In the primordial age, only those in the Immortal Spirit Realm and the True Immortal Realm could cultivate immortal arts. The living beings of the Mortal Realm had only a few short decades to live before entering the cycle of reincarnation. All the splendor and riches of that lifetime would then have nothing more to do with them, and whether they returned as humans or beasts in their next lives was left entirely to fate.
Yet regardless of realm or race, immortality and power had always been the dreams of every living being. Thus, ever since ancient times, powerful humans, demon beasts, and experts of other races had emerged among the many races of the Mortal Realm. Naturally, these mighty beings hoped to live forever, so they could continue enjoying all the pleasures the world offered. Generation after generation, they explored without cease, searching desperately for that faint hope and pursuing the immortal Dao of eternal life.
Through their own tireless efforts and exploration, they gradually began discovering certain powers within the laws of heaven and earth, then tried using those laws to strengthen themselves;
Meanwhile, reproduction was difficult in the Immortal Spirit Realm, and many ancient lineages, sects, and other races whose inheritances stretched back to the primordial age began declining, or even vanished altogether. Although they possessed incomparable power, they could do nothing to break these shackles imposed by heaven and earth. They therefore began seeking new ways to pass on their inheritances. Unable to ascend easily to the True Immortal Realm, they turned their attention downward, toward the Mortal Realm.
These cultivators of the Immortal Spirit Realm used their vast supernatural powers to break open passages between the two realms and descended into the Mortal Realm. There, they discovered that its spiritual energy was not merely a little inferior to that of the Immortal Spirit Realm. To them, it was thin to the extreme. They had truly come riding high on excitement, only to leave crestfallen. Disappointed, they could only give it a tentative try, intending to make a brief investigation of the realm before shattering the void and returning to the Immortal Spirit Realm to seek some other solution to the problem of succession.
What they had not expected, however, was to discover many powerful beings born in the Mortal Realm. Through observation, they found that these powerful humans and demon beasts all possessed the basic constitution required for immortal cultivation: immortal spiritual roots, or the innate gifts of a demon beast's bloodline. They could already make rudimentary use of the laws of heaven and earth, granting them abilities beyond those of ordinary members of their kind. Apart from humans and demon beasts, powerful beings of other races likewise possessed the corresponding constitutions needed for cultivation.
For humans, immortal cultivation required immortal spiritual roots, also called spiritual roots. People with this constitution were highly sensitive to the laws of heaven and earth and fluctuations in the world's spiritual energy. With spiritual roots, one could embark on the immortal path, pursuing the Great Dao of heaven and earth and an eternal, undying existence.
Like cultivation realms, spiritual roots were divided into grades. From lowest to highest, they were mixed spirit roots, profound spirit roots, earth spirit roots, heavenly spirit roots, and sacred spirit roots. These classifications came from the body's sensitivity to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Spiritual energy consisted of the five basic elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Other elements, such as wind, mist, thunder, and lightning, arose through the transformations and developments of these five.
Someone particularly sensitive to only one of the five elements was said to possess a sacred spirit root. Since such people could sense only a single element in the world, their perception was focused and their constitution pure. Their cultivation could advance a thousand miles in a day. They generally had a very strong chance of reaching the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, and their chances of reaching the Mahayana Realm were also considerable. As for whether they could ascend to the True Immortal Realm, even the mighty cultivators of the Immortal Spirit Realm dared not claim who could reach that level. Their chances of ascending were merely higher than those of people with the other constitutions. However, humans with such a constitution
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appeared only a few times in a thousand years and were exceedingly rare. Likewise, someone sensitive to only two of the five elements was said to possess a heavenly spirit root. Because such people sensed one additional type of spiritual energy, the energy within their bodies began to grow somewhat mixed. Their cultivation speed fell well short of those with sacred spirit roots, but this was still an exceptionally rare and desirable constitution. For a cultivation sect to possess even one or two such people was a sign of tremendous good fortune. These people had a high probability of reaching the Body Integration Realm, and also had some chance of reaching Tribulation Transcendence or Mahayana. Following this pattern, the worst constitution was one sensitive to all of Heaven and Earth's Five Elements, which the cultivation world called a mixed spirit root. Cultivation was extremely difficult for humans with this constitution, as their perceptions were far too muddled. Reaching Foundation Establishment was already a stroke of heaven-defying luck. They essentially remained at the Qi Condensation Stage for their entire lives, let alone pursuing the Great Dao of eternal life.
