Silver estimated that it would at least take a month to travel throughout the Constellation World to "greet" the Arctic Emperor and the other eight vehement souls. Not only that, he had to ensure his disciples were properly trained as they traversed the Black Swamp and deal with the Eclipse Dimension. With so many responsibilities, he created two avatars to deal with the tasks at hand. One of them oversaw the Eclipse Dimension and the other guided his disciple, while he, the original, traveled.

With the way he delegated his avatars, everything should go to plan despite his donkey avatar being two realms lower than him. Whereas the one overseeing the Eclipse Dimension was only a realm lower. Despite having two avatars, his soul was in a state of recuperation due to the immense pain to ensure both avatars had enough strength to handle unforeseeable circumstances.

Thus, Silver had decided to travel and recuperate to his peak before he fought against the Vehement Souls. He was already reaching half-way to where the Arctic Emperor resided, so he took a break to see how the avatar overseeing the Eclipse Dimension was doing.

Searching through his memories, Silver could see that they began creating a sect and setting up the guidelines with the other patriarchs. Many rules were created but the most prominent that garnered the most attention was the Challenger and Death Stage.

The Challenger Stage allowed others to challenge each other through sparring or skills. Anyone in the sect could initiate a challenge to whomever and those being challenged can either accept or deny. But once they were challenged, they could not be picked again for three days. This gave those who were challenged ample time to rest and learn from their experience.

However, the Death Stage was created for settling grudges that could only be settled through one's death. This stage allowed one to become more cautious, as any of them could go through life and death matches anytime. Luckily, the one who wins in the Death Stage is given three days of immunity from both issuing and receiving such summons.

To ensure fairness, none were able to enact revenge on the other's family behind the scenes. If such underhanded means were used, well, they've already seen what Silver could do to them without moving an centimeter to escape. He was a god in the Eclipse Dimension.

As the days went on, there were several who became personal disciples from elders in all three testing areas. The great elders stood at the front of their respective area, keeping a keen eye on who they wished to make their disciples, including Yong Satay. Out of the many outer, inner and primary disciples that had been decided on, they couldn't find anyone worth nurturing. They only had this mindset because of the absolute strength and knowledge Silver possessed.

Silver sat in a hidden cave, reviewing the changes of the sect and other events within the Eclipse Dimension. After sorting all the memories received, he sorted out his donkey avatar's memories right after.

During their travels, both Xing Mei and Xing Soba reached the late stages of Internal Realm, Expert Internal Warrior. Once they reached this stage, Silver decided it was time to check their spiritual roots and begin their first step into the world of cultivation. The Origin Realm marked the beginning of every cultivator. This was where they combined their spiritual roots with their dantian to become reborned.

Within the nine continents, spiritual roots could be categorised into five basic elements: wood, water, fire, earth and metal while the three rare are: light, dark and spirit. Majority of cultivators had an impure mixture of four or all five of the basic attributes. Although they were able to absorb Qi of Heaven and Earth, their cultivation will progress extremely slowly in terms of absorbing Qi. At most, they could only reach the seventh or eighth level of the Internal Realm before reaching a bottleneck, halting all hopes of breaking through to Origin Realm.

Those who have a mixture of four or five attributes within their spiritual roots are known as "chaotic spiritual roots" in the Immortal world, while spiritual roots consisting of two to three attributes, were known as "superior spiritual roots". Those born with superior spiritual roots would naturally cultivate and absorb qi many times faster than those with "chaotic spiritual roots". As for spiritual roots with only one attribute, they're known as "divine spiritual roots"; those who received them were truly born with divine blessing from the heavens.

With "divine spiritual roots", regardless of which of the five basic elements the spiritual root belonged to, their cultivation and Qi absorption rate would be faster by two to three times when compared to those with "superior spiritual roots". And upon reaching the peak of Internal Realm*, they would not encounter any bottlenecks when attempting to break through to the Origin Realm.

If "superior spiritual roots" already increased the rate of cultivation, the"divine spiritual roots" would make people angry to the point of vomiting blood caused by hateful envy. But those born with even one of the three rare spiritual roots, whether mixed or alone, could cause one to die from shock and envy. Those born with any of the light, dark and spirit elements are meant to be gods among immortals. It can either be obtained from an inheritance or awaken from one's bloodline. Not many cultivators are born with such a rare spiritual root but those who are known to have them are either dead, strong enough to defend themselves or in hiding.

One cannot blatantly boast of their talent, unless they have a powerful backer or already have the strength to brag without fear. In either situation, these talented individuals will always become a target by many due to jealousy, greed and/or competition.

