Despite countless failures, Li Xingkong kept trying.
Even for someone with Spiritual Qi energy, this level of control is quite difficult. Moreover, he has to concentrate all his energy and meticulously construct a single hexagram for dozens of days.
This intense training was a considerable test for Li Xingkong. Even though he prided himself on his rigorous daily training, comparable to that of an ascetic, it paled in comparison to the training he had undergone in the past few days.
Every failed attempt to construct the hexagrams meant starting all over again; the difficulty of building the hexagrams was clearly greater than he had imagined.
From an outsider's perspective, Li Xingkong- legged, looking like a stone statue, showing no signs of being alive.
He sat motionless for a long time; if this weren't on the moon, Li Xingkong would be covered in dust by now.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Xingkong, who had been sitting like a stone statue, finally opened his eyes.
"It's done! It's finally done!"
At this moment, only two words kept repeating in his mind. After countless failures, Li Xingkong finally completed the construction of the basic unit of hexagrams.
With the initial success, the subsequent construction became much easier. Everything is difficult at the beginning, but once this final step is achieved, the subsequent construction is a piece of cake.
With the basic components completed, Li Xingkong was overjoyed and could finally move on to the next step.
The cultivation of the Foundation Establishment is time-consuming. In the process of constant failures and rebuilding, Li Xingkong dared not think about how much time had passed. Even though he had now completed half of the cultivation, he still hesitated when he wanted to know how long it had taken.
He was truly afraid that when he looked at the time, a century would have passed, and all the people he knew would have become wasted years.
At this moment, he felt a sense of trepidation, like someone returning home with mixed feelings; however, he was facing the passage of time.
After hesitating for a while, he couldn't resist. After all, whether he looked or not, time had already passed, and not daring to look would only be self-deception.
"One year and seven months."
After learning from his biological clock how much time had passed during his cultivation session, Li Xingkong felt somewhat dazed.
This time, he was truly in seclusion for cultivation. In his mind, only a short moment had passed, but when he emerged from seclusion, the sheer passage of time still greatly shocked him.
The saying "There is no time for spiritual practice" has once again profoundly impressed upon him the cruelty of this statement.
He secluded himself here, remaining detached from worldly affairs for nearly two years, all so that he could Foundation Establishment.
Two years is a very long time for a person; long enough for a person's personality to change drastically and their life to be altered.
But for a spiritual practitioner, two years might only mean a short period of spiritual practice, with absolutely no communication or interaction with people or events.
No wonder some people criticize those who have cultivated for hundreds or thousands of years for their seemingly unrecognizable mental maturity.
That's the problem. A retreat can last for years. You might be quite adept at dealing with people before, but after a retreat, you might have to think twice about what to say.
Spiritual practice is inherently a solitary path; it is antisocial in nature. The more one practices, the further one is from social interaction. This also means that the mind of a spiritual practitioner will not become more emotionally intelligent as commonly believed.
When the weak plead with the strong, and two equals interact, that's where emotional intelligence truly shines.
For the strong, emotional intelligence is unnecessary. Take the Russian's arrogant smile when judging Russia small countries, for example. What emotional intelligence could he possibly have? But he is strong, and because he is strong, he acts recklessly.
More than two years have passed since this cultivation began, and Li Xingkong is only one step away from entering the Foundation Establishment. So he only breathed a brief sigh of relief before quickly immersing himself in constructing the Hexagram.
Although the most difficult part of constructing the Hexagram is over for him now, there is still a lot of work to be done. If he doesn't seize every moment, Li Xingkong is really afraid that by the time he comes out of seclusion, the world will have already fought three wars.
The Hexagram in the Book of Changes are divided into eight types: Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Li, and Dui.
Li Xingkong doesn't need to construct all eight Hexagram at once; he only needs to construct any one of them first.
These eight Hexagram each have their own strengths, which distinguishes them from modern supercomputers that only pursue speed.
Modern supercomputing still prioritizes speed, and research tends to focus on increasing speed. This direction of research is not wrong, but blindly pursuing speed is not comprehensive. It can only be said that once the speed is increased, the help that computers can provide to people will be greater.
Each of the eight different Hexagram pursues a slightly different direction.
The Qian Hexagram is associated with creative work and has a significant advantage in researching and developing new spells and techniques. The Kun Trigram, on the other hand, excels at continuous calculations, such as long-term monitoring of something or undertaking a task that may last for millions of years.
Each Hexagram has its own strengths based on its different meanings, and these strengths are similar to the attributes found in nature. The combination of Hexagram and attributes forms the existing Hexagram structure.
For Li Xingkong at present, his requirements for Hexagram are still relatively focused.
He doesn't need to calculate the rapid Zhen Trigram, nor does he need the Li Trigram, which excels at explosive power. His current cultivation and the known follow-up matters he needs to handle are all geared towards creation and development.
Whether it's generating Spiritual Qi later or advancing in cultivation, a strong learning ability is required.
The system contains all the knowledge needed for the subsequent steps, which already saves Li Xingkong a lot of trouble. He doesn't need to go through the trouble of finding cultivation manuals, nor does he need to engage in scheming and fighting with others.
Therefore, what he needs most right now is the Qian Hexagram.
Qian represents Heaven, and it has many interesting meanings. However, Li Xingkong chose to construct the Qian Hexagram first mainly because he values its creative and learning capabilities.
Although the Qian Hexagram's calculation ability is not as fast as one might imagine, it has a unique design in terms of creativity.
If we had to make a comparison, it would be more like J.A.R.V.I.S. from Iron Man.
Throughout the film, although Iron Man is portrayed as a very intelligent character, he only acts as a commander-in-chief. All the feasibility studies and specific research processes are carried out by his artificial intelligence after he issues the orders.
The role of the Qian Hexagram is this: although it does not possess its own intelligence, when Li Xingkong needs to create something, such as designing a new spell, as long as he has a general idea and the desired result, he can directly give it to the Qian Hexagram for calculation and design.
All he needed to do was wait for the result.