In the ancient primordial era, only the Spirit Immortal Realm and the True Immortal Realm could cultivate immortal arts. The beings of the Mortal Realm only had a short lifespan of a few decades before they had to enter the path of reincarnation. The prosperity and wealth of this life were not for them. As for whether they would be reborn as a human or an animal in the next life, they could only leave it to fate.
But no matter which realm or which race, since ancient times, longevity and power have been the dreams of all living beings. So, from ancient times, there have been powerful humans, demonic beasts, and other strong individuals among the various races of the Mortal Realm. These powerful beings naturally hoped to live forever, so that they could enjoy the various pleasures of this world for a longer time. So, generation after generation, these powerful beings continued to explore and painstakingly seek this slim hope, pursuing the immortal path of longevity.
Through their continuous efforts and exploration, they slowly began to discover some of the laws of heaven and earth, and then they began to try to use these laws to strengthen their own abilities.
At that time, due to the difficulty of procreation in the Spirit Immortal Realm, many ancient primordial lineage families, sects, and other races began to decline, and some even became extinct. Although they themselves were incomparably powerful, they were powerless to change this shackle of heaven and earth. So, they began to look for a new path for their inheritance. They could not easily ascend to the True Immortal Realm, so they turned their attention to the lower realm—the Mortal Realm.
These cultivators from the Spirit Immortal Realm used their great divine powers to shatter the dimensional passage between the two realms and came to the Mortal Realm. But they found that the spiritual qi of heaven and earth in the Mortal Realm was not just a little bit different from that in the Spirit Immortal Realm. To them, it was extremely thin. They had come with high hopes but were returning in disappointment. In their disappointment, they could only give it a try. They planned to simply investigate the specific situation of this realm and then shatter the void to return to the Spirit Immortal Realm to find another way to solve the problem of their inheritance.
But to their surprise, during their investigation, they found that many powerful beings had also been born in the Mortal Realm. Through observation, they found that these powerful humans and demonic beasts all possessed the basic constitution for immortal cultivation—an Immortal Spirit Root or the innate talent of a demonic beast's bloodline. They could already preliminarily use the laws of heaven and earth to give themselves abilities that surpassed ordinary beings of their kind. And besides humans and demonic beasts, other powerful beings of some other races also possessed corresponding constitutions for immortal cultivation.
For humans, immortal cultivation requires an Immortal Spirit Root, also called a Spirit Root. People with this constitution are extremely sensitive to the laws of heaven and earth and the fluctuations of spiritual qi in the world. With a spirit root, one can embark on the path of immortality, to pursue the great dao of heaven and earth and eternal life.
Spirit roots, like cultivation realms, are also divided into levels. From low to high, they are: Miscellaneous Spirit Root, Profound Spirit Root, Earth Spirit Root, Heaven Spirit Root, and Saint Spirit Root. This classification is based on the body's sensitivity to the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. The spiritual qi of heaven and earth is composed of the five basic elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Other elements such as wind, mist, lightning, and electricity are generated from the transformations of these five elements.
If a person is particularly sensitive to only one of the five elements, they are called a Saint Spirit Root. Because these people are only sensitive to one element in the world, their perception is singular, and their constitution is pure. Their cultivation speed is incredibly fast. It is very likely for them to cultivate to the Tribulation Transcendence realm, and the probability of reaching the Great Ascension stage is also not small. As for whether they can ascend to the True Immortal Realm, even the great cultivators of the Spirit Immortal Realm dare not say who can cultivate to that level. It's just that their probability of ascension is higher than that of the other constitutions. However, people with such a constitution only appear once every thousand years, and they are extremely rare. Similarly, if a person is sensitive to only two of the five elements, they are called a Heaven Spirit Root. Because these people are sensitive to one more type of spiritual qi, the qi in their bodies begins to become a bit mixed. Their cultivation speed is much slower than that of a Saint Spirit Root, but this is also an extremely rare constitution. For a cultivation sect to have one or two such people is considered a great fortune for the sect. It is highly probable for such a person to cultivate to the Body Integration stage, and there is also a certain probability of reaching the Tribulation Transcendence and Great Ascension stages. And so on, the worst is to be sensitive to all five elements of heaven and earth. In the cultivation world, this is called a Miscellaneous Spirit Root. It is very difficult for people with this constitution to cultivate. Their perception is too mixed. It is considered a heaven-defying piece of luck for them to even cultivate to the Foundation Establishment stage. They basically spend their entire lives in the Qi Condensation stage, let alone talk about the great dao of longevity.
