The Longyin Mountain Range.
The mountain peaks were steep, filled with strange rocks and jagged formations.
A thick mist permeated the air, creating a scenery that felt like a genuine immortal realm.
At the foot of the mountain, a youth dressed in white walked alone.
He did not look very old but possessed a delicate, handsome face.
His refined and elegant temperament gave off the impression of a scholar out for a spring stroll.
To put it simply, the youth was very graceful.
However, the other disciples did not care for his looks —
“Hey, hey, did you hear?”
“That little scholar named He Qiu only placed sixth in the sect entrance exam, yet the Xueyin Grand Elder made an exception and took him in as a personal disciple!”
“Exactly! I heard he has a trash spirit vein!”
“If you ask me, he’s just someone with connections!”
Walking along the forest path of the Longyin Sect’s inner sect, He Qiu suffered through a barrage of controversy.
The fellow disciples whispering on both sides of the path were all inner sect elites brimming with cultivation.
In contrast, He Qiu was merely a plain, novice cultivator.
Among this group of powerhouses, he naturally appeared incredibly out of place.
He Qiu’s strength would be considered middle-of-the-pack in the outer sect; but in the inner sect, he did not even qualify to be the bottom of the barrel.
Yet, despite all that, this simple He Qiu was the only one taken in by Elder Xueyin as a personal disciple.
This led to the dissatisfaction of the disciples from both the inner and outer sects.
‘Tsk, so noisy…’
Clicking his tongue, He Qiu quickened his pace through the crowd, ignoring the slander and mockery ringing in his ears.
He practiced his own method of mental victory: ‘It’s not that everyone is looking at a clown, but that I’m looking at a pack of clowns!’
He was a transmigrator, after all.
Although he had not yet awakened a protagonist’s “golden finger,” his mentality had to remain mature and steady.
Closing his eyes, countless images flashed through the white-clad youth’s mind.
In his previous life, He Qiu was a miserable “work dog.”
He did not study hard when he was young and ended up at a technical college.
Eventually, he was worked to death by a capitalist’s 007 work schedule.
Fortunately, he was reborn on this ancient-style continent.
He Qiu possessed a great deal of perseverance.
After his rebirth, he vowed to change his ways.
He studied bitterly by the cold window and eventually became the top scholar in the imperial examinations, becoming the hope of his entire village.
When he left the mountain village and arrived at the big city, the sights he saw were entirely different: look there, in broad daylight, one could see a group of sword cultivators flying through the sky, and street cultivators using spiritual arts for fortune-telling…
Wait, flying swords?
He Qiu was stunned.
That day, the youth who had emerged from the mountain village heard for the first time in his life that one could actually cultivate to become an immortal in this world.
‘Are you kidding me?!’
‘If I had known I could cultivate, why the hell would I have spent all that time studying?!’
For a moment, He Qiu felt that his past self, who had studied so hard in a fantasy world, was like a ridiculous clown.
After his rebirth, He Qiu had not awakened any special golden finger since he was a child.
His only noteworthy talent was his ability to memorize ancient poems very quickly and his speed at learning mathematics and logic from the old man in the village.
Therefore, he had naturally assumed his golden finger was “reading” and “learning”!
But now…
In a fantasy world where immortals could be slain, what was the use of being good at studying?
No matter how brilliant your studies were, a powerful cultivator could slap you to death with a single hand.
Without real strength, one could not obtain freedom.
Even one’s life would be controlled by the strong…
He Qiu’s modern sensibilities as a transmigrator naturally could not accept such an insecure life.
Even if he was not destined to be some overpowered protagonist, he at least had to learn some techniques for self-preservation, right?
After recognizing his destiny as a mortal, this was He Qiu’s only extravagant wish.
Fortunately, the heavens had eyes.
Just three days ago, an expert traveling down the mountain actually discovered He Qiu and his longing for cultivation.
Using his status as the Grand Elder of the inner sect, the expert introduced him to the Longyin Sect and even took him in as a personal disciple.
‘This matter is a bit fishy…’
‘Is my fate as a protagonist finally arriving?’
With such exhilarating emotions, He Qiu participated in his first martial arts competition and spirit vein test upon entering the sect.
In the competition, he relied purely on physical fitness to take sixth place.
As for his spirit vein, it was a bizarre “Empty” attribute.
The so-called Empty Spirit Vein…
To put it simply, his spiritual sea was empty, ethereal, and contained absolutely nothing.
…
Was this not the definition of a trash spirit vein!
He did not ask for a rare divine vein, but he should at least have some combat capability, right?
To be honest, He Qiu even suspected that the so-called “Empty attribute” was something Elder Xueyin had made up to comfort him.
He might just be a cultivation loser with no spirit vein at all.
‘Sigh, the road ahead is vast and murky…’
With a sigh, he stopped reminiscing.
He Qiu had finally escaped the noisy crowd and returned to his quiet little pavilion to rest.
