Before dawn broke, the faint moonlight could not pierce the dense bamboo forest, making the area around the bamboo house look even darker and gloomier, matching Li Yu's mood at that moment.
Though he knew what he was about to face, he still could not hold back the tears welling up in his eyes.
Seeing his master lying peacefully on the simple bamboo bed, he finally broke down and wept bitterly.
Situ Kong was lying cold on the bamboo bed, his right hand resting on his chest, holding a letter with the words "For Yu'er's Eyes Only" written on it, while a black cloth bundle lay beside him.
Enduring his grief, Li Yu took the letter from the old man's hand.
...
The sun sank in the west, and the late summer breeze swept away the last trace of heat—autumn was coming.
Li Yu lowered his head to look at the fresh mound before him bearing the inscription "The Grave of Situ Kong," his heart turbulent and unable to settle for a long time. The contents of his master's letter came like a bolt from the blue, filling him with bewilderment about the future.
The letter mentioned three things. First, he told Li Yu not to grieve; departing like this was a release for Situ Kong.
The daily emotional torment of self-blame and longing, coupled with the unbearable pain of his internal injuries, had made his life a misery.
Second, he instructed Li Yu to be careful in everything from now on, putting his own safety above all else.
He informed Li Yu that although his martial arts accomplishments could now be considered outstanding in the pugilistic world, he must not become arrogant or complacent; after all, there are people beyond people, and heavens beyond the heavens.
The final point was the reason that truly made Li Yu's heart tremble.
The letter stated that the pugilistic world was merely a minor path. If Li Yu's current strength was all he wanted for a peaceful life, he could certainly carve out a unique path and build a career in the martial world.
However, if he was unwilling to remain ordinary and turn to dust in a hundred years, he could try to venture out, because beyond the pugilistic world lay the world of cultivation.
The place where Li Yu currently lived belonged to a county within Chu Country called Anyuan County, and Chu Country had more than a dozen similar counties.
Around Chu Country were six similar nations, each ruled by an immortal cultivation sect. The sect that ruled Chu Country was called the Wanyu Sect.
In his middle age, through a fortuitous encounter, Situ Kong had befriended an immortal cultivator surnamed Wang.
That man had told Situ Kong that to cultivate immortality, one must first possess a Spiritual Root, otherwise everything was empty talk. To determine whether a mortal possessed a Spiritual Root, one had to go to the Hall of Enlightenment in Anyang City, the capital of Chu Country.
This was because every three years, the Wanyu Sect organized an appraisal assembly for mortals. Those with excellent Spiritual Roots and under the age of eighteen could directly join the Wanyu Sect as registered disciples.
At that time, Situ Kong was already forty-two years old, and having long since abandoned all hope, he could only sigh in despair.
Yet in the mortal world, there was a somewhat imprecise method to judge whether someone possessed a Spiritual Root: observing whether they possessed extraordinary talent in a certain area, such as the martial arts.
This was also the fundamental reason Situ Kong had revealed the existence of the cultivation world to Li Yu.
If Li Yu's talent proved ordinary, Situ Kong would have simply let him scrape by in the pugilistic world.
Because immortal cultivators seize the creation of heaven and earth, gathering mighty power within themselves, they have long since transcended the mortal realm.
The only things that could limit their actions were high-tier cultivators, sects, and clans.
Therefore, the cultivation world was bound to be far bloodier and darker than the pugilistic world, where killing for treasures and exterminating entire sects were everyday occurrences.
The letter also told Li Yu that in the bundle beside him was a manual of immortal cultivation given by the Daoist surnamed Wang, titled *The Art of Standing Firm*.
And *The Art of Standing Firm* was precisely the cultivation method Situ Kong had taught Li Yu over the years.
The book not only contained cultivation techniques, but also recorded some common knowledge about the cultivation world. The material of the book was ordinary, and its contents were not profound.
This meant that while this "immortal cultivation manual" would be considered a supreme martial arts treasure in the pugilistic world—one that would undoubtedly spark a storm of blood and slaughter if leaked—in the cultivation world, it was considered nothing more than common goods.
The letter advised Li Yu to weigh his options; if he wished to catch a glimpse of the splendor of the cultivation world, he could set out for the capital city of Anyang.
