Tai Wuling, aged one hundred and twenty-two years old, was born to a pair of ordinary mortals. Sadly, his parents perished due to a wandering immortal's carelessness, and he became the sole survivor of his village.
He journeyed far and wide in order to join the Ashwisp Sect, but sadly, reality proved crushing. Although he passed the disciple acceptance ceremony's perseverance and wisdom trials, Tai Wuling failed the spiritual root trials.
Tai Wuling possessed a pentad spiritual root, meaning he had shattered spiritual roots. In other words, he had no hope of embarking on the immortal path, much less getting revenge on that immortal who killed his parents and the whole village.
With a heavy heart, Tai Wuling left the Ashwisp Sect. All the elders who had taken an interest in him ignored him as if he was inconsequential. And they were right, ordinary mortals like him lived in different worlds than cultivators like them.
Left with no hope, Tai Wuling journeyed back to his hometown. The best he could manage was to live out the rest of his ordinary life with no hope of achieving vengeance and fearing the same calamity befalling him.
However, the heavens always leave a ray of hope. One night, a falling star struck him and knocked him out on his way back. When he awoke, Tai Wuling discovered a strange sphere inside his mind. The sphere was pitch-black, like a black hole amidst the silver sea of consciousness. When he tried to interact with the sphere, he fainted again.
Awakening again, Tai Wuling discovered that the first part of the Unbound World Scripture had imprinted itself into his mind. Overcome with joy, Tai Wuling attempted to cultivate the immortal method. To his dismay, he discovered that even if he could sense spiritual qi, he couldn't cultivate. The spiritual qi would disappear into his body with no trace. He couldn't even sense it anymore, much less use it to open his first meridian.
At this time, he discovered the second use of the mysterious sphere. The black sphere would automatically absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth and refine it. The refined spiritual qi would then be left for Tai Wuling to absorb.
Even with the mysterious artifact's aid, Tai Wuling took over a month to open his first meridian, becoming a first-stage Qi Gathering Pupil and officially embarking on the path of immortality.
It took him ten years to reach the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm, and when he did, Tai Wuling discovered another feature of the mysterious sphere. Periodically, the cube would release a small silvery wisp that cleared his mind and made him more intelligent, for lack of a better description.
After opening up all possible twenty meridians, Tai Wuling transcended his Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation and officially became a foundation establishment disciple. By then, his appearance was that of a man in his late twenties. Considering nearly thirty years had passed since he was born, Tai Wuling only had a hundred and forty years left with the additional lifespan he gained.
Tai Wuling wondered if the hundred and forty years would be enough for him to reach the Core Formation Realm, and even if he did, would he be able to reach the Immortal Realm? He threw away the useless thoughts and continued to persevere and cultivate.
After twenty years, Tai Wuling reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. During this time, he experienced many struggles, but without fail, he exceeded his limits and became stronger for it.
Just as he was preparing to undergo his Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, he met her, or him. It really depended on which body he interacted with.
Her name was Yang Linyin, and she was a nascent soul grandmaster at the time. She was one of the top disciples of the Eight Pillar Sect, while he was a mere loose cultivator. Their paths should have never intersected, yet they did.
Tai Wuling had managed to save Yang Linyin after she had been near-fatally injured by a sneak attack from a member of the Earth Alliance. He hid her, and the two journeyed together for some time, experiencing numerous dangers—especially the last one.
Three nascent soul grandmasters had managed to find their hiding spot, and just as Tai Wuling was prepared to die, Yang Linyin killed all three nascent soul grandmasters despite her injuries. From there, although the two experienced many more dangers, they never reached the same extremes.
After Yang Linyin's injuries healed, she shifted into her male form because that was their original gender. However, Tai Wuling could not convince himself that Yang Linyin was not female. Anyways, after they returned to the Eight Pillar Sect, they helped him become an outer disciple of the Eight Pillar Sect.
Normally, someone with all Eight Extraordinary Meridians opened would immediately become an inner disciple, if not a core disciple, but Tai Wuling didn't expose his talent. After years of being a loose cultivator, he had developed the habit of playing the pig to eat the tiger. Even for the scions of the Eight Pilar Sect, few could open all Eight Extraordinary Meridians.
If Tai Wuling revealed that he had opened them as a loose cultivator, he feared that his biggest secret would be revealed, inviting those with insidious intentions. So, to others, he looked like an untalented cultivator that took over thirty-five years to reach the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Tai Wuling didn't care. After settling down for a month inside the sect, he underwent his Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation and successfully passed, forming a Phantom World Core. According to the Unbound World Scripture, he would form an inner realm inside his body once he reached the Seamless Immortal Realm.
His ascension to the Core Formation Realm didn't cause any ripples. For any ranked force, core formation masters were as common as clouds. Put in an unpleasant term, they were cannon fodders. Tai Wuling didn't care. As long as he had time, he would reach the peak.
Tai Wuling discovered that after entering the Core Formation Realm, he could sense the five elemental laws and the branching concepts under them. In the first stage of the Core Formation Realm, the Polished Core Stage, he had mastered a concept, the Concept of Earthbearing. With it at the core, he mastered two more concepts before reaching the peak of the Core Formation Realm.