Entering the room, he was about to pour himself a cup of tea when a natural fragrance suddenly reached his nose.
Cold, elegant…
Since he was a child, He Qiu’s sixth sense had been very sharp.
He concluded that someone was approaching him.
Thus, he closed his eyes and imagined: ‘In three seconds, a woman with a graceful figure and a faint fragrance will knock on the door.’
However —
*Creeeeeak!*
There was no knocking.
The door was pushed open quite rudely.
What met his eyes was a woman in green with peerless beauty, long silver hair, and an ethereal aura.
This beauty had long, slender legs paired with an elegant white dress and black silk stockings.
If it were an ordinary man, his gaze would likely be glued to the stockings by now, but there was no physiological reaction in He Qiu’s eyes.
Since he was a child, He Qiu had not been very interested in women.
He liked black silk; he craved the body; he admired beauty.
But no matter how excited his inner “pervert” became, He Qiu’s thinking remained abnormally calm.
When facing a beautiful woman, he almost never experienced blushing, a racing heart, or lust clouding his mind.
He was as calm as could be.
He Qiu simply categorized this condition as a “scholar’s aftereffect.”
Simply put, he was born with a cold temperament and preferred reading books over the company of women.
He could even loftily tell himself: ‘Women, don’t even think about disturbing my studies.’
While He Qiu was lost in thought, the icy beauty had already approached him.
She stared at the white-clad youth’s soft face for a long time before finally exhaling a faint fragrance.
“Is your name He Qiu?”
“It is.”
He Qiu politely sat up and nodded slightly.
“Just now, did you perceive my presence in advance? Is that why you were staring at the door, waiting for me to enter?”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
He Qiu gave a polite smile and explained obediently, “I simply smelled a charming fragrance. My intuition told me that a beautiful sister would come looking for me.”
“You certainly have a silver tongue…”
The conversation stalled.
The silver-haired woman knitted her brow slightly, focusing her gaze as she began a silent scrutiny.
The youth before her had a peaceful gaze and a refined appearance.
He did not panic when she suddenly visited.
Her first impression was that he was quite scholarly, elegant, and polite…
However, his spirit vein did not have a trace of spiritual energy.
He did not look like a cultivation disciple at all.
“If I am not mistaken, you must be the Primordial Saintess of the Longyin Sect, the head disciple of Elder Xueyin, and my Senior Sister An Lingran?”
He Qiu ventured.
“Correct. You are new to the sect, yet you are well-informed…”
Finding a chair, An Lingran sat down gently.
Her tone was somewhat playful.
Based on her initial observation of his aura, this Junior Brother He Qiu was a trash spirit vein with absolutely no potential!
Aside from being refined, handsome, and looking like a literary scholar…
He was almost just a mortal.
An Lingran respected mortal scholars, but this was the Longyin Sect, a world of spiritual cultivation.
She could not use He Qiu’s advantages as criteria for a “cultivation partner.”
‘Could it be that Father simply took a fancy to his looks and temperament?’
Thinking of this, An Lingran continued to probe, “Junior Brother He Qiu, I heard that you achieved sixth place in the sect entrance exam a few days ago.”
“Yes. This junior is untalented; my results were only average…”
The youth bowed his head slightly, feeling a bit uneasy.
The Longyin Sect’s entrance exam was held every six months, with only about twenty-odd spots available each time.
While placing sixth was not mediocre, it was certainly not considered a genius.
According to the conventions of previous years, only the top three were eligible for the inner sect.
The remaining disciples would enter the outer sect for self-study or choose to leave.
But this year, only He Qiu had entered the inner sect.
Anyone could see something was fishy about that.
Furthermore, He Qiu had not used a spirit vein during the martial competition.
His sixth-place finish was achieved purely through physical brawling.
Therefore, An Lingran was naturally curious about the secrets of her junior brother.
“Speaking of which, what attribute was your spirit vein detected as?”
“Empty.”
“Empty?”
“Yes. The spiritual sea is completely empty, a total void.”
“…”
The atmosphere froze again.
An Lingran stared seriously into He Qiu’s eyes.
Through the spiritual energy circulation in his body, she discovered that he really was not lying.
If he were lying, his aura would be very chaotic.
But… an Empty Spirit Vein?
It was almost like a joke of a spirit vein.
It was not that An Lingran looked down on people, but this “Empty” attribute was simply too… even for a cultivation failure in the mortal realm, their spirit vein should at least have some fire element symbolizing vitality.
To have nothing at all in the spiritual sea meant that, in a sense, her new junior brother was an unprecedented “genius” in the art of being a failure.
Alright, it seemed her first impression was correct; this junior brother truly was just an ordinary mortal cultivator.
No longer wasting time with probing, An Lingran chose to be blunt.
“Junior Brother He Qiu, you must know that with your current cultivation talent, you are simply not worthy of our Xueyin lineage.”