The kid had actually begun trying to compress his true essence even earlier than he had expected.
"Yeah."
Zuo Xiaoduo sounded utterly drained. "I really never imagined compressing true essence could hurt so much..."
"Hurt? Of course it hurts. It'll only hurt more and more from now on! Without treading the thorny road, how can you speak of rising above others?"
Wen Xingtian asked mildly, "How's the compression going?"
"Not bad, I guess."
Zuo Xiaoduo wore a miserable expression. "I probably haven't reached my limit yet, but I honestly can't compress it any further on my own."
That was what Zuo Xiaoduo truly thought.
There was still room below, but he really couldn't compress it any further!
What a headache.
Wen Xingtian smiled faintly. His limit? Of course he hadn't reached it.
How could someone just setting foot on the thorny road, attempting compression for the first time, possibly compress it halfway, or even a third of the way, on his own?
"One or two attempts are nothing unusual. If you can't compress it, just keep at it! This takes slow, patient grinding too!"
Wen Xingtian earnestly instructed him, "Don't worry about how long it takes, and whatever you do, don't ease up. You must compress it to your own limit, then accumulate more, then compress it again!"
"Whatever you do, don't be afraid of pain! You need to understand that the more times you do this, the stronger you'll be in the future! A martial artist's chance to lay his foundations is precisely when he's weak. That's when you have to make them firm and tamp them solid! If you only discover flaws in your foundations after you've grown powerful, you won't be able to remedy them for the rest of your life!"
Wen Xingtian patiently counseled him. "This