In this world of cultivation, cultivators are revered, and for mortals to become cultivators, they must possess spiritual roots.
Whether one possesses spiritual roots is determined at birth. Those who have them are exceedingly rare, like phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
Spiritual roots are categorized into the five elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. A cultivator's aptitude for cultivation is closely tied to their spiritual roots.
Generally, the fewer spiritual roots one has, the better their aptitude.
Most cultivators have inferior aptitudes like Five-Element or Four-Element roots. Those with Three-Element roots are few, let alone Dual-Element roots and the single, pure spiritual root known as Heavenly Spiritual Root.
In addition to the common Five-Element spiritual roots, there are also very rare Variant Spiritual Roots.
Examples include Thunder, Wind, Ice, and Dark, which are formed from mutations of several Five-Element spiritual roots.
Variant Spiritual Roots are also favored by heaven. While their cultivation speed may not match Heavenly Spiritual Roots, they still surpass Dual-Element roots.
Crucially, the power of Variant Spiritual Roots is far greater than ordinary Five-Element spiritual roots. With suitable cultivation techniques and treasures, a cultivator with a Variant Spiritual Root can easily contend with multiple cultivators of the same level.
Therefore, in a sense, the preciousness of Variant Spiritual Roots is not much less than that of Heavenly Spiritual Roots.
Naturally, cultivators with Variant Spiritual Roots are extremely rare; typically, one might not even find a single such cultivator among a thousand.
Ning Fa, however, possessed the rare Thunder-attribute Variant Spiritual Root.
Consider that the Ning Family had been establishing itself as a cultivator family for over six hundred years, and prior to this, they had never had a disciple with a Variant Spiritual Root. Only a handful, barely a dozen, possessed High-Grade Spiritual Roots.
Thus, upon learning that Ning Fa possessed a Thunder Spiritual Root, the entire family was ecstatic.
Naturally, they viewed Ning Fa as the family's hope, pouring vast cultivation resources into his training.
However, despite the family's significant investment, Ning Fa's cultivation speed remained incredibly slow.
Over the years, he had barely managed to reach the third level of Qi Condensation, failing to even break through to the middle stage of Qi Condensation.
This cultivation speed was even slower than that of Pseudo Spiritual Roots, falling far short of the rumored cultivation aptitude of Variant Spiritual Roots.
Puzzled, the Ning Family's higher-ups invited a renowned expert to examine Ning Fa. The conclusion they reached was profoundly disappointing.
It turned out that while Ning Fa did possess a Thunder Spiritual Root, it was not complete but a damaged one, which explained his agonizingly slow cultivation speed.
While rare, this situation was not unprecedented, with clear records found in some ancient texts.
The expert advised the Ning Family not to waste any more effort on Ning Fa, stating that a damaged Thunder Spiritual Root's aptitude was not much better than a Five-Element root, and there was no hope of him reaching Foundation Establishment.
Initially, the Ning Family's higher-ups harbored lingering hopes, but after trying numerous other methods, they finally gave up in resignation.
The family naturally ceased providing Ning Fa with resources, leaving him to fend for himself.
Ning Fa's status within the family plummeted, and he became a laughingstock among many clan members, especially considering how glorious he had once been.
This drastic fall from grace was difficult for Ning Fa's previous self to accept.
Since he was incapable of cultivation, he sought to regain his standing in the family by becoming an alchemist.
After all, among the myriad arts of cultivation, alchemy was held in the highest regard, and alchemists enjoyed a very esteemed position in the cultivation world.
However, after spending several years and a considerable amount of spirit stones, Ning Fa's previous self's alchemy skills had only barely reached the introductory level.
He was still quite far from the requirements to become a formal alchemist, and this was even with some innate talent for alchemy.
Ning Fa's previous self was naturally unwilling to accept this and wished to continue pursuing alchemy, but their family could no longer provide him with resources.
His parents had tragically perished in the war between the Ning Family and the Qian Family, another Foundation Establishment family. Although the family provided a substantial amount of compensation in spirit stones, it was merely a drop in the bucket when used for alchemy.
The expenses required to support an alchemist were simply too high for ordinary cultivators to afford.
Seeking further financial support from the family was out of the question.
After all, while Ning Fa possessed some talent for alchemy, it wasn't exceptionally outstanding. The family would naturally prioritize channeling resources towards disciples with superior alchemical talent.
Furthermore, due to Ning Fa's damaged Thunder Spiritual Root, he had wasted a considerable amount of the family's resources, resources that could have been enough to elevate a clan member with average spiritual root aptitude to the Foundation Establishment realm.
This resulted in some of the Ning Family elders developing a very unfavorable impression of him, viewing him as a jinx.
Unwilling to give up, Ning Fa eventually borrowed spirit stones from the current Fifth Elder of the family, Ning Huarong, a total of five hundred spirit stones.
They made a wager: if Ning Fa could become a formal family alchemist within a year, the spirit stones would not need to be repaid.
Otherwise, Ning Fa would have to serve Ning Huarong for three months, becoming her dual cultivation cauldron.
Ning Huarong was a renowned elder within the Ning Family.
She possessed exceptional talent, being a rare Dual-Element root. She had already advanced to the late stage of Qi Condensation before the age of twenty.
Crucially, this woman possessed extremely high combat talent, with few opponents of the same level able to match her.
Previously, when the Ning Family engaged in a fierce war with the Qian Family, another Foundation Establishment family in the vicinity, the Ning Family emerged victorious, seizing a significant amount of Qian Family territory.
During these years of brutal family warfare, Ning Huarong shone brightly.
She had personally killed dozens of Qian Family cultivators, including seven late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators of the same level. Her methods were ruthless, earning her the fearful moniker "Demoness" from the Qian Family members.
Later, Ning Huarong even ventured deep into enemy territory alone, drawing the personal pursuit of a Qian Family Foundation Establishment ancestor, yet she managed to escape back to the family unscathed.
One could only imagine her immense strength, almost second only to Foundation Establishment cultivators.
As a result, Ning Huarong held a very high position within the family, advancing rapidly at such a young age to become the Fifth Elder.
It's worth noting that the first four elders of the Ning Family were all Foundation Establishment cultivators, indicating her status as the foremost figure below the Foundation Establishment realm within the family.
After all, the cultivation world respects strength above all else, not seniority, and the same goes for cultivator families.
However, Ning Huarong's personality was extremely capricious and eccentric. She acted with utter disregard for consequences, and even her own clansmen could find themselves severely punished by her for reasons they might not even understand.
This had happened several times already, making ordinary Ning Family disciples fall silent as if struck by fear whenever her name was mentioned.
Therefore, even though she was as beautiful as the moon and a rare beauty, many of the younger generation in the family avoided her like the plague.
They had even started to emulate the Qian Family, secretly calling her the Demoness.