The more solid one's foundation, the faster the subsequent cultivation progress would be, and the fewer obstacles there would be.
As for why Xiaoyao didn't continue cultivating his foundation, it was because everything came naturally. His body felt that the foundation had reached a certain limit - it was time to break through. Xiaoyao didn't want to forcibly stay at the foundation stage. Since the time had come, he would break through.
Xiaoyao didn't know that this was the most correct approach. Don't force things too much - forcing too much wouldn't bring great benefits and would only delay time.
As for other people, no one had ever felt this. They cultivated with breakthrough as their goal. After cultivating to a certain foundation level, they would already start breaking through this foundation stage.
Foundation was a difficult choice. Too short would make the foundation unstable, dragging down future cultivation. But too long wasn't good either - it would equally drag down future cultivation.
Take Xiaoyao for example. He had built such a solid foundation that his future prospects were limitless and he would be much faster than others. But the problem was that those naturally gifted talents were already at Emperor Level by now, while he was still at Scholar Level. This difference wasn't just a little bit.
If martial arts was a long-distance running path where everyone ran on this road, everyone needing to run from start to finish, now Xiaoyao ran faster than others, but at this time, others were already close to the finish line while he was still at the starting line.
No matter how fast he could run, catching up to others would still take a very long time. By that time, others might have already passed the finish line and run toward another finish line.
Even if there were still finish lines and roads, the time available for running might have already ended. At that time, if you were still behind others, then all the preparation you made before, your advantage of being able to run faster than others, would all become worthless.
This was the choice regarding foundation. Why very few people cultivated foundation to Xiaoyao's degree - this was the reason.
Now Xiaoyao could catch up rapidly and surpass many people, but he might not be able to catch up to those geniuses.
If there wasn't Chi Chi, Xiaoyao might still have this possibility - catching up to those geniuses in a few decades, but that would still be decades later.
Now Xiaoyao still had to bring Chi Chi along, so he could only chase those geniuses. But surpassing ordinary people wasn't very difficult. For Xiaoyao, this was already quite good.
Xiaoyao had never thought about becoming number one in the world. It was normal for others to be stronger than him - let them be strong. What did that have to do with him?
Xiaoyao cultivated only to surpass himself, for self-protection, not to surpass others or defeat other people. Naturally he wouldn't care who was stronger than him.
Should he give up just because others couldn't be surpassed? Then how many people in this world would have to give up their paths - it would include almost absolutely everyone.
Not caring about others, not being influenced by others - this way one could cultivate better and surpass oneself better. When the time came, naturally one could surpass others.
Speaking of which, during this year-plus, Xiaoyao hadn't relaxed his cultivation. He had been working hard constantly, which was why he could break through to Scholar Level so quickly and become a high-level expert among the bottom tier of the martial world. This was also because he had consumed quite a few high-grade pills, which kept his speed consistently fast.
High-grade pills, for Xiaoyao, were just a matter of finding materials and refining them. It wasn't very difficult. Not to mention he had quite a few resources in Heavenly Gate - even before, he had prepared many high-grade pills for his own use, enough for him to cultivate to King Level.
In Heavenly Gate, they might not necessarily have as good a pill supply as Xiaoyao. Even Dongfang Wunian couldn't achieve this - eating high-grade pills every day.
This was also what caused Xiaoyao's current cultivation speed. Even with Chi Chi as a burden, he could still match the speed of geniuses. However, if he wanted to catch up to those geniuses now, he still needed to work hard and had a very long road ahead. After all, his starting line was too far behind others.
"Xiaoyao, are you free today? I have something to take leave for. Could you help me cover my shift?"
On this day, Xiaoyao sat in the medicinal garden in a daze. To outsiders it looked like he was daydreaming, but actually he was cultivating. He could cultivate at any time, in any state. This was a special skill Xiaoyao had developed over many years.
Like now, just lying in a chair daydreaming while cultivating - for him this was really too simple. He could cultivate even in extremely complex situations, much less this extremely simple daydreaming.
When outsiders saw Xiaoyao daydreaming, they wouldn't say anything. Xiaoyao's status was quite different now. Ordinary people wouldn't provoke him. Those who could provoke him were unwilling to provoke a small person like Xiaoyao. Moreover, Xiaoyao had already finished his work, and done it perfectly. In such circumstances, if someone wanted to daydream, was it any of your business?
