mtl008 Chapter 2 The World of Cultivation
Chapter 2 The World of Cultivation
Most cultivators in the world of cultivation awaken their spiritual roots at a young age. The higher the level of their spiritual roots, the earlier they awaken. Those with exceptional talent can even awaken their spiritual roots as early as one month old.
Conversely, the lower the aptitude, the later the awakening; some people with tenth-grade low-level spiritual roots may not awaken until they are sixteen years old.
Bai Luo was born in an ordinary family in Xuanhu Town, Qingfeng County, a region on the edge of the Immortal Clan. Her parents had ninth-grade middle-rank and ninth-grade high-rank spiritual roots, respectively.
Her brother awakened seven superior spiritual roots, including wind, fire, qi, and metal, at the age of three.
It is said that after the older brother awakened the seventh-grade superior spiritual root, his parents were overjoyed and wept. They burned incense and made offerings, and worshipped the ancestral tablets for a month to thank the ancestral graves for emitting auspicious smoke and bestowing such a talented child upon the elderly couple.
Yes, a seventh-grade superior quality is indeed a stroke of good fortune for a couple who are at the ninth-grade upper-middle quality.
Two months after Bai Luo's older brother, Bai Song, awakened a seventh-grade superior spiritual root, an elder from Qingfeng Sect, the best intermediate sect in Qingfeng County, came to teach Bai Song a set of basic cultivation methods. He instructed Bai Song to cultivate every day without slacking off and to take him to Qingfeng Sect to participate in the outer disciple assessment when he turned eight.
Bai Song lived up to expectations. As a child, he persisted in cultivation for many years, absorbing the power of nature every day. At the age of eight, he successfully passed the outer disciple assessment of the Qingfeng Sect, living up to his parents' expectations and bringing glory to the Bai family.
Yes, it brings honor. For the people of a small, outlying town, having a child in the family who is cultivating in the best intermediate-level sect in the county is already a great source of pride. After all, many towns don't produce more than a few children with seventh-grade spiritual roots in hundreds of years.
Shen Yao suddenly remembered that in her previous life on Blue Star, only a small number of students from a small town could get into a top-tier university.
In Shen Yao's previous life, in the Hubei region, a province with an entire population of Hubei people, the annual college entrance examination pass rate for first-tier universities was less than 16%.
Looking at students across the country, how many are admitted to Peking University and Tsinghua University each year?
It seems that studying, like cultivating one's divine powers, also depends on talent.
Then there's the time when Bai Luo awakened his spiritual root.
Bai Luo awakened his mid-grade spiritual roots in wood, water, and wind at the age of six.
Although he was far inferior to his older brother, he still surprised his parents once again, and they spent another month worshipping their ancestors to thank them for the auspicious smoke rising from the ancestral graves.
Bai Luo's spiritual root is considered quite good among the children in the town.
He also has an older brother who is an outer disciple in a mid-level sect, and he often sends messages to guide him.
When Bai Luo was eight years old, he also passed the disciple test of the Lingcao Sect in Xuanhu Town. However, this small sect did not distinguish between outer and inner sects; all disciples were personally taught by the sect leader.
A sect only has a few dozen people, one sect leader and three elders. When the sect leader and elders have time, they will find a student to teach. When they don't have time, the senior brothers and sisters will lead the junior brothers and sisters in their studies.
Because it is the Lingcao Sect, the sect is mainly based on the wood element. All members of the sect naturally have awakened wood spiritual roots. The back mountain of the sect's Lingcao Hall is rich in medicinal herbs and there are no ferocious beasts. Disciples often go out to collect herbs on their own.
Today, Bai Luo got up very early to gather herbs on the back mountain.
The journey was going smoothly until noon when I suddenly smelled a strange fragrance. Out of curiosity, I followed the scent and, in my haste, I didn't pay attention to my footing and tripped and fell next to the flowers.
Bai Luo accidentally touched the pistil of the Crimson Cloud Flower and immediately felt dizzy, nauseous, and had difficulty breathing. He quickly used the natural power of his spiritual root to protect his true energy and escaped. As soon as he left the forest, he could no longer hold on and collapsed in the sun, dying.
Curiosity really killed the cat. It seems that even when gathering herbs in this world of cultivation, one cannot be careless.
Shen Yao felt that she had roughly digested the framework information of this world and Bai Luo's background memories. She would digest the details slowly after returning to the sect. So she said to the Purple Cloud Golden Beetle, "Brother Beetle, let's go back to the sect."
