Chapter 1: The Li Family (Contracted, please follow updates, recommend, and bookmark)

To the east of the Xuanyuan Continent, near the coast, there is a great river that rushes into the sea. Because the river water is turbulent and creates bursts of white waves, it is called the White Wave River, and the region it flows through has consequently been named White Wave County.

The White Wave Li family is the master of this hundred-mile territory.

This White Wave Li family is a legendary cultivation family. Their ancestor was originally a mountain hunter who, by chance, saved a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Beast Taming Sect. Having happened to possess spiritual roots, he was taken into the Beast Taming Sect to cultivate.

Decades later, the Li ancestor encountered a great stroke of luck and successfully broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage, establishing a firm foothold in the Beast Taming Sect. Unfortunately, due to some accidents, he was forced to leave the sect and came to this White Wave County, where he founded the Li clan.

The Li clan has been passed down for over three hundred years. By Li Zhirui’s generation, it is already the ninth generation, yet the family’s strength has never progressed further, always hovering at the Foundation Establishment stage.

Fortunately, however, the appearance of Li Zhirui has given the family elders a glimmer of hope!

This is because Li Zhirui possesses dual Water and Wood spiritual roots!

Regrettably, the purity of both his Water and Wood spiritual roots is fifty. While he is not a genius in the true sense of the word, he is the first clansman with dual spiritual roots in the Li family in nearly a hundred years, and he has a high chance of breaking through to the Golden Core stage.

The reason Li Zhirui is not considered a true genius is that the number of spiritual roots determines the speed at which a cultivator absorbs spiritual energy, while the purity of the spiritual roots determines the efficiency of refining that energy.

Although Li Zhirui absorbs spiritual energy very quickly, his efficiency is not high—it is not even as good as some cultivators with three spiritual roots who happen to have one spiritual root with a purity above seventy-five.

At this moment, Li Zhirui was in his room, inhaling and exhaling the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

He sat cross-legged, a faint rosy glow appearing around his body. As he breathed, two continuous streams of spiritual light entered his nose and mouth, were refined through his meridians, and finally transformed into his own mana.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Zhirui’s tightly closed eyes snapped open. A sharp light flashed through his pitch-black pupils, and his aura surged violently.

Li Zhirui’s handsome face was full of joy, and his words were filled with excitement and thrill: "Finally, I've broken through to the late stage of Qi Refining!"

Li Zhirui is not a person of this world—or rather, his soul comes from another world, from a graduate who had just stepped into society, though it is hard to say whether he was lucky or unlucky.

Although his experiences in his previous life were few and of little use in this world of immortals, demons, and ghosts, as an adult, his willpower was firmer than his peers, and he was more aware of the importance of cultivation.

Therefore, even though Li Zhirui had good aptitude, he dared not be the least bit slack in his cultivation, working hard and practicing diligently day after day.

Li Zhirui calmed his inner agitation, stood up, and strode out of the courtyard. Li Shiren, who had long since sensed the movement, asked impatiently the moment he saw him: "Little Rui, have you broken through?"

As one of the only three Foundation Establishment cultivators in the family, how could Li Shiren not see through Li Zhirui’s realm? The reason he asked was simply to hear the answer from Li Zhirui’s own lips.

Upon receiving Li Zhirui’s crisp and affirmative answer, Li Shiren said excitedly: "Eighteen years old and in the late stage of Qi Refining! That is rare even in the Beast Taming Sect! My Li family..." is truly about to rise!

Perhaps so as not to put too much pressure on Li Zhirui, Li Shiren swallowed the last few words back.

"Consolidate your realm; I am going to report the good news to the Patriarch!" With that, he prepared to leave.

Li Zhirui could not hold Li Shiren back, so he saw him to the gate and closed it only after he had walked far away.

Turning around, he looked at Da Qing, who was fast asleep by the pond, and a smile could not help but appear on his lips.

Da Qing is a third-grade spirit beast, a Green Profound Turtle, which the family spent a great deal of money to buy specifically for Li Zhirui to form a contract with.

One must know that a third-grade spirit beast can grow to the Golden Core stage. Although breaking through to the Golden Core is extremely difficult, breaking through to Foundation Establishment is no problem at all; thus, the value of the Green Profound Turtle is not low.

The Li family spent a full twelve thousand spirit stones to buy the Green Profound Turtle just after it had broken its shell, which shows how much expectation the Li family has placed on Li Zhirui.

