Xiao Family Back Mountain —
The giant rocks on the mountain appeared hazy under the twilight.
Beneath a precipitous cliff, there was an opening barely wide enough for one person to pass through.
The cave was dim, with only the afterglow of the setting sun shining through the cracks in the vines.
The air emitted a damp, earthy scent and a strange energy fluctuation.
A youth was sitting cross-legged on a relatively flat, cyan boulder.
He had a lean build and a youthful face, yet possessed a calmness that did not belong to his current age.
He was Xiao Qing.
At this moment, the atmosphere around Xiao Qing began to change.
The originally calm air began to show subtle changes, as if disrupted by a mysterious force.
Pure, pale white Dou Zhi Qi seeped out from Xiao Qing’s pores, beginning to swirl and circulate around his body.
Inside Xiao Qing, a miniature black hole seemed to be born, crazily absorbing the energy of heaven and earth from the outside.
The originally peaceful energy of heaven and earth around him seemed to be drawn in, suddenly becoming restless, turning into visible specks of light, and gathering toward him.
However, the moment these riotous energies were about to touch Xiao Qing’s body, they seemed to hit an invisible and gentle barrier.
All the restlessness was smoothed out in that instant, becoming docile, and then slowly began to merge into his body.
These external energies of heaven and earth met with the Dou Zhi Qi Xiao Qing had cultivated himself, and instead of repelling, they gradually fused, forming a thicker and purer stream of energy.
Under the guidance of Xiao Qing’s will, this fused energy began to wash and temper the relatively tender Meridians in his body over and over again.
Each tempering brought a faint sensation of swelling pain and numbness, but as his Meridians became tougher, a feeling of unobstructed pleasure began to fill him.
Compress, compress again!
Refine, refine again!
The Dou Zhi Qi within his body was compressed to the limit during repeated cycles of the Great Circulation, as if wanting to concentrate all energy into one point.
Finally, when this compression reached a certain critical point —
Boom!
A low sound rang out, not from the outside, but from the depths of Xiao Qing’s body!
In an instant, all the energy seemed to find its destination, crazily rushing toward the Dantian in his lower abdomen, condensing, rotating…
Finally, a tiny vortex began to form, rotating slowly on its own, generating and absorbing Dou Qi with every rotation.
The Dou Qi Vortex, formed!
This proved that Xiao Qing had officially stepped into the Realm of a Dou Practitioner!
After a long while, Xiao Qing let out a long breath.
This breath condensed into a white mist in the chilly cave, lingering for a long time.
The brand-new yet familiar power within Xiao Qing — true Dou Qi, flowed steadily through his widened Meridians like a gentle stream.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Deep in his pupils, a flash of pale red light flickered and then vanished, appearing exceptionally bright in the dim cave.
As Xiao Qing stopped his cultivation, the energy of heaven and earth gathered around him lost its core and began to dissipate slowly and reluctantly.
The strange energy fluctuations in the cave gradually subsided.
“Finally…
I have achieved the rank of Dou Practitioner!”
His heart was filled with hard-to-conceal joy.
After such a long time of cultivation, Xiao Qing had finally become a Dou Practitioner, taking the first step on the path of cultivation!
Feeling the Dou Qi in his body, which was several times stronger than Dou Zhi Qi, Xiao Qing clenched his fist tightly.
“Fire-attribute Dou Qi.
Next, I can officially begin cultivating the Cultivation Technique left behind by my father.”
He whispered in his heart, filled with anticipation for what was to come.
One hour later —
Xiao Qing opened his eyes again, having completed the first Great Circulation of the Cultivation Technique.
Xiao Qing opened his right palm, his mind stirred.
Poof!
A wisp of pale red Dou Qi began to emerge from his palm, about an inch long, like a dancing fire spirit, appearing quietly.
In this relatively dark cave, this red Dou Qi looked exceptionally bright, dispelling the surrounding darkness.
Faint heat drifted out, colliding with and neutralizing the inherent cold, damp air of the cave, bringing a trace of warmth to Xiao Qing.
Just then, a phantom, hazy golden book, neither gold nor jade, appeared silently in the depths of Xiao Qing’s consciousness.
This was a mystery only he could perceive.
On the book, archaic characters appeared one by one:
[host: Xiao Qing]
[Age: 9]
[Physique: Innate Spirit Body]
[Bloodline: Rank 1 Dou Di Bloodline (Inactive)]
[Talent (1/2): Mortal Grade · Fire Control · Intermediate (1/20)]
[Divine Ability: None]
[Cultivation: Dou Practitioner 1-Star]
[Soul Realm: Mortal Realm Middle Stage]
[Cultivation Technique: Yellow Rank Intermediate · Mystic Fire Mantra (Beginner)]
[Dou Technique: Yellow Rank Low · Fire Palm (Proficient)]
[Available Talent Fixation Slots: 1]
[Innate Spiritual Rhyme: 2179]
[Fire Control · Intermediate: Can control flames with relative finesse, speed of absorbing and refining fire-attribute energy gains a small increase, resistance to flame and fire-attribute energy attacks is slightly enhanced.]
[Innate Spirit Body (Awakening): During cultivation, can spontaneously induce and soothe surrounding heaven and earth energy, greatly increasing the efficiency of absorbing and exhaling heaven and earth energy.
As cultivation increases, this effect will continue to strengthen and contain unknown wonders.]
This mysterious golden book had appeared in his mind ever since Xiao Qing cultivated his first wisp of Dou Zhi Qi at the age of three.
Its function was direct and powerful: it could extract the talent abilities of all living things in the world and convert them into [Talents] that he could fix and use.
Even more miraculously, the [Talents] fixed by the book had a fundamental difference from the talents before extraction; they possessed the possibility of infinite growth and advancement!
[Talent] grades were currently known to be divided into: Mortal Grade, Spiritual Grade, Heaven Grade.
Among them, only Mortal Grade talents could have their proficiency and rank improved through continuous hard work and practice, while Spiritual Grade and above talents had more difficult and mysterious ways of improvement.
The opportunity to fix a new talent was extremely precious, obtainable only after breaking through a major Realm.
Xiao Qing had gained one during the Dou Zhi Qi stage, and now that he had advanced to a Dou Practitioner, he had gained another precious opportunity.
And [Innate Spiritual Rhyme] could be generated naturally every day; its function was to directly increase the proficiency of [Talents] or even push them to advance.
“Sigh, without realizing it, I’ve been in this world for nine years.”
Xiao Qing’s gaze fell on the [Age] column of the book, his expression somewhat dazed, his heart heavy, as he let out a soft sigh inconsistent with his age.
Memories surged.
Xiao Qing’s mother had suffered from a root illness when giving birth to him, causing her Origin Qi to be severely damaged, and she passed away not long after.
His father, Xiao Tian, was once the captain of the Xiao Family’s herb-gathering team, with a forthright and unyielding personality.
However, six years ago, while leading the Xiao Family’s herb-gathering team into the Magical Beast Mountain Range to collect herbs, they encountered an attack by a Rank 2 Demonic Beast.
Although they ultimately killed the beast after a desperate fight, the team suffered heavy casualties.
As the main force, his father was severely injured.
Although he survived due to treatment, he suffered from a serious root illness and passed away when Xiao Qing was five years old.