The sun set in the west, crimson clouds filling the sky.

At the Proud Sword Immortal Sect, Dao-Seeking Peak, the once-every-ten-years Ascension Assembly was being held.

Within a radius of tens of thousands of li, countless young prodigies had gathered on the peak today, waiting for their own ‘Immortal Fate Evaluation Results’.

Thirty-six ‘Ascension Registration Points’ were arranged throughout Dao-Seeking Peak, each overseen by inner sect disciples.

At the golden summit of Dao-Seeking Peak stood a nine-zhang-tall soaring pavilion.

From within the pavilion, faint and ethereal zither music drifted out.

Clear, elegant, and hollow, like immortal music.

* * *

“Ten whole years, and this day has finally come!”

“The Proud Sword Immortal Sect is a top-tier power of Taicang Prefecture, with sword immortals gathered like clouds.”

“If I can enter the Proud Sword Immortal Sect, then longevity and attaining the Dao as an immortal will definitely not be a distant dream!”

“I heard the Proud Sword Immortal Sect is taking this Ascension Assembly very seriously and even sent out the true disciple senior brother to personally supervise it!”

“The true disciple senior brother, could it be that ‘Number One Handsome Man of Taicang’?”

“Who else could it be! The Taicang Banished Immortal, Li Hanguang. It’s said that on the day he was born, strange phenomena appeared in the heavens. A white dragon entered the tent, suspected to be the reincarnation of an ancient great power.”

“Senior brother is inside the Lingxiao Pavilion right now. If I could see him just once, even dying would be worth it!”

On Dao-Seeking Peak, almost everyone was discussing the same topic.

The senior brother of the Proud Sword Immortal Sect—Li Hanguang!

His father was the number one expert of the Proud Sword Immortal Sect, bearing the title Vast Sea Sword Venerable. With a single move of Long River Sword Qi, he slaughtered demonic and heretical beings within tens of thousands of li until their courage shattered.

His mother was the eldest princess of Taicang Prefecture’s Ten-Thousand-Li Commerce Guild, holding unimaginable resources and connections, rich enough to rival a nation.

And Li Hanguang himself more than lived up to expectations.

Not only did he possess peerless looks from childhood, driving girls of the same age into a frenzy and making boys feel utterly inferior, his cultivation talent was also enough to look down upon his peers.

Born with a top-grade water spiritual root, he refined qi at three, established his foundation at five, condensed a top-grade golden core at twelve, and was granted the title of True Person.

At thirteen, he wielded his sword to slay a demon wolf that had plagued an entire region, becoming famous across the land.

After that, Li Hanguang returned to the mountain to enter secluded cultivation.

Silent for three years.

Those three years did not make him forgotten. Instead, they made people even more eager for his future achievements.

Everyone in the Proud Sword Immortal Sect believed that on the day the senior brother emerged from seclusion,

The entire Taicang Prefecture would be left in awe!

* * *

In the aerial pavilion, the zither music abruptly stopped.

A faint sigh drifted out from behind the window curtains, followed by a figure rising to his feet.

This was a young man, his body wreathed in a faint blue glow, dreamlike and illusory.

He wore a plain white robe, with silver water-cloud patterns embroidered along the lapels, gently flowing under the illumination of spiritual light.

As the radiance faded, it revealed a cold and elegant face, with brows and features noble to the extreme.

In the cultivation world, there were many good-looking people.

But an existence with such bearing was exceedingly rare in all the world.

He merely stood there, without any unnecessary movement.

Yet he contained an inexplicable attraction, able to draw all gazes toward him, making it hard to look away.

This person was none other than the senior brother of the Proud Sword Immortal Sect: Li Hanguang.

A transmigrator!

The world believed that Li Hanguang was indifferent to fame and fortune, distancing himself from vanity when all eyes were upon him, tempering himself in silence.

Only Li Hanguang knew that he had been completely screwed over!

As for how he got screwed over, that’s a long story~

When Li Hanguang was born, a small bronze seal hung around his neck.

All the high-ranking members of the Proud Sword Immortal Sect unanimously believed that this seal was absolutely extraordinary and hid a great secret.

However, no matter how they studied it, the small seal showed no reaction at all, so they could only continue letting Li Hanguang wear it.

