Begin your practice with the crane-shaped stance.

Qixia Mountain.

This is the location of the mountain gate of the Qixia Immortal Sect.

The Qixia Immortal Sect has been rooted in Linyuan Prefecture for a long time.

However, before the establishment of the Great You Dynasty, this world underwent a great change.

The entire continent was like a burst bubble, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth began to decline irreversibly.

The consequences of spiritual energy depletion are fatal. The lifespan and the cultivation realm that cultivators can reach both decline along with the depletion of spiritual energy.

After that catastrophe, the Great You Dynasty rose from the ground, and the various forces were reshuffled, establishing a new balance.

In the past, the Immortal Sect was high and mighty, and its attitude towards mortal dynasties was almost one of divine right of kings; but now, as spiritual energy further declines, the foundation of the Immortal Sect is constantly weakened, and the Great You Dynasty is becoming more and more powerful when facing the Immortal Sect.

With this shift in resources, the Qixia Immortal Sect's resources are far less abundant than before.

In the past, when resources were plentiful, the Immortal Sect would recruit a large number of disciples with "mixed spiritual roots". However, in the last hundred years, due to the scarcity of cultivation resources, the Immortal Sect has become increasingly demanding in its requirements for spiritual root aptitude, and now it almost exclusively accepts disciples with unusual spiritual roots and heavenly spiritual roots.

This is because, given the decline of spiritual energy in the world, the number of people possessing spiritual roots is decreasing. Moreover, once a cultivator enters the Qi Refining stage, the higher their cultivation level, the lower their probability of having offspring.

If one frequently uses the art of sexual enhancement in order to have children, it will backfire on one's own cultivation.

Although the offspring of cultivators have a higher chance of possessing spiritual roots than mortals, it is not absolute.

Therefore, many cultivation families today place their greatest hope and demand on their ordinary mortal descendants who lack spiritual roots, hoping to increase their numbers and try their luck.

In addition to the decline in spiritual energy, the gap in combat power among the high-level members of the Immortal Sect is also extremely serious.

In today's cultivation world, the legendary "Nascent Soul" cultivators have long since disappeared, and even "Golden Core" cultivators have become extremely rare.

Before the cataclysm, Foundation Establishment cultivators who wanted to form a Golden Core had to go through the extremely crucial process of "opening the Purple Mansion." However, opening the Purple Mansion consumed a massive amount of resources, which the current conditions of heaven and earth simply could not support.

Therefore, cultivators today have no choice but to give up on opening their Purple Mansion and forcibly form their Core. But the price is that without the foundation of the Purple Mansion, they will be completely cut off from the possibility of advancing to the "Deity Transformation" stage in this lifetime.

Furthermore, according to ancient tradition, although those with mixed spiritual roots cultivate extremely slowly in the early stages, if they can endure until the Nascent Soul stage, their chances of breaking through to the Deity Transformation stage are far higher than those with Heavenly Spiritual Roots or Different Spiritual Roots. But now, not only has the Deity Transformation stage become an illusion, but even Core Formation is fraught with difficulties.

The advantages of Heavenly Spiritual Roots and Different Spiritual Roots—faster cultivation and lower resource consumption in the early stages—become even more prominent.

Even if the Qixia Immortal Sect were to empty most of its resources now, it might not be able to support a Golden Core cultivator with mixed spiritual roots. What's even more tragic is that the current Golden Core cultivators only have a lifespan of a little over three hundred years, which is incomparable to the Golden Core cultivators before the cataclysm who often lived to be five or six hundred years old.

Faced with this overall decline, Qixia Immortal Sect could only forcibly maintain its dignity.

It's important to know that when the Great You Dynasty was first established, the Qixia Immortal Sect was an absolute local tyrant in Linyuan Prefecture. They would even openly capture ordinary martial artists within their territory and bring them up the mountain, using them as "talents" for cultivation or even as "great medicines" to aid in alchemy.

But times have changed. The Great You Dynasty has grown increasingly powerful and has established the "Tongxuan Division." The court strictly forbids immortal sects from capturing martial artists, and if any cultivator is found to dare to do so, the experts of the Tongxuan Division will arrest and suppress them without mercy.

Of course, despite the strict rules, the extreme scarcity of cultivation resources still forces some cultivators who are nearing the end of their lifespan or stuck at a bottleneck to take risks and secretly reach out to ordinary martial artists.

……

Qixia Mountain Inner Gate.

Qin Wan has been a disciple of the Qixia Immortal Sect for some time now.

It wasn't until she actually entered the sect that she realized it wasn't the idyllic, resource-rich paradise that mortals imagined.

The infighting among fellow disciples over the meager amounts of spirit stones and elixirs distributed to them is even more brutal than the power struggles within wealthy families in the secular world.

Furthermore, while consulting the classics here, she finally learned what "Taoist texts" were.

It turns out that the reason why the Great You Dynasty was able to rise on this continent and suppress the Immortal Sect was because a group of extremely powerful cultivators made great contributions at the beginning of the dynasty.

These cultivators originally held extremely high positions within various immortal or demonic sects, some even being designated as successors within their respective sects. However, during that great upheaval, they chose to completely sever ties with their original sects and instead support the mortal dynasty.

It was precisely because of the betrayal of these people that the major immortal sects suffered heavy losses, and the Great You Dynasty was able to establish itself as a result.

In the mouths of both the Immortal Sect and the Demonic Sect, this group of people were traitors who betrayed their masters and ancestors, and were collectively and contemptuously referred to as "Daoist thieves".

