nChapter 37 – Four Years

nApprentice-brother Zhang gave Wang Zhuo a cold look and said, “The key to breaking through really does have a lot to do with your talent. Some people only need a few attempts to succeed, while others need hundreds or thousands of years or never even break through in their life.”

nWang Lin revealed a melancholy expression and suddenly asked, “Apprentice-brother Zhang, is breaking through every layer this difficult? Is breaking from the 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th as hard?”

nApprentice-brother Zhang nodded, “Yes. The later the stage, the harder it is especially, the 3rd to 4th and 5th to 6th layer.”

nApprentice-brother Zhang’s answer also attracted a few other disciples. A female disciple suddenly asked, “Apprentice-brother, what is so difficult about going from the 3rd to 4th layer? I’m currently in the 3rd layer.”

nWang Lin knew the person that talked. It was the girl named Zhou that Wang Huo was pursuing.

nApprentice-brother Zhang pondered a while and said, “Fine. Just today, I’ll tell you guys about the two bottlenecks you will face below the 6th layer of Qi Condensation. The first bottleneck is from the 3rd to 4th layer. For some people, it’s very easy, but for others, it’s something they might never get past in their entire life. The key has nothing to do with talent, but in one’s ability to understand the meaning behind the phrase “the road is merciless”.”

nHe gave everyone a thoughtful look and continued, “Immortals need to cut away their mortal ties. If you can do it, then the 3rd to 4th layer is easy, if not, then it becomes hard. As for the bottleneck at the 5th to 6th layer, that is a change in the quality of spiritual energy in your body. spiritual energy slowly changes your body, and at that point, it starts making deeper changes. This requires a large amount of spiritual energy, so it became a bottleneck that blocks a lot of people.

nAfter Wang Lin finished listening, he was stunned and silently pondered.

nThe other inner disciples all had different expressions and continued to ask questions. It wasn’t until it became dark that everyone dispersed.

nWang Lin wandered into the valley, following the sound of water, frowning. Soon, a lake appeared before him.

nA faint scent of spiritual energy was emitted from the water. Wang Lin went and drank some of the water. Although it couldn’t match the spiritual energy liquid, it still contained enough to help increase his spiritual energy.

nSo he took out gourds and filled them with water, one by one. After a long time, he finally filled all of the gourds and turned around. His pupils immediately shrank as he saw second apprentice-brother standing a distance away, behind him, like a ghost. When he was filling the water he was constantly scanning the area with this divine sense, but didn’t find anything. However, it seemed that Apprentice-brother Zhang had been there for a long time. Wang Lin’s heart sank.

nZhang Kuang’s eyes lit up and said, “Brother Wang, the river does contain a lot of spiritual energy, and is good for your cultivation, but I see you have a lot of gourds prepared already. Did you already know you would need them before you came here?”

nWang Lin put away his things without any change in his expression and said, “Master had previously informed me that the river would help my cultivation, so disciple has prepared a lot.”

nZhang Kuang stared at Wang Lin for a while and said, “It’s normal for Sun Dazhu to know this. You should go back and practice. To be able to reach the first layer in only two short years, it seems junior brother is really determined. That’s good. I hope that when I seen you again, you will be at the second layer.”

nWang Lin clasped his hands and left. Only after he returned to his cave did he finally relax a bit. His clothes were soaked in sweat. Good thing he trained himself to constantly use the technique to hide his cultivation level, otherwise, if Zhang knew that he had already reached the 3rd layer, he would definitely become suspicious. If Zhang tried to kill him, he wouldn’t have the power to fight back.

nWang Lin quietly reminded himself, “Immortals are the same as mortals. There are many different types. In fact, the immortals are much more cruel than mortals, so I must not let anyone know I have this mysterious bead.”

nAfter pulling the lever to seal the cave again, Wang Lin sat down crossed legged and started to cultivate again.

nThe principle of cutting off all mortal desires and ties was to prevent these things from distracting them from their cultivation, but after entering the Heng Yue Sect, Wang Lin found that most of the immortals not only do not cut themselves off from their desires, but become even worse.

nAs a result, the term “cut off mortal desires” was a very vague expression, but according to Brother Zhang, it was the key to go from the 3rd to 4th layer, which seemed to be a contradiction.

nAfter being puzzled for a long time and still not finding any clues, Wang Lin knew that he could never cut the ties with his family. The lucky part was that the 3rd layer wasn’t like the first two layers. Even though he couldn’t break through, his spiritual energy still increased. In the end, he gave up trying to break through the to the 4th layer quickly and just kept building his spiritual energy up.

nTime quickly passed. One year, two years. Without knowing, two more years had passed. Wang Lin had been in closed door training for 4 years now. He only left the cave once more to refill with water to make into spiritual energy water for this cultivation.

nFour years in the real world resulted in 25 years in the dream space. Including the time from before the closed door training, Wang Lin had been cultivating for 27 or 28 years already.

nHis Qi Condensation level was still stuck at the 3rd layer, but the amount of spiritual energy in his body was still increasing.

nIt was the last day of the 4 years of intense training. Outside, an arrogant voice shouted, “Fellow apprentice-brothers and sisters, the 4 years are up. Come out quickly. The head is here, preparing to send you all back.”

nAll of the caves on the cliff opened up. The inner disciples made their way out from them one by one.

nWang Lin felt, with this divine sense, that these 40 plus people all had great harvests while training here in the past 4 years.

nWang Zhuo had already reached the peak of the 5th layer and was ready to break into the 6th layer. There were many others in the same situation. Everyone’s cultivation had increased a lot.

nThe girl named Xu was at the 3rd layer, and as for brother Zhang, he was already at the 6th layer!

nHe vaguely felt that his cultivation was different from everyone else’s. Just now, when he used his divine sense to scan everyone, it seemed as if no one else noticed.

nThe girl named Zhou had already said that she reached the 3rd layer two years ago, but under Wang Lin’s scan, he observed that she was still at the 3rd layer, with no growth at all.

nWang Lin had a guess. It seemed others’ 3rd layer weren’t like his, without a limit.

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