a slope in the northwest corner of the sprawling Market Ward stood several hundred small courtyards, each about a mu in size. Some were shrouded in faint azure light, clearly occupied by cultivators, while others lay silent, seemingly without owners.
Suddenly, the spiritual energy in this area rippled. Immediately afterward, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth rapidly gathered above one of the courtyards, forming a vortex dozens of zhang across.
This immediately drew the attention of nearby cultivators. They stopped to watch, their eyes brimming with irrepressible envy.
They could see plainly that a cultivator was attempting to reach Foundation Establishment, and judging by the spiritual energy being drawn in, the attempt had already reached its critical stage.
At this point, the chance of success could be said to have reached fifty percent. If the attempt succeeded, the immortal city would gain another Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The territory ruled by Windmist Immortal City held tens of thousands of cultivators, but most were low-level Qi Refining cultivators. There were fewer than a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Every Foundation Establishment cultivator enjoyed considerable status in Windmist Immortal City. Even the Azure Dragon Mountain branch would not disregard one.
And now, before their very eyes, another Foundation Establishment cultivator might be about to emerge. How could the passing cultivators not feel envious?
"I wonder which senior is attempting Foundation Establishment."
"Will he succeed?"
Under the curious, envious gazes of the passing cultivators.
Several more days passed before the spiritual energy vortex above the courtyard suddenly contracted. Like a dragon sucking up water, it was drawn entirely into the courtyard below.
The spiritual energy that had been streaming in from the surroundings dispersed completely after the vortex contracted. Within that scattering energy, five-colored radiance flickered faintly, dazzlingly beautiful.
How could the watching cultivators fail to understand what this sight meant?
"He did it."
"The immortal city has gained another Foundation Establishment cultivator."
Within that courtyard of roughly one mu, enclosed by a magical formation, the spiritual pressure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator surged forth, sending ripples across the pale azure barrier.
Inside the house, a young man with an unremarkable face sat cross-legged in a blue Daoist robe. His long black hair was gathered into a simple topknot, and though his eyes were closed, a smile rose involuntarily across his face.
Opening his eyes, the young man's gaze brimmed with uncontainable joy. "Twenty-seven years since I transmigrated into this world, and now I'm past forty. After a thousand hardships and ten thousand schemes, I've finally reached Foundation Establishment!"
The young man's name was Li Ping, and he was, in fact, a transmigrator.
He had once been an ordinary corporate drudge on Earth. After a car accident, he had left Earth and arrived in this vast world of cultivation.
Li Ping had transmigrated in soul. His soul had entered the body of a wandering beggar boy who had frozen to death beside a street in this world's mortal lands, merging with the boy's remnant soul and memories.
From the memories of the beggar boy's remnant soul, he learned the truth.
The wandering beggar boy had been born into a wealthy household, but both his parents had died when he was young. The substantial inheritance they left behind had been carved up to the last scrap by their former "friends and relatives," who preyed on a household left without heirs to defend it. He had been forced onto the streets to survive by begging.
That day, the bitter cold had frozen the earth, and snow lay three feet deep. A group of older beggars had driven him out of the ruined temple where he sheltered from the cold, leaving him to freeze to death on the street and allowing Li Ping's soul to take over his body.
When Li Ping awoke, he knew neither the place nor anyone in it and had nowhere to escape the cold. No one paid attention even when he shouted for help, and he was on the verge of freezing to death a second time.
Fortunately, Yan Guike, the master of Swordforging Manor, renowned throughout the martial world, happened to pass by. Li Ping's cries for help stirred his compassion, and he could not bear to leave him there.
He rescued Li Ping and took him back to Swordforging Manor. Thus, Li Ping became a disciple of the manor and learned swordsmanship under its instructors.
Once he began learning the sword, however, Li Ping's astonishing talent for swordsmanship became apparent.
He first held a sword at thirteen.
After one month of practice, he defeated every disciple his age in the manor, drawing the attention of Manor Master Yan Guike, who accepted him as a personal disciple.
After three months of practice, even the manor's instructors fell to his sword.
After a year of practice, he defeated Manor Master Yan Guike, a towering authority in the martial world, and became the strongest person in Swordforging Manor.
That same year, he descended the mountain with sword in hand and slaughtered all those former friends and relatives of the beggar boy's parents.
Afterward, he tested his sword against the heroes of the realm, scarcely able to find anyone who could defeat him. Because his attacks were ruthless and he never held back against an enemy, everyone in the martial world called him the Blood-Dripping Sword!
The Blood-Dripping Sword, Li Ping!
