Inside the Tianji Tower headquarters in the Great Gan Imperial Capital.
Zhou Fan, clad in white robes and wearing a white, featureless mask, calmly spoke to the drowsy receptionist.
"All intelligence regarding Jiang Wudao from the past year."
"Jiang Wudao?" The Young Miss at the front desk asked, as if startled, "Emperor Jiang Wudao?"
She looked up, meeting Zhou Fan's eyes, which were as calm as a deep pool, and quickly added,
"Please wait a moment, honored guest. I'll call our manager."
A moment later, an old man with a rather immortal and Daoist demeanor walked over unhurriedly.
"Honored guest, this way please."
The old man pointed to a private room and spoke to Zhou Fan.
Inside the private room, Zhou Fan spoke first.
"I want not only all intelligence on Jiang Wudao, but also on everyone closely related to Jiang Wudao."
The old man pondered for a moment before saying,
"Ten Spirit Stones, and you can only view this intelligence here."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Fan placed ten Spirit Stones on the table.
Seeing that Zhou Fan had actually casually produced ten Spirit Stones imbued with pure Spiritual Qi, the old man immediately said respectfully, "Honored guest, please wait a moment. This old man will go retrieve the materials."
Zhou Fan appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly, his heart ached.
One must know that the entire Kang Wang Residence treasury only held twenty Spirit Stones, and now half of them were spent just to gather intelligence.
He hoped the intelligence from this Tianji Tower headquarters wouldn't disappoint him, otherwise, he, Zhou, might have to demonstrate a wave of robbing the rich to aid the poor.
He just didn't know if this Tianji Tower had a Cultivation World background. After all, when Zhou Fan was adventuring in the Jianghu, he heard that the history of the Tianji Tower organization was even longer than that of the Great Gan Jiang Clan.
Alas, it was likely they did, because Zhou Fan had just sensed an aura completely different from his own emanating from that old man.
As a martial artist, Zhou Fan's Physical Body was filled with energy, and his Qi and blood were far more vigorous than ordinary people's.
And when he observed the old man just now, he found that although his Physical Body was far inferior to his own, he had a youthful complexion with white hair, was full of spirit, and his eyes shone brightly.
Most importantly, Zhou Fan could sense that the Qi generated by the old man's every breath was completely different from a martial artist's True Qi.
That was... the Qi of a Qi Refinement Cultivator.
Zhou Fan suddenly recalled the time before he had his Spiritual Root tested, when he was in the Zhou Family of the Cultivation World.
As a not-so-small Cultivation Family, when Zhou Fan was still with the Zhou Family, the strongest person in the Zhou Family was a Core Formation Stage Old Ancestor.
Besides this Core Formation Stage Old Ancestor, the Zhou Family also had over a dozen Foundation Establishment Cultivators and a number of Qi Refinement Cultivators.
At that time, the Zhou Family was divided into three branches. The branch Zhou Fan belonged to was the main branch, and that sole Core Formation Stage Old Ancestor was Zhou Fan's great-great-great-grandfather.
Uh, in other words, that Core Formation Stage Old Ancestor was indeed Zhou Fan's Old Ancestor.
The reason why Zhou Fan's branch was the main branch was because the Zhou Family had a rule since its establishment.
That was, every ten years, there would be a grand Family competition, which naturally competed in strength.
Whichever branch was the strongest would be the main branch and could enjoy the most preferential resources.
And because of the existence of that Core Formation Stage Old Ancestor, Zhou Fan, as a direct descendant of the main branch, actually lived quite comfortably before his Spiritual Root was tested.
At the age of twelve, Zhou Fan awakened his past life's memories.
At that time, he was full of heroic spirit, diligently training every day. While other peers were still troubled by their classroom teacher's homework, Zhou Fan had already dominated all subjects with far superior results.
Whether it was Alchemy, Artifact Refining, Talismans, Formations, or Physical Body strength, Zhou Fan was an existence that his peers had to look up to.
