護花近衛 - 第2422章 玄真老祖 - 翰墨軒

"Gains — hardly worth speaking of..." The Xuanzhen Ancestor sighed. "You know as well as I: once one's strength has reached our level, taking another step forward is harder than hard. Otherwise we would not have devoted all these years to opening Cloud Terrace Island, using it as a chance for a breakthrough..."

"True enough." The Xuanzhen Ancestor nodded. "Both our strengths stand at the very peak of the late Heaven Rank, at perfect consummation. One more step and we would enter an utterly new tier — yet that one step is a thousand times harder than hard to take! A pity there is not the slightest record of it in the sect; even the method of breakthrough has been lost. All we can do is open Cloud Terrace Island to obtain the way to break through..."

"Indeed, Third Brother. You must have felt it too — for us to break past the perfect consummation of the late Heaven Rank seems well-nigh impossible. At our present strength we seem to have reached a kind of saturation; no amount of further cultivation brings any progress." The Xuanzhen Ancestor said, "If I am not mistaken, breaking through this tier must require some other dedicated mental method, mnemonic formula, or specialized approach. The old ways of cultivation will be of no use."

"Exactly — and that is why we are so bent on opening Cloud Terrace Island." The Xuanzhen Ancestor spoke with deep agreement. "By the way, Second Brother, have you made any progress in alchemy? Can you now refine fourth-grade pills?"

"To my shame! When it comes to third-grade pills, your second brother can still achieve a very high success rate — but fourth-grade..." Here the Xuanzhen Ancestor shook his head helplessly. "I have no confidence whatsoever. I made several attempts during my seclusion, all of them ending in failure... I fear only someone with Lingtou's talent could refine fourth-grade pills."

"Ah, speaking of Lingtou... I wonder whether he has ever got past that hurdle in his heart..." The Xuanzhen Ancestor smiled bitterly. "All these years he has never once reached out to us, and we dare not disturb him..."

"Indeed. Had that accident not happened, Lingtou would surely be all but certain to refine fourth-grade pills, beyond any doubt!" The Xuanzhen Ancestor sighed as well. "The three of us brothers would then tread the Heavenly Dao together and return to that realm — what joy that would be! It is all my fault. In those years I was so bent on rivalry and winning that I wronged Lingtou..."

"Let it be, Second Brother. You need not blame yourself. Rivalry among fellow disciples is only natural; no one wished for that accident..." The Xuanzhen Ancestor waved a hand to console him. "But Second Brother, all these years you have poured your energies into the study of alchemy and have not even taken a single disciple — I suspect it is because you wish to refine fourth-grade pills for Lingtou to take, is it not?"

"Naturally so." The Xuanzhen Ancestor nodded. "I have failed Lingtou, and it has weighed on my heart all this time."

The Xuanzhen Ancestor nodded. He understood the Xuanzhen Ancestor's feelings, but in his view, what was past was past. Lingtou had never been close with the two of them anyway — at least, the Xuanzhen Ancestor had not been especially intimate with him, and so he had never much cared for Lingtou.

In truth, over the years he had long since discovered where Lingtou had gone and how to contact him; he simply did not wish to. The Xuanzhen Ancestor was a man who would stop at nothing to achieve his ends. In his eyes, a senior brother who was of no use whatsoever could never bring any benefit to the sect, and so he had turned his own refusal to contact Lingtou into Lingtou's refusal to reach out to them.