Self-Destruction! The Drawbacks of the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method!

The Shrek Academy playground.

It was a truly bizarre scene.

Several teenagers lay on the dirt ground, legs crossed, maintaining the Five-Heart-to-Sky cultivation posture.

Beside them, Zhao Wuji and Flender channeled their martial souls, focusing their soul power into their eyes to watch their students' states with intense scrutiny.

Time seemed to stand still.

And then, at that very moment.

"Ugh!"

With a pained grunt, Tang San's crossed legs suddenly straightened, and his entire body began to twitch uncontrollably.

This sudden turn of events startled Flender and Zhao Wuji. The two Spirit Saints immediately strode over, grabbing Tang San from left and right to steady him.

"Little San, what's wrong?"

Zhao Wuji's voice was gruff, his face filled with anxiety as he examined Tang San's body.

"Is there a problem with the technique? Did you suffer a backlash?"

Tang San gasped for air, sweat rolling down his forehead like beads, instantly soaking the clothes on his back.

After taking a few deep breaths, he managed to calm the roiling blood in his body.

"Dean, Teacher Zhao, I'm fine."

Tang San's voice trembled slightly as he extended his right hand and clenched it into a tight fist.

"It's true. Everything that boy on the Sky Screen said is true."

"Just now, guided by the Five-Heart-to-Sky posture, I felt a faint yet incredibly violent, scorching current force its way through my palm and into my skin."

"In the air of the Douluo Continent, that thing called Cosmic Energy truly exists. Although it is extremely thin, I definitely managed to guide a wisp into my body just now."

Tang San raised his head; his clear eyes held no pain, but rather a flicker of unconcealable fanaticism and shock.

"That energy is incredibly domineering. It doesn't need a martial soul as a medium at all; it began tempering my skin, flesh, and bones directly."

"However..."

Tang San paused slightly, frowning as he looked at Zhao Wuji and Flender, hesitating to speak.

"When the Genetic Origin Energy entered my body, it was extremely violent and surging, causing a sensation of my flesh being torn apart. It is clear that practicing this so-called Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method requires the practitioner to have an extremely strong physical constitution."

"Although this technique has nothing to do with martial souls, it is inextricably linked to the practitioner's personal physical fitness. If a practitioner with insufficient physical strength forces themselves to practice the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method, I fear they won't become stronger—they will suffer a backlash instead!"

That sensation of being torn apart was real and undeniable. If he hadn't been practicing the Mysterious Heaven Skill since childhood, he likely would have been severely injured by that single wisp of violent Genetic Origin Energy!

Naturally, he had no intention of making the secret of his Mysterious Heaven Skill public.

Zhao Wuji and Flender exchanged glances, both seeing the shock in the other's eyes.

No martial soul, no spirit ring—just by absorbing the air, one could become stronger. This theory, which they had dismissed as absurd, had actually been verified by Tang San.

The ironclad rule that had persisted in the Douluo Continent for millions of years was, at this moment, completely overturned.

At this time, the rest of the Shrek students, who had been awakened by Tang San's grunt, gathered around. Upon hearing his words, they all gasped in unison.

Tearing flesh.

It made sense. Such a powerful cultivation method, allowing one to bypass the shackles of martial souls and directly cultivate to become stronger—how could it not come with a price?

The excruciating pain and the risk of having one's flesh torn were a fair price to pay.

Because they absorbed soul power year-round, a spirit master's body was much tougher than an ordinary person's. Yet, even so, a single wisp of Genetic Origin Energy was enough to make Tang San, already a spirit master, feel as if his body were being shredded.

The domineering nature of Genetic Origin Energy was evident!

One could not practice it rashly!

The group looked at each other in dismay.

Zhao Wuji coughed, frowned at the group, and scolded, "I told you all to run laps and train your bodies before, and you looked down on it. Do you understand now?"

Constant training could improve physical strength.

This hardly needed emphasizing.

Originally, the Shrek students had been outwardly respectful about the academy's running drills, but deep down, they had been somewhat dismissive.

For a spirit master, combat relied on their martial soul.

Aside from assault-type spirit masters, what was the point of having such a tough body?

Even Dai Mubai, an assault-type spirit master, had felt some dissatisfaction internally.

