Quite a few people had been hung up on how the protagonist's two disciples advanced through the Third Realm too quickly.
Perhaps too much time had passed, and many readers had forgotten that cultivation in the Taiyan Third Realm came with a time limit. Third Realm cultivation did not rely on accumulated time; it depended entirely on talent. Once cultivation began, the clock started. Those who could achieve it would achieve it; those who could not would remain stuck in place forever.
All told, cultivators were given no more than three hundred years or so—roughly speaking, in this world. It could only be less, never more.
That was why, when explaining Xiao Zhu, there was a line saying that because of matters in the West Continent, he had never begun fusing the 'Sky-Veiling Talisman.' Xuan Ling and Xia Weny, meanwhile, had already completed the first half of their cultivation and entered the stage of 'Nothing,' so the timing was just right.
As for cultivation in the latter half, all they needed was to complete their Primordial Spirit cultivation. A talented cultivator could succeed within sixty years, not to mention the assistance of the formations provided by the protagonist.
Completion was only the beginning. The latter half of the Taiyan Talisman mostly introduced methods for reaching the Fourth Realm; the preparations for advancement were the truly difficult part.
Back then, with Xiao Shan's formation, the protagonist had solved the fusion problem in twenty years!
All right, that's all.