Chapter 16: The Bottleneck

Inside the Bone Demon Cave, everyone was quietly cultivating their own methods, striving to open their third innate meridian. Only Wei Cheng sat lost in thought. Counting from the first time he chose a technique at the stone stele, he had been bathed in that mysterious light five times now. The effects had always been remarkable, but compared to this last time, all previous benefits paled in comparison.

Perhaps it was because he had cleared the stage unharmed—the advantages brought by the light this time could be called explosive. Especially in terms of spiritual power: whenever his gaze fell upon someone else, he felt as if he could perfectly trace their cultivation cycles and the specific fluctuations of their internal energy. The way they moved their energy, limited to mere points, lines, and planes, seemed woefully simplistic to him.

Because of this, Wei Cheng was in no rush to cultivate the Mountain Moving Technique itself. Instead, he wondered if he could continue to perfect the Mountain Moving Visualization Diagram. Compared to accumulating decades’ worth of internal energy, opening more innate meridians, or even deepening his mastery of the technique, he felt that the visualization diagram was his true foundation.

But perfecting the Mountain Moving Visualization Diagram was no simple task. Previously, he had memorized more than 300,000 intricate details—already a limit for him. To go further, he had no confidence at all.

After much deliberation, Wei Cheng decided to try. He had little faith in clearing the fifth stage, and he did not want to die. Their team was inherently disadvantaged and lagging behind in all respects, and until they found a way to return to Earth, survival was his only goal.

Taking a deep breath, Wei Cheng cleared his mind of all distractions. Then, he slowly activated the Mountain Moving Technique, guiding the internal energy accordingly. As it circulated, he focused all his spiritual power to observe, memorize, and lock onto the path and nuances of the energy's movement.

At this point, the Mountain Moving energy did not follow the crude, linear patterns of points, lines, and planes. Instead, based on the visualization diagram, it moved three-dimensionally, shifting with the terrain of the imagined mountain. Though this sounded simple, in truth, there were countless subtle changes each instant—far beyond what the naked eye or any ordinary method could perceive, let alone the consciousness of a common person.

Wei Cheng’s spiritual power had been relentlessly refined through the five exposures to the mysterious light, allowing him to capture these details with clarity. Even so, identifying the more minute changes remained a monumental challenge. After an entire cycle of the Mountain Moving energy, he managed to discern only a handful of new, finer details—a mere drop in the ocean compared to the entire diagram.

Yet, he had no other choice. This was the only path forward.

Again and again, he ran through the Mountain Moving process. His internal energy increased, but the newly observed minutiae remained pitifully few. After three or four days, he had unconsciously cultivated enough to accumulate four cycles’ worth of internal energy, and even opened his fourth innate meridian. Yet, the new details he managed to memorize barely reached one percent of the whole.

He realized that, for a long time to come, he might never complete this task.

Wei Cheng sighed inwardly, got up, and checked his remaining resources—only to be shocked to find that over these three or four days, he had nearly exhausted half his supply of pure water and vegetable cakes.

What was going on? But when he checked on the others’ progress, he immediately understood. It was simple: their individual cultivation limits had been reached.

From the outset, the trial had force-fed them the cultivation methods, even forcibly establishing the foundation for internal energy. But that did not mean they could progress smoothly and endlessly without bottlenecks. To be honest, without the miraculous water and cakes, it would have been questionable whether they could even cultivate two cycles’ worth of internal energy and open two meridians.

Who among mortal martial artists could progress that fast? It was absurd.

Thus, when they tried to cultivate a third cycle and open the third meridian, the bottleneck appeared. If Wei Cheng’s guess was right, the mysterious light subtly enhanced their bodies’ potential for growth. Otherwise, how could an ordinary overweight man like him easily cultivate four cycles’ worth of internal energy?

With his enhanced perception, Wei Cheng could see everyone’s progress at a glance.

Zhang Yong, after using up half his water and cakes, had barely completed twenty cycles with the Purple Cloud Technique, amounting to only ten years’ worth of energy—far from a single cycle’s standard. Han Dong was slightly better, managing twenty-two cycles, about twelve years’ worth.

Of course, the difficulty of cultivating the Purple Cloud Technique had to be considered.

The bald-headed brother had used half his resources to complete forty cycles of the Mountain Moving Technique, gaining twenty years’ worth of energy. Hu Hailong, Yu Liang, and Wang Wei were close behind. The most advanced was Cheng An, who had completed sixty cycles, reaching thirty years’ worth of energy.

The rest—Long Fengjun, Shang Zhi, Zhao Shuxin, and Liu Yan—were at about forty cycles, or twenty years’ worth of energy.

After exhausting all their resources, only Cheng An might barely reach three full cycles and open the third meridian; the others would still fall short. As for Zhang Yong and Han Dong, they lagged even further behind.

“We didn’t clear enough stages early on and didn’t gather enough resources. Otherwise, regardless of talent, sheer resources could have made up the difference.”

Wei Cheng chuckled bitterly. No wonder Hu Hailong said these trials were like a real-time strategy game—if you don’t gather enough resources early, you’re doomed by the mid-game, let alone the late game.

“I need to think of something. Even with half my resources remaining, I could only help one person barely reach three cycles, which is still far from enough—unless I could somehow transfer my experience to them.”

Wei Cheng considered this, but quickly dismissed the idea. He had already cultivated the Mountain Moving Technique to the fourth level, and with the visualization method, his insight far surpassed the others. Unfortunately, their spiritual power was inadequate.

It was like a book: the truths are written plainly, but how long would it take an ordinary person to truly master everything? Or consider all the students taking the university entrance exam each year—no one hides the answers from them, yet understanding and mastery remain elusive.

“Unless I personally guided their cultivation, adjusting the flow of their energy myself—but that would cost me my own internal energy.”

Wei Cheng fell silent. The hearts of men are unpredictable; was it wise to expend his strength so selflessly for others? At a minimum, he would have to sacrifice a full cycle’s worth of energy, and might only be able to help two or three people.

“Forget it. If the fifth stage proves too much, I’ll just use the Flame Stone to clear a path.”

Ultimately, Wei Cheng could not bring himself to waste his hard-earned energy—even with resources remaining and near the bottleneck, he could still cultivate another thirty years’ worth of energy.

“The fifth stage is probably the furthest our group can go.”

With a sigh, he sat down and continued to push towards five full cycles of internal energy. However, this time, he could clearly feel his own limits, as well as the constraints of the Mountain Moving Technique itself. Though everything appeared unchanged on the surface, there was an intangible ceiling blocking his progress, causing the increase in internal energy with each cycle to diminish.

It was the limit of what his body could cultivate.

Fortunately, his focus had shifted entirely to observing and memorizing the finer trajectories of internal energy for the sake of perfecting the visualization diagram; the physical bottleneck mattered little.

With each cycle of the Mountain Moving Technique, regardless of how much energy was gained, the subtle details he could observe and memorize did not decrease—in fact, they increased.

Thus, after another four days of continuous cultivation, he exhausted his remaining resources. His internal energy grew by only thirty years, but the minute details he committed to memory had reached three percent of the whole.