Chapter 385: Chapter Six: Break! (6/10, Autumn Subscription)

The music gradually grew tense, eerie, and the visuals slowly zoomed in, then pulled back.

It was a blood-drenched human head.

Any player who had been to Mo Cun would even recognize this head — that face was unmistakably Chief Captain Lang Wu's!

The head of a village's Chief Captain, floating on screen — what on earth had happened?

Everyone's interest was hooked.

One had to admit, Jing Yan's sense of camera was genuinely excellent; the video was paced very well, and instantly captured the players' hearts.

Next, the full silhouette of the Black Cloud appeared, strung with a whole row of heads — terrifying, ghastly, horrifying.

Once the atmosphere was built up, the camera rotated one hundred eighty degrees, revealing the tiny, fingernail-sized Gu Yue Cun, then dove straight down.

Here, Jing Yan had actually pulled a clever trick — because such a shot couldn't be filmed directly, he stitched footage together and added post-processing to produce this effect.

After the one-hundred-eighty-degree turn, the footage was actually all post-processed.

Diving down to Gu Yue Cun, he cut to the footage Jing Yan had filmed earlier — showing Fang Yue's calm, deep gaze from every angle, intercut with other villagers panicking and fleeing, spliced with shots of Fang Yue diligently cultivating, then a wave of nostalgic Gu Yue Cun flashbacks from previously filmed material.

Finally, paired with stirring, rousing music, as if a great battle were about to erupt, the camera locked onto Fang Yue, slowly pulled back, the image gradually faded out, leaving only the rousing music still playing, accompanied by the muffled, volume-lowered clamor of a battlefield — shouts and roars of combat — a perfect curtain call.

After watching this whole sequence, Fang Yue's heroic image practically leapt off the screen.

The bullet comments began flooding in.

"Yese Liming! Yese Liming! Yese Liming!"

"A real man should be like this! Fight the Eeriness, defend our home!"

Basically some pretty juvenile but catchy lines — once the rhythm got going, plenty of people joined in spamming bullet comments, and the popularity shot up like crazy.

Seeing the effect was so good, Jing Yan's grin nearly split his face.

"Awesome, bro! Yan-ge! Is this footage real? Is Ye-ge's Gu Yue Cun about to fight another village defense battle?"

"As if I'd fake it!"

Jing Yan shot a look at Pangzi, who was in charge of post-production, and said, "Alright, the effect is great. You guys handle monitoring the data — delete the bad comments, post a few threads on the side to stir up buzz. You're all old hands, I don't need to remind you, just get on with it. I still need to go back in-game to film the second half of the plot. If I don't end up dying before Ye-ge, I should be able to capture some amazing footage."

Saying so, Jing Yan logged back into the game.

Seeing the boss working so hard, the rest of the studio threw themselves into their work as well.

Only occasionally would someone suddenly sigh.

"Sigh, if Ye-ge dies in the village defense battle, we won't have such high-quality, high-popularity videos to make anymore."

……

In the game, Jing Yan opened his eyes and immediately went to look for Fang Yue, only to find Fang Yue still cultivating at Di He, not having moved a muscle.

At the same time, he noticed the surrounding Gu Yue Cun villagers surging toward one direction.

That was… the direction of the village entrance.

Looking up at the sky, even Jing Yan, who didn't much care about life and death, couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath.

The lofty Black Cloud, strung with heads all over its body, was diving down toward Gu Yue Cun!

When viewed from afar, the massive Black Cloud didn't really register. The distance made it impossible to feel that terrifying oppressive pressure.

But now, that enormous Black Cloud blocking the setting sun cast a vast shadow, shrouding every person at the entrance of Gu Yue Cun.

The light dimmed.

Everyone stared dumbly at the gradually descending Black Cloud, faintly able to see within it countless eerie Human-Bone Kite Eerinesses!

It was an Eeriness they had never seen before — that grotesque Human-Bone Kite shape made their hearts tremble, and they couldn't bear to look directly at it.

