After transmigrating to the world of immortal cultivation, Li Changsheng discovers that his talent is utterly ordinary: he has only an inferior five-element spiritual root.
While the geniuses of his generation fight and die for opportunities and magical treasures, he quietly practices the neglected Turtle Breath Technique. While his fellow disciples risk their lives in secret realms to compete for pills, he waters the spirit herbs in the medicinal garden and casually “rescues” the discarded pill dregs nobody wants from the corner of the alchemy room.
His cultivation progresses at a pace slower than a tortoise, but his lifespan seems to be just a little longer than everyone else’s.
“Cultivation is a struggle for life, not a fit of impulsiveness.”
“Natural treasures? You need to be alive to claim them, and alive to use them.”
“Fellow Daoist, wait a moment? No, no, you go ahead. I’ll stay here and enjoy the view.”
And so...
When the prodigies of his sect fall to the tribulation lightning of Foundation Establishment, he has only just reached the fourth level of Qi Refining, busy figuring out how to make his newly discovered cave even harder to find.
When his old enemies fight so fiercely over a chance to form their cores that heaven and earth seem to collapse, he successfully establishes his foundation and spends thirty peaceful years as the owner of a teahouse in a mortal town.
When a demonic powerhouse sacrifices thousands of miles of land to break through to the Deity Transformation realm, he is already a Golden Core Master, trimming the branches of a thousand-year-old spirit tea plant in the “tortoise shell” cave residence he built himself.
He never competes with others. He only vies with Heaven for longevity and with the earth for stability.
His talent lies not in earth-shattering spells, but in making himself inconspicuous, avoiding danger, and, when his enemies are at the height of their glory, quietly brewing a pot of tea and waiting for them to walk into their own graves.
Many years later, a young cultivator discovers a journal in an ancient ruin. On its title page are written a few lines in an elegant, archaic hand:
“The first principle of the path to immortality is to avoid calamities. Of the three thousand Great Daos, I chose the most cautious one.”
Written by Li Changsheng, on the twelfth month of the Bingwu year.
