Not far from the west gate of Ling Xiang City, under the city wall, there are rows of simple and low houses, which form a sharp contrast with those tall and magnificent mansions in the center of the city.

  In the center of the city, a huge Spirit Gathering Array was laid out. The closer to the city center, the thicker the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, so those big families were all gathered around the Spirit Gathering Array. On the outskirts of the city, the influence of the Spirit Gathering Array had already become extremely weak, only slightly denser than the spiritual energy outside the city, and most of the scattered cultivators lived here.

  Li Hui walked to a simple bluestone house, took out a jade token and pressed it on the door, and the stone door automatically opened. Li Hui carried the big and small packages in his hands into the house.

  Inside the house was a humble living room, only about ten square meters in size. The furnishings were simple, with just a wooden table and a few wooden stools. Li Hui put everything he had in his hands on the table, sat down slowly, poured himself a cup of water from the teapot, and looked around at the bare walls of his home, his eyebrows twitching involuntarily.

  "Dad, Mom!" Li Hui whispered softly, lost in memories of the past.

  Bixiao Gate is a cultivation sect hidden in the vast Bixiao Mountains. It belongs to the Xianxia school of thought. The tradition has been passed down for over a thousand years, and during this time, it has experienced many ups and downs. Currently, there are over a thousand disciples, although it can be said that in the cultivation world, it is just a drop in the ocean, but it is still considered prosperous.

  If the sword flies in mid-air and looks down, it will find that the surrounding area of Bixiao Gate is surrounded by towering peaks that are like natural barriers.

  Starting from the Bi Xiang Gate and heading east for two hundred miles, you can reach the foot of the Bi Xiang mountain range. In the west, south, and north directions, there are endless mountains, giving people a sense of boundlessness. The Bi Xiang Gate has a geographical advantage, as long as it guards the eastern gate well, it doesn't have to worry about external invasions. The various medicinal materials and minerals in the Bi Xiang Mountains are like an inexhaustible treasure trove.

  Cultivating the truth is against heaven, and every step is extremely difficult. Some cultivators in the Azure Sky Sect feel that the Great Way is hopeless, so they leave the sect and live nearby, get married, have children, and gradually form some immortal families.

  Some cultivators without a sect also often gather near these immortal sects, where everyone exchanges what they have, and slowly forms a market. As time passes, more and more immortal families and scattered cultivators gather here, and these markets gradually develop into cities where immortals congregate.

  Li Hui's father originally belonged to a declining small immortal family, the Li family, in Ling Xiao City. It is said that this Li family was once prosperous 300 years ago, and at that time, there was an old ancestor in the golden elixir stage in Bi Xiang Men, and the Li family also had some status in Ling Xiao City.

  Later, after this old ancestor's lifespan was exhausted and he returned to the cycle of reincarnation, the Li family never again produced any particularly talented descendants.

  Having a spiritual root is already one in ten thousand among ordinary people, and those with heavenly spiritual roots or true spiritual roots are even more rare. This Li family, since the golden elixir stage ancestor passed away, has not had any cultivators with heavenly spiritual roots or true spiritual roots appear again. Gradually, the Li family's status also declined.

  The industries in the city were successively acquired by other families, and the scale of the family was also constantly shrinking. By the time of Li Hui's father's generation, the Li family had long since sold all their houses in the city center and moved to scattered dwellings at the foot of the city wall.

  At this time, the Li family was already in name only, with no fixed industries within the clan. Initially, the head of the Li family at that time still required the clan's cultivators to go into the mountains to collect medicine or hunt some demon beasts, and then hand over a portion to the clan. These clan properties were used to cultivate some younger generations with slightly better qualifications.

  Later on, no one paid attention to these things anymore. Everyone stopped contributing their own property to the clan and used it all to improve themselves. In the end, the head of the Li family at that time dissolved the family. From then on, there was no longer a Li surname in Ling Xiao City, and the original houses were also distributed separately. Li Hui's father got this small house.

  Later, Li Hui's father became acquainted with a female Taoist practitioner and the two became Dao companions. This woman was Li Hui's mother.

  After a few years, Li Hui was born. Fortunately, Li Hui also had a spiritual root, so he could embark on the path of immortality and stay in Ling Xiao City. Unfortunately, Li Hui had the worst five spiritual roots among cultivators, also known as the "废灵根" (waste spiritual root).