The greatest difference between these constitutions was cultivation speed, and this was the most important distinction between cultivators. Although their lifespans increased with each higher realm, different constitutions could lead to vastly different outcomes. For instance, someone with a sacred spirit root might need only four or five years to advance from the Qi Condensation Stage to the Foundation Establishment Realm, whereas someone with a mixed spirit root needed several decades. Before the latter could gain an increase in lifespan, they might already have become a pile of dry bones. Meanwhile, those with sacred spirit roots could use the extra time to press triumphantly onward, naturally enjoying a much greater chance of ultimately ascending to immortality.
People with constitutions attuned to wind, mist, thunder, or lightning did not fall into these categories. Their roots were called variant spiritual roots, born from mutations of the five elements. Such constitutions were also quite rare. Their cultivation speed was almost equal to that of sacred spirit roots, but their combat abilities and supernatural powers were often far stronger than those of cultivators at the same level who possessed five-element spiritual roots.
Apart from sacred spirit roots and variant spiritual roots attuned to a single element, all other constitutions sensed multiple attributes. Of the two or more attributes within a person's body, some were inevitably stronger than others, and which were strong or weak was determined at birth. Generally, cultivators with heavenly spirit roots or lower chose to cultivate the attribute to which they were most sensitive. This greatly increased their cultivation speed while also ensuring that their immortal arts retained their greatest possible power. If they cultivated an attribute other than the one to which they were most sensitive, their progress slowed greatly, and the power of their attacks was also sharply reduced.
The cultivation world was filled with bloody winds and rains of carnage, where the weak were meat for the strong. It was beyond anything mortals could imagine. Although cultivators primarily pursued eternal life, without sufficient power to protect themselves, their journey toward immortality would be no more than a short excursion. Thus, while striving to raise their cultivation realms, they also sought powerful supernatural abilities with painstaking effort.
The proportion of people with spiritual roots in the Mortal Realm was nowhere near as high as in the Immortal Spirit Realm. In the Immortal Spirit Realm, perhaps one person in ten possessed spiritual roots, but in the Mortal Realm, only one could generally be found among a hundred thousand people. They were exceedingly rare. Yet the populations of the Mortal Realm's many races were immense, readily numbering in the hundreds of millions, and its territory was too vast to calculate. Overall, therefore, the number of beings with constitutions suited to cultivation far exceeded that of the Immortal Spirit Realm.
These cultivators of the Immortal
Spirit Realm also discovered that, although the Mortal Realm's spiritual energy was rather thin, this was not true everywhere. Many places actually possessed fairly good spiritual veins. The spiritual energy there was relatively abundant, enough to support a sect or lineage in cultivating to the Nascent Soul Realm. Anyone who reached this realm could move mountains with a turn of the hand, summon rain with a flip of the palm, soar through the skies, and travel through the earth. They were already half-immortals. If their cultivation advanced further to the nascent soul late stage, they would gain the spatial abilities needed to cross between the two realms. Their magical power could withstand the turbulent storms within that space, allowing them to ascend to the Immortal Spirit Realm, seek out their own lineage or sect, and cultivate higher-level immortal arts. In this way, the inheritances of the Immortal Spirit Realm could continue from generation to generation without end.
Thus, the problem of passing on their inheritances was resolved. These cultivators of the Immortal Spirit Realm began searching throughout the Mortal Realm for places with denser spiritual energy, establishing sects to carry on their traditions one after another. They then found people with spiritual roots, accepted them as disciples, and taught them immortal arts. Afterward, using immense magical power and heaven-reaching supernatural abilities, they opened several passages connecting the Mortal Realm to the Immortal Spirit Realm. Once their disciples in the Mortal Realm reached the nascent soul late stage, they could use these passages to cross between realms, shatter the void, and ascend to the Immortal Spirit Realm.
From that time onward, numerous cultivation lineages and sects were gradually established in the Mortal Realm. Beings of other races from the Immortal Spirit Realm also arrived one after another, using the same methods to establish their own inheritances. By now, after hundreds of millions of years of succession and propagation, these lineages, sects, and populations were spread throughout every region of the Mortal Realm. Ordinary mortals, however, could not simply encounter them. They usually established themselves on spiritual veins, where spiritual energy was abundant. Wherever spiritual energy was plentiful, demon beasts inevitably roamed unchecked and ghosts ran rampant, making survival difficult for ordinary humans or members of other races. If an ordinary being happened to appear there, they would almost certainly be killed outright by the powerful demon beasts or ghosts. Even if they survived by sheer luck, finding an immortal sect remained difficult. Such sects were usually surrounded by vast illusion formations that mortals could not see through. Ordinary humans or beings of other races who entered them would lose their way, unable to escape even if they wandered for an entire lifetime, and would inevitably starve to death within. The fortunate ones might encounter an upright cultivator who would cast a spell to send them out. If they met an evil cultivator instead, they would suffer a gruesome death on the spot, or even a fate worse than death.
