The path to immortality is treacherous; only through countless trials can one achieve true fruition!

In a wondrous world of xianxia, an ordinary young man, William Clark, by a twist of fate, embarks on the road of cultivation. However, lacking a spiritual root, he must put in ten times the effort, yet his cultivation speed still lags far behind his peers...

Mockery and disdain—William Clark remains unmoved, dedicating himself wholeheartedly to cultivation.

A mysterious blue star sea, a miraculous ability to turn waste into treasure—regarded as trash, William Clark unexpectedly acquires this wondrous power. What kind of change will he bring to the world of cultivation?

Profound immortal arts, magical treasures, powerful demon beasts, immortals, demons, monsters, and ghosts—masters from all realms make their appearance one after another. William Clark's path of cultivation will be more magnificent and turbulent than anyone could imagine!

[Volume One: Floating Cloud Valley]

Chapter One: William Clark

“Sigh!”

A disappointed sigh echoed. An ordinary-looking young man, his face blank, had failed again. This was already the forty-ninth failed breakthrough in the past three months. Even with William Clark’s resilient mind, he was now surrounded by frustration and despair.

A trace of a bitter smile appeared at the corner of the youth’s mouth. Shaking his head, he looked at his own hands. Was his aptitude really that poor?

William Clark clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his flesh, yet he seemed to feel no pain at all.

William Clark was seventeen this year and had been a disciple of Floating Cloud Valley for three years.

Floating Cloud Valley was a small sect in the cultivation world, with nearly a thousand disciples, and William Clark was one of the low-ranking disciples.

In three years, the senior and junior brothers who entered the sect with him had already advanced to the mid-stage of the Spirit Movement realm. A few with outstanding talent had even reached the late stage of the fifth level, but he was still lingering at the first level.

Such slow progress was not because William Clark didn’t work hard—on the contrary, his diligence was unmatched among the low-ranking disciples. Where others practiced a technique once, he practiced three times; where others meditated for an hour, he meditated for three. Yet despite all this hard work, his gains were pitifully small, leaving him far behind the others. William Clark was filled with a sense of defeat.

Cultivation is divided into eight stages: Spirit Movement, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Integration, Profound Insight, Divine Separation, and Tribulation Crossing. Each stage is further divided into seven levels: the first and second are early stage, third and fourth are mid-stage, fifth and sixth are late stage, and the seventh is called Great Perfection. Once the bottleneck is broken, one can enter the next stage.

Though the path to immortality is arduous, it progresses from shallow to deep. For example, the techniques of the first two levels of the Spirit Movement stage are merely introductory. Those with good aptitude can master the first level in two months; those less gifted can manage it in three to five months. Unfortunately, this only applies to those with spiritual roots.

A spiritual root is a term in the cultivation world. What exactly it is, no one has described clearly in tens of thousands of years. It is only known that those with spiritual roots cultivate much faster than ordinary people without them. In other words, in theory, even mortals with average aptitude are not incapable of cultivation—it’s just that the effort required is many times greater... No, even with ten times the effort, they gain less than half the results.

Simply put, it’s all pain for no gain.

And unfortunately, William Clark was just such an ordinary person without a spiritual root.

Ordinarily, someone as unremarkable as him, lacking a spiritual root, would never be accepted by any sect, even if he wished to embark on the path of immortality. However, William Clark’s case was special. Three years ago, by chance, he saved a seriously injured elder of Floating Cloud Valley. Out of gratitude, the elder recommended him, allowing him to join this small cultivation sect.

Through three years of cold winters and hot summers, William Clark never slacked in his cultivation. He trained in the harshest cold and the hottest heat, sweating far more than others. Yet even so, he was still left far behind by his peers.

In the pursuit of immortality, aptitude is even more important. Hard work alone is hard to make up for it!

Just like his recent attempts at breaking through, William Clark felt his power had reached the peak of the first level, just a step away from the second level of the Spirit Movement stage. But this tiny gap was like a vast chasm—no matter how hard William Clark tried, he could not cross it.

After a long while, William Clark unclenched his tightly held fists and exhaled, as if to expel the frustration from his heart. He sat cross-legged again and began to use the technique of internal observation...

Internal observation is a minor technique in the cultivation world. It allows one to examine the flow of spiritual power within the dantian and meridians, and is used as an auxiliary method during cultivation.

Within the dantian, there was nothing but a few wisps of pale blue energy—this was the legendary spiritual power.

But the energy was sparse and thin, a result of William Clark’s low cultivation.

Cultivation is, in essence, defying the heavens. To do so requires great supernatural powers, and only through countless hardships can one master the five elements, absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, refine it, and ultimately make it one’s own.

These wisps of spiritual power were all that William Clark had gained in three years of cultivation. Of course, compared to his peers, it was far less, for without a spiritual root, his path was much more arduous.

Under the influence of his spiritual sense, those wisps of spiritual power began to gather and entwine. Each strand was originally as thin as a hair, but as time passed, they merged into a stream about as thick as a pinky finger.