He was always the first to put down his chopsticks.
Today was no exception.
After finishing his meal, Second Uncle set his bowl down and smiled as he watched the others eat, especially Im Beomhyeon, the bottomless pit.
It was as if seeing everyone enjoy their food brought him a deep sense of satisfaction.
Bok Taejin noticed the look in Second Uncle's eyes and suddenly felt something soft and warm stir deep inside him.
Before he could dwell on the feeling, he caught a glimpse of Im Beomhyeon trying to snatch the last two pieces of bamboo shoots from the plate.
Without hesitation, he grabbed his chopsticks and took one for himself.
Im Beomhyeon glared at him, but Bok Taejin ignored it completely.
The bamboo shoots were delicious—of course, he wanted more!
After eating and drinking their fill, they headed home to sleep.
Officially, Bok Taejin claimed he was exhausted from the day's trek up the mountain and needed to rest early.
In reality, as soon as he returned to his room, he immediately prepared for cultivation.
Even though cultivation was difficult and full of challenges, he still had to persevere!
Moreover, with the Taiji Diagram formed from the life-and-death energies in his dantian now assisting him automatically, cultivation was no longer as strenuous as it had been the night before.
Instead, a peaceful and joyful sense of tranquility gradually emerged as he continued his practice.
Unknowingly, he had already completed three cycles of cultivation.
Suddenly, he trembled as a gentle yet irresistible force pushed him out of his cultivation state.
Bok Taejin was puzzled, but the small glowing dot between his brows immediately transmitted information to him.
Only then did he realize that cultivation had a time limit.
Those with low spiritual energy and weak minds would often be forcibly expelled from the cultivation state shortly after fully entering it.
Perhaps because his original self had never been able to cultivate, his master, the former sect leader, had never told him much about it.
As a result, he knew very little about the path of cultivation.
However, from the occasional words exchanged between the former sect leader and other cultivators, he knew that powerful cultivators could often enter seclusion for extended periods.
Moreover, although higher levels of cultivation required greater talent and longer accumulation periods before breaking through bottlenecks, the difference in advancement speed between low-level and high-level cultivators was not as vast as he had imagined.
Bok Taejin had been curious about the true reason behind this but had never delved deeper.
After all, those who could cultivate to higher levels must naturally possess greater talent.
Perhaps the comparison was simply between highly talented people is their progressing quickly at higher levels and less talented people advancing slowly at lower levels?
Now, he finally understood.
Since he could no longer continue cultivating and could hear Im Beomhyeon snoring next door, he had no choice but to prepare for sleep.
Before sleeping, he recalled something and hurriedly checked the state of the life and death energy that was flowing through his meridians.
As expected, it was still flowing slowly.