There was another possibility: a place inhabited by mortals might happen to lie on a spiritual vein. In that case, everything depended on the temperament of the cultivator who took a fancy to the land. Some merely cast spells that made the inhabitants feel the place was uncanny and plagued by supernatural disturbances. Frightened and unable to continue their normal lives, they would eventually move away on their own, after which the cultivator would establish a sect or lineage there. Others simply slaughtered every living being in the area and seized it for themselves.
After explaining all this, the gray-robed old man looked even more drained, and his body strangely began to grow faintly indistinct. Li Yan noticed something was wrong with him, but he was so utterly stunned by what the old man had just described that he had no attention to spare for it. In his heart, he kept repeating, It's false, false, all of it is false. These things sounded like the wildest fantasies to him. Even an elderly person with a wealth of worldly experience, standing here and hearing these
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words, would have felt they were merely caught in a great dream.
Apart from a few things he had read in bizarre unofficial histories, Li Yan had encountered such matters only in his occasional dreams, much less concepts such as realms, the void, or spiritual roots. Everything he had experienced today truly left him dazed, yet at this moment, he could feel it all so clearly. It existed with such undeniable reality.
The gray-robed old man was not surprised by Li Yan's expression. Smiling at him, he said, "I know you cannot believe it, but all of this is indeed true. In a little while, once your consciousness leaves this place and you feel the condition of your body, you will know these were neither empty words nor things you imagined hearing. All right, I can only give you this brief explanation of those matters. Now you should be able to understand what I'm about to tell you. Otherwise, there would have been no need for me to ramble on for so long."
Hearing this, Li Yan began to half believe him. Still, he suspected that what the old man was about to say was the real matter at hand. With that in mind, he asked no more questions. He simply floated in midair, watching the old man and quietly waiting for him to continue.
Seeing his expression, the gray-robed old man knew Li Yan had begun to believe these extraordinary things. His own time was also running short, so he nodded at Li Yan and continued speaking.
"I come from an ancient sect in the Immortal Spirit Realm, the Gui Water Immortal Sect. But we are different from other sects. Among the oldest immortal sects in the Immortal Spirit Realm, five great sects are the most mysterious: the Gui Water Immortal Sect, the Yi Wood Immortal Sect, the Ding Fire Immortal Sect, the Earth Immortal Sect, and the Xin Jin Immortal Sect." Thus the old man began explaining to the young man.
Since ancient times, cultivation sects had stood like a forest throughout the Immortal Spirit Realm. Powerful beings—humans, demons, beasts, ghosts, immortal plants, and others—had established countless sects, both great and small. Among them, however, five great immortal sects were exceptionally powerful and mysterious. Members of these Five Immortals Sects very rarely walked openly before the world. Only once every few hundred years, or even a thousand years, would one occasionally appear. Yet each person who emerged would stir the cultivation world until the winds and clouds changed color, leaving everyone in fear of accidentally provoking them. If someone truly did offend them, they could often slaughter every cultivator in the offending sect single-handedly. Even if that sect possessed terrifyingly powerful cultivators at Tribulation Transcendence or Mahayana, few were fortunate enough to survive. Luckily, they seldom appeared before the world, and so long as no one deliberately provoked them, they would never make enemies of any sect. Once a feud arose, however, their attacks were invariably ruthless to the extreme.
Precisely because of this, many sects both revered and feared them. The immortal arts they used were extraordinarily terrifying. How could such powerful immortal arts exist in the world? Across a vast continent, someone possessing arts of such power might appear only once in ten thousand years. Yet every person who emerged from these five mysterious ancient sects possessed supernatural abilities so powerful as to defy belief. Immortal arts capable of making an entire sect so formidable were rare even in the Immortal Spirit Realm. Thus, many people tried every possible means to join these five ancient, mysterious sects. But they could not even locate them, much less enter their ranks. And so, as time passed and the world changed, many continued searching, desperately pursuing that sliver of a chance to become powerful themselves.
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