  In general, spiritual roots are divided into the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth. There are also some variations of spiritual roots that are a mixture of two or more types, such as wind spiritual root, thunder spiritual root, etc.

  Having a single attribute of the spiritual root is called Tian Linggen in the Xianxia world, Tian Linggen means the genius spiritual root of Xian. The cultivator who has Tian Linggen absorbs and transforms the heaven and earth spiritual energy at the fastest speed, and there is no bottleneck when building foundation and condensing golden elixir.

  Cultivators with variant spiritual roots can often cultivate some special divine abilities, and their cultivation speed can also be comparable to those with heavenly spiritual roots. However, when it comes to forming the Golden Elixir, they cannot avoid the bottleneck.

  The second is the dual spiritual root cultivator, also known as the true spiritual root in the cultivation world, which is extremely rare and has a very fast cultivation speed, but cannot avoid the bottleneck during the foundation building and core formation stages.

  What's left is the three spiritual roots, which is just ordinary talent, not good or bad, as long as you work hard, it's possible to succeed in building the foundation, and as for condensing the golden elixir, there are even fewer.

  The four spiritual roots are called pseudo-spiritual roots, and it's even difficult to build the foundation, while the five spiritual roots are called abandoned spiritual roots, basically unable to break through the bottleneck of building the foundation, barely qualified to cultivate immortality.

  Despite this, the couple was overjoyed and grateful for heaven's blessing. After having a baby at home, the family's life became even more difficult. When Li Hui was young, only his father went into the mountains to pick herbs, while his mother stayed at home to take care of the baby. When Li Hui grew up to five years old, his parents left him alone at home and both went into the mountains to pick herbs.

  In Li Hui's childhood memories, he was always alone at home waiting for his parents to return.

  Although the spiritual root was not good, Li Hui was clever and smart since childhood. At the age of six, he could recognize characters, and at the age of seven, under his father's guidance, he began to practice the family's inherited cultivation method "Lei Di Jue". From then on, when his parents were away, Li Hui would sit alone in meditation at home.

  However, he was ultimately unable to make up for the congenital deficiency of his spiritual root's poor quality, and Li Hui's cultivation progress was extremely slow. Every time Li Hui's parents returned from collecting herbs, they would see their son sitting alone at home, and in their hearts, there was always an unspeakable sorrow.

  "If Hui'er were born into a large family with sufficient elixirs to assist him, he would definitely be able to cultivate to the Foundation Establishment stage!" This was a sentence that Li Hui's father often said to his mother. His mother remained silent, gazing lovingly at her son who was diligently cultivating.

  From then on, the couple went into the mountains to gather herbs more often and frequently ventured into the depths of Bixiao Mountain where demonic beasts roamed. Few cultivators dared to go there to gather herbs, but they often had a good harvest.

  Unfortunately, the misfortune finally occurred when Li Hui was ten years old. His father and mother encountered a monster while entering the deep mountains to collect medicine. His father died on the spot under the monster's claws in order to protect his mother, who was also seriously injured. After returning to Ling Xiang City, she did not last for a few days before her life came to an end, and she passed away.

  Li Hui, who was still a minor, lived alone in Ling Xiao City. After burying his mother, the next day, Li Hui took up the medicine hoe and medicine basket left by his parents and entered the mountain to pick herbs.

  A child who should still be singing nursery rhymes among ordinary people, living a happy life under the protection of his parents, has taken on the heavy burden of life too early, and in this ruthless and cold world of cultivating immortals where strength is supreme!

  All these years, Li Hui didn't know how many cold eyes he had suffered from, how much bullying he had endured, but this stubborn boy persisted through it all. However, he also developed a silent and icy personality, only relaxing when alone or back home with his family, revealing the nature that a young person should have.

  Every day, after gathering herbs and returning home, apart from buying some necessary daily necessities on Mortal Street, Li Hui would save up all the spiritual stones he obtained from gathering herbs. Once he had enough, he would go to the market to buy some Qi Refining stage pills.

  However, Li Hui's spiritual root quality was really too poor, and he could only occasionally take some of the lowest-grade elixirs "Ji Qi Dan" to assist in his cultivation, so his cultivation had always progressed extremely slowly.

