Chapter 1 Lin Mu

"Bang!"

A small white bottle was smashed to the ground, and the fragments flew everywhere. The pills that were originally in it were also smashed.

The pill was mottled and rough, and occasionally you could see tiny grass leaves on the surface of the pill.

Lin Mu looked at the pill that he had smashed with his own hands, and felt powerless.

This was a bottle of Gathering Spirit Pill. If a cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage took it, it would be of great benefit to his cultivation.

But this bottle of Gathering Spirit Pill was a waste pill!

A waste pill is the product of a failed alchemy, and it cannot be used for cultivation at all. If you force it to be taken, it will cause great harm to the body.

When Lin Mu just got this bottle of Gathering Spirit Pill, he found that it was another bottle of waste pill. But he resisted and didn't get angry. Because the person who gave him this bottle of waste pill was a deacon disciple.

In Qianyu Sword Gate, Lin Mu was just a choress, responsible for washing clothes, cooking, fetching water and cleaning. Deacon disciples were specifically responsible for managing the affairs of outer disciples, and the distribution of Gathering Spirit Pills was naturally included.

Every month that Lin Mu did menial work, the sect would give him two low-grade spirit stones and a bottle of Gathering Spirit Pill.

However, the Ma deacon took advantage of it and enriched himself. Although the two low-grade spirit stones were not deducted, the Gathering Spirit Pill was inferior and the waste pill was given to Lin Mu, and the intact Gathering Spirit Pill was embezzled by him.

This was the third time that Lin Mu got the waste pill, and the Ma deacon was in charge of the affairs of the outer disciples for exactly three months. In other words, after he came, Lin Mu never got a complete Gathering Spirit Pill again, and now it seems that he can't expect it in the future.

After working hard for a month, he got nothing in the end. Who wouldn't be angry?

But besides being angry, Lin Mu felt more powerless in his heart. The Ma deacon's cultivation level was already the seventh level of Qi Refining, and he had just reached the third level of Qi Refining, and he had no power to resist.

Moreover, Lin Mu himself knew that the low cultivation level was not the main reason. The reason why the Ma deacon did this was because Lin Mu had a five-element spiritual root.

Spiritual roots are extremely important for cultivators. In the world of cultivation, single spiritual roots are the best, such as single water spiritual roots and fire spiritual roots. The next best are double spiritual roots, such as water and fire spiritual roots, earth and wood spiritual roots. The next is three spiritual roots, and the worst is five elements spiritual roots. The better the spiritual roots, the more sensitive the sensitivity to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and the faster the cultivation speed.

Lin Mu's spiritual roots are the worst five elements spiritual roots. His spiritual roots are too balanced, with gold, wood, water, fire and earth, but none of them are outstanding. Compared with other disciples, his ability to sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is more than half weaker. Although he has worked very hard, he practiced the mental method taught by the sect three times for every time others practiced it. But after three years, others have reached the fifth level of Qi Refining, while he is still hovering at the third level of Qi Refining. Moreover, as time goes by, this gap will become larger and larger.

Deacon Ma saw that Lin Mu's progress in cultivation was slow, so he went against his conscience and embezzled Lin Mu's Gathering Spirit Pill. He didn't have to worry that Lin Mu would surpass him one day and seek revenge on him.

In addition, he had seized Lin Mu's Gathering Spirit Pill, which would slow down Lin Mu's cultivation speed, but his cultivation speed would increase a little. He had no worries, so he was so unscrupulous.

Lin Mu sat on the futon in the quiet room with his head down. The broken porcelain pieces and mottled pills on the ground seemed to be silently mocking him.

Lin Mu no longer had the heart to practice. He sat on the futon in the room in a daze, with sorrow flooding in his heart.

After a long time, the room became dark. Lin Mu took a jade pendant from his neck, holding the jade pendant in his hand and crying silently, tears flowing down his face.

He remembered his parents' instructions before leaving, asking him to practice well in the sect. Before leaving, his mother put the only valuable thing in the family, the heirloom jade pendant, on his neck, hoping to bless him with safety.

That was three years ago. There was a famine in Lin Mu's hometown. There were dead bodies everywhere. Lin Mu's family had no rice to cook. The family lived on tree bark. Later, the bark was eaten up by people, and life became unsustainable.

At that time, the elders of Qianyu Sword Sect happened to go there to select outer disciples, saying that they could have no worries about food and clothing if they joined Qianyu Sword Sect.

When Lin Mu's father heard about this, he felt sad when he saw Lin Mu, who was so thin that he looked like a human. He took Lin Mu to walk dozens of miles of mountain roads, rushed to the elders, knelt on the ground, and begged the elders to accept Lin Mu. He knew that immortals would be separated forever and it would be difficult for them to meet again in the future, but he couldn't watch his son starve to death in front of him.

The elders checked Lin Mu's roots and said that Lin Mu had the spiritual roots for cultivating immortals, but the spiritual roots were too poor and there was no hope for immortality.

Lin Mu's father knelt on the ground and kowtowed, nodding like garlic, and blood kept flowing from his forehead. Lin Mu also kowtowed while busying himself. Seeing their sincerity, the elders were moved with compassion and accepted Lin Mu into the mountain gate.

After Lin Mu entered Qianyu Sword Gate, he did not have to worry about food and clothing, but because of his poor spiritual roots and slow cultivation, he suffered from cold eyes, and now Deacon Ma blatantly deprived him of his hard-earned gains.

Lin Mu missed his parents very much, wondering if they survived the famine. There were several times when he wanted to go down the mountain and go home to visit his parents.

But Qianyu Sword Gate has a rule that you cannot go down the mountain before the foundation-building period.

This means that if you can't build a foundation, Lin Mu will never see his parents again in this life.

Therefore, he has been practicing hard all the time, hoping to build a foundation as soon as possible and go back as soon as possible.

But his spiritual roots were too weak, and his cultivation progress was slow. Now that his Gathering Spirit Pill was swallowed by Deacon Ma, he was afraid that building a foundation was even more hopeless.

It took him three years to reach the third level of Qi Refining. There are ten levels in the Qi Refining stage, and the further you go, the slower the speed. At his speed, it might take fifty years before he can build a foundation.

Fifty years later, his parents must have died of old age.

Lin Mu felt even more sad when he thought of his parents growing old alone, and no one was there to accompany them before they died. He cried even more and wailed.

He held the jade pendant tightly in his hands, resting his forehead on his hands, crying bitterly. The cry was suppressed, and it was difficult to sob.

After a while, the crying gradually stopped, and Lin Mu hugged the jade pendant and wiped away his tears silently.

He secretly vowed in his heart that he must build a foundation and see his parents again in his lifetime.