No one was paying attention to Li An, and it was understandable considering she was just another unknown outer sect disciple.

Li An wasn't angry at being ignored, or frustrated about returning to a low position in this next life.

She did what she had always done from the moment she decided to carve her own path—to walk forward.

She was deeply aware of the few stares thrown at her mixed with sneering and contempt. No one had any hope for her to get a good talent. Perhaps it was more accurate to say, no one even cared about the grade of talent she would get.

Li An stretched her thin arm and lightly touched the Talent Mirror.

It was warm. A soft sensation enveloped her hand before heading towards her meridians and applying pressure to it. Li An didn't close her eyes or even blink.

After a few seconds, a gentle white light came out of the mirror, only slightly stronger than the one from the first boy.

"Li An, Grade 4 talent."

The lower elder frowned for a breath of time before ignoring the girl in front of him. A Grade 4 talent would only become the canon fodder of the sect in the future, so there was no need to pay her much attention.

Those scornful, cold expressions and gazes from the youngsters were like sharp knives, trying to pierce into her very own heart.

But...

Even then, she stood there, not angered, not frustrated, but amused.

Amused at the futility of their efforts to diminish her, at their failure to understand that their contempt evaporates with the rise of her ambition.

She didn't have talent? So what?

Li An was not there because she was born with extraordinary talents or because strength ran through her veins from the start. She wasn't given a sharp mind at birth either.

Her greatest gift was the wisdom she had accumulated throughout the more than one thousand years of her life. She was Li An, not because of what the world gave her, but because of what she took for herself from the world.

Therefore, her heart was calm and firm like stone as she returned to her spot among the youngsters.

You Mei was also taking short glances at her, but it was to check if she was okay after receiving such bad results.

However, she could only feel a sense of tranquility radiating from Li An. "Well, she has always been unresponsive to everything since she was a baby. Why am I even surprised? It could be because today she spoke a lot, but I was kinda hoping she was starting to change..."

You Mei lowered her head, staring at the ground absent-mindedly.

"Sigh..." The lower elder let out a deep breath and shouted. "Next, Ning Jing!"

The girl began walking, and it looked like the sea of disciples was parting in her wake. She had long brown hair and hazelnut eyes that seemed to hypnotize anyone who stared at them for too long.

"Uhm? She seems bored, which is weird in this kind of situation. Could it be that this Ning Jing already knows her result?" Li An felt like it was very unlikely. She had studied the names of the sect elders, and none of them had the surname Ning.

Her eyes shone with an ominous light. "Which means she is being sponsored by one of the highest elders, or even the sect leader, who could have access to the Talent Mirror before the Assessment day."

This information was useless right now, but it could become important in the future for blackmailing or information trading.

Just as Li An expected, Ning Jing was not surprised when the Talent Mirror began radiating a beautiful golden light. Though the same could not be said for the elders on the podium.

"Are the heavens playing with me? Another Grade 2 talent?" Elder Xu screamed in astonishment.

"Two Grade 2 talents in one year?!"

"The Gentle Sword Sect is on a glorious path with such good disciples. And Ning Jing is not even a descendant of an elder!"

The sect elders were really losing their composure, but they couldn't be blamed. A Grade 2 talent was someone who was guaranteed to reach the elusive realm of Essence Condensation as long as they had enough time and, with luck, could breakthrough to a Nascent Soul expert.

It was hard to believe they had just gained two more people who had a chance of reaching the level of the sect leader. Even though the three personal disciples also had Grade 2 talent, they were all gathered within the last twenty years.

Now, in one year, they had almost doubled the number.

"Sect leader, elders, please pass this kid to me so that I can raise her to be a pillar of the sect!" Elder Wen swept his fiery red gaze over the group of elders, making his intent clear for everyone.

Li An smiled a little. "So it is starting."

"Why don't we let the lass choose for herself? With her talent, she will succeed wherever she goes."

The elder who spoke was a man in his thirties with an athletic body and a face riddled with scars. From the descriptions in the books, Li An believed his name to be Elder Lu, also known as the Battle Elder. He was responsible for protecting the sect from beasts and other cultivators, and he also managed the battle arenas in the village.

Maybe it was intuition, but Li An had a bad feeling about this elder. She carved his face into her mind.

