Do not underestimate it. If it’s just a few hundred-year-old ginseng roots, they are extremely precious to mortals, but to cultivators, they are nothing special.

However, a thousand-year-old spiritual item is a different story. Even for powerful cultivators, it is something rare and hard to come by.

The Immortal Sect was overjoyed. For such a great contribution, of course, a grand reward was in order; otherwise, it would chill the hearts of all the cultivation families.

Yet the other party had only one request: to awaken the spiritual roots of the young master of the The Owen Family.

But there weren’t enough Awakening Pills.

So what to do?

The only option was to cancel Ian Quinn’s qualification for awakening, and give the Awakening Pill that should have belonged to him as a reward to Charles Owen.

As for Ian Quinn, the Immortal Sect also felt that this was somewhat improper, but what else could they do?

He could only blame his own bad luck.

Who told him to run into a shortage of Awakening Pills this year?

At worst, they could just compensate him later.

That’s what the Immortal Sect thought.

However, Ian Quinn’s heart was filled with pain. After all, to get to this point, he had gone through countless hardships.

Cultivating the “Seeking Immortality Manual” required enduring the pain of ten thousand ants gnawing at his body.

Day after day, year after year, he had finally managed to earn the qualification for awakening. Now they simply said he wouldn’t get it. True, the Awakening Pills belonged to the Immortal Sect, and they owed him nothing. They could give the pills to whomever they wished. On the surface, that was correct, but if you think about it, is it really so?

After all, it was they who made the promise in the first place: as long as you cultivated the “Seeking Immortality Manual” to the required level, you would earn the qualification for awakening.

But now they went back on their word. This reversal meant that all his years of hard work and all the suffering he endured were for nothing.

If you couldn’t keep your promise, why make it in the first place?

To give someone hope, only to break your word in the end—don’t you realize how cruel that is?

Ian Quinn’s face was full of resentment, defiance, and unwillingness. Was he supposed to just accept his fate, and from now on obediently live as a mortal, never daring to dream of the path of cultivation again?

“No!”

A look of stubbornness and determination appeared in his eyes. “All these years, I’ve endured countless hardships. Now, even though I’m facing a huge setback, how can I just give up? Heaven never bars one’s way. No matter what, I must walk the path of immortality!”

Chapter 9: Cultivation Is Cultivating the Heart

Ian Quinn swore in his heart.

This heavy blow did not make him sink into despair. On the contrary, it ignited his fighting spirit. That was his nature—he refused to admit defeat!

People often say that the hardest steel breaks the easiest, but the more pressure he faced, the more stubborn he became. Once he set his sights on a goal, he would never regret it, even if it meant smashing his head and bleeding—he would never change his original intention.

Otherwise, how could he, at such a young age and without the aid of medicine, have endured the pain like ten thousand ants gnawing at his body and persisted for more than ten years? It was all thanks to the tenacity in his bones and his unyielding character.

The road ahead was long, and he could not see where hope lay, but with his own flesh and blood, he would carve out a future.

No matter how many setbacks, he was determined to walk the path of cultivation. But now that his qualification for awakening had been stripped away, what should he do next?

Ian Quinn’s mind was in turmoil. Just then, a mocking voice reached his ears:

“Did you hear? That kid surnamed Quinn also had his qualification revoked.”

“Serves him right. He’s just a poor boy from a humble family. What right does he have to rise above us? The Immortal Sect did the right thing—how satisfying!”

“Brother King, you’re absolutely right. We may not be able to cultivate immortality, but when we return home, we’ll still have power and glory, and live in wealth all our lives. And what does that kid have? He’s so lowly, he’s probably not even as good as the servant who leads my horse or tends my cattle. Haha, just thinking about it makes me so happy…”

…

Ian Quinn clenched his fists so tightly that his nails pierced his palms and blood flowed freely, but he didn’t even notice. Compared to the bitterness in his heart, this physical pain was nothing.

What he hadn’t expected was the darkness of the human heart. The ones making sarcastic remarks outside weren’t strangers, but other mortal children who had suffered the same unfair treatment from the sect.

These cowardly people didn’t have the courage to resent the Immortal Sect, nor did they dare to complain to the cultivation families. Instead, they directed all their anger at him.

Seeing that he too had lost his qualification, not only did they not sympathize, but they even celebrated, because in their eyes, even though they were all mortals, as a poor boy from a humble family, he shouldn’t have received better treatment than them. These people were narrow-minded and short-sighted, and as for his efforts, they had long chosen to ignore them.

Don’t be fooled by their arrogance—they were nothing but a bunch of cowards.

He was ashamed to associate with such people!

But now that the Immortal Sect had stripped him of his qualification for awakening, what should he do next?

Ian Quinn was unyielding by nature, but at this moment, he was also at a loss. He wasn’t afraid of hardship and was willing to endure suffering, but right now, he didn’t even have a direction to strive toward.

The road ahead was long, and Ian Quinn’s heart was filled with sorrow. Just then, a creak sounded in his ears—the door of the stone house was being pushed open.