  Li Hui started practicing at the age of seven, and now at thirteen, six years have passed, but he is still stuck in the third layer of the Qi Refining stage! The Qi Refining stage has nine layers, and only by reaching the ninth layer can one attempt to build their foundation. Only when they reach the Foundation Building stage can they be considered a true cultivator!

  Nine layers of refining Qi, the first three layers are just the beginning. If it's a Tianling Root cultivator, with sufficient elixir assistance, it might only take half a year to cultivate up to the third layer of refining Qi.

  This also shows how poor Li Hui's qualifications for cultivation are!

  While the three to four layers of the Refining Qi stage is a small boundary crossing, Tianling Root cultivators have no obstacles before condensing the Golden Elixir. True Spirit Root cultivators will not encounter any bottlenecks during the Foundation Building stage, but Five Spirit Root cultivators like Li Hui will encounter their first cultivation bottleneck.

  Li Hui has been stuck on the third layer of Qi Refining for a year now. In this one year, Li Hui had attempted to break through many times, but all ended in failure.

  Bi Xiao Men only opens its mountain gate once every ten years to widely recruit disciples. The standard for recruiting disciples is also extremely strict.

  Cultivators with innate spiritual roots or variant spiritual roots can directly join the Azure Void Sect and become inner sect disciples, becoming apprentices to some Golden Dan old ancestors. These disciples are the true core of the Azure Void Sect and have an extremely high status within it.

  Cultivators with twin spiritual roots can also directly join the Azure Void Sect and become inner sect disciples. These individuals are often taken in by Foundation Establishment cultivators, who are the backbone of the Azure Void Sect. Many matters within the sect are managed by Foundation Establishment cultivators. Therefore, disciples who are able to be accepted as apprentices by Foundation Establishment cultivators also enjoy a very high status within the sect.

  Those with three spiritual roots, four spiritual roots and five spiritual roots can only join the Azure Sky Sect as an outer sect disciple after reaching the seventh layer of the Qi Refining stage. Outer sect disciples are assigned to various halls under the leadership of each hall's master.

  After becoming an outer door disciple, you can go to the outer door transmission hall of the sect to choose a basic cultivation method that suits yourself. In the process of cultivation, if you encounter difficulties, you can also ask for advice from the monks who are specifically responsible. Outer door disciples not only cultivate but also undertake some miscellaneous tasks, such as supervising mining, taking care of medicinal fields, and completing tasks released by the sect. These sects will also give certain rewards.

  If an outer sect disciple is lucky enough to break through the Qi Refining stage and successfully build their foundation, they can be converted into an inner sect disciple, devoting themselves to cultivating and pursuing the Great Way.

  Every time the Bi Xiang Gate opens its doors to recruit new disciples, cultivators who want to join are clamoring to get in. Even if they can't become an inner disciple, becoming an outer disciple of the Bi Xiang Gate is still a great thing. After all, they can choose their own cultivation method, and the sect will also distribute some spiritual stones and elixirs every month. Completing tasks for the sect can also bring rewards. These are extremely attractive to cultivators from small families and lone cultivators.

  Only those disciples from large immortal families, if they cannot become inner door disciples, will choose to stay in the family. This way, not only are their cultivation conditions no less than those of the outer door of Bi Xiang Men, but they can also hold a little power within the family.

  Become an outer door disciple of Bi Xiao Men! This is Li Hui's greatest ideal at this stage!

  He let out a sigh, Li Hui came back to his senses from his memories, bitterly smiled, and broke through to the seventh layer of the Qi Refining stage, entering the Azure Sky Gate wasn't easy!

  It has been three years since the last time Bi Xiang Men opened its mountain gate. If one cannot break through to the seventh layer of Qi Refining within seven years, they will have to wait another ten years. If after ten years they still cannot break through, then joining Bi Xiang Men would be completely hopeless.

  Thirty years old, this is the minimum age limit for Bi Xiang Men to choose a disciple. If a cultivator cannot successfully lay the foundation before the age of forty, they will miss the best age for laying the foundation, and even if they manage to lay the foundation later on, they will not be able to go further on the path of cultivation. And at thirty years old, he has not yet broken through to the seventh layer of the Lian Qi period, it can be imagined that the hope of laying the foundation in ten years is very slim. For such a disciple without prospects, Bi Xiang Men will not take them in, otherwise there would not be so many scattered cultivators in Ling Xiao City.

  Thinking of the insult from Han Hao in front of Huitong Building today, Li Hui's fist clenched tightly again!

