53: Chapter 53 Cultivating the Spirit Forging Technique

Zhenguo Marquis Mansion, Chen Shanzhi's bedroom.

Chen Shanzhi walked to the bedside, took off his shoes, and sat cross-legged on the soft bed.

With eyes slightly closed and mind settled, he began to carefully examine...

the scroll of the Spirit Forging Art Cultivation Technique in his mind, which he had just obtained from the Secret Realm.

In the Eroge Game from his previous life, learning a Cultivation Technique was simply too easy.

Get the skill book, open the inventory, and double-click with the left mouse button to learn it.

Then just drag and drop it into the skill slot to equip it, and you're done.

But now, the game has become the living reality.

The Cultivation Technique was in his head, but Chen Shanzhi was still completely in the dark about how exactly to guide and Cultivate it.

He patiently studied and digested the ancient and profound golden characters in his mind, word by word and sentence by sentence.

After a long time, Chen Shanzhi opened his eyes and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"So that's how it is... The core principle of this Spirit Forging Art actually lies in the two words: Visualization."

By visualizing a Life Fire while in the Profound Gate Realm...

one can prematurely imitate the way Life Fire Realm experts nourish their Divine Souls, forcibly raising the strength of their own Divine Soul!

The content of this Cultivation Technique was divided into three progressive Realms.

They are: Visualization, Condensation, and Spirit Forging.

The first Realm: Visualization.

As the name suggests, it requires the cultivator to visualize within their Sea of Consciousness...

the form of a Life Fire Realm expert's Life Fire out of thin air.

This was somewhat like sketching from life in his previous world.

The more vigorous and domineering the Life Fire of the expert you visualize is...

and the more clearly you depict the details of this Life Fire and the more thoroughly you understand it during Visualization...

then the higher the tempering benefits your Divine Soul receives during the Visualization process.

The second Realm: Condensation.

Once a Martial Artist understands the visualized Life Fire as clearly as the lines on their own palm...

they must attempt to use their Mental Energy within their void-like Sea of Consciousness...

to forcibly solidify and outline a phantom of the visualized Life Fire!

This is equivalent to upgrading from a two-dimensional painting to a three-dimensional projection.

As for the final Realm: Spirit Forging.

It is the essence of this Cultivation Technique.

The Martial Artist needs to use this phantom of the Life Fire, which was solidified with great difficulty...

to simulate a real Life Fire, burning and tempering their Divine Soul over and over again!

Although it's a phantom, the pain and benefits it brings are very real.

After reading the detailed descriptions of these three Realms, Chen Shanzhi's expression became very strange.

Subconsciously, he sank his mind into his Sea of Consciousness once again.

Looking at that tiny space that had been forcibly carved out...

and the golden flame burning quietly within it.

Chen Shanzhi couldn't help but swallow hard.

"The first two Realms of this Cultivation Technique..."

"Does this count as me having an official max-level cheat, letting me skip levels directly?"

Others work painstakingly and rack their brains to visualize someone else's Life Fire.

And then they have to work themselves to death to mold a phantom in their heads.

But what about him?

In this Sea of Consciousness, there's a damn real, existing, and ridiculously high-grade golden Life Fire just standing right there!

And this isn't some phantom; it's the real deal!

Thinking of this, Chen Shanzhi couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart.

He took a deep breath and unhesitatingly skipped the first two layers.

He began to try and circulate the exclusive path for the third Realm of the Spirit Forging Art—Spirit Forging—within his body.

"Buzz..."

As the Cultivation Technique slowly circulated, a wonderful change began to occur in Chen Shanzhi's Sea of Consciousness.

Under the guidance of the Cultivation Technique, his Mental Energy gradually gathered and purified.

Soon, an extremely tiny, gossamer-like white mist...

emerged out of thin air near the golden flame.

This wisp of white mist was the manifestation of his currently extremely weak Divine Soul Power, forcibly refined by the Cultivation Technique.

Once this white mist fully emerged and stabilized...

it drifted directly toward the central golden flame, like a moth to a flame.

"Sizzle—"

The moment the white mist touched the edge of the golden flame, it melted away completely like snow under a blazing sun!

Immediately after, the golden flame in the Sea of Consciousness suddenly flickered ever so slightly.

Although the movement was tiny, Chen Shanzhi still keenly sensed it.

The color of the flame seemed to brighten a bit, and it burned a fraction more vigorously!

At the same time, an indescribable sense of coolness...

was fed back from the golden flame, instantly flowing through Chen Shanzhi's entire brain.

That feeling was like chugging a mouthful of iced plum soup on a hot day, a refreshing sensation from the top of his head down to his heels.

The stinging pain originally caused by the forced refining of his Divine Soul vanished instantly.

In its place, his five senses became clearer; he could even hear the faint friction of the wind blowing through the leaves outside the window.

"It works!"

Chen Shanzhi suddenly opened his eyes, a light of wild joy flashing within them.

He never expected that this golden flame of unknown origin in his Sea of Consciousness...

could actually allow him to skip the most tedious first two Realms of the Spirit Forging Art.

And compared to those solidified Life Fire phantoms...

the Spirit Forging efficiency brought by this golden flame seemed much higher!

Having tasted the sweetness, Chen Shanzhi naturally couldn't stop.

He closed his eyes again and, like a tireless worker, began to frantically circulate the Spirit Forging Art.

A second white mist emerged, drifted into the golden flame, melted, and fed back.

The coolness returned.

A third white mist was refined with great difficulty, wobbling as it was injected into the golden flame.

However, after this third mist melted...

the cooling feedback Chen Shanzhi expected did not appear.

"Hiss—!"

Chen Shanzhi suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air.

He felt as if his head had been stuffed into an overinflated balloon.

His temples throbbed, and a surge of unbearable swelling pain shot through his brain!

He was all too familiar with this feeling; it was the same stinging pain of blood vessels about to explode after pulling three consecutive all-nighters playing games in his past life.

Chen Shanzhi immediately ceased the Cultivation Technique and cut off the circulation of his True Essence.

He gasped for air, rubbing his throbbing temples with a bitter smile.

"It seems Rome wasn't built in a day."

Tempering the Divine Soul simply cannot be rushed.

This third white mist should be the limit of what his Mental Energy purification can handle under his current Xuanguan Seven Apertures Realm.

If he forcibly refined a fourth wisp, his Divine Soul might not only fail to be tempered...

but instead suffer irreversible damage due to overexertion.

Slowly exhaling a mouthful of turbid air, he waited for the swelling pain in his head to gradually recede.

Chen Shanzhi looked up and glanced out the window.

The night was still dark, and the moon's position didn't seem to have moved much.

"It seems that although it felt like a long time had passed in the Sea of Consciousness during this cultivation, not much time has actually passed in the outside world."

Chen Shanzhi smiled with satisfaction.

This was indeed a great thing.

This way, he could completely treat the Spirit Forging Art as a daily meditative practice.

Doing it before bed at night or during gaps in his travels.

This way, it wouldn't take up too much time and affect his progress in martial arts cultivation.

"Perfect."

Chen Shanzhi fell backward, lying on the bed in a starfish position.

After three days of continuous struggle in the Secret Realm, once his mind relaxed, a wave of exhaustion surged over him.

Without even taking off his clothes, his head tilted to the side, and he fell into a deep sleep.