Improving one's physical fitness by a negligible amount was less efficient than a martial soul avatar or choosing a spirit ring that strengthened the body.

However, now, facing Zhao Wuji's scolding, they all lowered their heads, forced to admit that the academy's curriculum planning did have some merit.

"So, what do we do now?"

Ma Hongjun asked softly.

When it came to this question, Zhao Wuji was also somewhat hesitant.

Otherworldly cultivation methods were undoubtedly a shortcut to increasing physical strength; however, Tang San's experience served as a warning that one must never be too hasty.

Otherwise, it would not be cultivation, but a path to self-destruction!

Flender said softly, "Continue your cultivation, but be sure to be careful. Just like Little San, sense the location of the Genetic Origin Energy, then guide a wisp of it into your body."

"Act according to your own physical limits."

High above the firmament, the massive Sky Screen that spanned the continent suddenly emitted a low, rumbling sound.

Everyone instinctively looked up.

They saw the scene within the screen belonging to the commoner Wang Er suddenly shake violently.

In the footage, Wang Er was excitedly attempting to meditate on the street. As time passed, his expression gradually calmed.

Soon, a look of joy appeared on his face.

However, immediately after that joy surfaced, Wang Er suddenly opened his eyes, which were instantly filled with bloodshot veins!

His face turned crimson in an instant!

He stood up abruptly, reached out a hand, and pointed at the short-haired youth who was cultivating nearby. His trembling finger kept pointing as his mouth hung wide open, as if he wanted to say something.

Immediately following, blood gushed out from his eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth as if it were worthless!

Yet, the very next moment.

"Boom!"

A loud explosion suddenly erupted from the Sky Screen!

Following that, the scene where Wang Er had been went pitch black.

A line of cold, blood-red text appeared on the screen.

[Explorer commoner Wang Er has died.]

[Cause of death: Attempted to practice the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method without sufficient physical strength, resulting in the body being blown apart by concentrated Genetic Origin Energy.]

The entire Douluo Continent erupted in gasps.

No one had expected that the lucky man who seemed on the verge of learning a peerless cultivation method would end his life in such a ridiculous and tragic manner.

Swallowed Star world.

Jiangnan City, an open-air park.

"Boom!"

A dull, explosive sound instantly startled the short-haired youth who had been immersed in the Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method. The youth snapped his eyes open, his body instinctively leaping several meters backward to assume a defensive stance.

However, when he saw the scene before him, he froze in place.

The down-and-out middle-aged man who had been sitting opposite him just a moment ago, holding a hoe with an excited expression, was gone.

In his place was a shocking mess of shredded flesh and splattered blood; the granite bench was still stained with a large patch of warm, scarlet liquid.

The short-haired youth instinctively reached up to touch his cheek, his fingertips coming away stained with a smear of viscous blood.

"What... what is going on?"

The youth stared at the gruesome sight on the ground, unable to process what had happened for a moment.

The Five-Heart-to-Sky Cultivation Method was a basic cultivation technique made completely public in Jiangnan City and all major Base Cities across the globe. In theory, as long as one's physical fitness reached the passing threshold of a "Junior Martial Artist," one could begin attempting to absorb Cosmic Energy.

If one had not reached the physique of a Junior Martial Artist and forcibly guided Genetic Origin Energy into the body, the result would be damaged meridians at best, leaving one bedridden for ten days or half a month, or sudden death at worst.

In their world, this was common knowledge that even a three-year-old child knew.

"I saw him looking so confused earlier and thought he was just a refugee from the wilderness who hadn't received any education."

The youth wiped the blood from his face, his brows knitted tightly together.

"But even a refugee shouldn't be ignorant of such basic common sense, right?"

"If your physique isn't up to the level of a Junior Martial Artist, why would you try to cultivate along with me? There are better ways to commit suicide than this!"

Furthermore, what the youth found most incredible was the way the man had died.

Even those with extremely poor physiques who suffered from cultivation deviation would, at most, have their meridians shattered and bleed from their seven orifices before dying.

But this man before him had literally exploded!

"What kind of physique was that? Made of paper?"

The short-haired youth looked at the lonely hoe left on the ground and couldn't help but shake his head.