Spirit Realm

Spirit Realm.

A spiritual world jointly created by the Ten Great Sects.

When the exam officially began, Zhang Yu felt his consciousness being dragged out of his physical body and into another world.

A gentle breeze brushed through his hair, while his butt felt the hard pressure of sitting on a chair.

When Zhang Yu opened his eyes, he found himself in an ordinary classroom.

Inside sat dozens of students around his age, from various different high schools.

This was the Spirit Realm, a spiritual world distinct from the real world.

The Spirit Realm could be called a real world, or it could be called a false one.

It was real because everything people experienced here could be no different from the real world.

It was false because none of the matter in this world truly existed in reality. Like a dream, like an illusion, even everything seen, smelled, touched, and felt in this world could be artificially controlled.

Zhang Yu knew that his physical body was still lying on a bed at Songyang High School, while only his consciousness had entered the Spirit Realm.

Like the students around him, he had been randomly selected from the many students taking the exam in Songyang City and placed in this classroom.

After looking around the classroom, Zhang Yu could not distinguish it from reality in the slightest.

Please don't let us get trapped halfway through the exam. Don't tell me all the high school students in the city are about to be stuck in a virtual online game.

A place similar to a virtual network world—this was Zhang Yu's understanding of the Spirit Realm after reading some materials about it.

It was simply that Kunxu had used Immortal Dao Technique to achieve it.

Of course, Zhang Yu also understood that he knew far too little about the Spirit Realm. His interpretation was certainly one-sided, but for now, it was enough.

Before them, a thin man wearing an owl mask stood behind the podium and looked at them.

Li Xingyu swept his gaze over the examinees before him.

The next moment, from his own perspective, each examinee's number, name, and high school appeared above their heads.

"Ah, I hope this ends early so I can get off work early."

As a Soul Cultivator from Mangshan High School, Li Xingyu, who had no physical body and only a soul remaining, had long grown accustomed to daily life in the Spirit Realm.

And because of the special nature of Soul Cultivators, they did not need to take this Dao Heart Exam. Instead, the teachers had dragged them over to serve as proctors.

Thinking of the remaining forty-five hours of work waiting for him today, he could not help sighing inwardly.

Suddenly, as he inspected the examinees, his gaze sharpened and turned toward Zhang Yu.

"It's him?"

Li Xingyu still remembered that at Li Xuelian's art exhibition, it had been this security guard who had stolen the limelight and triggered an anomalous change in the Heavenly Human Martial Arts Diagram.

"From Songyang High School?"

"This is getting interesting. I'll record his exam process this time. Maybe I can sell it to the Principal as useful research intel."

After paying him a little attention, Li Xingyu took several steps forward. With every step he took, several identical versions of himself split off. By the time he reached his tenth step, a Li Xingyu was standing before every examinee present.

This kind of Spirit Realm cloning technique was everyday routine for a Soul Cultivator like Li Xingyu.

Looking at the owl-masked proctor before him, Zhang Yu began to speculate.

The strength of one's will was a manifestation of the Dao Heart. To judge a Dao Heart Level, one generally tested the strength of a person's will.

So the Dao Heart Exam mainly tested willpower, at least during the Qi Refining Stage.

But there were many ways to test the strength of each person's will. To prevent examinees from undergoing targeted training in advance and causing inaccuracies in the tests, the specific questions in every Dao Heart Exam were different.

From what Zhang Yu knew, the higher the level of the exam, the more resources were invested into the Dao Heart Exam, and the more complicated the exam content experienced by the examinees in the Spirit Realm would be.

After all, only more complicated and more diverse experiences could more accurately assess an examinee's condition.

This is only a Monthly Exam... Based on past experience, it shouldn't be too complicated.

At the same time, Li Xingyu extended a hand toward him. When he spread his palm, it revealed something like a mobile phone resting there.

"Take it."

At the same time, every Li Xingyu spoke in unison. "Today's Dao Heart Exam is very simple... pain."

"For the next sixty minutes, the controller in your hands can adjust your pain level at any time."

"Over these sixty minutes, the higher the pain level you maintain, and the longer you maintain it, the higher your ranking will be."

The Dao Heart Exam awarded scores according to rankings, so the specific score depended not only on oneself, but also on the level of the other examinees.

For example, Songyang City's monthly Dao Heart Exam was scored according to the rankings of all high school students in the city.

The actual Gaokao, on the other hand, was scored according to the rankings of all Gaokao examinees across the entire Kunxu First Layer.

"One more thing: if your pain level exceeds your tolerance and causes you to lose consciousness, your awareness will immediately exit the Spirit Realm, and your score will be treated as zero."

After explaining the content of this exam, Li Xingyu pointed with one hand, and a ten-second countdown appeared in the air of the Spirit Realm.

"Timing begins in ten seconds."

Zhang Yu looked at the phone-like controller in his hand. Its screen displayed Pain Level 0, Pain Level 1, Pain Level 2, Pain Level 3... The controller had only two buttons, representing up and down. Starting from Pain Level 0, he could continuously adjust upward or downward, changing the pain he felt at any time.

Just looking at it made Zhang Yu feel as if his entire body had started hurting.

Which bastard came up with this exam question? Did the person who made it lose their mother?