...

...

According to historical records, at the beginning of the Great You Kingdom, there were thirty-six top cultivators known as "Dao Thieves".

The Great You Dynasty bestowed many generous treatments upon the descendants of these thirty-six families, one of which was granting them "Taoist registration".

Not every descendant can possess a Daoist register, but as long as the family bloodline continues, the imperial court will ensure that at least one person in each generation can inherit the register. However, if only a woman remains in a generation, the Daoist register will cease to exist, because it will never be passed on to someone of a different surname.

Regardless, these people with Daoist registration formed the most solid foundation of the Great You Dynasty. Many of the Great You nobles active in the court and local areas today possess Daoist registration.

Qin Wan found out from the sect that every disciple with spiritual roots could directly receive a set of starting cultivation resources from the Imperial Household Department of the Great You Kingdom.

So far, she has found one "Foundation Building Pill" and one "Ascension Token".

Qin Wan was not clear about the specific function of the Ascension Token.

But she now deeply understands the importance of Foundation Establishment Pills to cultivators.

In recent years, the Great You Dynasty has completely monopolized the key medicinal materials for refining Foundation Building Pills.

Even if immortal sects wanted to refine Foundation Establishment Pills themselves, it would now be extremely difficult. Moreover, the imperial court had set quotas for the refinement of Foundation Establishment Pills for each sect. If a sect dared to exceed these quotas privately, it would face severe punishment if discovered by the court.

In short, the Great You Dynasty is trying every means to weaken the Immortal Sect.

Even if the immortal sects sent people to infiltrate the imperial court as spies, they would be easily exposed, or simply assimilated by the court. After all, following the court obviously offered more prospects and resources, and those who could cultivate immortality were generally intelligent people who knew how to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.

Originally, someone with Qin Wan's unique spiritual root aptitude could have directly achieved Foundation Establishment even without the aid of Foundation Establishment Pills. However, now that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is depleted, the environment no longer supports doing so.

In today's cultivation world, even those with one in ten thousand Heavenly Spiritual Roots must rely on Foundation Establishment Pills to successfully establish their foundation.

Although the Qin family is a prominent family in the mortal realm, they are ultimately just a merchant family with no background or backing within the Qixia Immortal Sect. The competition for the current Foundation Establishment Pill slots within the sect is extremely fierce, and it's highly likely that Qin Wan won't get one this round.

Without the Foundation Establishment Pill, she could not establish her foundation; without establishing her foundation, the brilliant path to immortality she had originally hoped for naturally became dim and lackluster.

However, this cruel truth was never mentioned by the Immortal Sect when they accepted her as a disciple. Ultimately, the Qin family's information was too outdated, and their understanding of the cultivation world was too limited.

Qin Wanzhi investigated the matter of Daoist registration because she recalled her marriage certificate with Xia Dong. She clearly remembered that Xia Dong's household registration stated that he was a Daoist.

Now that she has entered the immortal sect and learned about these things, Qin Wan realized what she had missed when she broke off the engagement.

But Qin Wan was proud; she had chosen her own path, and she would never shamelessly go back to Xia Dong now.

Moreover, the laws of the Great Netherworld are strict, and marriage between Daoist disciples and immortal sect disciples is strictly prohibited.

If the two were to secretly consummate their relationship and the authorities discovered it, they would be breaking the law. Xia Dong, as a disciple of the Daoist sect, was unsure whether she would be severely punished, but as a disciple of the Immortal Sect, she would certainly be severely punished by the Great You government.

So in fact, this escape route had already been blocked long ago.

As for why Xia Dong possessed a Daoist certificate, Qin Wan's father was also unaware. Although Master Qin had known Xia Dong's father for a long time, he actually knew nothing about Xia Dong's father's specific background.

All we know is that the couple came from the capital.

Moreover, he never returned to the capital during his lifetime.

However, Xia Dong's Daoist identity is beyond doubt.

Master Qin had already verified this with the old clerk of the Lin Yuan government office.

However, these veteran officials didn't know much about Taoist texts.

In reality, a Taoist certificate is just an entry ticket; how effective it is depends on individual ability and the favor of fate.

But Qin Wan knew that possessing a Daoist certificate was itself a sign of being "favored" by fate.

She is still far from reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, so if Xia Dong can give birth to a child with spiritual roots, she will have a better chance of exchanging for one in the future.

Because the Foundation Establishment Pills for Daoist disciples are "legal".

Moreover, that Ascension Token is definitely not ordinary.

In short, since we've already missed the opportunity, we can only try our best to make up for it.

However, since the last time Qin Wan sent a letter with spirit stones to Xia Dong, Xia Dong had not replied, so Qin Wan could not find an excuse to send another letter.

Fortunately, her father mentioned in his letter that Xia Dong still has a partnership with the Qin family.

Qin Wan had also read the book "The Story of Liu Yi".

But after reading it, she couldn't help but think about it.

Actually, she is the real "Liu Yi".

But she herself missed out on Xia Dong, the "Dragon Girl".

As a disciple of the Daoist lineage, even without spiritual roots, he easily passed the imperial examination and became a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the lowest level of the imperial examinations).

"Well, if we missed out on helping those in need or adding to their success, we should at least do more things."

Since Xia Dong hadn't replied to her letters, Qin Wan sent another one, secretly slipping in two spirit stones—stones she had painstakingly saved up.

As the daughter of a businessman, she believed that such things would be rewarding in the long run.

She's still young, she can wait!