Humanity's Hearts Turned Ice-Cold

"Bless the heavens—can someone tell me I'm not seeing things? Is Yi Chen carving the cultivation mantra and Meridian Cultivation Chart of the Cloud Stepping Art onto the stone wall?"

"You're not seeing things. That's exactly what he's doing!"

"Heavens! What kind of incredible luck did we stumble into today?"

"Did God Yi hear my prayers from this time, see the sincerity of my heart, and on a whim decide to grant my wish?"

The tens of billions of viewers in the Live Stream Room were so excited that they danced for joy.

Major news websites immediately placed the matter in their top headlines.

As the news spread, all humanity plunged into a frenzy of celebration.

Throughout the Milky Way, on the various life planets.

Cheers rose from nearly every corner.

The gloom of many days seemed to have scattered overnight.

Everyone's faces were radiant with joy.

The stock market, which had fallen for over a month straight, suddenly reversed course and began soaring all the way upward, aside from automotive stocks, which continued to fall.

There was no doubt about it.

This was tremendous news for all humanity.

Although humanity wanted to learn the improved Chaos Art even more, with the Cloud Stepping Art only coming second.

Since Yi Chen had suddenly released the Cloud Stepping Art, it was naturally possible that one day, struck by another whimsical thought, he might release the improved Chaos Art as well.

The future was promising.

After more than a month of depression and irritation, the dawn had finally arrived.

One could well imagine how all humanity felt at that moment.

However, this state of affairs did not last long.

Very quickly, someone noticed that something was wrong.

"This, this isn't right! Why is the Meridian Cultivation Chart Yi Chen carved different from what the Scanner detected?"

"It seems to have become much simpler. Originally, Spiritual Power had to pass through six meridians and fifteen acupoints in total on its way from the Qi Sea to the legs."

"Now, it has been changed to five meridians and nine acupoints."

"It should be an improved Meridian Cultivation Chart. Didn't Yi Chen spend another hour researching and improving it after returning to the Tribe?"

"The problem is, according to the materials released by the various Cultivation Method Research Institutes, the more acupoints Spiritual Power passes through, the stronger the effect."

"If it was improved, it should only become stronger. How could he reduce the number of acupoints Spiritual Power entered and make the effect worse with each improvement?"

"Could it be that Yi Chen hadn't spent that hour summarizing and improving the Cloud Stepping Art, but thinking of a way to weaken it?"

"That fits Yi Chen's character... The Cloud Stepping Art is powerful enough to break the sound barrier. How could he possibly teach the complete version of it?"

The viewers in the Live Stream Room instantly panicked.

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

Upon discovering that this Cloud Stepping Art was actually only a weakened version, everyone's excitement felt as though someone had dumped a basin of icy water over them in the depths of winter.

Their hearts turned ice-cold.

As the news spread, all humanity, which had been in a celebratory frenzy, was instantly knocked back to square one.

What was more, pessimism grew ever stronger.

The stock market, which had only just begun to recover, once again reversed course and plunged straight down.

Public sentiment returned to the bottom of the valley, with signs of continuing to slide toward a bottomless abyss.

It could not be helped. Being struck while exhilarated only made one feel worse.

At the center of The Valley, the people of the Flame Mountain Tribe were instead filled with wild delight.

It was only because Yi Chen stood right before them that no one dared cheer or celebrate aloud.

Having experienced this once before, they naturally understood that whenever Yi Chen wrote and drew on the stone wall, he was bound to be teaching the clansmen another New Cultivation Method.

They did not know that the Cloud Stepping Art had weakened and complete versions, so naturally they did not feel the slightest disappointment.

Their hearts held only intense excitement and agitation.

"This cultivation method is called the Cloud Stepping Art. It is a cultivation method capable of increasing speed."

Over the past two months, the Flame Mountain Tribe's clansmen had not only cultivated every day, but also learned to read.

Though they had not yet reached the point of composing prose and poetry, they could recognize more than half the cultivation mantra of the weakened Cloud Stepping Art.

