Chapter 288

Inside the teaching zone of the 200th floor.

Zhang Yu sat below the stage, listening to Feng Jiu's lecture, and felt that this teacher always gave him a sense of... rushing to finish the task.

The lecturing process seemed like reading a script, and there was zero interaction with the students throughout.

Then Feng Jiu said, "...The Dao Heart is the foundation of the immortal path; the higher the realm, the more important the Dao Heart."

"If the Dao Heart cannot keep up with cultivation, at the lightest, power becomes uncontrollable, at the worst, one falls into demonic deviation or even suffers backlash from the Dharma Corpse..."

As she spoke, scenes of cultivators falling into demonic deviation appeared one after another.

There were those with disordered minds going on killing sprees, those whose spirit roots exploded and turned into plants and trees, those whose Dharma Corpses attacked their own bodies, those whose magical power exploded... scenes like these kept appearing.

After emphasizing the consequences of an insufficient Dao Heart like this, Feng Jiu continued, "After Foundation Establishment, the maximum level of the Dao Heart is raised to 20. During this period, as the Dao Heart grows, it also gains more wonderful uses."

"For example, after reaching Dao Heart level 15, you can choose a second heart method and attempt to run heart methods in parallel, allowing you to simultaneously cultivate two heart methods from then on."

"However, the greater the conflict between the two heart methods, the worse the effect of running them in parallel, and it may even lead to demonic deviation or soul splitting."

Zhang Yu knew that "demonic deviation" was a general term, covering everything from magical power running out of control and exploding the body, to soul splitting and going crazy, to Dharma Corpse backlash... all could be classified under it.

But listening to what Feng Jiu said today, he suddenly felt that after entering the Foundation Establishment realm, the types of demonic deviation had increased, and the risks seemed higher as well.

Feng Jiu continued, "Precisely because the consequences of conflicting heart methods are severe, you should prepare early and make choices early before your Dao Heart reaches level 15, preferably selecting heart methods that complement each other."

As she spoke, the surrounding light flickered, and a web address had already appeared.

Then Feng Jiu introduced, "Everyone, note down this web address. This is the spirit realm address of Hammer Heart Residence. It can help you conduct tests in the spirit realm. For just 1 spirit coin, it can help you find the heart method most compatible with you, and spending another 1 spirit coin can find the best-matching second heart method."

"Also, after reaching the Foundation Establishment realm, the operation of heart methods also reaches a higher level."

"Running 24 hours a day is just the basics. Being able to reach the realm of half-instinct, or even fully instinctual unity of spirit and flesh, is the true constant operation."

"Even if you lose consciousness, you can still keep a glimmer of spiritual light in your sea of consciousness unextinguished, always maintaining the operation of the heart method."

"To achieve this, besides continuous hard training, grinding it out little by little, there are also other ways."

"For example, the 'Unity of Spirit and Flesh Journey' currently offered by Hammer Heart Residence, 30 spirit coins guarantees success, and if not successful, you can get a refund..."

Feng Jiu just followed the routine all the way, neither asking questions nor interacting, speaking at the same speed until the first second after class ended, then the entire phoenix projection vanished before everyone's eyes.

Deep in the spirit realm, a young girl looked at the returning phoenix and said, "Not bad. No one recognized you as a tool spirit, right? From now on, you can take my classes for me, so it doesn't affect my work."

In magic power class.

After the magic power teacher Li Mingbo came into the classroom, he glanced at everyone and said with a smile, "Classmates, today is our first meeting. Before we officially start the lesson, let's get to know each other first."

"Compared to cold data, I still prefer face-to-face communication."

"My name is Li Mingbo, and for the next year or two, I will likely be teaching you magic power class."

Looking at this teacher with a gentle smile and approachable tone, Zhang Yu was slightly surprised in his heart: "Are there such kind teachers in the university city? And they even want to get to know us?"

Zhang Yu felt that compared to the previous Feng Jiu, Li Mingbo before him was simply worlds apart.

Li Mingbo looked at Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan sitting in the first row and asked with a smile, "You two classmates, what are your names? Where are you from?"

"My name is Zhang Yu, from Songyang City on the first floor."

"His name is Yu Xinghan, also from the first floor..."

Li Mingbo said calmly, "You two... move to the back."

"Further back."

"Move back one more row."

"Alright, just sit there."

He turned his head to look at Gongshu Jin on the other side: "What about you, classmate?"