Over thirteen years, Li Hanguang cultivated diligently and painstakingly, finally achieving success in the sword Dao and establishing a formidable reputation.

At that moment, the small bronze seal suddenly acknowledged him as its master.

The seal, recognizing its master and entering his body, granted Li Hanguang two miraculous abilities.

First, Li Hanguang discovered that he had gained the ability to see through information about all things in the world.

For example, he originally believed that his water-attribute top-grade golden core was already powerful enough.

But now when he looked again: [Single-Attribute Flawed Golden Core: Not pure enough, not broad enough. Using this as a foundation, becoming an immortal is hopeless. Garbage. Recommend smashing it directly.]

The psychological trauma Li Hanguang suffered at the time was self-evident.

It wasn’t just about the golden core.

Ever since the ancient seal acknowledged him as its master, Li Hanguang’s worldview had been completely overturned.

For example, his father had given him a twelfth-birthday gift: a top-grade spiritual artifact long sword.

Such a precious treasure was enough to make even Nascent Soul venerables feel tempted.

Li Hanguang had originally been quite happy about it.

But upon closer inspection: [Low-quality long sword: Ordinary materials, crude craftsmanship. If optimized at ***, *** and nine other locations, it could at least be upgraded to top-grade spiritual artifact level. Garbage among garbage. If you’re not throwing it away, are you keeping it for the New Year?]

Damn it~

It was just so damn disappointing!

All in all, after the bronze seal acknowledged him as its master, Li Hanguang got sick.

This sickness was called: everything looks like trash.

Omniscient Insight was the first ability the bronze seal gave Li Hanguang.

Second, Li Hanguang discovered that when he focused his gaze on another person, not only would information appear, but a Faith Value attribute would also appear.

And every time another person’s faith in Li Hanguang increased by 100 points, he would gain one copy opportunity.

Using this opportunity, Li Hanguang could randomly copy one of the other party’s abilities.

This ability could be aptitude or bone structure, cultivation methods or combat techniques, or even skills like music, chess, calligraphy and painting, medicine, divination, astronomy, or even everyday skills like washing clothes and cooking.

For example, Li Hanguang originally only had a top-grade water spiritual root and could only condense a water-attribute top-grade golden core.

After the bronze seal acknowledged him as its master, Li Hanguang attracted swarms of admirers within the inner sect.

He then successively copied one top-grade wood spiritual root, two upper-grade metal and earth spiritual roots, and one lower-grade fire spiritual root from other senior brothers and juniors.

Now, Li Hanguang had already gathered the five elemental spiritual roots, becoming an incomparably rare all-attribute cultivation physique.

The rarity and preciousness of this physique far surpassed anything before by hundreds or even thousands of times!

It absolutely counted as being reborn anew!!!

…But if there is a choice, who wouldn’t want the best?

After gathering the five elemental spiritual roots, Li Hanguang found his water-type golden core increasingly unpleasant to look at.

Finally!

On a dark and windy night, he smashed his own core!

It hurt a lot!

But Li Hanguang endured it!

To practice divine arts, one must first destroy one’s cultivation. No one succeeds casually!

Once the golden core shattered, ten years of bitter cultivation turned into bubbles.

Li Hanguang returned to the first layer of Qi Refining!

But he didn’t feel depressed, because with the assistance of the bronze seal, he quickly condensed new spiritual energy through the five elemental spiritual roots.

This spiritual energy was formed by fusing metal, wood, water, fire and earth elemental energies through a special method.

It combined all the strengths of the five elements, such as the sharpness of metal, the vitality of wood, the penetration of water, the explosiveness of fire and the toughness of earth.

Li Hanguang had tested it.

Using this spiritual energy to activate any five-element attribute combat technique or spell, the power would increase by more than tenfold!

Omniscient Insight also showed that using this Five-Elements spiritual energy to establish a foundation and form a core would achieve a Primordial Unity Golden Core.

This kind of golden core possessed the potential for longevity and ascension to immortality!

Enough to utterly crush a top-grade golden core!

…But very soon, Li Hanguang realized he had been happy too early.

Five-Elements spiritual energy was indeed very powerful.

But condensing this kind of spiritual energy was not easy.

