Cultivation Bottleneck, Seeking Breakthrough Methods

"Are you lying to me...?"

Hearing this, Yu Shu's eyes briefly flashed with a gleam, but his expression remained unchanged as he shook his head and let out a soft sigh. "Why would I lie to you? Fine, I'll give you a celestial-level cultivation method. You go and cultivate it. If you succeed, you'll understand that I wasn't lying."

He smiled gently at Du Chen and waved his sleeve, sending him out of the dreamscape.

"Wait, immortal sister, I still have something to say…" Du Chen called out, suddenly sitting up from the bed. The light of day had already broken, and as he recalled the scenes from the dream, he propped his chin and thought carefully. Suddenly, he felt something was off, and upon looking up, he immediately met two sets of disdainful eyes.

Cang Hai shook his head. "Big bro, if you're really unsatisfied… you should probably find a way to solve it soon."

Xiao Yue smiled, revealing two dimples, and even chimed in, "If you ever need anything, we can temporarily disappear for you."

Du Chen cried out in injustice and then recounted the events from his dream. As he searched the bed for the celestial-level cultivation method that Yu Shu supposedly gave him, he found nothing that didn't belong to him. In frustration, he continued to look around until Cang Hai's skeptical gaze and Xiao Yue's teasing expression made him even more exasperated.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. He called up his system inventory and, after searching, finally found an irregularly-shaped black jade slip in the last slot.

"Hmph, look at this! This is the one!" Du Chen declared with newfound confidence.

Cang Hai and Xiao Yue gathered around, intrigued. The black jade slip was peculiar, with no inscriptions on either side—only strange patterns that resembled the head of a beast with an open mouth. The jade was smooth and cool to the touch, and after looking at it for a while, they both felt an ancient and mysterious aura emanating from it.

Cang Hai silently nodded. "This must be a powerful cultivation method."

"It is undoubtedly a celestial-level cultivation method," a voice suddenly spoke from behind them. Turning, they saw Di Wei sitting on the bed, already dressed in his outer robe. However, due to his short arms, he accidentally got tangled up in his sleeves and ended up rolling under the blankets.

Du Chen and Cang Hai quickly turned away to cover their smiles, while Xiao Yue helped untangle Di Wei from his clothes.

After Di Wei dressed, his small face was still flushed, but his whole body was enveloped in a dark, oppressive aura. His brows furrowed, and his mouth was tightly pursed, clearly expressing his displeasure.

"This object is rare. Don't let others know about it. There could be fatal consequences," Di Wei warned them before closing his eyes and sitting in meditation, clearly no longer interested in talking to them.

Du Chen, knowing better than to bother the embarrassed Di Wei, raised the jade slip and was about to try to read its contents when San Tian's voice suddenly rang out in the team channel. "Hey, guys, can we discuss the beauties at a better time? The meeting point is almost here."

The three of them looked up at the system's clock, and indeed, it was nearly time. They quickly got dressed and ready.

When they arrived at the city gate, everyone else was already waiting.

Jian Zi Yuan seemed somewhat displeased but didn't say anything. He gave Du Chen and the others a slight nod, then pulled a small boat from his storage pouch and tossed it into the air. With a flick of his hand, he performed a series of hand seals. The boat rapidly expanded, growing into a two or three-story vessel in no time, its hull covered in intricate, glowing symbols. It was more than enough to carry the hundred or so people currently gathered.

Seeing the awestruck expressions of everyone present, including Du Chen and his group, Jian Zi Yuan couldn't help but smile proudly. He waved his hand again, and a spell symbol on the underside of the ship activated, revealing a small door.

"Everyone, please board."

Du Chen stood at the bow of the ship, looking down at the ground. The mountains, rivers, towns, and houses below seemed like finely detailed miniatures, and he couldn't stop praising it aloud. Soon, the flying ship entered the clouds, and the strong wind roared past the sides of the ship. The smoke and mist from the clouds were blocked by an invisible protective shield, and the interior of the ship remained warm and comfortable.

"This is way more comfortable than flying in an airplane. The view is great, and you don't have to be strapped into a cramped seat unable to move," said Sang Tian, leaning over the railing and looking out with admiration.

"Alright, I've never even been on a plane, can you not rub it in?" Du Chen, once again feeling the sting of his rural background, muttered.

"Come on, it's a top-tier magic tool. They only bring out these kinds of things for big events like this. Even if it's not a Rolls-Royce, it's still a Lamborghini. And now, someone has one of these super luxury vehicles in their bag, and yet they're still pretending to be humble. I really don't understand what's going on with this world," Tong Xin Fen said with a deadpan expression, making fun of Du Chen.

