After seven full days of careful recuperation, Shiheng finally recovered. Throughout that time, his powerful warrior physique, far beyond that of an ordinary person, had stubbornly resisted repeated bouts of pain. The abundant nutrients in the meat of a Seventh-Level Magical Beast had continually nourished his body, while Kelin Xiaoman had tirelessly cast water-element healing magic on him day after day. With this dual support from within and without, his internal injuries had finally stabilized completely, and his body had returned to its best condition.
Yet even after recovering, one flaw remained. During that earlier battle to the death, Shiheng had entered an intensely frenzied berserk state to protect Xiaoman. Though he had unleashed astonishing fighting power, it had also inflicted severe damage on his meridians that was difficult to reverse. For now, he could no longer use this powerful yet dangerous berserk ability. Regaining control of it would require a long period of gradual repair and exploration.
Taking advantage of this peaceful period of recuperation, Shiheng had not slackened in the slightest. He had begun calmly contemplating the true secrets behind his berserk transformation. Again and again, he reviewed his physical sensations, emotional changes, and the patterns governing the circulation of his power while berserk. He sorted, refined, and summarized the scattered ideas in his mind one by one. Finally, after painstaking effort, he developed a Berserk Cultivation Secret Method uniquely his own, making the process smoother and preventing his fighting power from fluctuating wildly after he went berserk.
The moment the secret method took shape, he held nothing back, teaching Kelin Xiaoman the entirety of this precious, hard-won cultivation method without hesitation. He knew Xiaoman had always longed for greater strength so she could protect herself in a crisis. He also hoped she could grasp the essence of this method and find a way of using power that suited her, giving her greater confidence in her ability to defend herself in this dangerous Magical Beast Forest.
The core of this Berserk Secret Method lay not in a simple eruption of strength, but in teaching the practitioner how to use emotions to intensely stimulate the brain's central nervous system, prompting the body to secrete large amounts of adrenaline. This would allow them to take complete control of the functioning of their entire body, achieving a substantial, instantaneous increase in overall capabilities such as strength and speed, and unleashing fighting power beyond their own limits in desperate circumstances.
But for the uncomplicated Xiaoman, who had always focused on cultivating water-element magic, how to use emotions to stimulate the brain remained a puzzle she could not unravel. She looked at Shiheng with confusion all over her face, unsure where to begin.
Seeing this, Shiheng thought briefly, then decided to set aside the obscure theory of the cultivation method. Drawing on his own experience of going berserk, he explained it to her little by little in the plainest terms. "It's actually very simple. Joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, disgust, desire-all the emotions and desires people have. As long as you push any one of them to its extreme, it can stimulate the brain intensely enough to tap into the power hidden within your body."
Afraid Xiaoman might still struggle to understand, he patiently offered another example. "Take extreme sorrow. It feels as though you've lost the people and things most precious to you, the ones you could least bear to part with. Endless desolation and pain envelop your heart, and your whole being sinks into the deepest grief." Shiheng thought to himself, This desolation is just like the Heartbreak Palm of martial arts legends. The more tragic the state of mind, the more desolate the heart, the greater the power unleashed.
And sorrow was far from the only emotion capable of producing such an effect. Deep, intense love could do the same. Whether it was concern and affection for family and close friends, or an all-embracing kindness toward everything in the world, when that feeling was pushed to its extreme-especially when an obsession with protecting someone important or something beloved to the death surged from the depths of the heart-the power that erupted within could shake the entire soul and become an unstoppable fighting force.
Beyond that, anger and hatred worked the same way. When hatred accumulated without limit and fury burned away all reason and timidity, they could awaken a source of power beyond imagination. To help Xiaoman better understand this profound power, there was the example of the legendary Erlang Shen: after ten suns burned his mother alive, endless rage and hatred blazed in his heart. It was precisely this extreme emotion that allowed him to break through his own restraints, his fighting power soaring as he fought his way up to the Thirty-Three Heavens. Of course, this was an analogy adapted to the figures of the Coiling Dragon World.
Listening to Shiheng's detailed explanation, Xiaoman quietly recalled their harrowing battle with the seventh-level Swift Raptor. The image of Shiheng recklessly throwing himself in front of her remained vivid, and a surge of emotion instantly rose in her heart. She suddenly understood: she had never wanted to be someone who could only passively accept protection in a crisis, much less see the person most important to her suffer grievous injuries and fall into danger to protect her. This desire to protect others spread wildly through her heart, growing ever stronger.
Having understood this, Xiaoman settled her mind completely and devoted herself wholeheartedly to cultivation. For the next two full days, she cast aside every distracting thought and immersed herself in exploring emotion and power. She repeatedly pondered every detail of the secret method, trying again and again to summon the emotions deep within her heart, never slackening for even a moment. When the first ray of morning sunlight spilled into the cave, she sat cross-legged in quiet meditation, sensing the connection between the magical energy within her and her emotions. Late at night, when all was still and silent, she continued practicing quietly, searching for the point where an eruption of emotion aligned with the circulation of power. Every attempt carried an unwavering resolve that left no room for retreat.
Her dedication paid off. As dawn broke on another day, the instant golden sunlight pierced the cave and fell upon Xiaoman, an unprecedentedly powerful aura suddenly surged around her. Like a raging, ceaseless torrent, that power swept through every limb and bone, washing through every meridian in her body. Her entire bearing underwent a tremendous change, as though she had been reborn, and sharp yet steady fluctuations of power lingered around her.
At the very instant that power erupted, understanding dawned on Xiaoman, and a gleam of comprehension flashed in her eyes-she had finally succeeded in grasping this unique Berserk Art.
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