The Immortal Path of Dual Cultivation

When Li Jiuxiao was young, he heard tales of the wondrous path to immortality and resolved to embark on the long journey in pursuit of eternal life. Back then, his heart burned with ambition. He thought immortality and freedom beneath the heavens were within easy reach. But his ideals shone like stars, while reality was as cold and piercing as iron, closing in around him layer by layer. His aptitude was abysmal, his constitution frail. Even past the age of sixty, he remained trapped at the first layer of Qi Refining. Spiritual energy flowed through his dantian like fine sand, gathering but never condensing. The Foundation Establishment stage was as distant as a star beyond the clouds, utterly beyond his reach. Every time he attempted a breakthrough, his meridians felt as if they were snapping one by one, the pain piercing to the core. Immortality? It was nothing but a phantom dream, like flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon in water: it appeared before his eyes, then vanished in an instant, leaving the dust of despair filling the room.

Even though he was in the open-minded and enlightened Hehuan Sect, surrounded by beautiful women whose gentle, tender words could stir the heart, he kept his resolve firm as jade and remained unmoved. Recalling the hardships of all these years spent severing emotional ties and devoting himself entirely to cultivation, from bitter practice on freezing nights to scorching furnaces and mockery from his fellow disciples, his pent-up fury surged like a tide. His vision darkened again and again, and he nearly fainted.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.