“Honored Master, this is how your disciple understands it…”

She explained it in great detail. From how to visualize, to how to perceive Spiritual Qi, then to how to guide the Spiritual Qi along the Liver Meridian of Foot-Jueyin, and finally to how to establish a Spiritual Power circulation between the Zhangmen Point and the Qimen Point. She broke down and explained every single detail, afraid of missing anything.

Halfway through her explanation, Lai Li’an suddenly interrupted her.

“Wait, the Liver Meridian of Foot-Jueyin… where is it?”

Su Wan’er was stunned for a moment. Did Honored Master not know where the Liver Meridian of Foot-Jueyin was? No, how could Honored Master not know? Honored Master must be testing her fundamentals.

She hurriedly gestured on her own body with her fingers: “Answering Honored Master, the Liver Meridian of Foot-Jueyin begins at the Dadun Point1 on the lateral side of the big toe, and travels up along the dorsum of the foot…”

Lai Li’an nodded thoughtfully: “Continue.”

Su Wan’er continued explaining. When she got to how to condense Spiritual Power at the Zhangmen Point, Lai Li’an interrupted her again.

“The Zhangmen Point… where exactly is it located?”

Su Wan’er was taken aback once more. The Zhangmen Point was the Mu Point2 of the Liver Meridian, which was the most basic of acupoint knowledge. How could Honored Master not know where the Zhangmen Point was?

However, she still answered honestly: “Answering Honored Master…”

Lai Li’an nodded again, his expression showing no flaws.

Next, Su Wan’er’s explanation was interrupted by Lai Li’an no less than ten times. Every time, he asked the most basic questions. Su Wan’er answered them one by one, the doubts in her heart growing stronger. These questions were too basic, so basic that no cultivator in the Qi Condensation Stage would ask them. Why would Honored Master ask these?

She suddenly thought of a possibility: Honored Master wasn’t asking questions, he was guiding her to review.

Honored Master had seen that although she had comprehended the Cultivation Technique, her foundation was not yet solid enough, so he used questioning to force her to re-examine the basic knowledge she thought she understood, but actually only had a half-baked grasp of.

A warm current surged in Su Wan’er’s heart. Honored Master’s teaching was never a condescending inculcation, but a silent and gentle guidance.

Even his testing was done so quietly, allowing her to discover her own shortcomings through her answers.

As expected of Honored Master.

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

This girl Su Wan’er was indeed reliable and explained things in enough detail. He now knew exactly where the Spiritual Power should flow and where it should turn, even with his eyes closed.

Lai Li’an took a deep breath, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes, assuming the posture Su Wan’er had just described.

Seeing this, Su Wan’er quickly held her breath, not daring to make a single sound. Was Honored Master going to… demonstrate it for her?

Therefore, not daring to disturb him, she quietly shifted to the side to give Honored Master more space. She sat cross-legged, ready to earnestly observe Honored Master’s demonstration.

Then, one day passed.

Su Wan’er blinked her sore eyes. Honored Master still maintained that posture, completely motionless. There was no Spiritual Power Fluctuation around him, nor any change in his aura. He was like a rock, but she didn’t dare relax and kept staring.

Three days passed.

Su Wan’er’s eyelids began to droop. She was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, so going three to five days without sleep was nothing, but staring at a motionless person for three days brought a mental fatigue that was much harder to endure than physical exhaustion.

Seven days passed.

Su Wan’er began to wonder if she had misunderstood. What exactly was Honored Master demonstrating? Why couldn’t she see anything? Was Honored Master’s realm so high that she wasn’t even qualified to watch? Was Honored Master really cultivating?

15 days passed.

Su Wan’er finally gave up observing. She realized that Honored Master’s cultivation and her cultivation were not the same thing at all.

Thus, Su Wan’er settled down in the cave. She began to cultivate and continued to comprehend the Dao Scripture of the Primordial Five Elements.

On the thirtieth day, she suddenly noticed that her Honored Master’s body began to emit an extremely faint aura. If she hadn’t guarded him continuously for so long and become intimately familiar with every trace of fluctuation in the Spiritual Qi within the cave, she wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

It was the flow of Spiritual Qi! No, why did her Honored Master seem as clumsy as if he had just learned to absorb it?

On the fortieth day, Su Wan’er had grown accustomed to these days. Her Honored Master would frequently make mistakes during his cultivation, but would later correct them. She believed this was her Honored Master showing her the wrong methods so that she wouldn’t go astray.

On the fiftieth day, Su Wan’er’s Cultivation Base broke through to Peak Foundation Establishment, and she gained a deeper comprehension of the Dao of Five Elements.

She raised her head and looked at Lai Li’an. Her Honored Master still maintained his meditative posture, completely motionless, with no expression on his handsome face.

Su Wan’er started to feel a bit uneasy. Her Honored Master had been in meditation for so long without moving. If it weren’t for that layer of Spiritual Qi still slowly flowing, she would even doubt if her Honored Master had already…

On the sixtieth day, the morning sunlight filtered down through a crack in the cave roof and shone on Lai Li’an’s face. Su Wan’er saw his eyelashes flutter.

“Honored… Master?”

Su Wan’er suddenly prostrated herself on the ground, curling up into a tiny ball like a little animal that had made a mistake.

“This disciple is truly foolish. Honored Master entered meditation for sixty days to personally demonstrate the Dao of the Primordial, yet this disciple merely broke through to Peak Foundation Establishment. This disciple… this disciple is truly unworthy of Honored Master’s teachings. I beg Honored Master for punishment!”

After she finished speaking, she buried her head even lower.

Lai Li’an opened his eyes and looked at the sight before him. What sixty days? He felt like he had just closed his eyes for a brief moment, only to open them and find things like this.

