Chapter 1: The Li Family (Signed, Please Follow, Please Recommend, Please Favorite)

In the eastern lands of the Profound Origin Continent, near the seashore, there lies a great river that rushes into the sea. The swift currents give birth to rolling white waves, hence the river is known as Bailang River, and the region it traverses has likewise been named Bailang County.

And the Bailang Li family is the ruler of this territory spanning a hundred miles.

But to speak of the Bailang Li family, they are a legendary Immortal Cultivator Family. Their ancestor was originally a mountain hunter who, by chance, saved a Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Beast Taming Sect and, as it turned out, possessed Spiritual Roots. He was thus taken in by the Beast Taming Sect for cultivation.

Decades later, the Li Family Ancestor encountered a stroke of great fortune and managed a breakthrough in Foundation Establishment, securing his footing within the Beast Taming Sect. Regrettably, due to some accidents, he had to leave the Sect and settled in Bailang County, founding the Li Clan.

For over three hundred years, the Li Clan has been handed down to Li Zhirui's generation, the ninth in line. Yet, the family's strength has never advanced further, remaining on the edge of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

However, with Li Zhirui's appearance, the family's elders saw a glimmer of hope!

For Li Zhirui possessed Water-Wood Dual Spiritual Roots!

Regrettably, the purity of Li Zhirui's Water-Wood Spiritual Roots was only fifty, which didn't quite make him a genuine talent. Nevertheless, he was the first person with dual spiritual roots in the Li family in nearly a hundred years, harboring a great hope of breaking through to the Golden Core Realm.

The reason Li Zhirui wasn't considered a true genius was that the number of Spiritual Roots determines the speed at which a cultivator absorbs Spiritual Energy, while the purity of the Spiritual Roots affects the efficiency of refining the Spiritual Energy.

Although Li Zhirui's rate of absorbing Spiritual Energy was fast, his efficiency wasn't high, not even comparing favorably with some cultivators with Three Spiritual Roots but with a purity above seventy-five.

At this moment, Li Zhirui sat in his room, breathing in the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth.

Li Zhirui was seated cross-legged, a faint halo of radiance surrounding him. As he breathed in and out, two continuous streams of Spirit Light entered through his nostrils, refined by his meridians, and ultimately transformed into his own Mana.

After an unknown length of time, Li Zhirui's eyes, which had been tightly shut, suddenly snapped open, and a sharp gleam flashed across the dark orbs, as his aura abruptly soared.

Joy filled Li Zhirui's handsome face, his speech bursting with excitement and eagerness, "I've finally broken through to the later stages of Qi Cultivation!"

Li Zhirui was not originally from this world; rather, his soul hailed from another realm, belonging to a somewhat lucky—or perhaps unlucky—young graduate who had just stepped into society.

Although his previous life's experiences were meager and of limited use in this world of Immortals and demons, as an adult, his willpower was firmer than his peers, and he deeply understood the importance of cultivation.

So even though Li Zhirui had good aptitude, he dared not slacken in his practice of cultivation, diligently training every day with great effort.

Li Zhirui calmed the tumult within his heart, rose to his feet, and strode toward the courtyard. Li Shiren had already sensed the activity. Upon seeing Li Zhirui, he couldn't help asking eagerly, "Zhirui, have you made a breakthrough?"

As one of the only three Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the family, how could Li Shiren not see Li Zhirui's current Realm? His question was simply to hear confirmation from Li Zhirui himself.

Upon receiving Li Zhirui's straightforward confirmation, Li Shiren excitedly exclaimed, "Eighteen-year-old at the later stage of Qi Cultivation! Even in the Beast Taming Sect, that's rare! Our Li family..." is truly on the rise!

Perhaps not wanting to exert too much pressure on Li Zhirui, Li Shiren swallowed the last few words.

"Consolidate your Realm, I'll go inform the Clan Leader of the good news!" With that, he turned to leave.

Unable to hold onto Li Shiren, Li Zhirui could only see him out. Once he was a distance away, he closed the main gate.

Turning around, he saw Da Qing, who lay sleeping by the pond, and a faint smile spread across his lips.

Da Qing was a Third-Grade Spirit Beast, a Qingxuan Turtle, bought by the family with a significant sum, specifically intended for Li Zhirui to form a contract.

It is known that Third-Grade Spirit Beasts can grow to the Golden Core Realm, and although breaking through to Golden Core is extremely difficult, reaching Foundation Establishment is not an issue. Therefore, the Qingxuan Turtle was quite valuable.

The Li family had spent a total of twelve thousand Spirit Stones to purchase the newly hatched Qingxuan Turtle, reflecting the great expectations they had for Li Zhirui.

