Spirit Realm

Spirit Realm

The Spirit Realm.

It was a mental world created through the joint efforts of the Ten Great Sects.

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

A gentle breeze blew through his hair, and his backside felt the hard sensation of sitting in a chair.

When Zhang Yu opened his eyes, an ordinary classroom appeared before him.

Seated inside the classroom were dozens of students around his age from various high schools.

This was the Spirit Realm, a mental world distinct from the reality.

The Spirit Realm could be said to be both a real world and a false world.

It could be called a real world because everything people felt here was indistinguishable from reality.

It could be called a false world because all matter within this world did not exist in reality; it was like a dream, an illusion, and even everything seen, smelled, touched, and felt in this world could be artificially controlled.

Zhang Yu knew that his physical body at this moment was still resting on his bed at Songyang High School, and only his consciousness had come to the Spirit Realm.

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

He glanced at the classroom environment, and at least Zhang Yu could not tell the difference between this place and reality at all.

I just hope I don't get stuck halfway through the exam, turning into a city-wide high school student trapped in a virtual online game, he thought to himself.

A place resembling a virtual network world—this was Zhang Yu's understanding of the Spirit Realm after gathering some information about it.

Only, Kunxu used Immortal Dao Technology to achieve this.

Of course, Zhang Yu also understood that he still knew far too little about the Spirit Realm, and his understanding was definitely one-sided, but it was enough for him at present.

Right in front of everyone, a thin man wearing an owl mask stood behind the podium and looked at them.

Li Xingyu glanced at the examinees before him.

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

Sigh, I hope this finishes early so I can get off work earlier.

As a Soul Cultivator from Mangshan High School who possessed no physical body and only remained as a soul, Li Xingyu had long since grown accustomed to his daily routine in the Spirit Realm.

Because of the special nature of Soul Cultivators, they did not need to participate in this Dao Heart Exam and instead were rounded up by the teachers to serve as proctors.

Thinking of his remaining forty-five hours of workload for today, he could not help but heave a sigh in his heart.

Suddenly, as he was inspecting the examinees, his gaze locked and he looked in Zhang Yu's direction.

It's him?

Li Xingyu still remembered that on the day of Li Xuelian's art exhibition, it was precisely this security guard who had stolen the show and triggered the strange phenomenon on the Heavenly Human Martial Arts Diagram.

From Songyang High School?

This is getting a bit interesting. I should record his exam process this time; maybe I can sell it as decent research intel to the principal.

Paying a bit of attention to him, Li Xingyu took a few steps forward. With each step he took, several identical copies of himself split off, and by the time he reached the tenth step, a Li Xingyu was standing right in front of every single examinee in the room.

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

Zhang Yu looked at the masked proctor wearing an owl mask in front of him, and speculations stirred in his heart.

The strength of one's willpower was a manifestation of the Dao Heart, and determining the Dao Heart Level generally involved testing the strength of one's willpower.

Therefore, the Dao Heart Exam primarily tested willpower, at least during the Qi Refining Stage.

However, the methods to test everyone's willpower strength were varied. To prevent examinees from undergoing targeted training beforehand and causing errors in testing, the specific questions for every Dao Heart Exam differed.

According to what Zhang Yu knew, generally the higher the grade of the exam, the more resources poured into the Dao Heart Exam, and the more complex the exam content experienced by the examinees in the Spirit Realm would be.

After all, more complex and diverse experiences could more accurately test the condition of the examinees.

This time it's the monthly exam... Zhang Yu thought to himself. Based on past experience, it shouldn't be too complicated.

At the same time, Li Xingyu reached out a hand toward him, revealing something resembling a smartphone in his palm.

"Hold this."

Simultaneously, all the incarnations of Li Xingyu spoke at once: "Today's Dao Heart Exam content is very simple... pain."

"Over the next sixty minutes, the controllers in your hands can adjust the pain level you experience at any time."

"During these sixty minutes, the higher the pain level and the longer it is maintained, the higher your ranking will be."

The Dao Heart Exam graded based on rankings, so the specific score of the exam depended not only on oneself, but also on the performance level of other examinees.

For instance, the Dao Heart Monthly Exam in Songyang City was graded according to the rankings of high school students throughout the city.

As for the real Gaokao, it was graded according to the rankings of all Gaokao examinees across the entire Kunxu First Layer.

"Also, if the pain level exceeds your bearable limit and causes you to faint, your consciousness will immediately exit the Spirit Realm, and your score will be processed as zero."

After finishing the explanation of this exam's content, Li Xingyu pointed a hand, and a ten-second countdown appeared in mid-air within the Spirit Realm.

"The timer starts after ten seconds."

Zhang Yu looked at the smartphone-like controller in his hand and saw the screen displaying Pain Level 0, Pain Level 1, Pain Level 2, Pain Level 3... while the only two buttons on the controller represented up and down, allowing one to continuously adjust upward or downward starting from Pain Level 0, changing the perceived pain level at any moment.

Just looking at it made Zhang Yu feel like his entire body was already starting to ache.

Which motherfucker of a newborn came up with this exam question? Did the author of this test lose their mother?

Don't tell me this pain level includes things like the Burning Level, the Chicken-Snapping Level, the Death-by-a-Thousand-Cuts Level...

Are we running our own Songyang City version of Saw, or what?

The thing Zhang Yu hated most in this world was suffering, and what he hated even more than suffering was someone forcing his head down to endure it.