"L-Lord Han! Go fetch Lord Han!"

"Great peril! Great peril! The Wu Yu Clan is coming!!"

Some people panicked, even scrambling back toward the village on all fours.

More people, however, stood facing the massive Black Cloud head-on, bearing its overwhelming impact!

It was at this moment that Fang Yue slowly opened his eyes.

On his body, surging energy flowed — the man was like a drawn bow, like a sword leaving its sheath, bristling with sharpness!

"Blazing Fire Heart Method, sixth layer… Break!"

Hum!!

The flames on his body vanished in a single sweep, all drawn inward.

After exhausting the cultivation pills Lord Qing Si had given him, and after using over a dozen fire stones, Fang Yue had finally succeeded in stabilizing the sixth layer of the Blazing Fire Heart Method!

"System notice: Congratulations to player 【Yese Liming】 on your cultivation progress. 【Blazing Fire Heart Method】 has been raised to the sixth layer. Internal force +400, Control +40, Disarm +20."

The sixth layer is the final layer of the Blazing Fire Heart Method within the Post-Heaven Second-rate Realm.

Next, as long as he breaks through to the seventh layer, he can smoothly advance to the Post-Heaven First-rate Realm!

But with just a quick feel, Fang Yue knew the difficulty was comparable to cultivating the fourth, fifth, and sixth layers all over again — perhaps even harder.

The enormous demand meant that even if Fang Yue kept cultivating day and night with abundant resources like this, it would still take a long time to break through.

Breaking through a major realm naturally wasn't that easy.

Fang Yue knew this well, so the difficulty of the seventh layer of the Heart Method didn't surprise him.

Slow work makes fine craftsmanship — this was always a matter of patient, steady grinding, laying a solid foundation.

"Name: Blazing Fire Heart Method."

"Grade: Post-Heaven First-rate."

"Layer: Sixth layer."

"Requirement: 50 Control."

"Description: Cultivation will heavily drain lifespan. Ignite lifespan, blaze self-immolation, burn the heart to temper the body, the Heart Method forms of its own accord."

"Effect 1: +100 Control. Damage increased under 【Self-Immolation】 state."

"Effect 2: Can store the inner force accumulated on ordinary days within the 【Blazing Magatama】, releasing it all at once to perform 【Blazing Burst】. This carries severe aftereffects—do not use it lightly."

"Note: An exclusive Heart Method for the long-lived species. Come at it if you have the life to spare!"

The sixth layer of the Blazing Heart Method increased Control by a full 100 points!

This effect could be called extremely powerful.

It's just that during cultivation, his Yang lifespan really burned away fiercely, enough to make Fang Yue wince in pain.

As the sunset sank behind the mountain, 【Night Breathing】 automatically took effect.

Fang Yue slowly rose, touched the Condensed Ring on his hand, and looked up at the enormous Black Cloud pressing down from the sky.

"Crow Rain Tribe—time for a battle!"

Open the attribute list.

"Name: Yese Liming."

"Realm: Post-Heaven Second-Rate."

"Status: Healthy."

"HP: 400/400."

"Inner Force: 1400/1400."

"Control: 290 【Base: 270】 【Status/Buff: +20】."

"Resistance: 270 【Base: 250】 【Status/Buff: +20】."

"Comprehension: 1. 【Special Attribute】"

"Talent: Night Breathing 【Human-Grade Upper】."

"Skills: Analysis Pupil 【Human-Grade Lower】, Star Fire Blade Technique Lv. 1 【Post-Heaven Third-Rate】, Water Sky Blade Technique Lv. 1 【Crude Martial Arts】, Blazing Heart Method 【Post-Heaven First-Rate / Sixth Layer】, Star Fire Heart Method Lv. 3 【Post-Heaven Third-Rate / Max Level】."

"Yang Lifespan: 8 months, 12 days."

(End of Chapter)