Because the journey was long, traveling from Anyuan County to Anyang City required passing through three counties and over a dozen major cities.
Although Li Yu possessed exceptional foot speed and internal energy, this was not something that could be accomplished in a few months.
If Li Yu did not wish to pursue the illusory Great Dao, he could go to Huai'an City in Anyuan County to find a close friend of Situ Kong's, who would arrange for Li Yu's current food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
Li Yu read the farewell letter left by his master over and over again, gripping the paper tightly as he recalled the hardships of his past years.
When he was six, his hometown was destroyed by a mudslide caused by a mountain torrent, leaving him the sole surviving ghost of the entire village in this world.
He had stumbled along, enduring illness, cold stares, abuse, beatings, and freezing starvation, surviving by swallowing his pride to beg on his knees for five whole years, until he saved Situ Kong and brought that life to an end.
During his days of learning martial arts, he had also been diligent and conscientious, never daring to relax for a moment, studying frantically every single day.
For he feared returning to those days when he had to cross mountains and ridges just to reach another city for a bowl of rice soup.
Now that his master had passed away, he was once again alone in the world. Since fate had set him upon the path of martial arts,
he might as well climb a higher mountain and scale a more perilous peak. It would be living up to his master's years of teaching and ensuring his own journey through the mortal world was not in vain.
The confusion in his eyes gradually faded as Li Yu made up his mind.
"I've always had a worthless life anyway, so I might as well roll the dice! The Great Dao of cultivation—I, Li Yu, will accompany you to the death!"
With that, Li Yu returned to Situ Kong's bamboo house and sat in the bamboo chair where Situ Kong used to sit whenever he had spare time.
Looking at the smooth right armrest of the bamboo chair, a wave of sorrow welled up in his heart.
After all, Situ Kong was the person who had treated him best over the past ten years, not only imparting knowledge but also teaching him the principles of conduct in the world.
Suppressing the thoughts in his heart, Li Yu warned himself that he must never be so sentimental in the future.
Opening the bundle resting on his lap, he found there were actually very few items inside.
A tattered book with the words *The Art of Standing Firm* written on the cover.
A journal that had clearly been finished only recently, still carrying the faint scent of ink when opened.
A pile of fragmented silver coins, totaling twenty liang.
A stack of silver notes issued by a universally accepted bank in Chu Country, amounting to as much as five hundred liang.
And three irregular white, round mineral stones.
He opened *The Art of Standing Firm* first. It was a thin volume; the contents of the first half were precisely the cultivation method he had practiced for five years.
Past the halfway mark of the text, the book began contents that his master had never mentioned.
Humans are born eating grains of the five harvests and breathing the air of the mortal world, inevitably generating acquired Qi.
The first half of the manual taught how to refine acquired Qi into innate Qi, which people in the pugilistic world referred to as internal energy.
An ordinary person might spend twenty or thirty years cultivating innate Qi to become a supreme expert in the mortal world.
Those born with Spiritual Roots, however, greatly accelerated this process, manifesting as superhuman talent in martial arts—this was also the conventional method of discovering a Spiritual Root without undergoing testing with Spirit Stones.
Clearly, Li Yu possessed a Spiritual Root.
And after cultivating innate Qi, a watershed appeared.
In the world of cultivation, this watershed was called the "Heaven-Man Barrier"!
Why? Because heaven and men are distinct; those with Spiritual Roots could knock open this barrier and become fellow practitioners of immortality.
Those who failed to cross this barrier were relegated to the eyes of cultivators as mere ants.
For once the Heaven-Man Barrier was crossed, spiritual Qi would transform into spiritual power, and the external manifestation of spiritual power was magical power. Those with great magical power could move mountains and drain seas, while soaring through the skies and traveling through the earth were commonplace, and their lifespans far exceeded those of ordinary mortals.
To immortal cultivators, supreme experts of the pugilistic world were just like mortals—slightly stronger ants, but ants nonetheless.
Li Yu naturally had no wish to remain an ant.
The remaining contents of the book taught how to use innate Qi to unblock the acupoints throughout the body all the way to the Dantian.
