Martial Saint!
Chapter 490 - 0319 Hard work pays off twofold (Asking for monthly tickets and subscriptions)

Chapter 490: 0319 Hard work pays off twofold (Asking for monthly tickets and subscriptions)

"Lantuo Temple!"

Upon hearing these words, Lu Chenzhou became even more convinced.

He, Zhen Ding, and the Tuo Tian Head Monk had experienced the same illusion during their Refining Heart.

As for Mingxin, it was still unclear.

Lu Chenzhou suddenly thought of the Dao Yun from the sages, which was also a type of illusion: "Could the illusion be a world that once truly existed?"

Zhen Ding exclaimed, "It’s really possible... No, why is my First Layer so difficult?!"

After some exchanges, he discovered that others’ Refining Heart journeys had been smooth.

Lu Chenzhou killed a very weak demon and completed his tribulation;

The Head Monk killed demons on an island, and his spiritual power surged;

Most ridiculous was Mingxin, who enhanced his spirit simply by chanting prayers in the temple;

Only Zhen Ding was repeatedly ravaged by a bear-bodied monk a thousand times over and still couldn’t get out.

Tuo Tian Head Monk said, "Who says Refining Heart must involve defeating something? Perhaps there’s something peculiar in your cave."

Mingxin couldn’t help but laugh:

"Zhen Ding, have you never played a game?"

"No."

"You fool, if you can’t beat it, take a break; you might pass."

"That makes sense... I’ll try it some other day."

After some conversation, the four exchanged glances.

Tuo Tian Head Monk said, "I plan to ask Master Hui Kong. If you are worried, you can refrain from practicing the Heart Sutra for now."

Lu Chenzhou, however, believed that the Heart Sutra was probably fine.

After all, his Martial Arts Tree’s proficiency had increased.

His spiritual power had also solidly increased.

He was puzzled as to how the Kongwen Divine Monk could create such an extraordinary cultivation method.

This Heart Sutra appeared to be just an upper-level divine skill, but in some ways, it was even more remarkable than a Supreme Divine Skill.

He looked at the Water Mansion Token, muttering, "The Kongwen Divine Monk also entered the Water Mansion..."

Perhaps the Innate Water Spirit knew something.

Vaguely, many fragmented pieces of information came together in Lu Chenzhou’s mind.

Everything began with the struggle between the Desolate God and the Evil God.

The world of Lantuo Temple within the illusion was likely real.

However, it’s uncertain if it still exists... after all, the Evil God intrudes on all worlds equally.

It’s possible that it was already invaded by the Witches and lost to the river of time.

The world where Da Xia is located would likely meet the same fate as the world of Lantuo Temple if it could not resist the invasion of the Evil God.

Monks turned into demons, and the world was plunged into darkness.

...

Songshan City, Little Western Heaven.

Two old monks sat facing each other.

"Abbot, is there an issue with this Heart Sutra?"

"What could be the issue?"

The Tuo Tian Head Monk recounted the events of the night.

Master Hui Kong replied,

"What problem do you see here?"

"Could it be that the Heart Sutra is a method for our consciousness to somehow condense a Heavenly Demon avatar and descend into other worlds?"

According to Buddhist legend, Heavenly Demons are formless and carefree, able to descend into the Three Thousand Worlds!

"Otherwise, the World Venerate traversed myriad tribulations within the Three Lifetimes and Ten Directions World before achieving enlightenment and becoming a Buddha."

"I see, so the Kongwen Divine Monk created this method likely with the guidance of the Desolate God."

"Leverage favorable winds to ascend to the azure sky, progress in Martial Arts is rapid, but time and resources are lacking... Desolate Gods are born mighty but progress very slowly. Though they may perish, they once ruled over mountains and seas, their wisdom incomparable to mortals. To resist the gods of the stars, we must unite to stand a chance."

"Abbot, did you also travel to other worlds during Refining Heart?"

"Yes."

"Did the world you visited have a Lantuo Temple?"

"No."

"Alright, it seems we merely happen to be gathered together. Which world were you in, Abbot?"

