Zhao Xintong walked along the field ridge, her steps somewhat heavy.
For a cultivator in the Bridge Linking Realm, this little weight amounted to nothing; what truly weighed on her was her own future, shrouded in dense fog.
She was twenty-three by traditional reckoning this year, and only three short months remained before the academy's stipulated deadline for leaving. Time was running out.
Yet she simply could not take that final step.
This was not something that could be forced. In most cases, cultivators had their own premonition of whether they would succeed; she did not even feel the impulse to advance to the next realm, let alone attempt it lightly.
The prerequisite for an attempt was the impulse to advance.
Over several years of study at the academy, she had learned a great deal and had grown very fond of its atmosphere of investigating the profound mysteries of Daoist arts. But she could not stay here forever. Too many inescapable constraints bound everyone.
She had already worked very hard. Knowing that Daoist Xi lived a quiet, unworldly life without any source of income, and that her two sisters also had necessary cultivation expenses, she had refused any further financial support from Daoist Xi after coming to the Red Leaf Daoist Academy, apart from some hand-sewn clothing that expressed her affection. Through her own hard work, she paid every expense herself.
But Heaven did not loosen its net merely because she worked hard. Plenty of people at the Red Leaf Daoist Academy had it harder than she did, and their outcomes would not change in the slightest either.
There were many second-generation cultivators at the Red Leaf Daoist Academy, but those from the grassroots always outnumbered them. Elimination began at Pulse Movement: failing to reach Qi Gathering, failing to achieve