Chapter Thirty-Seven Four Years

  Zhang Shixiong coldly swept a glance at Wang Zhuo and said, "The key to this breakthrough is indeed closely related to innate talent. Some people may succeed in one attempt, while others may need hundreds or thousands of attempts, and some may not be able to break through even in their lifetime."

  Wang Lin's face revealed a look of distress, and he suddenly asked: "Zhang Shixiong, is it that every level of breakthrough is this difficult? From second to third, from third to fourth, are they all like this?"

  "Right," said Zhang Shixiong, nodding his head. "The further back you go, the harder it gets, especially from three to four and five to six, which are even more difficult!"

  Zhang Shixiong replied at the same time, and also attracted many disciples from afar. Suddenly, a woman asked: "Shixiong, what's difficult about San Jin Si? I'm currently in the third layer of Qi Condensation."

  The speaker was Wang Lin, who knew him, and it was precisely the Zhou surname woman that Wang Zhuo had been pursuing with great difficulty.

  "Alright, I'll take this opportunity to tell you in detail about the bottleneck of the Qi Condensation stage. In the six layers below, there are two bottlenecks. One is from the third to the fourth layer. This bottleneck can be easily passed by some people, but for others, it may be impossible to break through in their lifetime. The key lies not in innate talent, but in whether one can understand the meaning of the phrase 'the Great Way is emotionless'!"

  After finishing, he looked at the crowd with a profound meaning and continued: "The cultivator must cut off the mortal dust. If it is cut off, then the three advances and four are not difficult. But if it can't be cut off, then it's hard! As for the bottleneck of five advances and six, it's because this is a qualitative change in the condensation period. The body is transformed by spiritual energy, and a series of deeper changes will take place. The consumption of spiritual energy is too huge, so it becomes a bottleneck, blocking the footsteps of most people."

  Wang Lin listened and his heart skipped a beat, he fell silent.

  The other inner disciples also had different expressions and continued to ask some questions until the sky gradually darkened, and everyone dispersed.

  Wang Lin furrowed his brow and walked towards the valley, the sound of running water beside him growing louder. Before long, a small river appeared before him.

  A faint wisp of spiritual energy emanated from the river water, and Wang Lin scooped some up to take a drink. He thought to himself that although it couldn't compare to the Spiritual Energy Spring Water, it could still somewhat increase his spiritual energy.

  He didn't say another word, took out a gourd and filled it with river water. After a long time, he finally finished filling all the gourds. As soon as he turned around, his pupils suddenly contracted, and he saw Second Brother Zhang standing behind him like a ghost. When he was filling the river water earlier, his divine sense had been observing the surroundings without finding anything unusual, but the other party had obviously been there for a long time. Wang Lin's heart sank.

  "Wang Shidi, this river water contains spiritual energy, drinking more of it will be beneficial for your cultivation. However, I see that you've prepared a lot of gourds, did you know before coming to the mountain valley that they would come in handy here?" Zhang Kuang said with flashing eyes and a low voice.

  Wang Lin quietly put away the gourd in his hand and respectfully said, "Shifu had previously informed me that the river water here is helpful for cultivation, so Shidi has prepared a lot."

  Zhang Kuang stared at Wang Lin, nodded after a long time and said: "Master Sun knows about this matter, it's normal. You can go back to cultivate now. In just two years, you've reached the first layer of the Qi Condensation stage. It seems that my junior brother has indeed made up his mind. Good! I hope that when I see you again, you'll have reached the second layer!"

  Wang Lin bowed and retreated, carefully leaving. Only after returning to the cave did he let out a breath of relief. The back of his clothes were already soaked with sweat. Fortunately, he had developed the habit of always hiding his cultivation, otherwise if the other party discovered that he had actually condensed his Qi to the third layer, they would definitely be suspicious. At that time, relying on his current strength, even if he was killed, he wouldn't have any power to fight back.

  "Cultivators are actually the same as ordinary people, they all have various desires and sometimes even more realistic and cruel than ordinary people. So I absolutely cannot let anyone know that I have a mysterious bead." Wang Lin secretly warned himself.

  He pulled the handle on the wall and sealed the cave entrance behind him. Wang Lin sat cross-legged on the ground, deep in thought.

  Logically speaking, immortals should cut off worldly desires to prevent them from affecting their cultivation. However, since he entered the Hengyue Sect, most of the immortals he saw couldn't truly eliminate their desires and were instead several times more intense than ordinary people.

  In this way, the so-called cutting off worldly dust is just a vague concept. However, according to Zhang Shixiong's words, one must cut off worldly dust in these three steps and four stages, which seems somewhat self-contradictory.

  After a long time of thinking, he still couldn't figure it out. Wang Lin acknowledged that he couldn't cut off his family ties. Fortunately, the third layer of the Condensing Qi stage was different from the previous two layers. Although he couldn't break through, his spiritual energy continued to increase. After considering for a long time, he gave up on the idea of breaking through in a short period and focused on consolidating the third layer instead.

  Time flies, one year, two years, and unknowingly, another two years have passed. Wang Lin has been in seclusion for four years on the back mountain. In the past two years, Wang Lin only went out once to replenish the river water and practiced after soaking with pearls.

  Four years in reality, twenty-five years in the dream. If you count the time before that, Wang Lin has actually been cultivating for 27 or 28 years.

  The Qi Condensation stage was still stagnant at the third layer, without a breakthrough. However, the spiritual energy within his body continued to grow non-stop.

  This was the last day of four years of cultivation. At dawn, Zhang Kuang's voice rang out from outside: "All fellow disciples, the four-year period has arrived, quickly come out, the Master is in the main hall of the sect, casting a spell to send you back!"

  All the caves on the cliff opened one by one, and the inner disciples walked out from inside.

  More than 40 people, in these four years of closed quarters, each had their own gains. Standing in the valley, Wang Lin's divine sense swept out.

  Wang Zhuo had already reached the peak of the fifth layer of Qi Condensation, and was about to step into the sixth layer. As for others, several people also had similar cultivation bases. In four years' time, everyone had made progress.

  Xu surname female also reached the third layer of condensing gas, as for Zhang Shixiong, Wang Lin condensed his spirit and took a look, the sixth layer of the condensing gas period!

  In a vague way, he had a feeling that his cultivation was somewhat different from others. First of all, it was his divine consciousness. Just now when he observed others, it seemed that no one noticed.

  Another Zhou surname woman said two years ago that she had reached the third layer of Qi condensation, but Wang Lin just found out that the other party was still wandering in the third layer, and the degree of spiritual energy inside her body had not increased by half a point.

  Wang Lin had a guess in his heart, others seemed not to be like him, the third layer was endless. Or, he had already broken through the third layer... Wang Lin's heart was racing wildly, and he suppressed this thought.