There was no longer any need to wait until the clansmen had memorized the cultivation mantra before teaching it, as had been necessary when spreading the Chaos Art.

"First, Spiritual Power follows the will. This means Spiritual Power can move as easily as one moves an arm or points a finger; with a single thought, it can reach any place according to the cultivation method's Meridian Cultivation Chart. To achieve this requires long-term practice..."

Yi Chen did not waste time. He immediately began teaching, explaining the mysteries of the cultivation mantra to the clansmen, as well as the various points requiring attention when using the cultivation method.

The clansmen listened, utterly entranced.

Even the children wore expressions of sudden enlightenment.

As for what they had understood, only they themselves knew.

The viewers in the Live Stream Room, meanwhile, were dazed and muddleheaded.

No one was in the mood to listen to Yi Chen's lesson.

It could not be helped. Though the weakened Cloud Stepping Art was still worth learning, none of the viewers whose emotions had crashed to the bottom could concentrate.

Every one of them was shrouded in all manner of negative emotions.

After more than an hour of fussing about, Yi Chen finally finished explaining the weakened Cloud Stepping Art once.

He then spent over half an hour answering questions and clearing up doubts.

Those clansmen with greater talent had already completely understood the weakened Cloud Stepping Art and could answer Yi Chen's questions with perfect fluency.

"All right. Those who have broken through to the Spirit Release Realm First Level, stay behind. Those who have not, may all go back."

Yi Chen clapped his hands. "After you return, cultivate diligently. When you have time, practice the Flying Knife Art and the Cloud Stepping Art more!"

"Yes!"

The clansmen bowed one after another and departed.

In the blink of an eye, only twenty-some clansmen remained before Yi Chen.

These twenty-some people were all geniuses who had successively broken through to the Spirit Release Realm First Level over the past two months.

Among these geniuses, Gu Li, who cultivated the fastest, had already broken through to the Spirit Release Realm First Level a month ago.

The slower ones had only broken through to the Spirit Release Realm First Level within the last couple of days.

Yi Chen had decided to teach them the improved Chaos Art.

Naturally, he was not like the Live Stream Room viewers had guessed, intending not to nurture clansmen of higher realms in order to keep his rule from being threatened.

With his vision and ambition, he only worried that the average strength of the clansmen was rising too slowly. He would never worry that their average strength was too great.

The stronger the Flame Mountain Tribe's clansmen became, the more capable they would be of opening up territory and expanding his sphere of influence, thereby raising his talent bonus and allowing him to travel ever farther down the road of creating more advanced cultivation methods.

The reason he had not taught it before was, first, because the improved Chaos Art was extraordinarily profound and difficult to understand.

When only two or three people had broken through to the Spirit Release Realm First Level, if they failed to learn the Chaos Art he taught in one go, it would mean he had to spend time explaining it all over again.

With twenty or thirty people, even if there were parts they did not understand at first, they could exchange ideas and discuss them with one another, drawing on each other's strengths to make up for their weaknesses.

The other reason was safety.

For the past two months, he had been busy researching and creating the Cloud Stepping Art, and his realm had remained stagnant.

If he taught out the improved Chaos Art, it would mean that clansmen ranked near the top, like Gu Li, would surpass him in strength and realm.

Although the clansmen revered him as though he were a god, given his personality, he still could not completely trust anyone other than himself.

For his own safety, and because it would not have much effect on raising the clansmen's average strength, he had temporarily refrained from teaching the improved Chaos Art.

Now that he had successfully created the Cloud Stepping Art and could begin cultivating with full focus, he naturally no longer had such concerns.

He glanced at Gu Li and the others.

Yi Chen picked up a stone and walked to the spot where he had originally carved the Chaos Art.

Beside it, he once again carved the three words: Chaos Art.

Gu Li and the others were filled with confusion.

The viewers in the Live Stream Room were equally bewildered.

Still reeling from the blow, they clearly had no idea that a surprise vast enough to drive them mad was about to arrive!