One week after beginning his journey as a cultivator, Han Xuhan finally shed his identity as a mortal and entered the first layer of the Skeleton Monarch Technique while cycling his qi under Elder Kong's observant eyes.
He had received a substantial amount of help from the Elder while breaking through, for which Xuhan was very grateful.
With the passing of time, he had managed to gauge Xuhan's talent in cultivation compared to his peers. The discovery had shocked both of them 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, Han Xuhan learned that more than 80% 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. He could adapt and bulldoze his way through complicated lessons, cultivation techniques, and mathematical aspects with much more ease compared to his fellow disciples, something that the Elder appreciated while teaching him.
For example, a couple of days ago, elder Shi was describing the subtle differences 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 physiological knowledge of the human body at a molecular level.
The only vessel they cared about was the meridians where qi flows.
But Han Xuhan easily managed to identify the keywords and understood how the bloodline characteristics blended with the blood corpuscles and made tiny changes at the 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 [cultivation magic] in his notes and left it at that.
However, this was already an exceptional level of comprehensive ability from the viewpoint of the Elders. So Han 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 Han Xuhan. The reason was simple.
They thought his cultivation speed was the worst in the class, unaware that he had been cultivating the Zeroth Layer of his technique this whole time. Of course, if he were to pursue the first layer from the beginning, his speed would still not be anything to boast about.
Multiple Elders had refused to believe such a mediocre disciple could have such an amazing performance during comprehensive parts of their lessons. After breaking through to the first layer, Han Xuhan had been advised to visit the infirmary, the head of which turned out to be a familiar person.
She was the woman who had reprimanded Elder Rong for giving Han Xuhan the precious opportunity to fly on his sword.
"So, I'm supposed to be examined for abnormalities again, right, Elder Cai?"
"Yes. I'm going to conduct a thorough physical examination of your meridians and the skin pores that connect with your qi vessels. Elder Kong Ye in particular was very adamant about examining you. He refuses to accept your slow speed of cultivation as a simple lack of talent."
Han Xuhan was still rather confused regarding the matter. Wasn't it normal for some disciples to lack talent? Why did Elder Ye 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 shivered.
Lying on the bed, he felt Elder Cai 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 its way through his skin.
Before he could yelp out in alarm, the pain disappeared, replaced by the sensation of strangely fluid movements under the skin of his temples.
"Uh-uh, don't tense your body. Just try to relax." the Elder kept giving him instructions. The sensation of a foreign object moving under his skin continued, as if probing for something.
Han Xuhan did his best not to freak out. The sensation was nightmarish. It was like a worm moving inside his body. From head to toe, it didn't miss a single centimeter.
After what felt like ages, Elder Cai 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.
She was lost so deep in her thoughts that she ignored his pointed coughs, her lips moving silently as she kept muttering to herself about something problematic.
Han 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.
The tense silence in the room was broken when Elder Kong Ye appeared inside the pavilion suddenly.
"What's the situation? Did you discover anything worrisome, Elder Cai?"
She finally snapped out of her daze.
"Upon examination, at first, it seemed 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."
"That can't be the reason. I'm aware of that flaw already. But that shouldn't be the sole reason behind his mediocre speed of cultivation, right?"
Elder Kong didn't seem surprised in the slightest.
"Yes, there are other reasons as well. Some of his meridians have had unnecessary growth spurts, which have blocked multiple crucial points of his qi routes. This is also not an unnatural thing. Most cultivators have a few mutated meridians.
"While examining his three dantians and six secondary qi reservoirs, where most of the qi is stored and processed, I noticed many instances of leakage and disharmony among them.
"This is another reason why his cultivation speed is slow. And not much can be done to counter it before reaching a high level of cultivation.
"I also checked his skin pores, which are lesser in number compared to the skin of an average person, as well as being slightly narrower than usual, making his qi absorption slower."
As Elder Cai listed the reasons one by one, elder Kong's expression became odd.
Technically, none of those defects were particularly problematic. Few people were born with a 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. But disciple 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 disciple Xuhan has more than a dozen 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 rare physiques mentioned in legends, results of celestial blessings.
"It's not absolutely unnatural, he is just unfortunate, incredibly, terrifyingly unfortunate.
"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 on one foot.
"He'll never gain any proper achievements in the Mystic Arts. Perhaps the Martial path will be less affected by these flaws, but it'll still be immensely difficult for him to progress either way."
Elder Cai's words were like thunders clapping beside his eardrums. Both Han Xuhan and Kong Ye were stunned into silence.
This kind of luck, to have obtained a physique ten times rarer than divine physiques...
Now Han Xuhan finally realized what his system meant that day, when it said that he had a cursed physique! It all made sense now!
What atrocities did Han 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, Han Xuhan walked out of the infirmary while Kong Ye 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 who are cherished by the sect, with the only difference being that he would have to pay for it all...
"Oh well, as long as I perform well in completing Xuanyuan Zhou's quest, the system says I have a chance to change my shitty Physique. So not all hope is lost!"
Cheering up, he began to jog through the foggy mountain road, heading towards the Salted Fish Mountain Peak to let everyone know the big news.
The common men seek opportunities in danger, but a politician seeks them in tragedies, especially from the ones that befall him, hahaha!