Chapter One: Ge Qian

The sapphire-green pool was bottomless, with a chill drifting across its surface, hemmed in by mountains and scattered with strange stones. This was the Jade Pool, spanning a hundred yards. At this moment, in its icy, bone-piercing waters, a youth of sixteen or seventeen, clad in a plain blue robe and unremarkable in appearance, was suspended twenty yards below the surface. With his mind clear and breath steady, he practiced the "Wave Technique," drawing scattered threads of spiritual energy from the water, which entered his body one by one.

This youth was named Ge Qian. He was not relying on any spell, but solely on his understanding and intuition of water—its buoyancy and pressure. Ge Qian suspended himself in the water with its buoyancy and steadied his form with its pressure, all the while absorbing the scant water spiritual energy. If he truly were a genius, he would effortlessly command water's forces, but in truth, he was nothing of the sort. To reach this level, Ge Qian had spent three years—since he entered the sect at fourteen, he had always cultivated in this manner, progressing from a single yard to twenty, gradually letting his body adapt to the water's pressure. Yet he could not stay submerged too long; three hours was the limit before the oxygen in his lungs was depleted.

Typically, Ge Qian surfaced for air after two hours, resting to leave himself some margin, lest he drown before mastering his technique. Two hours passed quickly. Ge Qian opened his eyes and sighed inwardly. Ninety attempts in half a year, each ending in failure—anyone, no matter how steadfast, would struggle against despair and agitation. But Ge Qian was long accustomed to it. He believed that as long as he lived, he could not give up, nor lose heart. No matter how thorny the path of immortality became, he would never frown. For he would not let his father’s blood be shed in vain.

Ge Qian adjusted his posture slightly and used "Celestial Sight" to inspect his dantian and meridians. "Celestial Sight" was a minor auxiliary spell for cultivators, used to probe one’s own spiritual power and to discern the realm of others. However, it was useless against those who surpassed you in cultivation, and to casually probe a higher realm cultivator was courting disaster.

After his inspection, Ge Qian could only shake his head in resignation. His dantian was a void, containing only wisps of white vapor—the hard-won spiritual energy he had cultivated. Yet it was pitifully thin, a result of his low cultivation. Cultivation itself was an act of defiance against heaven: absorbing and refining the world’s spiritual energy for one’s own use. Such rebellion was always punished by heaven, and the pain involved was beyond words. Achieving true fruition was anything but easy.

These threads of spiritual energy were all Ge Qian had gained in three years of cultivation. Compared to his fellow disciples, he was far inferior, for he possessed no spiritual root. His journey was a thousand times harder than theirs. Cultivation was divided into nine stages: Absorption, Foundation, Condensation, Infant Transformation, Divine Refinement, Illusion, Fusion, Unity, and Grand Completion, each stage further split into seven tiers. The first two tiers were early stage, three and four were middle stage, five and six were late stage, the seventh was called Great Perfection—breaking through it allowed entry to the next stage.

Though the path to immortality was arduous, it progressed step by step from shallow to deep. For example, the first two tiers of the Absorption stage were merely introductory. With good aptitude, one could master the first tier in two months; with poorer aptitude, three to five months sufficed—but only for those with spiritual roots.

Spiritual root was a universally recognized term in the cultivation world. Its exact meaning had never been definitively described or researched in tens of thousands of years. All that was known was that cultivators with spiritual roots advanced much faster than ordinary people without them. In theory, even ordinary mortals could cultivate, but they would never break through the first tier of Absorption, which was simply to strengthen the body. No matter how much effort they put in, their gains would never match those of others with spiritual roots. That was why cultivators were so rare.

Unfortunately, Ge Qian was one such ordinary person without a spiritual root. For someone like him, without a spiritual root, trying to embark on the path of immortality was hopeless—no sect would waste scarce resources on someone with no hope of advancement. But Ge Qian’s situation was unique. Three years ago, his father happened to save a seriously injured elder of the Celestial Star Sect, losing his own life in the process. In gratitude, the elder recommended his benefactor’s only son to join the sect, making Ge Qian a disciple of this minor cultivation sect.

In three years, Ge Qian had never slackened in his cultivation. Through spring, summer, autumn, and winter, he shed more sweat than any other, yet was left far behind by his peers. The path of immortality was elusive and depended above all on aptitude; mere effort and enthusiasm could never compensate.

Although Ge Qian’s aptitude was mediocre, his mind was bright. When choosing his technique, he was not lured by powerful fire techniques. Instead, he chose the "Wave Technique," which was moderate in power but allowed smoother advancement. Compared to other elemental techniques, the bottlenecks in progression were fewer, though its power was weakest. Ge Qian believed that power was crucial in duels, but wisdom and experience were not to be overlooked.

Having made his choice, he realized that cultivating in water yielded more spiritual energy than on land. Experiments confirmed this, strengthening his resolve. It was only reasonable—water techniques required water spiritual energy, and water contained more than land. Ultimately, Ge Qian found the Jade Pool as his cultivation ground: remote and rarely visited, its waters far cleaner than rivers and streams, and richer in spiritual energy.

After checking himself, Ge Qian found nothing unusual—it was the same as always. It was time to surface and rest. He stretched out, rising toward the surface.

Emerging from the water, Ge Qian leapt to the shore and exhaled deeply. The air outside was so fresh!

“Useless! We entered Celestial Star Sect together. I’ve already reached the third tier of Absorption, but you haven’t even gotten to the second. What a waste of resources! Those two marrow-cleansing pills you get each month are wasted on you; it’d be better if I had them. Useless will always be useless, understand? You and I are a stark contrast between genius and waste. Give up already! Why endure such torment? All that effort for nothing—why not just quit? Buy some land, enjoy wealth and honor. Those pills would be better given to me. If I had them, maybe I’d already be at the fourth tier. How about this: give me your monthly pills, and I’ll treat you well. Otherwise, you can forget about having a good life!” The speaker was a tall, fat man with small eyes and a large mouth, wearing the uniform of Celestial Star Sect. He was Wang Meng, who had entered the sect alongside Ge Qian, possessing a fire spiritual root and progressing rapidly under Elder Ma’s favor—rumor had it he might even be accepted as a direct disciple.

The Mortal Path to Immortality, Chapter One: Ge Qian, completed.