Chapter 1: Lin Zhangqing

Tang Dynasty, Southeast Circuit, Pingyang Prefecture, Yunxing County.

Yunxing County is one of the thirty-six counties of Pingyang Prefecture; its territory is vast and sparsely populated, with many mountains and hills.

Among these mountains, Nine Peaks Mountain is the most prominent. Its nine peaks are shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, and it is covered by a clan-protecting grand array. Outsiders only know of its height but cannot see its peaks, hence the name Nine Peaks Mountain.

At this moment, inside a small building on the main peak, a young boy dressed in a green robe is staring intently at his mother, Xu Wenying, who is holding a large basin of Eight Treasures Chicken Soup.

At seven or eight years old, his large eyes sparkle with anticipation. When he was in the courtyard earlier, he had already smelled the fragrance of the chicken soup, and his mouth was almost watering.

Even with the experience of having lived two lifetimes, it was difficult for him to resist the temptation of this fragrance, because it was simply too delicious.

The boy is named Lin Qing. Lin Qing is a reincarnated person. In his previous life, he was an orphan who, through his own efforts, became a surgeon.

However, due to frequent overtime, he suffered from overwork and died suddenly on the operating table at the age of 36.

His current identity after reincarnation is the seventh generation of the Nine Peaks Mountain Lin Family, the son of Lin Maosheng.

Regarding this reincarnation, Lin Qing is quite satisfied; at the very least, he is in a cultivation family and has the opportunity to cultivate.

When he first reincarnated, Lin Qing was very unaccustomed to it. After all, for a mature youth with a mental age of 36 to adapt to the sudden transition from an adult to an infant was truly very difficult.

So, when his infancy first began, Lin Qing was very reluctant to eat! Lin Qing struggled, resisted, and cried out loudly (cried loudly), but the outcome was always being caught by his mother and taken to the dining hall to eat. Later, finding that resistance was futile, he resigned himself to his fate!

Fortunately, the love of his parents encompassed everything! Slowly, this allowed Lin Qing to accept this change, and he also accepted his parents and family members of this lifetime from the bottom of his heart.

"Little glutton, the dishes are all ready. Go quickly to the Baicao Garden and call your grandfather and father to come back for dinner," his mother said with a smile.

Lin Qing agreed and ran out the door, running familiarly to the entrance of the Baicao Garden.

The Baicao Garden is a Second-Grade Upper-Quality Spirit Plant Garden unique to Lin Qing's grandfather's lineage. It is the result of several generations of effort, containing some precious spirit medicines, spirit grasses, and some spirit fruit trees.

He skillfully picked up a small pebble from the roadside and threw it at the array restriction at the entrance.

Not long after, the array restriction opened a gap.

Subsequently, his grandfather and father walked out from inside.

"Grandfather! Father!" Lin Qing called out.

Grandfather Lin Fandao patted Lin Qing's head and chuckled, "I knew it must be you, Little Qing. You came to call Grandfather for dinner, right?"

Lin Qing responded.

Lin Qing is the eldest grandson of the eldest branch of the family and has a spirit root, so he is very much favored by his grandfather.

His father also patted Lin Qing's hair: "In a few months, it will be the day for the family to test spirit roots.

Once we know what kind of spirit root you have, you can start cultivating, and you won't need to throw pebbles at the restriction anymore!"

Everyone in the family knows Lin Qing has a spirit root, because without a spirit root, one cannot eat too many things containing spiritual energy.

Mortals eating spirit pills and spirit fruits that contain a little spiritual energy can prolong their lives.

But for something like Eight Treasures Chicken Soup, which is of a certain grade, someone without a spirit root might very well be bloated to death after eating it.

Although this is only a First-Grade Lower-Quality Spirit Cuisine, being able to eat a First-Grade Spirit Cuisine also proves from the side that Lin Qing has a spirit root; it's just that we don't know the quality of the spirit root yet.

Lin Qing wolfed down his meal, told his family, and went out to play with his little friends.

Because he is reincarnated and born with the wisdom of his past life, Lin Zhangqing understands that he must never appear too special and must make himself look the same as ordinary children.

Therefore, the best way is to blend in with them, play with them, and play however ordinary children play.

Otherwise, if he were to appear too special, such as being withdrawn or unsociable, or doing certain unreasonable things, as long as he was suspected, this is the cultivation world, and naturally, there are ways to investigate what is going on.

So Lin Qing simply treated himself as an ordinary child and played however he wanted. Later, he got used to it and found that experiencing childhood again was quite interesting.

Moreover, he also made a group of little friends; in common parlance, they were a gang.

After all, cultivation is not a solo endeavor; one also needs partners and friends who can help and support each other.

There is nothing more solid than a relationship formed from childhood, of course, excluding family and Dao companions.

