Chapter 8: Rotation, Supernova

(For ease of counting, “the weekly meeting” in the previous chapter has been changed to “every ten days.”)

Yu stood beside Zhou Yan and spoke slowly. “The Chasing Stars Secret Diagram is an almost publicly available Transcendent cultivation method of the Steel Royal Court. The reason it is public is that it does not possess the function of helping someone reach the Transcendent level. Rather, it is a method that can only be cultivated after one has already reached that level. To give an example…”

Yu seemed to consider his words before continuing. “Some other famous but secret cultivation methods are like ‘teaching you how to make a gun, as well as how to use it.’ The Chasing Stars Secret Diagram only teaches you how to use the gun.”

“That’s a very vivid comparison,” Zhou Yan replied.

“Good.” Yu nodded. “Then I’ll begin. Remember this carefully: the Chasing Stars Secret Diagram consists primarily of two parts—Self-Rotation and Stellar Shock.”

“Self-Rotation teaches you how to use your will to guide the flow and speed of your vital energy and blood, thereby strengthening your bodily functions for a short period of time.”

“Stellar Shock teaches you how to use your will to stimulate the astral points within your body, allowing the corresponding parts of your body to erupt with additional power in an instant.”

Time passed. More than an hour later, Yu finally finished conveying the entire Chasing Stars Secret Diagram to Zhou Yan. For the sake of clarity, he had even drawn the cultivation method’s routes of vital-energy-and-blood circulation, along with the relevant astral points, on paper and annotated them with a pen formed from mist upon the stone table.

After finishing his instruction, Yu said slowly, “This place exists only for communication. You must memorize the cultivation method now, but once you return to reality, you will still need to explore and practice it on your own. There may be a few difficulties along the way, but with the aid of Spirituality Burning, you should be able to resolve them easily. Of course, the most important prerequisite is that your Mentality attribute must be high enough. Otherwise, this method will be completely useless.”

“All right. I’ve memorized it. Thank you.” Zhou Yan nodded, then hesitated before asking, “It feels as though I’m the only one benefiting here. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Yu fell silent for a moment before shaking his head. “It’s merely an extremely ordinary cultivation method within the Transcendent circles. In theory, as natural colleagues who share the same ‘employer,’ we should provide you with a better cultivation method. However, because of the restrictions on communication, that isn’t possible.”

“As for helping us… as long as you remain alive, there should be opportunities in the future. Well, I’ll withdraw first.”

With that, Yu’s entire figure suddenly froze, then dispersed.

He’s gone?

Zhou Yan stood stunned for a moment, astonished by how decisive the other man had been.

When he turned around, he discovered that Yi, Huangdao, and Aha had also disappeared. They had probably left while he was learning the Chasing Stars Secret Diagram from Yu.

Zhou Yan walked toward the stone table. Of the two memo slips placed before his seat, he found that the agreed-upon meeting time had been changed to ten days later.

It seemed that this communication meeting had ended.

Zhou Yan withdrew as well.

* * *

Zhou Yan slowly opened his eyes and sat up in bed, returning the locust he had stationed as a guard to the Materials Repository.

He glanced at the time. It was nearly two in the morning.

It seemed that the flow of time within the communication space really was close to a one-to-one ratio with reality.

Zhou Yan thought in silence, then withdrew his gaze from the clock and rose to walk into the bathroom.

He was about to begin experimenting with this miraculous cultivation method.

“First comes the method of circulating vital energy and blood known as Self-Rotation.” Standing before the mirror, Zhou Yan recalled the routes of circulation he had memorized.

Before that, however, he needed to fulfill one prerequisite: find a way to increase the speed of his blood flow beyond its normal level. Only then could he consider altering its circulation routes.

Thus, following Yu’s instructions, he began attempting to influence one of his vital organs with his will—his heart.

Only by accelerating his heartbeat could he increase the flow of blood throughout his body and thereby obtain stronger physical functions.

But how was he supposed to use his will to accelerate his heartbeat?

“Influencing the body with will does not depend on ‘trying harder to think.’ Instead, you must find your own conceptual ‘image.’”

Zhou Yan recalled the trick Yu had taught him.

Whether a person could use their will to influence their body depended on two key factors: mental strength and the ability to weave images.

Mental strength was simple and straightforward. To put it bluntly, it was the numerical value of the Mentality attribute Zhou Yan saw on his status panel. If the value was insufficient, everything else was empty talk.

The ability to weave images, however, was more subjective.

Put more plainly, if he wanted his body to respond to his will, he had to use the image of imagining his body reaching that particular state as a guide.

The key was the “image,” not “manipulation.”

For example, if Zhou Yan wanted his heart to beat faster, he could not rely on strenuous exercise to indirectly accelerate his heartbeat. Nor could he make his heart beat faster simply by “trying hard to think.” And he certainly could not use his chest and abdominal muscles to compress his heart and force it to beat.

Instead, he had to accurately imagine, within his mind, the image of “my heart beating at high speed.”

Yet merely imagining a picture of his heart beating rapidly was useless as well.

