Martial God Book 1 - What Is A Genius - Chapter 13 - Sixth Layer Bottleneck

In the process of visiting his son, He Quanming stayed the night and hurriedly left the next morning.
After his father’s visit, He Yiming was brimming with vigor. Like his elder brothers who’d attained the sixth layer, he wholeheartedly devoted himself to cultivation.
For miscellaneous jobs, there were many servants in the He family manor. However, He Yiming didn’t have his personal servant. In order to temper the character of the third generation, they were not allowed to have a luxurious lifestyle such as someone feeding them when they opened their mouth or someone changing their clothes when they stretched their hands. However, at least, they didn’t have to worry about the basic needs. They didn’t need to think about cooked food or clean clothes.
Only under this kind of conditions, these experts would be able to wholeheartedly temper their Internal Energy or battle skills.
In a flash, almost half a year peacefully passed by.
On this day, He Yiming walked out of his small courtyard. As he saw servants diligently sweeping away not too far from him, his mood suddenly turned somewhat gloomily.
In this time period of half a year, he hadn’t wasted a single day.
He’d invested all of his energy into tempering his Internal Energy. He had been pleasantly surprised; his cultivation of both Primordial Energy and Ripple technique was progressing smoothly. Step by step, his Internal Energy was stably improving. An even more astonishing thing was that his water-type Internal Energy and metal-type Internal Energy could inter-transform as if these two were not two different-attributed techniques, but techniques with the same attribute. With a certain improvement in either of the techniques, the other would also receive a corresponding improvement.
Although He Yiming was young and hadn’t experienced much on the path of cultivation, even a fool could tell that this kind of thing was anything but normal. Of course, he’d no intention of showing off, and he chose to silently bury down everything in his memory.
As for the two martial skills….
To tell the truth, apart from practicing them a few times, He Yiming didn’t pay attention to them.
Not because he’d took the conversation with his father and uncle to his heart, rather because he’d already cultivated both the skills to the peak of the sixth layer. At this point, even if he tried to cultivate again, he wouldn’t be able to advance a single bit.
Of course, along with the constant improvement in his Internal Energy, the might displayed by the two battle skills also a received a corresponding improvement. This was not due to the battle skills themselves, but due to the improvement in his Internal Energy. Therefore, except practising battle skills occasionally so as to prevent himself from losing touch, he didn’t dwell on these anymore.
After spending almost half a year like this, he again encountered a bottleneck.
However, this time, he didn’t tell anyone. Attaining the apex of the sixth layer and even reaching the bottleneck within six months? He knew that such an affair was absolutely unique.
One should be aware that difficulty in cultivation keeps on increasing. At higher levels, if one wishes to continuously improve like during lower levels, that would be an extremely wishful thinking.
His eldest brother, He Yitian, advanced to the sixth layer at the age of fourteen. However, to attain the peak of the sixth layer, he had to spend five more years. Furthermore, in the final year, by extreme luck, he unfathomably crossed over the bottleneck of the sixth layer and successfully advanced to the seventh layer at the age of nineteen.
And this was already the fastest speed in the He family. Even his eldest uncle only attained the seventh layer by the age of twenty years.
As for his second brother and third brother, although both of them had attained the sixth layer earlier than He Yiming, they were still painstakingly cultivating at this step as of now. Not to mention the bottleneck of the sixth layer, they were still quite far off from the peak of the sixth layer.
He Yiming was different. In the previous two days, he clearly felt that his Internal Energy was absolutely incapable of increasing. Furthermore, he was feeling the same as he did at the bottleneck of the fifth layer.
This feeling was extremely clear at this moment, while it was indistinct during the fifth layer bottleneck. This stark contrast allowed He Yiming to clearly differentiate between his current level and that of before.
After painstakingly cultivating for two days and not being able to make the slightest improvement, He Yiming walked out of his room in frustration.
He Yiming left the manor to take a stroll, subconsciously walking in the direction of the big lake.
Soon after, he arrived at the lake’s edge. He watched the glistening lake water as it faintly rippled and swayed. His heart was just like the surface of the lake; uncontrollable and unstable. A wind blew past, and the surface of the water which had just calmed down again rippled.
He Yiming softly sighed, and his mouth curled into a self-mocking smile.
He was able to successfully cross over the last time’s bottleneck after encountering hundreds of perplexing incidents inside this lake. At that time, although he’d almost seen King Yama, he was able to make a crucial breakthrough. However, being able to obtain such an opportunity once in one’s entire life was already amazing. Although he was hopeful in his mind, he knew that such good luck would not befall him for the second time.
