At the age of one hundred, I inquired about the Dao, awakening the supreme spiritual root that shatt

The abandoned treasure pavilion on the back mountain is rarely visited by people, has little spiritual energy, and is shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, making it cold and damp.

The two-story wooden building has been eroded by wind and rain for a thousand years. The wooden pillars are black and rotten, the doors and windows are cracked and mottled, and the walls are covered with grooves eroded by rainwater, as if it would collapse with the slightest touch.

The air was filled with a mixture of moldy, rusty, and toxic odors; inhaling even a single breath would cause chest tightness and nausea.

Yun Ziling stood in front of the pavilion door, her expression indifferent, and handed over a black wooden jade pass, along with a yellowed, curled-edge thread-bound ancient book.

"This is your identity jade token and the basic Qi-inducing technique, 'Xu Yuan Three Volumes'."

"The two side rooms on the west side are for living. There are restrictions deep in the back mountain; it is dangerous there and you must never go there."

Her tone was flat, without a single extra word of advice.

After giving his instructions, he swayed in his green robe and disappeared into the white mist of the mountains.

Ling Xiu raised his hand and pushed open the rotten, heavy wooden door. The dry wooden hinges rubbed together, making a harsh, grating sound.

The attic was in a mess.

The left side was piled with broken swords, rusted armor, and shattered breastplates. The former spiritual light had dissipated, and the magical artifacts were weathered and brittle, leaving only a pile of scrap iron.

Tens of thousands of discarded jade slips were scattered on the ground, their spiritual power depleted by ninety percent, and all the records inside were destroyed.

On the right, a pile of moldy waste pills, about half a person's height, was emitting toxic fumes. The pills were black and bubbly, and contact with the skin would cause dizziness, shortness of breath, and stinging pain in the meridians.

This place is the Qingyun Sect's waste graveyard, and also a place of exile specifically for useless and incompetent people.

Ling Xiu remained expressionless as he silently cleaned a side room on the west side.

He wiped the wooden couch clean, sat cross-legged, and began to study the "Three Volumes of Xuyuan".

The Three Volumes of Void Origin record the sect's rules and basic cultivation knowledge, as well as elixirs, medicines, magic tools, talismans, formations, and more!

There is also the basic technique, the Void Origin Technique.

It is the basic mental method for ordinary people to enter the world, to guide qi into the body and step into the realm of qi cultivation.

The cultivation realms are divided into five basic realms: Qi Refining, True Essence Condensation, Profound Understanding, Spiritual Sea, and Divine Transformation. Each realm is further divided into ten levels.

According to sect custom, ordinary young people with spiritual roots must undergo three months of arduous training before they can enter the sect.

A prodigy with a Heavenly Spiritual Root can embark on the path to immortality in just one month and be given special cultivation by the sect, with resources continuously poured into them.

Ke Lingxiu cultivated diligently for a whole month, but made no progress whatsoever.

His supreme spiritual root allowed him to perceive spiritual energy that was unparalleled throughout the ages. Every time he circulated his cultivation technique, spiritual energy within a ten-mile radius would frantically converge on his withered body, its concentration ten times greater than that of all the inner sect prodigies.

However, as soon as spiritual energy enters the meridians, it is immediately blocked by the hardened and atrophied meridians.

Having spent a century in the mortal world without cultivating, his body has aged completely, and his meridians have lost their resilience to accommodate spiritual energy, much like a riverbed that has been dry and hardened for a hundred years, where water flowing in would only cause it to break apart.

Each time I forcibly drew spiritual energy to cleanse my meridians, it was an excruciating pain that tore my soul apart. Cold sweat soaked through my hemp clothes, my limbs trembled uncontrollably, and my meridians felt as if they were being pierced by thousands of fine needles.

The night was pitch black, and a cold wind blew through the window, causing the candlelight to flicker.

Ling Xiu gritted his teeth and activated the Qi-Gathering Technique once more, unleashing a massive surge of spiritual energy that violently rammed into his withered meridians.

A faint cracking sound rang out inside his body, and several bloody wounds suddenly burst open from the meridians covered with fine lines.

puff!

A mouthful of dark, foul-smelling blood spurted out, staining large sections of the ancient book pages red. The stench of blood mixed with the smell of mold was particularly pungent.

Ling Xiu's body trembled violently, his ten fingers gripping the pages of the book so tightly that his knuckles turned blue and white, and the veins on his withered hands bulged.

