In the blink of an eye.
Half a month passed.
On this day.
As usual, Elder Sun got up and sat on the meditation cushion in front of his thatched hut. Gazing at the clustered peaks ahead and feeling the breeze brush his face, he let out a long breath of stale air, then crossed his legs, turned his palms and soles toward the heavens, and began to sit in stillness.
He was sitting in stillness rather than cultivating for a reason.
His aptitude was mediocre. After reaching Foundation Establishment Second Layer Peak, he had hit a bottleneck. No matter how hard he cultivated, the true qi within his body would not increase in the slightest.
Yet Elder Sun was not agitated.
Encountering a bottleneck was perfectly normal, and this was not his first.
His first bottleneck had come forty years ago, when his cultivation reached the peak of the first layer of Foundation Establishment. Back then, he had suddenly discovered that no matter how he cultivated, his true qi would not grow even a fraction.
He had lacked experience then.
He had spent every day restless and irritable, even coming close to planting the seed of an inner demon.
Fortunately, the elder of Emerald Cloud Peak had suddenly died, and he had been lucky enough to be chosen as the peak's new Outer Sect elder.
Although becoming an Outer Sect elder meant there would be no room for advancement in his position for the rest of his life.
The position came with plenty of benefits.
Food and lodging were provided.
He could freely browse the cultivation manuals in the Outer Sect's Scripture Repository.
More importantly, he could refine indebted disciples into spirit essence. After handing enough spirit essence over to the Inner Sect elders, he would receive a reward