Sighing in disappointment, a young man with an ordinary appearance and a wooden expression on his face faced another failure. This was his forty-ninth attempt at breaking through in the past three months. Even with his strong mind, Wei felt overwhelmed by frustration and despair.
A bitter smile crept onto the corners of the youth's mouth as he shook his head, looking at his hands. Was his talent really that poor? Clenching his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his skin, Wei seemed unfazed by the pain.
At seventeen, Wei had been studying under the Piaoyun Valley sect for three years. This modest sect in the cultivation world housed nearly a thousand disciples, among whom Wei was just a low-level member. Despite three years of diligent practice, he lagged far behind his peers, who had already advanced to higher stages of cultivation.
His slow progress wasn’t due to a lack of effort. On the contrary, Wei worked harder than anyone else. He practiced techniques three times more than others, meditated for triple the time, yet his gains were meager compared to his peers, leaving him feeling dejected.
In the world of cultivation, divided into stages like Lingdong, Foundation Building, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and others, each with seven levels, talent played a crucial role. One’s effort couldn't fully compensate for inherent shortcomings.
Wei felt close to breaking through to the second level of the Lingdong stage, but even this minor gap seemed insurmountable, like a vast chasm he couldn't cross.
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Finally, Wei unclenched his fists and took a deep breath, trying to expel his frustration. He sat down again, employing the Inner Sight technique—a minor spell in cultivation to observe the flow of spiritual energy within one's body.
The spiritual energy in his dantian was sparse and weak, a result of his low cultivation level. True cultivation was akin to defying nature, demanding immense power and rigorous trials to manipulate the elements and absorb the spiritual energy of the world.
The faint traces of spiritual energy were the fruits of Wei’s three-year labor, significantly less than his peers, as he lacked a spiritual root. Under his focused mind, the wisps of energy began to coalesce, originally as thin as hair strands, now gathering into a stream as thick as a little finger.
Sweat drenched Wei’s body, and white vapor rose from his head. The simple act of gathering spiritual energy was an immense struggle for an ordinary human like him.
Despite his labored breathing, Wei’s expression remained unchanged. He had grown used to this over three years. After gathering the spiritual energy, he remained vigilant, guiding it through his meridians in accordance with the techniques taught by his sect.
The dantian is the foundation for storing spiritual energy, and the circulation through the eight extraordinary meridians is crucial. Each cycle of circulation, though minutely strengthening the energy, was significant over time.
However, the paths of these circulations varied greatly among different sects and techniques. For Wei, an ordinary human without a spiritual root, each step in this circulation demanded extra caution and effort. Any haste could not only fail the cycle but also damage his meridians.