Shrek Academy's training grounds.
An extremely bizarre scene was unfolding.
Several teenage children lay on their backs on the dirt field, legs crossed, maintaining the cultivation posture of Five Hearts Toward Heaven.
Beside them, Zhao Wuji and Flender had activated their Martial Souls, gathering Soul Power in their eyes as they stared intently at their condition.
Time seemed to have frozen.
And at that very moment.
"Urgh!"
Accompanied by a pained grunt, Tang San's crossed legs suddenly shot straight, and his entire body began convulsing uncontrollably!
The sudden change startled Flender and Zhao Wuji. The two Soul Saints hurried over in long strides and supported Tang San from either side.
"Little San, what's wrong?"
Zhao Wuji asked in a rough voice, his face full of worry as he examined Tang San's body.
"Is there something wrong with the cultivation method? Or did you suffer backlash?"
Tang San panted heavily, sweat rolling down his forehead like soybeans and instantly soaking the clothes on his back.
After taking several deep breaths, he barely calmed the surging blood and energy within him.
"Headmaster, Teacher Zhao, I'm fine."
Tang San's voice trembled slightly as he raised his right hand and clenched it tightly into a fist.
"It's true. Everything that young man on the Sky Screen said was true."
"Just now, guided by the Five Hearts Toward Heaven posture, I sensed a faint yet incomparably violent stream of scorching air forcing its way into my skin through my palms."
"There really is something called Cosmic Energy in the air of Douluo Continent. It's very thin, but I truly guided a trace of it into my body just now."
Tang San raised his head. There was no pain in his clear eyes; instead, they shone with an unconcealable fervor and shock.
"That energy was incomparably tyrannical. It didn't need a Martial Soul as a medium at all. It directly began tempering my flesh, skin, and bones."
"But..."
Tang San paused slightly and frowned at Zhao Wuji and Flender, seeming reluctant to speak.
"When Genetic Origin Energy enters the body, it is extremely violent and turbulent. It feels as though one's flesh is being torn apart. Clearly, cultivating this so-called Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method requires extremely strong physical fitness."
"This cultivation method may have nothing to do with Martial Souls, but it is closely tied to the cultivator's physical condition. If someone whose body isn't strong enough forcibly cultivates the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method, they may not become stronger at all. Instead, they may suffer backlash!"
That tearing pain was completely real. If he had not cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill since childhood, that trace of violent Genetic Origin Energy might have seriously injured him!
Naturally, he had no intention of revealing the secret of cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill.
Zhao Wuji and Flender exchanged glances, and both saw the same shock in the other's eyes.
No Martial Soul was needed. No Soul Rings were needed. One only had to absorb the air to become stronger. This theory, which they had considered absurd, had actually been proven true through Tang San.
The ironclad laws that had endured on Douluo Continent for countless years were completely overturned at that moment.
By then, the people of Shrek Academy, who had been awakened by Tang San's pained grunt, had gathered around. When they heard Tang San's explanation, they all sucked in a cold breath.
Tearing flesh apart.
That made sense. Such a powerful cultivation method could let someone bypass the restraints of their Martial Soul and cultivate strength directly. How could it possibly come without a price?
The excruciating pain and danger of having one's flesh torn apart were a fitting price.
Soul Masters' bodies were much tougher than ordinary people's because they absorbed Soul Power year-round. Yet even so, just a trace of Genetic Origin Energy had made Tang San, already a Soul Master, feel as if his body were being torn apart.
This showed just how tyrannical Genetic Origin Energy was!
They could not cultivate it recklessly!
Everyone looked at one another.
Zhao Wuji coughed, frowned at the group, and rebuked them, "When I had you run laps and train your bodies before, you all looked down on it. Do you understand now?"
Constant training could strengthen the body.
That hardly needed to be said.
Originally, although the Shrek Academy students appeared respectful when the academy made them run drills, they still disdained it somewhat in their hearts.
Soul Masters relied on Martial Souls in battle.
Other than assault-type battle Soul Masters, what was the point of having such a strong body?
Even Dai Mubai, an assault-type battle Soul Master himself, had been somewhat dissatisfied.
