Lin Fan Defies Fate

Lin Fan laid his hand on the cold Spirit-Testing Stone. A faint light glimmered across its surface as it struggled to form four barely perceptible vortices. “Lin Fan, four-grade mixed spirit root, inferior.” The deacon’s voice was flat, like a verdict. The crowd immediately erupted in barely contained snickers. “Four years, and he’s still at the second Qi Refining level. If I were him, I’d have gone home ages ago!” Lin Fan silently withdrew his hand, his nails digging deep into his palm. He raised his head and looked past the jeering crowd toward the sect gate shrouded in clouds and mist. That was where the immortal dream he could never reach awaited. The story vividly captures the undisguised contempt of his fellow disciples and the helpless sigh of a kind-hearted elder, creating an overwhelming sense of oppression. Late at night, in his shabby quarters, Lin Fan once again practiced the lowest-level Qi-Attracting Art by the light of a solitary lamp. Spiritual energy flowed into him like a trickling stream, but the flame in his eyes had never gone out. Just as he was utterly exhausted, the black jade pendant he had worn since childhood, the only thing his parents had left him, suddenly grew imperceptibly warm. Stunned, Lin Fan took out the pendant and saw what seemed to be chaotic light flowing within it. He tried probing inside with his faint spiritual sense. His spiritual sense entered a hazy, chaotic space. There was only a small pool containing a few drops of crystalline liquid, radiating tremendous vitality. A sudden inspiration came to him. He diluted a drop and drank it. An incredibly pure surge of spiritual energy instantly spread through his body, surpassing the gains of a whole month of hard cultivation! After his initial elation, Lin Fan became utterly calm. Knowing that possessing a treasure could invite disaster, he immediately devised a strict plan to keep its use secret. The appearance of the space inside the jade pendant marked the story’s first major