Boundless despair swept over his soul.

People in the world would do anything to obtain a single celestial spiritual root, yet he possessed the supreme spiritual root, only to have his immortal path blocked by his aging meridians. How ironic is the way of Heaven!

Eighty years of blood feud, the grandfather's dying wish, could never be resolved.

A century of suppressed sorrow welled up in his heart, and turbid tears slid down his deeply lined cheeks.

On this day, the handyman disciple responsible for transporting waste delivered another pile of waste, which was scattered haphazardly in a corner of the Waste Treasure Pavilion.

Ling Xiu dragged his heavy and weak body forward and silently tidied up.

With slow and meticulous movements, he gathered all the broken magical artifacts together, piled all the waste pills and poison pills in another location, and sorted out these waste materials.

Suddenly, among the piles of discarded pills, a pill the size of a thumb was discovered. It was dusty in color and had several cracks on its surface, but it still faintly retained a trace of spiritual energy.

It looked unremarkable, but it made Ling Xiu's eyes light up, as if he saw a glimmer of hope.

This elixir, like the Qi-Spirit Pill described in the book, is a special elixir for mortals to draw Qi into their bodies, enabling them to break through to the first level of the Qi Refining Realm.

This "waste pill" with residual spiritual power only has one pill pattern, clearly indicating that it is a low-grade Qi and Spirit Pill. Although it is broken, it still has a trace of spiritual power.

Ling Xiu was overjoyed and carefully wiped the dust off the pills.

"I wonder who left this here; it is so precious."

He looked around warily, then hurriedly took out a cloth bag, but the bag was fragile and easily damaged, and such precious pills could easily be lost.

His gaze fell on the ancestral, dark, rough pottery gourd at his waist, and he drank the last of the old wine inside.

Carefully, he placed the Qi-Spirit Pill, which had a crack but still retained spiritual power, inside and then tightened the wooden stopper.

He quickly returned to his cabin and sat cross-legged.

He tried to circulate the Void Origin Qi-Guiding Technique again, but his meridians were still painful and blocked, and he could not gather any magical power.

"That Qi-Boosting Pill might help me successfully cultivate Qi? I'll wait a few more days, and if no one comes looking for me, I'll swallow this elixir."

Ling Xiu thought to himself as he waited for three long days.

No one came looking for him, which emboldened him.

If we wait any longer, the elixir will probably lose all its medicinal effect.

He pulled out the stopper, and a rich, refreshing medicinal fragrance instantly filled the wooden house, dispelling the mold and mildew.

He hurriedly poured out the pill. The Qi and Spirit Pill not only had its cracks repaired, but it was also round and white, with all impurities gone. A faint moonlight halo surrounded its surface, and four neat and mysterious pill patterns were clearly visible.

"Four pill patterns...it's actually a top-grade Qi and Spirit Pill!"

Ling Xiu trembled all over, his cloudy eyes bursting with a dazzling light, his mind reeling.

What was clearly a low-grade elixir with many impurities and incomplete medicinal effects was transformed into a top-grade elixir after being stored in the gourd for three days, skipping directly from the middle-grade to the high-grade!

A shocking idea exploded in my mind.

"This gourd can purify spiritual energy, restore medicinal efficacy, and turn the rotten into the miraculous!"

He finally understood the secret of the gourd.

The most precious treasure that the demonic cultivators frantically fought over during the massacre of the village was never a cultivation technique or spiritual root, but rather this inconspicuous black gourd.

This matter must never be revealed. If it is, it will surely attract the entire sect to seize the treasure and hunt us down.

Ling Xiu sat cross-legged on the couch and quickly swallowed the top-grade Qi and Spirit Pill.

A vast, warm, and spiritual energy surged into my limbs and bones, without causing any impact or pain.

The hardened, cracked, and congested meridians, which had been blocked for hundreds of years, were slowly nourished, softened, widened, and unblocked by spiritual energy, and the filth that had accumulated deep in the meridians for decades was swept away.

The depleted flesh, bones, and internal organs simultaneously absorb spiritual energy, and the vitality that has been dormant for a hundred years slowly revives.

boom!

The spiritual energy firmly takes root in the dantian, circulates throughout the body, and after the first level of energy refinement, it steadily takes shape.

My five senses were heightened several times over; even the finest details of spiderwebs, crawling ants, and the rustling of the mountain wind were clearly visible to my ears and eyes.