The sect leader did not actually dislike the idea of letting the disciple choose her teacher, so he promptly agreed with the proposal.

"Outer sect disciple Ning Jing, the elders want to take you as a student in order to let your talent bloom? Who would you like to have as your teacher?"

"I respect all the elders in the sect, but I have always admired Elder Jiang the most." She replied without a shred of hesitation, peeking at one of the female elders close to the Grand Elder.

Li An frowned. "I thought she would go for Elder Lu. Could it be that I was wrong?"

Li An smelled something fishy, but the truth was that she was severely lacking in knowledge and strength to do anything about it. "It will have to wait until I increase my cultivation realm."

· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·

Seven moons rose and fell as the frost sealed the emerald whispers of the bamboo fields.

Li An was sitting on the cold floor of her home in a meditation pose, moving her spiritual energy in a strange manner.

The spiritual energy was flowing through her meridians and gathering above her right hand in the shape of a highly condensed spiritual sphere. Li An had beads of sweat on her forehead and was trembling more as the sphere rotated faster and faster.

Boom!

The energy sphere detonated suddenly and Li An was sent flying against the stone wall, breaking some bones in the process. Before she could circulate her spiritual energy to heal her injuries, she vomited a mouthful of blood on the carpet next to her.

"Damn it. This spiritual energy is too hard to control." Li An's face gained a bit of color when the spiritual energy passed through her upper torso. She was still injured, but at least now she could move.

Li An stood up with the help of her bed frame and walked towards the open notebook on the small desk in the corner.

"Experiment number 57th in spiritual energy compression: Failure.

Although rotational energy helps keep the sphere intact, it becomes too unstable as the rotational speed increases. It was also confirmed that spiritual energy can affect the magnetic fields of this planet or realm, rendering it useless.

There are also concerns about the speed and explosive power of the 'spiritual bullet'. I predict that it can let me win against enemies in the Foundation Realm first stage like me, but its expenditure versus effectiveness is not good for anyone above that."

Li An sank into her chair, the tension draining visibly as she leaned back. Ever since the outer sect assessment, she has been studying the scientific properties of cultivators' spiritual energy.

Li An was no scientist in her previous life, but she had obviously gathered some basic knowledge of the advanced civilizations she conquered, so it wasn't hard to do some simple experiments.

The cruel truth was that Li An would never achieve anything if she followed the ordinary path of cultivation. Her talent was too low, and even her strength would be affected by her impure and lacking spiritual energy compared to others.

"Luckily, this is a world of cultivation and not advanced technology." Li An stared at the ceiling in a daze. "Cultivators have a crippling weakness that can be used to my advantage."

Yes, cultivators' greatest weakness was their strength.

Li An thought about her previous life as a Galactic Conqueror. The humans she knew were weak. They rose from the dust of their limitations through the sheer force of their intellect, crafting giant empires not only with stone and sword but with strategy and cunning.

Colossal warships with the power to split solar systems, nanosuits that carried the energy of a supernovae, gene boosters that eliminated the need for food and sleep... they were all created with nothing other than the power of the human mind.

Yet, cultivators, blinded by their overwhelming might, still live in dwellings from the Middle Ages, still require food and sleep to survive and do not even have a basic hygiene system installed in their cities or villages.

"They venerate the strong and underestimate the power of wisdom—the very power that allowed humanity to dominate a universe devoid of spiritual energy. Truly foolish." Li An sneered in her heart.

"But it is their foolishness that lights up my path forward, so I am not complaining."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The next two weeks, Li An had not tried to improve her cultivation stage a single time, being too immersed in the experiments with the spiritual bullet.

However, You Mei had come to visit her once in the second week to tell her she had advanced to the second stage of the Foundation Realm. Surprisingly, the girl's talent was Grade 3, which was not bad in the Gentle Sword Sect.

As for You Rou and Ning Jing, they were already in the third stage of the Foundation Realm. The first large realm of cultivation was extremely easy for those who had talent above Grade 3.

Li An did not let their successes affect her determination. She continued to study the peculiarities of spiritual energy by applying different temperatures to it and studying its thermal properties, or by practicing her control over this mysterious source.

