Gu Yan's father is the son of the Gu family, the largest cultivator family in Yunyang City.

Her father recorded the history of his family and some common knowledge about the cultivation world in a booklet. The most prestigious sects in the world of cultivation are naturally those that have been passed down for a long time and have a long history. They basically occupy the spiritual veins and treasures of heaven and earth, and have gathered a large number of disciples with excellent qualifications.

Beyond these sects are the scattered cultivators and immortal cultivators. The qualifications for scattered cultivation are usually not outstanding, but with the effort of the day after tomorrow, there is also a small portion that can achieve success.

And the cultivation of immortal families relies on the continuation of bloodline. The strength of a cultivation family depends entirely on the magical power of the cultivators within the family. The powerful cultivation family can even be compared to some mid-level sects. But this kind of family, which relies solely on bloodline maintenance, cannot guarantee long-term inheritance. Once the experts in the family become extinct, they will quickly decline.

If there are a few cultivators who have built the foundation in the current cultivation family, then it would be considered remarkable. Only those large families that rely on the major sects for survival will have experts in the alchemy stage within their clan.

Gu Yan's father's name is Gu Jianchen. His family is very famous within the territory of Vietnam. It's because the clan leader, Gu Jianchen's grandfather, was a cultivator in the middle of the foundation building period.

Among mortals, there is no one who possesses spiritual roots and is qualified to cultivate immortality. And most of these who have spiritual roots are trapped in the Qi refining period and cannot advance inch by inch, with a probability of less than one in a thousand to build a foundation. Once the foundation is built, it is truly entering the threshold of cultivating immortality.

Gu Jianchen was a cultivator of the Four Spirit Roots at that time, and was considered a person with good qualifications within the family. In just twenty years, he reached the fifth level of Qi Refining. However, when he was young and energetic, he had a conflict with someone from another family while searching for a spiritual herb in the East China Sea, and severely injured them. I didn't expect that person to be a disciple of a sect within the territory of Vietnam. Although the strength of that sect is very weak in the cultivation world, with only six or seven cultivators who have built the foundation, it is not something their family can shake. The other party invited a senior brother who practiced Qi seven layers, but with just one strike, he was severely injured and fell into the sea, with all meridians lost. If it weren't for Yan Ruoran, who was in the East China Sea at the time, saving him, he would have died here.

After Gu Jianchen woke up, he found that all his meridians had been destroyed. Even if he practiced again, he could not return to his previous level of cultivation. He was originally a proud member of the family, but feeling disheartened and unwilling to go back, he decided to live in seclusion here. Although Yan Ruoran is just an ordinary person, he has a gentle personality and good appearance. The two fell in love over time and became husband and wife. Within two years, they had Gu Yan.

However, Yan Ruoran had a physical altercation with someone while giving birth to Gu Yan, resulting in the movement of fetal qi and the entry of cold air into the body, which accumulated in the lungs and the internal injury could not be cured. Gu Jianchen used the medicinal formula from his tribe to treat her illness, but the formula mostly used spiritual herbs that were difficult to find in the secular world. He frequently went out to sea because the East China Sea is a holy land for cultivating immortals and producing many exotic flowers and plants.

Gu Yan carefully read through this booklet, as it conveyed her father's past between the lines. At the bottom is a thin book, only about ten pages long. The above is the 'Dongming True Technique'. Upon opening it, it was densely written in small regular script, with a graphic on each page. I'm sure this is the cultivation technique passed down from my father's family.

She suddenly developed a longing for cultivators. The villain surnamed Ren was just a low-level entry-level figure who could force their mother and daughter into a dead end. If she could cultivate herself, wouldn't she be able to protect her mother? Gu Yan's young heart slowly established a firm belief.

She didn't recognize those two stones and two yellow papers, so she didn't move them and put the box close to her. These days, she hides in the trees, drinks dew, and makes a living by picking wild fruits. It's been a month.

She was originally healthy, and her parents consciously taught her some techniques to nourish her qi when she was young. Her body is very healthy. This month, although I have gone through a lot of hardships, I still managed to endure it. During this period, she would meditate and practice every day according to the methods in the book. Although she did not have the feeling of "refining qi into the body" as described in the book, her body became increasingly light and healthy, which could be felt.

Gu Yan carefully avoided the thorns on the road. She dared not tear her clothes again because there was nothing else to change. Tightly gripping the box, he walked to the edge of the forest and looked outside.

In the distance, the sky was high and the clouds were faint, with the faint sound of waves crashing against the shore. Several seabirds flew over the sky, leaving a long trail in the blue sky. The surroundings were so quiet, as if nothing had happened. The eight year old girl tightly held onto the box and walked slowly towards the original village.

She took every step very cautiously, afraid that another enemy might appear. But after walking for several miles, I didn't see a single person. On the ground, some discarded and broken weapons can be seen, but there are no bodies. It must be that someone has cleaned up the battlefield. She walked slowly for half a day before returning to the small village where she was born in the afternoon.