From the time Li Zhirui was five and tested for dual spiritual roots, the Green Profound Turtle had been by his side. When he turned eight and his meridians were no longer so fragile, he began his cultivation. After he logically broke through to the first level of Qi Refining, he signed a contract with the Green Profound Turtle under the care of the family elders.

This was not to enslave the Green Profound Turtle, but a mutually beneficial contractual relationship; for example, if one party’s cultivation increased, the other would benefit as well.

But there are two sides to everything. While the contract brought benefits, the drawbacks followed: the gap in realm between the cultivator and the spirit beast cannot exceed one major realm, otherwise, their cultivation will not be able to advance an inch.

And this brings us to the cultivation technique Li Zhirui practices, the "Ten Thousand Spirits Scripture."

As a vassal family of the Beast Taming Sect, most of the Li clansmen practice the "Ten Thousand Spirits Scripture," and Li Zhirui is naturally no exception.

As the fundamental technique of the Beast Taming Sect, the grade of the "Ten Thousand Spirits Scripture" is quite high. It is very complete from the Qi Refining stage all the way to the Nascent Soul stage, and can be called the foundation of the Beast Taming Sect!

Every cultivator who practices the "Ten Thousand Spirits Scripture" can contract a spirit beast at every major realm to enhance their own strength.

At the same time, contracting a spirit beast of the same attribute can also provide certain gains to one's own cultivation—in other words, it increases the purity of the cultivator's spiritual roots.

However, it is well known that the cultivation speed of the vast majority of spirit beasts is very slow. To ensure a spirit beast has a relatively fast cultivation speed, the cultivator needs to invest a large amount of resources.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, cultivators do not contract a spirit beast every time they break through a major realm.

If it weren't for the great contributions the Li family made to the Beast Taming Sect back then, it would have been impossible for them to obtain the complete methods from the Qi Refining stage to the Golden Core stage.

And now, Da Qing, who had fallen into a deep sleep, was affected by Li Zhirui’s breakthrough and was digesting the benefits brought by the contract.

Knowing that Da Qing would not wake up in a short time, Li Zhirui turned and returned to his room. The moment he activated the warning formation, his entire person suddenly disappeared!

In the next instant, the environment Li Zhirui was in changed instantly. He had arrived in a space planted with various first-grade spiritual herbs and spiritual grains.

The space was not large, about two miles square, and it contained a small mountain only a few dozen feet high that occupied most of the area; at the foot of the mountain was a lake about five feet in size, and a large area of spiritual fields filled with spiritual objects.

This small portable space was the "golden finger" Li Zhirui brought with him as a transmigrator.

After years of exploration, Li Zhirui had developed almost all the functions of the space, which could be summarized in two points

First, if spirit stones are buried near spiritual herbs or spiritual plants, it will accelerate their growth rate. One spirit stone can accelerate the growth of a spiritual object by about one month!

The maturity period of a first-grade spiritual herb is generally one year, which means that if twelve spirit stones are consumed, the spiritual herb can mature in an instant.

But the problem is that the market value of a first-grade spiritual herb is only ten spirit stones, and if ordered in bulk, the price drops even further. So, this ability is not as exaggerated as Li Zhirui had imagined.

Of course, it is not exactly useless; it just depends on how Li Zhirui utilizes this point.

The second function of the space also consumes spirit stones, but it involves throwing them into the lake to increase the spiritual energy of the entire space.

In fact, Li Zhirui also discovered another function of the space: no matter what the attribute, or even if the spiritual herb or plant has special requirements for its growth environment, it can grow healthy and strong in the space.

...

Li Zhirui walked to the spiritual field he had cultivated and skillfully cast the Spirit Rain Spell to water the spiritual herbs and grains.

On the left side of the spiritual field were green spiritual grains, each ear of grain hanging with a heavy cluster of spiritual grain. As one got closer, one could smell a fresh fragrance full of vitality.

On the right were various spiritual herbs, from the most common Gold Bud Grass to the relatively precious Spirit-Containing Fruit; more than a dozen kinds of spiritual herbs grew neatly in the spiritual field.

After soaking the spiritual field, Li Zhirui walked among them, pulling out the weeds competing for spiritual energy one by one, and incidentally checking for parasites. By the time he finished the series of tasks, an hour had already passed.

But Li Zhirui did not leave the space; instead, he walked toward the small mountain, because a large number of spiritual herbs and plants were also planted on the mountain.