Chapter 154 | The Mahayana Cultivator Who Can’t Learn Magic

In the small world, more than two months had passed.

At this moment, by the shore of the spiritual spring sea, Setis sat cross-legged on a flat bluestone. The sea breeze blew through her hair, gently lifting her long golden locks.

She closed her eyes slightly, keeping her breathing very slow.

Strands of spiritual qi entered her body with her breathing exercises. Using the method Hui had taught her, she guided them to slowly circulate along her meridians.

However, this spiritual qi did not linger for long. Just as most of it was drawn into her body, it quickly dissipated, much like holiday tourists dispersing from a scenic spot.

In the end, less than a tenth of the spiritual qi remained, barely lingering near her dantian.

After a long while, Setis opened her eyes.

The pleasant surprise from months ago had long vanished from her face, replaced only by bitterness and loneliness.

She looked down at her palm and tried to channel the tiny bit of spiritual qi she had just retained. The result was that even that small amount dissipated further with her movement.

This caused Setis to furrow her brow even tighter.

And this wasn't the first time... From initially being able to feel spiritual qi to now barely being able to draw it into her body, she had indeed made progress.

But the problem was, her progress was too slow.

Hui had clearly stated that with this body, her talent was by no means lacking.

But more than two months had passed, and she hadn't even touched the threshold of truly crossing it.

The most frustrating part was that every time she absorbed spiritual qi, the vast majority of it leaked away.

She spent a massive amount of time every day drawing in spiritual qi, but what actually remained in the end was pitifully little.

This feeling deeply distressed her. As a former genius of the Magic and Martial Arts Academy who had always sailed smoothly in her studies, she was tasting the flavor of failure for the very first time.

Failure itself was not terrifying; what was terrifying was failing repeatedly without ever finding the reason.

Her current situation was like painstakingly filling a bucket with water, only to lift it and find a hole in the bottom—an exercise in pure futility.

Nearby, Hui lay under the shade of a tree, yawning lazily.

After observing her over these past few days, he had long anticipated this outcome. Seeing Setis open her eyes with a sullen face, he asked casually,

“The same as before?”

Setis looked up at him, her tone somewhat muffled.

“Yes.”

Hui rolled over, resting his chin on his tail, and said nonchalantly,

“That's normal.”

Setis couldn't help but ask,

“Even this is normal?”

“Of course it is.”

Hui squinted his eyes, his voice flat.

“Right now, you are like a leaky bucket; no matter how much you fill it, it's useless. Although your meridians have been reshaped and your bone structure is fine, you've never interacted with spiritual qi before. You still haven't fully adapted to this new body.”

Setis furrowed her brow, clenching and unclenching her hands several times, then shook her head slightly in confusion—even though Hui had given this reason many times before.

She didn't feel any discomfort in her body at all, so she had no idea what kind of “unadapted” state he was talking about.

Seeing her expression, Hui patiently explained further,

“Cultivation isn't just about drawing spiritual qi in. You have to let your body remember it, let your meridians get used to it, and let your dantian slowly form a place to contain it. This process cannot be rushed.”

Setis pursed her lips. Hui had said these things many times, and she understood them.

But understanding was one thing, and not feeling anxious was another. Over two months had passed without a single shred of progress... How could she not be anxious?

Currently, her heart was in a state of suspense. The three-month deadline Li Yuan had mentioned was drawing closer and closer, yet she was still far from the threshold stage Hui had described.

If she hadn't crossed the threshold when the three months were up, she would have to remain here.

Initially, she hadn't thought staying in the small world to cultivate was a bad thing.

Although it was a bit quiet, it was still a good place to quiet her mind and cultivate. With her talent and hard work, surely she could at least meet the minimum standard, right?

Furthermore, she was finally able to learn about the things from the 《Chronicles of Kyushu》 that she had constantly yearned for.

Only now did she realize just how incredibly boring cultivation actually was.

Every day after waking up, she did breathing exercises—then after breakfast, more breathing exercises—followed by practicing drawing qi in the afternoon, and tempering her body in the evening.

At night, she also had to listen to Hui lecture on those obscure and difficult concepts of cultivation common sense.

Day after day, there was almost no variation.

There was indeed no classroom chatter here, no Mila sneaking over to gossip, and no annoying lectures from her brother from time to time.

In this entire small world, there was no one else to talk to besides her and Hui.

What's more, Li Yuan had never visited from start to finish... At least, not once while she was awake.

This left Setis feeling a little disappointed.

She knew Li Yuan was probably, likely, maybe busy, and she knew that having Hui teach her was already enough.

Yet she couldn't help but wonder in her heart—as the three-month mark approached, would he come by to take a look?

Whenever she thought of this, her state of mind would falter.

And once her mind was in disarray, her breathing exercises became even more difficult.

Hui naturally noticed her off-state lately.

He just wanted to see how far she could go. After all, the path of cultivation required one to guard against impatience and impetuousness... especially in the early stages.

For this young girl to have lasted this long was actually quite impressive.

A duke's daughter who had grown up in the lap of luxury, suddenly thrown into an isolated place to do these boring, repetitive exercises every day, yet still persisting for over two months—she could hardly be called spoiled.

But on the path of cultivation, simply “not being spoiled” was far from enough.

Especially over the past few days, Setis's performance had clearly grown a bit lax.

Although this wasn't a major issue, if she continued like this, let alone six months, even if she were given another year, she might not successfully cross the threshold.

Hui stood up from the shade and slowly walked toward Setis.

“That's enough for today.”

Setis was startled and asked in surprise,

“Isn't it not time yet?”

Hui rolled his eyes at her and said testily,

“If you keep practicing like this, you'll only be wasting your time.”

Setis opened her mouth, wanting to argue, but realized she had nothing to say. That was indeed the truth.

After exhaling a breath of turbid air, she stretched her slightly stiff legs and leapt down from the bluestone. Although she hadn't crossed the threshold yet, her physical strength and agility were steadily improving.

By the time they returned to the cottage, dinner was already laid out on the table. There was no ordinary kitchen in the small world; most of the ingredients had been left behind by Li Yuan.

Although Hui complained about the trouble, his cooking was surprisingly good.

Of course, he never admitted to taking care of Setis, constantly urging her to quickly cross the threshold so she could fast and save him all this trouble.

The meal was very simple: a bowl of rice and two dishes, one meat and one vegetable, perfectly balanced. If they were thirsty, they drank spiritual spring water directly.

Setis sat at the table and had just taken two bites with her chopsticks when Hui suddenly spoke up.

“Do you regret it?”

Setis paused, her chopsticks frozen mid-air. She looked up at Hui, slightly confused.

“What?”

Hui's voice was very calm.

“About cultivation. Do you regret taking this path?”

Without any hesitation, Setis shook her head vigorously.

“No, absolutely not!”

Then she noticed Hui staring intently at her. Setis quickly added,

“I really don't regret it.”

“Then why have you been so distracted during your practice lately?”

Hui let out a soft sigh, clearly showing his dissatisfaction with her current performance.

“Your mind wanders during breathing exercises, your drawing of qi is unstable, and you can't even manage the most basic mental tranquility. That's not how I taught you.”

Setis's expression stiffened slightly. Her instinct was to find an excuse, but in the end, she felt that saying anything would only sound like a poor defense.