The village is still in such a dilapidated state, with burn marks everywhere, and the grass houses have been burned down, leaving only black and gray on the ground. Just the body seems to have been restrained by someone, probably because it can cause a plague. Gu Yan found the original location of her house, knelt down and kowtowed three times to the empty ground. Then she found a burnt black bark and used a broken dagger she had picked up halfway to carve words on it crookedly. The above are some secret phrases that only she and her family understand. If one day her father or mother returns here, they will know that she is still alive.

Having done all of this, she staggered towards the distance. The village was too lifeless, and she wanted to find another place to settle down.

She relocated to a new home about a few miles away from here. No one helped, she had to do it herself. She built a thatched cottage using trees and bamboo that could be found by the seaside. During the day, she went to the seaside to pick up the leftover seafood after the tide receded. Some of it was left to satisfy her hunger, while others were exchanged for salt and coarse cloth in distant towns.

In order to avoid the covetousness of malicious people, she always paints her face black and pretends to be a little girl with a leg disability, saying that because of the war, the adults in her family are bedridden and can only come out alone to make a living, getting some food to support her family. Most of those people who pity her plight will help her. Occasionally, some people with malicious intentions were also avoided by her, although she suffered a lot, she still persevered.

At night, when the moon was at its zenith, she sat cross legged according to the method left in the book, with palms facing each other, one hand facing the sky and the other hand facing the ground. Appreciate the flow of vitality between heaven and earth.

Two years passed in this way, and although her body became lighter and healthier, her meridians still did not feel anything. Gu Yan couldn't help but feel a little depressed.

According to the book, anyone with high talent should achieve some success within a month by practicing according to the technique. Two years is enough time for ordinary people to break through to the second level of gas refining. Are you really a useless person without spiritual roots?

In fact, she was not aware that cultivators with a mentor or family background would cultivate at their innate spiritual veins or receive spiritual pills gifted by their mentors to replenish their vitality at the beginning of their journey. Like her, who doesn't understand at all and doesn't have high qualifications, relying solely on an introductory manual and making no progress within two years is just an ordinary thing.

Two years later, she was already twelve years old. Her face was gradually growing and her figure was getting taller. As she practiced every night, her body was stronger than that of children of the same age. Now she looked like a fourteen or fifteen year old girl. For these three years, she would go to the beach every morning to look around, and every two weeks, she would go back to the old site to check, but there was never any news from her parents.

That night, she sat quietly there, with a bright moon hanging in the center. It was the hour of Zi, when the Yin energy had already dissipated and the Yang energy had just begun to emerge. She slowly exhaled and entered a state of semi sleep, her thoughts seemingly completely stopped, only a glimmer of clarity. But the sensitivity to external objects has become increasingly acute. Even the birds flying in the distance could feel their movements.

These days she feels more calm while meditating, as if there are signs of a breakthrough. Following the method of exhalation described in the book, she quietly took in external air and then exhaled the turbid air from her body. After such a continuous cycle of about hundreds of weeks, she suddenly felt her body slowly becoming lighter, like a feather floating between heaven and earth. Her top door seemed to have opened, and a trace of spiritual energy slowly surged in from the outside, rooting in her meridians and cleansing them, forming a small cycle in the dantian.

Gu Yan knew that she had reached the most basic stage of "refining qi into the body" as described in the book.

She suppressed her ecstatic mood and felt the spiritual energy from the outside, the process of running inside her body. She seemed to no longer need to breathe, but instead formed a small cycle within her body. She greedily sucked in the spiritual energy from the outside until four hours had passed and the sky had turned slightly white before she woke up from meditation.

After moving my whole body a little, I felt that my limbs and veins were incredibly full, as if I had undergone a complete transformation. When she was together, she felt sticky on her body. At first glance, she noticed that her body was soaked with a lot of sweat and dirt, which were all phenomena that should occur after the Qi was refined into her body.

Gu Yan couldn't help but jump up. Although she had lived independently and strongly for the past three years, she was still a child no matter what. From today on, she can be considered a cultivator. Although her skills are very shallow, with only one level of Qi refining, she can hardly compare to anyone in the immortal world, but after all, this is achieved through her solid cultivation step by step.

She took out the fresh water she had stored, took a hearty shower, and then changed into a new piece of clothing. I feel refreshed from head to toe. Standing outside, gazing at the seaside from afar.

Four years have passed without any news from my parents. She remembered what her mother had said back then, that if she couldn't find her father, she would go to Yunyang City to find the relatives of her father's clan. She silently recited in her heart: It's time.

After three months, a thin and delicate young man with a clear face, carrying a package on his back and a short sword at his waist, knocked three heads heavily in the ruins of that deserted village, and then embarked on a journey far away.