Thus allowing the wandering spiritual Qi of heaven and earth to be absorbed through cultivation and stored within the Dantian.
The final few pages of the book contained the incantations for the 1st to 3rd Layers of Qi Refining, common knowledge of the cultivation world, and a diagram of the body's meridians and acupoints.
The common knowledge section stated that cultivation realms included major realms such as Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul.
Each major realm was further divided into one through nine layers.
Layers one through three were the Early Stage; layers four through six were the Middle Stage; and layers seven through nine were the Late Stage.
Cultivating to the peak of the ninth layer had a special designation: the "Great Perfection Realm."
Aside from the ten minor realms of the Qi Refining Stage, which were relatively easy to subdivide,
all realms above the Foundation Establishment realm were categorized into four stages: "Early, Middle, Late, and Great Perfection."
Furthermore, the "Early, Middle, and Late" stages each had their own bottlenecks, and above the Great Perfection realm lay a major bottleneck that ordinary people found extremely difficult to break through without borrowing external aids such as heavenly treasures, formation arrays, or miraculous pills.
After introducing the realms, the text concluded with an introduction to Spiritual Root attributes.
Spiritual Roots were also known as Five Elements Spiritual Roots. Bestowed by heaven and earth, they encompassed the five elemental attributes of the cosmos: "Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth."
The function of a Spiritual Root was to help the immortal cultivator absorb the wandering five-element spiritual Qi of heaven and earth into their acupoints and meridians, and then transform it through cultivation into spiritual power suited to themselves before storing it in the Dantian.
Having more Spiritual Roots was not better; on the contrary, fewer was better, because the Dantian could only accept the transformation of a single attribute of spiritual Qi.
If multiple attributes of spiritual power were stored in the Dantian, the five elements would mutually restrain one another, leading lightly to Dantian damage and a severed cultivation path, or heavily to a shattered Dantian and instant death.
For instance, a single Fire Spiritual Root would only absorb spiritual Qi belonging to its own attribute in heaven and earth—meaning it would only absorb fire-attribute spiritual Qi.
One could then directly use a fire-attribute cultivation method to transform the fire-attribute spiritual Qi into fire-attribute spiritual power and store it in the Dantian.
As for those with multiple Spiritual Root attributes, they first had to filter out the redundant attribute spiritual Qi absorbed into their acupoints and meridians.
Only then could they absorb the single-attribute spiritual Qi suited to them through their cultivation method so it could be stored in the Dantian.
Judging from the efficiency of absorbing spiritual Qi and the time taken to transform spiritual power,
a single Spiritual Root completely crushed multiple Spiritual Roots. Thus, a single Spiritual Root was also called a Heaven Spiritual Root, representing the favored children of heaven.
Such Spiritual Roots were exceedingly rare among all immortal cultivators; once one appeared, it was bound to be fought over by major sects.
Beneath the Heaven Spiritual Root, there was another type of single Spiritual Root mutated from dual Spiritual Roots—such as wind mutated from fire and wood, lightning mutated from metal and wood, ice mutated from earth and water, or poison mutated from metal and fire.
These Spiritual Roots were called Mutant Spiritual Roots, representing those who differed from ordinary people.
As long as they found a suitable cultivation method, their cultivation speed was second only to the Heaven Spiritual Root, and those with Mutant Spiritual Roots were invariably born with a certain special "Dao Body."
Although a "Dao Body" could not help immortal cultivators increase their cultivation speed, it could enhance their combat prowess to varying degrees.
Therefore, generally speaking, among immortal cultivators of the same realm, those with Mutant Spiritual Roots tended to possess the strongest combat strength, and such Spiritual Roots also belonged to the highest tier.
Dual Spiritual Roots and triple Spiritual Roots were called True Spiritual Roots. People with these roots made up the largest group in the cultivation world.
Although they were harder to come by than quadruple and quintuple Spiritual Roots, compared to those with quadruple and quintuple Spiritual Roots—who were termed fake Spiritual Roots—their spiritual power improved at a normal pace, and as long as they had some fortuitous encounters, there was still hope for Foundation Establishment.
Fake Spiritual Roots referred to the four-element and five-element roots. Because their spiritual power improved too slowly, they basically lacked even a shred of possibility for Foundation Establishment.