"Gongshu Jin, you stay in the first row."

"Ying Xin, you can move forward two rows."

"Classmate Ji Yuanshu, you come sit at the very front..."

"From now on, everyone will sit in these assigned seats for my class."

With Li Mingbo's adjustments, the classroom seats became neatly ordered: those with higher layers sat in front, those with lower layers sat in back, and Zhang Yu and Yu Xinghan ended up in the last row.

Dammit... Zhang Yu thought to himself, how could he have just had that ridiculous fantasy about a Kunxu person?

In class, Li Mingbo spoke eloquently: "After Foundation Establishment, the mana cap skyrockets. With a higher Dao heart, a stronger physical body, and more techniques to support it, a qualitative difference emerges between one's mana and another's."

"The higher the mana quality, the greater the power and the better the effects..."

Zhang Yu nodded repeatedly as he listened. During his Qi Refining period, he could already feel that his mana quality was higher than many people's, but the difference was subtle.

And after reaching Foundation Establishment, the gap in mana quality widened even further, becoming as vast as the difference between heaven and earth.

The parameter differentiating mana quality ranges from a minimum of 100% to a maximum of 200% at Foundation Establishment, representing the mass of mana.

Relying on this difference in mass, one unit of 200% quality mana can equal two units of 100% quality mana.

A ripple-like shimmer passed across Li Mingbo's brow, and a circular mirror emerged: "Now everyone, let's test your own mana quality."

One by one, everyone struck the circular mirror with a palm.

Ji Yuanshu's mana quality: 133%

Gongshu Jin's mana quality: 125%

Ying Xin's mana quality: 111%

After each person's attempt, it was finally Zhang Yu's turn.

Zhang Yu gently pressed his palm against the circular mirror. As his mana surged, the number displayed was: 112%.

Zhang Yu thought: "I've hardly deliberately trained this so-called mana quality."

"Is it because after pushing the Blue Swirl Qi Method to level 20, during the cultivation of the level 20 breathing technique, my mana was naturally tempered and pushed to 112%?"

After everyone completed the test, Li Mingbo said calmly: "To improve mana quality, aside from constant bitter cultivation, breathing exercises, and tempering, you can rely on external aids like taking pills, training-type magical artifacts, high-quality spirit veins, and so on."

Li Mingbo looked at the front-row classmates and smiled slightly: "But if you ask me, the most useful method is to directly purchase high-quality mana from the Spirit World Net for cultivation. Being long-term infused with high-quality mana can more efficiently raise your own mana cap and mana quality..."

"Here, I recommend a platform called 'Mana Bao'."

"I negotiated a discount with Mana Bao — everyone just needs to enter my name and you can purchase high-quality mana at 9.8% off..."

After speaking with the front-row classmates, Li Mingbo turned his gaze to the back-row students, his eyes especially sweeping over Zhang Yu, Yu Xinghan, Li Xiao, and others.

"For students who can't afford high-quality mana in daily cultivation, don't worry. On Mana Bao, you can also sell your own unused mana to dig for coins. As long as you entrust your mana to the platform, you can earn an income every day without doing anything..."

Zhang Yu silently nodded to himself and immediately logged into Mana Bao, wanting to see how much money his mana could fetch per day besides using it for magical artifacts and cultivation.

Li Mingbo looked at Zhang Yu and the others, knowing that these poor students from the first layer had no chance to purchase high-quality mana except by selling their own mana.

As the front-row students spent money on cultivation and the back-row students used their cultivation resources to earn money, the gap between the two sides would only grow larger.

He had seen too many similar situations.

If immortal path cultivation is about competing in immortal path potential, about who controls more immortal path resources, about who is wealthier...

Then mana... is the true realm of money.

Therefore, he always implemented different teaching methods for students from different layers.

He thought to himself: "The back-row... should first earn money to support themselves, lest they end up deep in debt with nothing to show for their cultivation."

Li Mingbo's mind drifted to past memories. Of those former classmates from the first layer, only he had remained in the end, becoming a new second-layer person.

In body refinement class.

A teacher with a wolf's head and human body grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs. This was precisely Zhang Yu's body refinement teacher, the demonic cultivator Lang Yougong.

"My class is very free. Everyone can train your bodies as you wish, practice whatever techniques you like. I'll come around and guide each of you."