At fourteen, he was already unrivaled under heaven!
But not long afterward, while hunting down the Eighteen Black Mountain Bandits who had terrorized the people of Yi Province, he passed through a secluded mountain village and was effortlessly defeated by an utterly ordinary old codger with white hair and a white beard.
With a wave of his hand, the white-haired old man formed a golden barrier around his body. No matter how Li Ping slashed or thrust, he could not shake it in the slightest.
After murmuring an incantation, the old man's hands became as hard as metal. He caught Li Ping's blade barehanded, and even that divine sword could not injure him.
Then the old man chanted another incantation, and flames sprang up in his palm, melting Li Ping's divine sword into molten iron!
Only then did the old man smile and explain. He was one of the legendary immortal cultivators, and whether it was the golden barrier, hands as hard as iron, or fiercely hot flames conjured from nothing that could melt metal, all were cultivator spells!
Li Ping immediately abandoned the sword and asked the old man to teach him the path of cultivation.
At this, the old man burst into laughter.
As it turned out, he had noticed that Li Ping possessed a Spirit Root and had deliberately stepped forward to spar with him, intending to guide him onto the Immortal Dao.
After a thorough examination, the old man told Li Ping that he possessed a Three-Spirit Root—metal, earth, and water—which counted as fairly decent aptitude among cultivators.
The old man also admitted frankly that he himself possessed the worst aptitude: a Five-Spirit Root. He had stumbled onto the path of cultivation through a chance encounter, but after a lifetime of effort, he had only reached the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining. Seeing no hope of progressing along the Immortal Dao, he had retired to this little mountain village to establish and grow a lineage.
He wanted to guide Li Ping onto the Immortal Dao for two reasons. First, he could not bear to see someone with a Spirit Root squander a lifetime in the mortal world. Second, he wished to forge a bond of goodwill with him.
In the end, the old man not only imparted everything he knew of his metal-aligned Qi Refining cultivation method, the Golden Sword Art, but also allowed Li Ping to cultivate on his household's ungraded Spirit Land.
A year later, Li Ping refined his first thread of magical power and became a first-level Qi Refining cultivator.
Only through his conversations with the old man did he learn that the land beneath his feet was part of a vast region cultivators called the Western Wasteland.
The Western Wasteland consisted of dozens of mortal kingdoms, large and small. Every mortal kingdom was controlled from behind the scenes by cultivation lineages or sects, and the Jiang Kingdom, which he had once mistaken for the whole world, was no exception.
The Cultivation Family controlling the Jiang Kingdom from behind the scenes was the Jiang Lineage. Apart from them, the kingdom contained dozens of other factions of various sizes, and together they occupied all its graded Spirit Lands.
For cultivators, graded Spirit Land was an indispensable cultivation resource.
Rogue cultivators like the old man could only cultivate on graded Spirit Land by joining a major faction and serving at its command in exchange for the right to use that land.
As for the ungraded Spirit Land where Li Ping cultivated, the old man had discovered it by chance, and at most, it could only support his cultivation to the first level of Qi Refining.
Afterward, to advance further along the immortal path, Li Ping went to a Market Ward somewhere in the Jiang Kingdom on the old man's recommendation and settled there as a rogue cultivator.
He spent seven years cultivating in the Market Ward before reaching the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining. To travel farther along the immortal path and gain a chance of becoming a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he followed a caravan to Windmist Immortal City without hesitation.
After decades of struggle, now past forty, he had finally become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Sitting cross-legged, Li Ping quietly felt the changes within himself.
First was his magical power. The mist-like magical power that had once filled his entire dantian had been compressed into a liquid droplet the size of a grain of rice.
Its quantity had decreased, but its quality had improved enormously.
Though the liquid magical power was only the size of a grain of rice, its might was more than ten times what it had been before his breakthrough.
Next was his Divine Sense. Before his breakthrough, it could only probe an area within thirty zhang.
In fact, a normal Peak Qi Refining cultivator could only extend their Divine Sense twenty zhang. Because Li Ping had merged with the original body's remnant soul, his Divine Sense was roughly one and a half times as strong as that of an ordinary cultivator.
Now that he had reached Foundation Establishment, his soul had grown stronger, and his Divine Sense had undergone a qualitative transformation. Its maximum range had reached a hundred and fifty zhang, still one and a half times that of an ordinary early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Lastly, there was his lifespan. Qi Refining cultivators could live to a hundred and twenty at most, but Foundation Establishment cultivators could enjoy more than two hundred and forty years of life. In the mortal world, that was already enough to sit and watch a dynasty rise and fall.