On a mountain peak on the outskirts of Mount Taixu in Yuezhou, Tang Dynasty, a young man of fifteen or sixteen leaned against the trunk of a towering tree.

Five years old, she was graceful and fair, with slightly dark skin and a slender frame. She appeared somewhat frail.

He sat there, holding a tattered book in his hand, reading with relish, shaking his head as he read.

"The moon fruit, its fruit is oval-shaped, resembling a full moon, reddish-brown in color; the cold moon flower, pure white, grows in cold environments; the golden ginseng, golden in color, emits a peculiar fragrance... " Year read and read, sighed.

“False Spirit, basically no foundation building, the sect doesn't value you, Shiyue, you can only be a low-ranking disciple who gathers medicine. You barely get by exchanging a few spirit stones every month, Foundation building? No way in this lifetime.” Nian chuckled self-deprecatingly, put down the book in his hand, looked at the distant sky, and fell into a daze.

This book records some low-grade herbs, his parents', he has read countless times, not to say memorized, but almost.

The world where Shiyue resides is called the Star Sand Continent. In this world, everyone aspires to be a cultivator.

Cultivators, borrowing from the practice of cultivating truth, study the Dao and cultivate themselves to seek true self. To "cultivate truth" is to discard falsehoods and preserve truths. The first step in cultivation is refining Qi.

Cultivation, in simple terms, is the process of inhaling and exhaling celestial energy, guiding it, refining it, and transforming it into magical power. Only when one can transform celestial energy into magical power can they be considered a cultivator.

However, not everyone can be a cultivator. Only those who possess a spirit can resonate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and only then can they become cultivators.

What is spirit? No one can explain it clearly. It comes with birth. If a person does not have "spirit," then don't even think about cultivating, because you cannot respond to spiritual energy at all, let alone cultivate magical power!

But those born with "spiritual" energy are too rare among ordinary people, even to the point that it could be said that one is found for every ten thousand miles.

According to the classification by attributes, "ling" is divided into gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, etc. Five elements attribute, most people's ling are these five or four kinds of multi-attribute mixed.

Although these people can also tap into the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the effects of their cultivation are deplorable. They can only cultivate to the fourth or fifth layer of Qi refining and remain stagnant. Generally, they never advance past the Foundation Establishment stage in their entire lives.

Therefore, there are four or even five kinds of spirits, also called "false spirits" by the Xianxia world, which differ from "true spirits" that have only two or three types and are faster to cultivate.

The year nian is the possessor of the spurious spirit of the Five Spirits. In the cultivation world, the possessor of the Five Spirits is a synonym for trash. No sect would accept a cultivator with the Five Spirits as a disciple. If it weren't for Stone Valley’s parents being alchemy cultivators of the Taixu Sect before their death and having once accomplished a great feat, Stone Valley would have been expelled from the sect long ago.

Apart from true spirits and false spirits, there is also a type of "mutant spirit". The so-called "mutant spirit" refers to a spirit that is a mixture of two or three types of spirits, which has been transformed and sublimated.

For example, the "Thunder Spirit" generated from the mutations of "Golden Spirit" and "Water Spirit"; the "Ice Spirit" produced by the mutations of "Earth Spirit" and "Water Spirit", and the "Wind Spirit" generated from the mutations of "Earth Spirit" and "Fire Spirit".

"Cultivators of the Variant Spirit cultivate at a faster rate than those of the True Spirit. If they find a compatible technique that suits their attributes, these individuals often become formidable masters, capable of facing three or four ordinary cultivators of equal strength."

As for a solitary spirit of a single attribute, the cultivation world calls it a "Heavenly Spirit." It means a favorite of heaven. Cultivators possessing such a spirit, regardless of their attribute, cultivate at two to three times the speed of ordinary cultivators. Moreover, when they reach the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage, they can form alchemy without facing the bottleneck encountered during alchemy.

If one's cultivation speed was exceptionally fast, making other cultivators envious, then the "Celestial Spirit" people's ability to form pills without any bottlenecks would make other cultivators jealous to the point of vomiting.

You have to know, if among ten cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, only one person can reach the Foundation Establishment stage with the help of pills, then out of a hundred Foundation Establishment stage cultivators, not necessarily one person will be able to form an alchemy pill and enter the Nascent Soul stage.

Such a disparity in the proportion of success, how could it not make other cultivators envious of "Tianling"'s unique advantages.

Therefore, whenever a Tianling person appears, they are often frantically scrambled for by various cultivating sects, after all, this is equivalent to reserving a powerful master at the Dan forming stage for one's own sect, which can greatly increase the sect's strength.

The Tai Xu Sect has been established for over ten thousand years, but it has never accepted a disciple with the Heavenly Spirit. There have been a few disciples with Alien Spirits, and these disciples are treasured by the Tai Xu Sect, being nurtured with abundant resources and treated preferentially before others.

Earth Fa Cai, is one of the four indispensable elements for cultivators seeking truth and enlightenment in their journey to immortality!

"By 'place,' it refers to a place of cultivation. The Taixu Sect where Shi Yue is located is one of the five major immortal sects in the Tang Dynasty. Naturally, its mountain gate is built on a vein of abundant spiritual energy."

Although Shi Yue was only a Qi Refining Stage disciple, his cultivation place was built on top of a spirit vein. Although the spiritual energy wasn't particularly potent, it was still sufficient for meditation and cultivation. Just living there made wandering cultivators envious.

