Chapter 32: Evergreen Chronicles
Chapter 32: Chapter 32: Evergreen Chronicles
In the dead of night.
The Wang family’s old ancestor looked at the timid figure before him, his eyes filled with disappointment. ’I never should have let that boy Qu Yan become the Clan Leader.’ Qu Yan’s abilities were not in question; he handled all the family’s affairs with meticulous order. However, his personality was far too soft, always seeking stability above all else.
This kind of personality was fine while the ancestor was still alive, of course. He made all the major decisions, and Wang Quyan, as the Clan Leader, was only responsible for carrying them out.
But now, his failed attempt to break through to the late-stage had damaged his Origin. Although it wasn’t as bad as the rumors outside claimed—that his life was short and he could pass away at any moment.
But the fifty or sixty years of life he originally had left had indeed been reduced to a mere ten or so.
Once he died, how could a Clan Leader like that possibly lead the family forward?
He could see through the thoughts of his descendants with a single glance. They believed that by relying on the grace of their ancestors, they could rest easy in the Immortal City without a care in the world.
The original Wang family ancestor had indeed been a trusted confidant of Fenglan Master and had performed great deeds for the Immortal City.
But the favor of a gentleman is cut off after three generations!
By the time that ancestral grace had trickled down to him, there was not much left.
The Wang family’s ability to occupy so many resources in the Immortal City and hold its current status was primarily due to his strength as a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator!
Once he passed away, did the Wang family really think they could just rest on their laurels?
The Immortal City only had so many resources, not even enough for Fenglan Master’s own disciples. On what grounds could the Wang family, without a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to protect it, continue to occupy them?
In the future, the Wang family would probably not even qualify to compete for Foundation Establishment Pills.
Moreover, the Wang family’s old ancestor secretly suspected that someone had sabotaged him during his seclusion while he was trying to break through to Late-stage Foundation Establishment. That was the real reason he had failed, almost dying on the spot.
The Wang family’s old ancestor sighed internally. ’I must cultivate a new Foundation Establishment Cultivator for the family before I pass away. Otherwise, the family is finished!’
’As for the position of Clan Leader...’ The old ancestor looked at the timid figure. ’If we have another Foundation Establishment Cultivator to protect us, then I suppose his cautiousness can be tolerated!’
In truth, he had never liked Wang Quyan, nor did he feel at ease entrusting the family to him.
Originally, he’d had fifty or sixty years of life left. Given Wang Quyan’s age, he would be too drained to continue after thirty years at most. The ancestor could have cultivated a more suitable Clan Leader for the family after Wang Quyan stepped down.
But now, with less than ten years of life remaining, there was no time to groom a new Clan Leader.
Any accidents during the transition could easily cause turmoil within the family, and the losses would outweigh the gains.
...
In his small courtyard, Li Ping packed up his equipment and let out a soft sigh.
This journey had been full of twists and turns, and the other Cultivators had been thoroughly screwed over.
But for him, it hadn’t been a loss.
Through a fortunate coincidence, he had more or less solved the problem of his Cultivation Skill.
That’s right, he had already decided to make the Wetland Water Nourishing Skill his primary Cultivation Technique.
The effects of this Cultivation Technique—ignoring the bottlenecks of minor realms and increasing the success rate of breaking through major realms by fifty percent—were simply too tempting.
Based on Li Ping’s past cultivation experience, the bottlenecks encountered during practice were the most torturous part.
In daily cultivation, the difference in one’s Spiritual Root aptitude had an impact, but it only affected the speed of cultivation—a difference between fast and slow.
But when breaking through, the difference in Spiritual Root aptitude affected whether one could break through at all—a difference between success and failure.
With poor aptitude, one sometimes couldn’t even break through on their own and had to spend a vast amount of resources to buy supplementary aids.
And if a breakthrough attempt failed, one’s Origin would be damaged!
For example, his third brother, Gumu Sheng, had to take a Qi Condensing Pill just to break through to the Qi Refining stage.
If it was like that for Qi Refining, then it went without saying for Foundation Establishment.
The Bai family’s old ancestor had a Dual Spirit Root aptitude. He was over two hundred years old and still at the peak of Early-stage Foundation Establishment. Was it because he didn’t want to break through?
Dai Sangyu possessed a Cloud Element Abnormal Spiritual Root and had a Core Formation Stage master as her backer. She was over one hundred and seventy and on the verge of death, yet she was only now attempting Core Formation. Was it because she didn’t want to do it sooner?
