jdhmnovel Chapter 234 The Bottleneck of Cultivation
Chapter 234 The Bottleneck of Cultivation
After the sect gradually returned to peace, the relationship between Yun Yao and Chu Mochen quietly fell into a subtle dilemma. They both clearly felt that the deep feelings in each other's hearts continued to heat up in countless life and death experiences. However, this feeling was like a double-edged sword, which brought sweetness and warmth, but also made them worried. They knew that on the road of cultivation, cultivation was the key to the peak, and the rise and fall of the sect was a heavy responsibility on their shoulders. If they were not careful, feelings could become interference and shackles.
Yun Yao was entangled in this. She often wandered alone on the path behind the sect in the quiet night, looking at the starry sky, with a lot of thoughts in her mind. She thought of the bits and pieces of fighting side by side with Chu Mochen, the hands tightly held in the moments of life and death, and the affectionate eyes that met inadvertently, all of which made her heart ripple. However, every time she tried to devote more energy to cultivation, Chu Mochen's figure appeared involuntarily in her mind, which made it difficult for her to calm down completely, and she fell into a contradictory and painful situation.
And Chu Mochen is no different? In his own practice chamber, he often stares at the wall in a daze, and the sword in his hand seems to have lost its former sharpness. He knows that the road of practice is long and difficult, and every step cannot allow for any distraction, and the future of the sect requires them to go all out. However, Yun Yao's every smile, every move is like a brand deeply engraved in his heart, lingering. He is worried that once his emotions overflow, it will not only affect his progress in practice, but may also have a negative impact on Yun Yao. After all, in this world of cultivation, the strong are respected, and strength is the foundation of survival and protection of loved ones.
Just as they were troubled by their feelings and fell into a dilemma, Yun Yao also encountered an unprecedented bottleneck in her cultivation. Since she was promoted to the middle stage of the foundation-building realm, time has passed quietly, but her cultivation seems to have fallen into a quagmire and stagnated. Every day, she is immersed in boring cultivation, following the previous cultivation methods, guiding the spiritual power to flow slowly in the meridians, trying to impact a higher realm. However, no matter how hard she tries, the improvement of her spiritual power is minimal, just like a trickle trying to break through a solid dam, but always helplessly returning to the starting point after the collision.
She had tried to practice in seclusion. In that small and quiet seclusion room, Yun Yao eliminated all distractions and devoted herself to practice. She didn't eat or drink, didn't sleep, and completely immersed herself in the ocean of spiritual power, feeling every fluctuation of spiritual power and capturing the possible breakthrough opportunity. However, she tried again and again, but was disappointed again and again. Her meridians seemed to have reached saturation. No matter how much spiritual power she absorbed from the outside world, she could not further widen and strengthen them.
Yun Yao felt extremely frustrated and confused. She began to doubt her talent for cultivation and even wavered in her future cultivation path. In the sect's Sutra Library, she flipped through countless ancient books and secrets, trying to find cases similar to hers or methods to break through bottlenecks. Those ancient volumes exuded an old atmosphere. She read them word by word, not missing any possible clues. However, she gained very little. Most secrets only talked about breaking through the bottleneck of the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm in general, and did not provide any substantial solutions.
She had also consulted other disciples in the sect, but they either looked confused or gave some conventional suggestions, such as strengthening the absorption of spiritual power and tempering the toughness of the meridians. However, Yun Yao had tried these methods countless times and they could not solve the dilemma she was facing. In the sect's training ground, she saw that the disciples were steadily improving one by one. Some broke through the realm and cheered; some made slow progress but also showed obvious progress. Only she seemed to be forgotten by time, trapped in the cage of the middle stage of the foundation building realm, unable to break free.
Yun Yao's mood gradually became low, she began to become silent, and her eyes, which used to be lively, lost their luster. She often sat alone in the corner of the sect, staring at the mountains in the distance, her heart full of uncertainty and confusion about the future. She knew that if she could not break through this bottleneck, not only would her strength remain at this stage forever, and she would not be able to gain a foothold in the world of cultivation, but she might also become a burden to the sect, failing the expectations and trust of the sect elders.
However, Yun Yao was not completely defeated by the predicament. After a period of depression, her indomitable character gradually prevailed. She told herself that no matter how great the difficulties and setbacks were, she must not give up. Since conventional methods did not work, she had to find new ways. So, she decided to ask the seniors in the sect for advice. These seniors had experienced many hardships on the road of cultivation and possessed rich experience and profound wisdom. Perhaps they could point out the direction for her.
She first visited an elder who lived in seclusion in the depths of the sect. The elder had white hair and a kind face, but his eyes revealed a deep wisdom. Yun Yao told the elder about her predicament with trepidation, and the elder listened quietly and nodded slightly. After Yun Yao finished speaking, the elder pondered for a moment and slowly said: "Girl, the road of cultivation is full of ups and downs and challenges. The bottleneck you encountered is not accidental, but a test that every cultivator may face in the process of growth. In this middle stage of the foundation building stage, the expansion of the meridians and the transformation of spiritual power are the key. Although there is nothing wrong with your conventional cultivation method, it ignores the integration of spiritual power and state of mind."
Yun Yao's heart moved, and she quickly asked, "Elder, what is the fusion of spiritual power and state of mind? Please explain it clearly."