Silver tested them with a small crystal ball, telling Xing Mei to place her hand on it. Looking at the crystal ball, he showed a poker face. After seeing Xing Mei's spiritual root, he passed the crystal ball to Xing Soba. The Ithyu Clan had a long history of natural wind spiritual roots holders throughout their lineage, but they had rare cases where they were either born with wind and dark spiritual roots or wind and light spiritual roots. Xing Mei was the former while her brother was the latter.

Both of them were the main cause of their clan's annihilation due to their very special spiritual roots. This was caused when one of their clan members mentioned it to another fellow member, drunk off wine at a restaurant they frequent. They were overheard by a few nobles who began scheming a "bandit raid" immediately. They only knew of this due to the "bandit leader" boasting about it when they were hiding as their parents fought back. Once they escaped, they were captured by an actual group of bandits and sold off to a slave trader for some pitiful amount of money.

Xing Mei was lucky enough to not be raped due to her brother's persistence in protecting her. Xing Soba had met the edge of death many times. Weeks later, the bandit leader lost his mood and instantly traded them off to a slave trader. Soon after, they were auctioned off at the Gold Spring Merchant Association's auction house. With a stroke of good fortune, they were bought by their kind master, Silver (Kong Xing). Since meeting him, both Xing Soba and Xing Mei finally regained the confidence in enacting vengeance on the nobles who schemed against their Ithyu Clan.

After confirming their spiritual roots, Silver the Donkey gave a slight nod and tapped his right hoof on Xing Mei's forehead, then he tapped Xing Soba's.

"Sort the information I have given you two. We will begin the fusion of your dantian and spiritual roots so you can truly take your first step into the cultivation world," grinned Silver as he remembered back when he first began his cultivation journey in this world. But the mood disappeared when the thought of her crossed his mind.

'I hope we will meet someday.'

. . .

A huge crowd of spectators kept their gaze on a single girl stepping onto the combat platform. She appeared many times throughout their test, always taking first place with elegant coldness. Many followed her gaze, looking at the calm male combatant that stood in her way to become a disciple. He was the runner up in many of the six tests right after her, finally reaching the final round.

The girl kept a cold and distant gaze, an unmatched beauty ready to blossom in the near future. As for the male, he was a handsome young man with an irresistible smile and incredible stature. They both waited for the vice-sect master to start the match, hiding his deep contemplation.

"Begin!" exclaimed the vice sect master with a faint smile. He had much optimism pertaining to these two beginners but only one can join their sect. If it was him, he would take them both within a heartbeat. However, only the sect master could make that call.

???Hmph, I'll show that you're nothing special Jing Shi," sneered the young man.

"I, Shu Bai, will make sure of it!"

After coming second place to Jing Shi so often, Shu Bai became increasingly frustrated. He was supposed to be the one at the top with his extraordinary background and talent. His eyes narrowed quickly as he brought out his sword, stepping forward into a sword lunge. The seemingly normal sword struck in towards Jing Shi with precision and swiftness. It was as if the sword followed her with every step she took, but it never reached her despite how quick the lunge was.

'Hm?' Shu Bai thought. He could already see the sword piercing through her yet the sword tip stopped half a meter from her chest. However, to the crowd, one could see Shu Bai stopping his sword in front of her chest, unable to move forward. No one could understand why he suddenly stopped his ferocious sword strike.

"IS THAT AN ICE WALL?" exclaimed one of the eliminated participants. Those who had good eyes to discern the battle were able to tell she had set up an ice wall the moment Shu Bai began his lunge. The wall was created so quickly, it took the vice-sect master a fraction of a second to notice it.

The comment shook Shu Bai as he began to see the wave of heat from the sun gliding around her. Turning his head to the center, he examined Jing Shi ice wall cautiously.

'Ice as clear as crystal?' thought Shu Bai as he backed off quickly.

"You are of the Jing Clan?"

Jing Shi stared at Shu Bai without a word and shot out six icicles in his direction.

'Fuck! That's definitely a skill from the Jing Clan. She's a member of that Jing Clan! I might as well be serious now.'

Consequently, as he was distracted by countering the icicles, his lower half became encased in ice. His mobility immediately fell and the final icicle stopped an inch away from his face. Shu Bai took a hard gulp, unable to do anything and dropped his sword to show that he forfeited. To him, to lose against the Jing Clan was nothing shameful. They weren't a clan to be trifled with in the whole Xia Kingdom.

'Definitely a family full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, even this harmless looking child is resolute with her opponents.' thought the vice-sect master.

"Jing Shi is the winner!"

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Hello readers,

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