Yet ever since he arrived in Kunxu and embarked on this path of immortal cultivation, he had done nothing but suffer endlessly, swallowing mouthful after mouthful until his mouth was completely full.

At this moment, Zhang Yu felt utterly disgusted, and the feeling of resistance in his heart reached a limit.

Noticing this, Zhang Yu's gaze tightened, and he thought to himself: But then again, as a high school immortal cultivation student, studying, practicing, and taking exams are my bounden duties. If I suffer a bit more now, I can make more money later.

I love studying, I love exams!

Cheering himself up, Zhang Yu felt slightly refreshed, and the pain controller in front of him seemed a bit more pleasing to the eye.

What was willpower? What was ideology? What was the Dao Heart?

The teachers of the Dao Heart Class had lectured extensively on it. Since ancient times, some people worshipped gods, some worshipped demons, and some worshipped humans... establishing all sorts of different ideologies, and through these varying ideologies matching with heart-refining methods, they elevated their Dao Heart and strengthened their willpower.

And in Zhang Yu's understanding, willpower was simply the ability to brutally endure hardship; the stronger the willpower, the more hardship one could stomach.

As for ideology elevating willpower, it was a mindset that told oneself this suffering had benefits, thereby enabling one to endure even more suffering.

At this moment, Zhang Yu was using some minor ideologies to comfort and encourage himself, hoping to make his score a little better later.

Zhang Yu had many such minor ideologies, and everyone had plenty of them.

However, as for ideologies that could be truly and permanently executed and formed into a systematic framework, Zhang Yu did not yet possess them, nor were they things the school's Dao Heart Class had managed to teach him.

Those were things that required every student to combine textbooks, personal experiences, and personal cultivation techniques... in order to ultimately establish them.

The strength of willpower displayed by an immortal cultivator could be used to grade their Dao Heart Level.

The ideology within an immortal cultivator's heart could cooperate with heart-refining methods to elevate the Dao Heart Level and further enhance willpower.

Ideology as the core, willpower as the manifestation, and heart-refining methods as the means—the combination of these three formed a complete Dao Heart for an immortal cultivator.

The next moment, as the countdown in mid-air finally hit zero.

The many students present began operating their controllers one after another. Some let out a miserable shriek, some had their faces contorted, and some sucked in sharp breaths of cold air...

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

He hurriedly circulated Level 1 of the Basic Heart Refining Method taught in the Dao Heart Class, striving to stabilize his spirit.

Emptiness, voidness, selflessness... the Basic Heart Refining Method was a heart-refining method that made one's emotions stable, kept one calm, and gradually entered a meditative state.

Through long-term practice, the Dao Heart Level would rise like the tide, and willpower would also grow stronger and stronger.

This Level 1 Basic Heart Refining Method was a heart-refining method that the original Zhang Yu had already mastered before coming to this world.

However, because all his time had been occupied with boosting his magical power, physical strength, upgrading the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method, the Body Tempering Thirty-Six Forms, and freehand fighting, he had never found the time to upgrade this heart-refining method.

At this moment, when Zhang Yu circulated the Basic Heart Refining Method, he felt the peace gradually return to his heart, and his tolerance for pain seemed to have grown much stronger.

Immediately, he raised the pain level to Level 2.

Hiss!

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

Yet it was still bearable.

Thus, Zhang Yu raised the pain level level by level. When the pain level reached 37, he felt as though thirty-seven steel needles had already pierced straight through his hands and feet.

At this moment, Zhang Yu's face was contorted. No matter how hard he tried to circulate the Basic Heart Refining Method, he could not feel even a shred of peace.

Calm and collected! Calm and collected! Calm and collected!

Quieting the mind and concentrating the spirit, silently enduring, silently persevering, water dripping through stone... the Basic Heart Refining Method required matching this kind of ideological system to bring its effects to the maximum.

This was also the norm for elevating the Dao Heart; only when one's ideology matched the heart-refining method would the effect of Dao Heart elevation be the best.

Yet all that stuff about keeping calm and collected, quieting the mind and concentrating the spirit, silently enduring, silently persevering, water dripping through stone... this entire routine simply did not fit Zhang Yu's personality at all.

At this moment, he only wanted to immediately, right now, kill the newborn who had set the questions for this Dao Heart Exam.

Just as Zhang Yu felt he was reaching his limit, the contents of the Heavenly Martial Heart Refinement Art abruptly surged into his mind.

Fists, palms, legs, spears, swords, sabers...

Shadow after shadow suddenly emerged within his mind, carrying the killing intent to shatter ten thousand armies, the undying fighting spirit through nine deaths, and the unstoppable momentum of marching straight ahead... these were the things that suited his desires.

Although Zhang Yu, whose Dao Heart Level was insufficient, had not truly mastered the Heavenly Martial Heart Refinement Art.

Yet at this moment, merely recalling the intent within this martial art allowed a burst of imposing aura to surge violently in Zhang Yu's heart.

He felt just like a foot soldier following closely behind an peerless martial general, and seeing the formidable posture of the general before him filled him with renewed courage and invigorated spirit.

At this instant, the piercing agony of those steel needles all over his body didn't seem so hard to bear anymore.

A savage grin surfaced at the corner of his mouth: Once I climb up there, I'm definitely going to beat the newborn who set these questions until they drop to their knees and beg for mercy.