Li Lang took one glance back into the room where the current breakthrough was happening before turning back to Wu San.

“I can’t leave at the moment. Welcome him back on my behalf. If he wants, he can come and join us here. Just tell him to be quiet.”

“Understood. I’ll go tell him that right away!”

The young and serious boy quickly turned around and dashed toward the main building of the estate. With him gone, Li Lang quickly returned to the ongoing breakthrough so he could carefully observe and note down everything.

This went on for a few minutes before the door softly creaked open, and a young man wearing a strange wooden mask entered. He exchanged nods with the two adults in the room before settling next to Li Lang.

“He’s a-already attempting to break through to Foundation Establishment? That’s quite f-fast,” Wei Ping quietly muttered.

“Perks of having grade two aptitude along with the Cleansing Drug,” Li Lang replied. “But look at you. You’re not far off yourself.”

“R-right. There are some things I w-want to discuss, but it seems we should stay silent for the moment.”

Faced with Xiao Dong’s current predicament, Wei Ping, who had just reunited with his friends after years, chose to keep quiet for the moment.

The breakthrough continued until a cracking noise could be heard. However, it didn’t lead to the cultivator breaking through their restraints, but instead represented Xiao Dong’s dantian cracking and leaking out Qi.

It meant failure was imminent!

“Xiao Dong, keep your mind focused!” Li Lang shouted. “You still have a chance. I’ve seen people succeed in their breakthroughs before, even after their dantian had cracked. Your willpower just has to be strong enough. Think about the reason why you want to cultivate, what motivates you to endure all the hardship!”

What Li Lang was describing was the instance with Tang Yulian from the Eternal Wave Sect. As the first breakthrough he had ever witnessed, the experience was embedded deeply into his mind. He could still remember how a similar situation happened during her breakthrough in the pocket realm, but she managed to succeed anyway.

When he had questioned her about it later, she had told him the importance of one’s willpower during each event. Wishing his student could replicate that success, Li Lang could only hope events could replay themselves.

Unfortunately, that was not to be.

A few minutes after his dantian had cracked, Xiao Dong suddenly began coughing. It made him lurch forward until he weakly fell on his side.

The strong vortex of ambient Qi around him quickly disappeared. In its place, a stream of Qi was constantly leaking from his body.

“Don’t touch him, Long Yi. Just leave him there for now. His energies need to dissipate from his body or it’ll be dangerous when he doesn’t have control and the effects of the Foundation Pill fade.”

“Relax. I’m just putting a blanket on him. Anyway, welcome back, Wei Ping! It’s been quite some time, huh?”

The two who hadn’t seen Wei Ping for over two years regarded him for a moment, examining any changes. Wei Ping was now at the peak of Energy Gathering, accomplishing his goal of getting inspiration by traveling around.

“While it took quite some time, it looks like your trip worked out for you,” Long Yi continued.

“Yes. It w-was well worth it. I’ve now been at the p-peak of Energy Gathering for over a year and have learned a Qi a-art that is said to help with increasing t-the chances of breakthroughs. I thought it was a g-good time to come share what I learned.”

“Oh, that’s what Li Lang is exactly studying right now!”

The two turned to their friend in question, who rested his chin on his fist while his eyes were closed, deep in thought.

“Li Lang? You okay?” Long Yi inquired.

“What?”

“Wei Ping said he has come back with a Qi art that can help with breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Were you spacing out?”

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“Sorry, I had my mind full with going over the test just now. What do you mean by a Qi art that can help with breaking through, Wei Ping?”

“It’s c-called the Lingering Impact Technique. I learned it f-from a certain expert when I found out it could i-improve chances of breakthroughs. It w-wasn’t easy to learn, though, which i-is why I took so long.”

“Hmm, as you may have seen, I’m also working on creating a technique that is supposed to do the same thing. I wouldn’t mind examining your Lingering Impact to see if there is anything useful to be gleaned from it, but I can’t say I will focus on researching it.”

“That’s f-fine. I assume t-that means your technique is g-going well?”

“Hmm, it should be safe to practice and accomplish its goal, but we’ve only tested it with Xiao Dong for now. It’ll take some time before we can say anything with certainty.”