Don't tell me these pain levels include stuff like burning-alive level, cock-cutting level, and death-by-a-thousand-cuts level...

So this was Songyang City's own little electric-saw horror show, huh?

What Zhang Yu hated most was suffering. What he hated even more than suffering was having someone press his head down and force him to suffer.

Yet ever since he came to Kunxu and embarked on this path of cultivation, he had been suffering nonstop, shoveling it into his mouth by the mouthful.

At this moment, Zhang Yu felt thoroughly sickened. The resistance in his heart had reached its limit.

Noticing this, Zhang Yu's eyes narrowed. But then again, as a high school cultivation student, studying, cultivating, and taking exams are my duty. If I suffer more now, I can earn more money later.

"I love studying. I love exams!"

After giving himself a pep talk, Zhang Yu felt slightly more energized, and the pain controller before him seemed a little less unpleasant.

What was will? What was thought? What was Dao Heart?

The Dao Heart Class teacher had explained many things. From ancient times to the present, some Worshiped Gods, some worshiped demons, some worshiped people... They established all kinds of different beliefs, using different ideas in conjunction with cultivation arts to strengthen the Dao Heart and bolster their will.

In Zhang Yu's understanding, will was simply the ability to endure hardship head-on. The stronger one's will, the more hardship one could endure.

And using thought to strengthen will meant telling oneself that this suffering would bring benefits, thereby allowing oneself to endure even more suffering.

At this moment, Zhang Yu was using little ideas to comfort and encourage himself, hoping to improve his score later.

Zhang Yu had many such little ideas. Everyone did.

But Zhang Yu did not yet possess any ideas that could truly be upheld over the long term and formed into a complete system. Nor was that something the school's Dao Heart Class had been able to teach him.

That was something every student needed to ultimately establish by combining textbooks, personal experiences, and their own cultivation techniques...

The strength of will displayed by a cultivator could be used to score their Dao Heart Level.

The ideas in a cultivator's heart could work with cultivation arts to increase their Dao Heart Level, further strengthening their will.

Thought was the core, will was its manifestation, and cultivation arts were the method. Only the combination of all three formed a cultivator's complete Dao Heart.

The next moment, the countdown in the air reached zero.

The many students present began operating their controllers. Some let out screams, some twisted their faces in agony, and some sucked in sharp breaths...

When Zhang Yu adjusted his pain level to 1, he felt as if a steel needle had pierced his palm.

He hurriedly activated the Level 1 Basic Heart Refining Method taught in Dao Heart Class, trying to stabilize his mind.

Emptiness, nothingness, no self... The Basic Heart Refining Method was a cultivation art that stabilized one's emotions, kept one calm, and gradually guided one into a meditative state.

Through long-term practice, one's Dao Heart Level would rise like water lifting a boat, and one's willpower would grow stronger and stronger.

This Level 1 Basic Heart Refining Method was a cultivation art that the original Zhang Yu had already learned before Zhang Yu came to this world.

But because he had always been busy improving his Magical Power and Physical Strength, as well as the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method, Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms, and Freehand Fighting, he had never had the chance to improve this cultivation art.

Now, after Zhang Yu activated the Basic Heart Refining Method, he felt his heart gradually calm down, and his tolerance for pain seemed to increase greatly as well.

He immediately raised the pain level to 2.

Hiss!

Zhang Yu felt as if his other hand had also been pierced through by a steel needle.

But it was still bearable.

So Zhang Yu increased the pain level one stage at a time. When it reached Pain Level 37, he felt as though thirty-seven steel needles had pierced through both his hands and feet.

Zhang Yu's face was now twisted. No matter how hard he tried to circulate the Basic Heart Refining Method, he could not feel the slightest trace of calm.

"Calm down! Calm down! Calm down!"

Still the heart, focus the mind, silently endure, silently persist, water dripping through stone... Only by pairing the Basic Heart Refining Method with such a framework of thought could its effects be brought to their fullest.

This was also the norm for raising one's Dao Heart. Only when one's ideas matched one's cultivation art could the Dao Heart improve most effectively.

But calming the heart, focusing the mind, silently enduring, silently persisting, water dripping through stone... none of that suited Zhang Yu's personality at all.

At this moment, all he wanted was to immediately, right now, kill the bastard who had set this Dao Heart Exam.

Just as Zhang Yu felt he had reached his limit, the contents of the Heavenly Martial Heart Refinement Art suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Fist, palm, leg, spear, saber, sword...

One figure after another abruptly appeared in his mind, carrying killing intent capable of shattering ten thousand soldiers, the fighting spirit to never regret even after nine deaths, and the imposing momentum to forge ahead without turning back... These were what truly suited his heart.

Although Zhang Yu's Dao Heart Level was insufficient for him to truly master the Heavenly Martial Heart Refinement Art.

At this moment, merely recalling the intent within this martial art caused a surge of momentum to rise in Zhang Yu's heart.

He felt like a lowly soldier following behind an unmatched general. Seeing the general's mighty bearing before him, courage filled his heart again, and his spirit rallied.

At this moment, the pain of those steel needles piercing through his body no longer seemed quite so unbearable.

A savage smile curled across his lips. "Once I climb up there, I'll beat the bastard who made these questions until he kneels and begs for mercy."