On the Tianyuan Continent, spiritual energy flowed freely and countless cultivators roamed the land. Sect after sect stood tall, while families dotted the wilderness like stars. Since ancient times, the path of cultivation has depended on three things: aptitude, spiritual roots, and opportunity. Those with poor spiritual roots could never enter the path of cultivation; those without opportunity could spend their whole lives lingering among ordinary mortals.
In the southern reaches of Yunzhou stood a small city called Shi'an. In a corner to the east lived a boy named Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan was sixteen, born into the Lin family of Shi'an. Though the family had some standing in the city, it was only a minor local clan dependent on the Qingyang Sect. Each year, the clan's children underwent spiritual-root testing. Those who awakened spiritual roots had a chance to be sent to the Qingyang Sect's outer sect to cultivate.
But Lin Yuan had been the Lin family's “laughingstock” since childhood.
When his spiritual roots were tested at the age of three, they were found to be a muddled, impure mixture of all five elements.
This meant he had no potential for cultivation, and was even worse than the lowest-grade miscellaneous spiritual roots.
From then on, he was branded a “good-for-nothing.” The other children of the Lin family had already begun cultivating. Even the weakest had reached the third or fourth level of Qi Refining, while Lin Yuan remained a mortal, unable to draw even a wisp of spiritual energy into his body. Yet after an unexpected incident, Lin Yuan somehow gained the ability to cultivate. But whether this ability was a blessing or a curse... remains to be seen. Follow Lin Yuan on his arduous path to immortality.