Rather than improving a tiny amount of physical fitness, it would be more efficient to use Martial Soul Possession or choose a Soul Ring that strengthened the body.
Yet now, facing Zhao Wuji's reprimand, they all lowered their heads. They had no choice but to admit that the academy's cultivation curriculum had some merit after all.
"Then what do we do now?"
Ma Hongjun spoke softly.
When it came to this question, Zhao Wuji hesitated as well.
A cultivation method from another world was undoubtedly a major shortcut to strengthening the body. However, Tang San's experience showed that they absolutely could not rush into it.
Otherwise, it would not be cultivation. It would be seeking death!
Flender said softly, "Continue cultivating, but be extremely careful. Just like Little San, sense where the Genetic Origin Energy is, then guide a trace of it into your body."
"Do what your body can handle."
High in the sky, the enormous light screen spanning the continent suddenly emitted a deep rumble.
Everyone instinctively raised their heads.
The image belonging to the commoner Wang Er on the light screen suddenly began shaking violently.
In the image, Wang Er was excitedly attempting to meditate on the street. As time passed, his expression gradually became calm.
Soon, a look of delight appeared on his face.
However, just after that delight surfaced, Wang Er abruptly opened his eyes. Bloodshot veins instantly filled them!@
His face turned bright red in an instant!
He suddenly stood up straight and pointed at the short-haired young man who was cultivating. His trembling finger kept pointing as his mouth hung wide open, as if he wanted to say something.
Then, blood gushed crazily from his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth as though it cost nothing!
However, the very next moment.
"Boom!"
A deafening explosion suddenly erupted within the Sky Screen!
Immediately afterward, the image where Wang Er had been turned completely black.
A line of cold, blood-red text appeared on the light screen.
[Explorer commoner Wang Er has died.] [Cause of death: While his physical strength was insufficient, he recklessly cultivated the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method and was directly burst apart by the dense Genetic Origin Energy.]
The entire Douluo Continent erupted in alarmed cries.
No one had expected that the lucky man, who had seemed about to learn an unrivaled cultivation method, would end his life in such an absurd and tragic way.
Swallowed Star world.
Jiangnan City, an open-air park.
"Boom!"
A dull, thunderous explosion instantly jolted awake the short-haired youth who had been immersed in Five Hearts Toward Heaven cultivation. He abruptly opened his eyes, instinctively leaped several meters backward, and assumed a defensive stance.
However, when he saw what was before him, he froze on the spot.
The shabby middle-aged man who had been sitting opposite him moments ago, holding a hoe with an excited expression, was gone.
In his place was a horrifying mess of shattered flesh and splattered blood. Large patches of warm crimson still remained on the granite bench.
The short-haired youth subconsciously wiped his cheek, his fingertips stained with sticky blood.
"Wh-what happened?"
The youth stared at the gruesome scene on the ground, unable to process it for a moment.
The Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method was a completely public foundational cultivation method in Jiangnan City and even all major Base Cities around the world. In theory, as long as one's physical condition reached the passing standard of a Junior Martial Artist, one could begin trying to absorb Cosmic Energy.
If one had not reached the physique of a Junior Martial Artist and forcibly guided Genetic Origin Energy into one's body, the lightest consequence would be damaged meridians and ten days to half a month in bed. The worst outcome would be sudden death.
In their world, this was common sense that even three-year-old children knew.
"Just now, he looked completely lost. I thought he was some uneducated refugee who had wandered in from the wilderness."
The youth wiped the blood from his face, his brows tightly furrowed.
"But even a refugee should know that much common sense, right?"
"If you haven't even reached the physique of a Junior Martial Artist, why are you following along and cultivating? That isn't how you seek death!"
What made the youth find it even more unbelievable was the way the man had died.
Even people with extremely poor constitutions who forcibly cultivated until they went astray would, at most, suffer ruptured meridians and bleed from all seven orifices before dying.
But this middle-aged man had actually exploded!
"What kind of physique was that? Was he made of paper?"
The short-haired youth looked at the lonely hoe on the ground and could not help shaking his head.
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