Chapter 97 The Return to the Secular Mortal World (1/2)

By the time Shen Lian stood up, Gu Caiwei had turned her head away. The moment he was on the shore, he was clothed with the feather coat. This was a spell that was akin to having an ace up one’s sleeve, and it was not a particularly special or unique spell.

After straightening his clothes out, there were wisps of black smoke surrounding him, and they went away along with the wind. The phenomenon was caused by the evaporation of the water from the River of Spirits, it was also known as spirit smoke.

According to the actual age of his physical body, he would be around thirty years old now. However, he still looked the almost same as when he first entered Qing Xuan, and there were not many differences. His features were similar to that of a young person in the mortal realm.

The days in the mountains were not calendared, and the passing of season was irrelevant. Shen Lian almost never changed.

Gu Caiwei too did not change. However, Shen Lian could pick up a hint of decaying aura. One could have an unrivaled Dao formula, and yet if one could not find a breakthrough in one’s cultivation, at the end of the day one would be no more than a set of skeleton at the end of one’s life.

It was just that Shen Lian had not even mastered the entry level of Taixu Strategy, and there was nothing that he can do to help Gu Caiwei.

If mastering the entry level was already that hard, he could only imagine how hard it would be to Baodan.

However, it was a path that he chose for himself, and he could not blame anyone for it.

Moreover, he was only faced with fifteen years of dullness; it was not as though he did not have any improvement in other areas.

Chen Jianmei had spent forty years dwelling at the door of Huandan, and that kind of torture was something that even Shen Lian would not be able to understand. Shen Lian still could cultivate the Mastery of Senses. He was convicted that if he were to cultivate the Mastery of Senses to its highest level, even if his physical body was dying, he could still exist as another life form in this world, although he might lose something because of this.

However, whenever he was visualizing deeply, he would find himself void of sadness and happiness, and all that was left were unspeakable loneliness and isolation.

By the time he pulled himself out from it, the rejection to the status would return. However, this handicap of the instillation of eight Qi into the body needed to be overcome with the help of the Art of Spiritual Enhancement.

He found himself caught in a state of dilemma. It was something that could only be solved after he had a breakthrough with the Taixu Strategy.

However, what kind of joke would it be if he were to change now and to cultivate another martial exercise?

These would not be all the obstacles and difficulties one would face on the path of Dao. If he were to take a step back now out of fear, he would be giving up tomorrow because of some other obstacles. Then, he would have attained nothing and ended up dying of old age.

Shen Lian recognized the dilemma he was in, but he did not give up easily. From the day he decided to pursue Dao, he knew that the process of cultivation was not going to be easy.

His current predicament was a lot better than the worst case scenario that he had imagined.

Gu Caiwei was facing Shen Lian. To be honest, she only said yes to formally acknowledging Shen Lian as her disciple on behalf of her master because it was a request from Zhang Ruoxu, and she held him in high regards and respect.

However, Shen Lian did have his own strengths. It was not just because of his talent or potential, but it was because of the difference between him and most of the cultivators in this world.

Generally, most cultivators thought of life as a race against time and the heavens, and they strived to make good use of every moment and refused to waste time on other people.

Moreover, as a cultivator who had not attained the state of Huandan yet, most people would be busy trying to break through the bottleneck that they were caught in. Unless absolutely necessary, they would not waste their time to offer guidance to others.

Even if they were to offer guidance, most of them did so with an ulterior motive. They would also gauge the other party’s potential and talent before helping them out.

If he was not cultivating in solitary retreat and did not have anything important to do, Shen Lian would always entertain those who asked for his help in cultivation. He would adduce his points patiently without being overly subjective, and only offered a rational analysis of things.

Regardless of their cultivation experience, Shen Lian kept a polite distance from everyone. He was only close with the few people whom he actually knew, but that was about it.

When offering guidance, Shen Lian would not take someone lightly even if they had a low level of cultivation experience.

With regards to this, Gu Caiwei saw Zhang Ruoxu’s shadow in him.

Zhang Ruoxu was not the strongest chief that Qing Xuan had, and he was not the most talented chief either. However, he was definitely the best chief there ever was.