The Mystery of the Bottleneck

Luo Hong swallowed Yellow Dragon Pills one after another, his cultivation rising at a steady pace as he steadily comprehended the Silver Runes within the meridians of his foundational cultivation technique.

But the good times did not last. Less than a month later, an accident occurred while Luo Hong was refining the medicinal power of a Yellow Dragon Pill. The new Magic Power that should have entered his Dantian was forced out and then dissipated.

Luo Hong glanced at his current Mana Limit: 500. He was only 11 Mana Limit short of the peak of the Qi Refining Eighth Layer.

"So I've encountered a bottleneck. Wonderful!"

Cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage generally encountered bottlenecks at the three thresholds of advancing from the fourth layer to the fifth, the eighth to the ninth, and the twelfth to the thirteenth.

If they could not break through, they could not advance further. Throughout history, countless Cultivators had seen their path to Foundation Establishment cut off before these three barriers. Though bottlenecks had not yet become something that made people pale at the mere mention of them, no one could possibly be happy to encounter one.

Yet Luo Hong regarded the bottleneck as an exceedingly rare research opportunity. He had not felt any obstruction when advancing from the fourth layer to the fifth, which had disappointed him at the time. Now, he had finally caught one.

"I knew it. With my Fourth-grade Spirit Root aptitude, how could I possibly never encounter a bottleneck? I was worrying for nothing before."

In fact, from the data alone, one could tell that a so-called bottleneck was simply the phenomenon of a Cultivator being unable to reach the Mana Limit required to break through to the next realm through normal cultivation.

When Luo Hong had happened to attend a lecture at the Transmission Hall before, he had heard several common methods for breaking through bottlenecks. Every bit of experience left by those predecessors confirmed his conclusion.

The best method was to take pills. By consuming a Pill with potent medicinal power and using the Mana Limit gained over a Short Period of Time, one could forcibly break through the bottleneck.

The second method was to purify one's own Magic Power, spending a great deal of time polishing and refining it over and over. When the time came, the bottleneck would naturally be broken.

All Qi Refining Stage Cultivators who encountered bottlenecks would choose to take pills, but reality forced the vast majority of them onto the path of purifying their Magic Power. This was also why there were so many Qi Refining Stage old men with pure Magic Power in Yellow Maple Valley.

Having figured out what a bottleneck was, the next questions were:

Why was a Cultivator's Mana Limit restricted?

Why did Cultivators with superior Spirit Root aptitude not encounter bottlenecks?

These two questions were Not Difficult to answer. As everyone knew, the Qi Refining Stage was actually the period during which Cultivators tempered and strengthened their Dantians.

Thus, the inability to raise one's Mana Limit naturally meant that the Cultivator's Dantian could no longer hold any more Magic Power.

Spirit Root aptitude, meanwhile, determined the initial purity of a Cultivator's Magic Power. Taking Luo Hong's Fourth-grade Spirit Root as an example, he absorbed four types of the Five Elements Spiritual Qi during cultivation. Compared with a Second-grade Spirit Root that absorbed only two types of Spiritual Qi, when cultivating the same technique, the Magic Power Luo Hong refined contained somewhat more impurities.

In Other Words, the better one's Spirit Root aptitude, the higher the Mana Purity of the Magic Power cultivated by a Cultivator.

And the higher the Mana Purity, the greater the actual amount of Magic Power a Dantian of the same size could hold. Thus, Cultivators with superior aptitude naturally would not encounter bottlenecks.

Then, for the sake of future cultivation, should I begin consciously purifying my Magic Power?

Luo Hong could not help sinking into such thoughts.

For other Cultivators, this was not something they needed to consider at all. Pills that could help break through bottlenecks were simply too scarce. Failing to purify one's Magic Power was equivalent to giving up the path of cultivation.

The reason Luo Hong hesitated was because he thought of those seniors in Yellow Maple Valley whose cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment stage, yet who were trapped by the Foundation Establishment bottleneck.

They were basically all Cultivators with Second-grade Spirit Roots. With their aptitude and their long years of tempering their own Magic Power, their Magic Power should have been quite pure. Yet they still could not break through. Why?

Clearly, besides Mana Purity, there had to be other limiting conditions!

On further thought, the issue was very likely the size of the Dantian.

Because when Mana Purity was difficult to alter, the only thing that could significantly raise the Mana Limit was the size of the Dantian.

The size of one's Dantian was related only to one's physique. Other than the few Dharma Bodies that existed, there should only be minor differences between the Dantians of individual Cultivators.

Although Cultivators with Second-grade Spirit Roots encountered very few bottlenecks throughout their cultivation, they might only have expanded their Dantians when establishing their foundations, since there had been no need at other times. This ultimately made it difficult for their Mana Limits to meet the requirements of the next realm.

Of course, at this stage, some Cultivators would always realize this problem and attempt to expand their Dantians. But why did so few of them succeed?

Could it be that expanding the Dantian was not so easy?

Luo Hong felt it was necessary to conduct an experiment, so he swallowed another Yellow Dragon Pill.

This Time, instead of storing every bit of Magic Power he refined into his Dantian, he let it continue circulating through his meridians along with the Spiritual Qi. In the end, he crammed all 6 points of refined Magic Power into his Dantian at once.

Luo Hong was 11 points of Magic Power short of a breakthrough. Though these 6 points could not Let Him break through, they did push his Dantian beyond its current carrying limit, causing it to expand slightly.

However, the Next Moment, the Dantian began to contract. The 6 points of Magic Power Luo Hong had forcibly stuffed inside were quickly expelled.

"So it reacts like this. In that case, if I Want To expand the Dantian, I must continuously feed it Magic Power and keep it in an expanded state for a long time, until it finally reaches a stable state.

The amount of Magic Power supplied cannot be less than the amount expelled by the Dantian, or it will be useless. How am I supposed to accomplish that?"

Luo Hong quickly came up with the simplest method: consume a Pill with extremely potent medicinal power, refine part of its medicinal power and forcibly cram it into the Dantian, then continuously refine the remaining medicinal power into Magic Power and replenish it, just as in normal cultivation.

"To maintain the balance and gain the greatest benefit, I need to collect more data."

After Speaking, Luo Hong swallowed another Yellow Dragon Pill. This time, he first forcibly stuffed in 2 points of Magic Power. After they had all been expelled, he forcibly stuffed in another 4 points.

The result was obvious. The more Magic Power he forcibly crammed in, the faster the Dantian expelled it.

"Fortunately, I cultivate using the Great Method of Spiritual Pressure. The Internal Spirit Pressure in my meridians is stable, so the amount of Magic Power refined per unit of time is fixed. Otherwise, it would really be difficult to control."

After making a series of calculations, the result was shocking.

Even with the Great Method of Spiritual Pressure accelerating his cultivation speed by more than twenty times, Luo Hong could barely maintain his Dantian at 10 points above its limit!

That did not mean he could break through after doing this twice. The first time, he could exceed the limit by 10 points, but once the Dantian expanded, he likely would not even be able to maintain 1 point over the limit the next time.

According to this calculation, it was simply impossible for any Cultivator to break through a bottleneck by swallowing pills. Yet reality told Luo Hong that taking pills was the easiest method of breaking through bottlenecks.

Practice was the sole criterion for testing truth, and data did not lie. That meant Luo Hong had overlooked some crucial factor!

This unknown factor could provide the missing portion of cultivation speed when a Cultivator broke through a bottleneck.