The biggest difference between these various constitutions is the speed of cultivation. This is the biggest difference between cultivators. Although one's lifespan increases with each increase in realm, the final result of different constitutions can be vastly different. For example, for a Miscellaneous Spirit Root and a Saint Spirit Root, a Saint Spirit Root may only need four or five years to go from the Qi Condensation stage to the Foundation Establishment stage, while a Miscellaneous Spirit Root needs dozens of years. It is possible that before their lifespan increases, the person with the Miscellaneous Spirit Root has already become a pile of bones. But the Saint Spirit Root can use the extra time to advance rapidly, and the probability of them finally ascending to immortality is naturally much greater.
As for people with wind, mist, lightning, or electricity constitutions, they do not belong to these categories. They are called Variant Spirit Roots and are mutated from the five elements. People with this type of constitution are also extremely rare. Their cultivation speed is almost comparable to that of a Saint Spirit Root, but their combat abilities are often much stronger than those of five-element spirit root cultivators of the same level.
Except for the Saint Spirit Root and the single-element Variant Spirit Root, the other constitutions are all multi-attribute. There must be a difference in strength between the two or more attributes in the body. As for which attribute is strong and which is weak, that is innate. However, generally, cultivators with a Heaven Spirit Root or lower will choose to cultivate the strongest attribute in their body. On the one hand, this will greatly increase their cultivation speed, and on the other hand, the power of their immortal arts will also be maintained at its maximum. If they do not cultivate their strongest attribute, then their cultivation speed will be greatly delayed, and the power of their attacks will also be greatly discounted.
The cultivation world is a bloody place where the strong prey on the weak, something mortals cannot imagine. Although cultivators mainly pursue longevity, if they do not have strong abilities to protect themselves, the path of longevity will only be a short trip. Therefore, cultivators often strive to improve their cultivation realm on the one hand, and on the other hand, they also painstakingly pursue powerful divine abilities.
In the Mortal Realm, the proportion of people with spirit roots is far less than in the Spirit Immortal Realm. In the Spirit Immortal Realm, one in ten people may have a spirit root. But in the Mortal Realm, one can basically only find one person with a spirit root in a hundred thousand people. It is extremely rare. But the population of the various races in the Mortal Realm is huge, often in the billions, and the land area is also incalculably large. So, overall, the number of beings with a cultivation constitution is far greater than in the Spirit Immortal Realm.
These cultivators from the Spirit Immortal Realm also discovered that although the spiritual qi of heaven and earth in the Mortal Realm was thin, it was not the case everywhere. In many places, there were actually good spirit veins. The spiritual qi here was relatively sufficient, basically enough to support a sect or family to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage. If someone could cultivate to this realm, they would also have the ability to move mountains with a flip of their hand, create rain with a turn of their palm, and fly through the sky and burrow into the earth. They would already be a semi-immortal body. If their cultivation advanced further to the late Nascent Soul stage, this person would have the spatial divine ability to cross the two realms. Their magical power would already be able to resist the turbulent storms in space, and then they could ascend to the Spirit Immortal Realm to find their own family or sect to cultivate higher-level immortal arts. This way, the lineage of the Spirit Immortal Realm could be passed down from generation to generation, endlessly.
Thus, this solved the inheritance problem for these cultivators from the Spirit Immortal Realm. They began to search for places with dense spiritual qi in the Mortal Realm and successively established their own lineage sects. Then they found people with spirit roots to be their disciples and taught them immortal arts. Later, they used their great magical power and heaven-shaking divine abilities to open up several dimensional passages in the Mortal Realm that connected to the Spirit Immortal Realm. When these disciples in the Mortal Realm had cultivated to the late Nascent Soul stage, they could pass through these cross-realm passages, shatter the void, and ascend to the Spirit Immortal Realm.
Thus, from that time on, many cultivation families and sects were established one after another in the Mortal Realm. Even other races from the Spirit Immortal Realm also came to the Mortal Realm one after another and began to establish their own lineages using the same methods. To this day, after hundreds of millions of years of inheritance and reproduction, these families, sects, and races are now spread all over the various regions of the Mortal Realm. It's just that these families, sects, and races are not something ordinary mortals can see. The places they generally choose to establish their sects are mostly spirit vein lands. The spiritual qi there is abundant, and where the spiritual qi is abundant, demonic beasts are bound to roam freely and ghosts run rampant. Ordinary humans and other living races would find it difficult to survive there. If an ordinary living being were to appear there by chance, they would basically be directly killed by the powerful demonic beasts and ghosts here. Even if they were lucky enough to survive, it would still be very difficult for them to find an immortal sect. Usually, immortal sects are surrounded by great illusion formations that mortals cannot see through. Ordinary humans and other living races who enter them will lose their sense of direction and will not be able to walk out even if they walk for a lifetime. The result would be to starve to death inside. If they are lucky and meet a righteous cultivator, they will cast a spell to let them out. If they meet some evil cultivators, the consequence will surely be a gruesome death on the spot, or even a fate worse than death.
