Chapter 27: Entering the Sect

“Master, this is how I understand it…”

She explained in great detail—from how to visualize, to how to perceive spiritual energy, to how to guide the energy along the Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin, to how to establish a spiritual power circulation between the Zhangmen and Qimen points. She broke down every single detail, afraid of missing anything.

Halfway through, Lai Li’an suddenly interrupted her.

“Wait… where exactly is the Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin?”

Su Wan’er was taken aback.

The Master doesn’t know where the Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin is? No, that can’t be—Master is definitely testing my basics.

She quickly pointed at herself.

“Answering Master, the Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin starts at the Dadun point on the outside of the big toe, runs along the top of the foot…”

Lai Li’an nodded thoughtfully.

“Continue.”

Su Wan’er kept going. When she reached the part about concentrating spiritual power at the Zhangmen point, Lai Li’an interrupted again.

“Zhangmen point… where exactly is it located?”

Su Wan’er froze again.

Zhangmen is the Mu point of the Liver Meridian—the most basic acupoint knowledge. How could Master not know where the Zhangmen point is?

But she answered honestly.

“Answering Master…”

Lai Li’an nodded again, his expression giving nothing away.

From then on, Su Wan’er’s explanation was interrupted no fewer than ten times, each time with the most basic questions. She answered them one by one, but her confusion grew stronger. These questions were too fundamental—so basic that no cultivator at the Qi Refining Stage would ask them. Why was Master asking?

Then a possibility struck her: Master wasn’t really asking questions—he was guiding her to review.

He could see that although she had comprehended the technique, her foundation wasn’t solid enough. So he was using questions to force her to re-examine the fundamentals she thought she understood but only half-knew.

A warm current surged through Su Wan’er’s heart. Master’s teaching was never about condescending indoctrination, but about silent, nourishing guidance.

Even his examination was so subtle that she discovered her own shortcomings while answering.

As expected of Master.

After asking the last question, Lai Li’an finally nodded with satisfaction.

Su Wan’er was reliable indeed—she explained thoroughly. Now, even with his eyes closed, he knew exactly where the spiritual power should flow and how to turn.

Lai Li’an took a deep breath, crossed his legs and sat down, closed his eyes, and adopted the posture Su Wan’er had just described.

Seeing this, Su Wan’er immediately held her breath, afraid to make a sound.

Was Master about to… demonstrate for her?

She didn’t dare disturb him. She quietly moved to the side, giving him more space. Then she sat down cross-legged, ready to carefully observe her Master’s demonstration.

Then a day passed.

Su Wan’er blinked her tired eyes. Master remained in that posture, completely motionless, without any spiritual power fluctuation, without any change in aura—like a stone. But she didn’t dare relax; she kept staring.

Three days passed.

Su Wan’er’s eyelids began to droop. As a Foundation Establishment cultivator, going three to five days without sleep was nothing—but staring at a motionless person for three days was mentally exhausting, far more draining than physical fatigue.

Seven days passed.

Su Wan’er began to wonder if she had misunderstood. What exactly was Master demonstrating? Why couldn’t she see anything? Was it that his realm was too high, and she wasn’t even qualified to observe? Was Master actually cultivating?

Fifteen days passed.

Su Wan’er finally gave up trying to observe. She realized that Master’s cultivation and her cultivation were simply not the same thing.

So Su Wan’er settled down in the cave. She began to cultivate, continuing to comprehend the Primordial Five Elements Scripture.

On the thirtieth day, she suddenly noticed a very faint aura emanating from Master’s body. If she hadn’t been watching continuously for so long and become intimately familiar with every shift of spiritual energy in the cave, she wouldn’t have sensed it at all.

It was spiritual energy flowing! No—wait. Master seemed clumsy, as if he had just learned how to absorb it.

On the fortieth day, Su Wan’er had grown accustomed to this routine. Master made frequent mistakes during his cultivation, but later he would correct them. She thought he was showing her the wrong methods so she wouldn’t make the same errors.

On the fiftieth day, Su Wan’er’s cultivation broke through to the Foundation Establishment Peak. She gained a deeper understanding of the Way of the Five Elements.

She looked up at Lai Li’an. He still sat in a meditative trance, motionless, his handsome face devoid of any expression.

Su Wan’er began to feel uneasy. Master had been in trance for so long, completely still. If not for the faint layer of spiritual power still slowly circulating, she might have suspected that Master had…

On the sixtieth day, morning sunlight streamed through a crack in the cave ceiling, falling on Lai Li’an’s face. Su Wan’er saw his eyelashes twitch.

“Mas… ter?”

Su Wan’er suddenly prostrated herself on the ground, curling into a small ball like a guilty little animal.

“Disciple is truly foolish! Master went into trance for sixty days, personally demonstrating the Way of Taichu, yet Disciple only broke through to the Foundation Establishment Peak. Disciple… Disciple is unworthy of Master’s teachings! Please punish me!”

After saying this, she buried her head even lower.

Lai Li’an opened his eyes and took in the scene.

What sixty days? He felt like he had only closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, it was like this.

He closed his eyes again and felt the spiritual power running through his body—an extremely thin, greenish-blue current slowly rotating in his dantian.

The current moved slowly, but it was not a false spiritual power converted from Fantasy Value. It was real, the very first thread of spiritual energy he, Lai Li’an, had cultivated himself.