The elder smiled and said, "The so-called fusion of spiritual power and state of mind means that you should cultivate your state of mind while cultivating your spiritual power. Your state of mind is like a container, and your spiritual power is the water in it. The size and quality of the container determine the capacity and purity of the water. Your current bottleneck is that the improvement of your state of mind has not kept up with the accumulation of spiritual power. In the process of cultivating spiritual power, you need to comprehend the way of heaven and earth, understand your mind and see your nature, so that your state of mind and spiritual power complement each other and improve together."
Yun Yao nodded thoughtfully. She seemed to have grasped some key points vaguely, but it was not clear enough. Then, she went to visit another senior who was good at formations and runes. This senior lived in a building covered with runes and formations. The spiritual power fluctuations around him showed a strange rhythm. Yun Yao respectfully asked the senior for a way to break through the bottleneck. The senior looked at her and said, "You can try to use the power of the formation to sort out the meridians and purify the spiritual power. In a specific formation, the flow of spiritual power will be more orderly, which can help you find the blockages in the meridians and clear them. At the same time, the power of runes can also be used to engrave on the meridians to enhance the toughness of the meridians and the conductivity of spiritual power."
As the senior spoke, he drew a simple formation pattern on the ground and explained the principles and mysteries to Yun Yao. Yun Yao listened carefully, staring at the formation on the ground, memorizing it silently in her heart. She realized that this was a brand new way of thinking, which might bring a turning point to her own cultivation.
After visiting many predecessors, Yun Yao gained a lot. She sorted out the suggestions and methods of the predecessors one by one, combined with her actual situation, and developed a new training plan. She decided to start with the cultivation of her state of mind. Every morning, she would come to the spiritual spring on the back mountain of the sect and sit in meditation. In that quiet environment, she closed her eyes, emptied her mind, felt the surrounding grass, trees, mountains and water, and tried to integrate her state of mind with the world. She listened to the singing of birds, the tinkling of springs, and felt the gentle touch of the breeze across her cheeks, letting her heart gradually calm down, like a calm lake, reflecting the true appearance of all things in the world.
While cultivating her mind, Yun Yao also began to set up formations. With the knowledge she learned from the senior who was good at formations, she carefully set up a small spirit gathering formation and meridian combing formation in her own practice room. The spirit gathering formation can gather more external spiritual power and provide sufficient energy support for her practice; the meridian combing formation follows a specific spiritual power running route to help her clear the blockages in the meridians and make the flow of spiritual power smoother.
In order to engrave runes on the meridians, Yun Yao spent a lot of time studying the way of runes. She selected several runes suitable for her in the rune pavilion of the sect, such as the "Spirit Gathering Rune" to enhance the absorption of spiritual power, the "Vajra Rune" to strengthen the toughness of the meridians, and the "Spiritualization Rune" to promote the transformation of spiritual power. Every day, she would use her spiritual power to draw these runes on special rune paper, and then carefully integrate the power of the runes into her meridians. This process was painful and difficult. The fusion of the rune power and the meridians was like a flame burning in the meridians, causing her to feel severe pain. But Yun Yao gritted her teeth and persevered with her tenacious willpower.
As time went by, Yun Yao gradually felt the changes in herself. Her state of mind became more stable, and she was no longer easily disturbed by external factors as before. When cultivating spiritual power, she could feel the flow of spiritual power in her meridians more clearly, and could guide and control it according to her will. The effect of the meridian combing array gradually emerged. She found that the blockages in the meridians were gradually unblocked under the action of the array, and the speed of absorbing and storing spiritual power was significantly accelerated. The runes engraved on the meridians also began to work. Her meridians became more resilient, the loss of spiritual power when it flowed through them was greatly reduced, and the conversion efficiency was also significantly improved.
During one of her training sessions, Yun Yao was pleasantly surprised to find that her spiritual power had finally broken through the bottleneck that had not been loosened for a long time and began to slowly improve. She was overjoyed, but she did not dare to slack off at all, and continued to immerse herself in her training to consolidate this hard-earned breakthrough. After a period of hard work, she successfully advanced from the middle stage of the foundation building realm to the late stage of the foundation building realm.
When she walked out of the cultivation chamber and felt the surging spiritual power in her body, a confident and determined smile appeared on her face. She knew that this breakthrough was not only an improvement in strength, but also an important growth in her cultivation. She understood that when facing difficulties and challenges, she could not blindly stick to the old methods, but should be brave to explore and actively seek new ideas and ways. At the same time, she also realized more deeply that the cultivation of the state of mind is as important as the improvement of strength. Only when the state of mind and spiritual power are integrated with each other can she go further and more steadily on this path of cultivation.
Yun Yao's breakthrough also made everyone in the sect happy and excited. She became a role model for the disciples of the sect, inspiring them to move forward bravely on the road of cultivation without fear of difficulties. Chu Mochen was also filled with relief and joy when he saw Yun Yao regain her confidence and vitality. He knew that although their relationship still faced many tests, as long as they could continue to grow and become stronger on the road of cultivation, one day they would be able to face everything hand in hand and write their own legendary chapter together.
After this, Yun Yao was not satisfied with the status quo. She knew that the road of cultivation would never end. She would continue to work hard to cultivate and explore the deeper secrets of cultivation, contributing her own strength to the prosperity of the sect and to protecting the peace and tranquility of the cultivation world. And the relationship between her and Chu Mochen would also experience more trials and tests in the process of cultivation and growth, and bloom with more splendid brilliance.