67: The supreme method of observation

"A Rank Four Legacy... truly isn't prepared for Mortals."

Lin Jingyu shook his head with a bitter smile. His dream of being a 'future Great Master Alchemist with Spirit Stones rolling in' shattered into a million pieces, beyond repair.

"Those who can learn this stuff are probably the True Disciple Prodigies of the Qinglan Sect, right? Geniuses that appear once in tens of thousands of Cultivators."

"Born with powerful Divine Sense, photographic memory, and popping cultivation resources like jellybeans... Why is a four-Spiritual Root Trash like me even joining the fun?"

Dejection weighed on his chest like a massive boulder, but the stubborn streak in Lin Jingyu's bones flared up again. He slapped his face hard, forcing himself to perk up.

"Damn it, I'm already here! I can't let a few lines of text scare me to death!" Gritting his teeth, he continued to "chew" through the information.

"Seven Methods for a Trainee Alchemist to Cultivate Mental Energy..."

This title was like a firefly in the dark, instantly catching his attention. Mental Energy? It sounded like the key to increasing "brain capacity" and "multi-threaded processing capabilities"!

He couldn't wait to "click" on the first one—the "High Tower Model Method."

Use one's own Mental Energy to forge a Supreme High Tower. Each level of the tower possesses a singular power. As long as one can forge the base of the tower, they can gain the ability to split their mind in two.

For every level the tower is raised, another strand of mind can be split off, reaching up to a maximum of nine levels.

In other words, as long as one can build a nine-level tower, they can split their mind into ten.

It was essentially like splitting one's personality into ten parts.

He read through this cultivation method carefully, but it felt incredibly difficult, like reading a heavenly book; he couldn't understand a single bit of it.

It was basically like a college student looking at the energy convergence equations after a nuclear explosion; they wouldn't even recognize the various symbols, let alone the combined formulas.

However, there were hundreds of thousands of words of detailed analysis below.

It was roughly a curriculum ranging from elementary school math like one plus one equals two, all the way to the derivation of quantum mechanics formulas.

He could barely manage to understand that part.

But to fully study and understand it clearly wasn't something that could be learned in a year or two.

Lin Jingyu grew dizzy from reading, feeling like he was looking at an encrypted file from a heavenly book.

The second method was in a missing state, showing a large empty void.

The third method was the same.

It made Lin Jingyu suspect whether the author was just using clickbait titles.

Then he "clicked" on the fourth method—the "Supreme Visualization Method."

"Visualize the great things of heaven and earth to enhance Mental Energy... the higher the status of the visualized object, the greater the enhancement..."

This description was simple and crude, hitting the nail on the head. A small spark reignited in Lin Jingyu's dead-as-ashes heart.

As soon as the thought occurred, a sudden change occurred!

The world within the Jade Slip before his eyes vanished, and his consciousness arrived in a vast, boundless, cold, and dead Void Realm of the Universe!

Beneath his feet was a massive swirling galaxy emitting faint starlight, and above his head was a meteor belt burning and dragging long tails of flame as it whistled past. The sense of enormity and desolation almost suffocated him.

Ahead, nine massive Stone Tablets that reached from heaven to earth stood quietly, like the spine supporting the Universe. They seemed only three feet tall and right before his eyes, yet also seemed separated by endless time and space, filled with a contradictory sense of grandeur.

The tablets were ancient, carved with incomprehensible archaic patterns, emitting a desolate aura that made the Soul tremble.

Eight of the Stone Tablets were blank, like heavenly books waiting to be written. Only the one on the far left had a pattern carved on its surface that seemed simple yet contained infinite mysteries—a single, quietly burning small flame.

That flame seemed eternal, yet also seemed to contain a terrifying power capable of incinerating all things.

"Is this... the 'Great Thing' that needs to be visualized?" Lin Jingyu was shocked and couldn't help but try to step closer, wanting to see it more clearly.

However, no matter how he ran or even tried to use Qi to propel himself, the distance between him and the Stone Tablet didn't change at all!

It was as if the Stone Tablet was a phantom hanging at the end of the Universe, forever unreachable. An invisible force of time and space firmly restricted him to his spot.

Left with no choice, he held his breath and focused all his attention like a laser, locking onto that tiny flame.

The moment his mind made contact with the flame!

Another change occurred!

The small flame on the Stone Tablet suddenly jumped, as if an ancient will that had slept for billions of years had been awakened! It was no longer a static pattern but instantly expanded, magnified, and became incredibly real!

A terrifying heat capable of burning the sky and boiling the sea rushed toward him across the endless void, almost evaporating his consciousness!

"Holy crap? What's going on?" Lin Jingyu only had time to let out a curse in his mind.

The next moment, that flame seemed to possess life. It transformed into a ferocious, roaring fire Dragon, followed the trajectory of Lin Jingyu's "gaze," ignored the distance of time and space, and slammed into the depths of his mind!

Boom—!

It wasn't a metaphor! Lin Jingyu felt like his brain had actually been set on fire!

Every nerve was letting out a "sizzling" wail, like being repeatedly scorched and crushed by a red-hot branding iron! Every brain cell was screaming and twisting under the extreme heat, as if they were going to pop like popcorn in the next second! The pain surpassed the limits of the physical body, striking directly at the Soul's Origin, as if it wanted to completely incinerate his very existence!

"Aaaah—Hot hot hot! Help! My brain is going to be cooked! It's burning!"

He roared frantically in the depths of his consciousness, feeling as if the top of his skull was about to be blown off by this spiritual blaze! He wished he could kowtow to the Stone Tablet right then and there and call it his ancestor to beg for mercy.

But the fire Dragon was completely unreasonable, continuing to rampage and revel in his fragile brain domain, overbearingly refining all his distracting thoughts and weaknesses, wanting to burn his consciousness into the purest "fuel."

Time lost its meaning. Perhaps it was just a brief moment, or perhaps thousands of years had passed. Just as Lin Jingyu felt he was about to be completely turned to ash and his consciousness was about to dissipate, the brain-burning flames finally receded like a tide and slowly went out.

In the depths of his consciousness, only a tiny spark remained, so weak it was almost invisible, as if a breath of wind would blow it out, stubbornly flickering.

At the same time, on that burning Stone Tablet, ancient patterns flowed, and a line of faint but supremely majestic small golden characters emerged:

"The visualizer has successfully undergone Blazing Fire Spirit Refining, burning away mental Impurities and achieving the State of Clarity. Preliminary visualization of the Tablet of [Fire] is complete. Visualization can be performed again after twelve hours to strive for early 'recognition'."

"Recognition? What the hell is recognition? Is this broken rock going to issue me a graduation certificate?" Lin Jingyu's questions and complaints didn't even have time to come out.

An irresistible force, like the impact of a primordial divine mountain, suddenly struck!

Bang!

His vision suddenly went black, as if he had been kicked hard from a height of ten thousand feet, and his consciousness was instantly and brutally torn away from that mysterious space!