Chapter 850: Talent
Liu Mei's eyes were filled with an extremely sharp look as she stared at the stone mural in front of her, while even her own aura was now slightly different than before.
The aura that was now coming from her body wasn't just dark and filled with death qi, but it also had a sharp aspect to it that wasn't there 3 months ago.
After staring at the stone mural for a few more moments, Liu Mei then turned her gaze towards Shun Long who was still sitting there with his eyes closed, before an enchanting, soul-stirring smile ultimately appeared on her face.
Just like Shun Long and Bai Longtian, Liu Mei had also been entranced after staring at the scene of the faceless man who was wielding the wooden sword, and the longer she observed it, the more she seemed to be absorbed by it as well.
Once the first month had gone by, Liu Mei had even failed to realize that she had unconsciously closed her eyes and was no longer staring at the stone mural with her own eyes, but she was using her soul sense instead.
On the second month, she had finally begun to feel the pressure coming from the stone mural as it slowly mounted up in her spiritual sea, but it still wasn't enough to break her concentration.
The pressure continued to increase, but even after the third month was slowly coming to an end, the pressure itself still wasn't enough to force Liu Mei out of her trance.
Of course, this was only natural as well.
Even though Liu Mei was a peak rank 6 Dao King, in reality, her spiritual strength and the power of her soul were far above that of most average late-stage Dao Kings.
This wasn't just the result of her having comprehended a supreme Dao like the Dao of Death which constantly pressured her to increase her spiritual strength even further, but also because Liu Mei had consumed thousands upon thousands of 'Soul-nourishing pills' in the past as well.
Thus, lasting 3 months under these circumstances wasn't a problem.
And yet, at the end of the third month, Liu Mei's body momentarily trembled before she opened her eyes, causing her concentration to be finally broken.
Even an outsider who looked at this scene would be able to tell that Liu Mei's concentration hadn't been broken due to the pressure that the stone mural was emitting, but because Liu Mei herself had decided to give up.
Shaking her head, Liu Mei threw one last look at the scene in the stone mural in front of her, before she closed her eyes for the second time and began to absorb the qi that she had obtained from Li Tian, aiming to breakthrough to the early rank 7 of the Dao King realm directly.
Of course, the reason why Liu Mei had decided to give up wasn't because she was uninterested in the scenes on the stone mural.
In fact, she could feel that her comprehension of the sword had been increasing at an extremely rapid rate in the last 3 months, and that her current sword skills were simply incomparable to before.
However, at the start of the third month, Liu Mei had clearly started to feel that she had finally stumbled upon a wall, a gigantic wall that she couldn't overcome no matter how hard she tried.
At the start of the third month, the benefits that she was obtaining from the stone mural had begun to diminish quite rapidly, and finally, as the third month came to an end, Liu Mei could feel that she could no longer obtain anything else from the stone mural.
Liu Mei knew that this wall was a wall that originated from her own lack of talent.
Although she could normally be considered a cultivation genius that would be welcomed by practically every single sect around the central region for having comprehended a supreme Dao like the Dao of Death, Liu Mei knew that her own talent in regards to the sword was truly limited.
Forget about comparing herself to monsters like Shun Long and Bai Longtian, before entering the 'City of Immortals', Liu Mei knew that as far as her sword skills went, she would probably be considered below average even if she compared herself to most other outer court disciples of the Holy sect.
Even though Liu Mei had made sure to constantly practice her sword skills whenever she had some free time, this was the cruel reality of the cultivation world that very few people could defy. No matter how much effort she put, she couldn't compare to those geniuses who had put a similar amount of effort into honing their sword skills.
Hard work was extremely important, but 2 people who put the same amount of effort into one thing won't have the same results if there is a huge gap in their talent.
For Liu Mei's sword skills to compare to someone like Bai Longtian in this aspect, she would have to put more than 10 times the effort that Bai Longtian himself was putting into honing her sword skills, otherwise it would be practically impossible to catch up to him.
This was the difference that was caused by talent.
Although hard work could truly beat talent, in the end, only those geniuses who were slacking and had already grown complacent would allow others to catch up to them.
Of course, Liu Mei wasn't too disappointed by this either, as she had already accepted this long ago.
After all, the reason why she was increasing her sword skills was to protect herself in case she was put in an unfavorable situation where her undead army was unable to protect her in time.
...
As Liu Mei absorbed the qi that she had obtained from Li Tian, time continued to pass while Shun Long, Bai Longtian, Jiang Chen, and Xingyi, all stared at the scenes that were engraved in the stone mural, and in the blink of an eye, 3 more months went by in a flash.
Like this, half a year had passed since Shun Long and his group had arrived in this place, before Xingyi's body suddenly started to tremble, attracting the attention of quite a few of the surrounding Dao Kings.