Major sects would never recruit disciples who wasted resources in this manner, which was why True Spiritual Roots were the most common type of Spiritual Root in this world of cultivation.
It was worth mentioning that *The Art of Standing Firm* was the most basic cultivation manual in the cultivation world, capable of being practiced only up to the 3rd Layer of Qi Refining. Because the stored spiritual Qi was thin, it did not yet cause conflicts among the five elements.
Therefore, regardless of what kind of Spiritual Root one possessed, one could practice it, which was why it had swept across the entire cultivation world.
However, once one reached the 3rd to 4th Layers of Qi Refining—the bottleneck between the early and middle stages of Qi Refining—
one had to choose a cultivation method suited to one's own attribute and dissipate the redundant spiritual power in order to continue practicing.
Otherwise, the thickening spiritual power would begin to mutually suppress one another.
Because a Spiritual Root could only absorb spiritual Qi of its own attribute, this precisely highlighted the precious value of *The Art of Standing Firm*.
For by that time, the various attributes of spiritual power existing within the Dantian would represent one's actual Spiritual Root attribute.
After reading *The Art of Standing Firm*, Li Yu was immensely excited.
This basically proved that he possessed a Spiritual Root, and having a Spiritual Root meant he could cultivate.
Li Yu could hardly wait to test things out immediately using the method described in *The Art of Standing Firm* for breaching the Heaven-Man Barrier.
Yet he instantly suppressed the impulse within his heart, thinking that he was still insufficiently steady and must learn to better control his emotions.
After all, he was still a sixteen-year-old youth; who hasn't been young and frivolous at some point?
Following that, Li Yu opened Situ Kong's journal and read it word for word.
Before he knew it, the weather had cleared, and without realizing it, it was already noon of the next day.
Li Yu gathered materials on the spot and made bamboo-tube rice, eating as he pondered.
His master's journal contained the route to Anyang City and the basic conditions of the various major cities along the way. If he broke through the Heaven-Man Barrier and was lucky enough to possess a True Spiritual Root, he would go to the Hall of Enlightenment to test his Spiritual Root.
For even though he had practiced *The Art of Standing Firm*, his Spiritual Root attribute was known only to himself. While high-tier cultivators possessed various means to discern a person's Spiritual Root condition,
who—being strangers with no conflicts of interest—would spend energy trying to figure out someone else's Spiritual Root?
As long as he tested out as having a True Spiritual Root, he would be accepted as a disciple by the Wanyu Sect, and that would mark his formal entry into the cultivation world.
What Li Yu did not know, however, was this:
Situ Kong was, after all, a mere mortal who knew only one side of the matter and not the other.
Had he possessed a Heaven Spiritual Root or a Mutant Spiritual Root, he would have been directly conferred the title of inner sect true successor disciple, becoming the foundation and future hope of the sect.
Dual Spiritual Roots would directly make him an outer sect disciple, while triple Spiritual Roots could only make him a registered disciple. If a triple-root disciple managed to break through to the Late Qi Refining stage before the age of thirty, they could also be promoted to an outer sect disciple.
Any cultivator who successfully achieved Foundation Establishment would be promoted to an inner sect disciple, becoming the backbone of the sect.
After Situ Kong made a name for himself, he had spent thirty years traveling through most of the cities in Chu Country.
Many places he had simply skimmed through like a glance from a passing horse; after all, a mortal's lifespan was limited, and being able to make a trip to see them could already be considered living a life without regrets.
Moreover, the journal also recorded that Chu Country faced a vast ocean; beyond the other six nations, was there an even broader sky across that sea?
Li Yu collected his thoughts and rubbed his weary eyes. Although he could be considered a supreme expert in the pugilistic world, over the past two days he had not only faced the parting of death with his master,
he had also spent the entire night reading books for a whole day, and his spirit was inevitably flagging. Finding a stream in front of the door, he simply washed up and returned to the bamboo house to sleep fully clothed.
In his dream, he transformed into an immortal cultivator flying to and fro, cleaving the heavens and earth asunder with a single sword stroke... A rare smile appeared on the face of this star-crossed youth.