“But the test just now proved it successfully triggered the breakthrough, though, right?” Long Yi chimed in. “It just so happens Xiao Dong failed it, but it should be marked off as a success!”

“That doesn’t mean anything. There are still no instances of success attributed to the use of the technique. Even if that did happen, it’s not so easy to say it was due to the technique or just the cultivator’s abilities. There are too many variables at play. We’re going to need to have to form a control group and a test group when the others catch up.”

“Wouldn’t that mean half of them would be wasting their time? I don’t want to be mean, but the chances of a grade one Energy Gatherer breaking through isn’t that great.”

“We can do crossover testing and allow everyone a chance eventually, but that’ll have to wait until enough of them reach the peak of Energy Gathering first.”

“I don’t see the point in that if Xiao Dong manages to break through with the technique before then! I know you’re trying to prove it works, but there’s no one you need to prove it to. As long as we know it works, then it works.”

“That isn’t how we should operate. If I give in and take the sloppy approach now, then I won’t ever be able to go back. My pride and credibility are at stake as well.”

“Who cares—”

Before the argument could ensue, Wei Ping skillfully stepped between the two.

“Sorry t-to interrupt, but shouldn’t we c-come up with a name for this new technique first? It’s kind of c-clunky to keep calling it ‘that technique’ or ‘n-new technique.’”

“That doesn’t really matter right now,” Li Lang retorted, shaking his head. “We don’t even know if it works. We can call it the breakthrough technique, but then what if it turns out it doesn’t work?”

“Names c-can be changed.”

“Please don’t use the breakthrough technique or anything so on the nose,” Long Yi added.

“You guys can decide, then. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Don’t be like that. A creator has to be the one to name their work. It’s an unwritten rule of society!”

“Then just call it Ascension Technique for now.”

“I said not so on the—you know what, whatever.”

“Isn’t t-that too similar to Ascension Pills?”

Li Lang ignored all comments about the name afterward and began going over the results again. His student, Xiao Dong, managed to successfully converge the Qi to his navel area, prompting the breakthrough. Even though it ended in a failed attempt, it was still a big step forward.

Is there anything else missing? Xiao Dong already has grade two aptitude with thirty-two spiritual roots, which is much better than grade one. Even if the Ascension Technique can overcome the obstacles of converging enough Qi into the dantian, it may not be enough. After all, if this can be solved so easily, generations of cultivators before me should have done so already—or maybe not.

I’m not confident they even know basic algebra here. The Ascension Technique can be classified as a martial art. Calculating the required movements that will make sure every Qi channel in the body converges in the navel area at the same time and strength may be too advanced for most people here. That is especially so when each person’s meridians are uniquely shaped.

Still, something could be missing.

Li Lang was plagued with this feeling that he had missed something. He had a lot of questions about the effectiveness of his current methods, but no answers. Thankfully, the experiments were done precisely to answer these questions, and Li Lang was eager to proceed with them. As it turned out, his assistant Wei Ping had just returned as well, so things were primed to go more smoothly from hereon.

“About t-the Lingering Impact Technique, I learned,” Wei Ping voice’s interrupted Li Lang’s thoughts.

“Hmm, yes, please tell me all about it.”

With Wei Ping back in the fold, Li Lang regained a helper to help with his research. He even brought back the potential piece of the puzzle he had been missing. Still, they would have to wait for the other students to reach the peak of Energy Gathering before intensifying the tests and adding new variables.

Days of testing went by that turned to weeks, and then months.

Every so often, they would have Xiao Dong try again, but perhaps because he hadn’t had enough accumulation in Energy Gathering or because there really was a flaw in the Ascension Technique, he had still failed in every attempt.

However, not all things were grim. After another six months, many of the other students began catching up! Several more among them with grade two aptitude had begun to reach the peak stage of Energy Gathering. Even some of the students with grade-one aptitude were showing signs of reaching this level.

It really highlighted how powerful the Cleansing Drug was to be able to reduce the gap between aptitude levels. Normally, the difference between the two levels wouldn’t just be mere months. It would at least be in years. It was unheard of for someone with grade-one aptitude to reach the last stage before they hit twenty.

Thanks to this previous invention by Li Lang, he soon found himself with more test subjects. He was able to start control groups and test groups and bring the testing to a new level.

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