The faint morning light filtered through a gap in the curtains, casting a mottled pattern of light and shadow across the floor.
Li Qingshan opened his eyes. A crystal-like gleam seemed to flow through them, then faded an instant later.
He was still sitting on his bedroom bed, as though last night's journey across worlds had been nothing but a dream.
But the mysteries of the "Crystal Visualization Method," clear as day in his mind,
and the hundred Condensed Mental Threads he could command as easily as his own limbs told him it had all been real.
Li Qingshan felt the changes within him, utterly unlike anything he had known before.
His keen perception of his surroundings, the crystal clarity of his mind-
all of it proved that his experience had been real.
With a slight thought, he naturally extended the hundred Condensed Mental Threads, spreading them across the entire room.
On Earth in this Dharma-ending age, spiritual energy was so scarce as to be almost nonexistent,
but mental power was unrestricted and still flowed freely.
"Mind cultivation places emphasis on comprehension and the tempering of the mind, not the accumulation of energy."
Li Qingshan seemed to grasp something. "Perhaps that's the key to cultivating even in the Dharma-ending age."
In the days that followed, Li Qingshan began cultivating the "Crystal Visualization Method" in depth in the main world.
Every morning, when the first ray of sunlight pierced the clouds, he was already sitting in meditation by the window, his mind immersed in the state of crystal visualization.
In his mind, a formless crystal mirror appeared, reflecting every stray thought and every ripple of emotion within him.
Unlike in the world of "Great Emperor of the Cosmos,"
Earth's cultivation environment was extremely "still." The spiritual energy that had been everywhere there was almost imperceptible here.
But Li Qingshan found that this extreme environment made his cultivation purer,
because without interference from external energy, he could focus entirely on tempering his mind.
"Focus the mind like crystal and reflect upon the self," Li Qingshan silently recited the incantation, his consciousness flowing through his body like water.
Under the reflection of the crystal mirror,
he could clearly perceive the rhythm of his breathing, the beat of his heart, the flow of his blood, and even his cellular metabolism.
This ability to look inward gave him an inconceivably precise understanding of himself.
Li Qingshan consolidated the realm of a "mind like a clear mirror" in just a few days, a realm ordinary people would struggle to reach even after years of arduous cultivation.
His mental power grew increasingly refined through repeated tempering,
and the hundred Condensed Mental Threads, initially as fine as hairs, gradually began to shimmer faintly like silver threads.
Even more surprisingly, as his cultivation deepened, Li Qingshan gained new insights into the "Crystal Visualization Method."
Building on the original method and combining it with his own understanding of the great Dao of heaven and earth,
he made a series of subtle adjustments and improvements.
"Crystal does more than reflect; it can also refract countless rays of light."
One day during cultivation, inspiration struck Li Qingshan, and he made his first innovation to the method.
The crystal mirror, originally used solely for inward observation and defense, gained greater versatility through his improvements.
The Condensed Mental Threads no longer extended only in straight lines. They could ripple like water,
and refract like rays of light, forming a more intricate network of mental perception.
This improvement extended his range of perception from ten meters to thirty, while greatly increasing its precision.
Now he could not only sense the presence of objects,
but could even vaguely "see" their internal structures and the flow of energy.
"My comprehension and the Stone Gate are my greatest advantages."
Li Qingshan realized this.
"In any world, understanding and innovating upon cultivation methods are more important than simply accumulating energy."
A month later, the beneficial effects of Mind Cultivation began to manifest.
The first change was in Li Qingshan's mental state.
He found that he hardly needed sleep anymore.
Just two hours of seated meditation each day were enough to keep him full of vigor all day long.
His thinking speed, memory, and ability to learn all improved to a shocking degree.
In mathematics, he could intuitively construct entirely new mathematical models and solve conjectures that had remained unresolved.
His study of philosophy reached unprecedented depths.
He no longer merely understood the core principles of the various schools of thought.
He could discern the intrinsic connections between different philosophical systems and discover some ultimate truth toward which they all pointed.
Kant's "thing-in-itself,"
Hegel's "absolute spirit,"
and Laozi's "Dao"
merged in his mind, forming an entirely new view of the universe.
More remarkably still, this increase in mental power began to nourish his physical body in turn.
In a state of deep visualization, Li Qingshan could clearly "see" the condition of his body.
Every organ, every tissue, and every cell lay bare under the reflection of the crystal mirror.
He discovered that he could use mental power to make minute adjustments to his physical condition:
speeding up the healing of wounds,
improving his blood circulation,
and regulating his endocrine balance.
Although the effects were slight, they were undeniably real.
"So the mind reflecting the body has such a marvelous use too."
Li Qingshan fell into thought.
He began trying to use this ability systematically.
He used minute vibrations of the Condensed Mental Threads to stimulate specific acupoints and nerve nodes;
he used the crystal mirror's reflection to discover tiny imbalances throughout his body and promptly correct them.
This subtle, gradual nourishment quietly improved his physical condition.
The first things to change were his five senses.
Li Qingshan's eyesight became extraordinarily sharp.
