Practicing Five Hearts Towards Heaven

Elder Qian froze for a moment at Shi Fen's frank confession. Then he noticed the things around them suddenly floating in the air and jumped in fright, reflexively leaping back more than ten meters.

From a distance, Elder Qian stared wide-eyed and stammered in shock, "You're a Spiritual Master?"

A moment later, he realized what that meant. With a flash, he reappeared in front of Shi Fen and fixed him with a stern gaze. "How long ago did you awaken? And who else knows?"

Elder Qian's reaction startled Shi Fen just as much. He'd never imagined that revealing his identity as a Spiritual Master would provoke such a strong response from his master.

Shi Fen hurried to his feet and stood respectfully. "About four months ago. You're the only one who knows."

At Shi Fen's answer, Elder Qian threw his head back and laughed.

"Good! Good! Good!" After a few laughs, Elder Qian roared his approval several times.

"So that's why the Youquan Blade you forged was so impressive. You awakened Spiritual Force! With Spiritual Force assisting you, no wonder your work is so astonishing. You even have a talent for Spiritual Force! Hahaha, heaven really is on my side!"

Shi Fen looked bewildered, unsure what to say.

Elder Qian suddenly grabbed Shi Fen by the collar and lifted him up like a chick. With a flash, he carried him over to a device.

Shi Fen felt his collar tighten as he was hoisted into the air. Before he could make a sound, he was already in front of the device. Before Shi Fen could get a good look at it, Elder Qian urged impatiently, "Hurry, give it everything you've got. Let me see how strong you are now."

Shi Fen recognized the Punch Force Tester in front of him. He was at a loss, unsure why his master was so excited.

At Elder Qian's anxious urging, Shi Fen immediately focused, stood in front of the Punch Force Tester, made a slight adjustment to his stance, and threw a punch with "all his strength."

"2671KG."

Seeing the result, Shi Fen thought, Oh no. I put too much into that punch!

He hadn't dared use all his strength, only about thirty percent. He hadn't expected even that to produce such a high result.

Shi Fen had miscalculated.

For nearly four months, whenever he had free time, he'd entered the Inner World to study and live under extreme gravity.

He'd also done his daily training under extreme gravity. On top of that, eighteen years of steadily accumulated martial skills had given him far better force application than an ordinary person.

When he threw a punch, Shi Fen could bring his whole body's strength to bear! With the same physical fitness, Shi Fen could unleash far greater power.

When Shi Fen threw his punch, Elder Qian's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected Shi Fen's Force Application Technique to be so "expert"—it wasn't something ordinary people could do. But when Elder Qian saw the reading on the tester, he was stunned.

Elder Qian wanted to cry out, "Impossible!" But this was the most precise Punch Force Tester there was. It couldn't be wrong. Since that was impossible...

The only explanation left was that Shi Fen was "extraordinarily gifted."

"Good! I didn't expect you to be such a well-rounded talent. Have you entered your Sea of Consciousness?" Elder Qian asked in amazement.

"I have, many times. I found nine small, solid Dark Golden Spheres inside," Shi Fen answered honestly.

Elder Qian was speechless for a moment. He silently mocked himself: So this is what a genius is?

"You've figured out that you're a Spiritual Master—that alone is impressive. There isn't much information about it online. Those Dark Golden Spheres are solid Spiritual Force. They may be small, but there are plenty of them. Your future is limitless." Elder Qian sighed, also envious of Shi Fen's talent.

Though envious, Elder Qian wasn't jealous.

Shi Fen was already his disciple. Naturally, the more extraordinary his disciple was, the better.

Shi Fen looked a little surprised and pleased, but remained standing quietly without a word.

Seeing his reaction, Elder Qian couldn't help praising him. "We'll need to make some slight changes to our earlier plan." As he spoke, his figure vanished from in front of Shi Fen.

Shi Fen stood there, utterly bewildered. He had no idea what was going on.

Elder Qian unleashed his full strength and dashed away like the wind. He fetched a file from his own lounge and returned, ghostlike, placing it in Shi Fen's hands.

"Find a lounge and try practicing Five Hearts Towards Heaven. I'm going to find someone. If everything goes smoothly, you'll be soaring to the top in one leap!" With that, Elder Qian hurried off.

Shi Fen took the file and was about to say something, but Elder Qian had already vanished from the Cultivation Room.

"High-level War God, all right. He's fast as a ghost. I can't see him at all." Shi Fen looked around, but couldn't find his master anywhere.

Only then did he lower his gaze to the file in his hands. The cover bore four bold, sweeping characters: "Five Hearts Towards Heaven."

Shi Fen sighed, released his Spiritual Force, and scanned the room.

The Forging Room had a rather unusual overall layout.

Its interior was like a section of tunnel enlarged more than tenfold.

At one end of the tunnel was the entrance, and at the other was a five-story "apartment building."

The ceiling was made of uniform concrete and steel framing. The floor looked like a patchwork cloth, pieced together from sections of different materials. Wood, stone, composite, and metal flooring—the common types were all there.

Through his Spiritual Force, Shi Fen could sense that the very bottom of the floor was made of an extremely thick metal foundation.

Plain, heavy wooden furniture was scattered across the open floor. Most of it consisted of tables and racks. Shi Fen could tell at a glance that it was all made from top-grade, aged lumber. It was old and valuable. Various handmade forging tools, at least several thousand kinds, were neatly arranged on top.