Every household on the mountain plants some fruit trees that contain a little spiritual energy, some in front of the door, some in the courtyard. When the group of little friends plays, what they like most is to keep an eye on whose spirit peach tree has ripened, whose spirit jujubes are ready to eat, and whose spirit fowl has laid eggs or has chicks.

So they often caused chaos on the Ancestral Mountain and were the famous "skin monkeys" of Nine Peaks Mountain.

However, everyone still quite liked this group of troublemakers; after all, they were all their own family's descendants and were all related, so they wouldn't do anything to them.

Moreover, the atmosphere within the Lin family was quite harmonious, with no major disputes or infighting.

After all, history has proven that those families with frequent infighting often consumed a lot of energy and basically disappeared in the long river of history of the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, every time the spirit fruits ripened, the owners would take some out to treat them, so there were footprints of their happy childhood play everywhere on Nine Peaks Mountain.

But as the ninth day of the first lunar month, the day for the Lin family's unified spirit root testing, slowly approached, the atmosphere on the mountain became increasingly tense.

At that time, descendants tested to have spirit roots would be granted a generation character and arranged to go to the family cultivation academy to learn basic cultivation knowledge in a unified manner.

Like Lin Qing, his father is of the 'Mao' generation, so following the order, it should be the 'Chang' generation, and his name should be changed to Lin Zhangqing.

If his younger sister Lin Ling has a spirit root, her name should be changed to Lin Changling.

Descendants without spirit roots must leave the Ancestral Mountain and live in the county town or villages at the foot of the mountain. After all, immortals and mortals are different, and it would be very difficult to return to the Ancestral Mountain in the future.

Spirit roots! One in ten thousand among mortals; only when both parents are cultivators will the descendants have a relatively high probability of possessing a spirit root.

However, the Heavenly Dao has its cycles; it is extremely difficult for cultivators to produce offspring, and the higher the cultivation base, the smaller the probability.

This is also the reason why the Nine Peaks Mountain Lin Family has nearly a million mortal clansmen, but only two hundred or so cultivators.

Spirit roots are divided into Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, etc.; these are common. There are also Ice, Wind, Thunder, Light, Dark, etc...

But these are, after all, a very small minority. In the vast Pingyang Prefecture, it is also rare to hear of anyone possessing these rare spirit roots.

Of course, even if there were, they would likely be hidden very tightly and would not be easily let known to outsiders.

After all, the means of the cultivation world are strange and varied; means like possession, puppet techniques, mind control techniques, and the like are endless.

Those large sects have them, like the Lin family's upper sect, the Qingyun Sect, which certainly has them. However, these cultivators are the treasures of the sect, and similarly, they are generally not easily let known to outsiders.

Ordinary spirit roots are also divided into good and bad.

Possessing a spirit root with five attributes, the cultivation speed is very slow; this is called a pseudo spirit root.

Basically, one cannot break through the late stage of Qi Refining, and many people spend their whole lives spinning in the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

Those possessing a spirit root with four attributes are called miscellaneous spirit roots, which are a little better than five spirit roots.

But they also basically stop at the late stage of Qi Refining, with few breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage.

In fact, pseudo spirit roots and miscellaneous spirit roots can also achieve success in cultivation, but the prerequisite is that you have a lot of resources and are willing to spend them.

This way, one can also achieve success in cultivation, but the resources required are several times that of others, and the preceding Qi Refining stage is still fine.

Like the subsequent Foundation Establishment, Purple Mansion, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Deity Transformation, they also require several times the resources of others to have a possibility of completing the advancement.

Then this would not be cost-effective; it would be better to use these resources to cultivate those who possess true spirit roots or better.

This is the most reasonable and correct method, so basically, families and sects do it this way.

Those possessing a spirit root with three attributes are called true spirit roots, and the cultivation speed is relatively fast.

One can cultivate to the perfection of Qi Refining before the age of sixty, and supplemented by a Foundation Establishment Pill, there is a forty to fifty percent chance of Foundation Establishment.

Those possessing a spirit root with two attributes are called earth spirit roots, and the cultivation speed is very fast. Self-Foundation Establishment has a twenty percent chance, and supplemented by a Foundation Establishment Pill, the chance is as high as sixty to seventy percent.

A single spirit root with only one attribute is called a heavenly spirit root. The cultivation speed is several times faster than ordinary spirit roots, and there are basically no bottlenecks for Foundation Establishment and Purple Mansion; they can be called the proud sons of heaven.

Although Lin Qing knows he has a spirit root, spirit roots also have good and bad distinctions. He dares not even think about heavenly spirit roots or earth spirit roots.

Praying to God Jesus, Tathagata Buddha, the Three Pure Ones, Aunt Mazu, just give me a three-attribute spirit root, and that would be enough.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 2 =====