There is another situation, which is when the place where mortals live happens to be a spirit vein land. Then it depends on the character of the cultivator who fancies this place. Some cultivators will just cast a spell to make the people living there feel that the place is strange and haunted, making them feel afraid and unable to live normally, so that they eventually move away on their own. Then the cultivator will establish their own sect or family. Some cultivators will directly slaughter all the living beings in the area and then occupy it for their own use.
After explaining all this, the gray-robed old man's face became even more haggard, and his body strangely began to become faint and blurry. Li Yan also noticed that something was wrong with the old man, but at this time, he was so shocked by what the old man had just said that he had no time to think about these things. He just kept telling himself in his heart, "It's fake, it's fake, it's all fake." These things were not just extremely fantastical to him; even if an experienced old man were standing here at this time, hearing these words, he would only think it was just a long dream.
Apart from reading about some of these things in a few bizarre unofficial histories, Li Yan could only occasionally dream of them. Not to mention things like realms, the void, and spirit roots. What he had encountered today truly made him feel dazed, but at this moment, he felt it so realistically, so truly existing.
The gray-robed old man saw Li Yan's expression and was not surprised. He smiled at him and said, "I know you can't believe it, but these things are indeed true. In a little while, when your consciousness leaves here and you feel the condition of your own body, you will know that these are not empty words or hallucinations. Alright, I can only briefly explain the matters above. This way, you should be able to understand what I'm about to say next. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to chatter on for so long."
Hearing this, Li Yan was already half-convinced and half-skeptical. But he figured that what the old man was about to say next was the real matter. Since that was the case, he no longer asked questions and just floated in mid-air, watching the old man and listening quietly.
The gray-robed old man saw his expression and knew that Li Yan was beginning to believe these strange things, and that his own time was running out. He nodded at him and continued to speak.
"I come from an ancient sect in the Spirit Immortal Realm, the Gui Water Immortal Sect. But unlike other sects, among the most ancient immortal sects in the Spirit Immortal Realm, there are five great immortal sects that are the most mysterious. They are the Gui Water Immortal Sect, the Yi Wood Immortal Sect, the Ding Fire Immortal Sect, the Ji Earth Immortal Sect, and the Xin Metal Immortal Sect..." the old man began to explain to the young man.
In the Spirit Immortal Realm, since ancient times, there have been thousands of cultivation sects, all established by powerful beings such as humans, demons, beasts, ghosts, and spirit plants. They were large and small, countless in number. But among them, there were five great immortal sects that were extremely powerful and mysterious. Very few people from these five immortal sects walked among the world. It was only every few hundred years, or even every thousand years, that someone would occasionally appear in the eyes of the world. But every time someone appeared, they would stir up the cultivation world of that time, causing a great deal of anxiety. Everyone was afraid of accidentally provoking this person. If they really did accidentally provoke them, they could often, with their own power, slaughter an entire sect of immortals who had provoked them. Even if that sect had terrifyingly powerful cultivators at the Tribulation Transcendence or Great Ascension realms, very few could escape with their lives. But fortunately, they rarely appeared before the world, and as long as one did not deliberately provoke them, they would basically not form any enmity with any sect. But once an enmity was formed, their methods were extremely ruthless.
It was precisely because of this that many sects both respected and feared them. The immortal arts they used were also exceptionally terrifying. Why would there be such powerful immortal arts in the world? People with such powerful immortal arts would often only appear once in tens of thousands of years in a vast region. But every time someone from these five mysterious ancient sects appeared, they possessed unbelievably powerful divine abilities. Such immortal arts that could make an entire sect's people so powerful were rare even in the Spirit Immortal Realm. So, many people tried all sorts of ways to join these five ancient and mysterious immortal sects. But they couldn't even find the location of these five great ancient sects, let alone talk about joining them. And so, as time passed, there were still many people searching, painstakingly seeking that slim chance to make themselves stronger.