He could clearly see the veins in leaves a hundred meters away
and distinguish extremely subtle differences in color.
His hearing also became extraordinary.
He could pick up quiet conversations in the distance
and even hear the faint sound of his own blood flowing.
His senses of smell, taste, and touch also grew much sharper.
He could distinguish the various faint scents in the air,
taste the subtlest differences in the seasoning of food,
and sense an object's material and structure through touch.
This heightened perception gave him a deeper understanding of the world.
He noticed many details he had previously overlooked:
the paths of dust motes floating through the air,
the subtle angles at which light refracted,
the differences in how sound traveled through different media.
"The world is still the same world, but it's become richer."
Li Qingshan stood by the window, experiencing this world that was both familiar and strange.
A more obvious change occurred in his physical condition.
Li Qingshan discovered that his physical strength, endurance, and explosive power had all improved without his noticing.
His once slightly slender body gradually became well-proportioned and strong, its muscles smooth and full of explosive power.
During one physical education class, they took a routine fitness test.
Li Qingshan deliberately controlled his performance, but he still seemed to handle the endurance run with ease.
When the other students were already panting for breath, his breathing remained steady and his steps light.
He ultimately crossed the finish line first by a clear margin,
but kept his time slightly slower than the school record.
In the pull-up test, he easily completed thirty repetitions with proper form.
That put him near the top of the class, but not so high as to attract too much attention.
Only a careful observer could have noticed that he had done them too easily, as though he still had strength to spare.
His classmates were surprised by his progress, and the teacher praised him for the results of his recent training.
But no one would have imagined that his body held strength far beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
Li Qingshan knew this perfectly well, but he never deliberately showed it.
He knew that in this outwardly ordinary world, exceptional abnormalities would only bring unnecessary trouble.
"But this still isn't enough."
Li Qingshan could feel that his control over his body was still only at a superficial level.
Unfortunately, his stay in the world of Great Emperor of the Cosmos had been far too short.
He had devoted himself entirely to the visualization method.
"Without a systematic method of physical cultivation, I can't truly draw out my body's potential."
Late one night three months later, Li Qingshan made an astonishing discovery during deep visualization.
When his consciousness sank to an unprecedented depth,
he suddenly sensed some mysterious "shackles" deep within his body.
These shackles were formless and immaterial, yet they truly existed, sealing off certain key points in his body.
What is this? Li Qingshan was shaken and concentrated his mental power to investigate.
Under the reflection of the crystal mirror,
he vaguely saw five enormous shackles distributed throughout his body, corresponding to the locations of his five internal organs.
The shackles gave off an ancient, mysterious presence, as though they had existed since the Primordial Era.
More surprising still, some kind of "treasure" seemed to lie hidden behind the shackles.
His mind faintly sensed doors to potential, one after another, giving off alluring fluctuations,
yet they were firmly sealed by the shackles and beyond his reach.
"Human Body Secret Realm, Divine Treasures." The words naturally surfaced in Li Qingshan's mind.
He tried to touch the shackles with his mental power,
but encountered a boundless resistance. Like an ant trying to shake a tree, he could not budge them in the slightest.
"Is it because this is the Dharma-ending age? Or do I lack the right cultivation method?"
Li Qingshan fell into deep thought.
He could feel that those sealed "Divine Treasures" contained unimaginable power.
Once opened, they would surely bring about earth-shaking changes.
But the "shackles" were far too powerful; with his current strength, he could not reach them at all.
In the days that followed, Li Qingshan began systematically studying the mysteries of the human body.
Using the school library and online resources,
he gathered a wealth of material on anatomy, physiology, traditional medicine, and even the occult,
trying to uncover the truth behind the "shackles" and "Divine Treasures."
Yet modern science contained no record of them. Traditional medicine had similar concepts,
but they remained superficial and failed to touch upon their essence.
"It seems this world's cultivation system has been broken off," Li Qingshan concluded.
"'Refining essence into Qi, refining Qi into spirit,' as recorded in those ancient texts,
might be the key to opening the Divine Treasures, but the method has been lost."
Even so, he was not discouraged.
He persisted in cultivating the "Crystal Visualization Method" every day, and his mental power continued to grow.
His perception and control over his body also became increasingly precise.
He discovered that, although he could not directly touch the "shackles,"
he could faintly nourish the "Divine Treasures" behind them through the beneficial effects of his mental power.
It felt like watering a sealed seed, waiting for the day it would break through the soil.
What concerned Li Qingshan even more was that, in a state of deep visualization,
he could occasionally sense that the utter "stillness" between heaven and earth seemed to have some mysterious connection to the "shackles" within the human body.
"The Dharma-ending age, the shackles of the human body-there must be some connection between them."
Li Qingshan had vaguely touched the edge of a world-shaking secret, but he had too little information to reach a definite conclusion.
The only thing he knew for certain was that the mysterious Stone Gate would be the key to unraveling these mysteries.
Each world's cultivation system had its own focus. Perhaps he could find a way to undo the shackles in another world.
"When will I cross over next? And what kind of world will I go to?"
Li Qingshan gazed at the night sky, his heart full of anticipation.