That was only a “picture,” not an “image.” Even if he managed to imagine a flawless picture of his own heart beating furiously, his heart would not accelerate by even the slightest amount.

What he needed to imagine was something pure, unrealistic, and even abstract—a concept.

Yu, who had been teaching Zhou Yan, had used himself as an example. The secret method he practiced also contained a similar means of accelerating the heartbeat.

When he himself drove his heart to beat faster, the image that appeared in his mind was “a great drum being struck at high speed, producing a dense succession of booming sounds.”

What image would suit me?

Zhou Yan silently studied his reflection in the bathroom mirror, then quietly closed his eyes.

Countless chaotic thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind. Like scenes glimpsed from a passing carriage, he examined them one after another, searching for an image that resonated with him.

After a long while—

Zhou Yan opened his eyes, a self-mocking smile appearing on his face.

There had been no progress at all!

What a joke. He simply had no talent for this!

Then there was only one path left.

Spirituality Burning—activate!

It was as though the sound of enormous bells and great chimes had suddenly rung beside his ears. Everything instantly receded into the distance, leaving only a single thought in his mind.

An image… an image.

An image connected to my heart…

No one knew how much time passed.

As his thoughts gradually narrowed and focused, Zhou Yan’s world fell into absolute silence.

What was the function of the heart?

Contract, relax, and pump blood.

Contract, relax.

Beat.

Flicker.

Explosion!

At the edge of the subconscious, a flash of inspiration streaked past.

Within the concept of endless darkness, vast as the universe, a dazzling radiance suddenly burst forth!

A supernova!

The most powerful stellar explosion in the universe, one that blasted away all the matter composing a star and hurled it outward at nearly one-tenth the speed of light. The electromagnetic radiation produced by the explosion could illuminate the entire galaxy in which the star was located, lasting for weeks or even months!

Boom!

Boom-boom!

Boom-boom-boom!

Boom-boom-boom-boom!

A rapid succession of sounds seemed both illusory and real.

Zhou Yan suddenly opened his eyes. He felt his heart pounding faster than it ever had during strenuous exercise, while the blood throughout his body surged like mighty rivers and seas.

He could feel a fierce and vigorous force flowing with his blood, activating every function in his body to its fullest.

Zhou Yan abruptly raised his hand and threw a punch.

Whoosh!

His fist came to an abrupt halt in midair.

Only afterward did the sharp whistle of air being torn apart ring out.

Zhou Yan slowly withdrew his fist and looked at it, silently calculating.

His punching power and speed had increased by more than twenty percent!

He then deactivated Spirituality Burning.

The next second, the image of the supernova exploding that had been sustained within his mind quietly fell silent.

Without the support of that image, his rapidly beating heart seemed to lose a source of additional energy. Its rhythm continued to slow until, before long, it had returned to normal.

Zhou Yan then closed his eyes again with Spirituality Burning deactivated, attempting to find that supernova image in his normal state.

However, within the void, he could sense only the faintest trace of radiance.

He continued trying for a long time, but discovered that relying solely on his natural aptitude made his progress painfully slow. In the end, he could only open his eyes and let out a long breath.

It seems I’ll need to practice repeatedly and solidify that image into a habitual pattern of thought before I can gradually use it in actual combat.

He sank into thought.

Although the state of Spirituality Burning was extraordinarily powerful for learning, it was not omnipotent.

If he tried to fight while in that state of heightened comprehension, it would be one thing if his opponent were a weakling. But if the opponent were not significantly weaker than him, doing so would essentially be courting death.

Still, now that he had found a direction, things would be easier.

He made a simple plan for his future cultivation.

He would practice swordsmanship during the day to sharpen his senses, and practice the breathing method at night to strengthen his physique.

Then he would set aside some additional time to intermittently enter the state of Spirituality Burning, repeatedly activating and deactivating it at high frequency as he practiced invoking the image of the supernova.

Once he could completely remember that sensation and accelerate his heartbeat through his own will without relying on Spirituality Burning, he could proceed to the next step: using his will to control the flow of his vital energy and blood, thereby strengthening specific bodily functions to a far greater degree.

And once he had mastered the secret art of Self-Rotation and become proficient at controlling the flow and speed of the vital energy and blood within his body, he could begin developing the higher-level technique of Stellar Shock—using his will to stimulate the potential of specific acupoints and unleash an additional burst of tremendous power.

Zhou Yan imagined himself becoming stronger, and the corners of his mouth curved into a faint smile.

With the enhancement provided by his Life Equipment, he already possessed a physique and degree of bodily control comparable to those at the Absolute or even Grandmaster level, without needing to use Ultra-Fusion Transformation.

But who would ever complain about becoming stronger and stronger?

Outside the window, the sky had already begun to pale.

Although Zhou Yan had cultivated throughout the entire night, he remained full of energy.

Today would be the day of the semifinals and finals, held consecutively.

Li Guanqi, let me personally see just how far your strength has truly reached!

***

(There are eight thousand words in today’s update. The extra words are a bonus chapter for Little Pan!)

I broke the world record in the one-hundred-meter freestyle two days ago and had wanted to add an extra chapter then, but I really didn’t have time to write it. Today, I pushed myself!