Many Zhou Family elders regarded young Zhou Fan as a Core Formation seed. Many believed that even if Zhou Fan awakened an Ordinary Spiritual Root, he would still be able to achieve Core Formation.
Moreover, at that time, Zhou Fan always had a childhood sweetheart by his side, two innocent children.
At the age of Sixteen, Zhou Fan was full of vigor.
He was still at the top of every subject, but the gap with his second-place rival had narrowed.
The reason the gap narrowed was not because Zhou Fan became complacent, nor because the former second-place person became stronger.
Instead, it was because a Genius Young Miss appeared in a branch of the Zhou Family. This Young Miss, after only two years of studying in the Family classroom, had reached second place in all subjects.
Although there was still a significant gap between her and Zhou Fan, in terms of learning efficiency, she was almost on par with Zhou Fan back then.
Therefore, she and Zhou Fan were jointly referred to as the Golden Boy and Jade Girl of the Zhou Family. Her parents even had intentions of forming a marriage alliance with Zhou Fan's parents.
However, Zhou Fan refused, because at that time, Zhou Fan was still into pure love. He and his innocent childhood sweetheart had already secretly pledged their lives to each other, so young Zhou Fan resolutely rejected the arranged marriage.
Even in the following two years, that Genius Young Miss pursued Zhou Fan fiercely, but Zhou Fan still firmly chose his childhood sweetheart.
Who says childhood sweethearts can't defeat fated encounters? In his youth, Zhou Fan, between his ordinary childhood sweetheart and the fated encounter who was better in all aspects, resolutely chose his childhood sweetheart.
Recalling the vows made back then, it felt like yesterday.
His not-so-smart childhood sweetheart said she would love Zhou Fan for all eternity, and young Zhou Fan believed this implicitly.
But at the age of eighteen, everything changed.
The average lifespan of a Mortal in the Cultivation World is 150 years. Most people are born with a Spiritual Root, but it only fully develops at 18 years old.
Therefore, in this Cultivation World, one can only begin Qi Refining at eighteen, and the day of Spiritual Root Aptitude testing at eighteen is a turning point in everyone's destiny.
Most people with a Spiritual Root have inferior Spiritual Root Aptitude, and inferior Spiritual Roots generally have no hope of Foundation Establishment.
However, the chance of Foundation Establishment for an Ordinary Spiritual Root is much higher than for an inferior Spiritual Root. Qi Refinement Cultivators with an Ordinary Spiritual Root even have an extremely low probability of entering Core Formation.
Logically speaking, the Core Formation Old Ancestor of the Zhou Family's main branch possessed a Yellow Spiritual Root. As his descendant, Zhou Fan, if not a Yellow Spiritual Root, should at least have an Ordinary Spiritual Root.
After all, both of Zhou Fan's parents were Ordinary Spiritual Roots.
But at the age of eighteen, Zhou Fan, as the first person to undergo Spiritual Root Aptitude testing,
Under the gaze of all, was actually detected to have no Spiritual Root.
Yes, no Spiritual Root of any attribute. Zhou Fan, the former favored son of heaven, the future star in the eyes of his clansmen, was at that moment declared a person without a Spiritual Root.
Zhou Fan still remembers the gazes of the crowd below the stage.
Those who had once looked at him with eager anticipation now mostly sighed with regret, and his parents' original pride turned into deep disappointment.
But what etched itself most deeply into Zhou Fan's memory was how the adoration in the eyes of the one who had sworn to love him for all eternity turned into disdain within a few short breaths.
Zhou Fan stood on the stage, opening his mouth as if to say something.
But in the end, he still walked off the stage, saying nothing.
After he stepped down, those who had loved and respected him now only looked at him with pity, and his parents even questioned whether Zhou Fan was their biological child.
At that very moment, Zhou Fan saw the cruelty of the Cultivation World.
The once spirited young man was also, at that moment, torn into pieces by the raw, bloody reality.