Li Ling was not a person born naturally from this world.
He was actually a soul from Earth in the 21st century, named Andrew Han. He was a half Chinese, half American young man who grew up in the mainland and then came to join his parents abroad to seek opportunities when he was a postgraduate.
He had been an architect working for a rather strong mid-level corporation, and had been staying up late in the office to finish the preliminary floor plan for an annex to a government building in his city, a rather lucrative project since one could 'overstate' prices to fleece the government.
He only remembered feeling a sharp headache before fainting, and before he knew it, he was a swaddling babe being held by a rather attractive young woman with a tired face.
Born into a new world, he was Li Ling of the Li Family clan, a small scale cultivation clan with extremely shallow roots and no real clout, just barely clawing its way into the cultivation world thanks to the Ancestor - his current grandfather - luckily being a Qi Refinement level 7 cultivator.
Most of the side branches of the clan were mortals, with only a few in his father's generation being born with spirit roots. Most had low talents, but more than a few had managed to reach the fourth level of Qi Refinement and above.
In his generation, many more were born with spirit roots and the talents varied.
Back then, since Li Ling had the mind of an adult as a child, many mistakenly believed that he had awakened his Sea of Consciousness early and was a heavenly pride destined for greatness. As such, they had treated him like a treasure and even hid the information about his existence, fearing others would assassinate him young.
At the age of 12, when all children could begin cultivating without harming themselves and could manifest their talent, the test was held and it was discovered that he possessed an extremely impure earth element spiritual root. It was so impure that upon his grandfather hurriedly calling a favor from a senior cultivator above Foundation Establishment, the person shook their head and said that Li Ling would live and die in the first level of Qi Refinement no matter how hard he tried.
This precise and unbiased revelation naturally caused his status to change greatly. While it did not reach the point of being beaten daily, his presence became an eyesore and even him breathing too loudly made others glare at him.
He was soon sent out on a 'training journey' with no set destination and told to return when he had entered the second level of Qi Refinement or was on his deathbed.
So simply, he had been exiled.
At age 12, he had wandered the world he knew very little of at the time, the world of Firmament Heaven.
Luckily, due to the extensive history and imaginative ability of earthlings, Li Ling was not too clueless about the fundamental background and settings of such a world, so he knew that caution was absolutely necessary. He had read a few novels here and there and watched one donghua or two, so he was able to adapt quickly using this as a framework.
In the years since then, his mentality of being cautious had only grown greater as he witnessed one tragedy after another, from mortals being run over by cruel nobles in carriages, to villages being slaughtered by rebels and bandits, and innocent bystanders being killed by the random aftershocks of a cultivator battle they never even saw.
It eventually became his only creed as he reached the region governed by the Righteous Faction sect, Qing Shan Sect. He settled in the number 9 marketplace around five years ago and had been living here since then, eking out an existence by using his skills as an architect to manage as an Array Master.
He only ever worked on the lowest tier of arrays and only ever sold enough to pay the bills and have a little to support his cultivation, which he never slacked on despite his low talent. If there was one thing he could not do, it was let up in that regard because what if he was like those transmigrators whose power was being sucked away by their system, making them seem like trash?
Whether it was five years or ten, Li Ling believed that as long as he persevered, he would eventually be on the rise and would be able to take his own destiny in hand. Because of that he completely shut himself off, limiting his interactions greatly, devoting himself to his slow and arduous cultivation in order to avoid any form of trouble.
To call his lifestyle cowardly and turtle-like was an understatement. Ever since he was kicked out of the clan - and even when being kicked out - he fully adopted the mentality that survival came first and that anything could be negotiated as long as he could live.
He had thought he was alone in this regard until he came here to Ivy Lane five years ago and met his neighbors, the victims of tragedy going on right now.
The man was called Chen Wu and his wife was Gao Na. They were two relatively nice people, no overt flaws and not hostile to anyone, though they were not very well known on Ivy Lane because they were the only ones who quite possibly surpassed Li Ling in the field of cautiousness.
Li Ling even only knew their names because he had investigated his neighbors quietly when he first came here, he had never actually spoken to them. Not just Li Ling, but today was the first day for many in Ivy Lane to see this couple… and sadly, it had to be in such a manner.
They had never stepped out of their courtyard since the day Li Ling came here and despite his constant watchfulness, he never actually saw nor sensed them at all for slightly more than half a decade.
For all intents and purposes this couple were practically invisible to the point of being non-existent, a part of the ecosystem that would be overlooked by any and all beings within it.
That was, up until today… up until this very moment.