At this precise moment, she was lying against a rotten willow in the clearing of the northern forest inside the valley. Her breaths were heavy and her black robes were stained red by the blood from her internal injuries.

"A failure again, uh?" Her voice was low and strained.

Time and time again, she tasted the bitter draught of defeat. But with failures also came knowledge.

Recently, she had to move the location of her experiments to this forest clearing because the might of the spiritual bullet was already enough to destroy her house.

Despite the injuries becoming much more serious after every failure, Li An could sense she was getting closer to having her masterpiece completed. However, there was something missing.

"Spiritual energy is highly resistant to outside sources of energy like magnetic fields and heat or cold. I tried to increase the stability of the spiritual bullet with snow and frost, but it slows down the process of shooting it by a lot and decreases the strength and speed of the sphere. What am I doing wrong?" Li An glared at her notebook with a scrunched up brow.

Highly resistant to outside sources... thermal energy... explosion...

Li An's eyes slowly opened wide and her lips formed into a psychotic smile. "It could work. No, it has to work. But am I really doing this? If I fail, I could die."

Despite her thoughts, deep down, Li An knew she was going to try it out regardless of the risks. Those who are afraid of risks will never escape the chains of the mundane.

Li An controlled her spiritual energy to flow through her body and heal her faster. It took around four hours for her body to be in perfect condition again, but she had to wait for her spiritual energy to recover after using so much of it.

Li An was like a statue, with her legs crossed and her eyes closed.

The setting sun cast a cloak of fire across the horizon, painting the jagged peaks of the cliffs in hues of amber and crimson.

A cool breeze passed by, carrying with it the faint scent of blooming night jasmine and the distant echo of a bamboo flute.

The girl suddenly opened her eyes and stood up, beholding the sky in all its glory. It reminded her of an old legend from her hometown.

...

In the ancient lands of Tianji, there loomed an imposing mountain known to all as Mediocrity. This mountain, unlike any other in the world, stretched its peak into the heavens, its summit hidden amidst a veil of golden clouds. It was prophesied that whoever could reach the very top would be granted power beyond the wildest dreams of mortals.

At the foot of this daunting mountain stood a determined young man, Lin Fei, whose spirit burned with the fire of ambition. He was fated to remain a mortal for the rest of his life, but he was not resigned to this fate.

As he prepared to ascend, a carefree young man with pristine white wings floated lazily nearby.

"Oh, what a pitiful sight! A mere mortal thinking he can conquer what could be flown over in a heartbeat. You think your feet can carry you where my wings can easily glide?"

Lin Fei ignored his mockery and began his arduous climb.

As years turned into decades, the mountain tested him with cruel winds, sharp cliffs and monstrous creatures, yet the peak didn't seem to get any closer.

The winged man, Xian Yue, just observed him from above, his laughter echoing off the mountain's many faces.

Time wore heavily on Lin Fei, shaping him from a vigorous youth into a stooped old man. His eyes grew dim, his steps faltered, but his spirit never wavered.

Xian Yue eventually became bored of watching and decided to go claim his prize.

"Farewell, old man! I grow weary of your stubborn climb. Watch now how effortlessly I seize what you've spent a lifetime crawling towards!"

With a powerful flap of his wings, Xian Yue soared confidently towards the summit. Moments later, his triumphant ascent turned to fury as he reached the peak.

"This is a farce! Where is the promised unparalleled power? I am cheated! Betrayed by legends and fables!"

Despair gripped Lin Fei by the heart, yet it was too late to turn back—for him, there was only forward.

Blind and starved, he finally went past the last slope before his goal. Lin Fei's feeble, time-worn foot touched the peak.

In an instant, Lin Fei was transformed. Youth returned to his limbs, and from his back sprouted not just two, but four magnificent pairs of golden wings.

Xian Yue stared in disbelief as Lin Fei, now a true god, looked skyward.

He felt no triumph over the winged man, only the call of the vast heavens.

"And now, I have become extraordinary!"

With a single, powerful beat of his new wings, Lin Fei ascended beyond the mountain, beyond the clouds, beyond the fate he was given at birth.

...

Li An's heart calmed down, and her face returned to an indifferent mask.

Although Lin Fei was a mortal and Xian Yue was a talented deity, both of them began at the bottom of the mountain. That is to say, everyone is born mediocre, and everyone must struggle to climb above this tall mountain.