"I have already cleared out a world of demons, spread Buddhist teachings, and rebuilt Spirit Mountain. I am the founder of that world, named ’Thunder Sound.’"

"..."

Damn, the Abbot plays on a whole other level.

While they were still in the novice village hunting small monsters, the Abbot had already conquered lands and established sects.

For a moment, Tuo Tian Head Monk felt incredibly motivated.

He set a small goal to become a boss in the world of Lantuo Temple!

...

Confirming that there were no issues with the Heart Sutra, Lu Chenzhou continued his cultivation.

According to Master Hui Kong, the Heart Realm involved a strand of consciousness traversing the sea of subconscious of all beings.

Failing the tribulation would either mildly exhaust the mind or severely diminish some spiritual force, and overall, the impact was minimal.

A tribulation, if it could easily be passed, without life-threatening danger, would it still be called a tribulation?

Whether spiritual or physical, cultivation is inherently against the natural order; it is impossible for it to always be smooth sailing.

However, the abbot reminded that when facing the critical juncture of breaking through with the Heart Sutra, special caution is needed.

Negative emotions within the subconscious, such as Greed Soul and Wrath Soul, might seize the opportunity to manifest as heart demons.

The difficulty of the tribulation would abruptly increase.

Failure could either damage the source of spiritual force or result in total possession, being forever lost in illusions.

This is the main danger of cultivating the Heart Sutra.

In comparison, most Po Suo meditation methods do not carry such risks.

Hence, one must be well-prepared before breaking through to ensure success in one go.

The abbot also said that if one can effortlessly traverse the critical tribulations of the Heart Sutra, the heart demons encountered at the confinement-breaking stage would no longer be feared.

"Heart demons? I have the Ming King Divine Seed, and a heart as that of a Saint Buddha, so it should be easier for me compared to others."

...

The next day.

Deep into the night, it was time to cultivate the Heart Sutra again.

Once his spirit was mostly recovered, Lu Chenzhou joined his hands together and his consciousness descended into the illusion once more.

The familiar mountain gate, the familiar setting...

"Damn, why do I have to run around again? Can’t this illusion have a save point?"

Lu Chenzhou found himself at the foot of the mountain again.

He huffed and puffed his way to the mountain top and observed the Zen courtyard.

"Eh, the monk with the staff is gone. Looks like it doesn’t respawn..."

"I will eat you..."

A pig-headed monk wielded a戒刀 and slashed at him, his saber technique was sharp; he must have been a master in his previous life.

"Eat your grandpa!"

In Da Xia, Lu Chenzhou was timid.

In this alternate world, he fought powerfully.

From the information gathered so far, the strongest in Lantuo Temple was the abbot who blocked Zhen Ding.

After the pig-headed monk died, a stream of pale golden light surged into Lu Chenzhou’s body.

The space twisted, and the mirror shattered.

Before disappearing, Lu Chenzhou seemed to hear the distant roars of a giant bear in the back mountain.

There were also familiar grumbling and cursing, "Damn it, Refining Heart? More like refining bull crap!"

Lu Chenzhou couldn’t help but say, "It seems Zhen Ding failed again... Poor senior."

Practice Room.

Lu Chenzhou opened his eyes, which sparkled with light.

The Heart Sutra proficiency on the Martial Arts Tree increased by 1.

The Meditation Pearl showed that his spiritual power had increased by 0.05 wisdom.

Sure enough, it was similar to what the Head Monk said; the first layer was similar to the first layer of Qi-Blood Internal Skill.

When practiced to the limit, it should increase spiritual power by about 7-10 wisdom.

As the difficulty increases, the spiritual power enhancement will also increase.

The golden relic of the monk with the staff was evidently a "starter pack."

...

Time flies, and a month passed quickly.

The Zouyu Water Mansion still remained silent.

On the internet, there was much excitement.

News abroad reported that several people had obtained Water Mansion Tokens.

The mansion gate had appeared in thousands of places simultaneously.

On the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Mississippi River, Ganges River... all major rivers of the world had sightings.

