6: Chapter 6 At eighty years old, diligence is rewarded!

[Green light!]

[Green light again!]

[Your eyes, clouded and murky due to old age, instantly burst with an astonishing brilliance!]

[You struggle, using the last ounce of strength in your body to prop yourself up from the bed, staring fixedly at that emerald green light.]

[Twenty years!]

[It has been exactly twenty years since the last green trait!]

[In these twenty years, you have gone from a spirited old man to a dying person with one foot in the grave.]

[Every day you fought against despair, every day you raced against time.]

[Your only hope was this once-a-year card draw.]

[Now, hope has finally descended once more!]

[You watch those large green characters slowly emerge, even forgetting to breathe.]

[What will it be?]

[Is it "Longevity" that can extend my life? Or "Rejuvenation" that can restore my youth?]

[As long as it lets me live a few more years, as long as it lets me continue to Cultivate, anything will do!]

[Finally, the words fully manifest.]

[Congratulations, you have obtained a Rare-grade trait—Effort Will Be Rewarded!]

[Trait: Effort Will Be Rewarded (Green)]

[Effect: Every effort you make, no matter how small, will surely produce cumulative results and will never be in vain. "Heaven rewards the diligent" refers exactly to you.]

[Looking at the description of this trait, you are momentarily stunned.]

[Immediately after, a surge of ecstasy, a hundred times stronger than when you obtained your Spiritual Root at sixty, instantly submerses you!]

[Your shriveled chest heaves violently, letting out "he-he" laughter, like an old set of bellows being pulled.]

["Haha... Hahahaha! Heaven does not wish me dead! Heaven does not wish me dead!"]

[You laugh until tears and snot flow, looking like a madman.]

[If the "Five Elements Spirit Root" was the key that took you from 0 to 1...]

[...then "Effort Will Be Rewarded" is the perpetual motion machine that takes you from 1 to infinity!]

[Waste Spiritual Root, slow cultivation?]

[It doesn't matter! As long as you work hard, there will definitely be results! Even if the result is tiny, it won't disappear; instead, it will accumulate bit by bit!]

[This is simply a Divine-Grade trait tailor-made for a "Trash-tier" protagonist like you!]

[With trembling hands, you open the Trait Panel.]

[Currently equipped traits (3/3): Life Simulator (Prismatic), Swift Footwork (Green), Five Elements Spiritual Root (Green)]

[What you lack most right now is not speed, but the "efficiency" to allow you to continue Cultivating.]

[Without hesitation, you replace "Swift Steps" with "Effort Will Be Rewarded."]

[Trait replacement successful!]

[Currently equipped traits (3/3): Life Simulator (Prismatic), Five Elements Spiritual Root (Green), Effort Will Be Rewarded (Green)]

[The moment the trait is equipped, you feel as if your Soul has been sublimated.]

[A wonderful sense of "certainty" wells up in your heart.]

[You seem to clearly perceive that every bit of effort you are about to make will bear fruit at some point in the future.]

[You didn't waste a single second.]

[You sit cross-legged again, enduring the sharp pain and weakness coming from all over your body, and once more operate that "Qi Guiding Art" which you have practiced for twenty years without progress.]

[You calm your mind and begin to sense the Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth.]

[It is still just as difficult; those specks of Spiritual Qi are still just as cold and aloof.]

[You give your all, spending half an hour before finally pulling a strand of blue water-attribute Spiritual Qi, thinner than a hair, tremblingly from the outside world.]

[In the past, when your Mental Energy was exhausted, this strand of Qi would immediately dissipate and return to heaven and earth. Your twenty years of effort were all in vain.]

[But this time, it's different!]

[You clearly "see" that at the moment you are about to run out of strength, that weak strand of water-attribute Spiritual Qi does not dissipate.]

[It's as if it's stuck by an invisible force, stubbornly remaining on the surface of your body. Although it hasn't entered your Meridians, it... stayed!]

["It works! It really works!"]

[Ecstatic, you don't care about resting and immediately operate the technique again.]

[The second time, you pull another strand of Qi of the same thickness.]

[These two strands of Qi, as if having found companions, gather together and turn into a "hair" that is slightly thicker.]

[Third time, fourth time, fifth time...]

[Tirelessly, you repeat this dull process over and over again.]

[With every effort, you can clearly feel the accumulation of results.]

[The Spiritual Qi you've attracted grows from a strand to a wisp, and then to a small bunch. Like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, they gather more and more around your body.]

[You feel like a clumsy bird building a nest, only able to bring back one tiny twig at a time. But as long as you persist, one day, you will build a home that shields you from wind and rain.]