Gongshu Jin's back — a diamond-forged spine — collided segment by segment, emitting a series of rumbles. This spinal magical artifact assisted his entire body's muscle groups and had already helped him perform a level 20 expert-grade technique.

Lang Yougong's eyes flashed. As his eye artifact activated, he seemed to pierce through flesh and clearly see the operation of Gongshu Jin's internal mana, muscles, magical artifacts, and other organs.

He nodded slightly. "Storing a 20th-level body refinement technique within a spinal Dharma Relic? Not bad, not bad—a promising talent indeed."

Wolf Friend Merit swept his gaze and then looked at Ji Yuanshu.

Ji Yuanshu was entirely enveloped by the Wind-Calming Pearl, isolated from contact with the outside air.

As his heart thundered, bursts of magical power and blood surged forth, greatly enhancing the effect of his body refinement.

Wolf Friend Merit nodded slightly, thinking to himself: "A Tiangong-brand heart Dharma Relic? Top-shelf goods."

"Not only does it maintain a constant medicinal state, it’s also connected to the Spirit Realm Network, using high-quality magical power to wash the marrow and cleanse the meridians. This is practically like sitting still every day and still continuously refining the body and absorbing medicinal power."

"A genius! An absolute immortal-arts genius!"

Yu Xinghan, watching from afar as Wolf Friend Merit spent over ten minutes instructing Ji Yuanshu and Gongshu Jin one after another, sighed helplessly: "It's the same again—looks like the two of us will be last again."

In the body refinement class, Zhang Yu was practicing the 20th-level Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen and had originally wanted the teacher to guide him. He also sighed: "Alas, these teachers' teaching resources are far too skewed. It’s barely worth attending this class!"

A moment later, Wolf Friend Merit looked at Zhang Yu in front of him and thought: "Oh? This body refinement technique is at level 20 already? And he’s equipped with the Time-Remnant Demon Eye—another little genius."

Wolf Friend Merit said, "Come, your Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen is practiced quite well. Let me give you a hand."

Zhang Yu felt the strength Wolf Friend Merit sent to assist his cultivation and immediately sensed an increase in efficiency.

Wolf Friend Merit said, "After Foundation Establishment, the spirit root is also part of the body and can be tempered, further improving the integration between the spirit root and the body."

"Your current integration between body and spirit root, from what I see, is less than 70% from the limit. If you can raise it to 100%, then your breathing efficiency, magical power gathering efficiency, and the power of martial arts techniques will all improve significantly."

"The key to tempering the spirit root lies in the different spirit-root conditions—operating the body refinement technique requires subtle adjustments."

"Your Spring-Autumn Infinite Zen has been cultivated to the proper point, but your understanding of your own spirit root is lacking."

"Come! Activate your Eye Relic! Memorize the key points I’m about to teach you..."

Zhang Yu thought, "Key points for body refinement techniques under different spirit roots? I've never heard Starfire Immortal mention this. Could immortal-arts technology have advanced again? Is this a new body refinement technique?"

At the same time, Zhang Yu activated the Time-Remnant Demon Eye, and the entire world around him instantly slowed down. He began to focus fully on memorizing Wolf Friend Merit’s subsequent instruction.

The surrounding students were slightly surprised to see that Zhang Yu, who had come from the floor below, was receiving so much attention from Wolf Friend Merit.

Gongshu Jin, however, was unimpressed, thinking to himself, "Could my friend be anything less?"

After spending over ten minutes instructing Zhang Yu, Wolf Friend Merit glanced at Yu Xinghan beside him and thought, "Using a Jihu-brand Eye Relic?"

Yu Xinghan said, "Teacher, I have a bit of lag, so my reactions might be a little slow..."

Wolf Friend Merit thought, "Everyone uses Tianyan, Tiangong, or Demon Eyes; even the worst ones use local models… You use Jihu brand? If you don't lag, who will? This immortal-arts potential is lacking."

Yu Xinghan was about to speak when Wolf Friend Merit said, "Classmate, please wait a moment. I’ll instruct another student first."

Watching the teacher's retreating figure, Yu Xinghan cursed inwardly and turned to Zhang Yu: "What does this teacher mean?"

Still absorbing the guidance just received in his mind, Zhang Yu responded thoughtfully, "I can sense that Teacher Wolf does have good judgment and knows how to teach according to the student's needs. Perhaps his order of instruction carries deeper meaning."