Bamboo Fence Thatched Cottage, the retreat's bedchamber.
Beside the bed stood a low table, bearing a Boshan Incense Burner rounded like a hill. Slender wisps of smoke curled from its openwork holes, gathering in hazy clusters that did not disperse.
Seated upright on a meditation cushion, Jiang Yi breathed and circulated his cultivation art. With each exhalation, wisps wound around his nose, twisting like flood dragons and snakes, rising and roaming to reveal the changes in his Qi.
"The Inner Peaks are rich in spiritual beauty, truly suited to cultivation. They're more than a cut above the Outer Sect."
Only after cultivating until two quarters past the hour of the Ox did Jiang Yi gather in his Divine Sense, settle his Inner Manor, and slowly open his eyes.
Several Wild Goose and Fish Lamps burned in the room, casting brilliant light into every corner.
Yet the instant Jiang Yi's eyes flickered, a keen radiance seemed to cleave the air, illusory lightning flashing past, actually overpowering the lamplight.
"Five Essence-Nourishing Pills down, and my cultivation barely increased by half a tenth. No wonder every Inner Peaks disciple craves Spirit Resources and Spirit Materials, flocking to them like ducks."
Jiang Yi gradually realized that every sliver of progress beyond the Sixth Level of Qi Refining would no longer come as easily as before.
For people such as Grandpa Yang Xun and Elder Sui of Fate-Watching Peak, cultivation stagnating at every turn and remaining stuck for decades had become commonplace.
"Thinking of it that way, the 'twenty-two years' the Heavenly Book gave me was actually praise and recognition of my talent and comprehension."
Jiang Yi belatedly realized that he was seventeen now; another twenty-two years would make him thirty-nine.
Reaching the Twelfth Level of Qi Refining at that age already placed him at