[Time flies by in these repetitions.]

[Eighty-one years old: You can already gather a fist-sized ball of multicolored Spiritual Qi around your body. They still cannot enter your body, but you have established a faint connection with them.]

[Eighty-two years old: You finally succeed in guiding the first wisp of Spiritual Qi into the Meridians in your body!]

[When that wisp of Spiritual Qi entered your dried and withered Meridians, you almost fainted from the pain. It felt like forcing a truck through a narrow goat path.]

[But you endured it.]

[When that wisp of Spiritual Qi completed a Minor Cycle in your body and finally dissipated, you felt that your body seemed to have a microscopic improvement.]

[This is a milestone of progress!]

[From this day on, your cultivation moved from the "External Circulation" phase to the "Internal Circulation" phase.]

[Eighty-three years old: The amount of Spiritual Qi you can guide into your body daily has increased from one wisp to three.]

[Eighty-five years old: You can already guide ten wisps of Spiritual Qi into your body simultaneously. Your withered Meridians, nourished by the Spiritual Qi, have regained a hint of vitality. Your physical condition has stopped deteriorating.]

[You haven't been to the vegetable patch for a long time. You took out all your savings and asked a familiar young Menial Worker to help bring you some Fasting Pills and fresh water every once in a while.]

[You completely locked yourself in this small woodshed, engaging in a race against the Grim Reaper.]

[Eighty-eight years old: The Spiritual Qi in your body has converged from tiny streams into a thin little river. They surge ceaselessly in your Meridians, and every breath you take brings a tide of Spiritual Qi.]

[Your appearance has also undergone an amazing change.]

[Your hair is still white, but the wrinkles on your face have smoothed out a lot, your skin has regained its luster, and your fallen teeth have grown back.]

[You have gone from a dying eighty-year-old man to a spirited old man who looks only in his sixties.]

[You have rejuvenated!]

[The young Menial Worker who brings you food looks like he's seen a ghost every time he sees you. Rumors about "Grandpa Tang" becoming a spirit through cultivation in the woodshed are spreading like wildfire in the Laborer Courtyard.]

[But no one dares to disturb you anymore.]

[Everyone feels that an old monster like you, who has lived a lifetime, must be hiding some great secret, and no one wants to court trouble.]

[On your ninetieth birthday.]

[You have cultivated for a full thirty years, of which ten were highly efficient.]

[The Spiritual Qi in your body has accumulated to a critical point.]

[You feel your Dantian is like a warehouse filled with gunpowder, needing only a tiny spark to trigger a world-shaking explosion.]

[You know you are about to have a Breakthrough.]

[You take a deep breath, mobilize all the Spiritual Qi in your body, and following the method recorded in the "Qi Guiding Art," launch a final charge towards that invisible barrier!]

["Break... for me!!!"]

[Boom—!!!]

[A powerful wave of air, centered on your body, suddenly expanded in all directions!]

[Your already dilapidated woodshed instantly shattered into pieces under the impact of this air wave! The thatch on the roof was blown away, and the wooden walls cracked inch by inch!]

[You sit cross-legged amidst the ruins, surrounded by shining spiritual light, as an aura far exceeding that of a Mortal soars into the sky!]

[On your cultivation panel, the word representing "None" has finally changed.]

[Cultivation: First Layer of Qi Refining!]

[At ninety years old, you have finally stepped into the Qi Refinement Stage!]

In reality, Tang Xun jumped up from his bed in excitement upon seeing this scene.

"Success! Finally succeeded!"

It was too difficult!

His simulated self had started planning at eighteen, enduring humiliation and barely surviving in the world.

Obtained a Spiritual Root at sixty, a cultivation method at eighty, and finally entered the Dao at ninety!

Every step in between was filled with hardships, blood, and tears.

This is true immortal cultivation!

This is much more realistic and satisfying than those novels where one starts with a Divine Artifact or meets a benefactor right out the door!

Because every bit of this achievement was earned by "himself" through seventy-two years of forbearance and effort!

[You feel the surging magic power in your body, and a sense of unprecedented power fills your limbs and bones.]

[You slowly open your eyes, a sharp light flashing through them.]

[You stand up, feeling your body has never been so light, so full of power.]

[Although you still look like an old man, your level of life has undergone a fundamental leap.]

[More importantly...]

[You open the Trait Panel.]

[A Mortal can equip 3 traits at the same time, the Qi Refinement Stage 6, Foundation Establishment 9...]

[You now have six Trait Slots!]