5: A fairy seedling? Me?

After an afternoon and a night of hard work yesterday, Zhou Yan had already undergone a complete transformation.

Since the food had been ordered in advance and enough money was provided, naturally only the best was served, filling a whole table.

After finishing all of it, his health, which was originally a bit low, recovered significantly, allowing Zhou Yan to work hard for a while longer.

Finally, after a night's sleep, his status was fully restored, and he now felt completely refreshed.

【Zhou Yan】

【Rank: Body Refinement Third Layer (70/100)】

Before Zhou Yan transmigrated, the original body's Rank was Body Refinement Second Layer, and the progress had reached 70, which was not far from the Third Layer. For every 10% of health he lost, his experience points increased by 10. By restoring 30 points through a meal, he directly gained 100 experience points, allowing him to level up a whole Rank.

Seeing it was still a bit short, the obsessive-compulsive Zhou Yan said nothing and meditated three more times.

【Zhou Yan】

【Rank: Body Refinement Fourth Layer (0/100)】

【HP: 70/100】

"This looks much better now."

Zhou Yan's mood improved significantly as he looked at the panel.

From the original body's memories, he learned that the Body Refinement Realm is divided into five layers: Skin Refinement, Flesh Refinement, Tendon Refinement, Bone Refinement, and Organ Refinement.

Originally, this Body Refinement Realm didn't exist. The first step of cultivation is Qi Induction, and reaching Qi Refining First Layer after completing it.

But as Mortals developed martial arts to a certain extent, Cultivators discovered that practicing Mortal Physical Body-tempering techniques could better help juniors with Qi Induction. After completing Qi Induction, there was a higher probability of reaching Qi Refining First Layer.

This world also has the concept of Spiritual Roots, and in this border country, the Spiritual Roots that can be born are naturally as trashy as they can be.

Most people here with Spiritual Roots have Five Spiritual Roots; the only difference between them and Mortals is whether they can sense Spiritual Qi.

Only Cultivators with Four Spiritual Roots can normally complete Qi Refining through Qi Induction. The Old Ancestor of the Zhou Family is a Four Spiritual Root Cultivator, while he and Zhou Pi have Five Spiritual Roots.

Anyway, being able to sense and absorb Spiritual Qi makes the growth rate of Body Refinement cultivation far exceed that of Mortals.

If one can complete Qi Refining through Body Refinement, that's naturally best; if not, the Physical Body's strength still qualifies one as a mundane expert, so it's not entirely useless.

Now Zhou Yan's Body Refinement Realm had easily reached the Fourth Layer. According to this progress, as long as he sacrificed a bit more health, he wouldn't take long to reach the Body Refinement Fifth Layer, the limit of Mortals.

"Ding! Update complete. Task rewards have been sent to your mail."

Version 1.5 Update Announcement: 1. Detected that version 0.1 contained numerous unknown errors and fixed them.

2. The data obtained by the current game is vastly different from the preset version; better optimization has been completed based on current data.

3. Added currency exchange System.

4. Fixed minor bugs.

-Click here for details-

Zhou Yan was delighted to hear the System update was finished and quickly read through the update details.

"I see. Is this world called the Xuantian Spirit Realm?"

Through the update details, he found that most of the content mentioned two terms: current world data and Xuantian Spirit Realm.

If this game were still the same as before, it would be a normal update.

But because this world's worldview differs from the game's, it chose better optimization and completed a Fusion after weighing the two worldviews.

Therefore, the game content is now more suitable for the people of this Realm.

Sure enough, opening the top-up panel, the premium currency Immortal Fate Stones, which originally required RMB, has been changed to Spirit Stone exchange at a 1:10 ratio.

He currently has bound Spirit Stones dropped by the System which cannot be used for top-ups, but through looting corpses, he obtained unbound Spirit Stones, which he promptly deposited.

"8 Spirit Stones topped up. Obtained 80 Immortal Fate Stones."

The Spirit Stones dropped from his Younger Paternal Cousin were much more generous than the System's.

Only after topping up did Zhou Yan officially unlock the Mall, whose icon was previously grayed out.

It's just a pity; this game has no conscience. There are no rewards for topping up, only for spending. It gives no chance for 'hoarders' to get free rewards.

And now, even after updating to another version, it hasn't changed its nature as a trashy online game; it doesn't even let you see the contents of the premium shop without topping up.

However, upon opening it, Zhou Yan was even more disappointed because the shop showed "Restocking in progress: 11:59:58."

"This is a scam! Why is it 12 hours again? Why do you love those damn 12 hours so much!"

After cursing the shop for a long time, he had no choice but to accept this cursed fate.

Let's look at the other System update content.

With the Fusion with the world, the System's character panel now has more content besides the original equipment column.

Namely: Spiritual Root, Physique, and Talent.

Physique and Talent are currently empty.

The Spiritual Root column, however, was equipped with five types: Wood, Fire, Earth, Gold, and Water.

Looking at the 3D-modeled Dantian of Zhou Yan on the semi-transparent panel, five clusters of light of different colors resonated with each other, emitting a faint glow.

Clicking on one at random, the attributes appeared before Zhou Yan's eyes.

Fire Spirit Root

Quality: Poor

Cultivation Speed: -50%.

With just one glance, Zhou Yan's vision went dark. Refusing to believe it, he clicked through all of them, and sure enough, the values were all the same—cultivation speed was reduced by 50%.

These Five Spiritual Roots are just too ridiculous. Not only are there many of them making leveling slow, but each one is of low quality. No wonder they say Five Spiritual Roots are no different from Mortals and are only valued in this border country.

Isn't he finished then? With so many Spiritual Roots dragging him down, even if he maxed out his Body Refinement Realm, he wouldn't be able to return and take revenge on those two families.

After all, Cultivators and Mortals are already two different species. Even a Body Refinement Fifth Layer expert, the strongest in martial arts among Mortals, couldn't withstand a few Spell attacks.

Just as Zhou Yan was feeling despondent, he suddenly noticed two small characters under each Spiritual Root: Unequip.

"Unequip?"

"Huh?"

He clicked it, and sure enough, one of the five clusters of light that were resonating with each other instantly disappeared.

He clicked on a cluster of light at random.

【Wood Spirit Root】

【Quality: Poor】

【Cultivation Speed: -40%】

"Huh?"

Zhou Yan was stunned for a moment, but reacting immediately, he continued to click Unequip.

One, two, three... until only the last one remained. Zhou Yan's fingers trembled as he opened the interface.

【Gold Spirit Root】

【Quality: Poor】

【Cultivation Speed: +10%】

"Holy crap, this is a huge joke. An artificial Single Spiritual Root Cultivator?"

"I've become an Immortal Sprout?"

Everything happened so fast that Zhou Yan's head, already slightly lightheaded from his previous cultivation efforts, felt even dizzier.

Although this so-called Single Spiritual Root Cultivator was fake, and a real Single Spiritual Root Cultivator's boost would definitely be higher than his, it was still far stronger than Four Spiritual Roots. This time, there's no need to wait thirty thousand years east of the river, thirty thousand years west of the river.

In 30 years at most, he could give those two families a surprise.

"Wait? Now that I'm a 'Single Spiritual Root' Cultivator, doesn't that mean...?"

A plan quietly formed in Zhou Yan's mind.

(Item Quality: Poor, Common, Excellent, Superior, Epic, Legendary, Mythic.)