Stealing Luck from the Heavenly Dao's Favorite

This time, the Spirit Testing Plate responded in a much more subdued way. After a short delay, the areas marked for water, wood, and fire lit up with a steady blue, green, and red glow—bright, but not blinding.

Wei Yunxi blinked in surprise, her mouth forming a small "o" as the result sank in. The effect of a tiny silver ring was this powerful?

Even after over two decades of education rooted in strict materialism, she couldn't help feeling a little awe. The supernatural might be routine in this world, but to her, it was still downright magical.

Feng Jiaqing, however, looked quite pleased with the results. Smiling, he explained, "Yunxi, your top-grade spirit roots are now fully concealed. From this point on, any test will show you as having water, wood, and fire attributes. Each root has a base value of sixty—average to slightly below."

Wei Yunxi nodded innocently, showing that she understood.

Feng Jiaqing continued, "In a few days, you'll turn five. After your birthday, the Wei family will conduct spirit root tests for all children who've reached that age. Until then, you must not begin cultivation, and you must not let your father know the Feng family has already tested your roots."

She nodded again, this time with more awareness. If they were acting, it had to be convincing. Otherwise, it would all fall apart.

Pleased with her obedience, Feng Jiaqing shifted the topic. "Although you can't cultivate just yet, you can join the Feng children in basic training during your stay here. You'll learn useful martial skills and condition your body to lay the groundwork for future cultivation."

Wei Yunxi's eyes lit up. "Uncle, I can really study with my cousins?"

"Of course. Didn't you attend the Wei family's clan school?"

She paused, then shook her head. "Mother said there wasn't much to learn in the Wei clan's school. She only let me attend the basic literacy class. Everything else she taught me herself."

That matched what the novel said.

Wei Yunxi's mother had always looked down on the Wei clan's values, believing them too profit-driven and narrow-minded. She refused to let her only daughter be molded by that kind of environment. Once she noticed even a few bad habits forming, she immediately pulled Wei Yunxi back into Zhuohua Courtyard to personally teach her.

Honestly, Wei Yunxi agreed with that decision. Children were like blank slates, easily influenced by their surroundings. With Wei Lingyue's personality being what it was, Feng Jiayun clearly didn't want her daughter growing up like him.

In hindsight, her mother's insistence had saved her a lot of trouble. Because Wei Yunxi had interacted so little with the other children in the Wei clan, they barely knew her. And with her mother suddenly gone, even if her personality shifted a little, it wouldn't seem too suspicious.

After all, she wasn't really five years old—and she knew better than to underestimate how sharp cultivators could be. A lot of transmigrators in other novels got caught simply because they let their guard down.

Feng Jiaqing considered her explanation, then gave a small nod. It made sense. He patted her little bun gently. "Your mother did it for your sake. But the Feng clan's tutors are quite skilled. You'll learn plenty of new things—and meet many new friends. I think you'll enjoy it."

Wei Yunxi clapped her hands, delighted. "That's great! I get to make new friends!"

Feng Jiaqing chuckled. At last, she sounded like a real child.

That very afternoon, he had one of the stewards deliver her a set of training clothes and a bottle of Duan Ti Dan. The pill was a special blend crafted by the Feng clan's own alchemists and reserved for internal use only. It helped build a child's foundation before cultivation began.

Speaking of which, the Feng family owed their status in Kunyu City almost entirely to alchemy.

Their success wasn't built on brute strength, but on pills—lots of them. They'd literally piled enough Dan to raise Feng Feng into a Golden Core cultivator, giving the family its backbone. At the same time, they employed a number of first- to third-rank alchemists, making them a force to be reckoned with in Kunyu's regional economy.

In the cultivation world, no one dared claim they could advance without pills. The Feng clan was indispensable. Even the Wei clan's decision to forge a marriage alliance with them had been motivated by this very reason.

Of course, Feng Jiayun was no fool. She had always known there was no love between her and Wei Lingyue—only a transaction. She was willing to refine pills for the Wei family and even guide their juniors, but she never once passed down any of her core techniques.

That's why, after Wei Yunxi was born and served as a blood tie between the two clans, Wei Lingyue gradually distanced himself from Feng Jiayun. He hadn't gotten what he truly wanted. Yet he couldn't just discard her either. She was still a mid-tier second-rank alchemist, someone he had to support on the surface.

So he stewed in frustration—and eventually turned to Du Ruolan, promoting her just to spite Feng Jiayun.

Unfortunately for him, Feng Jiayun didn't care in the slightest.

It was like punching cotton. With nowhere to vent his bitterness, Wei Lingyue simply took it out on the one person left—Wei Yunxi. He doted on his elder daughter while neglecting the younger, creating an awkward, tense relationship between father and child.

And when Feng Jiayun's soul lamp finally extinguished, Wei Lingyue was almost relieved. He could now openly stand beside the woman he actually liked. That was why he'd been in such a rush to name Du Ruolan the new Lady Wei.

Once Du Ruolan became Lady Wei, Wei Yunqing's status as a legitimate daughter would be cemented. It elevated her standing—exactly what the heroine needed.

Wei Yunxi had pieced all of this together only after returning to the Wei family. The way everyone treated Du Ruolan and Wei Yunqing—and the coldness shown to her—said it all.

But for now, she wasn't thinking about any of that. She was just a cultivation newbie, getting ready for her first day of class at the Feng clan's school.

The Feng clan's school served children aged five to ten. Anyone with spiritual roots could attend. The students were sorted into basic, intermediate, and advanced classes depending on their cultivation stage and learning progress. Wei Yunxi was placed in the beginner class.

On her first day, she stood outside the school building, tilting her head up at a 45-degree angle with mock sorrow. Inwardly, she sighed. After two decades of academia and a master's degree, here she was... back to preschool. What a poetic tragedy.

Still, once class started, she quickly realized this was no ordinary kindergarten.

As the teacher began the lesson, Wei Yunxi found herself absorbing all sorts of new knowledge. For the first time, she gained a rough understanding of the world called Weiyu Realm.

The realm was divided into five major regions: East, South, West, North, and Central. Kunyu City, where she was now, was a small city in the western region. Because of the limited cultivation resources here, the strongest cultivators rarely surpassed the Nascent Soul stage. Anyone who did could basically walk sideways across the entire west.

In stark contrast was the Central Region, the heart of the Weiyu Realm. It boasted the richest resources, countless sects and noble families, and cultivators who could reach Divine Transformation stage. Those who succeeded at that stage could attempt a minor ascension into the Weiling Realm, the upper realm of Weiyu.

With abundant spiritual energy, that realm allowed cultivators to reach from the Out-of-Body stage all the way to crossing tribulation and ascending to the immortal realm.

But that kind of leap wasn't easy. It required not only extraordinary talent but vast resources. That's why small clans always tried to attach themselves to stronger ones, and why major families maintained intricate ties to the great sects.

As Wei Yunxi listened, she began mapping out the Weiyu Realm's geography inside her mind.

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In here the author give us a new (?) stage of cultivation (出窍期, Chūqiào Qī). I'm not sure about the sequence of the cultivation stages that author use in this novel. If I already knew, I will put the chapter of 'Rank and General Information' like always.