Xian Yue reached the peak with ease and gained nothing; Lin Fei climbed with heart and gained everything.

Therefore, even if there are risks, even if it kills her, Li An would continue to climb this mountain by herself, because she was not resigned to being mediocre.

Li An commanded all her spiritual energy to flow into her right hand. The yellow gas-like energy was compressed again and again, turning into a small sphere floating above her palm.

"Not enough."

The flow of spiritual energy didn't stop. More entered the golden sphere, and it began revolving at an increasing speed. Although the spiritual bullet was becoming highly unstable, Li An infused more spiritual energy instead of stopping it, compressing it all into an even smaller sphere.

"Still not enough."

At this point, she clearly would not be able to stop it from exploding no matter what she did. Yet, Li An's expression was still emotionless like a porcelain doll. Instead of stopping it, she gathered even more spiritual energy and made the sphere rotate even faster—to the point where she could hear the buzzing noise of the wind being shredded apart.

"Now!" With a shout, Li An flicked her fingers and the sphere vanished as if by magic.

No, it didn't vanish, but it moved so fast that Li An's eyes couldn't catch its movement. And then, with a tremendous boom, she was sent flying against the dead willow, snapping its trunk in half.

The ground shook, and a cloud of debris mushroomed up from about ten meters ahead of her.

Li An coughed up some dust and dirt and tried to open her teary eyes.

"Ah... beautiful."

The sight that greeted her was simply divine. Li An let her laughter run free while sitting down on the dirty soil of the forest.

Where the sphere had met its end, a small, smoldering crater marred the earth, surrounded by the splintered remains of the nearby trees. Within a radius of one meter around the impact point, the blast had annihilated everything, be it soil, wood or leaves.

Li An's nose twitched at the acrid scent of burnt wood in the air. Charred fragments of branches and torn leaves carpeted the ground around the crater, their edges still glowing faintly with residual heat.

The girl's peaceful smile widened slightly.

"The first version of the spiritual bullet is finally completed."

· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·

"Li Annnnnn... c'mon, help me practice for the outer sect competition..." You Mei planted herself squarely in her friend's line of sight. "I have no other people I can ask, and this competition will decide whether we move to the inner sect or stay in the outer sect."

Both girls were at Li An's house. It had been one week since she had succeeded in making the spiritual bullet, and Li An was already much more proficient at using it.

The reason it worked had to do with the properties of spiritual energy. Li An knew that it was highly resistant to outside sources of energy, but she had forgotten that when the spiritual bullet explodes, there is a large amount of thermal energy released.

Thus, she reached the conclusion that spiritual energy could be artificially transformed into massive amounts of other energy types. Trying to resist it with outside sources was just a fool's errand.

Instead, the spiritual bullet consisted of a highly unstable sphere that converted most of the spiritual energy into kinetic energy for speed and then converted the entire thing into thermal energy with the explosion.

"Li An, Li An, Li An, speak to me!"

Without moving a muscle except to open one eye, Li An stared at her. "There are better ways to disrupt cultivation, but few as annoying."

"But cultivating is much harder than I thought. One week and I still haven't advanced to stage two of the Foundation Realm." She now understood why talent was so important for cultivators. Despite spending the same amount of time cultivating as You Mei, she wasn't even close to the next small stage.

You Mei sat cross-legged in front of Li An, trying to mimic her meditative poise.

"I need the guidance of an icily brilliant cultivator like you." She was putting on her most serious face, but unfortunately it made her look more constipated than contemplative.

Besides, Li An was not an ignorant person and understood perfectly that You Mei did not actually want her guidance. As a Grade 3 talent, she would naturally feel superior to her friend. That's how humans are.

"Your flattery sucks. What do you really want?" Li An's expression didn't waver; she was still focused on cultivating to improve her strength.

You Mei leapt to her feet. "Okay, check this out!"

She began to throw a series of martial arts moves, each more comically exaggerated than the last. In the beginning stages of cultivation, the manipulation of spiritual energy was still too weak, so martial arts were the main method of fighting between cultivators. Bodies tempered with spiritual energy were naturally much stronger than the ones from mortals.

