Inside the Heavenly Tomb, time slipped by. For one full year, Xiao Yan devoted every scrap of his mind to breaking through the bottleneck to One-Star Dou Sheng.
He seemed to have turned into a stone statue. From the moment he began his attempt to reach the Dou Saint Realm a year ago, he had not moved an inch. This was a towering chasm on the path of cultivation, far harder to cross than any barrier he had faced before.
The Dou Saint Realm was a formidable threshold. Even the blood essence of Dou Di descendants had no effect against it.
While Xiao Yan struggled to cross that threshold, Xun'er, Huo Zhi, and Lei Jingxiao faced the same problem.
None of them, however, could remain on the verge of a breakthrough as Xiao Yan had. About a month earlier, each had withdrawn from that all-consuming state of deep cultivation for reasons of their own.
Given their ties to Xiao Yan, Xiao Xuan did not stint on guidance for the three of them.
"Xun'er, little girl of the Ancient Clan, you had a chance to advance. The potential of a God-Tier Bloodline truly is extraordinary. But your source has suffered too great a loss, and forcing a breakthrough would do more harm than good. I have no heavenly treasure here that can restore it, so what you need now is to build up your strength before making your move. Let go of your fixation on advancing and focus on solidifying the foundation you already have. After all my years in the Heavenly Tomb, judging by talent alone, I would place you among the top three young people of the Eight Ancient Clans. But for a gifted descendant of a Dou Di, the question is how to make good on a talent