Sitting by the lake, he was unable to stop himself from thinking about that day’s events.
Although almost half a year had passed since then, to him, that day’s events still seemed as clear as if they were before his eyes; impossible to forget
He remembered that after that incident and returning back to the manor, he’d had begun to cultivate Ripple technique at the night. And on that same night, he obtained a success that one would long for even in dreams and attained the realm of sixth layer.
Suddenly, He Yiming’s thoughts stirred and an idea streaked through his mind like a lightning. He was faintly aware that this idea was extremely significant and may very well be the most important thing which would affect his entire life. However, unfortunately, he just had an indistinct feeling of this idea and was unable to properly hold onto it.
Sitting by the lake and watching faint ripples on the surface of the lake, his thoughts ran wild as he pondered deeply. However, he was unable to gain anything.
A flat rock flew past not too far away from his body and bounced a few times on the surface of the lake, before sinking in the water.
Astonished, He Yiming turned his head around and his vision landed on his younger brother who had a huge smile plastered across his face.
He Yiming faintly shook his head and looked at the sky, consequently realizing that the morning training was over.
“Yi Tao, you are still playing here; quickly go back to study. If you skip lessons, third uncle will peel off your skin.” He Yiming scolded with a smile. Everyone in the manor, except his third uncle, doted on this younger brother of him.
He Yitao ran towards He Yiming while jumping and bouncing in a monkey-like manner and sat down beside him, before saying:
“Six brother, father said that today is a holiday for me. You, on the other hand, have finally shown yourself. In these past few months, you have almost turned into an even bigger of a cultivation freak than the eldest brother.”
He Yiming bitterly laughed. He truly didn’t know how to explain his younger brother. Though he was sure that if their positions were reversed, latter would become even bigger freak than him.
“Sixth brother, how is your cultivation going?” He Yitao casually asked:
“Are you sure you will be able to reach the sixth layer’s peak, or the bottleneck, within next four years?”
He Yiming muttered to himself. He knew that if he told his younger brother that he’d already attained the bottleneck of the sixth layer, latter would certainly create a big fuss and tell everyone about it.
He faintly shook his head and sighed, before saying:
“How cultivating sixth layer’s Internal Energy could be so easy? You will know when you attain the sixth layer.”
Upon hearing He Yiming’s words, He Yitao’s whole face was covered with expectations; even his eyes were twinkling like stars. However, this expression only remained for a very brief instant on his face, before completing dissipating. He listlessly said:
“Sixth brother, I wish. But father said neither do I have your or eldest brother’s talent nor hard work. I am too lacking in terms of cultivation compared to you guys. He said my thinking is sharp and insights extraordinary. I have the demeanor like that of second uncle’s younger days. Therefore, I am asked to study a lot of books, so that, in future, I could take over family’s business.”
He Yiming opened his mouth. He could make out his younger brother’s unwillingness, however, he was also helpless.
For cultivators, the requirements of talent are extremely high. Not suitable means not suitable. It doesn’t have an explanation, and neither it can be changed.
He Yitao’s temperament was indeed childish since he seemed lively again after a brief silence. He looked all around and moved closer to He Yiming’s ear, before saying in a low voice:
“Sixth brother, let me tell you something. Though second uncle is so earnest now, but in his younger days, he was as naughty as me, and has the most number of beatings from grandfather to his name .”
He Yiming didn’t know wether to laugh or to cry. He Yitao wouldn’t likely lie to him, but it was really hard to imagine that his father was such a character in his younger days. It was truly unimaginable.
However, He Yiming had no intention to ask his father for a conformation. His buttocks were not itching for a beating.
He Yitao again picked up a flat stone from the ground, lowered his waist, before throwing it. It once again created many ripples on the surface of the lake.
“Sixth brother, are you still cultivating Ripple technique?”
He Yiming was blanked for a moment, before he asked:
“What did you say?”
“Which technique are you cultivating at present. It ought to be Primordial Energy..” After looking at He Yiming, who seemed like a wooden puppet, He Yitao asked:
“Sixth brother you are not actually cultivating Ripple technique, are you?”
Excitement shone in He Yiming’s eyes, and his originally dead water like eyes were alive once again.
He turned around and tightly embraced He Yitao, before saying:
“Yitao, thank you.”
After saying these words, despite former’s puzzled and astonished expression, he turned around and dashed towards the manor.
Left behind He Yitao, who’d another stone in his hand which he was just about to throw, was tongue-tied looking at He Yiming’s departing figure, with a mind full of questions:
‘Why would sixth brother thank me?’
‘Don’t tell me some problem in his cultivation has fried his brain.’