Laozi's thoughts raced. "How could you possibly cultivate magical power? There's an enormous gulf between you and that goal. Without a staircase to climb, you'll find it very hard to achieve."
Xuandu knew little about cultivation.
He had practiced the so-called martial arts methods passed down among the Human Race, yet he had never managed to cultivate magical power. He had no idea what was wrong.
Laozi saw the problem. "Your aptitude is too poor. The human body holds vast potential, but it takes a suitable method to draw that potential out."
Xuandu's face fell. "Does that mean I'll never be able to cultivate? Humans who can't cultivate live only eight hundred years.
"I can practice a breathing technique and gain a little strength, but I'll never compare to a cultivator. I still want to see the world beyond the tribe someday."
Laozi spoke with Xuandu on the surface, but his Primordial Spirit had turned to deduction. He wanted to create a cultivation method for humans whose aptitude was growing ever poorer.
Many days passed. Laozi tried countless approaches. Even in the Primordial World, what he sought to do was unprecedented. Though humans possessed Pangu's Dao body, they could still be astonishingly weak.
Unlike the Dragon Race, Phoenix Race, and Qilin, who were born with considerable power, some humans were gifted from birth—but they were growing rarer with each generation.
Humans would become increasingly ordinary. In that, Laozi saw a path: even the most ordinary person could rise to the Nine Heavens, gaining great power through cultivation.
Could I solve this by approaching it like alchemy?
The thought flashed through Laozi's mind, and he immediately began to experiment. At last, he created a method suited to the Human Race.
Deducting the method took him years. Xuandu came to visit him