A familiar voice

Entering the pavilion, Ruel saw a massive, dimly lit room.

The walls and the floor were imprinted with cryptic symbols forming long sentences, weaving loops across the room.

These symbols were another form of cultivation pathway, Formation masters.

They used symbols to incorporate and take help from the world, using it to do many things which couldn't even be dreamed of.

There were cultivation mats laid around everywhere on the ground, maintaining space between them.

Taking one of the mats for himself, Ruel sat on the ground while Sia stood just outside the building, waiting for his results.

For safety and security reasons, only the cultivators who were in the Qi cultivation were allowed to enter the pavilion.

Looking around, there were some more people except Ruel sitting beside him, meditating and waiting for their turns.

They didn't focus on him in any way but rather focused on fortifying their mentality for what was to come.

There was a sort of chamber just ahead of them.

The only thing separating the two parts of the room was just a wall.

There was a gate in the middle of the wall which opened when someone's turn had come. Nobody could peer through the gate.

There was just endless darkness inside it.

It would have taken around an hour for Ruel's turn to come.

He knew from his memories that there were around four to five spirit stones in the chamber.

Closing his eyes, he began to meditate. While thinking about crucial information about the formation of spiritual roots.

The process of forming the spiritual root was divided into two sections.

The first was to form a spiritual root.

It existed inside the aperture of every cultivator but it was present in an astral form. Meaning it couldn't be interacted with.

The only way to connect it to the aperture and the material world was to provide it with spirit energy.

But how could cultivators focus on a particular part of their body?

And while focusing and guiding their minds inside the aperture, they also had to provide spirit energy.

That's where the root stones come into play.

They helped a cultivator by sending their consciousness inside the aperture, making it possible for them to form the roots.

But was it that easy to form a spiritual root?

No, all of this process had to be done within an incense stick's worth of time.

There was only one part of the process that was hard.

The person must provide it with a continuous flow of spiritual energy.

As spiritual energy was constantly provided, it became more complete and finally descended into the material world.

What would it mean to have a completely formed spiritual root?

It would mean that the person's body would be optimal for gathering spiritual energy, enabling them to cultivate faster.

This was also the first talent cap cultivators encountered and, in a way, created for themselves.

To form a complete spiritual root, only less than a thousand people have done this feat.

'This is my goal,' Ruel thought inwardly

This number wasn't from the current cultivators who were alive, it was from the cultivators that had ever existed in this world.

From the start of the cultivation era to now, that was the number of people who accomplished this feat.

After a cultivator formed their roots, the second step was to provide it an affinity.

This meant giving it the affinity the person wanted, but even that wasn't easy.

To do this, you had to gather elemental particles from the surroundings.

You then had to converge them inside the root, binding them inside as you added more and more.

As the elemental particles were integrated, their affinity increased.

There was no cap on how many elemental particles one could integrate into the root.

The essence spirit root could even be mutated by more than a hundred percent, increasing its power exponentially.

The spiritual roots were a boon on the cultivation path. Without them, there wouldn't be a path for anyone.

It was a gift humanity, as a species, had received from the world.

Yet everyone didn't get the same opportunity.

Such was the world.

It didn't value equality between all living beings, only power could turn everything over.

The path to supremacy was challenging and arduous.

In his previous life, Ruel had to deal with much more as he had a water affinity spirit root with a formation rate lower than fifty percent.

Yet he had reached a seat of power in the world, but even that wasn't enough to survive the cruel hardships he had come his way.

That only specified his weakness.

He was weak.

He died because he was weak, but will it define his future? No.

He will break his past limits.

He will carve his way out of this, be it a path on his blood or others....

A bell rang as someone called his name. Opening his eyes, Ruel peered into space.

Standing up from his lotus position, his legs moved towards the door.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, and what lay within surprised him even now.

He had seen many elemental stones in the past, but this scene would always leave him in a state of utter awe.

There were elemental stones everywhere.

There were more than a hundred of them occupying every wall.

They contained an exorbitant amount of elemental particles inside them, helping in cultivating and comprehending abilities.

The elemental stones came in grades. The ones around here were around second grade.

The higher the grade, the more expensive they were and the price of the ones here was too much.

The administrator was seated in this environment, while four cultivators were seated opposite him on stone platforms.

They had a root stone in their hand while sweating profusely all over their bodies because of how hard they were concentrating.

Looking toward Ruel, the administrator said in an annoyed tone while preparing his root stone, "Go sit on the free platform."

Charging it to the brim with his spiritual energy, he threw it toward Ruel. He gave him the root stone and instructions on what to do from the same position.

Even though he knew about it all, Ruel listened to it with keen attention.

"Good luck, kid."

Saying that he returned to doing nothing and subtly keeping an eye out on everyone present.

Sitting in a straight and comfortable position, Ruel touched the stone with the intent of going inside his aperture.

Just as he thought of this, a body manifested inside his aperture, glowing with radiant light.

The light seemed so small in comparison to the tree glowing in front of Ruel, with its branches so magnificent that it made even the surrounding area seem small.

It just glowed with white light, but was transparent enough to see through if focused clearly.

Only desolate darkness surrounded Ruel and the spiritual root.

'Let's start'

Knowing he didn't have much time, Ruel started with the process of gathering spiritual energy from the surroundings.

Coalescing them firmly in his hand.

It took a significant amount of willpower to keep the energy inside the bounds of his hand, and he kept collecting this for so much time.

After some time, he formed it into a massive ball, around half the size of his own body.

'Now comes the difficult part.'

Thinking of this, Ruel started to shape parts of the energy ball into strings, making them stretch inside the spiritual roots in a continuous flow.

This was the most challenging aspect of the process.

He had to make the energy continuously flow inside while maintaining a steady stream of it toward his hand.

He was multi-tasking right now, doing both tasks at the same time.

Others would have to wait and collect and then send it inside the root.

That was a long time taking process.

What Ruel wanted to achieve was ninety percent or above the completion rate.

A hundred percent could only be done by people far beyond his caliber.

True geniuses.

Ruel had come from the far future with plenty of knowledge and experience, but this wasn't a small feat even for him to achieve.

He had to have a special constitution or a great opportunity to achieve the hundred mark.

Leaving the useless thoughts he couldn't do something about, he entirely focused on the process and kept on giving energy to the tree.

It seemed like an endless well, with no end to its greed.

It kept on taking and taking, but then it suddenly started to gain color and seemed less transparent.

With that as a sign, Ruel kept ongoing…..

With a vague sense of time, Ruel knew he had five more minutes left.

Considering the glow that the spiritual root was giving, it was roughly seventy percent complete!

A whole ten percent more than in his previous life! And he still had some time left.

Just as Ruel felt elated, elated at finally having the goal within his reach, the hope of achieving his goal and possibly going beyond it!

It all came crashing down when a familiar, dreadful voice crashed into his ears.

"So, is this how you puny cultivators fruitlessly attempt to grow stronger to oppose us? A futile, hilarious attempt! Hahahaha"

The deep voice said with a burst of haughty laughter as if mocking the very notion that an ant would even dream of rivaling its power.

A chill ran down Ruel's spine. That voice he had heard before.

It was still fresh in his mind, like the fresh scars of his past.

It was the Demon Lord's voice!

That damn bastard was here?!