The Purple Cloud Golden Beetle was very displeased with Shen Yao's address and angrily said, "What are you calling me, Brother Insect? Call me Father!"
Shen Yao: "You can't take advantage like that."
Golden Beetle: "I, the sect leader, brought your spirit across dimensions and resurrected you here. I have done you a great favor, so I am your father!"
Shen Yao caught a glimpse of something: "Sect Master? What Sect Master?"
The golden beetle said smugly, "I am the sect master of the Blue Star Plane. All spirits traveling to and from the Blue Star Plane must obtain my permission."
"So it's the Door God." Shen Yao said with a playful smile, cupping her hands in greeting.
Golden Beetle: "Stop grinning. You are extremely lucky to be willing to take you as my daughter."
Shen Yao put away her smile and said seriously, "I have lived a life of mere survival on Blue Star, accomplished nothing, and am of average appearance with no particular strengths. Why did the sect leader grant me resurrection and choose me as his daughter?"
The golden beetle, feeling guilty, replied, "That's because we're destined to meet."
Shen Yao remained silent for a long time before saying, "A dignified sect leader of a plane, yet you dare not tell the truth." Then she fell silent.
After another long while, the golden beetle weakly said, "It's not that I can't say."
Shen Yao stopped in her tracks: "Please speak frankly, Sect Leader."
Golden Beetle: "Blue Star is one of the lowest planes in the vast world. It is a suppressed plane. Those who commit serious crimes in other worlds will be judged by the highest world administrators and sent to Blue Star to cleanse their souls and serve as atonement."
Cleansing one's soul, serving time to atone for one's crime? Shen Yao was momentarily stunned: "Then what crime did I commit?"
The golden beetle stammered, "You haven't committed any major crime."
Shen Yao was dumbfounded: "I didn't commit any major crime? Then what minor crime did I commit?"
Golden Beetle: "Actually, you didn't commit any minor crimes."
Shen Yao was even more confused: "I haven't committed any major or minor crimes, so why was I exiled to Blue Star?"
Golden Beetle: "Because Blue Star is a suppressed world, in addition to most of the sinners, there are also some who have been stuck at their bottlenecks in other higher planes for a long time and voluntarily came to Blue Star to suppress their abilities, erase their memories, and undergo training."
"These petitioners can choose the difficulty of their trials according to their own wishes. After experiencing the set path of trials on Earth, they can return to break through."
"So I'm also going to gain experience? And I even set myself a path of poverty and hardship for my training?" Shen Yao thought to herself, realizing that being poor for most of her life was a trap she had dug for herself.
“Your situation is a bit special.” The golden beetle glanced at Shen Yao, its antennae twitching. “You brought a friend to Blue Star for training, but I… was in the process of forging a new avatar at the time, and when I opened the dimensional gate… I didn’t control the energy well and sucked you in as well.”
"What?!" Shen Yao was shocked, and suddenly felt that the Purple Cloud Golden Beetle was uglier and more poisonous the more she looked at it. She grinned and grimaced with hatred: "So, my poor life is because of you?!"
"I took timely measures to remedy the situation!" the golden beetle shouted.
“You had already gone in at that time, and my clone was in the process of forming, so I couldn’t bring you out in time. I thought I’d make the best of a bad situation and let you experience this life, which might even help your cultivation.”
"I've arranged a good family for you, so you can be a rich second-generation heir and live a happy life. I'll finish my training and come out as soon as possible. After making the arrangements, I'll go into seclusion to refine my clone."
"Who would have thought that you would die just a few days after you came out of seclusion? I found out that some criminals on Earth had awakened. Unable to escape the plane, they developed the art of exchanging lives and specifically sought out people to undergo trials to exchange their lives with."
"Your parents revealed your birth date and time when you were young, and they also talked about how you were precocious from a young age. Your life was switched, and your life of happiness was replaced with a life of loneliness and misery. That's why you had no relatives to rely on, were poor and destitute, and died in resentment."
The golden beetle said with self-reproach, "I have found out and reported the person who exchanged your life for his, but your physical body was already dead at that time, and your fate cannot be changed."
"I can only store your spirit in a spatial rift first, and then use my clone to take you to another dimension when the judgment lightning comes."
“My clone took most of the judgment power for you and brought you here. After that, it was too weak to go back for the time being, so it parasitized the Purple Cloud Golden Armor larva and planned to stay with you for the rest of this life.”