Du Chen puffed out his cheeks, unable to come up with a retort. After a long silence, he said, "You two are just born to make me angry. How about I call you 'sister' from now on? And anyway, that flying magic tool will be used by everyone in the future, so it's not just mine."

Amid the banter, the flying ship began to descend. Everyone excitedly looked down, eager to see where they were landing.

"No way!" As the ship approached the ground, Du Chen saw several low hills and couldn't hide his disappointment. "This is even worse than that Big Bull Mountain behind my village!"

Laughter came through the team chat. Cang Hai cleared his throat and said, "Alright, everyone, pay attention. No matter what, this will be where we live from now on. Even if we can't hear the others, our facial expressions are still visible. We're newcomers here, so be careful, or they might make things difficult for us."

The group quickly adjusted their expressions, putting on excited and enthusiastic faces as they looked around at the new disciples nearby.

The flying ship landed halfway up one of the hills, and everyone disembarked. Jian Zi Yuan stored the flying boat away and led them up to the mountain peak. Along the way, he pointed out the mountain gate, the kitchen, the library, the teaching halls where the inner sect disciples taught cultivation techniques, and the Pingyun Building where the sect tasks were distributed.

They reached the main hall at the top of the mountain, where they took turns entering to pay their respects to the ancestors. Afterward, they filed into the side halls in order to register and receive their identity jade tokens.

The jade tokens of the Nanxi Sect were square, green jade slips, with the characters "南奚" (Nanxi) engraved in seal script. Wu, the senior brother who was handing out the tokens, was only at the tenth level of Qi Refining, so he was very respectful to Du Chen and the others. He explained to them in detail how to use the jade tokens: in addition to allowing access to the mountain gate, the tokens were also needed when accepting tasks or borrowing cultivation methods.

Each person was given a storage pouch containing several sets of sect uniforms, the month's supply of spirit stones, and a few bottles of medicinal pills. Because Du Chen's group were in the Foundation Establishment stage, a disciple was assigned to lead them to a small mountain peak, where they would live from now on.

The peak had over a dozen houses, but they were old and seemed to have been unused for a long time. The disciple who guided them opened a door to one of the houses, instructing Du Chen to take out his jade token and insert it into the magic array on the doorframe. After a few buzzing sounds, the dust-clearing array activated, and the room immediately became clean. The disciple also gave them instructions on how to activate the defensive array before leaving.

Afterward, everyone chose the room they liked and settled in.

Du Chen looked around his room. The outer area only had a set of tables and chairs, and a display shelf for antiques. The inner room had a bed and a desk by the window, with a few meditation cushions on the floor. Muttering to himself, "These cultivators really don't know how to enjoy life," he found there was little to clean up, so he called the other four and headed to the dining hall for lunch.

In the afternoon, Cang Hai and the others decided to visit the library, but Du Chen had something on his mind, so he stayed in his room. After activating the defensive array, he began to study the heavenly-grade cultivation technique.

Du Chen pressed the jade slip to his forehead. This time, he didn't see the system's red notification.

Suddenly, his mind was filled with strange images, as though a movie were playing in his mind:

On the ancient, vast land, there were bizarre and enormous beasts. These beasts were incredibly large, each possessing earth-shattering powers. When they fought, the ground cracked open, turning into bottomless abysses, mountains toppled, and rivers flowed backward. Among them, the most powerful was a relatively smaller beast—its body was pure white, with a single horn on its head and a majestic mane flowing behind it, resembling a Qilin.

The white beast turned its head toward Du Chen's direction, and suddenly, it flapped its wings and flew toward him like a flash of lightning. Du Chen was startled, but he couldn't react in time to evade it. All he could do was watch as the beast rushed into his forehead.

When Du Chen woke up again, he found himself lying on the floor. The sun had already begun to set, and the last rays of sunlight filtered through the open window, casting a warm glow on his face.

Du Chen sat up quickly, clutching his head in both hands, feeling an excruciating headache. He groaned in pain.

At that moment, the team chat buzzed with a message from Sang Tian: "Oh, the boss is awake! What happened? Did you sleep wrong?"

"I didn't sleep," Du Chen weakly responded. "I was studying the jade slip, and somehow I passed out. My head hurts like crazy right now."

The other four quickly entered Du Chen's room.

"How do you feel now? Can you remember what happened?" Cang Hai asked. Tong Xin Fen silently handed him a cup of water.

After drinking a few sips, Du Chen felt his pain gradually ease. He began to describe the strange scene he had witnessed.

"...It felt like so many things were stuffed into my head... I think I'm starting to remember now. Oh, right, the name of this cultivation technique is called 'Xi Shen Jue' (The Divine Skill of Xi)."