He closed his eyes again to feel the Spiritual Qi circulating within his body. An incredibly fine greenish-blue airflow was slowly rotating in his Dantian.

The airflow rotated very slowly, but it wasn’t the fake Spiritual Power converted from Fantasy Points. It was genuinely the very first wisp of Spiritual Qi that he, Lai Li’an, had cultivated himself.

Low-Grade Wood Spiritual Root, Drawing Qi into the Body—it was a success!

Lai Li’an lowered his head and looked at his slightly trembling hands. Three years. He had waited a full three years, and now he was finally a true immortal cultivator.

“Hahahaha!”

The laughter exploded within the cave. Su Wan’er was so startled by this sudden laughter that her entire body trembled. She didn’t know why Honored Master was laughing.

As expected, her own stupidity had disappointed Honored Master to the extreme; Honored Master was actually so angry he was laughing.

Su Wan’er’s eyes turned red, and tears fell patter-patter onto the stone surface. “Honored Master… this disciple knows her mistake… this disciple truly knows her mistake…”

Lai Li’an’s laughter came to an abrupt halt. He covered his mouth, forcefully pressing the corners of his lips down.

No, this was too hard. How could he possibly hold back his laughter? He simply stopped suppressing it and looked down at Su Wan’er prostrated on the ground.

This girl, breaking through to Peak Foundation Establishment in sixty days, if this kind of speed were made known, it would probably scare all the cultivators in the Cangwu Realm to death.

She actually thought she was too slow, and was even kneeling here asking for punishment? Just because she thought he was teaching her, did she think she should have broken through to the Golden Core before he woke up?

Lai Li’an sighed inwardly. He wasn’t teaching at all; this was entirely her own capability.

He coughed lightly, the smile on his face slowly retracting, returning to that faint, indifferent expression.

“Wan’er.”

Su Wan’er’s shoulders trembled, not daring to raise her head.

“Do you know why this Venerable entered meditative concentration for sixty days?”

Su Wan’er’s sobbing paused for a moment. She carefully lifted her head, and through her tear-blurred vision, she saw her Honored Master sitting cross-legged, a trace of a not fully concealed smile still remaining on his face.

“This disciple… this disciple does not know,” she answered honestly.

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

Su Wan’er fell silent for a moment before answering, “At the shortest, three years; at the longest, ten years. For those with poorer talent, even twenty or thirty years might not be enough to reach that bottleneck.”

Lai Li’an’s gaze fell on her face, and he nodded. “You spent sixty days recultivating a Heaven-Grade Cultivation Technique, starting from scratch. You broke through your realm in sixty days, and yet you kneel here and tell this Venerable that you are foolish?”

Tears still hung on Su Wan’er’s cheeks, but she looked as if she had been frozen in place. She quickly explained, “But Honored Master gave me so many resources and personally guided my cultivation, yet I only broke through a minor realm. If that isn’t foolishness, what is?”

“The path of cultivation has never been about speed,” Lai Li’an said slowly. “The foundation of the Dao Scripture of the Primordial Five Elements does not lie in being fast, but in being steady. Wood is characterized by its ability to bend and straighten, governing growth and generation. The growth of a tree never fights for a single morning or evening. For a tree to grow into a towering giant, it takes hundreds or thousands of years, but its roots begin driving deep the moment the seed breaks through the soil. For you to break through to Peak Foundation Establishment in sixty days is already very fast.”

He paused, his tone sinking slightly. “Did you think this Venerable entered meditation for 60 days to wait for you to break through to the Golden Core?”

Su Wan’er’s body trembled again; she had indeed thought so.

“This Venerable entered meditation for 60 days to give you time.”

Lai Li’an’s gaze shifted away from her face, looking up at the morning light filtering down through a crack in the cave roof. “To give you time to realize for yourself that you are moving too fast.”

Su Wan’er stared blankly at her Honored Master’s profile. The morning light outlined the soft contours of his refined face, illuminating his features to peerless perfection.

“This Venerable took you in as a disciple not because of how high your talent is, or how fast you cultivate.” Lai Li’an’s faint voice drifted over. “It was because when you walked into the Lightning Tribulation carrying a wild boar, you did not look back.”

“That person who carried a wild boar without looking back,” Lai Li’an turned his head to look at her, a shallow smile curling at the corners of his lips, “would not doubt herself just because her breakthroughs were slow.”

“So, stop kneeling.”

Su Wan’er remained kneeling in place, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably, but the corners of her lips were also turning up. She laughed as she cried, and cried as she laughed, her entire face a tear-streaked, utter mess.

Lai Li’an looked at her crying and laughing appearance and shook his head somewhat helplessly.

“Stand up.”

Su Wan’er haphazardly wiped her face with her sleeve and stood up. Her nose was also red, but her back was kept perfectly straight. She had finally understood one thing.

Her Honored Master had never despised her; it was she who had always been despising herself.

“Honored Master,” Su Wan’er said firmly. “This disciple understands. From now on, this disciple will no longer deny her own worth. This disciple is Honored Master’s disciple, and Honored Master has never misjudged anyone, so this disciple cannot misjudge herself either.”

After she finished speaking, she bowed deeply.

Lai Li’an looked at her and nodded slightly, but in his heart, he was thinking:

But then again, what did she just say? Sixty days to break through from Late Foundation Establishment to Peak Foundation Establishment? And that was after re-cultivating a Cultivation Technique from scratch?

Lai Li’an looked down at the hair-thin strand of green Spiritual Qi in his Dantian, then thought about Su Wan’er’s cultivation progress, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Forget it, comparing oneself to others will only make one die of anger.

He was the Honored Master. An Honored Master didn’t need to compare his Cultivation Base with his disciple’s. Where an Honored Master was stronger than his disciple lay in… lay in…

Lay in acting skills. Right, acting skills.