Olivia Carter counted on her fingers: “Let me break it down for you. You have me, your beautiful and smart little sister—though not by blood. You have a childhood friend who grew up with you, who was discovered to have five-star cultivation talent just a year ago and was specially recruited by the Primal Dao Institute. Your parents… ah, no, your uncle and aunt got divorced, leaving you all alone… All these factors together, based on my four years of deep immersion in mythological stories and rich literary experience, lead me to the following conclusion…”

At this point, her slightly chubby baby face took on a meaningful expression.

“Shouldn’t you add, ‘Young man, you’re in for big trouble’ as a closing line?”

“No, it’s that you’re fated to be under the Lone Star of Calamity, destined to grow old alone, lonely for life.”

Olivia Carter pinched her voice and shrieked, “You are destiny itself!”

“Don’t think I won’t hit you just because you’re good-looking.”

William Carter started rolling up his sleeves.

“Hee hee!”

Olivia Carter immediately jumped up nimbly and darted into her room.

“Bang!”

The door closed.

That speed…

William Carter was quite envious.

Foundation established.

A moment later, the door opened again, and Olivia Carter poked her little head out: “Bro, I didn’t use up all the herbs for my Foundation Establishment. Want me to save you some?”

“No need, I’ll save up and buy them myself.”

“That’s good, I was worried that after you start cultivating, you’d raise the difficulty bar for everyone else.”

“What difficulty bar?”

“When you were an ordinary person, everyone around you was ordinary. Once you cultivate true qi, suddenly everyone has true qi. When you form your nascent soul, nascent soul masters are everywhere. When you become a sword immortal, the world is on the brink of destruction… So, to keep us little cultivators from entering hell mode too soon, just stay at the lower levels for a while, okay?”

“True qi, nascent soul… Do you know a single spirit stone costs a hundred thousand yuan on the market? Cultivation is pay-to-win. Even though uncle and aunt give you some money every month, it’s not enough to get you through the Qi Refining stage.”

Olivia Carter stuck out her tongue and quickly withdrew.

“Bang.”

The door closed again.

“Once dreamed of roaming the world with a sword…”

William Carter murmured.

He glanced at his phone and pulled up a text message.

“Your card ending in *8879 was used for an online payment of 19.00 yuan at 12:31 on July 15. Remaining balance: 3031.52 yuan. [Xihe Bank]”

This was the savings he’d earned from part-time jobs after school.

Three thousand yuan.

Only a tenth of the application fee.

This was the real reason he agreed with Teacher Grace Bennett to cancel his application to the cultivation academy.

Poverty.

A thousand years ago, the Fiend Star and Xuanhuang Star intersected. Xuanhuang Star was suddenly attacked and defeated, its core destroyed, spiritual energy dissipated. Although the united sects of Xuanhuang Star eventually repelled the invaders, the wilderness was still crawling with fiendish remnants.

Without completing Foundation Establishment, without even cultivating true qi, lacking the power to protect himself—how could he dream of roaming the world with a sword in a land ravaged by fiends?

William Carter took his eyes off the phone and looked at the poster on Olivia Carter’s bedroom door.

Heaven’s chosen one, Charles Foster.

Five-star aptitude.

For every star higher in cultivation aptitude, the number of people with it drops by dozens of times.

Five-star aptitude—one in ten thousand.

When Charles Foster was found to have this aptitude at age twelve, top sects, corporations, martial arts schools, and academies all sent invitations, offering him special recruitment. Not only did he not have to pay any tuition, those powers even promised to invest millions in cultivation resources in him every year to help him grow quickly.

He didn’t let them down.

At fourteen, his bones matured and he began cultivating. Foundation established in a hundred days. That same year, he sensed qi, achieved internal breathing in three months, reached true qi at fifteen. Now, at eighteen, he has already surpassed the Qi Refining stage, returned from acquired to innate, united spirit and qi, and is on the verge of spiritual transformation.

“Cultivation aptitude doesn’t determine future achievement, but with one- or two-star aptitude, you can’t even get a loan for Foundation Establishment. With three stars, loan companies come to you. Perform well and scholarships are easy. Four stars… that’s like having one foot in the door of the country’s top universities and organizations.”

He really wished those big corporations and sects would wave wads of cash at him and say, “Young man, join us! We need talents like you. You’ll be the future successor of our sect or corporation, and the responsibility of maintaining world peace will rest on your shoulders.”

William Carter stared at the poster of Charles Foster.

Aptitude…

Is he really willing to accept this?

“Dreams… nothing can stop them!”

William Carter muttered to himself.

He tidied up a bit and returned to his own room.

What met his eyes were his desk, books, lamp, calligraphy hanging on the wall, and the sword placed beside the desk.

And on the desk, a photo frame with a picture of the three of them together.

Himself, his father Ryan Carter, and his mother Sophie Sullivan.

The photo was taken three years ago, when he was fourteen, in 1017.

Back then, Ryan Carter wasn’t yet the deputy general manager of Changsheng Group’s Yunzhou branch, and Sophie Sullivan wasn’t yet the gold-medal agent who made superstar Emily Foster famous.

Back then, no matter how busy they were, the family would always find a day to get together for a meal.

But now…