Role-Playing Method

Early in the morning, when the sky was only beginning to brighten, sunlight filtered through the hazy mist into the room.

As the dull chime rang throughout the Tiger Fiend Sect, Fang Can flipped over and got out of bed.

With a soft yawn, he suddenly noticed that the fist which had been dripping with blood last night had already stopped bleeding and scabbed over.

"Is this the effect of Talent 2? The lower my Health Points, the faster I recover. I just wonder where this talent's limit lies," Fang Can guessed.

After washing up with the daily necessities he had bought yesterday, Fang Can headed straight to the cafeteria. After hastily filling his stomach, he returned to the Martial Arts Hall.

Unlike yesterday's bustle, the Martial Arts Hall was exceptionally quiet in the early morning.

It was not that the hall was empty. Rather, all the disciples were sitting cross-legged on the ground in orderly rows, like students waiting for a lecture.

"What's going on?" Fang Can froze for a moment, then blended into the crowd, found a random spot, and sat down cross-legged.

"Hey, brother, what's this about?" Fang Can casually tugged at a refined-looking fellow disciple beside him, who seemed easier to talk to.

"You just joined the sect? You don't even know this?" The man beside him looked at Fang Can in surprise. Though Fang Can's face looked youthful, he was clearly past the proper age to seriously train in martial arts.

"Yes. My name is Fang Can. I joined yesterday," Fang Can did not deny it.

Though surprised by his age, the man still replied, "A few days ago, Instructor Yang informed us that a Manager who had already graduated from the Martial Arts Hall would be returning to give us a talk."

"That's a Manager who is practically on the verge of breaking through to the Mortal-Shedding Body realm. If he truly sheds his mortal body and enters the second realm of martial arts, he can directly take up the position of hall master."

The speaker's eyes burned with fervor. For martial artists, the higher realms of martial arts were immensely alluring.

Having heard the answer, Fang Can could only suppress his urge to train and wait quietly in the Martial Arts Arena with everyone else.

As the disciples gradually arrived, more than a thousand people were already seated across the bluestone floor of the Martial Arts Arena, all quietly waiting for the so-called Manager to appear.

They had not waited long. Barely ten minutes later, a sudden tremor of the soul rose in the hearts of everyone present.

Fang Can felt as if a giant hand had clamped down on his heart. Even breathing became labored, as though some being at the top of the food chain had fixed its gaze upon him.

"He's here. This must be Heart Manifestation Manifestation from someone about to break through to the Mortal-Shedding Body realm," the refined fellow disciple beside Fang Can murmured.

Noticing Fang Can's confused gaze, the fellow disciple explained with a hint of pride, "The so-called Heart Manifestation is what happens as one gradually sheds the mortal body. Your thoughts and will gradually merge into your newly formed flesh and blood."

"When that happens, you do not even need to make a move. A single glance can freeze those of lower realms in place. It might even scare them to death."

As he spoke, a middle-aged man in fitted martial attire, around thirty-five years old, slowly strolled over from the distance.

Tap! Tap!

The moment the man appeared, he became the focus of the entire crowd. Everyone unconsciously turned their eyes toward the middle-aged man.

It was the Subconscious Mind's instinctive terror at being unable to ignore a predator at the top of the food chain, like seeing a Tyrant Dragon walking straight toward them.

Shuddering, fear, trembling...

Nearly everyone present felt their bodies begin to shake uncontrollably, as if sitting on pins and needles.

Their subconscious minds urged them to flee far away. Some even imagined that they would drop dead on the spot the very next second.

"Ah!!!!"

No one knew who screamed first, but it was like a starting pistol going off. Hundreds of people turned and ran backward as though they had seen a ghost.

Under such extreme terror, these experts, who could walk as steadily as if on flat ground atop Plum Blossom Stakes several meters high, could not even control their bodies.

At least dozens of them helplessly fell to the ground, then crawled backward on their hands and feet, hoping only to get even a little farther away.

Fang Can gritted his teeth and tightly clutched his ankles, forcibly suppressing his urge to run.

It was not because he was unafraid. He simply knew that he was not in danger. His Extreme Misfortune Brings Prosperity had not been triggered, and the so-called death was merely an illusion his brain imposed upon his body.

The entire Martial Arts Hall was in chaos, but then that terrifying aura suddenly dispersed, and the clamorous screams abruptly ceased.

Everyone stared blankly at their panicked companions around them. The shadow of death that had hung over their hearts moments ago vanished as though it had all been an illusion.

"So this is Heart Manifestation?" Fang Can slowly let out a breath of stale air. His back was already drenched in cold sweat.

The middle-aged man swept his gaze over the several dozen people who had not moved from their places.

These people had all begun to merge their thoughts and will into their flesh and blood, allowing them to greatly offset the fear brought on by the body's subconscious instincts.

As he looked over them, his gaze paused in surprise on an eighteen-year-old youth sitting cross-legged among them.

With his eyesight, he could naturally tell that this person showed almost no signs of martial training, yet he had remained completely still. He was truly enduring it through sheer willpower.

The middle-aged man nodded lightly. "Though he's a little old, his will is promising. With three to five years of training, he can catch up to people his age. Within twenty years, he may have a chance to shed his mortal body."

Watching the disciples gradually recover and return step by step to their original places, he spoke loudly.

"I am the Manager Instructor Yang invited to give you this talk. My name is Gu Shuqi. You may call me Manager Gu."

"My time is limited, so I'll get straight to the point. Today, I will speak about how to nurture the spirit and ensure that you always remain undefeated."

Manager Gu looked over the crowd. "For us martial artists, sparring is commonplace. Yet every match has winners and losers. No one can guarantee that they will always win."

"And the strength of one's mind affects the speed of cultivation. Once you lose a match, your mind will be clouded for quite some time, hindering your cultivation."

"Meanwhile, the opponent who defeated you will have a fulfilled mind, and their cultivation speed will double."

"As one declines while the other rises, the strong grow stronger, the weak remain weak, and the winner takes all."

Gu Shuqi spoke neither too quickly nor too slowly, giving everyone time to think. The people in the Martial Arts Arena recalled their previous training bouts and deeply agreed.

All this time, in order to preserve a sense of mental superiority, the strong humiliated the weak, and the weak humiliated those even weaker, forming an almost vicious cycle.

Seeing everyone nod in agreement, Gu Shuqi smiled. "That is why today, I will teach you how to avoid falling into this hell of growing weaker, and instead achieve a win-win outcome."

"I call this method the Role-Playing Method."

As he spoke, Gu Shuqi pointed at a disciple in the front row. "You. I now order you to viciously humiliate the disciple to your left."

"Ah?" The disciple who had been pointed at looked at the fellow disciple beside him, hesitating for a moment.