After reaching the Nascent Soul realm, Tai Wuling discovered that his perception had changed, and the black sphere had changed again. Numerous glowing runes resembling the language of the primordial era covered it, and he could glean powerful but incomplete techniques from it.
He was prepared to become an outer elder of the Eight Pillar Sect, but then war erupted in the Earth Continent. As a nascent soul grandmaster without any background, Tai Wuling had been dispatched a foot soldier.
That was when he truly began to shine.
Tai Wuling defeated his foes and completed all his missions. Even one against ten, he would win. Despite not cultivating the martial path, his body was not one bit inferior to those who focused on martial cultivation. Not only that, his true qi was denser and more abundant than his peers.
It was also during the war that Tai Wuling discovered another feature of the mysterious sphere. It could purify and refine raw materials into a nourishing substance that boosted his body and soul. Practically all the loot he obtained from his slain foes went to this.
After numerous successes, Tai Wuling was eventually recalled back to the Eight Pillar Sect. After a round of inspection, it was revealed that he didn't possess a fractured spiritual root but the legendary dao spiritual root. Specifically, the dao chaos spiritual root.
The dao chaos spiritual root was composed of five heavenly spiritual roots of each element. Because of the balance of five elements in the spiritual root and the innate law contained within, every holder was a monstrous genius. Conversely, the holder of the dao chaos spiritual root would require at least five times more effort and resources to cultivate, but it would result in a robust foundation that no cultivator could compete with.
Because of the rarity of dao spiritual roots, the Ashwisp Sect had mistakenly identified Tai Wuling's spiritual root as a pentad shattered spiritual root. After this, Tai Wuling was immediately accepted as the personal disciple of one of the Eight Pillar Sect's grand elders, Emperor Infinity.
The sect no longer ordered Tai Wuling to undergo missions. Risking him at this stage was not worth it. Although Tai Wuling found it a pity that he couldn't collect any more resources to feed the black sphere, he also welcomed it.
After reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, his cultivation speed drastically increased, especially after he mastered two more concepts. Now, he mastered a concept from each of the five elements.
Mastering the five concepts boosted Tai Wuling's cultivation speed. The more concepts from the five elements he mastered, the faster he cultivated. When he entered the Unity Realm, the speed only increased.
His master could only sigh in amazement, "What a legendary dao spiritual root. It even makes an old man like me jealous."
As the war heated up, Tai Wuling peacefully cultivated. During this time, he rekindled his friendship with Yang Linyin. They even joked that had Tai Wuling not been interested, they would have had another rival for the position of sect master aside from Duan Muli. Both of them reached the Immortal Realm before he did.
Tai Wuling knew that the situation for the Eight Pillar Sect wasn't exactly ideal, which was why he had been dispatched to destroy a third-rate force not even a year after he had reached the Pathfinding Immortal Realm. Coincidently, Tai Wuling also willingly chose to go.
After all, it was a chance to end his hundred-year-long hatred with the immortal who killed his parents and destroyed his hometown.
This one battle instantly rocketed him to fame. He displayed great mastery of the concepts from all five elements and was just shy of reaching the level of an immortal lord.
Tai Wuling thought he would continue to undergo battles and contribute to the Eight Pillar Sect's eventual victory, but he had immediately been summoned back by Sect Master Pathway. The reason? Because delegates from the Buzhou Immortal Sect had arrived to aid them.
He knew that the Eight Pillar Sect had dispatched an entourage to seek help, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Furthermore, the head of the delegation, Duan Muli, never returned. The Buzhou Immortal Sect must have requested him as a hostage in order to dispatch aid.
Tai Wuling already didn't like the Buzhou Immortal Sect. He wondered what the sect master was thinking, putting themselves in such a low position. He understood that the Buzhou Immortal Sect possessed an immortal sovereign, but wasn't this debasing themselves too much?
Furthermore, Tai Wuling had heard the word of Xi Tianyi, the Sword Sovereign's sole child. Without even meeting Xi Tianyi, he already had a negative impression of the immortal monarch.
It only further deteriorated when Tai Wuling actually met the man. Rather than a cultivator or immortal, Xi Tianyi appeared like one of those wastrels that only knew how to play. He suddenly pitied the woman next to Xi Tianyi.
Tai Wuling had heard the news of how Xi Tianyi had recently married. He had just married, but instead of spending time with his wife, he dragged her to war. Absolutely despicable.
Still, he obediently greeted the immortal monarch. Thankfully, Yang Linyin had the foresight to come in their male form. Tai Wuling hadn't heard if Xi Tianyi liked to play with women, but he wouldn't be surprised. Scions like him probably did.
Tai Wuling frowned. He quickly schooled his expression. No matter how much he despised the man, the two hegemonic sects were in an alliance. After an introspection, Tai Wuling discovered that he had an unnatural amount of negative thoughts toward Xi Tianyi. He had seen people worse than the foreign monarch, but his impression had never been so disastrous.
It was as if he and Xi Tianyi were destined to be nemeses.
