Inside the Room of Requirement, Zhang Xiao slowly opened his eyes. The golden light covering his body gradually receded until it vanished.
Two inches and nine tenths.
Once the golden light reached that thickness, Zhang Xiao felt as though he had hit a bottleneck, one that held him firmly in place.
He clicked his tongue, a little disappointed, but not impatient.
There had to be a reason three inches of golden light was a strict requirement. The key was figuring out what that last tenth of an inch represented.
Counting back, it had been almost two years since he learned who his parents really were. He had spent the first six months sitting in meditation, cultivating stillness.
He had only truly practiced the Golden Light Spell for a little over a year.
That pace would be considered astonishing even within the Daoist Order. Zhang Xiao had not even dared tell his father about it yet, afraid of giving him a fright.
The one inch and eight tenths of golden light he had achieved over summer break had already left his parents itching to send another round of "Moments" posts to everyone they knew.
Two inches and nine tenths...
Wouldn't they cover Dragon-Tiger Mountain in little loudspeakers and broadcast it every day?
Thinking of his father, who constantly swung between dependable and completely unreliable, Zhang Xiao could not help laughing.
He stood up, loosened his body, and settled his mood before returning to the question.
Where exactly was that last tenth of an inch lacking?
Hmm... the Golden Light Spell cultivates both nature and life. As Dad put it, life is the wick, and nature is the lamp oil.
The golden light is merely the "lamplight" produced by nature and life.
*The main reason I cultivated so quickly was my experience