Even smaller bodies of water like West Lake and Stone Lake had mansion gates appearing.

People reported seeing various shadows around the gates.

Experts suggested these shadows were likely trialists from other worlds.

This Water Mansion, being the mansion of a Desolate God, might have the power to reflect the heavens!

Trialists felt a mix of anticipation and fear... humans knew nothing about other worlds and civilizations.

Some even considered throwing away the token, but it was naturally impossible.

Of course, top-tier geniuses were well-prepared.

Great wealth entails great risks; opportunities are accompanied by dangers.

With humans’ steady pace of cultivation, catching up to the Evil Gods in a short time was near impossible.

Regardless of the intentions behind the Desolate God’s relics, humans had no choice.

Civilization’s path ahead offered only two options: survival or destruction.

...

The Blood Moon hung high.

In front of the Merit Hall at Lantuo Temple,

"Tiger Hunting Eight Directions!"

A faceless monk in white robes swung his fists powerfully, with an overwhelming momentum, and a faint shadow of an eight-armed tiger demon appeared behind him.

The eight arms of the tiger demon spread out, and a rain of fists struck the Four Seas and Eight Desolates, resembling thousands of tigers roaring.

Giant monk-headed rats, each as large as calves, were sent flying, and streams of golden light shot from their heads.

The light surged into the white-robed monk’s body, making his form even more towering and sturdy.

The white-robed monk exhaled deeply, looking at the corpses on the ground.

In his consciousness, a clear, light voice echoed.

[Tiger Hunting Eight Directions Fist: Great Success (100%)→Perfection]

"What a pleasant surprise, to be able to improve Martial Art proficiency within the illusion."

Lu Chenzhou initially thought the illusion could only refine the heart.

But after practicing for a few days, he noticed something off.

Periodically, the proficiency of the Mountain God Demon-suppressing Fist and Tiger Hunting Eight Directions Fist would increase.

Though not as efficient as training in the real world, there was still progress.

He analyzed it should be because Da Xia Martial Arts inherently combined spirit, energy, and essence.

Refining the heart was originally part of martial arts training.

Practicing fist techniques in the illusion was still practicing!

However, training in the illusion couldn’t effectively mobilize physical qi-blood, which was "essence," so it only trained the "spirit," making the practice incomplete.

In the long run, it would become like the Po Suo Spiritual Martial Arts that forsake the physical body.

Thus, real-world practice could not be neglected but time could be reduced.

Through experiments, he found that one hour of fist practice in the illusion improved proficiency at one-third the rate of reality.

Only three types of martial arts could be trained: boxing martial arts, soldier attack martial arts, lightweight body techniques.

Internal skills, pile skills, secret techniques, horizontal training, and other special martial arts couldn’t be practiced in the illusion.

Additionally, a month of intensive demon hunting in the illusion didn’t bring the state of inspiration.

In the real world, it would typically occur once or twice.

It’s reasonably certain that beneficial states won’t appear in the illusion.

Even so, Lu Chenzhou was too excited to sleep.

"Double the effort, double the reward!"

Currently, his schedule was as follows:

hours of pile skill practice, allowing him to maintain a steady pace of opening three acupoints per month even as the difficulty increased in stage two.

Of course, he suspected the improvement in acupoint opening speed was also due to collecting the Five Elements Treasure Qi.

hours for internal and horizontal cultivation.

The three basic skills above could not be neglected.

hour to casually practice hidden weaponry like Life and Death Talisman and Bodhi Technique.

hour for real-world fist and movement technique practice to ensure the body and qi-blood were honed.

hours for rest and handling miscellaneous affairs and relationships.

The final 3 hours were for cultivating the Heart Sutra and grinding in the illusion!

Although tiring, he enjoyed it greatly.

He subtly asked the Tuo Tian Head Monk, "Master, can one practice martial arts in the illusion, using the spirit to forge the body?"

Master: "You wouldn’t be confusing the illusion with reality, would you?"

Low Emotional Intelligence: Little Lu, are you dreaming!