Chapter One: Accumulating Enough Experience

Tianyan Sect.

Wisps of ethereal mist wound their way through the mountains, and as the first light of morning dawned, the peaks emerged above the clouds, revealing faces lush and verdant.

To the south of these towering mountains, several peaks curled and intertwined, forming the delicate shape of a lotus blossom.

At the heart of the lotus, hidden within its deepest fold, lay the sect’s lowest summit—Little Flat Peak.

…

“Hahaha! After ten years, I’ve finally traded for this Lifeline Soul-Restoring Pill!”

Within a sealed stone chamber on Little Flat Peak, a woman dressed in blue cradled a small wooden box in one hand and laughed skyward.

She had crossed into this world for fifteen years now.

For ten years she had trained under her master, ten years spent cultivating, and only today had she managed to purchase the legendary Lifeline Soul-Restoring Pill, which had vanished from the world for a million years, from the Immortal Cultivation Marketplace.

With this pill, her master could be saved!

Qu Yiqiu quickly composed herself, carefully retrieved her most precious jade porcelain bottle from her storage pouch, and placed the round pill from the wooden box inside.

Her task finished, she looked up at the floating Immortal Cultivation Experience Panel.

[Host: Qu Yiqiu
Cultivation: Qi Refining, Level Five
Experience Points: 20]

She swept her hand lightly, and the panel vanished.

This was the golden finger she had brought with her from another world—the Universal Immortal Cultivation Marketplace.

This marketplace was unique; the currency for all transactions was not money nor spirit stones, but cultivation experience points.

Cultivation experience points were the measure of spiritual energy she gained with every session of training. The more spiritual energy she absorbed, the more experience points she acquired.

The marketplace offered an array of rare treasures and wonders dazzling to the eye. Anything not found in this world could be purchased there.

Yet, alas, she was born with the most inferior aptitude—five elemental roots, each of the lowest purity, making her a cultivator of the worst talent.

Her natural affinity for spiritual energy was poor; she absorbed it slowly, her cultivation advanced sluggishly, and her experience points accumulated at a snail’s pace.

When she was five, her plan had been to find a powerful master, cling to their side, and rely on the resources of a great teacher to absorb more of heaven and earth’s energy, thus compensating for her own shortcomings.

But after careful deliberation, she had chosen a master whose cultivation path had already been cut short—a former prodigy.

Looking back, Qu Yiqiu couldn’t help but curse her younger self for being blinded by a pretty face.

If only she hadn’t clung so shamelessly to Mo Qingli years ago, she might now be living on Nine Swords Peak!

Even if only as a menial disciple, it would be far better than Little Flat Peak.

Tianyan Sect was home to one hundred and nine peaks, beneath which three great spiritual veins flowed. Only Nine Swords Peak sat at the junction of all three, where spiritual energy was most abundant—a sacred place yearned for by every disciple.

At five years old, with her elfin features, Qu Yiqiu caught the eye of Su Xichen, master of Nine Swords Peak, who wanted her to tend the black honeybees. But Qu Yiqiu, not knowing what was best, refused.

For among the multitudes of Tianyan Sect, she had lifted her little head and seen that man who seemed to shine with his own light—Mo Qingli.

Mo Qingli possessed an unparalleled beauty and a life story full of twists and turns.

Had it not been for that final tragic event, he would have been Su Xichen’s most formidable rival for the position of Peak Master, a protagonist straight out of a novel.

Born into nobility, both parents at the Golden Core stage, he tested at age five for a millennia-rare variant Wind Spiritual Root. The sect’s Grand Elder, Chu Gu, immediately took him as his last disciple, making him Su Xichen’s junior.

He built his foundation at fifteen, breaking the sect’s record for youngest Foundation Establishment. At sixteen, he surpassed Su Xichen to top the list of male prodigies, tamed the Nether Lotus Heartfire ranked third on the Fire List, and grew under the gaze of envy and admiration from all.

Then, at twenty-seven, in the late Foundation stage, came the day of the beast tide.

Mo Qingli volunteered to join Su Xichen’s team, transferring to the desperate Half-Step City, where righteous and demonic cultivators, spirit beasts, and ghost cultivators mingled.

There, the Tianyan Sect’s defensive line was sabotaged by a secret alliance of demonic cultivators, beasts, and ghosts. Late at night, Su Xichen led the disciples back to the sect, abandoning the line.

Mo Qingli was left behind, alone, falling into the hands of the demonic cultivators.

His Golden Core parents, hearing the news, rushed through the night to the demonic lair.

But Mo Qingli’s fame had preceded him; the demonic cultivators knew of his parents and had laid a trap.

That day, he watched his parents fall before his eyes.

After their deaths, Su Xichen and his master fought their way in and rescued him.

But during his captivity, Mo Qingli’s spiritual sea had been shattered, his meridians severed. No matter what pills Chu Gu fed him, nothing could be salvaged; his path of cultivation was forever severed.

Yet Mo Qingli refused to yield. He saw this as the second life his parents had bought for him, and he vowed to live on and avenge them.

Through sheer will, at thirty, he formed a false core, granting him five hundred years of life.

But from that day forward, he could never advance again…

Knock, knock, knock—

Qu Yiqiu was roused by the sound at the door.

She rose and went out, finding her parents wearing grave expressions. She was puzzled. “Father, Mother, what brings you here today?”

Qu Anyi and Zhao Yuexuan exchanged a look, their faces heavy. “Yiqiu, let’s talk inside.”

Baffled, Qu Yiqiu stepped aside. What could have happened?

Qu Anyi carefully surveyed the room, planting formation flags in each corner before sitting with Zhao Yuexuan.

The solemnity of it all made Qu Yiqiu anxious. “Father, Mother, did something happen in the clan?”

Qu Anyi grasped Zhao Yuexuan’s hand, his eyes fixed on his daughter’s face. “Yiqiu, do you think you and Yuyou look alike?”

Qu Yiqiu shook her head in confusion, then bristled. “Has Qu Yuyou been calling me a vixen again?”

Qu Anyi shook his head, growing serious. “Yiqiu, have you ever noticed that your father’s face is much more handsome than Qu Xiangwei’s?”

Qu Xiangwei was head of the Qu clan and Yuyou’s father—his elder brother.

Qu Yiqiu glanced at her worried mother, lips twitching. “Father, you are a bit better looking than the patriarch, but is that really what you came to ask me today?”

“Do you think your father is so bored? Would I come here just because I’m a bit more handsome?” Qu Anyi pretended to be angry.

At last Zhao Yuexuan couldn’t hold back her tears. “Yiqiu, your father… he’s not really a child of the Qu family!”

“What?” Qu Yiqiu’s eyes widened. “How do you know?”

“By appearances,” Qu Anyi said gravely.

…

Qu Yiqiu sat down in speechless astonishment.

Zhao Yuexuan dabbed her tears with a handkerchief and spoke softly, “Actually, before I married your father, I always thought there was no resemblance whatsoever between the two brothers. The clan leader is rugged, your father is handsome, and their personalities couldn’t be more different. I’ve always had my suspicions.”

“Mother, did you find any evidence?” When Qu Yiqiu first crossed over as an infant, she too felt they looked nothing alike.

But Qu Anyi’s bone age was exactly right for his years in the Qu family. If he truly wasn’t a blood brother, he must have been brought in as a newborn.

Zhao Yuexuan glanced at Qu Anyi. “Husband, take it out.”

There really was evidence?