Chapter 4306 — Attributes and Achievements
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
To put it plainly, such people had talent to spare but nothing else. Either their time had not yet come and they were still too green, or they simply lacked the fortuitous strokes of fate. Whichever it was, in the eyes of the great powers of Chenxing Academy, that was a defect. Even if such a genius were admitted, nurturing them would devour resources, and there was every chance they would wither halfway along the road, leaving both the person and the investment lost.
This was not mere idle worry, but a thing with hard precedent behind it. Chenxing Academy had once made an exception and admitted several disciples of outstanding talent whose strength had not yet reached the threshold of the Golden Core stage, and had spared no expense, pouring a fortune into them. Yet in less than half a year, every one of those prodigies had perished, without a single exception.
In the end, Chenxing Academy was called an academy and looked peaceful enough, but it could not escape the old saying: where there are people there is Jianghu, and where there is Jianghu there are Jianghu's rules. And the most basic of those rules was this: no rookies below the Golden Core stage need apply.
After that, no one attempted such a thing again. Even if they were admitted, it would only ruin others and oneself—so why invite trouble?
Reaching the Golden Core stage was the most fundamental threshold of selection, exactly as the mortal world barred entry to minors under eighteen. As for the second selection criterion—possessing at least two spiritual root attributes—that bore directly on one's aptitude for cultivation.
Reading from the beginning up to here, Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao had not found anything particularly surprising. But when they saw the next sentence, both of them froze at once.
Only with two or more attributes was there the slightest chance of entering Chenxing Academy. As for single-attribute trash, they should not bother going up and disgracing themselves. A cultivator with a single spiritual root attribute, no matter how diligently they studied and trained, could at best stop at the Nascent Soul stage. To go one level higher was immeasurably hard, simply unrealistic.
"A cultivator with a single spiritual root attribute can at most reach the Nascent Soul stage?" The two of them could not help exchanging looks. To some extent, this did explain Wei Hebei's earlier remark about those who understood, understanding. Yet neither Wei Zhao nor Huang Xiaotao had ever heard such a claim before.
Spiritual root attributes only determined the direction in which one cultivated heart methods and martial techniques. Even a single attribute did not necessarily mean one could never rise above the Nascent Soul stage, surely? The words that followed in the booklet answered the doubts in both their minds.
Looking across the many cultivation realms, those below Foundation Establishment need hardly be mentioned. And even for the three great realms of Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul—though each was harder to break through than the last—to some degree a certain success rate could still be guaranteed. The reason was that all three could be augmented by heavenly treasures and earthly materials during breakthrough and advancement.
For instance, Foundation Establishment Golden Cores, Golden Core Golden Cores, and Nascent Soul Gathering Golden Cores could all play a most crucial supporting role at the moment of breakthrough and advancement. When strength falls short, let the golden core make up the difference—this had already become a deeply ingrained belief among the vast majority of cultivators.
Some even put the pursuit of heavenly treasures first and secluded hard cultivation second. Behind this reversal of means and ends lay a perfect illustration of the formidable efficacy such treasures could exert during breakthrough and advancement.