Inside the Ghost Bone Cave, everyone was quietly cultivating their respective mental methods, striving to break through to the third innate meridian.
Only Wei Cheng seemed lost in thought. Counting the initial selection of the Stele of Methods, he had already been radiated five times by that miraculous light. The effects of the previous times were obvious, but they paled in comparison to this last time.
Perhaps it was because he passed without injury, the benefits that the miraculous light brought to Wei Cheng could only be described as explosive.
Especially his spiritual power, when his eyes fell on others, he even felt capable of perfectly tracing the full circle of their cultivation and the specific fluctuations of their Inner Strength.
That was because their method of rotating Inner Strength simply in points, lines, and planes was far too crude.
For this reason, Wei Cheng was not in a hurry to cultivate the Method of the Moving Mountain. What he was thinking about was whether he could continue to perfect the Visualization Diagram of Moving Mountain.
Compared with the Inner Strength of several hook levels, breaking through several innate meridians, or even cultivating a method to several levels, he believed that this Visualization Diagram of Moving Mountain was what he could truly rely on.
But continuing to perfect the Visualization Diagram of Moving Mountain was no easy task.
Previously, he had memorized more than three hundred thousand details. For him, that was already a sort of pinnacle. Whether he could go further based on this foundation, he honestly had no confidence at all.
After much deliberation, Wei Cheng still decided to give it a try. Compared with this, he had no confidence in being able to break through the fifth trial. He didn't want to die.
Their team was poorly developed from the start, lagging in every aspect. Before finding the medium to trigger the return to Earth, he had to strive to stay alive.
Taking a deep breath, Wei Cheng dispelled all distractions from his mind. Then, he slowly ran the Method of the Moving Mountain, triggering the Moving Mountain's Inner Strength. As it circulated, all of his spiritual power descended, locking onto the trajectory and details of the Moving Mountain's Inner Strength circulation, and memorized them.
At this moment, the Moving Mountain's Inner Strength was not circulating according to points, lines, and planes. Instead, it was relying on the Visualization Diagram of the Moving Mountain, changing as the mountain landscape changed, in a three-dimensional manner.
Although the description sounds simple, in actuality, every instant led to millions of changes. Not to mention the naked eye, it was difficult to capture using any other method, let alone the ordinary consciousness.
Wei Cheng's spiritual power had been continuously strengthened and elevated during the five irradiations, and thus he was able to clearly capture it. Even so, searching for more minute changes still posed an explosive difficulty.
After the Moving Mountain's Inner Strength circulated for a full circle, he only managed to find a few more minute details. These minute details were like a grain of sand in the vast ocean compared to the entire Visualization Diagram of Moving Mountain.
However, Wei Cheng had no choice. This was the only way.
He ran the Method of the Moving Mountain over and over again. The Moving Mountain's Inner Strength was continuously increasing, but the minute details he captured were still pitifully few.
About three or four days passed. Unbeknown to him, he had cultivated the Moving Mountain's Inner Strength to the total of the Fourth Hook Level, and even unknowingly opened up the fourth innate meridian.
Yet, the minute details he accumulated barely reached 1% of the whole.
No need to think about it, for a long time in the future, he likely wouldn't be able to complete it.
Wei Cheng sighed inwardly, stood up, and checked his resources. To his surprise, nearly half of his clear water and vegetable cakes were unknowingly consumed during these three to four days of cultivation.
What happened?
However, when he went to check the others' cultivation progress, he immediately understood.
Simply put, they must have reached the limit of individual cultivation.
Although this trial had, from the beginning, filled their mind with the cultivation methods like force-feeding, even forcibly establishing the foundation of Inner Strength for cultivation.
This does not mean they could keep it smooth sailing all the way, cultivating forever without encountering any bottleneck.
Honestly, were it not for that miraculous clear water and vegetable cakes, it would be questionable if they could cultivate two hook levels of Inner Strength and open up two innate meridians.
Who among the martial artists of the mundane world could cultivate at such a speed?
Are you kidding me?
So, a bottleneck appeared when they tried to cultivate to the Third Hook Level of Inner Strength and open up the third innate meridian.
If Wei Cheng's guess was not wrong, the radiation of the miraculous light should be able to subtly improve the growth potential of their bodies.
