There was something about his soul having a high density. When he read this, he thought to himself, "Could this be because I remember my last life? Or is it because of the Mountain Sitting Dao affecting my mind? Or is it because of both of them?"
He didn't know the answer to it, so he stopped thinking about it. Instead, he went to see his mother and show her the result of the test. He wanted to know what she had to say about it and if he should be worried.
When she looked at the result, she said, "Your qualities are not bad. They can be said to be good. It is just that your talent won't blossom until you reach the third mortal coil. That's when spiritual acuity begins to play a major role in cultivation."
"As for your qualities, they support the conclusion of the quantity too. With your high-density soul, you will be able to resist mental attacks better. It is probably why some of the tests came back with a zero or error."
"In conclusion, you need to join a good sect that can assist you to reach the third mortal coil quickly. With your poor talent for body refining and energy gathering, your cultivation at the second mortal coil will be slow no matter which path you take. You will need a lot of resources so that you can reach the third mortal coil quickly."
Arthur didn't think things were so bad. He said to her, "I'm 17 this year. In a year or two, I'll reach the second mortal coil and gain a life span of 150 years. Even if I reach the second mortal coil at 20, I'll have at least 130 years to reach the third mortal coil."
"I spent 8 years to reach the 10th transformation of the first mortal coil. Even if I spend ten times that amount of time to reach the peak of the second mortal coil, I'll still have 40 extra years to work with. So what's the rush?"
Lady Vena shook her and said, "You're wrong. The attempt to reach the third transformation is a race against time. You need to reach the tenth transformation of the second mortal coil before 50 or, at most, 60 years. Any longer than that and your chances of success will reduce drastically. You could die during the attempt to transcend the second mortal coil."
She explained to him that cultivators gain more lifespan because of their overflowing life force. But the extra 50 years of life span are not for them to relax. It is the deadline they have, after which their life force will begin to decline.
The younger someone is, the more life span they will have and the more life force they will have. The more life force they have, the higher their chances of surviving the attempt to reach the tenth transformation will be.
If someone reaches 50 years old, they would have expended the extra life force that they gained for transcending the first mortal coil. If they try to break through to the third mortal coil in that state, it would be as if someone at the first mortal coil is trying to jump past both the second and third mortal coils at the same time.
It is not an impossible feat to jump through two mortal coils at the same time. It can be done. It is just very difficult and can be fatal.
At the very least, one would need powerful medicine to maintain their life. Such medicine is something that even cultivators at the third mortal coil will covet.
When she said this, it made Arthur understand why his father Augustus was appreciated for the speed at which he was making progress in the second mortal coil.
He thought to himself, "Augustus should be almost 40 years old. He is only at the sixth transformation now. He might not make it in time to reach the tenth transformation by 50. But he still has a chance if he can maintain his progress."
Then he thought of his mother. She is weaker than Augustus, yet she is older than him. She should be at the fourth transformation of the second mortal coil and above 40 years old, so it is clear that she won't be able to make it at all.
If his mother wants to make it to the third transformation, she will definitely need the help of some expensive assistance. It made sense why she was trying to suck up to a future patriarch of the Dyson family.
He said aloud, "It is a race against time, huh?"
Lady Vena nodded. "Yes. So you can't slack off. You should know now why your poor talents can be a hindrance to you."
"With a grade 3 talent for the body and mana, the best you can do is use an average of five years to complete each transformation. You might even spend up to 10 years at each major bottleneck. By the time you reach the tenth transformation, you would have spent up to 60 years already."
He said, "Add that to my current age, and I would be 77 years old by the time I reach the tenth transformation. That is way past the deadline."
Lasy Vena smiled and said, "So you understand that you will need the help of powerful people to help you acquire medicine to break through, or you will need the help of a lot of resources to reach the tenth transformation faster if you want to reach the third transformation."
The more he thought about it, the more he realized how the distribution of talents would affect the chances of people making it to the finish line early. He also understood how unfair his situation is.
According to common knowledge, no one is perfect. If they excel in one area, they will be inept in another area. It is said that everyone is talented in one way or another. But that doesn't mean everyone's situation is fair.