"Fa," refers to cultivation techniques. The Taixu Sect is, after all, one of the five major Xianxia sects, and the number of cultivation techniques it possesses naturally surpasses those of small cultivating families or individual cultivators.

Shiyue's cultivation of the Tai Xu Jue is one of the basic exercises of the Tai Xu Sect. Although the cultivation speed is not particularly fast, it is stable. More than half of the Qi Refining disciples of the Tai Xu Sect cultivate the Tai Xu Jue. Some disciples have cultivated to the Foundation Establishment period relying on the Tai Xu Jue, which shows that this exercise is still quite good.

<<<, refers to like-minded fellow cultivators who can share cultivation insights. This also includes dual cultivation partners. When Shiyue's parents were still alive, there were unattractive senior and junior sisters who surrounded him. However, after his parents met with misfortune while traveling, people forgot about him as soon as they left. These senior and junior sisters no longer paid any attention to him, and some even sneered at him.

What's even more infuriating is that afterward, Shi Yue lived in his parents' mansion. But after his parents died, the sect immediately took back the mansion and forced him to live on a barren mountain with thin spiritual energy.

To this, Shi Yue was filled with grief and anger, but there was nothing he could do. Through this ordeal, Shi Yue had seen the myriad faces of humanity and the coldness of the world.

The last treasure refers to spirit stones, talismans that cultivators use as currency. Shi Yue's parents died in an expedition during his childhood. They took all their wealth with them and left nothing valuable for Shi Yue.

Therefore, when Shiyue was driven out of his parents' house, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he had nothing left.

Without the support of his parents, Shi Yue's life was very difficult. According to the rules of Taixu Sect, disciples below the tenth level of Qi refining had to complete a certain number of tasks every month. Otherwise, don't even think about getting a piece of spirit stone from the Hall of Attendants. Those who didn't complete a single task in a year would be expelled from the sect. Taixu Sect wouldn't keep idle people around, of course, unless you had someone backing you.

Having no choice, Shiyue could only go to the Hall of Attendants to receive a mission. However, Wang, the Attendant in charge of assigning missions, was notorious for his greed. Since Shiyue had no spirit stones to bribe him, he was assigned the most arduous and tiring tasks.

Shíyuè spends most of each month completing Wang Zhìshì's assignments, leaving him little time for cultivation. At sixteen, he is only at the second level of Qi Refining, and has always been a negative example for his fellow disciples.

Wu Ling's aptitude was obvious to all. The sect wouldn't waste resources on him in Shí Yuè. For a disciple with his level of talent, the sect would merely offer him shelter; there was nothing more to expect.

"In a few days it will be the end of the month. If I still can't pick five purple sandalwood flowers that are ten years old, I guess there won't be even one spirit stone left. Or, should I venture deep into the mountains?" Shi Yue muttered to himself, his face showing hesitation.

Before the end of the month, Shi Yue had to pick five flowers from a sandalwood tree that was ten years old. This was a task assigned by Wang Zhi, and he would be rewarded with ten spirit stones for completing it on time. If he was late, the unscrupulous Wang Zhi would deduct two or three spirit stones from him.

Shi Yue thought long and hard, but ultimately decided to venture deep into the mountains in search of medicinal herbs.

Over the years, medicinal herbs on the outskirts of Mount Tai Xu have been completely harvested. Not to mention herbs with a ten-year lifespan, even those with a five-year lifespan are rare.

The Taixu Mountains are located in the northwest direction of Taixu Sect, stretching for thousands of miles. The mountains are home to many spiritual herbs that have not yet reached maturity. These spiritual herbs are mostly guarded by demons, ranging from Rank 1 Lower Grade to Rank 2 demons.

Some people ventured deep into the mountains to gather rare herbs of high years, exchanging them for a large sum of spirit stones to cultivate. Others encountered demons while collecting medicine, dying tragically. Whether they lived or died depended entirely on their individual strength and luck.

Shi Yue was already sixteen years old, but the spirit stones he earned each month weren't enough to buy even a bottle of Qi Refining Powder. He didn't want to spend his life as a low-ranking disciple, looked down upon by others.

For the future, for the sake of tomorrow, he was going to give it his all.

Shi Yue took a deep breath, stood up, and patted the pouch at his waist. A green leaf, about a zhang in size, flew out of it and hovered about a foot off the ground.

This is a low-grade flying technique possessed by every disciple of the Taixu Sect. Its flight speed is average.

Shi Yue jumped up, striking a spell at the green leaves beneath his feet.

The leaves of the qingye suddenly burst forth in a vibrant green, carrying Shiyue towards the horizon.

Half an hour later, Shi Yue landed in a wide open space.

Ahead, a hundred meters away, lies a dense jungle. It is eerily silent, not even a bird can be heard.

Shi Yue's palm struck his waist pouch, and a red short sword flew out, landing in his hand.

The red short sword is called the Crimson Moon Sword, a high-grade magic item.

Shi Yue held the Crimson Moon Sword and walked slowly towards the forest ahead.

Before long, Shi Yue seemed to have sensed something. He stopped in his tracks, swallowed hard, and stared intently at a giant blue tiger ahead of him.

The azure giant tiger stood half a zhang tall and two zhang long. Its body was covered in azure scales, and its emerald green eyes stared fixedly at Shi Yuelu.

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(Chapter 1 introduces the background and cultivation settings, nothing out of the ordinary, but these aspects are still necessary for the plot later.)