"Of course, my spiritual bullet is an exception." Li An didn't know exactly how strong it was, but she felt like as long as it hit, the spiritual bullet could kill anyone below the second large realm of cultivation, the Spirit Realm.

"So, how was it?"

Li An broke free from her stupor just to see You Mei staring at her with puppy eyes and a pout.

"Your technique is as refined as a toddler's," she commented dryly. "If we must do this, let's move away to the southern forest."

Li An did not actually mind training with You Mei for the sole reason that she needed to get used to fighting in this new body.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at a random clearing in the southern forest, right next to a glowing waterfall with transparent water. Cultivators could run faster than a mortal Olympic champion even at their weakest, so long distances were not hard to travel.

They stopped, standing on opposite sides of the clearing. You Mei sent her a cheeky grin.

"Didn't you say my technique was as refined as a toddler's? Let's see if you think the same after the spar."

Li An stood perfectly still, her expression as indifferent as a winter's morning, while You Mei bounced on her toes, trying to find an opening.

"She's full of gaps." Li An quickly lost her motivation to fight. No, it could not even be considered a fight. The Galactic Conqueror was going against a kid; it was basically bullying.

You Mei lunged forward with a high kick, aiming for Li An's shoulder. It was a move she had practiced dozens of times. Yet, before her foot could even hint at making contact, Li An sidestepped with ease. She tapped You Mei's ankle lightly, sending her sprawling into the frost-covered grass with a soft thud.

Brushing tiny ice shards from her robes, You Mei stared up with trembling lips. "How did you—?"

"I anticipated it."

Her voice was as cold and steady as the frozen lake nearby. She hadn't even broken a sweat.

You Mei got to her feet, shaking off her embarrassment. "Since you are stronger than I thought, I will get serious. Be careful, Li An."

Although she looked very solemn, her words were no more than a joke for the great demoness. Even the sect leader would have to admit defeat in terms of martial art knowledge, let alone an outer sect disciple.

You Mei sharpened her focus and launched a rapid series of punches aimed at Li An's torso, each one thrown with increasing speed and precision. Yet, each punch seemed to only meet air; Li An's movements were minimal, subtle shifts of weight and position that redirected Mei Ling's momentum effortlessly.

You Mei was not one to give up easily, especially now that she had boasted about getting serious. She switched tactics, unleashing a high kick aimed directly at Li An's head.

The latter simply leaned back, her body bending gracefully, and the kick passed harmlessly in front of her face. As You Mei's leg came down, Li An gently pushed at her thigh, using Mei's own forward momentum to send her stumbling several steps back, almost slipping in the wet soil.

Without a shred of hesitation, You Mei tried a spinning kick, hoping the surprise and the power behind it would finally make contact.

But Li An was ready.

Just as You Mei's foot was about to come around, she caught her ankle with one hand. With a fluid motion that seemed almost lazy, Li An pushed upward slightly, tipping You Mei off balance yet again. Li An's touch was light, almost like a feather's stroke, but it sent You Mei crashing into the dirt once more.

She lay back in the frost for a moment, panting and staring up at the stark branches against the gray winter sky.

"You're not even trying, are you?"

You Mei gathered her scattered breaths, each exhale forming a cloud that drifted in the cold air. She glanced at Li An and saw her staring quietly at the sky. "What is she?"

You Mei stood quietly, rubbing her arms not just from the cold but from the chill of realization at the disparity between their skills. She watched Li An clean the water droplets from her sleeves with precise, measured movements, each flick of her wrist deliberate and controlled.

Their eyes met briefly.

Li An's gaze was placid, like an abyss with unknown depths. You Mei quickly looked away, focusing instead on the neat footprints she had left in the forest soil—a chaotic, tangled pattern that contrasted sharply with Lan's nearly straight, evenly spaced steps.

The silence stretched between them, and even the birds appeared to be afraid to sing.

"I... uh, I think I've had enough training for today." You Mei finally broke it; her voice was slightly higher pitched than usual.

Li An merely nodded, her face as unreadable as ever, and turned to leave.

Alone, You Mei finally let out a long breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She glanced once more at the path Li An had taken, and felt goosebumps rise all over her skin.

She turned in the opposite direction of Li An's footprints and began running.