The number of handmade tools was no less than in the original Virtual Trial Space.

There were primitive, rugged anvils, a gigantic forging hammer more than a meter in diameter, modern forging equipment, and objects of all different styles. Nothing was arranged by category; everything was mixed together at random.

At first glance, it had a charm all its own.

Order nestled within chaos.

Shi Fen glanced at the "apartment building" and picked an empty lounge on the first floor.

"Wow, a luxurious two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment." Shi Fen was stunned by the scene inside.

The furnishings and décor were beyond five-star quality. The place was filled with top-grade Small Leaf Rosewood and Huali Wood furniture, blending modern and classical styles. Every daily necessity was provided, just like in a luxury hotel. He could move right in.

Shi Fen tossed his backpack onto the table by the door, took a chilled bottle of soda from the fridge, and drank a satisfying gulp. Holding the soda and the file, he sat cross-legged on the living room carpet and began studying Five Hearts Towards Heaven as he drank.

"Doesn't seem difficult."

Shi Fen casually tossed the file aside and copied the posture described inside. He pointed the soles of his feet upward and rested his hands on his legs, palms facing up. To relax his muscles, he bent slightly forward.

"Let's see how hard it is to sense cosmic energy for the first time!"

Shi Fen adjusted his breathing slightly and used a breathing technique to calm himself. I often practice calming my mind, so this is no challenge for me. Shi Fen entered his Sea of Consciousness often. This stage had become second nature to him; it was easy.

Shi Fen kept his body and mind completely relaxed, maintaining the Five Hearts Towards Heaven posture as he tried to sense the ever-present cosmic energy described in the manual.

Shi Fen found the state comfortable. The double layer of relaxation helped him temporarily forget the pressure of the Basic Secret Patterns, and he sank into it.

A few minutes later.

Shi Fen faintly sensed wisps of energy seeping in through the soles of his feet, the palms of his hands, and the Baihui Acupoint at the crown of his head. They entered his body at an extremely slow pace.

Huh? That was all it took? Shi Fen didn't dare move much and did his best to maintain the state. He focused all his awareness on his "five hearts," sensing the wisps of energy. Naturally, the thought absorb cosmic energy with all my strength arose in his mind. At once, the speed at which his feet, palms, and Baihui Acupoint absorbed cosmic energy surged.

The rate instantly multiplied a hundredfold, then a thousandfold.

At first, the energy had been no more than a trickle. Now it was like a high-pressure hose, cosmic energy gushing into Shi Fen's body from his "five hearts" in torrents.

The gains Shi Fen had built up through training in the Inner World now erupted like a dam breaking.

A tremor from deep in his soul made Shi Fen's body quiver slightly. After large amounts of colorless, invisible cosmic energy poured into his body, his cells all over rapidly divided it among themselves.

Countless cells devoured the cosmic energy Shi Fen absorbed like ravenous ghosts. They snatched it away halfway, and only a little managed to reach his elbows, knees, and cervical vertebrae. The cosmic energy couldn't penetrate any farther inward.

The other cells in his body subconsciously urged Shi Fen to absorb energy faster.

The "Black Mirror" seemed to sense Shi Fen's "predicament." On its own, it drew the mist of cosmic energy from the Inner World and poured it straight into Shi Fen's body.

In an instant, every part of Shi Fen's body began to undergo a complete evolution!

As soon as the cosmic energy entered his cells, the mitochondria devoured it. Once they were "full," they began releasing a strange energy, which the other parts of the cells immediately absorbed. The cells became more compact and slightly smaller. Then the denser cells began to divide, splitting in two. Shi Fen's body density was gradually increasing. That meant his weight was slowly increasing, too.

His cells began to undergo earth-shaking changes.

His DNA was beginning to change. The double-helix strands kept breaking and recombining on a small scale.

Shi Fen's body was undergoing a fundamental transformation at the cellular level.

His skin, muscles, internal organs, bones, circulatory system, nervous system, and every other part of him received a comprehensive boost.

As for what devoured the most cosmic energy, that had to be Shi Fen's brain.

The vast amounts of cosmic energy poured in by the Eight Trigrams Reincarnation Mirror were mostly swallowed up by his brain. Deep within it, the faint golden mist that had originally been rather sparse grew brighter and brighter as it absorbed more energy. At the same time, the golden mist seemed to grow denser.

Compared to its growing brightness, the increase in the mist's density was negligible.

Under the torrent of energy, the nine Dark Golden Spheres in his mind not only failed to dissolve at all; instead, they joined forces with the golden mist, greedily absorbing cosmic energy together. Their absorption rate was rapidly increasing.

Soon, a vortex like a "spatial black hole" appeared around the Dark Golden Spheres, continuously drawing in all the surrounding energy. Some of the golden mist was "caught in the crossfire" and swallowed along with it.

After absorbing the golden energy, the Dark Golden Spheres began to change. Golden spots appeared on their surfaces. As more of the golden mist merged into the spheres, the spots grew larger, gradually becoming bright patches. At this rate, the Dark Golden Spheres would eventually turn completely golden.

Shi Fen had no idea what was causing such a strange transformation. Faced with the body's massive energy demands, he had no time to think and continued absorbing cosmic energy with all his might.