Otherwise, there is no explanation for an average fat man to effortlessly cultivate the Fourth Hook Level of Inner Strength.
At this time, Wei Cheng could easily probe the progress of everyone's cultivation through his spiritual power.
Zhang Yong had already consumed half of his clear water and vegetable pies, but his Purple Cloud Method could only just complete twenty cycles, equivalent to merely ten years of Inner Strength. It is far from reaching the First Hook Level.
Han Dong was slightly better. Under the same conditions, he had cycled the Purple Cloud Method twenty-two times, equivalent to twelve years of Inner Strength.
Of course, the difficulty of cultivating the Purple Cloud Method does need to be taken into account.
Brother Baldy had used up half of his resources and had run the Method of the Moving Mountain forty times, achieving twenty years of Inner Strength.
Hu Hailong, Yu Liang, and Wang Wei were not far behind him.
Cheng An had an advantage, having already run the Method of the Moving Mountain sixty times, achieving thirty years of Inner Strength.
As for the others, Long Fengjun, Shang Zhi, Zhao Shuxin, and Liu Yan, they had also run about forty cycles, achieving roughly twenty years of Inner Strength.
Once they used up all their resources, only Cheng An would be able to achieve the Third Hook Level of Inner Strength and open up the third Innate Meridian. The others would still fall short.
As for Zhang Yong and Han Dong, they were even further behind.
"It's because we completed too few stages in the early stages, so we didn't get enough resources. Based on that, even if we are poorly talented, we could still build up by accumulating resources."
Wei Cheng forced a smile. No wonder Hu Hailong said this trial was somewhat like a real-time strategy game. If you took fewer resources in the early stages, you would struggle even in the middle stages, let alone in the late ones.
"I'll need to find a solution. Although I still have half of my resources left, it could barely allow someone to accumulate the Third Hook Level of Inner Strength. It's still far from enough, unless, I can impart my experience to them."
Wei Cheng pondered but quickly rejected the idea. He was now at the fourth level of Moving Mountain's Inner Strength and had mastered the Moving Mountain Visualization Diagram. Naturally, his understanding of the Method of the Moving Mountain surpassed everyone else's.
But tragically, their spiritual power was insufficient.
It's like a book, making sense on every page, but requiring an ordinary person to study it all, how long would it take for them to understand?
Or another example, out of all students taking the national exams each year, who's preventing them from understanding the principles within the books?
If they can't understand, can't master, even if the answers are right in front of them, it's futile.
"Unless, I could personally assist them in their practice, adjusting the direction of their inner force flow, but it would definitely consume my own Inner Strength."
Wei Cheng fell silent. Hearts are veiled by human belly, would it really be good for him to assist them without reservation?
Even at the bare minimum, he would consume a First Hook Level worth of Inner Strength, but maybe only able to assist three or four people.
"Forget it, for the fifth level, we can simply clear the way with Flame Stones."
In the end, Wei Cheng couldn't bear to part with his hard-earned Inner Strength. Even though he still had half his resources left, even if he was near his limit, he could still cultivate another thirty years of Inner Strength.
"The fifth level, is probably the limit that we as a squad can reach."
Sighing, Wei Cheng crossed his legs and sat down, continuing his sprint towards the Fifth Hook Level of Inner Strength.
This time, however, he distinctly felt his body's limitations and the limitations of the Method of the Moving Mountain. Although it seemed like nothing had changed, an invisible ceiling was blocking him, reducing the Inner Strength generated when he ran the Method of the Moving Mountain.
So, this body of his was indeed nearing its cultivation limit.
Thankfully, his current goal was solely focused on observing and memorizing the intricate pathways of Inner Strength, striving to further refine the Moving Mountain Visualization Diagram. The physical cultivation bottleneck was, therefore, of minimal impact.
Each time Wei Cheng cycled the Method of the Moving Mountain, regardless of how much Inner Strength was added or reduced, the intricate details he could observe and memorize wouldn't decrease but rather increase.
Following this regimen for about four days, he exhausted his last resources. His Moving Mountain Inner Strength only increased by thirty years, but the deeper details he had observed and memorized had reached 3% of the whole.