Chapter 94 — Early to Bed, Early to Rise
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"You mean I can keep breaking through?" Wei Zhao was startled too.
"If you had come in here ten years ago, and I'm not making any grand claims, but by conservative estimate you would already have broken through the third layer by now," Jiao Yazi said with a face full of regret. "As it is, at your current age, breaking through the third layer is still no great difficulty, but the older you get, the greater the obstacle grows."
"..." Wei Zhao was on the verge of tears. To think that back then his own diligence had betrayed him! After receiving *The Xuanyuan Dragon-Slaying Art*, he had set straight to cultivating with all his might, and just look where that had landed him. Had he known, he might as well have just gone to sleep!
"Ah, but don't lose heart. You won't be able to become a fearsome figure like my martial granduncle, roaming across outer space, but breaking through three layers is formidable enough," Jiao Yazi said, consoling Wei Zhao when he saw his disappointment. "Who knows, maybe you'll undergo some genetic mutation and become top-tier formidable in the blink of an eye. You never can tell."
Hearing Jiao Yazi's words, Wei Zhao did feel a little better. If things were as Jiao Yazi said, that would not be bad at all. He thought: this *Xuanyuan Dragon-Slaying Art*, cultivated only to the late stage of the first layer, had already brought him endless benefits. Then if he broke through the third layer, would he not be even more formidable? At that thought, Wei Zhao felt he need not be so greedy after all.
"You mean I have a chance to break through the first layer right now?" Now that he had talked himself around, Wei Zhao was naturally somewhat delighted.
"Naturally." Jiao Yazi nodded. "The energy contained in this space is several times, even several dozen times, that of the outside world. The speed at which you cultivate in here will also be several times that of the outside. Especially at the critical moment of a breakthrough—because the outside environment is so harsh and the energy so thin, it cannot possibly supply the immense energy needed for the instant of breakthrough. That is also an important reason why you have failed to break through time and again."
"What?" This was the first time Wei Zhao had heard of "energy." Originally, when he cultivated, he had indeed absorbed something resembling true qi from the natural world, though he had no idea what it was. Perhaps in some wuxia novel it would be called true qi, but what Jiao Yazi called it was "energy."
"Still, I'd advise you to drop the 'I' this and 'you' that and get on with your cultivation. The mechanism on that stone gate was set up by my master's uncle himself back in the day. Never mind that I'm only an illusion now—even if my true self were here, I couldn't force it open." Jiao Yazi glanced at Wei Zhao and said flatly, "If you don't want to miss this five-year deadline, then cut the idle talk."
Wei Zhao was startled. That was true—the five-year deadline was almost upon him. He had never expected that by sheer chance he would discover such a heaven-shaking secret within this jade pendant.
He had assumed the jade pendant was merely some mysterious object capable of foretelling fortune and misfortune. Who would have thought it was actually a cultivation space—and that inside it, a man named Jiao Yazi was waiting for him?
From Jiao Yazi's earlier words, Wei Zhao had roughly pieced it together: the *Xuanyuan Dragon-Slaying Art* and the jade pendant had been left behind by a master's uncle of Jiao Yazi's. Just what sort of formidable figure this master's uncle was, Wei Zhao had no idea. The only thing he knew for certain was that he had stumbled into an enormous stroke of luck.