Wu Long walked through the mansion, when he saw a lonely figure, seemingly looking at the beautiful scenery of a pond with lotus flowers covering the surface with a bit of melancholy.
"Mind if I join you, Fairy Gong?"
Gong Liwei was sitting in a lotus position, wearing robes suited for cultivation, not noticing anything around as her eyes were open signifying she was not meditating, when a voice woke her from her thoughts.
"...! Daoist Wu... of course, please forgive me not noticing... I was..."
She lightly gasped, looking at him with widening eyes. Her first instinct was to point out that she was the only one with the surname Gong and thus calling her that could create confusion, but quickly realized that her little sister was now called 'Cui'er'.
"Haha, don't worry about it. How have you been? We haven't really talked lately, but you seem to be burdened by something"
He chuckled, sitting down next to her without any sitting mat, simply on the wood floor with a relaxed pose, stretching both legs and putting one over another while leaning his back to the railing towards which she was sitting, facing away from the scenery she was observing.
"Ehm... I am... I am fine. I have just been always around Cui'er these past months so I guess I got used to being together with her. She has to cultivate now, and I thought..."
"You thought you needed to cultivate to keep up, but after trying can't break your bottleneck and think you already reached the limit of your talent?"
He finished her words that she did not dare utter, and after briefly widening her eyes, her face eased into a wry smile.
"Haha, there is nothing that escapes you, huh?"
"There is a lot that does, far more than I would like to admit, I am just good with some particular things"
He chuckled, looking up toward the blue sky above.
"I have to admit, I was a bit cruel or should I say sneaky? In all honesty I thought that you would come to me for help, but you never did..."
He sighed, a wry smile appearing on his face while she widened her eyes and turned to him. He shifted his gaze from the sky to her, only slightly turning his head.
"Being surrounded by people with heavenly talent can be discouraging, especially for people like you and me. Seeing others succeed with ease where you failed with painstaking effort is not exactly a pleasant experience.
But I must commend you on the fact you did not give up that easily, and tried to fight against fate on your own"
He smiled, as her talent for cultivation truly was not that great if compared to her sister who had a monstrous talent both for cultivation and Music Dao.
Though of course, the severity of how bad her talent was paled in comparison to his, as she still reached a Revolving Qi Realm in her mid-twenties with subpar legacy and resources of an not-influential noble family in a world with this Spiritual Qi conditions.
In truth, her talent would be considered at least above average, and if she was born outside she would have long since reached at least Foundation Building Realm.
But as she spent the majority of time surrounded by Wu Long's Dao Family, she found herself drowning in the sea of mediocrity.
And the more desperately she tried to climb up from that sea, the more it seemed to drag her in.
Even if there were comparatively less talented people like Wei Lan, Cao Mei and Feng Yi, their recent achievements were still nothing short of extraordinary. While she stagnated in her cultivation, and seemingly could not raise her cultivation base even a little in the past two months.
However, what Wu Long appreciated, was that spark in her eyes. The spark that told him she would not give up.
She may have experienced a slump, and was a bit discouraged at the moment, but he knew she would wrestle her way up sooner or later. To someone her eyes looked melancholic, but to him, it was apparent that deep within there was a burning passion and an intense thinking process.
She was, in fact, not despairing at her results, but busy thinking of the way to overcome them.
It was the same as when he met her at Old Yen's brothel and gambling house on Wood Spirit Continent. That glint in her eyes that betrayed her determination despite the outward look of despair.
The way she tried to solve her predicament may have been misguided, but what struck him was her will to act, to not be swayed helplessly by her fate.
Her heart was in the right place, what she needed was a little guidance on the methods and ways to do what she wanted. Something far less important than the mindset she already had, as that could be acquired.
"Remember, your effort has to come from your goal, not from your desperation. What drives you should not be the necessity, but intention. This is the reason for your recent slump, as your desperation overshadowed your goal.
Not to mention, that if what drives you is the necessity, as soon as you are in slightly better conditions, you will relax, and that is a luxury people like you and me that were not born with heaven-defying talent cannot afford if we want to reach the very top"
He then turned to her and spoke a bit more seriously, her green eyes revealing a glint, as she heard that he had poor cultivation talent, a dismal one.
And yet here he was, so powerful, victorious over any obstacle, winning against odds and climbing his way up.
His words 'the very top' echoed in her ears as she never even dared to look that high.
"And one more thing, if you can't find a way, there is no shame in asking someone who knows it, as long as that person is an ally you could trust"
He then chuckled, and stood up, walking away, as green eyes first looked at his receding figure, and then turned to the side, capturing a scroll lying at the place he sat.