During the minor competition, Lei Dong moved into the area reserved for direct disciples without the slightest fuss. After all, every day spent cultivating in the training chamber built upon a spiritual nexus meant one more sliver of strength gained. Cultivation was not merely a fight against others; more importantly, it was a struggle against Heaven itself. Within a finite lifespan, one had to constantly defy the natural order, ultimately achieving immortality, enduring as long as the cosmos itself.

The effect of the spiritual nexus was quite remarkable. Coupled with the Core Priming Pills—which were a distinct step above the Lesser Core Priming Pills—Lei Dong’s cultivation increased by leaps and bounds. Every month, he would spend an entire day listening to the Ancestor's lectures. In fact, the Ancestor’s direct disciples numbered far more than just the three in Lei Dong’s current cohort. Generally, he accepted three direct disciples every ten years. This tradition had been maintained for over seventy years now, ever since the Ancestor advanced to the Golden Core stage and acquired his own separate manor. Although they were nominally direct disciples, the Ancestor never permitted those at the Qi Refining stage to address him as Master. Only upon reaching the Foundation Establishment stage would one truly become the Ancestor's inner disciple, regarded genuinely as one of his own.

Theoretically, in seventy years, the Ancestor should have accepted over twenty direct disciples. Yet, to date, the Myriad Ghost Ancestor only claimed five inner disciples—the five referees presiding over this minor competition. The remaining direct disciples numbered a mere ten. The rest had either perished midway or remained stubbornly stuck at the same level of the Qi Refining stage for decades on end, eventually leaving in disappointment to establish their own cultivation families, branching out. If any descendants possessed suitable spiritual root aptitude, they would be recommended back to the Sect.

From this, it was clear that advancing from the Qi Refining stage to Foundation Establishment was far from the simple matter one might imagine. One could only guess how many within Lei Dong’s current cohort would ultimately reach Foundation Establishment. Perhaps only Ding Wanyan held a relatively strong chance; the rest, including Zuo Chao and Lei Dong, were entirely at the mercy of fate.

Although the Qi Refining stage was divided into twelve layers, with bottlenecks possible at every level, the difficulty of each subsequent promotion increased significantly. Furthermore, every four layers presented a major hurdle. For instance, advancing from the fourth to the fifth layer, from the eighth to the ninth, and finally, the advancement from the twelfth layer to the first layer of Foundation Establishment—the most cultivators became trapped at these three junctures.

Consequently, the first four layers of Qi Refining were termed the Early Stage; subsequently, these were categorized into Middle and Late stages.

Two and a half years—a full thirty months—slipped by in the blink of an eye.

By this time, Lei Dong had been a direct disciple for quite some time. Benefiting from the superior resources afforded to direct disciples, combined with his dedicated, single-minded cultivation over these two years, his power had surged forward. In a year and a half, he broke through two barriers, advancing directly to the fifth layer. After that, it took him nine months to reach the peak of the fifth layer. For the subsequent three months, no matter how he cultivated, he made zero progress. He attempted to force a breakthrough three times, each ending in failure, and his meridians and acupoints sustained minor damage during the forced assaults, requiring a period of rest to recover.

Undoubtedly, he had encountered the legendary bottleneck. Lei Dong could only manage a wry smile; he had broken through the relatively easy barrier between the fourth and fifth layers with ease. However, crossing from the fifth to the sixth layer proved utterly insurmountable. Bottlenecks were truly bothersome things—unpredictable, arriving without warning.

After poring over numerous texts concerning bottlenecks, Lei Dong was somewhat speechless. Sometimes, a moment of sudden enlightenment during a fierce battle could lead to a breakthrough. Other times, a sudden realization might strike while observing the scenery. Yet, sometimes, even after spending ten years traveling the world, witnessing countless natural sights, and fighting hundreds of duels, no progress was made.

However, through the countless years of development in the cultivation world up to the present day, countless exceptionally brilliant talents had emerged. After endless exploration, various elixirs had gradually been developed to increase the chances of forcing a breakthrough. But the vast majority of these elixirs carried inherent dangers: at best, severe damage to the meridians and regression in cultivation; at worst, they could cost the cultivator their life.

As for those elixirs truly free of side effects, they invariably required spirit herbs of a thousand years’ maturity to refine, using their potent effects to propel the cultivator through the barrier and increase the success rate. But due to the scarcity of materials, the cost of such elixirs was naturally astronomical. Consider that a spirit herb matured for a hundred years was worth no less than a hundred spirit stones; a thousand-year herb was worth at least a hundred times more.