  "I must break through to the seventh layer of Qi Refining within seven years! Father, Mother, you must bless me from heaven!" Li Hui prayed silently.

  Li Hui's gaze shifted to a bottle of Qi Gathering Pill on the table, which he had just exchanged for 20 low-grade spirit stones.

  "I hope I can break through this time!" Li Hui clenched his fist and grabbed the Gathering Spirit Pill, heading towards the inner chamber.

  The furnishings in the inner room are also simple, with only a double bed and a small table.

  Li Hui sat cross-legged on the couch, placed the Gathering Qi Pill beside him, closed his eyes, and sank his mind into the dantian. He began to circulate it according to the "Earth Splitting Technique".

  In the lower abdomen, a small air sea began to slowly rotate, and strands of spiritual energy wandered through the meridians. After completing one cycle, these spiritual energies grew stronger, then returned to the lower abdomen and poured into the air sea.

  After several hours, Li Hui found that no matter how he operated the Lidi Kui, he couldn't expand the Qi Hai in his Dantian by even a single fraction. The spiritual energy he had cultivated would always disperse and disappear after a short while. Li Hui knew this was what they called a "bottleneck" in cultivation, and it was something that couldn't be helped. His own Five Spirits Root constitution was simply too poor, and his response to and transformation of the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy were just too slow.

  Li Hui woke up from his meditation, let out a sigh, and a hint of bitter smile flashed at the corner of his mouth. His innate talent was ultimately too poor, struggling to break through from the third layer to the fourth layer in the Qi Refining stage, and reaching the seventh layer seemed even more elusive.

  After a while, Li Hui let out a long sigh, dispelling the sense of loss in his heart, and his gaze became firm again. He reached for the bottle of Qi-gathering pills, poured one into his palm, and swallowed it. Immediately, his spirit sank back into his dantian, and he felt a warm current rushing into his dantian, spreading to his limbs and meridians in an instant.

  Li Hui hastily followed the "Liedi Jue" method to circulate these medicinal powers in the meridians, making them do a cycle of circulation like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, and finally returning to the Dan Tian Qi Hai...

  ...five days later...

  Li Hui sat on the bed in a daze, his expression somewhat absent-minded.

  "Just a little bit! Just a little bit!......" Li Hui's eyes were dull and empty, his mouth muttering incessantly.

  It was just a little short! The spiritual power in the dantian qihai, which had already been like a pool full of water, overflowing and unable to hold any more, but at the last moment, the spiritual power in the qihai dispersed like the ebbing tide, returning once again to the third layer of the refining qi period!

  Looking at the empty bottle that had originally held the Qi Gathering Pills beside his bed, Li Hui's bitter expression deepened.

  Is this life going to be spent in such a mediocre and oppressed way, under the bullying and contempt of others, passing through life with a yes-man attitude, only to turn into dust in the end?

  "I won't give up!" Li Hui suddenly opened his eyes and let out a long, mournful howl!

  The hardships of his parents when he was a child, the struggles to survive after his parents passed away, the dangers of picking herbs in the mountains, the cold treatment on the streets, and the humiliation and bullying by that evil young master Han Hao just a few days ago... all these things flashed through Li Hui's mind like scenes from a movie.

  How many times he thought, give up, go to the secular world to find a Jianghu school to mix in, that must also be a generation of Tianzong's capital, become a hero. Now such days are too tired, too difficult, let alone, he is only a thirteen-year-old boy!

  But having lived in Ling Xiao City since childhood, the people I've been exposed to are all cultivators. Those worldly pugilists and aristocrats are nothing but ants in the eyes of these cultivators!

  Ants are just ants, there is no distinction of high or low, noble or humble.

  Once you have sailed across the vast ocean, it's hard to be satisfied with a mere puddle of water! After seeing the great roc soar up 90,000 miles on its wings, how can one still be interested in the chirping and jumping of sparrows?

  After a long time, Li Hui's mood slowly calmed down. The clear and elegant face, which had a few years of maturity that didn't belong to this age, was once again filled with determination.

  He walked out of the room, picked up the medicine spade, medicine basket, dry rations and other necessary tools for mountain medicine collection that he had re-purchased on Fanren Street that day. He took off his old clothes that had become tattered, changed into a slightly newer set of clothes, and Li Hui walked out the door again, heading towards Bixiao Mountain.