For Xia Nishang, this was an extremely agonizing choice.
If she chose to develop step by step, she would still not be old sixty years later. At just over six hundred years old, once she formed her Nascent Soul, she would certainly be able to enter an Upper Sect. If she wanted to transfer to the Eighteen Daos, the Upper Sect would not obstruct her either—it was a normal age, after all, not the kind of age that marked someone as a peerless prodigy.
But then again, forming her Nascent Soul sixty years earlier would slightly increase her chances of achieving Soul Emergence.
Although that "slight increase" could very well be wiped out by some brutal battle, it was still an increase. She would start a little farther ahead of the line—as for what would happen later, who could say?
In any case, Xia Nishang would not have chosen it at the time. Her savings were relatively substantial, at least a little better than Guyue's—women were generally better at saving money, unless they were the spendthrift sort.
But three hundred thousand Mid-Grade Spirit Stones was still an unimaginable fortune to her, something she could not possibly afford.
Then again, a 76 percent chance of Nascent Soul Formation was enough for her to take a gamble.
Even if she held on for another sixty years, her odds of Nascent Soul Formation would only reach 75 percent. During that time, she would also spend thirty to fifty thousand Mid-Grade Spirit Stones—as someone at Golden Core Peak, spending one or two thousand Mid-Grade Spirit Stones a year, just over a hundred a month, should not be considered much, right?
By then, if she wanted to raise her odds to 79 percent, she would need to spend another three hundred thousand Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.