https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-154-Warning-from-a-Royal-Descendant-the-Young-Man-in-Plain-Clothes/12619138/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-156-Refining-the-Qiankun-Yqi-Bag/12619140/
Chapter 155: The Cultivation Genius Abandoned by the Times
Lu Qing's first acquisition was the essay collection of the Carefree Wanderer.
This trip to the city had been extremely fruitful for Lu Qing.
The greatest finds were undoubtedly the essay collection and the Qiankun Yiqi Bag.
According to the information gleaned through his abilities, the essays contained accounts of the Cultivation era.
Lu Qing was intrigued by this mysterious era.
Thus, he decided to start by deciphering the book.
Upon inspecting the book, Lu Qing noticed that the material was also unusual. The paper was exceptionally durable, seemingly capable of enduring the passage of time without deteriorating.
[Proceed with download and analysis?]
Lu Qing chose yes.
[Download in progress: 1%... 2%... 3%... 97%... 98%... 99%... 100%]
[Download complete. Proceed with analysis?]
Lu Qing chose to proceed.
In the next moment, familiar information surged from the depths of his mind, and he gently closed his eyes.
After some time, when he had digested the information, he opened his eyes, a hint of emotion in them.
"This Carefree Wanderer truly led a tragic life."
After absorbing the contents of the essay, Lu Qing finally learned about the life of the Carefree Wanderer.
The Carefree Wanderer was a cultivator who lived over a thousand years ago.
To be more precise, he was a pitiable soul in pursuit of the path of cultivation.
The Carefree Wanderer was originally a scholar. In his youth, he had stumbled upon a cultivation technique in a strange cave by chance.
As it happened, he possessed extraordinary aptitude, perfectly suited to that technique.
Thus, relying on the technique acquired in the cave and some resources, he managed to teach himself, break through the barriers, and enter the Refining Qi realm, becoming a true cultivator.
He even advanced further, leveraging the resources from the cave, and in just over a decade, he reached the pinnacle of the Refining Qi realm.
According to the Carefree Wanderer's own words in the essays, his progress was exceptional, even in the brilliant Cultivation era, and he would have been regarded as an undisputed genius, sought after by all the major Cultivation sects.
Unfortunately, he was born in the wrong era, a time when spiritual energy was scarce, the path of cultivation had faded, and martial arts flourished.
Thus, despite his exceptional aptitude for cultivation, there were no sects for him to join.
This led the Carefree Wanderer to lament his bad luck more than once in his essays.
What made it even more despairing was that due to the scarcity of spiritual energy, his cultivation stalled after reaching the pinnacle of the Refining Qi realm, and he couldn't make any further progress.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break through to the Foundation Establishment realm, which was supposed to follow the pinnacle of Refining Qi.
In search of a breakthrough, the Carefree Wanderer began to travel the world.
He visited famous mountains and rivers, exotic lands, hoping to find an opportunity to advance further.
Having reached the pinnacle of the Refining Qi realm, his cultivation base was equivalent to that of a peak innate warrior, and his strength was even greater due to the mysterious nature of the cultivation path.
Thus, traveling the world was not a difficult task for him.
However, after spending decades searching for the locations mentioned in the inherited records of the once-great Cultivation sects, the Carefree Wanderer found only ruins and desolation.
Occasionally, there might be remnants of walls, but they were crumbling and overgrown.
It was then that the Carefree Wanderer truly realized that the Cultivation era had indeed passed.
However, his efforts were not entirely in vain.
While visiting the remains of a sect mentioned in his inheritance, the Heavenly Dao Sect, he stumbled upon a jade tablet.
Chapter: A Tale of Woe
Inscribed on the jade wall was a secret account. It described the ebb and flow of spiritual energy, a self-regulating cycle of the Heavenly Dao, akin to the ebb and flow of one's breath.
According to the jade wall, this cycle lasted approximately sixty thousand years. For thirty thousand years, spiritual energy would wane and deplete, only to flourish and thrive for the next thirty thousand, an endless cycle.
Upon reading this, the Carefree Wanderer's heart sank. Based on his calculations, he realized he was living in the latter stages of a period of spiritual decline, and there would not be another resurgence of spiritual energy for at least a thousand years.
This knowledge filled the Carefree Wanderer with despair. Having reached the pinnacle of the Refining Qi realm, his lifespan was limited to three hundred years, and even with the aid of secret techniques, he could only extend it to five hundred.
Waiting for the revival of spiritual energy was simply impossible. Despite his exceptional talent, he would never live to see the return of the Cultivation era, never getting the chance to showcase his true potential.
In the final passages of the essay, Lu Qing discovered that despite this devastating revelation, the Carefree Wanderer did not give up. He spent his entire life struggling against the laws of the Heavenly Dao, determined to leverage his talent and hard work to reach even higher realms.
Over the next few centuries, he tried countless approaches—seeking out secret realms, absorbing residual spiritual energy, practicing martial arts, and even delving into the sinister path of the Insect Witches. Yet, all his attempts ended in failure.
Until his dying breath, he could not break through the pinnacle of the Refining Qi realm and enter the Foundation Establishment realm.
After reading about the life of the Carefree Wanderer, Lu Qing fell into a contemplative silence. This was the second time he had been so deeply moved by someone's life story, the first being Li Weitian.
However, the life of the Carefree Wanderer evoked a greater sense of tragedy. While Li Weitian's demise could be attributed to his own flaws, having squandered his early years on petty rivalries, the Carefree Wanderer's fate seemed crueler. Despite his dedication and relentless cultivation, he was born in the wrong era.
Endowed with extraordinary talent for cultivation, he was shackled by the scarcity of spiritual energy, forever trapped at the pinnacle of the Refining Qi realm until his death.
"A tragic genius abandoned by the Cultivation era," Lu Qing mused, his heart heavy with sympathy for the wanderer's plight.
Despite the lack of guidance and the scarcity of spiritual energy, the Carefree Wanderer had achieved the pinnacle of the Refining Qi realm on his own. Lu Qing couldn't help but wonder how far he would have gone if he had been born in the flourishing Cultivation era.
Alas, there were no 'what-ifs' in life. The wrong era had sealed the wanderer's fate.
After contemplating the wanderer's life, Lu Qing's thoughts turned to another matter. According to the Carefree Wanderer's essays, a thousand years had passed since the Heavenly Dao Sect predicted the revival of spiritual energy.
Nearly a millennium had passed since the wanderer's death, and by Lu Qing's calculations, the era of spiritual resurgence should be upon them. But where were the signs of this revival?
Wait!
Lu Qing's heart skipped a beat as a realization struck him.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
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