If a thousand-year spirit herb, along with some precious auxiliary materials, cost even a mere ten thousand spirit stones at base price, and if that batch of ingredients could refine ten pills with a relatively high success rate of thirty percent, then the cost price of a single harmless pill designed to break a bottleneck would run between three and four thousand.

In fact, Lei Dong had checked the Sect’s pill exchange point: an item named the Earth Spirit Pill required one hundred thousand contribution points per dose. Furthermore, he had inquired with Zhao Baiwan and learned that the price of the Earth Spirit Pill in external markets usually ranged from four thousand to six thousand spirit stones, and supply was scarce. Such a price was practically astronomical for Lei Dong. Yet, it had to be admitted that the Earth Spirit Pill had an excellent reputation; except for those at the peak of the twelfth layer of Qi Refining attempting to advance to Foundation Establishment—where its effect was slightly insufficient—the success rate for other layers was quite considerable. Especially for the bottleneck Lei Dong currently faced, a mere transition from the fifth to the sixth layer, if one possessed an Earth Spirit Pill, a breakthrough was nearly guaranteed, and the remaining medicinal properties could save Lei Dong a significant amount of cultivation time.

As for asking the Ancestor for an Earth Spirit Pill, that was pure fantasy. If every direct disciple expected the Ancestor to bestow such elixirs upon reaching a bottleneck, even someone on the Golden Core path would be bankrupted. The vast majority, when facing an insurmountable barrier, chose to venture out, hoping to seize an opportunity for a fortuitous breakthrough.

But Lei Dong did not consider this a good strategy. Traveling certainly offered the chance to comprehend Heaven and Earth and harness cosmic power for a breakthrough. The problem was that it was entirely unreliable. One might leave today and succeed tomorrow, but it could also take three or five years, or even a grim ten or eight years.

Of course, going out was inevitable; remaining in the Myriad Ghost Cave offered no benefit for breaking through, and it wasn't as if no one had tried that before—sitting idly for years, repeatedly failing breakthrough attempts, eventually sinking into despair. Lei Dong’s focus was clearly fixed on the Earth Spirit Pill, but to acquire it, he needed to amass a sum of money first.

Including the small collection of spirit stones plundered from Zhou Minghua’s storage belt, plus what he had saved over the years, his total spiritual stone reserve only amounted to eighty-odd stones. As for the mid-grade spirit ghost bestowed by the Ancestor, he had never touched it, keeping it sealed within an artifact called the Soul Sealing Orb. Even so, this was far short of the cost required to purchase a single Earth Spirit Pill.

After much deliberation, his only remaining option was the Soul Devouring Pagoda. However, to foster one additional mid-grade spirit ghost, it required absorbing the soul power of approximately five thousand Yin Souls. Based on the speed Lei Dong captured souls several years ago when he was at the second layer of Qi Refining, this would take about a month. Now, however, Lei Dong was many times stronger than he was at the second layer, so the capture speed would accelerate. Within a few months, he could accumulate more than enough capital for one Earth Spirit Pill.

As for selling the mid-grade spirit ghosts, Lei Dong was no longer the fledgling novice of the second Qi Refining layer. With his cultivation at the peak of the fifth layer, coupled with the fact that his three ghost soldiers, despite having few opportunities to devour flesh and blood over the years, had gradually grown to around peak level five. This level of strength, while perhaps not capable of sweeping aside everyone in the mid-Qi Refining stage, meant that unless he encountered someone exceptionally wealthy and loaded with mid- or high-grade magic tools, Lei Dong would not fear facing even cultivators at the seventh or eighth layer of Qi Refining. In this lower stratum of the cultivation world, those at the seventh or eighth layer of Qi Refining were already considered minor experts. As for Foundation Establishment cultivators, they were exceedingly rare. Just consider that the entire Myriad Ghost Cave, including ghost slaves, boasted only six Foundation Establishment cultivators, which indicated the scarcity of such experts in the world.

Naturally, caution remained Lei Dong’s guiding principle; he sought to avoid trouble whenever possible. He spent a small amount of money to acquire a jade slip map detailing the spheres of influence of the Yin Sha Sect, marking out all the relatively lower-level Yin Sha locales. It was worthy of being called the Yin Sha Sect's territory; when Lei Dong saw the densely packed markings, his scalp tingled.