One week after his massive expenditure, Xuhan finally shed his identity as a mortal and entered the first layer of physique transformation realm while cycling his qi under elder Kong's observant eyes. Even his boss Mu Ran felt the pressure he was in and exempted him from his lackey duties until he broke through the second layer.

He had received a substantial amount of help from the elder while breaking through, for which Xuhan was very grateful to the elder. He had been cultivating furiously for the last few days. But with the passing of time, Xuhan managed to gauge his talent in cultivation compared to his peers, something that shocked him greatly.

No, he wasn't an amazingly talented hidden gem like he had hoped. His aptitude for cultivation was in fact nearly trash tier. After asking around, Xuhan learned that more than 90 percent of his fellow disciples had taken barely half a week to break into the first layer from being a normal mortal.

The only redeeming quality he discovered about himself was perhaps his comprehension. Having his basic science lessons from his previous life still fresh in his mind, he could adapt and bulldoze his way through complicated lessons and cultivation techniques and mathematical aspects with much more ease compared to his fellow disciples, something that most elders appreciated while teaching him.

For example, a couple of days ago, elder Kong was describing the subtle difference between bloodlines and how they affect one's body by circulating through the blood vessels. Nearly none of the disciples understood the process or the theory at first, being ignorant of the human body's physiological details. The only vessel they cared about was meridians where qi flowed.

But Xuhan easily managed to identify the keywords and understood how the bloodline characteristics blended with the blood corpuscles and made tiny changes in molecular level.

Of course, none of the magical aspects or mutations could be explained scientifically. But he wasn't interested in pursuing harmony between science and magic. So he just marked the inexplicable parts as "magic did stuff and that happened " in his notes and left it at that.

However, this was already an exceptional level of comprehensive ability from the teachers' viewpoint. So Xuhan received more care from them as a result.

While such care from the elders would inevitably generate jealousy from his peers, no one was actually feeling any envy toward Xuhan. The reason was simple. Xuhan's cultivation speed was the worst in the class. Even Yuen Zhou, the other mortal disciple had broken through to the first layer on the third day of the first week, followed by Mu Ran on the next day.

Multiple elders had refused to believe such mediocre disciples could have so amazing performance during comprehensive parts of their lessons. After breaking through to the first layer, Xuhan was asked to visit the medical pavilion, whose head elder was a matronly middle aged woman.

"So, I'm supposed to be examined for abnormalities again, right, elder Hei ?"

"Yes. I'm going to conduct an intricate examination on your meridians and skin pores that connect with your qi vessels. Elder Kong in particular was very adamant about examining you. He refuses to accept your slow speed of cultivation as simple lack of talent."

Xuhan was still rather confused regarding the matter. Wasn't normal for some disciples to lack talent in any sect? Why did elder Kong insist on this?

Or was there more to the story than it seems...?

"Okay. Lie down and try to relax. This might be a bit uncomfortable..."

Hearing her instructions, Xuhan obediently did as told and felt elder Hei touching his temples lightly. Just as he was about to relax his nerves, a jolt of dull pain went through his head as if something blunt had forced it's way through his skin.

Before he could yelp out in alarm, the pain disappeared, replaced by the sensation of strangely fluid movements under his skin of his temples.

"Ah, don't worry. Just try to relax," the elder ordered him not to move and the sensation kept moving inside his head as if probing for something.

Xuhan did his best not to freak out. The sensation wa nightmarish. It was like a worm moving inside his body. From head to toe, it didnt miss a single centimetre.

After what felt like ages, elder Hei stood up and retracted her fingers from his temples, taking whatever it was that had been crawling under his skin with her and started walking around the room with furrowed brows.

Xuhan sat up and massaged his brows to relive the tension he was feeling around his forehead while waiting for the results.

However, the thoughtful elder Hei ignored his pointed coughs and stared at her finger in a dazed manner, her lips moving silently as if she was muttering to herself about something grave.

Xuhan started feeling a premonition of dread. It couldn't be...was there really something wrong with him?

Could he be so unlucky?

Speaking from experience....oh shit.

Their reverie was broken when elder Kong entered the pavilion out of nowhere.

"What's the situation? Did you discover anything worrisome, elder Hei?"

Elder Hei snapped out of her daze and seemed to be gathering her thoughts slowly. Xuhan patiently waited for her to speak.

"Upon examination, it seems that disciple Xuhan has a few damaged meridians, which to be frank, isn't a rare phenomenon. Most mortals do not take proper care of their qi vessels due to ignorance. I have seen many disciples here in this sect with the same handicap."

"Is that it? That shouldn't be the sole reason behind his mediocre speed of cultivation, right?"

Elder Kong didn't seem surprised in the slightest. He had already discovered this previously while probing Xuhan.

"Yes, there are other reasons as well. Some of his meridians have had unnecessary growth spurts which block multiple crucial points of his qi cycles. This is also not an unnatural thing. Most cultivator have a few mutated meridians.

While examining his dantian, the point where most of the qi is stored and processed, I noticed that it was a size smaller compared to average. This is another reason why his cultivation speed is slow.

I also checked his skin pores which are slightly narrower than usual, making his qi absorption slower."

As elder Hei listed the reasons one by one, elder Kong's expression became stranger.

Technically, none of those defects were particularly problematic. Few people were born with perfect body suitable for cultivation. Almost everyone had one or two of these defects, except...

"Yes, exactly what you're thinking elder Kong. None of those defects should have impeded his cultivation by much. They can be neglected when compared with the bigger picture.

Yet, Xuhan has too many of such small defects in his body. Statistically speaking, it's very common for someone to have one or two such defects, slightly rare to have four or five , and very, very rare to have over half a dozen.

But little Xuhan has tens of such defects.

If we were to talk about the possibility of such a physique's existence, it would be ten times rarer than the top grade divine physiques mentioned in legends that all cultivators dream of.

It's not unnatural, he is just unfortunate, incredibly, terrifyingly unfortunate.

Simply said, the heavens seem to have a vendetta against little Xuhan. All of those defects are natural and harmless when alone, but stacked together in one body? That's the same thing as making a mere mortal run a race with a boulder stuck on his head. He'll always be the last without external help.

Hell, he might not even finish the race and collapse halfway. Without a very large and constant supply of resources, Xuhan has no chance of progressing his cultivation in the normal speed."

Elder Hei's words were like thunder clapping beside his eardrums. Both Xuhan and elder Kong were stunned into silence.

This kind of luck, to have obtained a physique ten times rarer than divine physiques and yet in the negative way...

What atrocities did Xuhan commit in his past life? Wasn't he just an innocent mortal? Is this any different from the heavens bullying a helpless man?

Gloomily, Xuhan walks out of the medicine pavillion while elder Kong remained seated inside, still shell-shocked.

As it turned out, he had no other way of cultivating normally except consuming external resources like those geniuses that are cherished by the sect, with the only difference being that he would have to pay for it all...

"Looks like I'll have to go earn some spirit stones," Xuhan muttered in a low voice. He was already used to such shockingly depressing news. So it didnt affect him much.

Either way, he was determined to become a powerful cultivator, regardless of the handicaps. Honestly, finding out about this handicap only made him more curious about why the heavens made him so unlucky. Once he reached a high enough realm, Xuhan wanted to investigate this thoroughly. There were not much hard feelings in his heart. After all, being unfortunate was just like playing a game on hard mode. It might be a frustrating experience, but it certainly offered a more interesting gameplay.