Lower-grade Wood Spiritual Root. Qi Induction. Success!

Lai Li’an lowered his head and looked at his slightly trembling hands.

Three years—he had waited a full three years. He was finally a true cultivator.

“Hahahaha!”

His laughter exploded in the cave.

Su Wan’er was startled by the sudden sound, trembling all over. She didn’t know why Master was laughing.

It must be that her stupidity had disappointed Master to the extreme—he was laughing out of anger.

Su Wan’er’s eyes reddened. Tears dripped onto the stone floor with a patter.

“Master… Disciple knows her mistake… Disciple truly knows her mistake…”

Lai Li’an’s laughter stopped abruptly. He covered his mouth and pressed down hard on the corners of his lips.

No, this was too hard—how could he possibly hold back his laughter? He gave up and looked down at Su Wan’er, still prostrate on the ground.

This girl—breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Peak in sixty days. If that speed got out, it would scare every cultivator in the entire Cangwu Realm to death.

And she thought she was too slow, kneeling here begging for punishment? Just because she thought he was teaching her, and that he should have reached the Golden Core before she woke up?

Lai Li’an sighed inwardly. He wasn’t teaching at all—this was all her own achievement.

He cleared his throat and slowly let the smile fade from his face, resuming his usual indifferent expression.

“Wan’er.”

Su Wan’er’s shoulders trembled. She didn’t dare lift her head.

“Do you know why Venerable Self went into trance for sixty days?”

Su Wan’er’s sobbing paused for a moment. She cautiously raised her head, her tear-filled eyes seeing her Master sitting cross-legged, a trace of unsuppressed smile still lingering on his face.

“Disciple… does not know.”

She answered honestly.

“You took sixty days to break through from Late Foundation Establishment to Foundation Establishment Peak. Do you know how long it takes an ordinary cultivator to go from Late Foundation Establishment to Foundation Establishment Peak?”

Su Wan’er was silent for a moment, then replied,

“At least three years, at most ten. For those with poor talent, twenty or thirty years might not even touch that bottleneck.”

Lai Li’an’s gaze fell on her face, and he nodded.

“You took sixty days. You retrained in a Heavenly-grade technique, from scratch. Sixty days to break through the realm. And then you kneel here and tell Venerable Self that you are stupid?”

Tears still clung to Su Wan’er’s cheeks, but she seemed frozen. Then she explained,

“But Master gave me so many resources and personally taught me how to cultivate. And I only broke through one small realm—isn’t that stupidity?”

“The path of cultivation has never been about speed above all else.”

Lai Li’an spoke slowly.

“The foundation of the Primordial Five Elements Scripture is not speed, but stability. Wood bends and straightens; it governs growth. Trees never compete for a single morning or evening. For a tree to grow into a towering giant takes centuries or millennia, but its roots—from the moment the seed breaks the ground—are already driving deep. You broke through to Foundation Establishment Peak in sixty days. That is already very fast.”

He paused, his tone turning slightly heavier.

“Did you think that Venerable Self went into trance for sixty days waiting for you to break through to the Golden Core?”

Su Wan’er’s body trembled again. She had indeed thought that.

“Venerable Self went into trance for sixty days to give you time.”

Lai Li’an’s gaze shifted from her face to the morning light streaming through the crack in the cave ceiling.

“Time for you to discover for yourself that you were moving too fast.”

Su Wan’er stared blankly at her Master’s profile. The morning light outlined the gentle contours of his handsome face, making his features appear extraordinarily beautiful.

“Venerable Self took you as a disciple not because of your talent or how fast you cultivate.”

Lai Li’an’s voice drifted over, calm and light.

“But because when you carried that wild boar into the Thunder Tribulation, you didn’t look back.”

“That person who carried the boar without looking back,” Lai Li’an turned to look at her, a faint smile curling at the corner of his mouth, “would never deny herself just because her breakthrough was slow.”

“So stop kneeling.”

Su Wan’er remained kneeling, tears streaming uncontrollably. But her lips curved upward—she laughed through her tears, then cried through her laughter. Her face was a mess, utterly disheveled.

Lai Li’an watched her alternating between crying and laughing and shook his head helplessly.

“Get up.”

Su Wan’er roughly wiped her face with her sleeve and stood up. Her nose was red, but her back was ramrod straight. She finally understood one thing.

Master had never looked down on her. It was she who had always looked down on herself.

“Master.”

Su Wan’er said firmly.

“Disciple understands. From now on, Disciple will not deny herself. Disciple is Master’s disciple. Master has never been wrong about anyone, so Disciple cannot be wrong about herself either.”

She bowed deeply.

Lai Li’an looked at her and nodded slightly, but in his mind he was thinking: This girl really knows how to follow the flow.

But come to think of it, what did she say just now? Sixty days to break through from Late Foundation Establishment to Foundation Establishment Peak? And with a retrained technique, starting from scratch?

Lai Li’an glanced at the hair-thin greenish-blue spiritual power in his dantian, then thought about Su Wan’er’s cultivation progress. The corner of his mouth twitched.

Oh well. Comparing yourself to others will only make you furious.

He was the Master. The Master didn’t need to compare cultivation with his disciple. What made the Master stronger than the disciple was… was…

Was acting. That’s right, acting.