All these hopes came crashing down when Mu Lin turned Twelve, though. It was the last time he had achieved a breakthrough. People kept waiting for years, but Mu Lin wasn't able to break through to the sixth stage of the Earth Realm. The sect used all the resources they could to help Mu Lin pass through his bottleneck, but nothing worked.
Years kept passing, and Mu Lin kept staying in the same Cultivation Realm. He just couldn't break through anymore. No one understood what was happening. The brightest boy that the Ghost Temple had seen had become the most ordinary. Years kept passing, and just like that, seven years passed, but Mu Lin wasn't able to breakthrough. The sect had also given up on him, thinking that this was the limit of his potential.
They thought that even though Mu Lin got the immense Cultivation talent and speed from his father, the potential of his body was limited, and it was reached when he got to the Fifth Stage of Earth Realm.