One had to circulate the five elements according to a specific method, maintaining absolute balance.

Even the slightest imbalance would not only prevent the condensation of spiritual energy, it could even cause deviation and demonic backlash.

This required extremely strong spiritual energy control ability!

Originally, this wasn’t much of a problem. After all, Li Hanguang had destroyed his cultivation and rebuilt it, and his control over spiritual energy far surpassed ordinary cultivators of the same realm.

Controlling the balance of the five elements, as long as he was careful, wasn’t particularly difficult.

The most maddening part was that to ensure absolute balance of the five elemental spiritual energies, the total amount of these five energies had to be absolutely equal.

That is to say, the ratio of the five elemental spiritual energies had to be 1:1:1:1:1.

However!

Li Hanguang’s water and wood spiritual roots were top-grade, his metal and earth spiritual roots were upper-grade.

But his fire-attribute spiritual root was only lower-grade!

What is a lower-grade spiritual root?

If a top-grade spiritual root could refine 1000 units of spiritual energy per day, then an upper-grade spiritual root would be 100, a mid-grade spiritual root would be 10.

And a lower-grade spiritual root… only 1.

This was a cruel problem!

If Five-Elements spiritual energy were compared to a bucket of water, then what determined its capacity would not be the tallest plank.

But the shortest one!

That is to say, the metal, wood, water and earth spiritual roots all had to cooperate with the fire attribute, slowing their speed down to 1.

Even if all five kinds of spiritual energy were refined simultaneously and the speed increased fivefold, Li Hanguang’s cultivation speed would still only be 5, not even comparable to an ordinary mid-grade spiritual root.

Compared to the former 1000, the difference was a full 200 times.

And it was precisely because of this.

Back then, Li Hanguang started cultivating at three and successfully established his foundation at five.

Now, after destroying his cultivation and rebuilding it, despite being familiar with the process, he had spent a full three years and was still stuck at the Qi Refining stage.

…Qi Refining Third Layer!

Not to mention the entire Taicang Prefecture, even within the Proud Sword Immortal Sect, this was absolutely a bottom-tier existence.

Did Li Hanguang really want to hole up at home for three years?

He didn’t dare to go out!

Before the age of thirteen, Li Hanguang was young and hot-blooded, specializing in curing disobedience.

Those so-called geniuses of Taicang Prefecture had been beaten brutally by Li Hanguang more than a few times, almost all of them hammered until their heads stuck out prominently.

A dignified genius being beaten down by a half-grown child whose hair hadn’t even fully grown yet.

Who could swallow that humiliation?

The hatred he had drawn was simply outrageously intense!

Previously, when Li Hanguang was full of vigor, naturally no one dared provoke him.

But now that his cultivation was completely ruined, no matter how amazing Five-Elements spiritual energy was, it was impossible for him to angrily hammer a golden core cultivator!

If those guys found out that he was now a bottom-tier weakling…

Hiss~

That picture was too beautiful. Li Hanguang didn’t dare imagine it!

…Of course, this problem wasn’t without a solution.

What was dragging down Li Hanguang’s cultivation speed now was the fire-attribute spiritual root.

As long as he found a fire-type genius, gained their faith and drew a fire spiritual root, he could directly make up for his deficiency.

If he could draw a mid-grade fire spiritual root, Li Hanguang’s cultivation speed would instantly increase by more than tenfold.

If he could draw an upper-grade fire spiritual root, it would instantly increase by more than a hundredfold.

By then, all problems would be solved with ease!

And this was precisely the reason Li Hanguang had taken the initiative to come to Dao-Seeking Peak to join the excitement.

It was just a pity that the Ascension Assembly lasted a full nine days.

The strongest fire-attribute talent was only a mid-grade spiritual root.

There was an upper-grade spiritual root among the wood-attribute geniuses, but unfortunately, it was useless to him.

‘Fire! I want fire!’

Li Hanguang walked to the front of the pavilion, overlooking the sea of people, unable to help but sigh.

…Suddenly, Li Hanguang frowned slightly.

He noticed that at the Ascension Registration Point in the southeast corner, there seemed to be some kind of disturbance, rather noisy.

Faintly, words like “trash” and “broken engagement” could be heard.

The air was filled with the joyful atmosphere of gossip.