And then there was the Wang family’s old ancestor whom he had just met. Li Ping didn’t know his Spiritual Root aptitude, but the fact that he could cultivate to Mid-stage Foundation Establishment was enough to prove his Spiritual Root was no worse than the Bai family ancestor’s.
And the result?
He failed to break through to Late-stage Foundation Establishment and was now on death’s door.
Li Ping’s own Spiritual Root aptitude was even worse than these people’s. Mastering multiple Tier Two skills through the Tree of Inheritance could indeed allow him to obtain a large number of Spirit Stones.
But some resources couldn’t be bought with Spirit Stones!
Fenglan Master controlled an entire Immortal City; would she be short on Spirit Stones?
Her disciples were still struggling in the Foundation Establishment Stage!
Li Ping wasn’t arrogant enough to think he could obtain resources that even a Core Formation Cultivator couldn’t get.
However, by cultivating the Wetland Water Nourishing Skill, he could skip the bottlenecks of the minor realms. For him, there would only be one obstacle during the Foundation Establishment Stage: the final breakthrough to Core Formation.
Moreover, he already had a fifty percent success rate for Core Formation. If he got lucky and managed to find some supplementary Core Formation Spiritual Objects, his success rate could even rise to sixty or seventy percent!
In fact, it wouldn’t even matter if he didn’t use any other supplementary Core Formation Spiritual Objects.
Combined with the Wetland Water Nourishing Skill’s trait that protected a Cultivator from injury during breakthroughs, as long as he had enough time, he could simply attempt Core Formation again and again.
The success rate for one attempt was fifty percent. What about for ten attempts?
The only worry in cultivating the Wetland Water Nourishing Skill was whether he could reach the Peak of Foundation Establishment within two hundred years without relying on pills.
Li Ping felt this shouldn’t be a problem. As long as he didn’t run around wasting time and focused solely on arduous cultivation within a Spiritual Land, two hundred years would be enough for him to reach the Peak of Foundation Establishment.
Perhaps it wouldn’t even take that long.
After all, he wasn’t some good-for-nothing with five or Four Spirit Roots. He was a Three Spirit Roots Cultivator. While his cultivation speed couldn’t compare to those with a Celestial Spiritual Root, Abnormal Spiritual Root, or Dual Spirit Root, it wasn’t slow either.
’Since the issue with my Cultivation Technique is settled, I’ll go rent a cave abode in the Inner City tomorrow,’ Li Ping thought to himself. ’And while I’m at it, I can scheme a bit on how to activate my ’world-shocking talent.’’
...
After settling his thoughts on the Cultivation Technique, Li Ping picked up the miscellany volume he had taken from the Wang family’s Secret Skill Pavilion.
The so-called miscellany was a general term for all books that weren’t Cultivation Techniques, skill inheritances, or Magic.
The miscellany volume Li Ping had taken was a cultivator’s travelogue titled the Evergreen Chronicles, written by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator who called himself the ’Evergreen Hermit’.
According to the introduction in the Chronicles, the Evergreen Hermit was active over a hundred years ago. He started as a Loose Cultivator and, by a stroke of luck, obtained a Foundation Establishment Pill, which allowed him to successfully reach the Foundation Establishment Stage.
After reaching Foundation Establishment, the Evergreen Hermit had no interest whatsoever in establishing a family. Instead, he traveled far and wide, visiting nearly every region of the Western Wilderness’s Cultivation Realm.
Just before he passed away, he recorded everything he had seen and heard, which became the Evergreen Chronicles.
The reason Li Ping had chosen this miscellany volume was his hope to use the Evergreen Chronicles to understand the current state of the Western Wilderness’s Cultivation Realm, such as the distribution of powers, famous experts, dangerous locations, and so on.
Li Ping was even curious about what lay beyond the Western Wilderness’s Cultivation Realm.
After all, if this place was called the Western Wilderness, did that mean there was an Eastern Wilderness? A Northern Wilderness? A Southern Wilderness?
Of course, just as his own footsteps had been confined to a single country before he reached Foundation Establishment, Li Ping estimated that even Foundation Establishment Cultivators probably didn’t have the ability to travel beyond the Western Wilderness.
As a travelogue written by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, the Evergreen Chronicles would allow Li Ping to deepen his understanding of the Western Wilderness, and he was already very satisfied with that.