As Huáng Zhen left the bed he was laying upon, he went to his cave abode.
"Still too weak.."
He thought as he moved to his humble abode. The unassuming wooden rectangle still on the ground where he threw it, the bold letters of the quote still glistening in the natural light of the cave.
"Whereas Talent has no meaning My ass." he said, grabbing the piece of wood again. "What deviation-induced quote is this? Of course talent matters!" he said angrily.
He tried to use some Dominion Energy to turn the wooden piece into energy; as anything that existed had Dominion Energy inherently. From tree bark to grass to even the air itself.
The piece didn't budge. Instead, he felt something coming from it.. Dominion Energy? No.. this was much stronger.
It was enlightenment, the words were words of enlightenment—but enlightenment can only be achieved from Heaven-Grade Manuals.. right?
No. Any word gives enlightenment—even normal words, but the enlightenment is so small you can barely even notice it exists. A simple spark that allows you to comprehend techniques and manuals 0.00000000000000...001% faster... Useless, if you think about it.
But this enlightenment energy was stronger. It entered him like light entering eyes which have not witnessed the light of day for hundreds of years. The wooden piece dissolved into faint motes of light as they scurried towards him.
He felt as if he had opened a third eye, his mind was thinking in a new light now, nothing was black-and-white anymore. What he thought were simple problems became not so simple: such as the eternal conflict between Humans and Beasts. He thought beasts were just warmonger, no, it was way more than just that.
But, first, let's use this opportunity as muçh as possible. Even if you have only a single cow, you should milk every ounce it has. In Zhen's case, he was doing exactly that.
Except that Enlightenment was a permanent boost. It could be the factor between a mortal and immortal.
And so.
He took the lotus position once more, and started cultivation once again.
He wanted to break through many stages, he wanted to not only become the strongest—he wanted to live a full life. Even a few hundred years, he could accept that. Even if most cultivators last for thousands and hundreds of years, if he can get to live 100 years, he would be pleased.
And finally—he was on the verge of breaking through.
Just one nudge and he'll break through to the Second Stage of Domain Awakening.
The wooden piece really did do a lot. What he thought was useless turned out to be great—although, it didn't give him game-breaking Aptitude or Enlightenment, it gave him a significant amount of Enlightenmenr compared to an ordinary mortal.
And he was going to put that to good use.