The person who came to find Xiaoyao now wasn't here to provoke him, but to ask for help. People who had contact with Xiaoyao all knew that Xiaoyao would help everyone with some work. Generally, asking him to help cover a shift wasn't a problem, as long as Xiaoyao had time.
This was also why everyone liked Xiaoyao. Generally, people Xiaoyao covered for would also help in return, doing some things for Xiaoyao. Of course, there were a few who only asked for help without giving anything back, but the vast majority of people had give and take.
The person asking Xiaoyao to cover was someone from Heavenly Gate's kitchen. He had also exchanged shifts with Xiaoyao several times. Although Xiaoyao didn't need him to cook - he couldn't replace him in that - he could still do preparatory work like helping out, cutting vegetables, and washing vegetables.
Xiaoyao also readily agreed. Anyway, he had nothing to do today, or rather, he had already finished his work!
Soon, Xiaoyao came to the kitchen and took over the previous person's work. Today seemed to be helping cook for people in the prison. Every sect would have their own prison, holding enemies, traitors, and unwelcome people.
Although it was prison food, Heavenly Gate wouldn't treat prisoners too poorly. They wouldn't let prisoners eat leftover scraps, but of course it wouldn't be rich food either. Ordinary and passable was enough.
Therefore, what Xiaoyao would cook would be very ordinary materials, and in large quantities - cooking in big pots. For Xiaoyao, this wasn't much either.
Under the somewhat surprised but not unexpected gazes of others, Xiaoyao prepared the materials at extremely fast speed. Work that originally required over ten people three hours to complete, he finished single-handedly within one hour. Then at an equally incredible speed, he fried, stir-fried, steamed, and boiled, handling the prison's needs. The finished products had excellent color, aroma, and taste.
"I'm leaving!" After Xiaoyao finished all this, he also made some things for Dongfang Wunian, had some food himself, and finally prepared to leave alone while others hadn't finished their work.
"Xiaoyao, help with one more thing - how about delivering these to the Heavenly Prison?" Perhaps someone didn't want to see Xiaoyao get off work so quickly, so they asked Xiaoyao to help.
"Alright!" Xiaoyao thought about it and nodded. It seemed he hadn't been to Heavenly Gate's prison yet. He didn't know what kind of people were held inside - maybe he could find some powerful people.
Some storybooks wrote that generally there would be very powerful people in prisons. As long as you communicated with them, you could get quite a few benefits. He'd go try his luck.
With this thought, Xiaoyao brought a helper to deliver the food to the Heavenly Prison. This "Heavenly Prison" didn't mean the highest level - it was just because it was Heavenly Gate's prison, abbreviated as Heavenly Prison.
Not just anyone could enter this Heavenly Prison. Even inner sect disciples, if they didn't have duties, couldn't enter either. For Xiaoyao, today might be a very rare opportunity.
However, Xiaoyao was quickly disappointed. In this Heavenly Prison, there didn't seem to be any special people, at least none who could interest Xiaoyao. The innermost area might be useful to Xiaoyao, but he couldn't get close. The innermost prisoners all had special guards, and food delivery people weren't allowed to approach.
If Xiaoyao wanted to get close, it would inevitably arouse others' suspicion and require doing many troublesome things. Therefore, Xiaoyao very straightforwardly gave up.
He just wanted to see if there were any special figures here. This thought wasn't very strong either - it wasn't worth causing trouble for himself.
"Hey, today's food is really delicious - better than those big restaurants I've eaten at!"
"Yeah, it's still the same simple materials. Why is it so delicious?"
"You don't understand this. Real culinary skill is displayed with simple materials!!"
"This taste is much better than the Great Tang Empire's imperial kitchen that I once stole food from!"
"..."
The prisoners in the Heavenly Prison began making noise. From the first person to all of them, some were asking the helpers distributing food what was going on with this meal, why it had suddenly improved so much. At the same time, everyone was asking if there was more.
The helpers naturally didn't dare say anything. If it were other people, they might still talk, but facing these prisoners, they didn't want to say much or have too much contact.
Most importantly, Xiaoyao himself was right there - if anyone was going to speak, it should be him!
"There's no more. Today's food is only this much!" Soon, the food that would normally have leftovers was quickly snatched up.
"Damn, how is it gone!!"
Another commotion arose. The prisoners were very dissatisfied that the food was gone so quickly, but their opinions weren't adopted, nor would anyone make another lunch for them.
Xiaoyao prepared to leave, but suddenly stopped in his tracks, because he discovered something very interesting - a person who surprised him greatly.
(End of Chapter)