Death

As she looked at the small, rather insignificant grave in front of her, Ye Qiao couldn't help but take in a deep breath and shake her head.

A few moments after that, under the eyes of Hulli Jing, who was standing nearby the grave, Ye Qiao began walking away.

But after a few moments, Ye Qiao suddenly stopped and stared at Hulli Jing, who was standing there with no apparent expression on her face.

"Was there really no option than to let her do as she desired?" asked Ye Qiao, causing Hulli Jing to faintly nod.

"In the end, this fate of hers was inevitable, do you think I truly wanted her to die?" asked Hulli Jing, causing Ye Qiao to stare at the ground for a few moments before beginning to once again walk away, not responding to the question.

As she looked at the departing back of Ye Qiao, who seemed to be a little bit lost, Hulli Jing couldn't help but let out a sigh before closing her eyes.

...

At the same time, in another location, far, far away,

As he looked at the booklet in front of him, which still seemed utterly incomprehensible to him, the fifteen-year-old Xu Si couldn't help but let out a deep breath, with disappointed.

Right now, in the entire younger generation of the Xu Family, Xu Si was the only one who had yet to reach the first level of the Qi Refining Realm.

Even his peers with Lower Rank Spiritual Roots just like him became cultivators when they were about twelve years old.

For some reason, though, Xu Si could never even take that first step onto the path of cultivation, and was still a mortal even at his age, which caused him to feel a horrible sense of dread, as if he was failing his parents.

But even so, after a few moments, Xu Si once again closed his eyes and began focusing, searching and trying to sense and absorb the spiritual energy in his surroundings.

Time then began rapidly passing, as one, then two, then seven days straight passed without Xu Si moving in the slightest, as he tried his best to comprehend the Five Elements Sutra.

Sadly, though, Xu Si's foolish actions of neglecting himself and focusing only on cultivation then showed their ugly heads, as after seven days of straight meditation, without any sort of rest, food or water, Xu Si's mortal body could not take it anymore.

As such, in the middle of the night, Xu Si's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell to the ground face first, dead.

Over twenty-four hours though, just as Xu Si's body was about to begin rotting, he suddenly opened his eyes, causing a bolt of lightning to suddenly flash through the sky.

Unbeknownst to Xu Si, at the moment, a strange vitality was moving through his body, repairing any of the damage he had suffered in these past eight days, and allowing him to come back to life.

At this moment, though, another transformation was taking place inside of Xu Si, one which he was paying much more attention to.

...

As he looked around him, at the weird, immaterial substance floating all around him, Xu Si felt extremely stupid.

As spiritual energy from the air flew into his body, Xu Si couldn't help but wonder how he could possibly not notice its existence, which was extremely obvious.

A few moments later, after a suitable amount of spiritual energy gathered inside his lower Dantian, Xu Si suddenly gritted his teeth and began controlling it, and slowly moved it through his meridians, which had become extremely weak after fifteen years of unused.

But as Xu Si had spent years of his life studying the Five Elements Sutra, he knew the technique to near perfection, allowing him to carefully move the spiritual energy through his meridians, transforming it into Qi.

It took over an hour for Xu Si to complete a Great Cycle, and return his spiritual energy back to his Dantian, but by the time he was finished, Xu Si was completely invigorated, as a strength far beyond his previous one filled his body.

At this moment, though, Xu Si suddenly frowned before clutching his nose with his hand.

Looking at the dark goo mixed with sweat that had come out of his pores, Xu Si felt extremely disgusted.

...

Ten years later,

As he once again circulated his Qi through his meridians at a fast speed, Xu Si couldn't help but let out a breath of air.

"If I don't break through, the chances of me surviving the mission will be slim..." mumbled Xu Si, feeling his cultivation, which had been stuck at the peak of Early Qi Refining Realm for over five years.

Although he was able to begin cultivating through a stroke of fortune, even with the resources of the Xu clan, Xu Si was unable to progress to the Middle Stage of the Qi Refining Realm, remaining at the Peak of the Third Stage.

This was perhaps the first, and easiest bottleneck that a cultivator might experience in their life, but to Xu Si, this looked like an indestructible barrier, causing him to make a certain decision.

A moment later, Xu Si took out a pill bottle from his spatial bag before taking out the lone pill inside.

As he stared at the Barrier Breaking Pill, which his adoptive father had given to him to break through to the Late Stage of the Qi Refining Realm, Xu Si suddenly picked it up and placed it into his mouth before beginning to refine it.

Not long after he began refining it, Xu Si felt a weird energy move about his meridians and Dantian, allowing his Qi to rapidly go through them.

Around three hours later, Xu Si's eyes suddenly popped open, as he then spat out a mouthful of black goo.

Xu Si had broken through the Middle Stage of the Qi Refining Realm.

As for the price of this action of his, that is something for the future.