Since the discovery of Li Zhirui's dual spiritual roots at age five, the Qingxuan Turtle had been by his side. When he turned eight and his meridians were no longer so fragile, allowing him to start cultivating, he naturally broke through to the Qi Cultivation First Layer. Under the watchful care of the family elders, he promptly contracted with the Qingxuan Turtle.

```

This was not about enslaving the Qingxuan Turtle, but rather a mutually beneficial contractual relationship. For example, if one party's cultivation grew, the other party would benefit as well.

However, there were two sides to every coin. As much as contracts brought benefits, they also had their drawbacks: the cultivation realm difference between the cultivator and the Spirit Beast could not exceed a Great Realm, otherwise advancement in cultivation would come to a halt.

And this brings us to the cultivation technique practiced by Li Zhirui—the Wanling Sutra!

As a vassal family of the Beast Taming Sect, the Li family mostly cultivated the Wanling Sutra, and Li Zhirui was no exception.

As the fundamental cultivation technique of the Beast Taming Sect, the Wanling Sutra was of a fairly high grade. It was very comprehensive from the Qi Cultivation Realm to the Nascent Soul Realm, and could be considered the foundation on which the Beast Taming Sect was built!

Any cultivator practicing the Wanling Sutra could form a contract with a Spirit Beast at each Great Realm to enhance their own strength.

Moreover, contracting a Spirit Beast with the same attributes could further enhance one's cultivation, in other words, it improved the purity of a cultivator's Spiritual Root.

But as everyone knows, the majority of Spirit Beasts cultivate very slowly. To ensure that a Spirit Beast cultivates at a faster pace, a cultivator must invest a considerable amount of resources.

Thus, under normal circumstances, cultivators would not contract a new Spirit Beast every time they broke through to a new Great Realm.

Had the Li family not made significant contributions to the Beast Taming Sect, they would never have obtained the complete set of methods from the Qi Cultivation Realm to the Golden Core Realm.

The currently slumbering Da Qing was affected by Li Zhirui's breakthrough and was digesting the benefits brought about by the contract.

Knowing that Da Qing would not wake up anytime soon, Li Zhirui turned and went back to his room. The moment he activated the warning Formation, he suddenly disappeared from sight!

In the next instant, the environment around Li Zhirui changed completely. He found himself in a space with various first-grade Spiritual Medicines and Spirit Grain growing.

The space wasn't large, only about two square li, which included a small mountain that took up most of the space and was only several dozen zhang high; at the foot of the mountain, there was a lake about five zhang in size, and a large Spirit Field full of Spiritual Objects.

This not-so-large Personal Space was Li Zhirui's "golden finger" as a transmigrator.

After years of exploration, Li Zhirui had almost fully developed the functions of this space. In summary, there were two points:

One was that if Spirit Stones were buried near Spiritual Medicines or Spirit Plants, their growth rate would increase. A single Spirit Stone could speed up the growth of a Spiritual Object by about a month!

Since the maturity period for first-grade Spiritual Medicines was generally one year, this meant that if twelve Spirit Stones were used, the Spiritual Medicine could mature instantly.

The problem was that the value of a first-grade Spiritual Medicine on the market was about ten Spirit Stones and the price would even drop if purchased in bulk, so this ability wasn't as exaggerated as Li Zhirui thought.

Of course, it wasn't completely useless either—it all depended on how Li Zhirui utilized it.

The second function of the space also involved the use of Spirit Stones, but it required throwing the Spirit Stones into the lake to increase the Spiritual Energy of the entire space.

In fact, Li Zhirui discovered another function of the space, which was that regardless of the attribute or even special growth requirements, any Spiritual Medicine or Spirit Plant could grow healthily and vigorously in the space.

...

Li Zhirui walked up to the Spirit Field he had cultivated and skillfully cast the Spirit Rain Skill to water the Spiritual Medicines and Spirit Grain.

To the left of the Spirit Field were the green Spirit Grains, with each stalk bearing heavy ears of grain; just approaching them, one could smell a fragrance filled with vitality.

On the right were various Spiritual Medicines, ranging from the common Golden Bud Grass to the more valuable Spirit Nurturing Fruit, with over a dozen types of Spiritual Medicines neatly growing in the Spirit Field.

After thoroughly watering the Spirit Field, Li Zhirui walked among them, meticulously weeding out the grass competing for Spiritual Energy and checking for any pests, completing all these tasks in about an hour.

But Li Zhirui did not leave the space; instead, he walked towards the small mountain because there were also a large number of Spiritual Medicines and Spirit Plants growing on it.

```