Of course the protagonist has crippled spirit roots...

"Fuck! Does she have bipolar disorder? How can someone have such a distinct character change? one moment she was acting like a cute little cat snuggling in my comfort, and the next moment she threatened to kill our descendants?" Yu Sheng cursed.

Yu Sheng then used a mind-reading ability to grasp as much information as he could about the outside world. Those people at the bottom of the steps were the best sources of information.

Soon after, Shen Huang returned to the Ancestral Sanctuary and jumped straight into Yu Sheng's warm embrace. She tucked her arms and legs, fully enjoying the newfound warmth. Yu Sheng could not help but smirk. She really does not act like a billion-year-old phoenix but instead like a household cat. He didn't mind though, he much preferred this side of Shen Huang over her scary alter ego.

Yu Sheng lightly pecked the top of her head, yet again shamelessly asking Shen Huang for another request.

"I'm sorry to break my promise to you so soon, but I need you to help me look after my body. There is something important I have to do. Don't worry, this time I'll be back soon." Yu Sheng lied as easily as he breathed.

Hearing this outrageous statement, Shen Huang's eyes welled up with tears, looking extremely aggrieved.

Shen Huang wanted to ask him what was so important that he had to leave for hundreds of millions of years, but she knew how important they were to him. He would never do anything that would be detrimental to them. All she had to do was to trust him.

"Alright… be back soon…" Shen Huang painfully squeaked.

Yu Sheng chuckled internally. Shen Huang now look like a timid mouse, and he was glad he got the opportunity to tease her again.

As he started to close his eyes and communicated to Xiao Hei to begin the memory recovery process, the timid mouse Shen Huang suddenly had a light grin flashing across her face. Her entire face beamed brightly, and she now looked like a scheming rat instead.

"Shit! What is she planning?" Yu Sheng panicked. He assumed at first that she was going to harm him, but looking at her behaviour both in the ancestral sanctuary and when interacting with her descendants, he realized that the scheming look she gave off must have been more mischievous instead. He had to begrudgingly follow through with the memory recovery process.

...

Yu Sheng was not remembering the memories he was lacking per se, he was experiencing them. Literally. Yu Sheng looked up and saw the river of time. He knew that the original body was a temporal sage, and thus has the ability of everything that comes with that title.

That was the control over the river of time. As long as he can withstand the backlash of karma by changing the direction of the river of time, he can do whatever he pleases. He was, after all, the guardian of the river of time.

Moreover, he was not changing anything in the river of time. What he was doing was going backwards in time. The river of time was like a waterfall. It is easy to follow the currents of the waterfall and fall off the cliff. But it is extremely difficult to go against the flow of the waterfall to climb back up to the peak.

Yu Sheng was different. He was the Temporal Sage. He merely turned off the waterfall before climbing it. Moving backwards in time was very easy for him. Moreover, he had the Timeless chronomancer constitution. Doing so was a piece of cake for him.

Xiao Hei told Yu Sheng where to stop in the river of time. He plunged his entire body deep into the river and started to swim downwards.

"Relax your mind, and let yourself be transported into the past. Remember not to garner too much karma. When you try to swim back to your present time, you'll suffer a corresponding backlash." Xiao Hei warned.

She was concerned that Yu Sheng was not used to the body and did not really understand the intricacies and powers that her master's body gave him. However, he seemed to grasp the concept of time really well and managed to connect to the river on his first try.

Xiao Hei was pleased with Yu Sheng and only hoped from the deepest part of her heart that her master's plan would work and Yu Sheng was the key to solving it.

….

Yu Sheng opened his eyes. The sound of Cicadas chirping was a clear indication of summer. He immediately used perception nullification, allowing him to be completely unperceivable. He could neither be seen, heard or touch. No one will ever notice him there. This way, he can prevent himself from accidentally changing or altering the river of time, and save himself from shouldering the backlash.

The first thing he saw was a young boy, who was about 10 years old, sleeping peacefully. This boy bore a very strong resemblance to his current looks, and he immediately confirmed that he was on the right track. Now to secretly follow him throughout his life.

Maybe it was because of his newfound time powers, but Yu Sheng felt the passage of time move extremely quickly, and it was even accelerating at a fast pace. Two years of following his younger self's daily life felt like minutes to him. Despite only having experienced both minutes inside and outside the river of time, he had fully experienced the two years. It was an extremely surreal situation, and he could only pin the blame on "That's just how the river of time works" or "That's just how time powers affect the user".

He was glad that he did not have to sit through his entire life, as at the end of the day, he used to be a mortal and only recently became so powerful. The difference in lifespans could not be compared at all. He did not think that his mental strength and mortal's perception of time could survive all 3 billion years.

Some memories did stand out to Yu Sheng the most, as Xiao Hei had personally directed his attention to some of the more important memories.

Yu Sheng was currently now 14 years old. He grew up as an orphan in a farming village. His adoptive grandparents had passed away when he was just 9, and he had to fend for himself, protecting himself from thieves and local wild beasts.

Yu Sheng discovered his immense talent for fighting, and at the age of 14, decided to enter a sect to improve his capabilities. The world he was currently living in was an extremely weak world. The highest cultivation one can have is only at the Dao Seeking Realm. One could never ascend to immortal hood in the backwater world.

Thus, spirit roots were extremely important as they were needed to absorb spirit qi, the basic building blocks and foundation of cultivation.

You could only imagine the shock and disappointment on Yu Sheng's face when he realized he was not born with spirit roots. He was an invalid, an imbecile. A weakling from the bottom of the barrel. Ridicule and contempt was thrown towards him. How dare he come to the Qing Piao Sect to test his spirit roots?

When the future Yu Sheng saw this scene, he could not help but laugh hysterically.

"Host! What's wrong? What is so funny about Master not having spirit roots? He suffered so much when he was younger!" Xiao Hei exclaimed. She was offended by his laughter. Who could bear having their own master getting laughed at?

"Suffering? I guess you could call it that. After transmigrating into his body, I completely forgot that the original body was a blessed son of destiny! His birth caused the Heavenly Dao Auspicious Blessing to show up. How could someone like him not suffer a minor setback?" Yu Sheng roared into laughter, not attempting to hide his ridicule from Xiao Hei.

"Let me guess, the young original body used to have a fiance, but she was stolen by another cultivator? The cultivator decided not to kill Yu Sheng as he did not see Yu Sheng ever threatening him?" The current Yu Sheng mocked.

"Host... How did you know?"